Sep 14, 2007
Diet Coke Can Help You Lose Weight
Artificial sweeteners are beneficial. They don't promote tooth decay or affect blood sugar levels in diabetics like sugar does. Also, judicious use can help in weight loss. For example, if you drank, say, three 12-ounce cans of regular sugar-based Classic Coke every day and then switched to artificial sweetened Diet Coke, you would decrease your calorie intake by 480 calories a day, or 3,360 fewer calories a week.
Theoretically, by doing this, it is possible to reduce weight by about one pound a week, given that any 3500 calories which are not used are stored as one pound of fat in our bodies.
In fact there are so many healthy food products available today, that it's really hard to imagine how come we are faced with an ever increasing obesity problem. This situation has led many to put the blame on artificial sweeteners, when in fact the problem lies elsewhere.
The fact is a low-fat or no-fat diet just makes you hungry for more sweets to counterbalance the horrible taste bland foods have.
We don't eat and drink only because we are hungry, but also because we enjoy certain aromas and tastes and when food lacks aroma and taste we do try to make up for it.
And there are also people who need a high dose of caffeine on a daily basis. Caffeine addiction is quite common in today's world, even though most of us would rather not to call it a true addiction. Caffeine is a great stimulant for the human body because it keeps us focused and active and we like to feel that energy boost every time we drink something that contains caffeine. This is why caffeine is used in most of today's weight loss pills. It can also have a low to mild appetite suppressant effect.
In case you do need to drink more than 3 cans of coke a day, you can at least do yourself a favor and have Diet Coke. It will give you all the benefits of caffeine without the headaches of counting the sugar calories.
Of course, replacing meals with Diet Coke or any coke for that matter is not a good idea. Even if caffeinated beverages are a great help when dieting, you should not skip meals and - as you already know by now - you should plan for a balanced, healthy diet. This will help you make the most of your weight loss efforts and will ensure long term results.
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Sep 8, 2007
Free Diet Plans Can Work for You?
So how can you find a sound free diet plan? Is there any such a thing?
The keyword when you're looking for a diet plan is common sense. Use your knowledge and your intuition to pick between the various diets, it's not that hard. For example it would be a good thing to find out right from the start what the right amount of calories you need based on your current weight and daily activity. It's worth noting that even if you are 100 lbs and a complete couch potato, you still need about 1300 calories per day just to stay alive and well.
For most of us, a good dieting plan would do nothing more than give some guidelines on what to eat to stay within the daily limits for calories. And any plan that attempts to tell you that 500 calories per day is good for you won't help you at all.
After decades of dieting, many people have become more knowledgeable and it's easier to say when we are eating something we shouldn't. Any scheme, be it a free diet plan or one especially made for you by a dietician, will take into account that you will be faced with having to eat some no-so-healthy food sooner or later. You never know what will be on the menu at your cousin's wedding party or at that very important dinner meeting with out of town customers.
The next very important thing is to find a diet that can accommodate your favorite foods, even if they are pork chops and fries. You won't be able to diet and feel happy about it if you have to give up everything you like. Incorporating foods you like is beneficial in the long run and it will drastically decrease the danger of binge eating.
And another tricky part you have to take into account when you try a free diet plan is during the day you are most likely to eat. I am yet to find a person who likes to eat very early in the morning and needs to diet. Hey, maybe I'm on to something here!
A good diet plan will make the transition from a dedicated evening eater to a healthy morning eater seem easy and enjoyable. And the whole purpose of a diet plan is to make life and food enjoyable even when it's served in small, healthy bites. Dieting is supposed to be fun, to make you feel happier, healthier and ready to try even more nice new things in your life!
Bottled Water
Is bottled water a rip off?
The short answer is yes. There is nothing great about it. The only thing that is great about it is how it has been marketed. They tell us it is the best thing that we can get. It is something we all should drink. You have to keep in mind that these companies are in the business of making money. Their goal is to sell you bottled water. Even if you don't need it.
