Not everything should be eaten raw, especially vegetables!

Some vegetables must be cooked else you are actually harming yourself. Below is a rundown of what veggies should not be eaten raw either in whole or juiced form.

Cruciferous Vegetables
(Arugula, broccoli, kale, cauliflower, cabbage, turnip, collard greens, bok choy, brussels sprouts, radish, rutabaga, and watercress.)

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but calciferous vegetables should be cooked before eating as they contain chemicals that BLOCK the production of thyroid hormone in your body! Considering that 2 out of every 3 Westerners are either overweight or obese and this is projected to jump to 75% by 2020, this is of particular importance as folks struggling with weight usually suffer from borderline to full blown hypothyroidism.

Veggie Greens
(spinach, chard, parsley, chives, purslane and beet greens)

Some veggie greens contain a chemical called oxalic acid.  Oxalic acid is a very irritating substance to the mouth and intestinal tract. It also blocks iron and calcium absorption and may contribute to the formation of kidney stones. The good news is that oxalic acid is reduced by a light steaming or cooking – just be sure to discard the cooking water.

Other Raw Veggie Cautions
Other vegetables that are best to avoid eating raw include:

- Raw potatoes contain hemagglutinins that disrupt red blood cell function.

- Raw sweet potatoes will give you gas.

- Raw, edible mushrooms such as the common white mushroom contain toxic substances such as agaritine, a suspected carcinogen. These substances are heat sensitive and are neutralized by cooking.

- Alfalfa sprouts are mildly toxic and inhibit the immune system. Eating them on a frequent basis can even contribute to inflammatory arthritis and lupus!

A good rule of thumb when considering the best way to consume your veggies is to remember the letter that Dr. Weston A. Price wrote to his nieces and nephews in 1934. In this letter, he strongly urged them to eat their vegetables cooked in butter. His research found that the bulkiness (fiber) of raw vegetables interfered with the human body’s ability to extract minerals from them via the digestive process.

So, should you drink your veggies raw? Of course. Fresh juice from veggies that are safe to consume raw is a wonderful way to get a fast infusion of easy to digest, colloidal minerals. It is also highly alkalizing to the body and a proven way to gently detox the gut.

The great thing about veggie juice is that the fiber is removed, which is the “bulkiness” that Dr. Price found interfered with the mineral absorption.

However, if you are going to eat the fibrous portion of the vegetable, it is best to cook them in butter as advised by Dr. Price to enhance the availability of the minerals. The fat in the butter permits greater absorption of the minerals, and besides, buttered veggies taste fantastic!

(I just wanted to say that while I agree with most of what the author has wrote I don’t think the occasionally serving of raw food is going to kill you or send your body into a shut down. I don’t believe a mixed salad with some of the above mentioned foods isn’t good for you, but I would like people to keep in mind that just because we can eat something or it has health benefits, doesn’t mean we should go overboard with it.)

(Source: )

I’ve been on the search for an explanation as to why I’m still slimming down without losing weight and in some instances gaining. Obviously my body isn’t creating a perfect balance of muscle as I lose fat. While looking through forums I found an article someone had posted and thought it was interesting. It was wrote based on a low carbohydrate diet but I think that large portions of the article could apply to everyone trying to lose weight. This is just the large parts I thought some of you might be interested in but you can read the entire article by clicking the above link.

“…Fat cells are resilient, stubborn little creatures that do not want to give up their actual cell volume. Over a period of weeks, maybe months of “proper dieting”, each of your fat cells may have actually lost a good percentage of the actual fat contained in those cells. But the fat cells themselves, stubborn little guys, replace that lost fat with water to retain their size. That is, instead of shrinking to match the reduced amount of fat in the cell, they stay the same size! Result - you weigh the same, look the same, maybe even gained some scale weight, even though you have actually lost some serious fat.

The good news is that this water replacement is temporary. It’s a defensive measure to keep your body from changing too rapidly. It allows the fat cell to counter the rapid change in cell composition, allowing for a slow, gradual reduction in cell size. The problem is, most people are frustrated with their apparent lack of success, assume they have lost nothing, and stop dieting.

However, if you give those fat cells some time, like 4-6 months, and ignore the scale weight fluctuations, your real weight/shape will slowly begin to show. The moral of the story - be patient! Your body is changing even if the number on the scale isn’t.”

“Many people just don’t know that fat-loss …the actual goal when on a weight-reduction” diet, is rate-limited. In other words, the human body has factors that prevent more than a certain amount of fatty-acid release from storage…and even more factors that prevent those released fatty acids from being used up instead of stored back into the fat cells.”

