Month: November 2013

Have you heard about the HCG diet? This is a diet that Kevin Trudeau made famous again (it was famous once before years ago) in his book “Natural Cures They Don’t Want You To Know“. First off I hate that there is supposed to be some secret that the “Diet Industry”  is trying to keep from people. If there was you can bet I would be exposing it.

What is the HCG Diet?

Anyway the HCG diet is actually a shot and a low calorie diet. You take a shot everyday for a few months and this shot of HCG is supposed to help you metabolize your fat easier. Human Chorionic Gonadotropin is expected to burn fat when you are starving yourself instead of burning both fat and muscle.

I have now seen that you can buy drops to take orally instead of shots for the HCG diet but not sure if this is just a poor mans alternative

The diet part of the HCG diet is what makes this diet very hard to take. The diet is the lowest that I have ever heard of and that is 500 calories a day. 500 calories a day is not very much and this is designed to make it so that you will easily lose weight. Trouble is you are starving yourself.

HCG Diet

The other part of the diet is that you are not supposed to exercise. As you exercise your metabolism rises and at the same time you are burning a large number of calories. when you are only consuming 500 calories a day you are bound to get sick exercising in such a calorie deficient state.

There are a lot of people for and against the HCG diet and I have to admit that in researching this diet I have found many people that have lost a lot of weight and at the same time I have found a lot of people that are against the diet because it is at it’s core unhealthy and the effects of HCG are really not all that well known (except for some biased independent studies)

What Does the Science of HCG Say?

The weight loss diet proposed by Albert Simeons is a ultra-low-calorie weight-loss diet (less than 500 calories). Simeons, while studying pregnant women in India on a low calorie diet, and people with pituitary problems were treated with low-dose hCG, claimed that both lost fat rather than lean (muscle) tissue. He reasoned that hCG must be programming the hypothalamus to do this in the former cases in order to protect the developing fetus by promoting mobilization and consumption of abnormal, excessive adipose deposits. Simeons later published a book entitled Pounds and Inches, designed to combat obesity.

Simeons, practicing at Salvator Mundi International Hospital in Rome, Italy, recommended low-dose daily hCG injections (125 IU) in combination with a customized ultra-low-calorie (500 cal/day, high-protein, low-carbohydrate/fat) diet loss of adipose tissue without loss of lean tissue. After Simeons’ death, the diet started to spread to specialized centers and via popularization by individuals, such as the controversial author Kevin Trudeau, famous for promotion of alternative therapies and treatments.

AMA is against HCG Diet

The controversy proceeds from warnings by the Journal of the American Medical Association and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that hCG is neither safe nor effective as a weight-loss aid.

A meta analysis found that studies supporting hCG for weight loss were of poor methodological quality and concluded that “there is no scientific evidence that HCG is effective in the treatment of obesity; it does not bring about weight-loss or fat-redistribution, nor does it reduce hunger or induce a feeling of well-being”.

Should You Try the HCG Diet?

So should you try the HCG diet? I am going to probably take some flak for it but I would definitely say no.

I have to be opposed to the HCG diet even if it does help people lose weight for the simple reason that you are staving yourself and not getting any exercise. This sounds like a terrible way to live and the health benefits without exercise are not going to help as much as losing weight using proper diet and exercise.

Just don’t do the HCG diet.

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I’m sure you have a bright idea hidden somewhere in the back of your mind that you just can’t wait to test out. Of course you’re not the only one with the bright idea. So what motivates you to churn those creative, or even inspiring juices to its utmost flavor?

It’s always best to set up a personal goal where you can accomplish the most in record time, maybe like mowing the lawn in an hour before the big game on TV. A correct and positive attitude in whatever you do will make things easier, and even enjoyable.

Here are some tips to make it through the week even if you’re just sitting in your favorite couch. An idea takes time to form in your head and is always at work while you are busy sitting.

Having a bit of positive thinking can help you realize things that are never thought possible. Thinking big is indeed the American Way and that what made our country prosperous.

