Refined Foods are Making You Stupid, Sick and Sleepy

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Afternoon slump? Spacing out? Have another cold? It’s the refined foods you are eating. It is not the stress, old age or even lack of sleep. Nothing has a bigger effect on your mood, memory and health than the food you put in your body. The brain and body is a biological engine and it runs on food.

The ups and downs of your blood sugar cause the ups and downs in your mood (mood SWINGS.) A meal high in sugar or refined foods raises the hormone insulin which raises blood glucose which gives you a shot of energy – but your energy drops just as quickly as it soars — leaving you feeling irritable, tired and lethargic. Worse yet, our bodies grow a tolerance toward the insulin spike, requiring more of those foods and a need to eat them more often in order to get the same energy boost… (continue reading)

Resistant Starch – Who Knew?

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Resistant starches are a weight loss TRICK that really works. These starches contribute in many ways to weight loss and over all digestive health. What are they? Beans, peas, lentils, potatoes, yams, nuts and seeds, unripe bananas and whole grains such as barley and brown rice are all resistant starches and will help you lose weight.

Starch consists of molecules of glucose linked to each other forming amylose and amylopectin. Amylopectin molecules have a branched shape and fit together loosely, which makes them easier to digest. Amylose molecules fit together tightly and form granules that are much harder to digest. Most plant food is made up of 20-25% amylose, but resistant starches contain much more amylose (60-80%) than amylopectin, so they are resistant to digestion.

Normally your body digests starches in your stomach and small intestine, turning them to glucose (blood sugar) to fuel your body and store the excess… (continue reading)

My success from Dr. Shane

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205.4 lbs was my beginning weight on day 1. My chest/back, waist, & tummy is where I carried most of this extra fat. On the 36th day, my weight was 193.5 (11.9 lb loss). The loss in inches was more dramatic with a total loss of 16 inches. I knew carrying lots of extra fat in this torso area was unhealthy and that needed to change.

Being self-conscious about my appearance was a regular thing for me, especially going around without a shirt in public & even at home. I have noticed in the past week that it has been much easier to walk around without a shirt. It doesn’t seem to bother me. I definitely notice changes in my appearance as I look in the mirror as I walk to the showers at my gym. That feels great!

At first, it was a bit frightening thinking about eating out,… (continue reading)

The Big 3 – Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, and Atkins

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If you’re like most people, you have tried more diets than you can count. Additionally, you have likely tried them and failed- whether you lost weight immediately or not- you weigh the same now, or more than you did before the diet. Why can’t you keep the weight off?

Weight Watchers: It’s all about moderation! That’s rubbish! If you could moderate, you would. If you could moderate you would be just like all of the millions of thin people in the world. You’re not confused. You know when you eat a cheeseburger, fries and a coke that you are contributing to your fat self. Counting calories will work in the short term- but once you get bored putting your calories in your phone all day, every day, you’ll go back to eating how you did before. There is no change here.

Jenny Craig: This one is obvious. They provide you… (continue reading)

Are you tired of the word “lifestyle change?”

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“It’s not about starting another diet, it’s about making a lifestyle change!” Lifestyle is the buzz word right now as people are becoming painfully aware that diets have a dark and dirty under belly. Unfortunately, while we may hear it every day it doesn’t change the fact that when you wake up tomorrow, and start eating 1200 calories a day and exercising like Peyton Manning you feel like you’re on a DIET.

Allow me to clarify what the difference between another diet and having a true and meaningful lifestyle change. Your body has been on one diet or another since you were born. Whether it was the ‘junk food diet’, the ‘I’m in college and eat Top Ramen diet’, or the ‘I’m pregnant, step away slowly diet’; either way it’s a diet. It’s a conscious decision to eat a certain way every day- that literally is all a diet is…. (continue reading)

Diabetes

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It’s official – 1 in 3 Americans will develop diabetes. That is outstanding and disgusting. Just in case the prevalence causes some sort of desensitization let me be clear for you, diabetes takes an average of 15 years off your life, it is also the leading cause of blindness, kidney failure and amputations. Diabetes is the 7th leading cause of death and your chances of dying are twice that of someone that does not have diabetes.

