Lemons, limes, salt, and how they aid weight loss

I had a very very very late night last night - work night out - so I kind of fell off the diet wagon.  I am sorry guys, but I just had to be honest with you.

The thing about me is, that losing the 1 stone I want to lose by 17th July, would be REALLY easy if I did what I know works (i.e. follow Dr. Robert O Young's PH miracle guidelines) but as you have probably gathered what holds me back, is self-discipline.

Anyway, I just flicked in one of his books that I own, and thought I would share a snippet with you:

Lemons, limes, and grapefruit are very low in sugar (3%, 3% and 5% respectively).  Although they are chemically acid, they have an alkalizing effect when metabolized in the body.  Squeeze some into your water throughout the day to help maintain your body's delicate PH balance.

Liska again: guys these are wise words.  When we are acidic all sorts of things go wrong..... one being, the body stores fat!!!!

Sorry, I just found another diamond bit that I also just have to type up:

You probably blame water retention for some of your excess weight and, in turn, blame the water retention on too much salt.  BUT your body retains water because it is dehydrated, to dilute acids.  When you are retaining water, it is a signal that your sodium is being converted into potassium in the body to balance your PH, and you actually need more water, and alkaline salts, like sea salt (e.g. celtic salt, or RealSalt, from the Great Salt Lake).  The problem is, Americans in general get way too much salt in their diets - the wrong kind of salts.  We salt just about everything we prepare, then keep salt on the table to add even more.  Just about all prepared and processed foods are extremely salty.  Table salt, and the salt added to just about all processed foods, has itself been overly processed, destroying its electrical potential.  It has no electron energy.  So while you do actually need to cut out all regular added salt from your diet, you then need good salt, electron-rich alkaline crystalline salt, like RealSalt or Celtic Salt. I (Robert O. Young) recommend at least 3 to 4 grams a day.

So that is the truth regarding salt........  Interesting eh?!?!?!?

Sorry, found one last thing I want to quote:

Foods that are themselves acidic, or have acidic effects on the body once they are digested, are better avoided if you wish to reach your ideal weight - and stay there.  Be aware of the following acidic foods:

* Animal protein (includes meat and dairy products)

* Sweeteners

* Peanuts

* Corn (contains 25 different fungi, including recognized carcinogens)

* Yeast

* Fermented and malted foods

* Alcohol

* Caffeine

* Coffee (research has shown that cancer cells can live indefinitely in coffee!)

* Soft drinks

* Chocolate 

* Mushrooms

* Monosodium Glutamate (the thing that makes chinese take-aways taste so good)

Sorry if I bored you with all of that, but it helps to inspire me to read it again and even more so, it sinks in more as I type it up.  I know avoiding that stuff works...... I avoided most of it in 2001 for Candida reasons (and due to terrible IBS) and as a result I lost 3 stone and looked FABULOUS in my wedding dress if I do say so myself :-)     Back then I hadn't heard of Robert O Young (or Super Greens), so I just knew that stuff was bad due to 2 books I read about Candida, and it was my Chinese Herbalist who diagnosed the Candida at the time.  Oh, I am going down memory lane now.... I just remembered there was a girl I worked with at the time, who asked how I did it (back in 2001).... she had been dieting on and off for years and lost nothing, so I leant her the 2 Candida books and she went from a size 20 to 14 in a few months.  It changed her life and her self-confidence.......  I did not stay in touch with her when I changed jobs, so I don't know if she is like me (i.e. a few years later put all the weight back on....plus a stone)......

I just need to sort the self-discipline and stress out and I can do it again.

Liska xxxxx

Wii Fit - how long will it last?

Given that I am loving my Wii Fit, I thought I'd Google "Wii fit + weight loss" and this article came up, and it seems it was written on 30th January 2009.

Says that people normally give up on it after a month.

Well, given that my thighs are weak, and it gives them SUCH a good workout I am going to try and stick at it. When I was on it Sunday 1st Feb for whole day, I could hardly walk on Tuesday and Wednesday. I guess it's that that makes people shirk it. It is a game but it is WORK.

