96. Food Diary

Porridge

Coffee

Cranberry Juice

Apple

Small potato, small portion of lasagne

Green tea

Smoothie with pear, banana, summer fruits, apple and mango juice

Small potato, small portion of lasagne (again)

plain goats yoghurt

Cornflakes

95. Turkey Helps You Sleep

I often have trouble sleeping, and am trying to improve my sleep through healthy eating.

I’ve found that eating turkey in isloation can actually help you sleep! The way it works is: Turkey contains tryptophan, which helps to make serotonin.

Serotonin is a neurotransmitter, that sends messages between nerve cells and causes you to feel sleepy.

However, L-tryptophan doesn't act on the brain unless you eat it on an empty stomach with no other protein present, so remember to keep some turkey in the refrigerator for those sleepless nights.

94. Food Diary

Porridge

Apple juice

Coffee

apple

Cold boiled egg

Cottage cheese, flax oil, onion and chives

Green tea

home made lasagne

summer fruits with goats plain bio yoghurt

93. Other Ways To Improve Metabolism

Become active.
There are always ways in which you can become more active. If you have to drive to work, park a little bit further away than usual, so that you walk a bit more.

cardio vascular exercise means getting your heart to pump faster for at least 30 minutes at a time, every day. This can include brisk walking. Don’t think you have to be a marathon runner to include cardio vascular exercise in your daily routine.

Get Enough Sleep
Sleep loss is believed to affect the secretion of cortisol, the hormone that regulates your appetite, and your body will automatically require more energy the more tired it feels, so you will feel more hungry than usual when behind on your sleep.

You are also unable to make rational judgements when you are over-tired and could well end up bingeing. This not only ruins your hard work so far, but can cause guilt which is a form of stress. Stress can lead to no end of health problems. This is why it is essential that you get enough sleep.

Eat good carbs and lean protein
The human body burns some of its own calories when it digests food.This is the TEF – (thermic effect of foods) and it’s what makes protein (which has the highest TEF) and good carbs great for your metabolism. Proteins that build calorie-burning muscle are lean turkey and chicken. Your body’s major fuel source should be whole grains, legumes, fruit and vegetables. These good carbs give you the energy required so that you can get moving and burn more calories.

Drink Water.
Water fills you up, and curbs your appetite. It flushes your system out, and rids the body of bloatedness. You need at least 8 to 10 glasses every day and more if you are active. in Germany researchers found that drinking water may increase metabolic rate. The participants’ metabolic rates increased by 30 percent after drinking just 17 ounces of water. Your metabolism needs water to make the energy-burning process work effectively.

Eat ice cubes!
The energy needed to melt the ice will sustain your metabilic rate when not exercising.

Fidget!
Rock in your chair, tap your foot, or your hand or bob your head. You’ll probably want to wear mp3 earphones whilst doing any of these, or you may be carted off in a white van! But fidgeting really does count as exercise, and will burn calories, maintaining your metabolism!

92. Food Diary

Apple juice

Porridge

Coffee

Apple

Green tea

Cold boiled egg

Cottage cheese, flax oil, garlic, onion and chives 2 x Ryvita

Green tea

Rice and Millet Pasta with home made Bolognaise

Decaf coffee

91. Food Diary

Porridge

Apple juice

Banana

Beetroot

Cottage cheese, flax oil onion and chives

Green tea

Cranberry juice

Half avacado

Chicken, brown rice and broccoli

Cornflakes

90. Grade C Foods

As stated earlier these foods will boost your energy temporarily in the same way a chocolate bar will. You may be surprised at some of the foods in this list.

white pasta, bread, white rice, rice noodles, egg noodles,

green peas, zucchini, cucumbers

tomatoes, prunes, all dried fruit, grapes, figs,

cheese and mil, beef, lamb, veal

89. Food Diary

Not been well today.

Porridge

Banana

Egg and ryvita

decaf coffee

that's all, but I may have cornflakes for supper

88. Food Diary

Porridge
Apple juice

black decaf coffee

Banana

cold boiled egg
cottage cheese and flax oil, garlic on 2 slices Ryvita

green tea

Apple

Beetroot
Baked potato with spinach, prawns and goats cheese

cold porridge

87. Grade B Foods:

Buckwheat, red macrobiotic rice, wild rice, oatcakes

Potatoes, corn, squashes, beetroot, peppers, wild rice, yam, watercress, salad leaves

Peaches, apricots, mangoes, papayas, bananas

Kidney beans, black beans, peas (dried / split), almonds, chicken, game, turkey, venison, nut butters, yoghurt, cottage cheese

86. Food Diary

Apple

Porridge

Banana

Egg mayonnaise

Cottage cheese, flax oil and onion

Green tea

Chicken and Vegetable soup

Goats milk yoghurt with muesli and honey

Cornflakes soya milk

85. Food Diary

Cornflakes

apple

Porridge

Smoothie

two soft boiled eggs with Ryvita

pear

Green tea

avacado

Baked potato with prawns and mayonnaise

mixed nuts

camomile tea

84. The ABC Energy Guide

Energy Foods are all natural foods and are graded A,B or C.

Grade A provides the best cource of energy, and B also a good source, but Grade Cs are the quick fixes, but won’t manitain your blood sugar.

Grade A Foods:
Complex Carbs like oats, barley, brown rice, millet, corn, rye and wholegrain bread.

Vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, sprouts, mushrooms, raw carrots, asparagus, artichokes and spinach.

Fruit such as avacados, apples, pears, pineapples, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and cherries.

