5 Best Post-Workout Meals

During a workout, our body needs enough nutrition as its fuel to create the energy. These energy will wear off eventually after the workout, right? Therefore, we need more healthy food to recharge the lost energy. If our body lost its energy for too long, it can cause muscle spasms and catabolism.

Here are 5 best post-workout meals you can consume after a workout:
1. Chicken Breast with Veggie Mix
100 grams of skinless and boneless chicken breast contain about 29 grams of protein, which can help the recovery and muscle developments after a workout. Meanwhile, a mix of vegetables contain many kinds of vitamins and minerals that are essential for our immunity.

2. Eggs and Avocado
No doubt that eggs contain enough protein, especially in its whites. Egg yolks contain phosphatidylcholine which can be useful to prevent the accumulation of fat and cholesterol in the liver. Yolks are also rich in choline, which can increase the heart, brain, and membrane cell functions. One egg contain about 300 mg of choline and 315 mg of phosphatidylcholine.

Avocado also have high nutritional value. It contain at least 11 vitamins and 14 minerals. It's also rich in protein, riboflavin (vitamin B2), niacin (vitamin B3), potassium, and vitamin C (vitamin needed for body recovery).

3. Salmon, Spinach, and Yam (Sweet Potato)
Salmon are rich in protein and Omega 3 fatty acid. The protein in a salmon is good for muscle growth, while the Omega 3 fatty acid are useful to reduce muscle damage after a workout.

Spinach are high in iron, an important mineral for muscle formation. Iron is also an important component in hemoglobin, the part in our blood that distributes the oxygen throughout the body.

Sweet potatoe (yam) is one kind of complex carbohydrate, which are also equipped with easy-to-digest vitamins and minerals. It's also a good energy source, especially after a workout.

4. Tuna and Brown Rice
Potassium and essential fats in a tuna helps control the blood pressure. The Omega 3 fatty acid can also help prevent rheumatic, while the selenium are useful in detoxifying process, especially in the liver.

Brown rice are high in fiber, which helps in indigestion and are suitable to be consumed after a workout. It won't increase the blood sugar, thus reducing the risk of diabetes.

5. Whey Protein
Besides the fact that it's good to be consumed before a workout, whey protein are also good to be consumed after a workout. Whey protein are a protein supplement in the form of a milk, making it easier to be absorbed. Research indicates that whey protein can fasten the muscle recovery process and maximizes the muscle formation after a workout.

Those are the 5 best post-workout meal that you can consume after a workout. The right meal after a workout can really get you faster to the results you've been fighting for!

5 Big No-Nos about Fruit-Consuming

We all know that there are many fruits that can fulfill our needs for vitamin. For example, fruits containing many vitamin C are kiwi, apple, orange, mango, cherry, strawberry, and so on. Fruits are also known as the source of antioxidants, such as tomatoes which contain lots of lycopene or mangoes which are rich in carotene. Therefore, fruits are essential in healthy living.

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It's true, but some people are overconfident in some merits of fruit. Truth is, there are couple of things that one have to understand about consuming fruits. Here are the 5 restrictions about fruit-consuming:

1. Consume Fruit as Substitute for Vegetables
Fruits contain some organic acid and aromatic substance which can increase the appetite. Despite the fact, veggies contain more mineral substances than fruits. If you only consume fruits, thinking that it's enough to substitute the veggies, your daily nutritional need are not filled. You still need to consume about 500 grams of veggies everyday.

2. Consume Fruit as Substitute for Meals
A human body can survive with at least 50 kinds of nutrition, especially more than 65 grams of (good) fat that can maintain regeneration and organ recovery. Fruits contain more than 85% of water but less than 1% of protein. Therefore, it can't fulfill the daily need for amino and fatty acid. It's better if you don't consume fruit as substitute for your meal. You can, however, consume it as a snack. See this post for a healthy meal plan.

3. Consume too Much Fruits in Order to Lose Some Weight
Basically, fruits can't be considered as low-calorie foods. More than 80% of fruit contains fructose, kind of "fruit sugar" if I may say so. Even if fruits contain less calories than rice, people always consume more fruit than rice because it taste great and succulent. Therefore, if this happens, more calories will be consumed and  your dietary goals won't be achieved.

4. Blinded by Imported Fruits
Some people actually think that imported fruits contain better and more nutrition. This is not always true, because some fruit lose its freshness from long transport time.