Given that I had an old fashioned weighing scales with a needle (analogue I think they call them) it is very refreshing for me to have the digital weight I get from Wii Fit. Love the graph it produces too. It is superb for tracking, and even tracks BMI.

It's funny, but the games that are hardest on my thighs are also the ones I am determined to beat to get a better score, i.e. the bubble down the stream one, and the Ski Slalom... So my addictive personality is helping me get fit for once :-) They are actually my favourites, despite the aches. I also absolutely love the step game, although I can imagine it will eventually get boring.

What I am absolutely amazed by is that there is a delayed reaction between your brain wanting your balance to shift on the board, and it actually happening, but I read in Dr Robert O Young's book today that bouncing on a rebounder for 15 minutes a day helps with that. Only trouble is, although that gives you the gift, what tells people that they are lacking it in the first place, before it is too late???? Well the Wii Fit certainly does, along with the age it gives you. I have varied from 30 to 60 years of age on it .............

Given that I am guilty of playing with things for a couple of months till the novelty wears off (haven't used my Vita Mix nor my IPOD in ages) it will be interesting to see how long the wii fit lasts. Victor always tells me off for buying gadgets I don't use for long.

Anyway I am signing off now, as I have an urge to............ play with my Wii Fit :-)

Liska Life x

Detox 2009 - the format

Dear all, I have decided that I need a consistent way of tracking my progress. Plus it keeps me on the straight and narrow if I have to be public every day.

So I have done the format below that will be a daily feature on my blog.

Plus it means I can at least put something on, on busy days when I don't have time to write. Last day at work was 23rd December and first day back is 5th January. I know full well I may not blog every day once back in the full flow of work, so like my new commitment to weight loss, I will have to commit to completing the below, like a daily journal.

I know I sleep better when I give up coffee so I am looking forward to that. In readiness, I bought Barley Cup in Holland & Barrett today.

Exercise today:
Meals today:
Weight today:
Gratitude journal:
Fit Bug steps (in MBTs):
Learning point:
Confirmation of nil consumption of latte or cappuccino:

So, the format above goes live as of Monday, 5th January 2009.

Bye for now.

The scales don't lie

Hips don't lie has to be one of my favourite songs, but today it is the scales that don't lie.
As you can see, I am currently 13.5 stone.

As I cannot manage to get my tickerfactory.com weight loss ticker to appear on my blog (tried everything) I have resorted to taking a photo of me on a weighing scales :-)

I simply can't "weight" until I can post a similar image, with a much lower result. I can plot the progress over time I suppose. Speaking of time, my Mum asked what my deadline is, and I said I don't know. (She must know about goals being S.M.A.R.T. eh!?!?).

I will see what I lose in first few weeks and then think of a healthy goal...
When I say goal I mean deadline, for the weight loss. As I already know my goal which is 10.5 stone - meaning a weight loss of 42 pounds!

Good luck to all those other weight loss folk out there. I know at least in January there are a lot of us on the same path, or the same treadmill :-)

Liska Life, Bye for now..........

Love is

I googled "Love is..." in Google Images and this was what I found.
Quite ironic as my intention was to say in 2009, Love is:

Honouring oneself and taking care of oneself to assure a more positive self image and weight loss.

Ironically, the image that came up is about taking an account of things, which is what I will be doing, with regards to monitoring exercise and food intake.



It is also a good one considering the current financial crisis and reduced credit, which means it is also a good idea to take account of expenditure.

Anyway, however you interpret it, it is cute. Let it speak to you in whatever way it must.

Last blog for 2008.

Liska Life over and out. x

Swimming and weight loss?

Just been researching a bit and found the following:
"Research published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine shows that in the absence of a controlled diet, swimming has little or no effect on weight loss".
Click here to read the full online article.

So cardio here I come, but..... when.... Well, it'll be a while yet, as I fell on Thursday and sustained quite a bad knee injury so I will stick with swimming a little longer.

On the above article make sure you read the bit about eccentric and concentric muscle movements, which is more proof that weight training can be better at promoting weight loss.

If you read the above you will see that it is proposed that: "swimming has only a minor impact on your metabolic rate after exercise". For this reason it is also argued: "Just make sure to guard against the urge to eat more after you get out of the pool". Oooops, and the first thing I do, is go to the Virgin Active cafe. I will have to cut back a little on that then.

