Sucking Up To The Sugary Sweet Tooth

"Moments like these. You need minties", an awesome ad run by Pascall (confectionary company in New Zealand) makes a compelling point. Sometimes a little bit of sugar (and love) is all it takes to make the cravings (or woes) go away. Not "sucking up" has only one path, and it's a rocket propelled pass to a diet crash. A.k.a. Binging.

Tic tacs are proposition number one to resolving a sweeth tooth. Each delicacy delivers the tiniest of calorie hits but with all the beauty and elegance known only to us as sweetness. Here is where the really magic happens. If you start having a "incy-wincy" sugar delirium or start salivating like a dog and begin to vaporise those missiles faster than a geek on crack playing asteroids, fear not. A full arsenal of missiles will only set you back 80 calories. "Zats some quality bang for your buck."

Teaspoon of sugar (don't laugh, think about it) is proposition number two and it really does the trick too. Directly attacks the problem. Caution is advised: like cigarretes once you start you may not be able to stop. One maximum. Not two. Not three. Not even seventy four.

Technical time. "Errrrrr...errrr. Do-do-do the ro-ro-bot." I couldn't resist. If a lite snack doesn't resolve the cravings, the problem may be deeper. Atkins advises that too low carbohydrate diets, restrict the blood-sugar levels and it will only take minutes after eating before you will feel hungry again. Increase your carbohydrate intake by eating more fruit and vegetables, a sandwich a day keeps the cravings away or cook a starch (make you feel "fuller" for longer) based staple meal such as rice.

For more ideas, try MedicineNet's Ease your cravings for 150 calories or less guide. And of course it wouldn't hurt to search google. May the force be with you on your battle against the binges.

Murphy's Law And Fighting Guilt

Murphy's law superglues itself to dieting. Somehow no matter how hard you try, your "gob" will park itself at McDonalds and become the residence to the evil drink. Followed by you forgetting McDonalds even have salads (I know, who knew) and order a Big Mac combo instead. Finally winding up upsizing to a large for no apparent reason. Losing weight is about working past obstacles, those who succeed, will lose weight and those who fall will left behind as a Fattie Boom Boom.

Repeat with me. "Guilt!" Now in a low voice, "Guilt!" In whale, "Gilllllll-ooooot!" Get it out of your system. That will be the last time you feel whatever that thing was that you shall not feel anymore.

Binging makes you feel guilty which is (logically) combatted by eating more food for some innate rationale to get rid of the guilt. This makes you binge again which makes you more in debt to guilt, round and round you go until you are a beached whale or at least back to square seventy three :( We don't want that (I hope). Square seventy three, come on you could be on square seventy four if you hadn't felt guilty. The fact that you have made it to square seventy four shows you are not a failure, you are a winner in fact and failure is the only time you should feel guilty.

Square seventy four, "ok?" Not seventy three, we don't want to be there because we are not failures. We are "seventy four's", we are winners. Remember that and you will be set. Yeah... ummmm... about the binging, don't quite have a solution for that in this post. Maybe google might be handy.

Sizzling Sunflower Seeds

Scorching all other beans, nuts and seeds in it's path for nutrient glory, these formentioned beauties are a winner in all respects of weight loss. Are you getting enough nutrients or sunflower seed (kernels), is a question that is not asked enough nor specifically for those desiring to losing weight and/or building muscle.

Minerals and Vitamins 101 should be a compulsory class for all students all throughout the world. Everybody should have a tatoo on their hand saying "Have you had your Five Plus A Day today?" No matter how many crunches you do, meals skipped or fad diets, without those disguised miracles in your diet you will never be able to maintain that dream weight. As it should happen, sunflower seeds is a "god of nutrients" full of fat burning, energy boosting and muscle building, vitamins and minerals.

