Let's happily and cheerfully go on diet ;)

Recently, my dear life partner often asked us to go jogging. Jogging......I never like jogging however, after few series of jogging (but actually more walking) activities, I felt something. I felt that I’m heavy and I could only jog for less than a few centimetres (even not meters to illustrate on how bad I am at jogging). How frustrating and irritating?

How come it not be irritating....while I was so in very short-breath, like almost end-of-life and needing CPR, there’s an uncle, at the age of almost 60 years old, jog passed through me. Then, there’s an aunty, like in late 40s, also passing through me, happily, breathing easily. Gosh.....I am so ashamed of myself. What happened to my fitness level.....hello......fitness? Hello........

I hate to admit it but I just could not deny it, I am not fit and overweight.

How could I let this happen? How could I be so cruel to my own body? Since I like to dress up, how could I do nothing about it and just accepted it as it is?

Number 1 fact

This is the heaviest weight in my life. I’ve never been to this weight even when I’m pregnant.

Number 2 fact

Eating, to me is an entertainment. I felt so delightful and overwhelming only by talking about food and when eating.... I really could do the eating, loosing myself in the food. The feeling is so great. It’s like the saying, diamond is a girl best friend. But for my case, food is my best friend and eating is one of my happiness. Even when I already fall asleep and then you wake me up in the middle of the night, telling me, hey let’s eat burger, I will just wake up and eat the burger, delightfully. In other words, it is very difficult for me to refuse eating and to reject an eating invitation. It’s a temptation that I can’t resist....and without food I’ll be depressed and feeling like my life is a misery and is over.

Hence, having this sort of thinking, dieting is never the word that appeared in my life. I may say it out loud that I want to go on diet, but I was never serious about it.

However, now, I am also certain of a few things.

1) I don’t want my weight to continue increasing. And I don’t want my BMI to be at the overweight column.
2) I want to be fit and I want to be able to jog happily for at least half kilometer.
3) I want to easily shop for clothing.
4) I want to see me in fit body which means without the spare tyre and visible excessive fat that certainly won’t make you pretty in your very own eyes.

Thus, I need commitment plus with high consistency and persistence to start a new daily menu. Since I am so passionate about eating, skipping meals will certainly not work for me. So, I shall first try to control my food consumption and to be selective in food choices. This is called smart eating :) Therefore, initially, I shall try this out. I need to divert my love for food to make me healthy instead of making me obesity. Love is good but still overdosed in love is toxic.

Frens.....fightin!!

Below are the list of 11 choices of food that is good for your diet that I extracted from Yahoo. Thanks Yahoo ;)


Yogurt

Mmmm. This creamy, tangy snack is loaded with calcium -- and studies show that calcium may curtail weight gain by hindering the absorption of fat in the small intestine. Check out these other good eats that are bursting with calcium.

Good Sources of Calcium
How much calcium you need, and why, plus calcium-rich foods

Benefits of Calcium
Calcium is essential for strong bones and teeth, and it helps prevent arthritis. But that's not all this mineral is good for. Calcium helps your brain communicate with your nerves and regulates blood pressure, and it may reduce the symptoms of PMS and the risk of colon cancer.

Recommended Amount: How Much You Need
Government guidelines suggest 1,000–1,200 milligrams (mg) of calcium per day is adequate, but RealAge recommends a bit more: 1,000–1,500 mg per day from food and calcium supplements -- but not all at once. Your body can absorb only 500–600 mg at a time, so divide it into two or three doses over the course of a day.
Tip: If you take calcium supplements, take them with vitamin D (they're often combined in one pill) to help absorption -- and with a little magnesium to reduce the constipation sometimes caused by calcium. Don't pair calcium with iron or fiber supplements, which can interfere with your body's ability to absorb the bone-building mineral.