5. Relying on Fruits as Sources for Vitamin
Some fruit don't contain as many vitamins as we thought it would be. But if you want to fulfill your needs for vitamin, it's not wise to just rely it on fruits. You also have to consume it from other kinds of food. You can also fulfill it by consuming multivitamin and multimineral supplements.

Yes, fruits are highly nutritional foods and are good to consume daily. However, it is also important to pay attention on how you consume it. Consume it wisely!

Choosing the Right Low-Fat Products

Obese people, or other people with high fat and high cholesterol usually have to reduce their fat consumption, and this warning usually make people consider about buying "low-fat" or "fat-free" products. However, be careful, because not all of those products are healthy products like they advertise it.

image credit to ahundredpoundslost.com

To keep the original taste in low-fat products, producers replace the fat content with huge amount of sugar. The results are, some "low-fat" products actually contain more calories than the "regular" products! Whereas, in a diet to lose some weight, carbohydrate consumption has to be reduced, especially simple/fast-absorbing carbs like sugar - which have high glycemic index (GI) - will be stored as fat anyway.

Besides that, some of those products also contain trans-fat, which not only increase the LDL (bad cholesterol) content, but also lower the HDL (good, protective cholesterol) content. Fact is, the increasing number of obesity in our society is one of the main factors of the proliferating low-fat products. The vigorous advertisements, especially the ones in TVs, make people think that consuming those low-fat products means they consume healthy foods.

Based on the facts above, you should carefully check the nutrition facts of the product that you're going to buy. Products with 1-2 grams of sugar is enough, but above that, it's too high for those of you who's been trying to lose weight.

For your diet, choose complex carbs such as brown rice, whole wheat bread, and oatmeal. Limit your fat consumption, and choose those that are good for you, like canola oil, olive oil, etc. If you want to lower your LDL consumption and increase the HDL, you also need fiber from veggies, fruits, beans, and also oatmeal. Remember to exercise regularly too!

Diet Soda: Better Than Regular Soda?

People often consume diet soda in order to replace the regular soda-consumption, which, as we all know, contains high sugar and calories. Consuming diet soda in a reasonable amount - say, 1 can a day - is considered safe, because the sweetener and the chemicals contained in it is still within the safe limits for most people.

image credit to thefoodfarce.com

But still, diet soda is not a healthy drink for you, especially those in diet. Even if replacing regular soda drinks with diet soda reduces significant amount of calories, but a lot of research indicates that the more soda you consume - diet soda or regular soda - your appetite will grow, heightening the risk of obesity and other related diseases such as diabetes mellitus or osteoporosis.

Other research also finds that consuming more than 1 can of carbonated drinks a day will increase the risk of metabolic syndrome as much as 40%. Metabolic syndrome is the main cause for heart disease and diabetes.

There are still a lot of healthier drinks around. The best one there is, is of course regular water, 8 glasses a day. For some variations, instead of drinking carbonated drinks, you can also consume juice, low-fat milk, of green tea. Bottoms up!

Watch Out, We Got a Fat Belly Over Here! (Part 2)

After the reading the previous article, you know what caused the fat belly. In this post, we will explore more about the health risk of having a fat belly.

- Cancer
Fat belly is associated with many risks of cancers, including endometrial (cancer in uterus layer), colon, gall bladder, prostate, kidney, and post-menopausal breast cancer. Women who gain weight more than 10 kg since they're 18 until they are middle-aged increased the risk of post-menopausal breast cancer twice than women with stable weight.

-  Fatty Liver
The main cause of fatty liver for non-alcoholic people is insulin resistance, a metabolic interference where the cells are not sensitive to the effects of insulin. One of the most common risk factors for insulin resistance is obesity, especially central obesity. Study shows there are close association from obesity and the degree of liver damage.

- Breathing Problem
Obstructive sleep apnea (breathing disruption whilst sleeping) generally occurs to overweight people. Obesity is related to the increase of asthma risks and severe bronchitis, and also obesity hypoventilation syndrome, and breathing insufficiency.

- Arthritis
Musculoskeletal disorders, including osteoarthritis, generally occurs to obesity patients, especially patients diagnosed with chronic obesity. Health research indicates that obesity is a strong predictor for osteoarthritis disorders, especially in the knee. The risk of osteoarthritis increase with every 1 kg of weight increase.