It is ALL about the food you eat. Food is broken down into molecular units to be processed by your body. Sugar and carbohydrates are broken doesn’t into glucose, glucose gets in the bloodstream and raises blood sugar. In response, the pancreases releases insulin to help get rid of the sugar. However, we are not eating food, we are eating poisoned food like substances like high fructose corn syrup and genetically modified food products…. (continue reading)

Do you need a Mentor?

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When people want to learn something they go to school to be taught by a teacher who is trained extensively on that which they wish to learn. When it is time to learn to drive you are instructed by your parents (people who have often been driving for decades.) When you want to learn a sport you are guided and trained by your couch. But, when a person wants to lose weight, suddenly it’s time to ‘pull up your boot straps’ and do it on your own. Why is that?

Weight loss, potentially one of the most difficult struggles that a person will ever encounter, is a job that people believe one should be able to accomplish on their own. It is unrealistic to think that this is something you can handle. If you are overweight it is because you never learned the proper skills to healthy eating, and/ or… (continue reading)

Is this real?

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Food addiction is real. It has been recognized by scientists across the globe and it must be taken seriously. When you eat highly palatable foods like sugar and flour our taste buds send messages to our brain and release dopamine. However, in as little as THREE weeks of overeating the dopamine receptors started to get compromised. This leads the overeater needing more and more to get the same feeling – what is this called? Tolerance. Additionally, because the dopamine receptors have been compromised if you are not feeding yourself more and more then you feel bad because you are not getting normal amounts of these feel good hormones. What is this called? Withdrawal. Tolerance and withdrawal are the hallmarks of addiction with all addictive substances – cocaine, alcohol, cigarettes and SUGAR.

Willpower and moderation are not relevant options with addiction. The sugar and flour must be removed. Your brain must… (continue reading)

Sugar is Not as Sweet as it Seems: Candy as a Kid Can Lead to Violence as an Adult

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Britain have food a strong link between children who ate candy every day as a child and those who commit violent crime. They controlled for lifestyle, family income, parenting style and children’s level of education and sugar consumption remained a strong prediction of adult violence. The question is if this is due to something in sugar that increases aggressive behavior or if eating too many sweets is a sign of lack of discipline in childhood that later shows up as lack of impulse control. What do you think? I would love to hear your thoughts.

I would really appreciate your comments below. Ask me any diet related question or let me know what you would like to know more about.

If you read this article and could forward it to a friend you could really help them out.
Most importantly, if you are struggling and need help all you… (continue reading)

I ate sugar and can’t stop

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I’m back!! I’m a Skinny Girl once again!! I’ve been lost for a long time, trying to do this on my own terms. Guess what? It didn’t work!

I started Online Living With Skinny today. I feel anxious, but it’s a good anxiety, a sense of urgency to stay with it. I’ve been off track for a long time (two years, give or take). I’ve been eating on-plan, for the most part, but I’ve also been eating off plan in between. Tiffany helped me come to a revelation today, after our first phone call, and my mind is racing with an understanding of why I’m in this predicament: I didn’t forget how to be on plan, I just got into a different habit. I trained myself to be “on plan but not always,” to be “on plan but cheating.” I’ve got to remember what it means to just be “ON… (continue reading)

White Tea Zaps Fat!

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I have been a strong advocate of white tea for years. White tea is the immature bud of green tea and is less processed, has less caffeine and has more antioxidants than green tea. It is also noticeably sweeter and lighter tasting than green tea. Now researchers in Germany, led by Marc Winnefeld, have found that white tea also has anti-obesity effects. That’s right, white tea has two major fat-busting components. First white tea reduces the formation of new fat cells, AND it also stimulates the breakdown of fat in already existing cells. The explanation is complicated, but the conclusion is spectacular. Finally here’s something we can ingest that actually will make us skinny! Drink at least 3 cups a day, 8-10 is even better and watch the fat cells disappear.

I would really appreciate your comments below. Ask me any diet related question or let me know what you… (continue reading)