7 Steps To A Positive Lifestyle

1. Take passionate action towards living your life by design. Talk is cheap. Action = deposits in the bank of a passionately authentic future. Without it, passion is void.

This is a perfect example where dreams are made of where you start by tinkering with your mind, then with your hands. And if the idea weakens, you can always go back to it later until you finish it.

2. Commit to yourself as well as those you love to create powerfully a life you can love. Instead of reacting, commit to creating from your heart and soul, out of love rather than fear. The American Dream will always be there, but a dream will still be a dream without motion. Be amazed as the transformation begins.

3. Recognize and embrace the thought that each moment is perfect regardless of its outcome. Every time you hit on something that may appear too extreme, why not give it a shot and see if it will work. You will be surprised to see of there are other ways to get the task done in time. If you are not pleased with the outcome, decide to use that moment to learn from and make the appropriate shift.

4. Dwell completely in a place of gratitude. Learn to utilize what you have in your hands and make use of it in the most constructive way. Slipping into neediness will become less of a habit when you repeatedly shift towards gratitude, away from poverty consciousness.

5. Use a Passion Formula of Recognize/Reevaluate/Restore in place of the Shoulda/Woulda/Coulda whirlwind. The former is based in increased knowledge and abundance while the latter focuses on scarcity and lack. As you face people or tasks that may seem harder than scaling the summit of the Himalayas, allow yourself to realize that the task is just as important as giving out orders to your subordinates. You would rather be richly passionate!

6. Keep humor at the forefront of thought, laughing at and with yourself when possible. You may find yourself quite entertaining when you loosen up! I am yet to see a comedian ever go hungry even though his jokes are as ‘old as great-grandma’. Life has so much to offer to allow you to mope around in self pity. Humor is very attractive, very passionate: life-giving.

7. Believe that you are the architect of your destiny. No one can take your passionate future from you except for you! Create your life authentically. As long as there’s still breath in your body, there is no end to how much you can accomplish in a lifetime. The concept of thinking big is all about enjoying your work, which would lead to celebrate a discovery that is born within your hands. Watch everything flow into place with perfect, passionate precision.

It’s interesting how people get wallowed up by something trivial as learning to use a computer, when nowadays that top computer companies are manufacturing software that even the kids can do it. I don’t mean to be condescending, but that’s the idea of not having any positive thinking in your life-you’ll just end up as a dim bulb in a dark corner. So instead of subjecting yourself to what you will be doomed for, make your path by taking the first step with a positive attitude.

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One of the great things that we do in our house is something I would like to share today.

Fruits and veggies are a big deal in our house and we eat a lot of them. My wife and I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables but of course our kids will choose what to eat based on what we give them as well as what they see from our habits.

Getting Veggies into the Kids

So to make sure our kids eat lots of fruits and vegetables we buy vegetables once a week on Sundays and fruit twice a wee, usually Wednesdays and Sundays. The plan as you can see from this picture is to wash and cut the veggies right away.

What either my wife or I usually do is to soak the fruits and vegetables in a mixture of water and some vinegar for about 20 minutes to wash off all the dirt, wax, and pesticides. after this we dry the fruits and veggies and then we cut up the veggies and package them up in a container and then we have them already for the fridge and kids lunches.

I know that most kids have issues with vegetables but fortunately ours have been no problem and having the easy access to those vegetables makes it very convenient and the kids will grab them anytime.

Fruit Washing and Kale

As for the fruit, I am really bad for not cleaning my apples or pears so cleaning the fruit as soon as we get home makes things really easy for me.

And this is just a picture of Kale. We bought a couple of bunches of Kale yesterday and I was a slack ass about washing it so I wanted to show off that I did wash it in the end.

I washed and broke up the kale and then put it in a big baggie so that I could store it in the freezer for smoothies as the week goes on.

This is just what we do at our house and it seems to works well for us but I am always looking for more tips.

I really really think that the best way to eat better is to make sure that food that is good is easily accessible and food that is bad for you is not readily available. I am the worst perso for making sure that I eat badly so to avoid it I make sure that I put the best food in front of me and if I do want bad food then I make sure I have to leave the house to get it

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