- Social and Psychological Impact of Obesity
Emotional impact might be one of the hurtful fact of being obese. Our society these days emphasize on physical appearance which is close to being thin (or skinny), especially on women. This will make overweight people feel like they are not attractive.

image credit to fat2abs.org

Preventing instead of Curing
After knowing the health risk of the accumulation of visceral fat in a fat belly, it's only natural if you want to prevent it before it risks your health. Therefore, if you still have a fat belly right now, or have no problem having a fat belly and still want to prevent it, start doing these steps regularly:

- Do 30 to 45 minutes of cardio 4 to 5 times a week
- Consider to start lifting some weight. Lifting some weight regularly will increase your muscle mass, and the more muscle you have more fat will be burn, lowering the risk of fat accumulation in your belly.
- Adjust your diet. It's better to not consume high fat and high calorie food to prevent the accumulation of new fat. Eat more veggies and fruits.

Therefore, if you want a six-packs abs, you have to get rid of all the fat in your belly. The abs muscle won't show up as long as there are some fat layering your belly. Aside from that, avoid central obesity earlier by working out regularly and eat healthier food to have optimal health quality.

12 Easy Steps to Lose Some Weight (Part 2)

Before reading this post, you'd better be finished reading the previous post. It's important to read it first, because you need to read it in order.

6. Choose a balanced menu. Never disregard one kind of nutrition. Fat is important too, but consume healthy fats such as fat from beans, fish, avocado, olive oil, or canola oil. Use supplements such as Omega 3 supplements to help you fulfill your healthy fat requirement. Besides its role in dissolving vitamins, fat are needed to balance your the hormones in your body.

7. Eat enough protein. Some of the sources of protein are chicken, fish, beef, tofu, tempe, egg (the whites), and beans. If you want to lose weight, and workout regularly, you have to consume large sum of protein.

image credit to thomshillaw.com

8. Some people still don't understand what carbohydrate is. Carbohydrate is the main energy source for our body, which also used as spontaneous energy in our body. To lose some weight, we have to know that while our body still use carbohydrate as its energy source, then the energy from fat only serves as energy reserves. Energy reserves won't be used as long as the main energy sources is still there. Therefore, lessening carbohydrate consumption usually works in weight loss.

NEVER substitute rice with noodles, because they're the same thing (noodles are carbohydrates too.....). What you need to know is it's important to have some carbohydrates after a workout. Not only it's important, but you HAVE to consume it immediately. You can also consume it after morning workouts, but choose only good carbohydrates.

9. Know your carbohydrates. Good carbohydrates are those that are slowly-absorbed, commonly known from its glycemic index (GI). You can click here for list of carbohydrate GI. If your carbohydrate is not on the list, you can also search it here. For a good diet, eat carbohydrate with less than 55 GI. If it's higher than that, eat it after a workout. However, a really high GI foods (such as sugar) should not be eaten while you're on a diet. In cooking, use other sweeteners other than sugar.

10. Consume enough fiber. It's better if you eat apple in its fruit form rather than blending it into apple juice. The blending process destroys the fibers in apples. Eat enough veggies too. Fibers are important for your digestive system, and also helps slowing down the calorie-absorption.

11. Drink enough water. Drinking 2,5 liters of water daily is compulsory.

12. When buying foods or biscuits, take a look at its Nutrition Facts. You don't want to destroy you diet, right? You have to look at the label of the food you're buying. Don't consume high fructose corn syrup because it has a really high GI. Make sure there's no hydrogenated vegetable oil too. Hydrogenated is a process of solidifying oil, and this will destroy your metabolism. For example, margarine and butter. Avoid these as much as possible.

After reading the 12 steps, analyze your activities and foods. Have you done any of those things?

There are some people that already know how to lose some weight, yet still underestimates them. For example, drinking 2,5 liters of water everyday. Many still don't understand why they have to drink that much, or they think they drink enough, when they still need lots.

My point is, you have to stick to those steps. It's the simplest summary to help you lose weight. If you still can't lose some weight, check the steps again, make sure nothing is missed.

I hope it helps :)

12 Easy Steps to Lose Some Weight (Part 1)

Here's a post that you have to read carefully, because it will answer the questions that people ask relentlessly: what do I have to do to lose weight? What kind of sport do I have to do? What kind of diet that I should do? I've done my diet, but why do I get ulcers instead of losing some weight?