Good Sources of Calcium
Yogurt, plain, low fat (8 ounces) 415 mg
Ricotta cheese from part-skim milk (1/2 cup) 335 mg
Soymilk, fortified (8 ounces) 300 mg
Spinach, cooked from frozen (1 cup) 290 mg
Milk, 2% milk fat (8 ounces) 285 mg
Swiss cheese, shredded (1/4 cup) 214 mg
Cheddar cheese, shredded (1/4 cup) 204 mg
Salmon, canned (3 ounces) 181 mg
Soybeans/edamame (1/2 cup) 130 mg
Tofu (3 ounces) 100 mg
Parmesan cheese, shredded (1 tablespoon) 55 mg

Eggs

Turn breakfast into a fat-burning morning boost by skipping the stack of pancakes and feasting on a couple of eggs instead. According to a study, huevos beat out carbs when it came to helping folks feel full longer and helping them beat back snack attacks later in the day. Here's how eggs helped folks lose 65% more body weight in a recent study.





A Breakfast Favorite That Blasts Fat?
By RealAge



What popular breakfast food may help you peel away pounds? Clue: You have to crack 'em.
Yep. Be they poached, scrambled, or sunny-side up, eggs may be a real friend to dieters. Here's why.

Eggs Beat Bagels
In a study, people on a low-calorie weight loss plan who ate two scrambled eggs and unbuttered toast (with jelly!) for breakfast lost 65 percent more weight than dieters who had a bagel with cream cheese for their morning meal. How do eggs help? They may simply keep people feeling satisfied longer than carbs do -- and eating less later on. (Worried about the cholesterol in eggs? Find out where things stand in the ongoing debate.)

Remember the Big Picture
Keep in mind that this study included a low-calorie diet. That means eating eggs for breakfast helps only if you're watching what and how much you eat the rest of the day, too.

Pistachios

Nuts may be high in fat, but it's the healthful unsaturated kind of fat found in pistachios. And like all nuts, pistachios offer lots of hunger-curbing protein and fiber. All of these qualities together explain why adding pistachios to the diet helped dieters in a study curb their appetites and lose more weight. Here's more on how pistachios and other nuts pull off this feeling-full feat.
Prev Next

Grapefruit

Of all the foods rumored to boost weight loss, grapefruit is likely the most famous. And research confirms that this fruit's get-slim celebrity status is for real. One study in particular revealed that eating half a grapefruit before each meal helped dieters shed more pounds than people who skipped the tart appetizer. Get hip to why most fad diets don't work and can actually be dangerous.
Prev Next


Don't Believe the Hype: Fad-Diet Fallacies
By RealAge
Page 1 of 1


No doubt you've heard at least one friend, family member, or coworker talk about his or her experiences with the Atkins approach, the South Beach Diet, or the Zone. But before counting carbs was all the rage, a low-fat lifestyle was the diet du jour. And before that . . . well, you get the picture.
The buzz surrounding these popular programs can make even the most sensible eater a little curious. And if you're searching for a way to lose stubborn pounds, these programs may seem like far more than a curiosity -- they may sound like the answer to your prayers.
Unfortunately, few people experience long-term success with fad diets, and a large percentage of the population is still overweight. How can that be? Simple: Rather than helping people understand and adopt a lifelong approach of balancing caloric intake with calories burned, fad diets often give people excuses to eat insensibly, hindering their attempts to make permanent, healthy changes to their diets and lifestyles.

How to Avoid Being Taken
Occasionally, there are a few valuable lessons hidden in some of these elaborate diet plans, but you need to sift through misinformation and oversimplification to get to the practical, healthful nutrition advice. So when it comes to fad diets, here are two quick ways to alleviate confusion:

1. Beware of misleading buzzwords. Once the buzz about the latest diet trend begins, marketers latch on to certain key words and product points that appeal to people who are watching their weight with the trend. Then, the food industry responds by focusing on words and claims that suggest their products can help dieters follow a particular diet plan. Unfortunately, these buzzwords are often misleading, allowing the manufacturers to capitalize not only on consumers' curiosity but also on their lack of certainty about nutrition labeling.
Take, for example, one of the buzz phrases in low-carb dieting: "net carbs." Dozens of products now claim to have low "net carbs" or low "impact carbs." Both of these terms sound technical. But the truth is that these terms were created by the diet and food industry.

