Hope For Yo-Yo Diet Cycle - Shake The Crave

 Here is my diet cycle.  Sound familiar anyone?  Day 1 – I’m so motivated.  I've got a vacation, events, and cute clothes to wear and I'm going to take advantage of it by being 10 lbs. lighter!  This is the day I will pull myself out of the quagmire of diet failure!  I start out with a healthy breakfast.  I know that it’s important to start out with a good breakfast!  Gotta keep that energy up!  2 hours later, however, I start to feel hungry and my stomach starts to feel a little growly.  I go in and grab a healthy sized healthy snack, telling myself I will watch it at lunchtime.  It’s definitely not too late, I've got this!  Lunchtime comes and I’m feeling hungry again.  I look at what my co-workers or my husband or the people on the Food Network are eating and I don’t want to be deprived, so I get myself an extra helping of something plus another food item.  Alright now I’m feeling a little apprehensive about the future of this first day of the rest of my life.  C’mon, let’s not make it like all of the rest of the days I failed!  I swear to myself that I will definitely have to watch it from now until bedtime.  Evening comes around and I’m watching my favorite t.v. show.  I can’t watch t.v. without feeling a bit hungry, which I am.  It’s been 5 hours already.  I feel deprived but yet at the same time I tell myself I should be careful.  I eat a full dinner.  In front of the t.v.  Day 1 – Epic Fail!!!!

Day 2 – I don’t eat breakfast, in fact, I don’t eat until 2 pm.  I hop on the scale again, after this morning’s initial eye-popping number  to validate that this was a great idea.  Sure enough, I’ve lost a lb. from this morning’s dismal reading.  Great!  It’s a good thing, ‘cause I’m hungry.  I look in the freezer and there sits a carton of my favorite ice cream!  Tillamook, you are a bad, bad company because before I know what’s happening, I dish out 3 large scoops of Mudslide.  Ha!  But I’m being  smart.  I put in a half cup of Oatmeal to up the fiber count!  And hey, that’s all I’ll be eating until right at 7 pm when I plan to have a healthy green smoothie and call it a night.  

  At 3 pm I realize that I committed to bring food for our women’s group summer get-together.  It’s going to be salad with a chicken option and desserts.  I tell myself I will just have the salad and a tiny bit of chicken for the protein.  When I get there, it looks amazing! The food is delicious and conversations are lively.  I look around and I am not, by any means, the biggest gal in the room.  It makes me feel more at ease and so, I sample all of the entrees and many of the desserts.  I leave realizing that I have just failed Day 2.

But there is a ray of hope.  After my 4^th of July food fest, I found the motivation to do a little less eating and a little more exercising and so this morning I was right at my ready-set-go weight.  It is 15 lbs. above what I’d llke to be, but not as bad as it could be.  Of course I've already repeated my Day 1 pattern.  However, I do know something that breaks my cycle of epic diet fails. 

Appetite Curbing Foods.    I recently wrote about barley being very good at suppressing the appetite because it makes you feel fuller longer.  It really does work!  Another thing that is a great substitute for the ice cream that somehow I feel like I need in my life,  is an appetite suppressing  shake.  It needs to have natural ingredients and it needs to make me feel full, as well as satisfy that sweet-tooth dairy craving I have.  It's the craving that makes me buy ice cream even though I know I’m kidding myself when I tell myself that it will only be eaten in small amounts and will last for at least a fortnight.  I will eat every last bit of it in less than a week.

 I know appetite curbing foods work because I was successful at replacing certain trigger foods that are high in calories--low in staying power.  And that is why I’m not any heavier than I am right now.  I just need to have a lot of it on hand.  And that is my commitment.  