Protein such as salmon, tuna, herring, amckerel, seaweeds, eggs, tofu, walnuts, brazil nuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, linseeds, sprouted seeds and grains, haricot and lima beans, chickpeas, lentils and soya beans

These are the most important but we’ll cover Grade B and C later.

83. Food Diary

Porridge

Decaf coffee

Smoothie made with 2 bananas, summer fuits and apples, in the absence of apple juice. It was so thick, I saved lots and put into dessert dishes.

Boiled egg, Ryvita and soya spread

Decaf coffee

Made Hotpot for tonight’s meal, and didn’t need anything to eat all afternoon as I kept pinching bits of hotpot. Hotpot is like stew or goulash. It’s made with potatoes and beef with onions a vegetables in a gravy sauce. I used leeks, cabbage, carrots and peas.

Instead of adding the diced potato to the meat and veg ‘soup’ I mashed the spuds, and put it on top, so now it’s more like cottage pie!

82. Fat Free Mince

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but as far as I know I’m the only person who does this, and it’s a great way to cook minced meat to ensure you get rid of all the fat.

Put it in a glass bowl and microwave it. Drain off all the fat (which even in ‘reduced fat’ mince, will still be quite a bit).

If I’m making lasagne or bolognaise, I will then put the solid cake of meat into a food processor to separate it again. The longer you leave it, the finer it becomes, but it will be pure meat, and NO FAT!

81. Food Diary Sunday and Monday

Sunday

Poached eggs on toast (and I don’t have bread in MY house!)

Coffee

apple
ham salad sandwich

Banana

Apple
Baked Potato with tuna and sweetcorn mayonnaise

Smoothie with yoghurt

Mint tea

2 litres of water at least


Monday

Cornflakes

black coffee

Apple juice

Half raw red pepper
cottage cheese and flax oil, leeks, onion and chives on 2 x Ryvita

Banana

Black Decaf coffee

Apple
Spag Bol

porridge

80. Food Diary

apple
Porridge

Coffee

Smoothie

apple
two sticks of celery, cottage cheese, flax oil, onions and chives

beetroot

pear

cranberry juice
King Prawn Salad (friend’s house)
Walnut ice cream (I was being held down with a gun to my head of course)

1.5 litre of water

79. Muscles Boost Your Metabolism

Ways To improve Your Metabolism Part 1

Become active. there are always ways in which you can become more active. If you have to drive to work, park a little bit further away than usual, so that you walk a bit more.

cardio vascular exercise means getting your heart to pump faster for at least 30 minutes at a time, every day. This can include brisk walking. Don’t think you have to be a marathon runner to include cardio vascular exercise in your daily routine.

Pumping iron will impove your metabolism – it’s true! Any sort of weight training or toning will count as pumping iron.

Your resting metabolic rate (RMR) is the measurement of how many calories your body burns at rest. It’s closely linked to the amount of muscle you have and It accounts for 60 to 70 percent of your daily calorie expenditure. the more muscle you have, the more calories your body will burn, even while you’re asleep. Lean muscle actually needs calories just to exist, so get active today!

You do not have to lift heavy weights to pump iron. Lifting tins of beans for two minutes every day will count as toning exercise, and is better than nothing.

Your resting metabolic rate (RMR) is higher the more exercise you do. It’s like the more money you have in the bank, the more interest you earn; the more muscles you have, the more easily you can lose weight!

I know it’s not fair, but that’s the way it is. Exercise and you will be rewarded!

I’ve recently bought two 2kg World Gym dumbells, as my tins of beans alone just weren’t getting me very far!

And I do 32 bicep lifts twice a day, followed by 64 using 1kg weights, then 64 using the tins of beans (420g). Always use the heaviest first, then go lighter because if you were to use the same weights throughout your workout, they would seem heavier and heavier with every lift, so it’s easier to go lighter as you go on.

It’s also important to note that I ALWAYS do a warm-up of at LEAST a 20 minute walk, followed by my favorite exercise video. Never lift weights without a warn-up. And don’t lift anything too heavy. Always build up gradually.

78. Food Diary

apple juice
Porridge, raisins

Decaf coffee
Banana

Smoothie

apple
cottage cheese and flax oil avacado and onions on 2 x ryvita

beetroot

Apple
Home made vegetable soup

Smoothie

Camomile tea

1.5 litre approx of water throughout the day

77. Tips For Healthy Eating At Work

Always Eat Breakfast
You need to be alert, and you will stuff your face during your first break if you decide to skip breakfast. what if the moring meeting over-runs, and you have an important role to play? – but all you can think about is devouring a horse.

Take a Banana and at least one other Fresh Fruit
The benefits of Bananas were listed here the other day. And they HAVE to be eaten, don’t they, or they will go off. If you eat fruit every day for a fortnight, it will become second nature, and you’ll put all unhealthy snacks out of your mind.

Don’t have more than one or two Coffees
Otherwise you’ll be irritable and lethargic later on.

Take fruit and Dired fruit and Nuts with you
and keep picking at these, to retain your energy levels.

Have Dried Non Perishable Snacks in your Desk
such as cereal bars, and crackers, licorice sticks, healthy biscuits

Leave The Office At Lunchtime to Clear Your Head
You will feel refreshed after a walk in the fresh air, or a change of scenery. You resnt your job and workplace less, and be more procuctive.

Don’t overeat at lunchtime
If you do, you will be more tired in the afternoon, and that’s when there’s a natural lull at the best of times. If you’ve been picking at snacks all morning, you shouldn’t need to overeat at lunchtime.

Drink Plenty of Water
to remain hydrated and keep your head clear. You’ll also be less likely to drink sugary or caffeine drinks.