Is bottled water better for you than tap water?
No, it certainly isn't. In fact, most bottled water is just tap water. It is filtered and purified so it doesn't have the taste that the water from your tap has. Anything that will get you to drink more water is great. Though, you must realize that it is nothing more than a waste of money. You aren't getting something that your body will jump for joy when it gets.
You have to watch what you buy though. Some bottled water has things added to it. Sometimes they will add sugar or other flavorings to it. If it doesn't taste like pure water, there is something added to it. Sometimes the water will come from a spring or a mountain river. Is this any better for you? Not really. There might be some minerals in it that tap water won't have. But for the most part it is just the same, but more expensive.
You like the taste of bottled water but you don't like the taste of your tap water. What do you do?
For starters, I would suggest that you don't run to the store to get more bottled water. There are many products that you are use to filter your tap water. One of my favorites is the pitcher with the filter in it. I'm sure you have seen these on television before. When you pour the water, it goes through a filter.
These tend to be less expensive and easy to use. It doesn't take much brain power to be able to fill a pitcher with water. Check your local shop, I'm sure that you will find one there. There are also filters that you can put right over your faucet. These tend to be the best thing to use. They are easy to use and easy to replace the filters. You can get these at any Wal Mart or store like that.
There is always the water filtering system. You know, the ones with the pellets and all that garbage. Personally, I think these are a pain in the ass. I don't know why people get these instead of the smaller faucet units. I know that some people have to use these because of the condition of their water. Sometimes the water is too hard and you need to soften it. Though, that does sound like a plot for a porno movie.
If you don't like the taste of your water, try filling up the empty bottles that you have from the bottled water with tap water. Stick them in the ice box and get them nice and cold. You will notice that when cold, the water has a different flavor. You might find this to be drinkable. I know your wallet will thank you.
The problem I see with the bottled water is, it is too expensive. They are charging you an arm and a leg for something you can get next to free. Why should you pay for it? Well, you shouldn't.
I don't know why people don't feel guilty for buying bottled water. It is one step up from going to a whore.
You should stop drinking the bottled water and see how much money you save just for one month. I find it crazy that there are people around the world dying of starvation and disease and we pay a dollar or more for a bottle of water. That seems so crazy to me.
Diet Comparisons
Probably the most important things people want to know when they think the time has come (again) to cut some of the daily food intake is which diet is the best. Although we are all different beings, we all share the same goal: a diet that can make us thin in no time at all. Some sort of miracle pill or eating plan that makes fat go away and never ever return. That’s actually the second part of the big wish: how to make sure that all the weight lost through dieting stays lost through the years.
The more diets published in magazines and on the Internet, the more people are confused about what dieting really means and about the right way of bringing your body back in shape. The growing number of overweight people has turned weight loss into an industry like never before and the market is growing every year. It seems that nowadays all one needs is a fashionable idea and a flair for marketing in order to make a lot of money or garner a lot of popularity by proposing some sort of weird diet, despite the lack of professional expertise in this field.
And there is a LOT of diets out there. We’re going to go here only through the best-known diets, since a review of all the diets floating around the industry would be beyond the scope of this article.
So let’s start with one of the latest fads of the dieting world: the Atkins diet. Pretty much everybody’s head of the Atkins diet, largely due to the flood of articles praising the extraordinary results, not to mention the loads of good mail from satisfied customers. The biggest thing in favor of this diet is that it lets you eat high fat dairy products like cheese and butter. However, the Atkins diet has fallen from its lofty perch over suspicions of increasing the risk of heart diseases, not to mention the proved fact that bigger number of followers complain of diarrhea, weakness, muscle cramps and rashes. The debate over the scientific fundamentals of this diet is still raging.