 Trusted Health Products carries some amazing natural facial care products that I love.  Now they have finished developing and have released their newest product.  It’s called Shake The Crave, an all-natural  meal replacement/snack.  The name says it all.  I like it because it’s 120 calories of high protein, great- tasting goodness!  You can mix it with whole milk, 2% milk, almond milk, rice milk, coconut milk, etc. depending on your preference.   I really liked the taste of both the chocolate and vanilla!  They taste great, not like some kind of yukky diet drink.  And it does keep me very satisfied until it’s time to eat.  It’s got 100% organic natural ingredients.  Here is the ingredient label for the vanilla:  Organic Non-Fat Dry Milk, Organic Cane Sugar, Organic Coconut Powder, Organic Ground Vanilla Bean, Electrolyte Blend (Potassium Citrate, Calcium Chloride, Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Sulfate, Potassium Phosphate, Potassium Chloride).Allergen information: Contains milk and coconut.

At only $40 per canister, allowing for 2 shakes per day for one week, the cost boils down to $2.67 per day.  Not bad, you could break an energy drink habit, a diet coke habit, or a candy bar habit for that amount, replacing it with something amazing for your health!  Right now you can get a free 2 sample package for just the cost of shipping, which is $4.95 U.S.  It’s a great way to see for yourself whether or not you can succeed at your goals, especially if you have unwanted food cravings!

disclaimer:  I received sample products for review purposes.  All opinions and experiences are my own. 

Her IdealShape For The Summer Months Ahead

The products I received to review

 I have wondered how in the world I am going to get my swimsuit, short-sleeved, sans sweater summer look this year.  But I think I've got the kick start that I've been looking for.  It's called IdealShape and it's a program that lets you stop dieting by simply replacing one meal and replacing it with a milkshake that has some powerful natural hunger-blocking ingredients that will not only help you lose weight, but will enable you keep it off as well!   
   Have you ever had that unsatisfied feeling when you are trying to be good, but no matter what you're doing, the only thing that matters is that you get something to eat NOW.  I know I have and when that happens, I'm looking to feel satisfied.  That's when the overeating comes in. I know, there are so many diet programs out there, but I was really impressed with this one because it has a proprietary appetite control formulation called Slendesta which has been shown to be the most powerful natural appetite-curbing substance out there.  Slendesta is derived from.....wait for it...... potatoes.  Using a water-based, patented process, it is completely stimulant free.  It's NOT one of the many "fat-burners" on the market and does not artificially stimulate the metabolism.  
  Not only does Idealshape provide you with incredible nutritional tools, like the shake, to succeed at your weight loss, it also has a complete support system as well. I'm talking about mind-altering techniques that will help you actually see yourself as that beautiful and healthy person you secretly know you are.  They are brain training CD's and they have helped IdealShape men and women achieve and maintain weight goals they never thought possible! I haven't read it yet but I'd love to get ahold of the book or CD called 'Think' by David Meine.  It's offered by Ideal Shape for $5.00 off the regular price and it helps you unchain the mental power you have within you to succeed with your weight goals.
The Shake:  I absolutely love this shake.  I tried the chocolate and it is fabulous.  The taste is wonderful.  And it's the easiest shake I've ever blended.  It mixes up so well with just the shaker bottle.  I'm extremely picky about using a shaker.  Normally I don't like using the shakers because I don't think most drinks or shakes mix up well enough, ending up gritty or clumpy, which is definitely not a picnic in my mouth.  But this shake mixes well and easily so.  And it really does make me feel full for about 3 hours.  Of course, I cheat.  I use 2% milk rather than the skim or non-fat milk they recommend.  But wow, it's really good.  I think it would also be tasty with almond milk. The shaker bottle that comes with the Ideal Shape program is the perfect size.  You really do feel full for about 3 hours.  These shakes will give you that satisfied feeling.  For at least 3 hours!  Amaazing!  Click to enlarge the two pictures below to see some great comparisons and specific benefits you get from the Ideal Shake. 

    The Bars: I also tried the Ideal Bar in Cinnamon Caramel Crunch Flavor (1 of 3 flavors).  It was delicious and has Slendesta, the same hunger blocking technology as the shake.  I found it was also good when I had a food craving going on and needed to get it under control. 