That was just some of the questions that I get from the people around me, or in some social medias where people complain about their weight or imperfect body parts. So here I'm going to give you the steps on what you have to do to lose some weight.

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1. Take notes on your body's initial status. Measure your waist, thighs, arms, and chest. Weigh your weight, and find out the fat percentage in your body. This sounds silly, but it's actually important to keep track of your progress, and to evaluate the mistakes.

2. Make a realistic goal in your first month, such as losing 2 to 3 kg. Don't expect to lose 10 to 15 kg in your first month of dieting. The more realistic your goal is, the more motivated you are when you achieve and reaching the next goals.

3. Start working out. Whatever the sport is, it's better than just sleeping at home. For those who really want to lose weight, start investing your time to achieve your goal. When you want to lose weigh, don't EVER say that you don't have the time to workout. It's like saying you want to buy a car, but you don't want to work to get it. You have to fight for it! How you manage your time is up to you, because different people have different priorities in their life.

What is the sport to lose some weight? Any sport will do! But if you really want to lose some weight, it's best to lift weights, and end your workout with cardio in a treadmill. I will post some more about this later. Whatever sport you want to do, DO IT SERIOUSLY. Don't just join a gym to sit around, playing with your phone, and lift some weight occasionally. Work your body out, and mean it!

4. Review your menu. This is the most important part. How many times do you eat in a day? Many people think it's best to eat less when they should've consume less calories. For example, when you usually eat 2500 calories a day, lessen it into 2000 calories. It's better than lessening it into 1000 calories. Calorie deficiency will make your body turn into "survival mode", and won't burn your fat.

How many calories you have to consume can be calculated using the BMR calculator. Our body lower its metabolism when we're trying to eat less than a day (i.e. from 3 times a day into twice a day). We'll get hungry at first, but after 1 or 2 weeks, we'll get used to it, and won't get hungry even if we only eat twice a day. Hunger disappearance is a sign that our body burns less calories. The longer we're getting used to it, our body will adapt, and it will be harder to lose some weight.

5. Eat 5 or 6 times a day. Normally people eat 3 times a day, when in fact, our body was designed to eat more than that. When we have breakfast at 7 AM and eat lunch at 1 PM, we'll get hungry at 10 AM. When you have lunch at 1 PM and eat dinner at 7 PM, at about 4 PM we'll get hungry. This "hunger" usually be filled with junk foods (high-calorie foods, but not very filling because they contain minimum nutrition, thus making us fat).

Fill these in-between meals with high-nutrition snacks, such as apples and skimmed milk, or almonds and apples. In total, you'd eat 6 times, with 3 meals and 3 snacks. This is a sure way to stabilize your metabolism and will surely burn your fat faster. When you want to lower your calorie consumption from 2500 into 2000, divide the 2000 calories into 6 meals. Once again, to lose some weight, you lessen the calories, not the eating frequency. You can see the meal plan here, for an example of eating 6 times a day.

Eggs and Cholesterol

Sometimes we heard some people say that they don't want to eat eggs because it's high in cholesterol. Well, it is high in cholesterol, and consuming foods that are high in cholesterol daily can lead to increasing cholesterol level in your blood. However, nevertheless, a lot of researchers believe that saturated fat and trans-fat have bigger impact on the increase the cholesterol level.

image credit to heartheavy.com

The American Heart Association (AHA) claimed that as long as you can limit the cholesterol consumption out of all the other foods, it is very good to add eggs into your daily healthy diet, considering that eggs are good sources of protein.

Fact is, one egg contains about 213 mg of cholesterol in its yolk. If you're in healthy condition, it is better to limit your cholesterol consumption in less than 300 mg a day. However, if you got some health problems such as heart disease, diabetes, or your LDL (bad cholesterol) level is high, then it's better to limit your daily cholesterol consumption into less than 200 mg.

So, if you already consumed one egg a day, then it's better if you limit or even avoid another consumption of cholesterol from other foods in that day. However, if you really have a egg-craving day (those days exist, folks), then just consume the egg white, since it doesn't contain cholesterol.

