Do you eat enough Fiber

I love Fiber. I eat it everyday but did you know that research has found that Fiber is the key to weight loss. Every night I eat a bowl of regular cereal with Super high fiber cereal like Fiber one added to it. It is such a great way to clean your system. Check out this super webgem I found called HealthCastle. The reason I eat the bulk of my fiber at night is so that I get rid of it in the morning instead of during the day in public lol...
Some great high fiber foods:

Grain Products:
whole grain breads, buns, bagels, muffins
Bran Flakes, All Bran, bran Buds, Corn bran, whole wheat Shreddies, 100% Bran and Fiber 1
Cooked cereal such as Red River and Oat Bran
whole-wheat pastas
whole grains such as barley, popcorn, corn and brown rice
Fruits:
dried fruits such as apricots, dates, prunes and raisins
berries such as blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and strawberries
oranges, apple with skin, avocado, kiwi, mango and pear
Vegetables:
broccoli, spinach, Swiss chard, green peas and other dark green leafy vegetables
dried peas and beans such as kidney beans, lima beans, black-eyed beans, chick peas and lentils
Nuts and Seeds:
nuts and seeds such as almonds, whole flaxseed and soy nuts

I love this article on GOALS

Watch your thoughts!

By: Roderick Armstrong

Listen and pay attention very carefully. I want to make a promise to you. If you follow these instructions to the letter, I assure you that you will experience dramatic change in your life in a relatively short period of time. I'm totally serious. I'm not a psychologist or even an expert on how the mind works. I don't even pretend to be. I'm just a regular guy who knows how my mind works. And I suspect that my mind isn't all that different from yours.Saturate your mind with positive images, attitudes and pictures. Discriminate against all negative thoughts that can deflect you from your goal. Do not allow negative input to take root. The Apostle Paul once said, "take every thought captive and make it obedient" You must be extremely careful about the thoughts that you allow to begin to take root in the fertile soil of your mind.So be extremely critical of the information that flows into your fertile soil. Information is either fertilizer or pollution. If the information you're receiving is not consistent with your goals and objectives then you must make a quality decision to stop receiving that information. You may even need to choose new friends or decide which family members deserve your time and attention. You may have to limit their access to you if all they have to share is negativity.Here are some books for starters that I highly recommend you read: 1. The Bible. Even if you're not a "believer", you should selfishly read it for the timeless success principles that is presents. 2. Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. This is an excellent starting point. 3. The Power of Positive Thinking by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale. 4. The Success System that Never Fails by W. Clement Stone.This list is by no means all inclusive. There are literally thousands and thousands of excellent books to read that will impart positive, inspirational messages to feed your soul.I encourage you to treat your mind as fertile soil. It will return whatever you plant in it. Guard it carefully because it is your richest possession capable of producing whatever you seek in life. Try these disciplines for yourself...I KNOW they work. Every time.

Article Source: http://www.thewahmshack.com/articledirectory
About The Author: If you dare to believe then you are one of the fortunate few. I encourage you to stay focused on your dreams and pay no attention to nay-sayers. Focus on what you want.

Talking to Martha -- Diabetes

Hi guys
I have been writing back and forth with a wonderful woman named Martha. You can see her site here. She is brilliant and has lots of great information on weight loss. I would like to share with you some of the conversations that I have had with her and hope that they will help you like they are helping me.

Diabetic Meal Planning (Martha's Blog)

Hey, I understand. I weighed 283 pounds. Now I weigh 170. The diet? A modified Zone diet.How tall are you, Weighty Lady? That determines your muscle mass, and muscles burn calories. Any diet plan should be personalized to how much muscle mass you have.An easy way to estimate is this:Females 5'7" and under, muscle mass is around 90 pounds. So, you need 25 gm fat, 90 gm protein, and 90 carb grams daily. Half the protein should be whey protein, and half the carbs should be fruit.If you are over 5'7", then you need about 25gm fat, 100gm protein, and 100gm carbs.Be sure to take 10 gm omega 3's to keep your gallbladder flushing as you lose weight. This will help prevent gallstones, which are a significant risk factor to weight loss.This diet will produce 2 pounds per week of weight loss from fat, not muscle. Learn to hit your target numbers. You won't be hungry and your energy will pick up. You lose the hungry and tired effect on day 2.Take it from one who knows, the Zone is the best. Balancing protein and carbs so they are equal is what keeps your blood sugar in bounds, and prevents highs and lows that make you hungry and tired.Just go get a book of food counts and use any food you want. You will need whey protein to hit your protein targets without going over on fat.This is worth all the energy it takes to learn to become a conscious eater. Anyone who is as little as 30 pounds overweight is on their way to Type 2 diabetes.The good news is that you feel full, and energy picks up immediately.