 The Supplement:  Another great tool is the NaturalShape Hunger Blocker.  If taken approximately 30 minutes before a meal it will give you the ability to control your portions and keep yourself in control.  It has a full serving of Slendesta plus Resveratrol, Green Tea Extract and Kelp. 

Something that is stressed very strongly with this program is to drink plenty of water.  Because of the nature of the potato protein that swells in your stomach, you need to get fluids in with it for proper absorption and digestion. 

I am very impressed with IdealShape and I'm so glad I got the chance to review it.  Like so many of the great products I review, I will definitely be a repeat customer on this one. 

Tricks That Will Boost The Metabolism

I work at a remedial high school in the Behavior/Special Ed Unit.  Before the school year ended, we had a writing assignment in English.  The subject was 'If Wishes Came True"...Here is one girl's response:
"If wishes came true I would eat whatever I want and not gain any weight.  I would be so happy...I would eat McDonalds all i want, whenever I want...french fries and popcorn would be my snack every day.  I would eat all of my favorite foods every day.  I bet the world would be alot happier if this wish came true. No one would have to worry about their figures anymore.  It would be an almost perfect world.  I'm getting hungry just thinking about it."
Well, girlfriend, I think you hit it pretty close for me!  Eating is one of the best things ever.  Unfortunately my appetite is bigger than what my metabolism can handle.  If I were to give in, there would be hell to pay on the scales, and believe me, it's happened a lot.  I envy those people who actually CAN seem to get away with eating whatever they want and still wear size 4 skinny jeans.  
But there is some good news.  I can almost level the playing field with those metabolic miracle chicks by incorporating a few tricks of my own.  Then when the craving is unbearable or the occasion warrents, I can indulge without the event ruining me for the next month and beyond.  Here are a few things I've discovered that really do work:

Don't Eat After Dark -  New studies reveal that to burn the most fat, you need to go 12 hours without eating—say, from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. So it's smart to time your calorie intake accordingly.

Include Some Form of Weight Lifting Each Week 

Muscles are your biggest metabolic engine. The more of them you build, the more calories will be directed to keeping them strong. Lifting weights, practicing yoga, and incorporating core exercises that efficiently work large, connected groups of muscles in one swoop will translate into a higher metabolism all day.”   Putting on just 5 to 10 pounds of lean muscle mass will rev up your resting metabolism -- the number of calories your body burns to maintain life -- by roughly 100 calories, each and every day

Include Some Form of Interval Training Each Week In a landmark study published in the journal Metabolism, researchers found that short, intense bursts of exercise resulted in considerably more fat loss than sustained activity. “ Interval training [varying fast spurts of exercise with slower recovery periods] increases your metabolic power,” says Dr. Mark Hyman, author of Ultrametabolism: The Simple Plan for Automatic Weight Loss. “When you exercise this way, your mitochondria, the little engines in your cells that burn calories, run hotter all day.” Interval training can be incorporated into almost any routine. For example, instead of jogging, try running all-out for one minute and then walking for two, repeating the cycle for 30 minutes

Get Enough Sleep

When your body is sleep-deprived, it produces mass quantities of grehlin, the hunger hormone, driving you to crave more sugar and carbohydrates.  A recent study from Case Western Reserve University found that, on average, women who sleep for 5 hours or less per night are 32 percent more likely to gain weight and 15 percent more likely to be obese than those who get at least 7 hours.

Eat Every 2 or 3 Hours Eating three large meals a day is terrible for your metabolism because you have three peaks in your blood sugar/insulin response and the rest of the time you are in a valley that is not good for your insulin response. The key is to make sure each meal is well balanced and contains the right amount of protein, carbohydrates, and a small amount of fat.

Supplement with Omega 3
Omega 3 fatty acids,  largely found in fish oil and flaxseeds, increase the number of fat calories your body burns every day. Fat burning foods are essential for people who decrease calorie intake and exercise but still have trouble losing weight due to often genetic metabolic conditions. They are great antidotes for this problem.