In conclusion, you don't have to worry about consuming eggs. You just have to control the sum and the frequency. Eggs are good sources for protein, easy to digest, and easy-to-get animal protein. Therefore, consuming eggs (especially the egg whites) will be good for your diet :)

Yummy and Healthy Beverages

To achieve your ideal own ideal weight, it's really important to have some variations in your diet menu. Drink variations in your diet menu are as important as food variations. There are a lot of drink nowadays that are high in sugar, also artificial coloring and sweetener. Our body won't be in its best condition by consuming those drinks. So here I'm gonna post some of the healthy drinks that you can add into your diet menu :)

image credit to howtojuice.org

Orange Juice
The favorite drink that people usually add into their diet menu is orange juice. Orange juice got this natural flavor that people tend to like, and it's easy to prepare too. Besides its high content of healthy vitamin C and phyto-nutrition, eight ounce of orange juice had the same potassium content as it is in bananas. With its many vitamins and nutrition in it, orange juice has been believed to lower the blood pressure.

Apple Juice
Apple juice is a compulsory drink that you have to have in your diet menu. The right way to serve it is without sugar, because apples have enough sugar content to get the natural sweet taste. Fresh apple juice contains many useful vitamins and minerals. The malic acid in apples can be your additional energy when working out. The old saying of "an apple a day can keep the doctor away" is true, apparently, because there are already some research that indicates how apples can prevent heart diseases and lower the cholesterol.

Cranberry Juice
Another healthy drink is cranberry juice. The antioxidants from cranberry juice has been long known for its curing ability for urinary tract infections. The acidic taste from cranberry juice can prevent the growth of the germs causing the infections. A cranberry juice in your diet menu can keep you fit everyday.

Besides the three drinks, you can also combine it with other kinds of fruits and vegetables such as pineapples, carrots, and also tomatoes. With the three choices, you can be closer into the workout goal that you want to achieve :)

10 Healthy Foods for a Healthy Heart

Heart attack is the most dangerous disease in the world, with increasing patients every year. One of the cause of this disease is wrong meal pattern. Foods these days usually contain high cholesterol, which can clog your blood vessels. In this article, I will share about the ten foods that are good for your heart.

image credit to healthyfoodssite.com

1. Fresh Fish
Fish contains many Omega 3 fatty acids, which can lower your triglycerides level and lower your blood pressure. Consuming fishes with high Omega 3 once or twice a week can lower the chance of coronary death as high as 36%.

2. Tea
Tea are high on polyphenolic antioxidants. Scientists believe that polyphenols can prevent us from bad cholesterol (LDL) from oxidation that can clog our blood vessels. Click here for my post about green tea.

3. Beans
Beans are low in fat but high in vitamin B, folate, potassium, iron, magnesium, fiber, protein, and phytochemicals (a compound in plants that can help prevent some chronic diseases, including cardiovascular diseases). Black beans, red beans, navy beans, peas, and kidney beans are few of the beans that are good for our heart.

4. Paprika
Paprika are high on vitamin C, potassium, vitamin A, and antioxidants. Potassium helps balance the fluids and cells ratio in muscle contractions. People with high blood pressure are recommended to fulfill the needs for potassium from fruits and vegetables to balance the blood pressure.

5. Green Vegetables
Green vegetables contain many fibers, carotenoids, folate, phytochemicals, magnesium, potassium, and calcium. Carotenoids are pigments with antioxidants that can lower the chance of heart attacks, which are available in fruits and vegetables with bright colors.

6. Orange
Besides the fact that it's high on vitamin C, oranges also high on folate, antioxidants, phytochemicals, potassium, and fibre. Vitamin C are good to increase our immunity, and the fibers on oranges can also help reducing the cholesterol in our blood.

7. Wheat
Wheat are good calorie sources that are also rich in fibers, vitamins and minerals, iron, magnesium, and folate. Some studies have tied a connection between wheat consumption to reduce cholesterol and cardiovascular disease-prevention. Wheat cereals, oats, and wheat pasta are some of the good foods that are good for your heart.

8. Garlic
Studies show that garlic have some influence in lowering the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Garlic is better to eat fresh.

9. Berries
Berries are higher in antioxidants than any other fruits and vegetables. A study in Finland also shows that eating berries can also increase the HDL level and lowering the blood pressure.

10. Rice
A study indicates that by consuming rice you'll get 12 essential vitamins and minerals, including folic acid, potassium, and vitamin C with lower saturated fat than those who doesn't consume rice. This study also indicates that consuming rice can also lower the risk of blood pressure and heart disease.