They have not been evaluated, approved, or regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

If it's not a government-approved labeling method, there's no way to evaluate what the term means or whether it's benefiting your health.
Furthermore, this "net carb" terminology does not generally provide an accurate estimate of total carbohydrate content. The FDA calculates total carbohydrates by subtracting grams of protein, fat, water, and ash from the total weight of the food. This number is listed on the food label as total carbohydrates.

Diet-food manufacturers calculate "net carbs" by taking total carbohydrates and subtracting fiber, glycerin, and sugar alcohols, all of which are forms of carbohydrates. This gives the appearance of reduced amounts of carbohydrates in their products and suggests that the products don't raise blood sugar, even though they do.

Unfortunately, the use of such labeling has expanded to hundreds of other foods and may lead you to believe you are consuming fewer carbs and calories than you actually are.

Avocado

This green goddess of heavenly, creamy taste can help you whittle your waist. It's true! Researchers suspect that the unsaturated fat in avocados may ratchet up body levels of the hunger-halting hormone called leptin -- a hormone that lets your brain know that you're full, so you stop eating. Find out what fats make you hungrier and what ones can help curb the munchies.


That fatty bacon cheeseburger may be loaded with calories, but at least it stomps out your hunger. Right?

Not necessarily. Compared to low-fat meals with the same number of calories, meals that are basically fat fiestas do an odd thing: The saturated fats in them make your body release less leptin, a hormone designed to turn off appetite. Saturated fats are the belly-bulgers and artery-agers found in fats that come from four-legged sources: high-fat red meats, butter, full-fat cheeses, and other whole-milk products. (Trans fats are just as bad, by the way.) Sat fats are rarely found in plant foods, with two vital exceptions: palm and coconut oils.

To help your body release leptin -- which is stored in fat cells (see? you knew they were good for something) -- you need to eat healthful unsaturated fats. Find them in nuts (especially walnuts), seeds, olives, avocados, most vegetable oils (especially canola), many fish, and even algae (or DHA omega-3 supplements made from algae). You don't want to avoid fat altogether: You need it to maintain your energy, absorb certain nutrients, and repair tissue. And moderate amounts of healthy fat are associated with a decreased risk of heart disease.

You also want to help leptin do its #1 job: telling you, "You're not hungry any more." So in addition to avoiding sat fat, adopt these waist protectors:

Mushrooms

If you want to try an easy and tasty calorie-cutting trick, then replace the meat in your favorite recipes with mushrooms. You'll automatically cut about 420 calories out of a meal, partly because you'll skip all the belly-padding saturated fat contained in meat. And folks in a recent study found mushrooms just as tasty and filling as meat.


Here's a simple way to slash major calories from some of your favorite comfort foods -- and you won't miss a thing.

When you're making lasagna, sloppy joes, chili, and other ground beef dishes, use chopped mushrooms instead of meat. If you're like the people in a recent study, you'll naturally eat about 420 fewer calories with these mushroom-enriched meals. (Need help losing holiday pounds? Try the Amazing Soup Diet in our New Year, New You Center.)

The Other Red Meat
People in the study also said the mushroom makeovers tasted just as good and kept them feeling full just as long as the beef versions did. And not only did the mushroom-based dishes mean a lower-calorie meal, but the mushroom eaters also ate fewer calories and less fat throughout the day than the beef eaters did. (Check out the Savory Mushroom Stroganoff recipe in this article.)