Supplement with Chromium 

Make sure you’re getting enough chromium in your diet to help your body burn more calories. Chromium, which is found in tomatoes and in a supplement form, also boosts the way you burn fat. According to MedlinePlus, meat, eggs, green pepper, apples, banana and spinach are also good sources of chromium. When you supplement 120 mcg of chromium daily, your body benefits by revving up its metabolism

Get Out of your chair every 20 minutes - Whether it's TV watching, blogging, entering contests, playing video or computer games or driving, we sit way too much. Between 1980 and 2000 exercise time stayed the same, but sitting increased by 8%. Obesity doubled.  When one sits, the electrical impulses in the legs shut off, calorie burning drops to 1 calorie burned per minute and enzymes used to help burn fat drop to 90%.  Just by setting a timer for 20 minutes, you can keep track of how long you sit and just walk around for a little bit to break up the time you are sitting without interruption, which seems to be the culprit.

Fight Inflamation 

Experts are starting to point to inflammation as an influence on metabolism. Inflammation is simply the body’s immune response, activated during illness, allergic reaction, or when too much glucose, fat, or carbohydrates enter the system, explains Dr. Hyman. When the inflammatory response switches on, a group of receptors located on the fat and liver cells activate and start redirecting energy toward storage, rather than use. Until the body determines the “crisis” is over, metabolism will slow down, and more calories will go to fat cells. You can keep inflammation down by sticking to low-sugar foods, lean proteins, and healthy fats.  Meals high in antioxidants and fiber bring the inflammatory response down even more.

Break Up Your Workout Sessions 

A University of Pittsburgh study found that women who did four separate 10-minute workouts during the day lost thirty percent more weight than women who did one big 40-minute workout a day. Scientists conclude you can lose more weight and keep your metabolism moving faster by doing smaller, shorter workouts.

Control Stress as much as possible Keep stress levels in check by managing your time, focusing on the present and not over-committing. Many studies have found a link between high levels of stress and weight gain. You don't have to commit to regular yoga classes or meditation sessions to manage your stress.  Just know your limits and know that the world isn't all on your shoulders, you can share that responsibility.  It will help you be more productive in the long run.

Drink Plenty of Water 

In a small German study, subjects who drank 16 ounces of water at a time experienced a 30 percent increase in metabolic rate during the following hour, burning an extra 24 calories. The researchers recommend cool water because the body expends extra calories warming it up to your body temperature.  If your body is not properly hydrated it may not be able to perform certain vital functions.  This can lead to a reduction in your BMR.  Therefore, you need to make sure you are drinking enough water to maximise your metabolism.  I find that keeping a water bottle at your desk and topping it up regularly plus making an effort to drink extra water while exercising helps me stay hydrated throughout the day.

Don't Under-Eat 

Undereating causes your metabolic rate to drop and your body to hold onto fat. Most nutrition experts recommend that the average, active woman consumes at least 1,800 calories daily. But watch out for underestimating the calorie count of "healthy" foods. Even some salads are packed with extra calories.

Drink Green Tea

There are varying reports on this, but Research reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that green tea helps to burn up to forty-three percent more calories a day. Another study showed that men who drank green tea for three months lost almost twice as much weight as those who didn’t drink the brew.

I suppose I no longer have any of the above excuses to be fat, including that my metabolism is really bad.  I better put my money where my mouth is!  If you know of any other great tricks for boosting the metabolism, please do tell!  