In the end, knowing what's good for your heart is not enough. Get some workout regularly too :)

Count Your Calories

To this point, I've posted a lot about diet and how to live a healthy life, while mentioning a lot about calories. So now, I'm going to post about what are calories and how it work.

Calories work like fuels for your body, where it burn food in forms of calories so that it can produce energy. Nutritionists measures the sum of heat that our body produces from food metabolism in a unit called kilo-calories (kcal). For example, there are 105 calories in a banana. Therefore, our body can produce 105 calories of energy to do some activities.

image credit to health.howstuffworks.com

At this point you'll probably wonder which food can be regarded as a high-calorie foods. The answer is based on what kinds of nutrition are in those foods. In example, 1 gram of carbohydrates contains 4 calories, 1 gram of proteins contains 4 calories, and 1 gram of fat contains 9 calories.

In other words, one gram of protein or carbs gave more than half of calories in 1 gram of fat. This is why high-fat foods such as fried foods contains more calories than low-fat foods such as vegetables and fruits.

But still, it's not easy to calculate the calories, because foods usually contains many kinds of nutrition. For example, a skinless chicken breast and a burger both contains high protein. However, 100 grams of chicken breast has 140 calories while 100 grams of burger contains 270 calories.

All foods has calories, and all calories produces energy. However, not all calories carry good nutrition such as amino acid, fatty acid, fiber, vitamin, mineral, etc. Some foods even regarded as "zero calories". It's a term for calories with little or no nutrition at all, like granulated sugar and ethanol (aka alcohol in alcoholic drinks). Sugar and ethanol can give some energy, but contains no nutrition whatsoever.

Be wise in choosing your healthy and right calories for your body. If you want to lose weight, the number of calorie-intake should not be more than the energy you use, because the excess calories will be stored as fat. Start counting your calories now!

About Detox Diet

Have you ever heard of a detox diet? Some people say this diet works, because they lose quite a lot of weight. But is it really that effective?

image credit to amazon.com

Detox diet remains a controversy everywhere. One research indicates that our body itself has its own 'detox machine', so without any detoxing intended, it can removes all the unnecessary toxins. Some research already compared two people on diet; one with regular diet, and one with detox diet. In a few days, they compared the urine and the feces, whether they contain some toxins or minerals. Turned out, there's no difference between the two of them. From that research, we can conclude that detox diet is not useful, because our body has its own way to detoxify.

The second approach of the detox diet is to find out the cause of allergy. For example, you only eat some fruits for a few days, and eat some other foods the day after, and some protein in the next, to review the body's reaction to those substances. In some cases, this method can find out which food is the allergen to your body.

The other result from this diet is significant weight loss, because, well, eating fruits will definitely turn your calorie intake to the minimum, and this will make you lose a lot of weight. However, this method is not healthy because the weight you lose is actually your muscle mass (and this is something you should definitely avoid). Weight loss from fat-burn is not that fast. Sadly, this is what people want, to lose weight quickly, even if that's not what detox diet was originally meant to do.

So we're back to the question whether detox diet is a good choice to lose weight. Well it's not, because the weight you lose in detox diet is your muscle mass, this also degrades your metabolism. Not long after losing a few kilos, you will gain weight - in what some people call "the yo-yo effect". There are still a lot of ways - healthy ones - to lose some weight.

Green Tea vs Fat

Good news for tea lovers! In an article entitled "Efficacy of a Green Tea Extract in Catechin Polyphenols and Caffeine in Increasing 24-h Energy Expenditure and Fat Oxidation in Humans", they have researched whether green tea extract - which contains caffeine and high atechin polyphenols - can increase the energy energy expenditure and fat oxidation in humans. You can read the abstract and download the article here.

image credit to worldhealth.net

In conclusion, the caffeine in the green tea can improve the fat-burning process. It also plays a role in the control of body composition in a thermogenic and/or fat oxidation.

What are you waiting for? Get some green tea now!

7 Fatal Mistakes in Dieting

If you've been following my blog posts since the very beginning, then you'll probably get some of the mistakes that people often do in their diet. This time, I'm gonna list the most common mistakes, that might seem to be ordinary, but can be fatal to your body.