“Individuals vary, but max weight loss runs about 2 pounds per week…under extremely optimal conditions… or 1% of body weight (whichever is the lower number). So don’t use the scale as an excuse to undermine your progress. Even when the scale is in a stall, fat loss can be occurring.”

fitvillains:

Hourglass, pear, apple or square? Whether you’re an extra small or a triple X large, you’re shape is your shape, for better or worse.

That means, if you don’t already have an hourglass like Kim Kardashian, you can’t get one through diet and exercise. It also means that if Kim wanted smaller, more square hips, she wouldn’t be able to have them either. We’re built the way we’re built.

That’s not to say that you can’t improve your shape or change the composition (fat/muscle) of your body. Of course, you can use diet & exercise to make the most out of the body you’ve got. But the hours spent pining over a body type that isn’t yours, is like being upset that you’re not a foot taller. Silly.

Fat accumulates on our bodies differently. Most women tend to ‘stock up’ under the butts & thighs, while men tend to bump out around the middle. Of course, it’s different for every single person and can vary by amount, body location, consistency, distribution and thickness. That’s why some people lose weight faster in certain areas, while other areas tend to lag behind. It’s also why your hips, despite getting smaller won’t actually disappear. This is due to genetics, not failure on your part. Hormones also affect how & where we store fat: something that diet & exercise can’t always control.

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It’s taken me years but I’ve finally accepted that my build is broader than most guys and that losing weight isn’t going to magically turn me into a lean willowy supermodel. I’ll always have to buy Larges but it would be nice to get out of the XXL clothes.

(Source: CNN, via liara-croft)

reasonfortheseason:

n8henrie:

If late night eating interferes with fat loss, why do people who eat more in the evening lose more fat than people who don’t?

If carbs become fattening after 6 PM, how come people who eat more carbs after 6 PM lose more fat than those who eat them earlier in the day?

If we should “eat…

This article was VERY interesting to me. I have been making a concerted effort to eat 3 more even meals during the day and to not snack at night. Yet I’ve also noticed my biggest weight-loss drops right after the weekend where I tend to skip breakfast and eat a light lunch in order to balance out the extra indulging I end up doing at night…interesting. :P

Interesting, I gave up eating a large evening meal sometime in January because I kept hearing earlier was better, but I lost more weight in one month last year then I have this entire year. I think I’ll go back to my previous way and see if that helps with my constant stalls.

(via reasonfortheseason-deactivated2)

carofit:

This is amazing! 

(via curvy-fit)

116daystoabetterme:

Uncovering Your Hidden Abs

soon2befit:

goal150:

When people want to tighten their midsection, they typically hit the floor to do endless crunches. What they don’t know is that unless you are already fairly trim, crunches may be a waste of time. It is a common misconception that the burn you get in your midsection from doing crunches would help reduce belly fat and create a flat tummy. Many of the most respected fitness organizations in the country, such as the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), have confirmed that this method of what is called “spot reduction” is a myth: specific fat deposits cannot be targeted with specific exercises. So what does work?

If you desire not only a strong core, but also a firm-looking tummy, you must first reduce the fat on top of the muscle. Sadly, crunches do not use enough energy to accomplish this goal. I believe that exercise alone is not enough to accomplish this goal. In order to reduce the belly fat that is keeping your abdominals hidden, you must take Dr. Oz’s advice and cut out the refined sugar.

By reducing your refined sugar consumption, you allow levels of the fat-storing hormone insulin to drop and levels of your fat-unlocking hormone glucagon to rise. This essential strategy for reducing fat around the abdomen not only reduces your risk for some of our most fatal illnesses, but also ensures that your ab exercises aren’t going to waste underneath a blanket of belly fat.

Once your tummy-toning strategy includes a nutritional component that restricts or eliminates refined sugar, you can move on to the strengthening aspects that will result in better overall tone and firmness. Time for endless crunches, right? Wrong. As I mentioned earlier, crunches don’t really use that much energy. The key is strengthening the legs and butt, because this is where your body has its largest muscles and its biggest powerhouses. For this reason, I always recommend my clients do a lower body exercise in conjunction with an ab exercise. This ensures that your workouts are simultaneously strengthening the core muscles while also diminishing the layer of fat that hides those same muscles.

