Top 7 Ways to Beat the Sugar Blues

Happy Humps Day!! It’s Wednesday and it’s time to tackle one of those issues that drive us ladies CRAAAZYYYY….sugar addiction! Cookies, cakes, brownies, icecream, candy, soda, frappuccinos, ahhh it never ends. We are haunted with high sugar…sugar is even hidden in foods we normally wouldn’t even consider…and I’m talking in buckets full making you crave sugar even more. So how do you combat the sugar blues?

Weight loss and fitness issues are usually one of the causes of depression for women who are having difficulty shedding off the unwanted fat bulges. And so what do we do when we get sad about our misfortunes? We binge eat especially on sweets when we feel down or when we encounter problems that we have difficulty coping with. Very few of us know that this is a deadly cycle.

If you feel down because you feel that weight loss and fitness is something that you cannot achieve, you should not resolve to eating sweets to make you feel good. Sugar is high on the list of the causes of weight gain, mood swings, and depression. It can create cravings that make the body wanting more.

How do you beat the sugar blues? Change your weight loss and fitness goals. If you will be able to permanently change your relationship with sugar then you will be able to change your lifestyle and eventually lose weight. How do you do this? You must answer the following:
1.Why do you crave for sugar?
2.How does sugar affect your energy?
3.What you can do to prevent cravings?

Weight loss and fitness problems are born out of this viscous cycle; you eat sweets that cause blood sugar spikes followed by an abrupt decline. When this happens, you tend to be more irritable, anxious, and lightheaded, which in turn causes you to crave for more sugar. Highly refined sugar is full of empty calories, by breaking down rapidly in your bloodstream, which causes insulin dumping.

Yes, Sugar or glucose, is a requirement for a healthy body; it provides energy to cells in the body. This, however, when taken in high amounts may lead to obesity and other life threatening diseases like heart disease and diabetes. Having weight loss and fitness goals that eliminates these cravings will help you achieve a body that is fit, healthy, and Fit Fem bangin’.

If you want to get the weight loss and fitness goals that you want, you should know that, a recent study shows that to prevent cravings, you must stock up on food with high protein and fiber to balance blood sugar levels. Changing the outlook of how you eat and approach to sweets does not mean having the dentist take out your sweet tooth. You just have to have more focus to address the root of your cravings, weed it out and when you do, getting the weight loss and fitness you want is easily achievable.

Here is my top 9 list to beat the sugar blues:
1.Identify your sugar trigger – answering this question is the most important first step to combating your sugar addiction. There are certain foods or circumstances that trigger you to eat sweets. Is it lack of sleep, depression, boredom, that time of the month? Be creative and find ways to deal with situations that cause these triggers. Also be careful of consuming too many foods that contain sugar free substitutes like sucralose, harmful chemicals, that actually triggers deeper sugar cravings.
2.Go ga ga for whole grains – enriched grains are highly processed foods such as white breads and pasta are simple carbs that are digested by your body really easily, making you crave more portions. Just because a package says whole wheat or whole wheat pasta does not necessearily mean it is a real whole grain, not enriched. Carbs, like we said, are not automatically the enemy – you just have to choose the right kind. Complex carbohydrates in fruits and vegetables are the way to go. Whole grain foods to try are quinoa, barley, spelt, rye, rolled and steel cut oats, buckwheat, couscous, basmati brown rice, and amaranth.
3.Eat your veggies – if you ever feel your sweet tooth coming on, try starchy vegetables like carrots, corn, sweet potato, beans, yams, butternut squash. These might satisfy your craving and they are super healthy for you. And if you fill up your plate with more leafy greens, you’ll most likely be too full to eat any candy. Just an observation…
4.Drink lots n lots of water – no surprise here. You hear this advice all of the time, so why don’t you follow it? All you need is plain ol’ H2O, and plenty of it. If you hate the taste of water, try putting in your favorite fruit, like a handful of strawberries or some slices of watermelon, with ice in a glass of water and refrigerate it. It’s absolutely refreshing in scorching hot summer days.
5.Fitness, baby – this one’s easy! If you are bored or stressed, go workout. Exercise has proven to release endorphins in your bloodstream, the happy hormone. Who needs chocolate? And you get to strengthen and burn fat in the process…it’s a win win don’t you think?
6.Sleep does matter – Ingesting sugar as you know spikes our blood sugar levels which in turn affects you energy level. Sooo that means high insulin level eventually leads to insulin drops which then turns into energy dumps. Now imagine coupling that we lack of sleep which causes you to look for more energy in sugary drinks and foods….uyyyy recipe for disaster. My advice – make it a routine to go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time most days of the week. And get your 8 hours of sleep in.
7.It’s mental – can you get yourself to adjust your habits? For example, if you are used to putting a lot of sugar in your coffee and stiring endlessly till you get all the sugar to mix well, think you can maybe not put sugar in your coffee but still stir? Is it psychological for you? Maybe you can make a neurological connection there and slowly break the sugar habit. Just a suggestion.

