Let’s talk about home dieting. An easy and efficient way to help with weight loss and living healthy is to buy the right food. The good news here is that in many cases you can just modify the items you buy rather than buying something completely different. Some of this information may not be completely new to you, but I hope to get some awareness out there.

Fiber- This is the key to dieting and let me tell you why.
Fiber content is mostly indigestible fully in the body because we don’t contain the enzymes to do so. What Fiber does is compact our food and moisture and clear out our intestines on the way down. The regularity that Fiber gives to the bowel movement has many benefits. First, I would like to define regular- I mean have a bowel movement AT LEAST 1 time daily. What doctors consider normal is the national average, that’s why blood pressure normality seems to raise every couple years. So if you were told that going every 3 days is okay, its not. Regular bowel movements keep your intestinal muscles healthy, toxins out of your body; regulate proper water weight, and nutrition absorption (all of these can also help with your complexion).

Secondly Fiber just so happens to be in foods that are all good for you! Fiber is found in Whole Wheat, Brown Rice, Seeds, Whole Grains, etc… When you are eating ‘Whole’ foods you get the benefit of the Fiber and many B-Vitamins (energy), protein, and iron.

Fiber and ‘whole’ foods are denser. You just can’t simply eat as much as you would. This helps you on your goal of losing weight as one of the things you need to do is learn portion control. Fiber is a great snack before meals as well. A slice of whole wheat bread in your system some time before meals will greatly reduce your appetite. The whole wheat portion is a natural part of food. It is processed off of the grain when you it is purchased in a non-whole wheat fashion. When you take in the whole grain your body must use more energy (work off calories) to break off this ‘capsule’ of the wheat.

Lets recap-

Healthy intake

Less appetite

Bowel regulation

Here’s a secret of diet pills- help regulate appetite, regulate bowels, and make you lose water weight. Sound familiar?

Now I would like to talk about what I think as the greatest of all fiber foods- Flax Seed. Flax Seed, like many other seeds, are an excellent source of oils along with protein and iron and such. The oils of nuts and seeds are quite healthy and Flax Seed is not only no exception but the king of all oils. Flax Seed is high in Omega 3 fatty acids; an essential fatty acid that our body cannot produce on its own it must be outsourced. Flax Seed has a high content of fiber and it’s a ‘moist laxative’. Flax seed needs to be ground up prior to use for full effect, but I like to buy it pre ground from say Uncle Bob’s. What is the usage you say? It can be used at every meal if you wanted to, but specifically- Sprinkle on your cereal, cook in with hot cereal, goes great on peanut butter sandwiches, add to soups, add to crock pot meals, add to chili, wok it in to meals early when you are sautéing just to name a few. Flax Seed has a very subtle taste and usually won’t be tasted. Its taste is sorta nutty when you can taste it so it’s especially great with anything that would have peanut butter or where that taste would compliment the dish.

Here’s a little sample shopping list to give you some ideas:

Flax Seed

Multi Grain Hot Cereal

Whole Wheat Bread (Double fiber or Whole Grain)

Whole Grain Pastas

Whole Wheat crackers

Fiber One Cereal

Whole Wheat Waffles (Eggo’s Cinnamon Whole Grain Waffles are great!)

Brown Rice

Buy Wheat Flower and use instead of White

There are many whole wheat pasta sides available

Eat the fruit, not the fruit juice

Buy fresh vegetables

Have side salads at as many meals as possible (easy and light dressings!!)

When you’re out getting a salad load up on the green vegetables

Whole Wheat tortilla chips

And much more!

Keep an open mind about it and look for a whole wheat alternative to what you normally buy.

Share This

Welcome to the first of my 3 part series on Dieting and Weight. This topic is on dieting in itself. The next part will include an actual diet along with grocery help. The last part will help you out with easy exercises that are targeted at losing fat. Enjoy!

There seems to be a phenomenon that dieting must be followed by some type of celebrity or ‘scientific breakthrough’.  I’m here to tell you this simply isn’t true. The same fundamentals that existed for healthy weight is still true today. You need a healthy diet combined with daily activity that increases your heart rate (exercise). Diet pills that circulate around have a bottle full of promises, but they all say ‘combined with diet and exercise’. Why do we try to dance around this subject and not do anything properly? Even if you could start slimming down by simply popping a pill would it be worth it? This is highly doubted and let me tell you why. Weight gain is simply a by product of bad diet and/or overeating. You still have health risks of taking in unhealthy food. Secondly, about every ‘diet pill’ has either come under scrutiny, been sued, or killed a handful of people.

Thankfully many recent diet fads are at least ‘diet programs’ or ‘diet plans’. The diet simply consists of sending you healthy meals that just need to be heated up to eat. The thought here is that it’s so convenient you will eat the meals and combined with some exercise can lose weight. Pills are frankly mostly psychological in nature in that you feel like its going to help and hopefully you continue to diet. Diet pills have continually changed what they put in them, usually because it kills someone, but usually consists of ways to speed metabolism and help curb hunger. There are frankly too many diet pills to look at, but a good way to gauge a good diet pills is take a look at Dimmak LITE from www.DimmakHerbs.com . This is an all natural herbal diet assistant that helps maintain and speed up your metabolism, curb appetite, and help you maintain a regular bowel movement. Lastly the pills help with body water maintenance.