Best wishes,Martha


Hi, Kristin,
Wonderful! Apply it and it really works. Hunger and tiredness go away immediately. Make about half your protein as whey protein and half your carbs as fruit. Don't forget your omega 3's - up to 10 gm per day. It is OK to go over on protein by about 10%, but don't try to get any less carbs. The fat is the hard part. When you need more protein to hit your protein target (that is your FIRST concern) and you are at your fat limit, have a protein drink.

Also, the water cure works for insulin resistance and weight loss. Drink half your weight in ounces of water, divided into doses 30 minutes before meals. I drink 90 ounces of water - but it needs to have SEA SALT in it, not regular salt. You need the minerals.

Take a good multi vitamin - I like Life's Fortune, but Vibe is great if you have the money.
And take alpha lipoic acid and Reich mushroom with each meal and snack.

Digestive enzymes are needed on this small number of calories.

You should be feeling mildly hungry for about 30 minutes before you eat the next time. Anything more than mild hunger and you are loosing muscle, and slowing your metabolic rate down. So don't skip any meals or snacks, your are already at rock bottom for the number of calories. Any less and you are losing muscle.

Also, if you walk for half an hour daily, you can have an extra protein bar. Eat the bar before you exercise.

This is so successful. Find a good protein bar that has equal grams protein and carbs. Good brands are Health wise, Kanani Falls, and so on. They are handy for your mid afternoon snack.

Also, find a protein loaded breakfast shake recipe, the Reese's shake recipe on my blog is wonderful, tastes like a chocolate peanut butter shake. Just use the high protein chocolate pudding mix in it.

If you need any protein products, the place that I work sells them. Our phone number is 417-881-8600 and I work Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, all day. We are on central time, and our website and menu are at http://www.healthy-weight-supermarket.com
Check it out. We can ship the bars and drinks to you. It will change your life, make you feel like a million dollars, and that weight will go away if you learn to hit your target numbers.

I am enclosing a log sheet. Welcome to the next part of your life! I help hundreds of people lose weight, and I don't charge for my services. This is my "right work" for all the help I got to lose my 110 pounds.

Best wishes,

Martha

Mmmm what is for lunch today

How about some Linguine with Tomatoes & Basil and pecan encrusted chicken

I went to the farmers market yesterday and loaded up on Fresh herbs and veggies mmmm good. Last night I made a huge bowl of fresh cilantro pico de gala yum.. and some Greek lemon, chicken soup.. with a crusty loaf of Italian

Linguine with Tomatoes & Basil
6 very ripe large tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and cut into bite-sized pieces 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup fresh basil leaves, cut into strips (Fresh makes all the difference in the world with this recipe)
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
3/4 cup sliced black olives
4 cloves garlic, minced
Salt to taste1 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
1 (16-ounce) package uncooked linguine pasta
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

In a large bowl, combine tomatoes, olive oil, basil, Parmesan cheese, black olives, green olives, garlic, salt, and pepper; stir until blended. Cover and let stand at room temperature 2 hours.
Cook pasta according to package directions; drain and return to pan. Add tomato mixture and toss to coat thoroughly. Transfer onto individual serving plates and garnish with additional Parmesan cheese.
Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Pecan Chicken

Ingredients:

1 cup broken pecans

1/2 cup plain unseasoned bread crumbs

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon table salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon parsley or Herbs de Provencal (optional)2 large eggs

1/4 cup melted butter or mild oil

2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut lengthwise into strips

Chopped parsley, garnish

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease a large baking sheet. In food processor bowl, combine pecan pieces, bread crumbs, and seasonings. Pulse for 1 minute to combine. Pour into a shallow dish. In a medium bowl, beat together eggs, oil or melted butter. Dip chicken strips into the egg mixture one at a time, then coat with pecan mixture, shaking to remove any excess. Transfer to greased baking sheet and bake at 375 Degrees F., turning once, until chicken strips are cooked through and golden brown -- 15 to 20 minutes. Divide chicken on serving plates. Garnish with parsley and offer Honey Mustard sauce for dipping.

