A Closet, A Pair Of Scissors, And A Choice| A Memoir

I was in college, my first year, and I  was getting ready for class trying to find something to wear.  I still thought this was a big part of my social status, the way my clothes looked on my body.  Everything I tried on was tight, I could see the "muffin" bulge, and I started to cry, I was angry, I was hurt.

Gazing around my room at all the clothes that did nothing for my figure, I took a pair of scissors and began cutting all the material that was insulting my image.  Rage had overcome my will to control my tears and anger, ultimately this was my fault.  I continued to cut and rip anything that intimidated me to try to wear, crying, shaking in defeat.

Needless to say I missed class that day, in fact the entire week, over the closet of clothes that failed me and the distorted image in the mirror.  The chubby face, double chin, and extra bulge around the abdominal area were to much to bear this time and I felt that everyone would recognize the weight gain.

So I started to starve myself, this in my mind was the only way to get rid of the ugliness quick.  In fact i was punishing my body for not being able to keep the weight off and punishing myself for allowing myself to get to this point.  It didn't work.  It took about 8 months to realize what I was feeding my body was what was attributing to my fatal outlook of an image I had created in my mind.

The truth was I had only gained 10 pounds, yet my mind and the social network I was surrounded by was 20 pounds thinner than me, raving over their size 2 body.  Again, I was outraged.  Who was so important in society to claim the super skinny as the beautiful?  Why was it that the number inside my pants determined my social status? 

Thankfully 15 years later, society has begun to catch on that we are not to starve ourselves, we are not to feel rejected, we WILL not allow them to determine our inner and outer beauty by the size of clothing we wear. 

If you find yourself in this black desolate space of despair, please know you are never alone, you are not the only one and you are beautiful, you are of worth. 

Motivational Article That Can Change How You Eat

The way you look at eating could be the very road block to losing weight.  Is food your enemy?  Or is it your best friend you can never say no to?  This article may change the way you look at the way you eat.

Live To Eat

Great Article On Foods That Ease Menstrual Cramps

Great article on foods that help ease menstrual cramps and the foods to avoid while on your menses.

Ease Menstrual Cramps With Foods

Lose Face Fat With Facial Exercise And Diet

Are you one of those women that will lock your self in the bathroom and grab two mirrors and dissect your facial profile and wonder how you can lose face fat? I do.  Have you tried any facial exercises that claim to tone your face?

Causes Of A Fat Face

First realize this maybe all in your head.  If you have to really contort your face to protrude a double chin then chances are it is not that bad.  There is a little fatty deposit just below your cheek bone, and some have larger deposits than others.  There is a type of plastic surgery to remove this, but believe me it is there for a reason, have you seen those women with the sunken faces?  No thanks, I am in my mid thirties and this little fatty deposit is my only hope of youth left.

So what can cause a fat face.  Diet is the number one reason, or lack there of.  If you love to eat high sodium foods, or drink alcohol in large frequent quantities then its time to cut back, way back.   Sodium will make your body bloat and the first place you will see it is your face, same with alcohol if you drink a lot or had one hell of a bender your face is going to let you know.

Some are naturally blessed with a pleasantly plump face with beautiful full cheeks that makes them look 10 years younger, which can be a very expensive plastic surgery process to get back after your face has sunk in.  Get my drift?  If you eat healthy, exercise in moderation, and are in a healthy weight bracket, just be thankful when your 40 you still look 20.   

Do Facial Exercises Work?

In some sense yes, but don't expect to just do these exercises and not follow a healthy diet or body exercises.  Facial exercises work in the sense of toning your facial muscles not necessarily for losing face fat.  I still highly recommend getting in the habit of doing facial exercises to combat with the aging process, like that neck thing.  I am so afraid of the turkey neck, if I get it I will pay to get it cut off! 

Here is a video showing some facial exercises, you will feel silly doing them but hey might as well be product when you are picking at your face in the bathroom. 

Eat Clean To Lose Face Fat

Eating clean means to avoid excess salt, sodium, and toxins that are in certain foods and drinks.  So stay away from packaged foods, fast foods, soda, and alcohol and definitely plenty of water to flush out the toxins. Fun stuff, but if you are serious about losing weight or reducing the fat face look these things are key. 