Many people are familiar with water weight lose, whether they know it or not, as when people start a diet they lose 5-10 lbs in the first week. In subsequent weeks they can lose very little to nothing at all. This is when the diet crash comes in to play. People now believe they aren’t losing enough weight, the diet isn’t working, or they are doing something wrong. Water weight is an ever changing thing in your body in very small amounts. When you become active and eat good food, a 180 from previous, you end up shedding a lot of water the first week. It is now possible for you to have a slight over lose and your body brings water back in. You may now be exercising so your water intake and expel have increased.

‘Bottom line is a diet take some time. You can’t expect drastic changes in the first few weeks. You lose and gain water; you lose and gain pounds’

The best way to take error out of watching weight lose is to weigh yourself at the same time everyday, preferably in the morning first thing. Water weighs a lot! If you don’t believe me then weigh yourself before and after you pee. It can be ½ to an entire pound of weight!

When people begin to diet they also believe that they should be drinking some ridiculous amount of water. This is simply not true and is quite unhealthy for you. Men should be drinking about 10-12 cups of water and women 8-10. Make sure to gauge this out by how intense your exercising routine is. Overdrinking water will cause sodium and electrolyte balances in your body causing cramping and intense shooting of pain. This also over-works your kidneys which is the root of your energy.

On top of all of this I hate to be the bearer of bad news. Losing more than 2-4 lbs a week is quite unhealthy for you. You will not only be losing weight in an unhealthy way, but you will also be losing weight faster than normal skin adaptation. Bottom line if you aren’t losing weight properly you are going to have a handful of excess skin to deal with in the end.

For real diet success I would recommend contacting a nutritionist, person trainer, or dietician. I have helped many people lose weight and when it’s done right its semi-permanent. You can eat out when you want, grab some fast food here and there. This is because your diet staple has become healthy; a treat every now and then has little effect on you!

Share This

I have a new recipe that I have been promising to get on here. You can find a few recipes online, but I will show you how I make it and what its about.

I’ve talked before about Congee, a Chinese porridge that is made for the purpose of health and healing. Personally I like Congee for breakfast. The white rice porridge with Gou Qi Zi, Da Zao, some cinnamon and sweeten it up a bit. Add whatever you like, the Chinese like to make Congee for Dinner as well with Fish, etc. I however, like Kicharee for lunch and dinner instead.

Remember in the movie ‘Matrix’ on board the ship they were eating a food that was said to have “everything in it that you need.” Well Kicharee is in fact a food that has everything you need. Kicharee can be eaten at anytime, at any meal, and for as long as you like. Kicharee has a balance of all the nutrients you need, is healing, has huge detox properties, and also supports the body functions. Kicharee has been used as diet therapy to heal cancer and many other degenerative diseases. Eat this when your sick, healing, pre and post surgery, can’t hold food down, want to diet.

First, I will tell you how to make Curry. You may have some already made but this is better and you want it roasted.
Combine:
1 part Turmeric Powder
1 part Cumin Seed Powder and
1/2 part Coriander Powder
in a sauce pan under medium heat. Stir around and heat to a nice roast until a pleasant aroma comes off. The Curry Powder is done at this point if you want to have Curry to cook in other meals. For the Kicharee you need about 1/4 cup and you want to continue to roast it until its a nice brown, set aside.

Here is the rest of what you need. Remember that many things can be added or removed or substituted, etc. Make sure you have a Huge Crockpot for this. A Huge Pot would work but requires more supervision.
2.5 cups Brown Rice
3/4 cup Mung Beans
1 Large Yellow Onion
2 Large Pinches of Kombuchu Seaweed
1/4 cup Curry
1/4 cup Chicken Stock
1/8 cup Tamari
Minced Garlic and Ginger
and 1/4 cup of any or all of the following
Flax Seed
Wheat Germ
Buckwheat
Barley
Cracked Wheat
and about 1/2-1 cup of any vegetables you want.

First thing is you need to soak your mung beans overnight. So the night before you need to put the mung beans in a large bowl full of water and add the seaweed to it.
The next day you need to take all of the floating beans and toss them. Drain the mung beans (keep the seaweed) and set aside. Put your rice in a colander and wash with hot water. Put your beans and rice in the crock pot. Add vegetables and the sea weed from the beans. Cover with water over about an inch and set at low for 1 hour. At this point Almost all of your water should be soaked up. Now add your vegetables, meats, herbs, additions of wheats, etc. Add the chicken stock and fill up the crock pot, leaving about 1/4 inch or so, with water. Let your Kicharee continue to cook on low for about 4-5 hours. At this time turn a large frying pan on medium heat. Add olive oil to the the pan and chop your onion. Add garlic and ginger to the oil and add your onion and add olive oil on top of the olive oil. This may seem like a bit of olive oil but look at the pot of Kicharee you have. Cook the onion till the onion is softened, not browned. Add the Tamari and cook for another 2 minutes. Now add your curry in there and cook an additional 3-4 minutes. Now add this directly to the crock pot and stir it in well and pour a bit of olive oil on top and stir. Let that cook 20-30 minutes and you are all done. Dish out and put some soy sauce or tamari on top of it. I portion this out into individual bowls and refrigerate the bowls. The kicharee thickens up in the fridge, but thats okay, you can add water to make it as soupy as you like!