Olive Oil

This rich-tasting oil found in salad dressings and marinades contains a hunger-busting monounsaturated fat called oleic acid -- which triggers a complicated process in the gut that ultimately tells your brain you're full and makes you want to stop eating. Olive oil also plays a starring role in heart-healthy Mediterranean-style diets.
Prev Next

Whole Grains

Ready to trade your belly bulge for a flat tummy? Then toss your refined grains into the garbage, and eat more whole grains instead. Research shows this one move can help whittle your middle. We're talking brown rice, quinoa, steel-cut oats, whole-grain cereal, and 100% whole-wheat bread and pasta. Discover how whole grains helped flatten the bellies of 3,000 men and women in a recent study.
Prev Next

Ditching belly fat may be a simple matter of choosing the right rice or bread. And the choice to make? Whole grains.

You probably already love whole grains for their heart-healthy, disease-defying superpowers. So new research on their belly-fat-busting abilities should vault whole grains to the top of your grocery list.

A One-Grain Guy
In fact, the more whole grains you add to your diet in place of refined grains, the better off your waistline will be. In a new study where scientists reviewed the diets of close to 3,000 men and women, they found a strong correlation between belly fat and grain choice. The whole-grain lovers tended to have less belly fat than refined-grain buyers -- and had smaller waists, too. But eating more whole grains had a fat-curbing effect only when it was combined with a low intake of refined grains. So eating that whole-grain cereal at breakfast doesn't mean you can slack off and have the white-bread sandwich at lunchtime. (Here's another stomach-slimming secret: Cook with this type of fat.)

The Magic Number
Just how many whole-grain servings do you need to stay slim? Researchers think at least three servings daily is a good goal. That can be achieved with half a cup of steel-cut oatmeal in the morning and a couple of slices of whole-grain bread for your sandwich at lunch. But not just any whole-grain bread. Find a loaf that's high in fiber. Researchers suspect the waist-friendly qualities of whole-grain products come, in part, from the appetite-steadying fiber found inside. Whole grains also have lots of magnesium, which is good for improving insulin sensitivity.

Red Pepper

Add some heat to your meals and you'll boost not only the taste but also the effectiveness of your weight loss diet. A dash of cayenne pepper or some diced jalapeno or red peppers will do the trick. They all contain capsaicin -- the heat-inducing compound in red peppers that, according to research, tamps down appetite and curbs food intake later in the day. A similar compound in sweet peppers may hinder fat storage, too.


Fava Beans

Creamy and hearty, fava beans are a lean protein source bursting with flavonoids. And in a 14-year study, these special antioxidants were shown to help hinder the accumulation of extra belly fat. Slim your belly and your body with this fat-blasting plan from the YOU Docs.


Rice with Veggies

Adding some high-fiber vegetables like broccoli, carrots, and kale to your rice will obviously help lower the calorie count. But not only that. Adding veggies to rice at lunchtime appears to slow stomach emptying, according to research. The end result? You feel full longer. In fact, people in a study ate much less at dinner when they added veggies to their rice at lunch. Here's more on how rice and vegetables work together to keep you full.


Shrink your appetite, your calorie intake, and your pants size with just one little addition to your rice: vegetables.
In a recent study of normal-weight people, mixing vegetables into a plain rice dish at lunch helped people feel fuller for the rest of the day. So much so that they ate way fewer calories at dinner than the folks who had their rice straight up.

Less Is More
Mixing veggies with the rice also lowered the calorie density of the lunch dish, shaving off a solid 100+ calories from the meal. So whether you opt for brown, basmati, or long-grain, adding things like broccoli, carrots, peppers, and onions to your rice can help cut calories from your day twice. And that's twice as nice for your waist! (Here's another way to cut your appetite. Eat a little of this kind of fat.)

Weight Loss Weapon
It's not entirely clear why the lower-calorie veggies-and-rice dish produced a better effect on all-day hunger compared with the rice-only dish, but researchers suspect the high water content of produce may have been part of the key. High water content makes vegetables bulky, creating the visual illusion that the rice-plus-veggie serving was extra generous and hearty, and therefore more filling. Plus, eating high-fiber veggies helps slow stomach emptying. Whatever the hunger-quelling mechanism, it's simple to toss a few of your favorite vegetables into not only rice but just about any meal.