Archive for » February, 2010 «

Feb
15

Guest Post: The Pros and Cons of Calorie Counting

Jenera has done me the favour of writing a guest post for me. :) Please welcome her to Naturally Curvy. Enjoy!

Counting calories sucks. There is no doubt about that no matter how you work at losing weight or what type of success you’ve had. When making a lifestyle change in regards to eating, counting calories is a good first step.

In my many attempts at losing weight, I have always used calorie counting at one point. And I have had success with it. You would think that if I was successful I would keep at it. Nope, I’m not built that way. I like to walk away, thinking I can do this all by myself.

Here are some pros for calorie counting:
-You will know exactly the number of calories consumed in a day. No duh, I know, but it is essential when trying to lose weight.
-You will learn proper serving sizes.
-You will begin to read and understand labels.
-You will become more conscious of your eating habits.

On the flip side, there are some cons to calorie counting:
-There is the possibility that you’ll become obsessed with food.
-You will be discouraged after the first few days of knowing how many calories you really consume.

Don’t get me wrong, calorie counting is a great tool for weight loss, especially for beginners. In my experience, it works. In fact, I’m currently counting calories as a way to curb my overeating.

I have a few tips that will help with counting calories:
-ALWAYS read the labels. Even if you are going to eat cookies and pork out, read the label. Know what is in your food.
-Measure everything. Sometimes ‘eyeballing’ a measurement doesn’t work and you end up eating more than you think.
-Write everything down. Keeping a journal, using a phone application, or online tool is essential to counting calories and keeping track efficiently. Keeping a running total in your head can lead to over consumption.
-While the goal is to stay within a calorie range, there will be times when you go over. Do not obsess!
-If you DO go over your limit, simply add in some extra activity the next day. Calories burned and consumed are cumulative over a time period.

Losing weight isn’t always easy and neither is healing our relationships with food. Counting calories should be an easy tool and not something to add to our stress. Using these tips will help curb those freak-outs while dieting.

Category: Diets, Food, General, Guest Posts  Comments off
Feb
12

Friday Funny – Divorce vs. Murder

Found at The Fantasy Pages

A respectable lady went into the pharmacy, walked up to the pharmacist, looked straight into his eyes, and said, “I would like to buy some cyanide.”

The pharmacist asked, “Why in the world do you need cyanide?”

The lady replied, “I need it to poison my husband.”

The pharmacist’s eyes got big and he exclaimed, “Lord have mercy! I can’t give you cyanide to kill your husband. That’s against the law! I’ll lose my license! They’ll throw both of us in jail! All kinds of bad things will happen. Absolutely not! You CANNOT have any cyanide!”

The lady reached into her purse and pulled out a picture of her husband in bed with the pharmacist’s wife.

The pharmacist looked at the picture and replied, “Well now, that’s different. You didn’t tell me you had a prescription.”

Category: Friday Funny  Comments off
Feb
11

An Experiment with Water

I was reading the diary of a friend who had weight loss surgery (please do not let that fact colour your view of the rest of this post) and she mentioned something I hadn’t heard of before – water loading.
We all know that water is very important whether or not you are talking about weight loss.

I have read in a few places that you shouldn’t drink too much water while you’re eating because it washes food out of your stomach too fast, dilutes stomach acid, and keeps you from getting all the nutritional goodness you could be getting out of your food.

However, water loading proposes you don’t drink anything with your meal. For up to fifteen minutes before a meal, you can drink as much as you want. Then, after the meal, you don’t drink anything for ninety minutes.

Of course I decided to try it out.

I usually drink so much water before, during, and after a meal that my husband has made comments in the past. I always equated drinking a lot of water with meals with feeling full, so I always did it. However, I found something quite interesting when I tried water loading.

One day may perhaps be a fluke or have other reasoning, but I find the potential from the results rather interesting.

I tried out the stopping drinking fifteen minutes before my lunch today. I found that when I was eating, I definitely wanted to drink just as much as I usually do, but I resisted. I also found that I felt full faster with noticeably less.

Very interesting.

I’m going to continue on with the experiment and see if it helps with things.

Category: General  3 Comments
Feb
10

Ab Exercises

Of all the areas on the body people want to tone up, you hear about people wanting to shape up their stomach area the most. It never fails. And why not when we’re in The Age of the Beer Gut?

I am the same, by the way. I would happily not eat for a month if it meant I could lose my belly bulge.

As you will probably begin to realize as time passes on this site, I’m someone who likes to try new (and old) things. I’m not someone who obeys the dietician at all costs and shudders at considering herbal remedies and alternative therapies.

Thus when I found Chinese Holistic Health Exercises, I was quite interested. http://www.chinese-holistic-health-exercises.com/exercise-to-lose-belly-fat.html

This site not only gives you ab exercises, but it lists deep breathing exercises and massages to help your abdomen. (Massages. Drool.)

They also have a discussion forum where you can relax and have a bit of a chat while learning about other people’s experiences with these exercises.

Do I know if it works? No.

What I do know is that they emphasize checking with your health professional before trying any of it. While it may just cover legalities, it’s also a sign to me that they don’t believe they are gods among dieters and they don’t think their exercises are a cure all.

If you explore this site and find you’re interested in giving it a go, let me know. I’m happy to be any of my readers’ exercise partner.

Category: Exercise  One Comment
Feb
09

Super Brain Yoga!

Could a simple yoga exercise combined with acupuncture points actually make you smarter?

Category: Videos  One Comment
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