If you truly want the most accelerated fitness results, there is a third and final piece to this puzzle: cardio. But hold on just a minute, I’m not talking about the same old cardio that would have you chained to a treadmill or elliptical for an hour or more. When you time your cardio precisely, you really only need about 20 minutes a day to get slim more quickly. As confirmed by a recent article in The New York Times, the best time to do cardio is in the morning before eating breakfast. The best part is that it doesn’t even need to be intense cardio; a brisk walk around the neighborhood or even marching in place will do the trick. Exercising in the morning before breakfast primes the body to pull energy from stored body fat as opposed to a meal you’ve recently eaten. My only cautionary recommendation regarding this highly effective method is to not splurge at breakfast to “treat” yourself for your work, as this is the most common way that the benefits of exercise are erased.

Combining these 3 methods, either in the same workout or throughout your week, is the simplest and most time efficient way to ensure that as the weather gets warmer, your waist gets smaller. Before your next round of abdominal exercises, make sure you also have a strategy for strengthening your lower body as well as reducing your body fat.

everyone needs to see this :p

(via liara-croft)

The All Or Nothing Attitude

All or nothing dieters will often pick out a complicated diet that is almost impossible for them to maintain. Before beginning, they will search the kitchen for anything that does not fit the plan and throw it in the garbage. They are planning to be the perfect dieter, and so they will be, for one day, three days, seven days or even a couple of weeks. Then, inevitably, something happens that means they cannot keep to the diet one time. Immediately the whole thing is ruined in their eyes and the diet is over. They go to the store and buy all the things that went into the garbage last week and proceed to gain back all the weight that they lost, as fast as possible.

If you are this kind of dieter you need to ask yourself some tough questions. Do you really want to lose weight permanently, or just lose a few pounds so that you can enjoy putting them back on again? The way forward is to choose the right plan for you. This may mean the difference between a primal, gluten-free, allergen-free, or low-carb lifestyle. Make small changes to what you eat so that you have a slow but steady weight loss.

The Attitude of Sacrifice

Another common mistake is to view your diet as a period of sacrifice. You do not allow yourself the foods that you enjoy most while you are on your way to your target weight. You may have a great diet plan and be very successful in losing weight, but what happens when you reach your goal? You have not learned to eat ‘bad foods’ in moderation so as soon as you start, you are likely to go out of control. It is better to include a little of everything in your diet and learn to enjoy it in small quantities. Yes, even chocolate!

Now, don’t use this as an excuse to eat cake once a month. You must define what is ok for you and what is not. Some people are able to have a small cheat here or there and are able to get right back on plan and succeed. Others fall right off the wagon into the bakery if they even think about it. Figure out what works for you and create your own plan.

Goal Failure

Setting achievable goals is vital in any weight loss plan. Goals should be clear, realistic and set out in writing. While you probably do have an ideal weight in your mind, unless you are only very slightly overweight it is probably too distant to be useful. A more useful goal would be to lose two pounds per week for the first five weeks and then one pound per week after that. Some weeks you will lose more and some less, some weeks you may even gain, but if you track your progress on a graph you will see that ups and downs are natural and do not stop you from progressing steadily toward your major goal.

If you have been making these mistakes, do not worry. The most important point in dieting as in so many other things is to move on. Learn from your failures as well as your success and do not use a mistake as an excuse for giving up. The only way to achieve your goal permanently is to make a commitment to become a healthier person. Remember that eating normally includes eating more some days and less others. Learn to enjoy food in moderation and you have every chance of avoiding these bad diet mistakes.

As if fast food couldn’t get more disgusting. On the other hand is it really surprising? After all, you practically need a degree in chemical science to understand the ingredient list for a lot of these meals.

thespartanwarrior:

by Roger Lockridge

Article Summary:

• Regardless of what type of diet you are on, chances are you are going to have cravings.
• There are ways to stick to your plan and not give in to these temptations.
• Remember that the long term satisfaction is worth more than the taste of the bad foods.

It doesn’t matter what type of plan you are following and it’s irrelevant how long you have been involved in health and fitness. Everyone at one point or another has had that dreaded moment when temptation is staring you right in the face and you start craving every horrible food imaginable. For some it is McDonalds, for others it is Pizza Hut or Dominos. It can be a variety of things that makes sticking to your diet seem a thousand times stronger.

The first thing you need to know is that it is perfectly normal to be craving whatever food it is that you want. The second thing you need to know is that there are ways to overcome these temptations and stay on track. But how?

Read More

(Source: thespartanwarrior, via sexyandconfidentme-deactivated2)