Feeling Tired? No Pep? No Zing? Tap Into Breakfast Smoothies

I'm 40-something years old, and for 40-something years breakfast has been a pain. Some of my earliest memories are getting ready for school with my mother insisting I eat a bowl of cereal. It just never interested me. Once high school started I was skipping breakfast and grabbing two apples on the run for lunch. All my life breakfast simply wasn't something I got interested in or thought about until I made this discovery...

Someone introduced me to the most amazing concept for breakfast. By now I was well entrenched in not taking time over the first meal of the day (and sometimes the second meal), so anything that captured my attention was going to have to be fast, no fuss and delicious to warrant any of my attention.

Instead of cardboard cereal and bland milk, it's possible to start the day with power packed, nutritious, energizing and best of all, yummy smoothies. Smoothies have been around for ages, but I had never twigged they make a great start to the day. Imagine the delight of selecting from a range such as Chocolate Strawberry, Hazelnut Coffee, Peach Almond, Banana Bread & Apple Pie Surprise. Kid you not! You can make an endless variety to suit your own taste. Now this was interesting to me.

Not only did I start regularly eating breakfast, my energy shot through the roof! This changed my whole perspective on being 40-something. A period where I thought as a mother, wife, and corporate executive I was supposed to be tired all the time. Not true.

Here is one of my favorite recipes.

<i>Strawberry Parfait</i>

3 tablespoons vanilla flavored soy/whey protein powder
250g (6oz) strawberry flavoured fat free yoghurt
1 cup strawberries
4 ice cubes

Blend in hand-held or benchtop blender. Pour into your favorite glassware and enjoy.

Weight Loss - 10 Ways To Cut Calories

1. Use fruit purees instead of butter 2. Eat cheese but get rid of the fat 3. Don’t exercise before meals 4. Eating in front of the TV is bad for you 5. Always have a breakfast 6. Fructose is better than glucose 7. Bad fats are not good for you 8. Use skim milk rather than whole 9. Don’t have more than four egg yolks a week 10. Before cooking, trim all the fat from meat

Substitute Fruit Purees Instead of Butter

If when eating mashed potatoes, adding fruit puree instead of butter, will cut down the calories and give your mashed potatoes a different but pleasant flavour.

Eat Cheese But Discard The Fat

Cheese is good for you; it’s full of calcium.  But it is also full of fat.

Get rid of the fat by putting the cheese into the microwave for about 10 seconds, then drain off the fat and grease. (Be careful not to leave it in the microwave too long, unless you want Welsh Rarebit). Or alternatively, you could buy a cheese that has less fat in it.

Don’t Exercise Before Meals

If you exercise before meals you are just making yourself hungrier as you are burning the fat. So to satiate your hunger, you will eat more.  A better idea is to exercise after eating. Then your body has to work harder to digest the food.  WARNING:  Don’t exercise immediately after a meal, or you will make yourself sick. Exercise an hour after eating.

Eating While Watching The TV Is Bad For You

You can so easily overeat.  The programme you are watching may be so exciting and you are engrossed in it, you won’t be aware of what you are eating.

Always Eat A Breakfast

Breakfast is the first meal of the day.  The word Breakfast = Break Fast.  You probably have had nothing to eat since supper the night before. So you are Breaking The Fast.

Your body will burn more calories if you eat breakfast.

Fructose is Better Than Glucose

Drinking Water With Fructose (Fruit Juices) rather than Glucose, will act as an appetite suppressant.  Drinking a glass of orange juice an hour before eating will take the edge off your appetite.

Bad Fats Are Not Good For You

Bad fats are Trans Fatty Acids.  Many margarines are Trans Fat.  Butter is not.

When cooking use cooking oil instead.

Read the labels on the food you buy. If you see the words Hydrogenated Oils run a mile as this means it contains Trans Fatty Acids.  As a bonus, running that mile will use up some calories.

Use Skim Milk Rather Than Whole

Drinking Whole Milk means you are drinking the cream and this of course is extra calories.  Switching to Skim Milk will still give you all the goodness of milk, without the fat.

Don’t Have More Than Four Egg Yolks A Week

Do you remember the Advert on TV ‘Go To Work On An Egg’ personally I think you’d be more comfortable on the bus, but there is no accounting for taste.

Seriously, the white of an egg (the Albumen) is full of the wrong kinds of fat. So better to have the yellow part of the egg (the Yolk) and then only a maximum of four times a week.