1. Deliberately Starving Yourself
People generally think that eating too much food can make them gain weight, so to lose some, they will cut back on their eating. Sometimes they even hold back their hunger and not eating. The truth is, starving can decrease your metabolism, which - and I've said this so many times before - will slow down your fat-burning process.

This will also cut off your energy, and make you feel like you're not fit and limp. Starving also means that your stomach is empty and your blood sugar has wear off, while at the same time, your brain needs it. This is why most people get dizzy, or - if it gets worse - they faint. The same thing happens to people who only eats once or twice a day to lose some weight. You should eat five to six times a day (yes, you're reading it right), with three meals and three snacks in between so that your metabolism stays high. You can read the meal plan to lose weight here.

2. Skipping Breakfast
People usually just skip it for several reasons, either they have no time to do it, or not used to eating in the morning. The fact is, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. After sleeping for about 8 hours without any nutrition, our body needs it on breakfasts and to get through the day with full energy. Skipping breakfast can make your body go catabolic, in which it gets the energy from our muscles.

3. Skipping Dinner
People do this under the assumption that they don't need to eat before they sleep. Well of course our body don't need many calories - especially carbohydrates - when we sleep. However, we need some proteins while we sleep, because at this time our body will produce growth hormone, and will automatically "fix" the broken cells within. It's better if you consume some protein about 2 to 3 hours before you sleep. Carbs only good as long as it's 4 hours before you sleep.

4. Not Eating after Sports or Workouts
People usually assume that eating after sports or workouts is a waste, because they burn so many calories already, right? What they don't know is that eating after workouts are the most important meal for our body to get the results! Imagine you're tearing down the wall in your room to repair it (working-out), and when you call a handyman to fix it, you don't prepare the bricks and the cement (not eating). If this goes on, your body will break down. It's highly recommended if you drink some protein and carbohydrate at least 15 minutes after a workout, and get some real food 1 hour after a workout to "repair" your body.

5. Not Drinking Enough Water
Fact is, not enough water can make your body hold back more water which can add additional weight into your body. It can also interfere with your metabolism and digesting system. Drink 2 to 3 litres of water daily.

6. Crash-Dieting
These kinds of diet are the ones that deliberately omitting one component to reach its goal, such as no-fat diet, no-carbs diet, or high-protein diet. This is not a balanced diet, and can be fatal to your body. The fact is, fat has got an important role in our body, which is to help the absorption of vitamins A, D, E, and K. If we don't consume any fat at all, then our body will run short of these vitamins, and can lead to some serious diseases. Not eating carbohydrates at all is also dangerous because our body needs it as energy sources, as does our brain need it to think. The best diet is the balanced diet, not the ones that omits one kind of nutrition that our body needs.

7. Have a Cheat-Day
Some people on diet have a cheat day to eat freely, and this usually happens on Sundays. Having these cheat day, is as if you're rewarding yourself after you overcome the six days of dieting. Diet is actually a lifestyle, and having a cheat day will program your brain that the six days before are days of hell. If you gone through this pattern, you will get tired of dieting, and eventually stops dieting. See it as some kind of lifestyle, and not as a requirement.

Well that's a long post, isn't it? Have you done any of those things? If you do, then change it RIGHT NOW. Simple mistakes in dieting can lead to some serious disease, and that's definitely not what you want.

Why Diet Pills Don't Work: Learn About "The Switch"

image credit to saxzilla.com

As beings who always concerns more about what they eat and how it did to their body, women usually take the easy route to be thin.One of these route is by consuming diet pills to burn off the fat in their body. They try many kinds of products from numbers of brands, but their weight won't go down. In this post I will tell you why they don't work.

Imagine that your body is a machine, with a switch on it that only has two functions: STORE FAT and BURN FAT. When you're fat, it's clear that the switch is on the STORE FAT function, and the only way to get thin is to turn it into BURN FAT function.

It's fairly simple to switch your body function into BURN FAT. There are two things that you must do: diet, and workout.

In my previous post, I already told you about the right way to plan your diet, by eating more protein and less carbs. Unfortunately, most people - especially Indonesian and Malaysian - do the opposite. When they eat, usually they eat more rice than side dishes. This is wrong.

Once again, IT IS WRONG. Eat more proteins. Beef, chicken meat, or fish won't get you fat! What makes you fat are all the sauce and the dressings in the dish. You can anticipate it by not getting so much sauce in your plate.