Next comes the Zone diet; another well-known eating plan. This diet is the brainchild of Barry Sears and it’s all about eating the right mix of foods in order to reach the proper hormonal balance. This state of balance, which is called the “Zone”, lets the body take in calories and use them through the day without putting anything aside as fat. Unfortunately, this diet does some serious discrimination among foods without any scientific basis. Starchy vegetables, whole grains and beans are banned, although these foods are not in conflict with the principles of the diet. The American Heart Association says the Zone diet lacks essential nutrients while promoting high-protein foods.
The Jenny Craig diet is next on the list. One of the longest running diets, Jenny Craig started this business in the early 1980s and it’s still around. The basic idea of this diet is a trade off: you don’t have to choose recipes, do the shopping and the cooking, but you have to buy the Jenny Craig prepackaged food. And that runs to some $100 per week. Plus the membership costs. Plus the vegetables and fruits which are not included in the prepackaged food. If you can afford it and if you can stick to it, the diet is pretty good. However, similar low-calorie foods can be bought at the grocery store and you don’t have to discuss this with a Jenny Craig expert that insists on your eating the prepackaged food because he gets a percentage of the sale price.
From sunny Florida comes the South Beach diet. This one has the right idea and wrong approach combination down pat. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of people have managed to lose weight with this diet and it actually works. But the question is: can you really stick to it? The first phase of the diet will eliminate most foods containing carbohydrates from your daily consumption. Fortunately, this phase lasts two weeks. Unfortunately, second phase focuses on a half-hearted return of whole grains and fruits and lasts… as long as necessary. If reaching the desired weight takes you one year, then that’s exactly how long this phase is going to last. And if you don’t like the foods allowed by this diet then you’re out of luck. There are no alternatives.
And yet another veteran dieting program around is Weight Watchers. This is actually one of the best diets around because it puts all the management tools in the hands of the user. If you are really committed to losing weight, you have all the information you need to do it. And a lot of people who are going through the same thing are going to be there to help you. If having company during difficult times helps your willpower, then you are probably going to lose all that extra weight. If, on the other hand, you don’t like the idea of being constantly under peer pressure, then this diet is not for you.
As you can see from this short review, there are a lot of diets out there, dozens more than we’ve been able to cover here. The best thing to do when choosing a diet is to do as much research about it as possible. See what people who tried it have to say. Then see what doctors and dietitians have to say about it. Between those singing praises and those trying to prove the diet wrong you can probably get the truth yourself. Still, pay special attention to what the doctors have to say. If they tell you a certain diet will put your body to risk then think twice before trying it.
Coffee
Is coffee really this good or is it so addictive?
I think it is both really. I think good coffee almost has a sexy taste to it. It tastes rich and full bodied. Not many things can compare to it. Maybe chocolate, but that is another article all together. You love to drink coffee. You love a good cup of steaming hot Joe on a cold morning. Watching the steam come off the coffee as it snows outside is a very relaxing thought.
Is coffee good or bad for you?
Well, I think it depends on who you ask.
Usually what you will find is these scientists are paid by a company that wants to prove a point. Simply put, they pay the scientists off.
As in all things, you must drink coffee in moderation. A cup or two each day isn't going to be bad for you. If on the other hand you are drinking a pot every hour, you know that it will have an effect on you. I have known people who drink coffee like this. They drink it from the time they wake up to the time they go to bed. This is common in alcoholics. Let's talk about some of the bad things about coffee.
Coffee stains your teeth.
We all know what the color of coffee stained teeth are. It is up there with cigarette smoke stained teeth. You can buy things to whiten your teeth. I would suggest though that instead of trying to whiten your teeth, you cut back a little on the brew.
Bad breath.
Have you ever had a whiff of the breath of someone who is a heavy coffee drinker? It smells horrible. I would rather smell shit with flies buzzing around it.
It raises stress levels.
Too much coffee can raise anxiety levels. When this happens, you can become stressed out. This shouldn't be news to you. Have you ever seen how much a person shakes after they drink too much coffee?
It can raise the risk of a heart attack.