A drilldown of the numbers. Sunflower seeds are bursting full of nutrients:

Minerals: Calcium: 42mg Iron: 2.44mg Magnesium: 127mg Phosphorus: 254mg Potassium: 248mg Zinc: 1.82mg Copper: 0.631mg Manganese: 0.727mg 21.4mcg of Selenium

And Vitamins: Vitamin C: 0.5mg Thiamin: 0.824mg Riboflavin: 0.090mg Niacin: 1.62mg Pantothenic acid: 2.428mg Vitamin B6: 0.277mg Vitamin A: 18IU Vitamin E: 12.42mg

The numbers are staggering, crazy and a miracle you could certainly say. Significant (15+ percent) contributions to recommended dietary intake are highlighted in bold. Sourced from Health Recipes.

Hmmm... rather good for snacking I have found while blogging :] Supermarkets stock them like a tinny house does joints, not a trouble in the world to purchase. All that can be said is, now would be a good time to purchase nature's heavenly gift. For more information: search google or to purchase online: search google here.

Fibre Or Fiber

However you decide to spell it, this is another vital nutrient (din-din---), in the fight for being a Fattie Boom Boom No More.

Feeling fuller is crucial in the battle against Super-Sugar and his sidekick Mega-Fat. Fiber achieves this satisfaction and allows this lovely state of mind to to be maintained longer. Junkfood is always used as an escape goat and when it's not the crap, it's not enough exercise. Whilst these contribue, lack of nutrition realistically is more likely a deeper reason for an epidemic of obesity and an over-weight society. An excellent example is fiber, we require 25 grams per day as per our recommended dietary intake. This is anything but true for the vast majority of the western world, consuming closer to 10-15 grams per day. Could doubling your intake of fiber be the enigma of weight loss? Maybe. It certainly a large factor, so make sure you are consuming 25+ grams of fiber per day.

Dynamic diabetes has a foe, "it may also help people with diabetes by lowering the amount of insulin necessary to process blood sugar after a meal" informs Body And Fitness. Not to forget, "Some studies have shown a link between high-fiber diets and a decreased risk of colon cancer, says Dr. Beck... is also thought to help prevent hemorrhoids and diverticulosis" and various other cancers. Like all recommendations, fibre is about more than just losing weight, it's about better well being.

Finding fiber, is easy as Finding Nemo. Fruit, vegetables, wheat bran, cereal (some crackers) and flaxseed are fantastico fibre sources. For other sources, search google.

Freaky Food Facts

Exposing the truth, spreading knowledge is what I just love to do (with a half-assed grin) :] Building up those pages in the brain encyclopedia on weight loss is imperative whether or not, those words of wisdom are ever used.

• "You would have to walk for seven hours straight to burn off a Super Sized Coke, fry and Big Mac" - Sean McFadden of IrishFit.


• "A typical indian meal consisting of two poppadoms, chicken korma and pilau rice will set you back a staggering 81g fat and 1223 calories!!" - BunnyCd, member of MiniMins.


• "According to the Cash survey, a family of four sharing a Pizza Hut meal deal - consisting of one Cheesy Bites Meat Feast, one medium Super Supreme, a portion of garlic bread, a portion of potato wedges, chicken wings, and a cheesecake dessert - could eat 12.3g of salt each" - BBC News. The recommended daily maximum intake is six grams and the actual recommended dietary intake is two grams!!! No number of exclamation points can iterate how insane that is. "Blah blah blah!" No more can you ignore the facts. Put into perspective, if junkfood was a person, it would be a workaholic. It would have two jobs and when it wasn't killing, its second would be gradually killing you. Cliche it might be that junkfood makes you fat but if that doesn't stop you, maybe this will.


• "Soft drinks are aggressively marketed by fast food chains, because they are so profitable, at around 97% profit on the price per cup. The bigger the cup, the greater the profit" - Healthy Eating Made Easy. If the sugar won't stop you from drinking the evil drink, maybe the feeling of being really (super-uber-duper) screwed might make you think twice or at least use some common sense. Why not get some exercise and walk to nearest supermarket. Save yourself a shitload of moolah (to be bluntly honest).


• "Fried Coke" - iFitAndHealthy. #@*~^%@! WTF!!! Irrogant people often say it is fat people's fault for being fat. Harsh remarks like this are unfounded without research. Contradictory examples like this evidentally show that fault rests solely with greedy corporations who have their hands wrenched so far into the cookie char, you can't tell which is which. I hope this makes you feel better and not feel guilty.