Sources:  http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/increase-your-metabolism-start-losing-fat; http://www.parade.com/healthystyle/2008/11/speed-up-your-metabolism; http://www.fitsugar.com/How-Speed-Up-Your-Metabolism-17160190;
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/06/29/can-eat-late-and-still-lose-weight/?intcmp=features 

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My Experience With Xtreme Fat Loss Formula #Review

My metabolism has slowed down over the course of the past 10 years.  It's actually astonishing to realize how much it really has!  I used to be able to eat anything I wanted as long as I exercised regularly and watched my calories if I ever started to gain weight.  Then I noticed that I was eating less, but gaining more and when I tried to take care of it with exercise, it didn't work.  So I tried exercising harder.  I just ended up with strained joints and injured tendons and no energy.  I became resigned to the fact that I might end up being chubby whether I wanted to be or not.  That thought was a real morale destroyer.  "Well, I might as well enjoy eating and not worry about it", I told myself.  Have you ever thought that way?  I totally did.  It's just life.  But I might have found a way to get the morale back and the motivation going again.  It's called Xtreme Fat Loss Formula. I found it when I was visiting my local Women's Expo.

To me, it's a 4 oz. bottle of fat-melting water.  You just spray about 5 sprays 15 minutes before you eat a healthy, balanced, low-fat meal and that's it.  You'll start losing weight!  It's so motivating to get on the scale after you have done a good job with eating to be rewarded with a loss on the scale.  Furthermore this formula is natural with no chemicals and it's FDA approved!  It uses a process called Molecular Frequency Encoding Technology.  To read more about it, check it out here!

I've noticed that summer can be a hard time to diet because of all the friends and family get-togethers, the barbeques and on-the-go eating that can happen because it's warmer and we want to get out of the house!  So, since I've been using the formula,  my weight goes right back down after a weekend of decadent eating.  It's really quite amazing.  Before, those weekends would spell total and complete disaster and would mean a gain of 2 permanent pounds.  So basically I was looking at a gain of 10 lbs. per year because I couldn't bounce back after any diet deviations.  I know it won't be happening this year, plus when I get a temptation-free period of time, I will actually be able to lose weight!  Hallelujah, Praise, and Amen!  Thanks to Xtreme Fat Loss Formula!

Disclaimer:  My post, my opinion, yours may vary.  I was provided product to relate my experience!

Raspberry Ketone #Weightloss #Giveaway & 60% Discount Code!

 Summer may not officially start for a couple more weeks, but most of us are already looking to stay cool .  One of those ways is to wear fewer clothes and that means that we are now looking at our bodies and some of us are saying, uh-oh, I need to do something about this, and fast!  We've gone the caffeine route, the metabolism boosters with questionable stimulants route, the energy drinks and so now, here is a way that maybe is the best, because it's natural and has no side-effect...unless you are allergic to raspberries!  It's called Raspberry Ketone from Daily Nutrition, a cutting-edge company dedicated to finding the best and most effective nutritional ways to lose weight safely and have incredible energy at the same time! I'd normally be a little bit suspicious about something like that because I've heard it all about a lot of foods - from grapefruit to pickles to fish.  But then I listened to this strong recommendation from Dr. Oz and I've changed my mind.  I'm taking Raspberry Ketone right now and what I've noticed is that I'm not hungry or craving!  On top of that, it is supposed to make your metabolism much more efficient in terms of burning fat!  So here I am, once again, super motivated and hopeful that I will lose that 10 lbs I put on and just can't seem to lose!  If  you're in the same boat, I suggest you take a listen to this video from Dr. Oz as he explains about Raspberry Ketone.

I love that this supplement has absolutely no artificial ingredients, 100% FDA approved and safe!
Basically, here is what you can expect from Raspberry Ketone:

• Potent Fat Burner
• Effective Appetite Suppressant
• Works Quickly, Proven Results
• Affordable Prices
• Tremendous Weight loss results
• Increase in Focus
• Energy Throughout the day
• No Crash

In addition, there are some other proven natural fat-fighting ingredients added to Daily Nutrition Raspberry Ketone to help the weight loss process even more!

                                                                                                   
Daily Nutrition will give one Gal Pal a bottle of Raspberry Ketone to try out and for the rest of you, an incredible discount code of 60% off the purchase of this product!  Just use agalneedsketones when you check out here!  Kick-start your summer weight loss program with this great product by entering below to win a bottle or by using the coupon code!   a Rafflecopter giveaway