Top Tips To Aid You On Your Weight Loss Journey

Whether you are struggling to lose the last five pounds or you are at the beginning of your weight-loss journey with miles to go, this article can help guide you in the right direction. Information is power, and the information here will become a powerful tool to help you succeed.

Exercise can be pretty boring. When trying to lose weight, make sure you have some entertainment during those long cardio sessions. Get a book to read or even an audio book to listen to. Create a music playlist that is fast and high-energy and will keep your body moving.

People who are out of shape regularly need tricks to stop them from eating too much. An easy trick you can try is to not eat for two hours before bed time. This will stop you from eating a bunch of extra calories when you wouldn’t get hungry anyway since you are already sleeping.

If you’re having trouble losing weight, try eating small portions throughout the day. Fruit is nature’s gift and make the perfect low-calorie snack between meals. Snacking on unprocessed food will allow your body to take advantage of easily metabolized natural sugars. It will give you energy between meals and prevent you from overeating at meal times.

A great way to lose weight is to listen to music when you are doing cardio. Doing cardio can be very monotonous and boring without anything to distract you. When you listen to music, you’ll stop checking the timer every few minutes, and you’ll be more likely to put more time in.

If you love pairing wine with dinner and you are trying to lose weight, don’t cut it out of your life completely–it has heart-healthy benefits. Instead, try ordering it glass-by-glass. When you order a bottle of wine, it is common to try to finish the bottle instead of saving it for later. When you resist the bottle, you resist the extra calories that come with it.

Take notes while dieting. From foods eaten to exercises performed, more and more research is showing that people who keep records of their weight loss journey are more successful and can even lose much more weight than those who do not. Writing everything down forces you to hold yourself accountable and take responsibility.

When you’re on a cruise, a great way to lose weight (or at least burn off all the delicious food you’ll be enjoying!) is to avoid the elevator at all costs. Instead, use the stairs every chance you get. You’ll be spending a lot of time going up and down between floors. Not only are the stairs faster a lot of times, but you’ll get a good workout too.

As you can see, it’s relatively easy to make changes that will benefit you in the long term. If you make your changes gradually, it will be easier to stick to your goals. Working with your body means you can celebrate many small successes and all it takes is a few key adjustments.

How to manage Bland Diet

What is a bland diet? It is a diet specially set to treat certain gastrointestinal or stomach problems such as heartburns, ulcers and gas.

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An answer to a question, what is a bland diet, is that it is a simple treatment for people suffering from any one or more gastrointestinal disorders such as chronic gastritis, ulcer, esophagitis and dyspepsia.

Bland diet is a dietary regimen for people suffering from stomach disorders. Hence, it is quite understood that ingredients of a bland diet are soft food items, which are easy to digest with a capacity to keep the acidity to low levels. Questions about diet may be asked to your physicians and he/she can suggest the diet or recommend a dietician to do it.

Diet medical questions may include the queries about the food stuffs to eat and food stuffs to avoid during the time while a person experien ces any gastrointestinal disorders. However, before a dietician could decide the bland diet for a person, he/she needs to seek answers to several medical questions related to the person such as any food allergies or irritations associated with any food items and emotions medical questions of people.

Bland Diet:

The diet prescribed as a bland diet will include food items that are easy to digest and low in fiber and acid contents. Even giving up alcohol and smoking is advised while patient is on bland diet. Also a patient is advised to have 4 to 6 light meals after regular interval to avoid heavy and large meals.

Chewing food properly and eating slowly helps in the digestion of the food. Adequate sleep, avoiding smoking and controlling anxiety are supportive treatments for the standard treatment of the problem.

Allowed Food Items:

• Dairy Products
Milk, cheese, yogurt with low-fats and other dairy products are easily digested and hence, can be included as a part of bland diet. However, there is no restriction on ice-creams and one may consume even ice creams during bland diet, but it should not have any product such as nuts that are not allowed in bland diet.

• Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
Fresh vegetables and fruits are allowed to a bland dieter. However, while carrot, squash, green peas are good to eat in a bland diet, broccoli, onions and green peeper should be avoided as it forms gas. In fruits, oranges, grapefruits, and bananas are allowed.

• Proteins
Protein requirement of the body, while on a bland diet should be met with soy products and meat. Fried chicken and greasy hamburgers are not allowed to be consumed, while grilled and baked chicken is allowed.
Low-fat peanut butter and eggs are also efficient to meet the body’s protein requirement in a bland diet.

• Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are contained in whole grain breads, pasta, oatmeal, corn flakes, white rice and sweet potatoes. All these food items are allowed.

Bland diet is designed for treating certain medical circumstances such as gastrointestinal problems. Hence, to answer what is a bland diet, we can say that this is a diet that aims at improving the digestion with the help of a timed-routine diet and soft to digest food items. Once the problem is controlled patients can return to their normal diet.