Face Fat Products

Can I Lose Weight Fast By Not Eating?

You have tried them all, the fad lose weight fast diets, or trying to lose weight by not eating thinking that if you don't eat then you are sure to lose weight quickly.  The big question for desperate dieters is can I lose weight fast by not eating?  Do you want the real answer?  The answer that can help your long term weight loss or do you want to just to lose 10 pounds fast?

Short Term Weight Loss

Short term weight loss is possible in fact very effective depending on what kind of quick fix fad diet you choose.  There is the three day fasting liquid "Hollywood" diet that promises you to lose 10 pounds fast by going on a liquid diet and if you diligently follow the liquid diet's guidelines you can lose up to 10 lbs fast.  So in a sense you are losing weight by not eating, just drinking a vitamin packed liquid for a solid three days and while you can lose weight fast it is only for a short term and you will gain back the weight quickly.  When you follow a fasting liquid diet keep in mind you can not have coffee, smoke, drink, no soda, just water and the liquid diet contents, not very fun.

Long Term Weight Loss

  Now if you desire a long term weight loss diet plan, the short term weight loss tactics will not be ideal.  So those of you who think that if I just do the short term weight loss plan two times a month that will be my long term weight loss plan.  Thus in this ideal for long term weight loss success you acquire the answer for the question of can I lose weight fast by not eating because for six days of the month you don't eat, you sip your diet drink along with a lot of water and in return your scale reveals a lesser number which you claim victory in your weight loss goal.

Long term weight loss is about keeping off the weight not losing the weight fast indirectly with fast weight loss plans for time to time.  This will sabotage your body's natural ability to burn fat, create an imbalance with your metabolism and the end result will gaining the weight back along with a few extra pounds.

Lose Fat Not Weight

Take the obsession away from the number on the scale and focus on losing fat not weight.  What I mean by this is when you follow a regular routine of healthy foods and exercise you will lose fat, and may not see weight loss, in fact you may see a different story on the scale.  Why?

Your body is losing fat but gaining lean muscle, lean muscle that needs to be fed healthy foods and worked by exercising.  So if you go to the extreme of thinking I can lose weight fast by not eating with a lot of exercise you can do some serious damage to your body.  Not to mention your bones, circulatory system, and overall ability to fight infection.  Yes it is true by not eating to lose weight can get you very sick, so while you may lose weight fast at first, you will be too weak to enjoy the weight loss.

How Do I Pick The Right Diet To Lose Weight?

So is there the perfect diet or right diet to lose weight?  Yes and no.  Yes in the sense that in order to lose weight for the long term it takes a combination of things, for example if you chose a diet that centers around foods you don't like then your long term success may not be achievable.  So you really need to do your research as far as picking a diet plan that is healthy, suitable to your lifestyle and that you can do for a life change, not for losing 10 pounds fast.

Look I know it is tough to think about changing your eating habits and a lot of us think out of desperation to lose weight fast is to not eat, but it is not for the long term weight loss success you really want.  Think of it this way, you were not born eating bad foods, your body tells whether you listen or not that it is not happy with what you eat.

It is time to listen to you inner self again, it is time to really want long term weight loss success, and it is definitely time to stop using a scale.

To your weight loss success!   

The Best Way To Fire Up Your Metabolism, Burn Fat Fast & Developing Lasting Health

Ask ten people what type of exercise they should be doing to burn fat and fire up their metabolism and they’ll all probably tell you the same thing.  They’ll tell you that you need to do 30-40 minutes of moderately-paced aerobic exercise on a treadmill, elliptical machine, stair climber, etc. for 3-5 times per week. 

They’ll probably also tell you that more is better…4 times per week would be better than 3, and 5 times per week would be even better.

People will tell you this because that’s been and continues to be the mainstream recommendation for fat burning by many fitness professionals.  Get in a certain target heart rate and stay at that heart rate for 30 minutes or so, several times per week.  I am here to tell you there is a better way. 

Sure, you’ll burn some calories while you’re running to nowhere on a treadmill, but you won’t make a complete physique transformation with this type of exercise alone.

