Simple Secrets of Conscious Eating

If you are starting out on a diet with the intention of losing weight then follow these five tips to ensure your get the most out of each meal.

Planning
The idea of planning what you eat will most likely fill a lot of people with a sense of dread. But planning your meals does not mean carrying around a little black book full of scheduled mealtimes and calorie charts. What it does mean is thinking a little before you sit down and eat. This is particularly true if you work in a high stress environment and the temptation to comfort eat is strong. A mental toll booth is a powerful tool - When the desire to comfort eat or indulge in junk foods is tripped, ask yourself why you suddenly felt the urge to eat. Often some external reason such as a task you hate doing (filing or calling a certain client) can be the cause of candy attacks!

Portions
Preparing your own meals is always the best option if you want to loss pounds. Not only do you know exactly what has gone into it, but you can prepare the exact amount you require to keep yourself fueled up. It always a good idea to stay away from restaurants, particularly fast-food ones, when you are beginning your weight loss program, as most places simply pile on carb rich food like French fries and bread, which are high in salt and other additives. As you start to make progress, eating out every now and then is no problem as you will become accustomed to how much food you should be eating.

Chewing
This tip is so simple - it like the advice your grandma would dish out but no one listened to! Digestion does not start in the stomach. It starts in your mouth. Your teeth and saliva team up and get to work extracting the nutrients from your food as soon as you make the first chew. Enzymes in your saliva help kick of the pre-digestive process and chewing properly will help increase your energy levels significantly. It’s harder than it seems but to chew each mouthful at least twenty times will means less work for your digestive system, will release energy into your system faster and reduce flatulence. All this means your food goes further, your concentration will improve and you’ll feel more comfortable around other people!

Putting down your knife and fork
This may seem a bit weird at first, but it’s another technique that works. Simply putting down your eating utensils between each mouthful will slow down your eating sufficiently enough to make you aware of what you are actually doing. By doing so you become aware of what’s in your mouth, slowing your instinctive response to take another bite before you are actually ready to do so and it’ll help you actually enjoy the taste and textures of your food.

Turning off the TV / Do not read
This radical but simple step is for anyone who wants to regain control of their appetite. Like putting down your knife and fork between bites or chewing twenty times before swallowing, turning off the TV or not reading removes the distractions that cause you to eat on automatic pilot. Eating becomes a secondary activity when reading or watching a TV program and eating can degenerate into a shoveling activity that robs you of the energy and taste that your food should offer you.

Successful Weight Loss with Green Tea Extract

Is Green tea is good for weight loss?
Yes, believe it or not, more and more often you’ll find green tea (or green tea extract) included in the compilations of many of the more popular weight loss supplements today. Tea has been used as an aid for weight loss. Drinking a cup of tea with each meal is a protocol for using tea successfully as a metabolic stimulant. Tea by itself carries only 4 calories per serving, and it’s most healthy when consumed with nothing added. The caffeine in tea increases body function to help burn more calories and the polyphenols seem to aid in the digestion of fat, truly making it a Chinese diet tea.

Green tea is recommended for the diet aid mainly because of its multifaceted effects on health. The major active component that attributes the properties to the green tea are the polyphenols such as catechin, epicatechin, epicatechin gallate, gallaogatechin, epigallocatechin, and apigallocatechin gallate (known as EGCG).

Green tea contains high concentrations of catechin polyphenols. These compounds work with other chemicals to intensify levels of fat oxidation and thermogenesis, where heat is created in the body by burning fuels such as fat. Drinking Japanese green tea regularly will increase your metabolism and help burn fat safely and naturally.

In Thailand, India, Japan and China, green tea has been used as a medicine for a variety of conditions from helping with digestion to healing wounds.

But while many in the medical field proclaim the wonders of this much talked about tea, others are quick to point out that there is little or no evidence to support at least some of the claims.

Glucose Regulator
Green tea also acts as a glucose regulator i.e. it slows the rise in blood sugar following a meal, by slowing the action of a particular digestive enzyme called amylase. This enzyme is pivotal in the breakdown of starches that can cause blood sugar levels to soar following a meal.

Green tea contains Vitamin B, C and thiamine. This will ensure that our brain cells have sufficient energy to protect the nervous system from being over stimulated. A good nourished brain will surely help in achieving your weight loss goals.

In November 1999, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published the results of a study at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, in which researchers found that men who were given a combination of caffeine and green tea extract burned more calories than those given only caffeine or a placebo.

The study conducted by the University of Geneva on the weight loss benefit of green tea extract implicated that green tea extract can also help thyroid patients. According to dietitian Lynn Moss, M.S., R.D., green tea extract is a healthier choice for people with thyroid who may be too sensitive to stimulants. Green tea extract can promote weight loss by increasing metabolism without over stimulating the adrenal glands.

Bottom Line: Green tea helps you with weight loss by boosting your metabolic rate, regulating your blood sugar, suppressing your appetite and giving you something else besides that high calorie, high sugar coffee beverage to drink in the morning. While it’s not the magic bullet, it can definitely give you a boost in weight loss and in your overall health

Life History of Domestic Cat

Today, domestic cats still take many characteristics from their wild ancestors. The arresting eyes, body shape, feeding and grooming habits are the same along with the ability to pounce into action at any given moment. It is this link that makes the domestic cat so fascinating around the world.
It has been about 4000 years since the first cats were domesticated. The Ancient Egyptians were the first to keep and use cats to control vermin and other pests to protect stores of food. In Ancient Egypt, the cat was revered as a hunter and worshiped as gods and goddesses. The ancient Egyptians imposed the death penalty for killing cats and cats were also mummified before being buried.
Other ancient civilizations later began to domesticate the cat and took tame felines to Italy where they slowly spread around Europe. Eventually, they arrived in the New World with the Pilgrims. The short haired domestic cat spread across the world from Egypt while long haired cats came later from Turkey and Iran. The domestic cat also spread from India to China and Japan.

A Domestic Cat Has More Bones Than a Human
Humans have 206 but the cat has 230. Some cites list 245 bones and state that bones may fuse together as the cat ages.

Aggression
Cats that are aggressive can be very dangerous and veterinary advice should be sought if a domestic cat is persistently aggressive towards people. There are many different causes of aggressive behavior ranging from fear, to over-exuberant play.

Fish
Fish is a good source of protein and is enjoyed by many domestic cat. Some types of fish have an enzyme that destroys the vitamin thiamine and domestic cat fed a diet high in raw fish have been known to develop a thiamine deficiency. Thiamine deficiency causes severe neurological problems progressing to seizures. Commercial cat foods contain added thiamine.

Kitten
A young domestic cat. It can take 6-12 months for a kitten to reach adult size and it is normally recommended that kitten foods should be fed until the cat is 12 months old.

Vegetarian
Domestic cat cannot be fed on a natural vegetarian diet, as it does not meet their requirement for certain essential nutrients.

Worms
These are parasites that can live in the domestic cat body, normally the digestive system. The most common worms are Roundworm (Toxascaris and Toxocara) and Tapeworm (Dipylidium and Taenia species). Treatment against tapeworm may have to be repeated every six weeks due to the potential for re-infection in domestic cat that hunt and eat their kill.