Is it safe to eat sugar while trying to lose weight?

Enjoy sugar while losing weight

Eating sugar or foods that contain sugar is like telling your body to store fat. More to that, sugar is everywhere – from your sodas, candies, and desserts and even in carbs like rice, bread and pasta. Milk and beer even have lots of sugars. The thing is your body cannot tell which food the sugars came from and it just digests and absorbs all them into glucose.

This means that men consume high amounts of sugar even though they swear to stay away from it. Here’s a fact: each time you digest a slice of white bread, it is being converted into the same amount of glucose as four tbsp of sugar. Every time you eat sugar, the blood-glucose level rises immediately. This will then stimulate the body’s releasing of insulin which is a powerful hormone that signals the body in storing fat. The more sugar you consume, the more fats being stored in your body.

Should you give up all foods with sugar?

Well, you cannot give up all the foods that contain sugar because even sandwiches and fried rice has sugar, and being a man, you need these foods for your muscles and energy. What you can do is consider a nutritional damage control. This will make the benefits go beyond fat metabolism physiology. According to researchers, keeping blood glucose levels in check lessens one’s appetite and also reduces the risks of developing diabetes, cancer and heart problems. Good thing that’s just not an ad for sugar, but a scientific fact.

What you can do to control sugar intake?

• Skip the granola bar – You need to stay away from foods that contain excess sugar. That is, if you want to be free from fat as much as you can. Granola bars contain way too excess sugars that are really bad for your health, so it is best you skip it.
• Take a fiber pill – Fiber will help flush out toxins as well as the stored fats from your body. This way, even though you are still eating sugar, you have something that will push the unwanted fats out.
• Metal in your diet – According to Swiss scientists, men who are taking 400 mcg of chromium picolinate before a high-carb meal have lower levels of blood-glucose than those who do not. This will help balance your sugar intake and blood-glucose levels.

Dessert recipes for weight loss

Eating desserts while you’re on a weight loss diet is OK, as long as it is a nutritious one. Plain cakes and cookies may not be a smart choice but if there’s a bit of protein to it like nuts and fruits or vegetables, then it’s good to say yes to it. Having a more sensible dessert needs to have the same amount of calories as your usual snack. We are not talking about restaurant desserts as you never know what exactly is in there. Better make your own at home, which is more fun!

Here are some of our recommended weight loss desserts:

Chocolate chip cookies

• Calories – 190
• Fat – 8 g
• Carbs – 28 g
• Sugars – 16 g

Ingredients:

-          8 tbsp softened butter stick

-          ½ cup brown sugar

-          ½ cup granulated sugar

-          2 eggs

-          1 tsp vanilla extract

-          ½ tsp baking soda

-          ½ tsp salt

-          2 cups flour

-          ½ cup dark chocolate chips

Steps:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Take a large mixing bowl and mix together your butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until it becomes creamy. Add in the eggs and vanilla until it is evenly mixed. Add in your baking soda, flour, salt and mix them into dough. Stir in your chocolate chips.

3. Take your baking sheets and scoop the dough into the mold.

4. Bake in the oven until the edges of the cookies become golden in color. Remove them from the sheet once done and sprinkle a bit of sea salt.

Crispy Apple Turnovers

• Calories – 200
• Fat – 8 g
• Carbs – 32 g
• Sugars – 20 g

Ingredients:

-          Flour

-          1 cup water

-          1 sheet defrosted puff pastry

-          ½ cup sugar

-          3 Granny Smith apples

-          1/8 tsp ground ginger

-          ¼ tsp ground cinnamon

-          1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

-          Fresh lemon

-          1 lightly beaten egg white

Steps:

1. Spread flour on your work surface. Roll your puff pastry into 9 x 15 inches rectangle. Cut the pastry into six squares.

2. Get a saucepan and boil water and sugar. Peel the core of your apples and cut them into 4 chunks. Toss in the cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon juice and ginger and add them into your boiling water. Simmer until the liquid gets thick. Set aside.

3. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. Spoon three tbsp of apples into each of your puff pastry. Fold them over the filling, making a triangle and seal them by pinching the edges.

4. Put the turnovers on your baking sheet and brush them with egg whites. Bake until they get crispy and golden brown in color. Takes about 12 to 15 minutes.

Why carbs is not your enemy

Carbs are actually nutrients that are needed by the body in large amounts. According to nutritionists and health experts, carbohydrates intake need to occupy the 45 to 65 percent of our calorie intake. The only problem with this is on what type of carbohydrate you are regularly ingesting.