While science is still somewhat out on this, it shouldn't be much of a surprise. If it elevates the heart and blood pressure, too much of it can't be a good thing.
Sterility.
Yes, it can effect the little guys swimming in your semen. It can actually lower your sperm count.
I know that may sound too weird to be true, but it is.
Stomach problems.
People who drink too much coffee may have some stomach problems. The caffeine irrates the lining of the stomach.
Here are some of the benefits of coffee.
It prevents prostate cancer.
This is too weird, but it is true. Coffee contains boron, which is a chemical that helps curb prostate cancer.
It is a good social drink.
You don't drink alcohol? Well, people go to the coffee house to chat all the time. A cup of coffee could be a good reason to go out and meet new people. A cup once and while can't hurt. You never know, you might meet a good friend over that cup of Joe.
It helps wash down a meal.
In many cultures it is impolite to either start a meal or finish one without having a cup of coffee. No one is certain that coffee actually helps the digestion process, but it sure tastes good after a meal.
As with all things in life, you need to do things in moderation.
If you feel that you are over doing it, you need to cut back on the coffee. I know that coffee might taste good, but in the long run you are doing yourself more harm than good. Just keep in mind that one or two cups per day isn't going to hurt you.
Planning Your Diet
1. Mini meals are great.
They tell people with certain disease that they should eat several small meals each day. They say that a person should eat something every two hours. Well, that isn't too impossible to do. I would suggest that you start out every four hours. Keep it like you normally would any of your other meals. Make sure you have your protein and your fiber. Have some veggies and some fruit to balance everything out. Don't make your mini meal a bucket of fried chicken. I know that since it is a mini meal, the temptation doesn't seem as great. I mean, if you only slip up in a mini meal, who is watching?
These are a great way to avoid hunger and improper snacking throughout the day. Just make your mini meals up and eat them every time that you have planned. If you plan on eating every two hours, every two hours it is. It doesn't take a road map to figure this out.
2. Don't go over board.
This is easier said than done. You need to have a specific amount that you are trying to reduce. If you are trying to reduce your meals by 10%, then you should stick to that. I'm not suggesting that you break out the calculator and count up every meal that you have. If you have been on a diet for very long, you already have a good idea how many calories things have. Don't eat with your eyes, eat with your mind. That will help you cut down on the amount of food that you eat.
3. Eat good tasting food.
From time to time let yourself go. Eat something that you know you shouldn't. If you get it out of your system, it will be easier to maintain your diet. If on the other hand you don't allow yourself to eat things you shouldn't from time to time, all you will do is hurt yourself in the long run. You are going to nibble each day on those things instead of just eating them occasionally.
4. Eat your calories, don't drink them.
Don't fill up on sodas and other drinks. You can get all your calories for one day in these if you do it too much. A few sodas here. A few cups of hot chocolate there. A few beers here. You get the point. That will put on the pounds easily.
5. Exercise.
You need to do this to keep fit. Not only will it keep you fit, but it will keep you mentally sharp as well. That can go a long way in helping you stick to a diet. If you are depressed, chances are you will end up eating fatty foods that will make you fat. When you consume all of that fat, it will make you more depressed. It is a bad cycle to start.
6. Make your meals last.
Chew your damn food son! I bet you heard that one as a kid. Well, it is true. Don't swallow your food. Instead, eat it slowly and enjoy the taste of it. If you do this, it will make you feel like you have actually ate something. If you swallow it down, you won't get the same benefit. You will continue to feel a void.
7. Discover your food triggers.
We all have these. When was the last time you went grocery shopping and you looked at a bag of cookies and realized that you had to have them? I do this sort of thing all the time. You need to understand what foods trigger your response system. If you can do this, you can avoid situations that will make you eat things that you shouldn't eat.
Well, that wasn't so bad was it? There is no need to flip out when it comes to a diet plan. It is simple and easy. Just like anything in life, you should have a plan before you begin to do whatever it is that you are doing. The same is true with your diet.
