Monday, 3 April 2017

Losing the Weight With a Friend


Losing weight is never easy, at first. 

Even if after all these years, you have nearly given up on yourself, go to your past and find what you are missing and bring it forward and let people know the secrets you found. In the beginning you will find that the food is not the problem, that exercising is not the problem (or important when you begin), that lifestyle is not important either. Your mind (the way you think) is the only thing you need, to go forward. Be smart and follow the right steps and you will get to your ideal BMI and from there you can build back that confidence that you once had.

Having a friend is the motivation you need to keep your brain stimulated in the right direction. 

Your friend will help you make the right choices when you don't feel up to it. Your friend will keep you on track when you want to fall off. Going to a friend's place for supper and feeling good about it might seem abnormal to you? You will feel guilty sometimes without reason, but your brain will play games with you and your friend will be there to tell you not to panic.

What you need to do has nothing to do with the diets that are on the market. You need to find a long term solution to this tremendous problem. Find a way that will give you results. Find a program that will do for you what the others don't do. If you don't trust the program in the beginning, your friend will keep you in line. Now, if you are 10 to 20 lbs. overweight you need a program for you. If you are having a hard time tying your shoelaces, you need help. Go find your body mass index BMI and start to create your objective. Give yourself a realistic goal and take out those old high school pictures. Get ready to start the journey that will forever change your life and help all the people that you hold so dear. Don't forget, you will be helping all generations.

Being obese is not normal. Your knees were not meant to support all that weight. Your vital organs were not meant to be squeezed into your insides the way they are. If you are having a hard time tying your shoes, its not right. If you have tried all the diets out there and you are always back to where you started, that's not right. Losing weight is simple. Losing weight must be fun. Losing weight is challenging. Losing weight is rewarding. Losing weight will save your life. Be your best friend and follow simple principles and believe you can.

 Source: 




25 Unexpected And Unusual Uses For Honey

Sunday, 2 April 2017

How To Count Calories To Lose Weight


To reduce weight, it is necessary to know about the required amount of calories to lose weight. As all of us know that calories give us energy to carry on every work we do. But if the intake of calories for a person is more than its usage, the extra calories tend to deposit as fat and therefore result in extra weight for the person. Those who want to reduce weight must plan their diet in such a way that they consume fewer calories for weight loss.

Determining The Calorie Numbers: How To Count Calories?

Next question is how to determine the amount of calories for weight loss? This varies from person to person and the easiest way to count calories to lose weight is the BMR of a person. BMR stands for Basal Metabolic Rate. This gives you the amount of calories you requires to maintain the current weight without doing any activity. Then, by using the activity multiplier, you can find out the exact amount of calories required to maintain weight.

If you are thinking how to lose calories, you will have to reduce calorie intake. To lose a pound of body fat, you need to either expend 3500 calories or reduce intake of calories by 3500. A practical approach would be to make a proper calorie dieting plan and an exercise program side by side.

According to the diet plan, 500 calories should be reduced from daily diet and 500 extra calories should be expended through workout or physical activities like sports. This activity or exercise is in addition to a person's regular, daily activities at present. Therefore, by a deficit of a total of 1000 calories per day, amount of lost calories will be 7000 per week. By calculation, it should result in a reduction of two pounds of weight for a healthy person.

Why Some Diet Plans Fail?

The formula and calculations seem simple enough; one can calculate exact calories to lose weight easily. Still, many people who embark on a diet and exercise plan so enthusiastically find it very difficult to lose weight and finally give up after giving it a try. There may be several reasons behind this. The primary reason is that they make unrealistic plan where the body goes under starvation mode. Sometimes people are unable to follow a balanced diet plan because of their cravings and giving-in to high calorie food.

To reduce a certain number of calories to lose weight is a simple thing, if followed rigorously through a proper dieting plan. For this, one must know the calorie count of food regularly eaten by a person during the whole day. One must also remember that just dieting won't help in a longer term as the body will lose fat as well as muscle mass. This may result in fatigue, sunken skin, wrinkles, loss of interest and appetite, and many other physical as well as mental health problems.