Another quote from the online article:
"Many people feel extremely hungry after training in the pool, and may simply replace all the calories they've burned with a large post-exercise meal". Oooops that's been me!

So the reason the article seems to advocate weight training is because:
"One of the reasons a properly designed weight-training program is so effective at burning fat is that just one workout can give your metabolic rate a real boost. In some cases, this rise can last for well over a day".

All these words of wisdom come from thefactsaboutfitness.com the author of which is Christian Finn.
Next week, I am really going to have to make an effort with my diet.

2 out of 3 aint bad and within 24 hours too!

So...... I made 3 resolutions yesterday
1) I said yesterday, that it was my last latte!!!!!! It was!!!
I resisted this morning on my way to work and I resisted all day.
I did use the kettle at work to make a couple of cups of tea and coffee though, but number one they are free (credit crunch and all that) and number two, they don't contain the hideous amount of milk that a latte does.

2) I got the early train this morning, and went to Tesco before work and bought ALL the ingredients mentioned in yesterday's soup recipe! It did cost £17 but that was because I bought 2 x Nutella choc spread for £2 (I owed Candice one, and I ended up being naughty with the other, but we can't be good 100% of the time!), 2 x Gales Honey for £2.80 and a sour dough loaf for £1.99. Couldn't face soup without bread. I will change to something sensible like ryvita, but one step at a time PLEASE. It is my first time making Vita Mix soup at work in months and months!
So in case you haven't worked it out already, I did have the soup for LUNCH. Oh and I shared it with Paola (Vita Mix makes enough for 2 large bowls).

I can say to anyone who is reading this, who decides to make it, it is very very spicy. I didn't add too much Tabasco, but nonetheless, with the ginger and garlic, the hot taste is there, but I enjoyed it, and it was filling & nutritious and extremely low in calories. I bought enough ingredients, that I think I can make it for maybe 3 days!

3) The other promise yesterday was that I would start to do cardio work at the gym. Well I am writing this from Virgin Active, but again today I did my usual (swim, jacuzzi, steam room, sauna, and shower). I did want to go to the gym as I knew Catherine was, but slept in this morning so did not have time to dig out all the necessary kit, and it is so much easier to just chuck a swimsuit in the rucksack.

Anyway, with regards to the 88 kilos, I will leave it a week before I weigh myself again.

Oh one good thing though. While I am online, I obviously like to eat, so I got a salad and a smoothie from Virgin Active's cafe, and the smoothie is FAB. It is called POWER, and contains:
whey protein, muesli, honey, organic low fat milk (delicious).

Bye for now (if anyone reads this).

x

OH MY GOD

Well the good news is that I am writing this from Virgin Active, after a gorgeous swim, jacuzzi, steam room AND sauna.

But the bad news is that I used the scales in the ladies changing rooms. At what I THOUGHT was my heaviest, a few years ago, I was 80 kilos, but I weighed myself tonight and I am .... drum roll...... 88 kilos.

So drastic action is needed. (I have added the image above on Wednesday 22nd October - had to because when I told my husband that I am 88 kilos, he laughed, and I said "what is so funny", to which he said "two fat ladies: 88". [This aint bingo darling]. To which I replied "well it is only ONE fat lady!". Anyway, when I "Googled" two fat ladies, this was the first image to come up - hee hee).

I am now sitting in Virgin Active's cafe having my last ever latte - I have said that so many times before. AND tomorrow serious action will commence, which will include having Vita Mix soups for lunch and no pastries on the way to work.

I look forward to reporting back to announce that I have already lost a couple of kilos (if I can find a place to hide them, hee hee hee).

Watch this space. I traditionally put on weight at Xmas, but quite frankly there is no room for that at the moment. So maybe I finally start going to Virgin Active classes, and burn some fat rather than simply floating up and down the pool.

Up until now my visits to the gym have been stress relief, but they now need to be serious fat burning sessions :-)

Okay, I just Googled Vita Mix and weight loss (have owned my Vita Mix for over a year by the way) and this fab website came up. I am making this soup tomorrow.

Can't "weight" :-)