Types of Carbs

There are two types of carbs – simple and complex. Because carbs are just the same as table sugar, fruits, soft drinks and sweets, they are digested much quicker and often cause weight gain when consumed in large amounts. It may even cause diabetes and other health illnesses. If you want to stay healthy, you need to decrease your intake of carbs together with all the processed and refined foods such as pastas, white breads, white rice and foods with lots of sugar contents.  Processed foods have less nutrient density which makes it an empty calorie, and contributes very little to the function of our cells.

The proper type of carbs you should eat is from the complex group which contains more vitamins, minerals and fiber. These carbohydrates are not only rich in insulin-friendly substances; they also give the body its needed compounds for enhancing the body’s metabolic function. A lot of the vitamins and minerals from the carbs are co-factors assisting the body’s fat burning functions. Some of its parts are also antioxidants which keep the body’s optimal work on the go. The fiber on the other hand promotes satiety in the body and lessens the urge of overheating.

Examples of complex carbs:

• Brown rice
• Whole grain pasta
• Whole grain bread
• Vegetables
• Legumes
• Fruits
• Soy milk made from soy beans
• Low fat yogurt
• Skim milk

So now you know that carbs is not your worst enemy for your dieting. It just takes choosing smart with foods that you should avoid and should go for. Keep the list of the healthy complex carbs so you don’t get confused. Anyways, they are very easy to take note of.

Healthy fast foods

Honestly, a fast food burger every now and then is not that dangerous even though you are going on a strict diet. You need to be careful with the dips, special sauces and salad dressings though as they are usually loaded with too much calories. Instead of those, just go for mustard, ketchup and barbecue sauce. If given a choice, you can choose to have a second burger than having side fries.

Here is a list of the restaurants around the United States plus the healthy menu option for you:

Au Bon Pain

• Small Garden Salad – 1 gram fat (0 g saturated), 10 mg sodium; 50 calories
• Grilled Salmon Salad Ficelle – 490 mg sodium, 7 g fat (2 g saturated); 280 calories
• Blueberry yogurt with granola and fresh fruit – 6 g fat (2 g saturated), 130 mg sodium, 310 calories
• Turkey Tenderloin Ficelle – 9 g fat ( 1.5 g saturated), 860 mg sodium; 310 calories
• Chargrilled Salmon Fillet with Yellow peppers Salad – 7 g fat (5 g saturated), 420 mg sodium; 300 calories

Auntie Anne’s

• Whole wheat pretzel (no butter) – 1100 mg sodium, 1.5 g fat (0 saturated); 350 calories
• Jalapeno pretzel (no butter, with marinara sauce) – 960 mg sodium, 1 g fat (0 g saturated); 280 calories

Baja Fresh

• Shrimp Ensalada – 1010 mg sodium, 4 g fat (1.5 g saturated); 180 calories
• 2 Baja-style Charbroiled chicken tacos – 460 g sodium, 8 g fat (1 g saturated); 360 calories

Burger King (Breakfast Menu)

• Croissan’wich with egg – 175 mg sodium, 11 g fat (3 g saturated); 270 calories

Burger King (Lunch & Dinner Menu)

• Chicken Tenders (5 pcs) – 920 mg sodium, 12 g fat (3.5 g saturated); 210 calories

Chick-fil-A

• Fresh fruit cup – 0 mg sodium, 0 g fat; 60 calories
• Chargrilled chicken sandwich – 940 mg sodium, 3.5 fat (1 g saturated); 270 calories

Panda Express Chinese Restaurant

• Egg drop soup – 1000 mg sodium, 3 g fat (1 g saturated); 60 calories
• Szechuan shrimp – 2460 mg sodium, 20 g fat (2g saturated); 950 calories
• Stir-fried vegetables – 2150 mg sodium, 19 g fat (3g saturated); 750 calories

You can choose these foods or these restaurants when you are thinking of eating some fast foods. Not only they are healthy for you, they also don’t cause that much damage especially if you are in a strict diet.

Signs that you had enough alcohol

Apart from the embarrassing situation at the office, it is also not very nice for you to keep on drinking even though you already had enough. We all need to know when to stop. In case you don’t know the signs of when to stop, you may want to consider these pointers below:

1. You start making arguments about inanimate objects. Drank people usually talk non-sense and if you notice yourself also starting to talk nonsense, then it is a sign that you need to stop. Unless you are too drunk to notice – but let’s hope not!

2. You have to hold onto something to keep falling off. This is an obvious sign that you already had enough to drink. It is also a sign that you need someone to take you home. I hope you brought your friend along – and I hope he’s not as drunk as you are.

3. Instead of your drinking interfering with your job, your job now interferes your drinking. This is actually over the top. I bet you don’t even want to go back working anymore and you just want to date your bottle of wine. Stop there. You’ve had more than too much!