Enjoy!
You also may notice you may need to make a trip to the Oriental Grocery Store before making this, and also you are making a gigantic amount, but you will have to portion down on your own if you want.

Share This

I’ll spare you the false hopes of losing 30 pounds before Christmas. Ill let the magazine rack, that you no doubt have passed since November, tell you how to lose 25-30 pounds of weight in a month. Honestly I would like to see some healthy proof of these claims, but we will save the magazine bashing for another day. Instead I am going to give you some help on keeping up your metabolism and hopefully not gaining any, if only 5 pounds, this Holiday for those who actually have family and will be visiting. For those of you married, you have 2 stops (and there are a  few of us that have 3 stops because of a parent separation) so thats 2-3+ meals your gonna have to deal with. Most of these suggestions will seems simple and some may be obvious, but I am trying to convey some less orthodox tactics that you can add to your arsenal!
Eat some soup of drink broth before the meal.This is essential in China relating to Chinese Medicine to keep your body temp regulated. Yes, this what we are trying to do! By taking in warm broth before the meal your metabolism fires are roaring, and a simple cup will work great. If there is enough time passed before you eat after the soup you will actually feel yourself getting quite hungry. I know Miso Soup isn’t a Thanksgiving Day traditional item, but Miso Soup can be bought in little convenient packets and just add hot water. The Miso Soup has seaweed in it and allot of other minerals that increase metabolism further! This is why the Japanese have Miso Soup before meals (not exactly the fattest country).
Avoid Cold Drinks Before the Meal. This is an extension of the previous tip, and you should be able to understand why after reading the previous tip. However, drink lots of fluid after the meal. Warm fluids would be best, but go ahead and drink up after!
Choose Your Food Wisely. Sorry but I have to be obvious here. If you make your own Thanksgiving meal change to fresh produce and steam it, take it easy on the sugar, and substitute or reduce when able. For example Yams and Sweet Potatoes are pretty sweet by themselves. Try reducing sugar and marshmallow here. Not cooking, just make good choices. Wheat rolls, baked turkey, green beans, and the such are all quality choices here.
Take Herbs with Mild Laxative Properties. Heard the supermodel laxative diet plan? Well, I would imagine that would work but I will never condone taking a laxative unless a doctor is giving you one. Herbs with laxative properties are different so let me explain. When a herb has laxative properties it promotes bowel movements naturally by lubricating, stimulating bile excretion, and stimulating peristalsis (the rhythmic contraction of your bowels). Commercial laxatives simply turn your bowel contents into liquid, which weakens your bowels and creates dependency AND causes griping! Now, what I am not telling you to do is eat and overdose on some Senna and sit on the toilet waiting. I’m simply suggesting that if you plan ahead, this WILL work and here are some specific examples.

• Possibly the BEST suggestion I have is visit Dimmak Herbs Herbal Supplements and buy a bottle of DEUCE or REGULATOR. Take 1 pill/capsule morning and night through the entire holiday season. since this is really only a little over a month this would be okay to do especially since the formulas are safe but incredibly effective. REGULATOR actually being a bowel TONIC is quite beneficial here.
• Of course I can never get away from those wanting the EASIEST opinion. Go to any grocery store and go to the pharmacy section and get a bottle of Castor Oil. This bottle will be small and fit in your pocket easily. Castor Oil is absolutely gross to most people thanks to the texture but is really effective and is really soothing. For this suggestion only do this on the days of big meals, don’t make a big habit out of Castor oil. Your dosage will be a tablespoon after the meals, close to the evening time so your bowel movement will be in the market.
• Aloe Vera Gel is a wonderful herbal supplement. Aloe is close to Castor oil properties and is excellent for your body. Aloe can be found as gel or juice in grocery stores and health food stores. Get the highest amount of aloe you can 90%+. Your dosage will be 1oz morning and night throughout the season.

There should be one option there you can deal with. Let me tell you what NOT to do. Do NOT take Senna, never take senna. Senna is NOT a good herbal laxative and is not good for your bowels. Do NOT use commercial laxatives, EVER. Avoid ‘colon cleanses’ and ‘colon blow’ and whatever the hell else people are throwing out there. Only use products that are well trusted. I will review products for anyone interested, but with herbal supplements not being regulated you never know what is being formulated in those products. Many products also like to use popular products, some of which turn our to not be good additives to formulas (although not surprising to herbalists).

I hope some simple tips here go a long way in the next month or so for you. Stabilizing yourself now will save you from paying a bunch of money for that gym membership that doesn’t get used! Help save your new year’s resolution on something a little more special that your weight, again.

Share This