Please add this dipping sauce for the most incredible meal yummmm

Tart Cranberry Dipping Sauce

1 pound frozen cranberries

2 cups orange juice

3 cups ginger ale

2 tablespoons maple syrup

2 tablespoons light brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1 orange, zested

Combine all ingredients in a non-reactive saucepan, (stainless steel) and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 to 45 minutes or until liquid is reduced by half.
Carefully puree with an immersion blender or blender until smooth. Check for seasoning and serve in small ramekins.

ENJOY:)

I NEED a weightloss buddy ANYONE??

Have you ever gone for days, weeks, months and possibly even years saying when is my ship going to sail in lol. I have had a rough couple of years with my husband out of the house living far far away and not able to help me and the children financially or physically. It's a long long story but every night we pray bring daddy home God. Yesterday was a glimmer of hope. We got to see him and it was wonderful. He has lost 36 lbs and about 8 sizes.. I am jealous to be honest lol. He is always saying honey I want to look good for you and I am like ok honey what about me ewww. He loves me just the way I am weight and all, I wish that I could love me the way he does. Maybe I need to glean from him..

Ok countdown to the biggest loser! Is anyone as excited as me. I think I am going to report here on all episodes and gossip. I would like to get a weight loss partner NOW so if anyone is interested please email me at weightylady@gmail.com
Lets make it happen once and for all. I would like a partner who has similar goals as me and has a bit of weight to lose so that you are not done in 2 minutes and I have 2 years to go alone lol...

Kristin aka weightylady

Today I want to be anybody but me

I have been feeling so sick of myself. My inability to lose this damn weight. I have been trying for 25 years and I feel like a complete failure and I am not saying that because I am feeling sorry for myself I am just sick of it.

I think that I have felt this way before but before my life was not depending on it. My life is depending on it, my children are depending on me. I think all the stress of trying to find work, support my two children, pay my two mortgages and huge debt down while not making any money, creditors calling day and night and a bleak bleak black hole staring me in the face is causing severe trauma to my self-esteem lol...

YAY I laughed at myself.

Ok so where do I go from here. WHAT is that saying when you are at your lowest all you can go is up!! Whooo wooo.. Yippie. Good to know.

Today I ate ok. I had lots and lots of fiber. I am going to get on my very expensive treadmill tonight and walk. I am going to walk and walk and walk and talk to the Lord and ask HIM what the heck is going on. Why am I here. You know I feel like we are called for a purpose. What is my purpose God. Right now all I feel like is a giant, useless blob. Tomorrow will be better because people that know me know that I never give up. I am anti-failure. I may feel like one but deep down I know that just because I feel like a failure that doesn't make me one.

Tootles

WOW ok I was getting the kids ready for school

This whole process of starting a new career/business, sending my children off to school and my baby starting kindergarten is making me hungry.
I found the funniest article. Well not so funny but interesting
check it out