4. Your doctor finds signs of blood in your alcohol stream. Yes, that’s right. You are drinking too much that your blood is being replaced with alcohol.

5. Your head is hitting the toilet seat. Yeah, you look this awful when you drink too much. Time to change your drinking habit, don’t you think?

6. You sincerely and truly believe that alcohol is the fifth food group. And no doctor, nutritionist or any guru can make you change your mind.

7. You are drinking beer with one bottle on each hand. Oops! That is a severe drinking problem, dude.

8. You replace your dinner with just beer. You are counting calories of burger and find that beer has as much calories in it so you choose beer instead. Whoa!

9. When you go to AA meetings, you forget what to answer when they asked for your name. What the…

10. When someone tells you to cut back, you would think he’s referring to salt.

The risk of developing colon cancer increases if you have a genetic or medical background of relatives that have also been diagnosed with colon cancer. Researchers also say that colon cancer is mainly caused by one’s unhealthy diet and the constant eating of fast foods and ready meals.

Colon cancer prevention

For this reason, it is very important that you seek for medical advice in case there is an unusual discomfort of colon cancer symptoms. Some of the symptoms you should take note of include diarrhea, constipation, and bloating, abdominal pain, blood in the stools, anemia, narrow stools, drastic weight loss and intestinal obstruction.

Prevention is always better than cure. In order for us to prevent developing colon cancer, here are the five habits that we should practice:

1. Start adopting a healthy habit – By this, we mean eating only healthy and nutritious meals, having adequate and regular exercise, and a good night’s sleep. Do not wait until colon cancer symptoms occur before you change your lifestyle. It may be too late once you decide to change and the cancer might have gone worse already. Take note that colon cancer develops over a long period of time and sometimes, it is unnoticeable until it spreads.

2. Research your family medical history – Researchers say that colon cancer can also be a genetic disease. Find out if your relatives before you have encountered the said disease. In case there is a medical history from your relatives, then you need to be extra preventive and stay away from the triggers.

3. Stop smoking – Smoking increases the risks of developing colon cancer. The tobacco smoke easily spreads carcinogen which is a cancer agent. If this reaches the colon and rectum, cancer cells will develop.

4. Reduce exposure to radiation – Too much exposure to radiation is said to also cause colon cancer. For this, you need to avoid frequent exposure to X-rays, CT scans and mammograms so as to prevent developing colon cancer.

5. Observe symptoms – You need to observe the possible symptoms such as weak immune system, allergies on the skin, bloating and poor bowel movement. Also, you need to avoid too much toxins from entering your body in order to make sure your colon is always clean and healthy.

If you have other concerns about colon cancer, we suggest you go to your doctor to have you tested immediately before it’s too late.

Foods to enhance sexuality

1. Celery – You may be surprised to know this, but yes, celery is one of the best sexual stimulants. This is because of its androsterone contents which are odorless hormones released as males perspire which makes women turn on. So before that hot evening date, make sure you order a bowl of salad with celery.

2. Oysters – Oysters are considered as classic aphrodisiacs. They contain high amounts of zinc that contributes in increasing sperm production as well as testosterone. Oysters also have dopamine which is a hormone that increases libido. Eating raw oysters give shucking experience which makes you erotic. You may feed your woman with raw oysters during your foreplay to get both of you in the mood.

3. Bananas – This fruit contains bromelain enzyme which is said to enhance one’s libido and prevents impotence in males. Other than that, bananas are also good sources of B vitamins and potassium which increase your energy. This will help you last longer in bed.

4. Avocado – Way back during the Aztecs, people referred to avocados as “testicle tree” or “ahuacatl” because they look like the body part. Apart from that, they contain increased levels of folic acid that help metabolize the body’s proteins which will help you gain more energy. Avocados also contain vitamin B6 which increases male hormone production. This is good for both men and women in increasing their sexual appetite. Maybe serve her an avocado before inviting her to your bed to make it more fun.

5. Almonds and other nuts – Almonds and other nuts are good sources of essential fatty acids. These said acids provide the material that is responsible for the production of men’s healthy hormones. More so, the scent of almond-scented candles encourage women’s mood for bed. You may also use almond-scented fragrances or lotions to make the atmosphere more romantic.

6. Eggs – Eggs made it to our list of sexual enhancing foods because of its high contents of vitamins B6 and B5. These vitamins help in balancing one’s hormone levels and to reduce stress which is two crucial things to a good libido. Eggs also symbolize birth and fertility. You can eat boiled, fried or even raw egg right before you go to bed with your lady.

These foods will help boost your sexual appetite, so if you want to enjoy your intimate time with your partner, you may want to include these in your dinner menu.