In fact, this type of exercise can actually be counterproductive to burning fat.  Here are just a couple of reasons:

Long duration, lower intensity aerobics calls upon your stored body fat for energy during the sessions.  While this may sound good, this can actually cause your body to create more body fat in reserve after the workout is over to have ready for your next workout.  Yikes!

What's worse, this type of exercise when done frequently as typically suggested, trains your cardiovascular system to be efficient.  Again, while this sounds good, your heart and lungs can actually reduce their capacity for work as they are getting more efficient at doing easy work (your long duration, low intensity aerobic workouts), which reduces their ability to handle stress. 

This can lead to a host of other problems including higher change of heart attack.  You are only working within your current aerobic capacity because you're never challenging it to go beyond what it's capable of.   And anything that is easy will not yield results even close to what’s challenging for the body to accomplish. 

Instead, you should be challenging the body to increase its capacity, so that it is stronger and able to deal with stress more easily.  How is this done?

The fastest and most efficient way to rev up your metabolism, burn fat faster, and develop lifelong health and fitness is to add lean muscle to your body through resistance training - period. You want life changing results in the quickest possible time? Get stronger and build some muscle. When you add lean muscle to your body you’ll be literally turning your body into a fat burning machine!

Let’s say that you were eating the amount of calories that allow you to maintain your current bodyweight, but began to add lean muscle to your body through proper resistance training…you’ll need to use some of those calories you’re eating to feed the new muscle, creating a calorie deficit in your body.

In addition, when you stimulate your body with proper resistance training like I teach my students, the repair and growth process will call upon your stored body fat for energy.  This calorie deficit combined with the repair and growth process will allow you to burn fat all day long, every day.  You’ll even get these fat burning effects when you’re sitting around doing nothing at all. 

Also, properly conducted resistance training actually increases your heart and lung's capacity for work.  By placing intense demands on your body, it is forced into being ready for anything you throw at it.  This makes you more resistant to cardiovascular health problems that plague most people...even those that exercise with aerobics frequently.

And the beauty is I’ve discovered that you don’t have to spend much time working out to get the fat loss effects, and strength and muscle gains that will create this environment…you can actually get it done with 2 or 3 weekly workouts that last between 20 and 30 minutes, and even less time at an advanced level. 

And it’s easy to make this type of exercise part of your life because of its efficiency…and it will help keep you lean and healthy for the rest of it...muscle is the stuff that fat burning furnaces are made of!  That I can promise you.

The Good Carb VS The Bad Carb

What is a good carb and if there are "good" carbs, then what are "bad carbs?

Depending on what diet plan you decide to try the definition of the two can vary and really confuse you on which one is which.

A carbohydrate is a type of calorie that contains energy, which is why you'll feel more energetic when eating foods which are rich in carbohydrates.  For example, if you eat a bag of candy or a piece of cake then you'll feel very energetic afterwards, because these are foods which are rich in excess carbs.  Although prepare for the sugar crash that follows because the energy mostly comes from the high content of sugar.

Not all carbs are fattening and since there are different types of carbs -- there are "good carbs" and there are "bad carbs" too.

Types Of bad Carbs
 
Sugar is a type of bad carb, and most people think they know how to avoid sugar.  But the truth is that sugar has different forms which are very hard to spot in foods. 



Complex carbs like white flour, white rice, and white bread contain a lot of sugar that causes your blood sugar to rise and then your body is forced in a way to mass produce the hormone called insulin and when this happens your body will store excess fat.

Types Of Good Carbs

Whole grains are a great source of good carbs, like whole wheat pasta, brown rice, and wheatberries, they will give you the necessary energy your body needs while keeping your insulin levels at a healthy range thus no threat of excess fat storage.

Fruits that contain a natural source of sugar are okay, although watch the amount of fruit you consume a day for this reason.  If you can't shake that sugar fix then grab an ounce of dark chocolate this will send a message to your brain that the body got it's way.  


The more you can switch out the bad carbs with the good carbs the easier it will be to boost your metabolism and burn off unwanted fat faster.



How To Burn Fat Fast