Why Is Losing Weight SO HARD?

" You Must have long term goals to keep you from being frustrated by short-term failures"

- Charles C. Noble



1) Pay attention to what you eat! Keep a food diary. Unconscious eating will be your enemy when you are trying to lose weight. Be it a glass of orange juice, water or a small cracker, write it down in your journal. Keep track of what you eat for a week and see what changes you can make from there.



Some useful websites to count your calories : http://www.thecaloriecounter.com/

Of course the local dishes, use this website : http://www.hpb.gov.sg/hpb/ere/ere070101.asp.



2) After you've done that, don't go on a diet. Because when you go on a diet, you will go OFF a diet. Change your meal habits, eat smaller, more frequent meals, say 5-6 times a day. I know, it's going to be difficult but hey, there're the F1 nutritional shake that is provided to you. Just shake it and drink it as a meal.



3) What you drink is IMPORTANT! " LIQUID" calories such as juices, sodas and can drinks can easily add calories to your meals. Most of us make ourselves feel better with "diet" sodas, or the recent coke "zero". Sure, there aren't any sugar in it but there sure are loads of artifical sweetners that promotes cravings for sugar and this increases fat storage. IF you want to drink something, DRINK LOTS OF WATER AND HERBAL CONCENTRATE TEA. It's not only healthy, but it's LOW to ZERO calorie fluids.

4) What's better than having your meals at home? You get to enjoy all comforts without paying for anything and you know exactly what goes into your meals. Eating out has tons of "hidden fats" because restaurants use oil/butter in unknown amounts. PLAN your meals for the week, do your grocery shopping once a week, this way, you will know what goes into your system. However, our body WILL recognise repitition, so add a little variety into your recipes and meal plans as what you lose now will not be same intially.

5) Sauces? They look harmless due to its small portioned nature... Guess again, these sauces are a very concentrated source of calories. Instead, you could try lemon juices, herbs and spices, salt, balsamic vineger.

6) How do I increase basal metabolic rate? The best way would be to exercise, however, many of us dont have the time or energy to. Chill, that's where our herbal concentrate tea come in, take the tea (cold or hot) daily as your source of fluid intake.

7) FOOD & ENTERTAINMENT. It's easy to mindlessly chow down a whole tub of ice-cream or a big pack of chips. Make eating a separate activity and you WILL consume less.

8) I always hear this when many are deciding to begin their breakfast program, " I'm stressed... I eat this or that... I can't help it..." People, this is a habit, a bad one, and habits can't be changed overnight but can be changed over a period of time. Listen to easy music, spend time with family and friends, during stress, FOOD is your NO.1 enemy.

9) Lastly, fast-foods... hmmmm, easy and yum-yum. KFC, Mac's, BK, Yoshinoya, Pepper lunches, Pizza hut, Pasta-mania, MOS burger, Ya-Kun toast.. I've named that many because they have been attacking you in every single mall you've been to. REMEMBER! fast-foods are convenient FAT-FOOD. Eat a fruit, mix some raisins and oats, drink some herbal concentrate tea, take the F1 shake.

10) Before you leave and change your dieting habits for the better, remember this, weight-loss or even weight-gain, needs some time to see noticable change. The breakfast programs are designed for easy access to healthy nutrition, but we still need your part in your daily dieting habits. Have fun!

What did you have for breakfast?

Do you simply skip your breakfast? Or do you occassionally eat a couple of toast, cereal or chwee kuay and just down it with a glass of orange juice or a cup of coffee?

What I'm about to share with you is the secret behind improving your well being just by having a delicious balanced-protein breakfast!

I'll present to you 3 types of the intake during different breakfasts.

Simply, the lst graph shows what happens when you feed your body with a simple carbs breakfast. So, when you start your day with carbs, you enter into a vicious cycle that is hard to get out off. Your blood sugar level will shoot up due to the increased intake of carbs which translates into excess glucose and your poor pancreas will overproduce insulin to break down the excess glucose into fat storage, thus gaining weight, along with many health problems. The overproduction of insulin will cause the blood sugar level to drop below the normal levels which causes us to be HUNGRY! ...., we will obviously feed ourselves with more simple carbs and the cycle goes on and on for the whole day...

Second type of breakfast: YOU SKIP BREAKFAST, so what do you feed your body in the mornings? uh..., NOTHING MAN! Your cycle had begun right there, your body will be starving for the 114 nutrients it needs every morning. ( Its saying: HEY! FEED ME THOSE 114 NUTRIENTS! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!) Many would say they wake up late and have a breakfast/lunch, and often, you will overfeed your body during that meal. Thus, as explained earlier, those food would just bring your blood sugar level lower than the norm which causes you to have hunger pangs.

What your body NEEDS every morning:

1) 114 nutrients to feed over 100,000,000,000,000 cells in your body

2) The water stock lost when you were sleeping (we lose 1litre of water in the sack)

3) Energy spent in the last 24 hours

4) A maintanence of the blood sugar level within the normal range and prevent insulin surge

Thus, a good breakfast should provide your body NEEDS,

1) Provide the body with all vital nutrients and water

2) Provides energy from proteins and not carbs

3) Doesn't raise or drop blood sugar level

Research has shown a strong connection between bad breakfast and many health-related problems. So, just by feeding yourself right from the start in the mornings, many of those health-related problems such as extra weight, diabetes, high blood pressure, can be improved.

Anyone who's serious about change, serious with their health and really want to know how YOU can eat a balanced protein breakfast to improve your well-being, leave your name, contact and what you usually have for breakfast on my comments.