Make your women happy in bed

First – What she really wants is for you to kiss the back of her neck, stroke her waist curve – slowly. Women want to have your attention all over them as if you just seen the most perfect body ever. Now this might not be entirely true to you, but that’s what she wants. If you want to make her happy, then you might want to do exactly that. Phew!

Second – It is good to give her attention and she does love it. But if you want to really get into her, you need to give her some oral attention. When you do this, she will love to do some good job for you as well. She not only loves a little gentle direction, but also lots of positive feedback. So tell her what you like, how you like it and why you like it. This will make her want you more. Is that too hot? Wait, there’s more…

Third – Contrary to men’s popular belief, your woman doesn’t want to get treated like a princess in bed. What she really wants is for you to rip her clothes off, and be ravished. This is where the wild part comes. Most women love a rough bed routine. You must get ready for some wild action if you want to satisfy her. Save the sweet somethings while you’re in public.

Fourth – Don’t ask your woman what makes her tickle. You figure it out yourself! Dip your tongue in her ear, on her neck, her hips, and play around to find out where she’s mostly tickled. When you find it, be gentle and caress her smoothly. This will arouse the wild out of her. And then of course, get ready to roll!

Women are not that difficult to please. You just click the right buttons and lick the right areas and she’s already into you more than you ever know. Touch her a lot so she knows how much you want her. This is the secret on how to make her want you back. That simple.

How Stress Affects Health

Yoga for relieving stress

Stress can cause lots of physical, mental and emotional illnesses together with exhaustion and inability to function well. Yoga will help you fight these things. We often all victim to the dangerous effects of stress as life is requiring too much from us. It is very important that we learn how to release these negative energies away so that we can enjoy a more positive life.

Some of the illnesses and problems that people get because of stress are:

• Hypertension
• Premature aging
• Diabetes
• Asthma
• Insomnia
• Depression
• Digestive disturbances
• Cancer
• Weak immune system

These days, simply watching the news can give us so much stress. This can lead to headaches, muscle tension, joint swelling, cramping, depression and chronic illnesses.

How to begin Using Yoga for Stress Relief

If you are trying yoga for the first time, you will notice how it effectively relieves stress. You will feel as if the tension in your body slowly disappears and you will come out feeling happy and relaxed. Those who practice yoga can get rid of their sleeping problems and they are able to relax easier.

The practice starts with deep breathing and focusing on the inner body. Clearing the mind and concentrating on the breath are the main steps in yoga. After that, you can start with the different yoga poses which will release your tensions. Each pose ends with a relaxation pose which is either sitting up or lying down. Remember to keep the mind clear as you do this. This will pull the positive energy up while releasing the negative energy away.

You can start practicing yoga after you find a yoga center or a yoga teacher. Having someone to guide you will help you achieve your yoga goals. Also, it will be safer for you to be guided as you go on with the poses. If you cannot find a teacher, you can always find instructions via video on Youtube. There are lots of tutorials there that you can use to learn how to do yoga.

Yoga also practices meditation which is the complete clearing of the mind. If you want to achieve total clarity, it is recommended to practice yoga.

Less sleep with high performance training

This is the technique that Marc Megna uses for his crammed schedule which will help you continue with your strength training even while you get less sleep:

1. Build up your nutrition – Eat more. This will give your body the nutrients it needs to repair the cell damages when you don’t get enough sleep. Drinking lots of water is also a must as staying hydrated will keep you energized during the day.

2. Avoid the heavy workouts – Don’t push yourself to do heavy workouts when you get little sleep. This will only require more than the energy you already have. Basic lifts at lower speed is highly recommended for those who get less sleep than is required.

3. Try to be consistent – Even as you sleep little, you need to try to be consistent with your sleeping patterns. Say if you get up at 3:45 AM, then you must be consistent with that. Make sure to go to bed and wake up at the same time so that your body can easily adapt to it. Once your body adapts this, you wouldn’t feel as if you are getting less sleep.

4. Train early – If you could, do your training as early in the morning as possible. If there is no way you can do this in the morning, then you can try it early at night. This way, you won’t be wired when you go to sleep. Also, Marc Megna suggests avoiding intense music, annoying phone calls and messaging before you sleep. Turn off the lights and relax.

5. The shorter, the better – It’s better to make your workouts shorter so that you don’t get to use up all your remaining energy. Having less sleep affects the muscles. If you want to work out for longer periods, then you first need to go back to your healthy sleeping habits plus avoid any kind of stress.

Take this advice from an athlete coach himself if you want to continue working out while having less or no sleep. It works for him; of course it will also work for you!