Hamsters, Like Humans, Gain Weight Under Stress

Just 28 minutes of stress over 33 days prompts hamsters to overeat
BETHESDA, MD. (May 9, 2006) – Put a mouse or a rat under stress and what does it do? It stops eating. Humans should be so lucky. When people suffer nontraumatic stress they often head for the refrigerator, producing unhealthy extra pounds.
When Syrian hamsters, which are normally solitary, are placed in a group-living situation, they also gain weight. So scientists at the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience at Georgia State University are using hamsters as a model for human stress-induced obesity. They want to begin unraveling the complex factors that lead people to eat when under stress and hope that the information can eventually be used to block appetites under this common scenario.
The study, “Social defeat increases food intake, body mass, and adiposity in Syrian hamsters,” by Michelle T. Foster, Matia B. Solomon, Kim L. Huhman and Timothy J. Bartness, Georgia State University, Atlanta, appears in the May issue of the American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology published by The American Physiological Society.
Hamsters similar to humans
In the study, the researchers look at nontraumatic stress -- the stress we experience in everyday life, such as getting stuck in traffic or trying to complete a major project at work. It is distinct from traumatic stress, such as suffering the death of a loved one. Traumatic stress typically dulls the human appetite, said Bartness, the study’s senior researcher and an authority on obesity.
In the U.S., where food is plentiful and relatively cheap, overeating can be difficult to control. Stress-related overeating is more difficult to control than the overeating that people do just because food tastes good and is available, Bartness said. If scientists could learn how to reduce the urge to eat in the face of stress, it could improve the health of a lot of people. And that was the point of this study.
The researchers used Syrian hamsters, the kind commonly found in pet stores. They set up a situation in which subordinate hamsters would suffer a “social defeat” at the hands of a dominant hamster. The researchers wanted to see if the defeated hamsters would eat more and gain weight under the stress, just like a human. Mice and rats eat less and lose weight when subjected to a similar stress, making them a poor subject for human stress-induced obesity research.
The study asked three questions:
Does repeated social defeat increase food intake, weight and fat in hamsters?
If so, how many defeats are necessary?
Do intermittent (unpredictable) defeats increase fat and food intake more than consecutive (predictable) defeats, as is true in humans?
An uncomfortable situation
To answer these questions, the researchers placed an 11-week-old hamster (the subordinate intruder) into the cage of an older and larger hamster (the dominant resident). The intruder remained in the aggressor’s cage for seven minutes per trial. The situation set up a clear dominant versus subordinate situation between the hamsters, the authors explained.
“Hamster aggression is highly ritualized, with dominance or submission generally established within the first minute and maintained thereafter through social signals and social communication between the opponents,” the authors wrote. The intensity of most agonistic encounters was moderate, with some chasing and biting, but with no actual tissue damage.
A trained observer recorded submissive behaviors and also ensured that no harm came to either of the hamsters, which normally live alone. Because the smaller hamster was the intruder, the outcome of the dominance/submissive tussle was a foregone conclusion.
The researchers found that, as a result of the stress of being placed in the home cage of a larger resident, intruder hamsters subsequently:
ate significantly more
gained significantly more weight
gained significantly more fat, including visceral fat
These results occurred when the intruder hamsters were placed in the foreign cage as few as four times, a total of 28 minutes, over the 33-day experiment, Bartness explained. Hamsters that were placed in the situation only once during the experiment did not eat more or gain weight compared to a control group. In addition, the intruder hamsters that were placed in the cage intermittently (at unpredictable times) showed comparable weight and fat gain compared to those placed in a foreign cage consecutively (at regular times).
However, while the intermittent group increased on all measures of fat gain, the consecutive group increased on only two of the fat measures. Still, this was an unexpected result.
“In humans, unpredictable [stress] events are more aversive than predictable events, causing greater alterations in homeostasis and thus increased stress,” the authors wrote. “In addition, previous research suggests that unpredictable events cause greater activation in brain regions responsible for fear and anxiety in laboratory rats and reduction in immune function compared with events that are predictable.”
Next steps
Syrian hamsters provide a good model for obesity research, not only because they eat more and gain weight, but because, like humans, they add fat to their abdomens -- visceral fat. Visceral fat is particularly unhealthy because it affects the internal organs and is associated with diabetes, cancer and other serious illnesses, Bartness said.
Bartness’ team began a second study to determine whether other stressors, such as a mild foot shock, produce the same effect as the social defeat model; and whether the dominant hamsters gain weight and fat as the result of the intrusion of the submissive hamsters.
Another line of inquiry would be to compare mice and rats to hamsters. Humans and hamsters, which eat more under stress, share the same predominant stress hormone, cortisol, noted Bartness, Rats and mice, which eat less under stress, have a different primary stress hormone, corticosterone. This raises the question of whether stress-induced increases in cortisol play a more important role in the desire to eat and weight gain compared to corticosterone.
Researchers will also want to know if drugs can block stress-induced obesity, for example, by blocking the release of the stress hormone, corticotrophin releasing factor (CRF), or by blocking the body’s CRF receptors, Bartness said. CRF, also sometimes referred to as corticotrophin releasing hormone, produces the body’s “fight or flight” response under stress and helps kick off a cascade of physiological responses.
“There are a whole suite of physiological responses that occur as a result of stress,” Bartness said. It will take time to unravel all these physiological responses and to use that knowledge to block stress-induced obesity. It may even turn out that the reactions are too complex to easily block, he said.
Source and funding
“Social defeat increases food intake, body mass, and adiposity in Syrian hamsters,” by Michelle T. Foster, Dept. of Biology and Dept. Psychology; Matia B. Solomon and Kim L. Huhman, Dept. of Psychology and Center for Behavioral Neuroscience; and Timothy J. Bartness, Dept. of Biology, Dept. of Psychology and Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, Georgia State University, Atlanta, appears in the May issue of the American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology published by The American Physiological Society.
The research was funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Science Foundation Science and Technology Program.
http://www.the-aps.org/press/journal/06/9.htm