• "Q: How many people die from obesity a day? Answer: about 822 people a day, 300,000 a year die from obesity" - WikiAnswers. Don't be a statistic, a soul-less black and white number. Saddening as this might be and hard to be motivated by, skinny butterflies and rainbows I can guarantee would be a lot worse.

Another list, "woop-d-do-dar-day" you say. Fine by me, whilst those irrogant pricks might be unjustified about whose fault it is for being fat, there is only one person to blame for you dying. For more nut crushing facts, why not search google for 'nut crushing facts'. Give it a go, it'll be funny, I promise.

Puppies to Dogs

Referred to none other than their puppies, well built athletes like to call their arm muscles such. Today those puppies are growing up.

Crazyness will get you nowhere in life and the same with muscles building. Bench pressing stresses the muscle tissue beyond its tolerance and creates fatigue in the body. Dumbell weights however have greater accessibility and unlike gym memberships do not have vicious price tags that rival a low-class motor vehicle. Dumbells seem straightforward enough, but there is more than meets the eye. Technical stuff-f-f: Biceps (front of arm) allow us to pull (lift a dumbell towards our shoulder). Triceps (back of arm) allow us to push (relieve the pulling and drop the dumbell to our sides). We want an exercise that workouts both of these because one without the other is rather useless. Which is why dumbells are stupendous. Reps of 15-30 will do if you are planning on growing a Shar Peis (rolly dog) but for those wanting to build Pitbulls, you are going to have to work harder. When exercising the first few repetitions of a rep are a warmup. Afterwards you are exercising (burning calories). Until you feel tired or have aches and pains, that is when those hounds are growing. Measure how many repetitions it takes 'til you feel tired, don't stop! Believe in yourself, keep going until you can't anymore. That is how many repetitions you need to perform each rep. When that number becomes a piece of cake and not a tingle of pain trickles down your nerves, measure again. Remember no pain, no gain! If it feels too easy, you're probably right.

Pr-Pr-Pr... Pressups. Almighty and terrifying, we stutter its name. Fear not I am relinquishing you from submission to this prince of darkness. Pressups only work your triceps which means going to the trouble of doing another exercise on top. Like how tofu makes people fat, pressups add drudgery to muscle building and stop those puppies from growing up. Confidence crushing is all pressups do. 1... 2... 3... thump! 1... 2... 3... 4... (yas)... splat! The number we think we should be able to do and the reality are very different. Don't disappoint yourself, nobody deserves to be the bird that can't fly, the tiger that can't roar or the person who can't fit through the door.

Exercise is supposed to gratify your ego, not destroy it. Push yourself! But don't be pushed by the exercise, from your dreams. Good start might be to search google: buy some dumbells if you don't alreay have any, otherwise those puppies need feeding.

More "unique" boom boom posts to read:
Fattie Boom Boom No More Intro
Waddle, Wander or Walk to Work
Manganese and the Magic Metals
Swimming with the Fishes

Cranberries, I Have Writer's Block

We'll see where this goes. Tasty and nutritious, full of nutrients to help the body. Can't go wrong.

Technical time: Cranberries are fountains, flowing iron like a waterfall flows water. Iron is essential for a wide variety of functions (from the immune system to growth) in the body. Muscle growth is dependant upon iron intake because it reacts with hemoglobin in the bloodstream which allow oxygen transportation. Need not I iterate how important muscle building is in weight loss, see here, here and (oh yeah), here. Insufficient oxygen will deprive your muscles energy need to workout and peformance will suffer significantly. Short and sweet of it. Lower quality and shorter workouts will burn less calories.

Naturally these bush huggers are healthy and delicious. Be warned, corporations piggy-back off cranberries health benefits but to ensure maximum sweetness, sugar and lots of it, is commonly added. A whopping forty percent can be found in Craisins, an Australian commercially packaged form. Markets or fresh produce sections of supermarkets will guarantee freshness without the evil sweetness.

Hmmmm... banana chips are good :) but back on topic, try cranberries at a supermaket near you. For more info, search google: cranberries.