The key to effective weight loss while counting calories to lose weight lies in a combination of a diet plan along with an exercise program. Exercise builds muscles, improves blood circulation, and improves stamina and overall health. A practical approach would be to reduce intake by certain number of calories and keep the diet balanced with vital nutrients. In addition, do regular exercises and sufficient physical activity to burn extra calories.

Reduction in intake of calories to lose weight is a common approach to a weight loss program. But it should be combined with sufficient exercise in order to burn calories for a healthy body. A low calorie dieting plan, if followed properly, results in desired weight loss.

 Source: 



Rooibos Tea Benefits, Benefits of Rooibos Tea, Rooibos Tea Health Benefi...

Saturday, 1 April 2017

Healthy Cookie Recipes - Vegan and Gluten Free


Vegan cookies, gluten-free cookies, wheat-free cookies...healthy cookie recipes are easy to make if you are willing to experiment with a few alternative quality ingredients. Agave nectar is the perfect sweetener for such baked treats. Not only because of its superiority to refined sugars, but also for its moisture-retaining qualities.

Healthy Cookie Recipes Can Be Made Without Sugar, Butter, Eggs, Or Milk!

Let's start with a solid base of ground nuts. We can use whatever fits best our personal preferences and budget. Pecans tend to be a bit more expensive than almonds and hazelnuts (filberts), walnuts are often on sale or available at a less expensive regular price. Always buy bulk, and halves and pieces are just fine. No need to get whole nuts since we ground them up anyway.

A good cookie recipe should include some fat. As we want to keep this healthy, nutritious, and acceptable for vegans, let's forget about the butter and choose instead almond, cashew, or peanut butter, or a combination thereof. If you don't like the flavor or price of nut butters, substitute with organic canola oil.

Great, but what about the flour if we want to make gluten-free cookies? The answer is: organic brown rice flour! Works like a charm and is much healthier than white flour.

Next up: which sweetener? As stated above, agave nectar is a great sweetener for baked goods. Similar to honey, it helps retain the moisture in cookies and cakes. It also blends quickly and easily with all other ingredients for a well-mixed batter.

To add flavor to this basic healthy cookie mix, use some vanilla or almond extract, ground cinnamon, crushed anise seeds, and a pinch of salt, of course.

And to add even more nutritional value, consider lightly toasted rolled oats, raisins, sesame seeds, flax seeds, pumpkin and sunflower seeds. My goodness...what to do with all that energy?

Why This Is An Easy Healthy Cookie Recipe For Vegan Cookies And Gluten-Free Cookies

We don't really need a recipe for these incredible power morsels of nutrition. It all depends on what we have on hand, or what we like to eat, or what we want to buy. Here is a simple recipe template utilizing the ingredients discussed above:

4 cups ground nuts
1 cup nut butter or 1/2 cup organic canola oil
1 cup organic brown rice flour
3/4 cups agave nectar
1 Tablespoon vanilla or almond extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon crushed anise seeds, cardamom, or other spices
1 teaspoon salt
Optional: 1/2 cup each raisins or toasted oats or seeds

The individual ingredient quantities don't really matter that much. The template is just a general guide line. Our goal is to mix a batter that holds its shape when divided into cookie-size balls. We might have to add a little water if the mix is too dry and crumbly. Or, we might have to add more brown rice flour to a wet and sloppy batter.
This is the best part: As we are not using raw eggs, we can taste our cookie batter before we bake it off! Add more agave nectar if you like it sweeter, more spices or seeds, until you are happy!

Important points for the baking process!

Place 2-inch balls on a parchment-lined cookie pan and flatten lightly with a fork (similar to making peanut butter cookies, dip the fork in cold water before pressing it on the cookie portions)
Use a fairly low oven temperature: 8-10 minutes at 300-325 degrees; agave nectar browns a little faster than sugar, so keep an eye on your cookies and don't let them get too dark on the bottom!
Remember, there are no raw eggs in our batter; we won't have to bake it completely through. A lightly "under-baked" interior is wonderful!
So, be adventurous and experiment with a variety of nuts, seeds, dried fruits, spices, and whatever you love in your gourmet vegan cookie. As long as you don't burn them black, they will always be good eating. And because they are so healthy and nutritious, they'll be good for you, too!


 Source: 

Jamie's Chocolate Eggnog Recipe | Jamie Oliver