Before Cooking Trim All The Fat From The Meat

If you love your meat, by trimming all the fat off it before cooking will cut down your calories intake dramatically.  Or alternatively, eat skinless chicken or fish.

3 Choices To Help You Lose Weight

1.  The  Weight Loss Patch

Perhaps the most appealing benefit of using a patch is that it is so easy to use.   No pills to remember to take, no special diets, no required exercise routine.   Naturally, sticking to a healthy diet and exercise program is best for your overall health, but if that is difficult for you to adhere to all of the time, the patch may be a solution that works for you.

A weight loss patch that you place on your body will deliver the active ingredients by transdermal delivery, meaning  through the skin.  The patch ingredients will go directly into the bloodstream, bypassing the digestive system and liver. Simply apply the patch to a smooth area of your skin and change it every 3 days.   That is all of the maintenance that is required. 

A patch can even be used occasionally when you are traveling and know you will be eating out a lot, or for those times you are too busy to cook the proper foods.  A patch that suppresses your appetite will help you develop good eating habits that will help you maintain your ideal weight in the future  ~ no more yo-yo figures.

2.  Appetite Suppressant Pills

Curbing your appetite to stop the influx of calories in the first place seems to be the logical way to lose and maintain your weight.  However, we are so bombarded by confusing claims everywhere for appetite suppressant pills ~ in print, on the radio, on television, even on billboards when driving, that it is difficult to know which diet pill will really help take off those pounds ~ and keep them off.. 

Some diet pills will cause your heart to race, your hands to shake, or an overall "wired" feeling.  To avoid these problem, stay away from products that contain  Ephedra, Ma Huang, and Ephedrine.

One herbal diet pill that has gotten a lot of publicity lately is Hoodia Gordonii  The authentic plant comes from the Kalahari desert in  South Aftrica.  Respectable television shows like 60 Minutes, the Today Show, BBC, and even Oprah's "O" magazine have given it rave reviews for its fast acting appetite suppressing qualities.  While it can take one to two weeks to work fully, many users report a decline in their appetite with the first pill.

 In fact, Hoodia has had so many positive reports that there are now a lot of knock-off products being marketed to the uninformed ~ especially on the Internet.   The real Hoodia is very rare because it takes up to 7 years for the Hoodia  plant to mature to a point where it provides appetite suppressant qualities.  In addition, the African government is now limiting the amount of Hoodia it exports, meaning only a few suppliers have the real thing.  Because Hoodia is so rare, you can expect it to be a little more expensive than other diet pills.  

Another diet pill that helps shed pounds is Herbal Phentermine.  This is a non-prescription appetite  suppressant that is scientifically designed to produce similar effects of a popular Rx version of phentermine. 

The good news is that the Herbal version contains only natural ingredients so you don't have to be worried about side effects.   Plus, you can avoid the time, expense, and embarrassment of a doctor's visit. 

Herbal Phentermine will not only suppress your appetite, but it will also increase your metabolism so you burn more calories and have more energy. 

3). Carbohydrate Blockers

Perhaps you prefer not to have your appetite suppressed, but instead would like to eat all of the pasta, bread, rice, and potatoes you want.  If this sounds more like your style, then you might want to try a carbohydrate  blocker.

Scientists have discovered, and thoroughly tested a method to allow us to eat the foods we love and not gain weight.    We can now stop the normal conversion of starchy foods to sugar before it can pass through our digestive system and store as fat on our hips, thighs, buttocks and stomach.  Derived from white kidney beans, the resulting carb blockers, (starch neutralizers), are a completely natural product.  They work by neutralizing the Alpha amylase enzyme that digests starch.  

By neutralizing this digestive enzyme, the starch from our food does not get digested.  Instead, it remains intact and does not convert to sugar.  It simply passes through the body undigested and acts as a fiber  ~ which is a very good thing.   We get more fiber going through our intestines while avoiding the conversion to sugar and the resulting fat storage ~  a definite win-win situation.

Over the past several years, there have been many positive studies to determine the effectiveness of carb blockers and their ability to help lose weight.   One study was performed at the Northridge Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA, over an eight week time period. 

It reported that participants saw an average weight loss of 200% more than those taking a placebo, and lost an average of 1.5 inches around their waists.  This was 43 % more than those taking  the placebo.  Plus they reported  having 13% more energy, even though it is not a stimulant. 

Whether you choose patches or pills, prefer to eat starchy foods, or use carb blockers, some things to look for when buying diet products are that they:

1) Contain all natural ingredients
2) Do not have harmful side effects
3) Offer a 100% money back guarantee