Workout is basically doing some activities to work your body out (well, duh.). To fasten up the result, lift some weights. Women usually don't want to lift some weight, and I will definitely post about this later.

Back to the matter at hand, why don't diet pills work the way they suppose to?

You have to understand first that what those pills do are to 'help' and 'fasten' your effort to burn the fat in your body. Pay attention to the 'help' part. When the pills are helping you, it assumes that your switch is on the BURN FAT mode, which then will be fastened by those fat burner pills.

However, most people only want the instant results, consuming diet pills without minding 'the switch'. So make sure you understand about this before you consume the diet pills.

Same thing happens to those who does liposuction or some other things to lose the fat. These people are usually desperate enough to do those things. No offense, but this is the sad truth. They don't understand about 'the switch' in their body. When they got out of the slimming clinic, they're happy with the results, but in 3 to 4 months, they will gain weight, usually more than they originally weigh.

Still thinking about choosing the easy route? Think again.

Say NO to Hair Loss!

Image credit to hairlosspreventiontips.com

Face it, we all love our hair, no matter what people say about it. Everyone, especially males, are concerned about getting bald because of hair loss. That is why in this post I will give you some info about hair loss, and how to prevent it.

First things first, there are more than 100.000 strands of hair, and each grows in 2 to 6 years. However, our hair will fall out about 50 to 100 strands a day. Hair loss can happen to everyone, men and women. Bad hair loss can lead to baldness and confidence crisis.

One of the cause of hair loss is improper dieting, because it can lead to lack of nutrition and make your hair fall out. Like any other parts in your body, even hairs need enough nutrition to make it healthy.

Lack of good nutrition can slow down your hair growth, and also hair loss. One of the nutrition our hair needs is protein. 97 % of our hair consists of protein, which is why the lack of protein intake can cause the hair loss.

In the previous post, I already told you about the improper dieting. Not eating chicken, fish, or milk, and your hair starts to fall out, that's when you need some more protein.

You can also drink some high-protein milk. It's usually expensive, but the protein/carbs ratio are usually very good. It will give you more protein than the average milk do, with less carbs to consume. I will post about this later :)

Eat More to Lose More. Y U No Understand??

Some people still find it hard to believe that by eating more than 2 or 3 times a day, it can help them lose weight. They still don't understand why by not eating only makes it harder for them to lose weight.

I'm gonna make it easier to understand. Imagine you're working, and you're earning more than you need. So you save it, in case of emergency. Suddenly, you got fired, and got no income.

My question is this: when you got no income, will you use your savings carefully, or start an extravagant life?

This is what I call a survival mode. You know what will happen when you got no income and no savings, right?

The same things happens within your body. When you don't eat, your body will not get the energy it needs, and to survive, it will slow the fat burning process so that it won't run out of "fuel".

When you don't eat frequently, you will not get hungry easily. This is when your body starts to slow down the fat-burning process.

So, if you want to lose weight, start eating more frequently, folks. Try it, and you'll see why ;)

Meal Plan to Lose Weight

In the last post, I posted that in to lose weight, we should eat more frequently. Less portions and more frequent will make your metabolism more active, thus it burns your fat.

Here's an example of an ideal meal plan to lose weight:

Breakfast (07.00)
1 Omelette or boiled egg
2 slices of whole-grain bread / 1 cup of oatmeal

Morning Snack (10.00)
1 apple / orange / pear

Lunch (13.00)
1 ounce of chicken breast / fish / beef
1 cup of brown rice
1 cup of vegetables

Afternoon Snack (16.00)
1 slice of whole-grain bread / 1/2 cup of oatmeal
1 slice of roasted fish / beef

Dinner (19.00)
1 ounce of chicken breast / fish / beef
1 cup of vegetables

Evening Snack / Before Sleeping (21.00)
High-Protein low fat and low sugar milk

I need to say that the menu above is an "ideal" menu. What you have to see from that menu is that you don't have to eat less fish, chicken, and beef. The protein in chicken, fish, and beef WILL NOT make you fat. What makes you fat is your over-consumption of sugar and carbs.

You have to consider that you also don't have to follow the time to eat. Those menu is just an example after all, and every person has different kind of activities :)

But the most important thing to remember is this: by eating more frequently, then your body will actively digest your food. This digesting process will activate your metabolism.


"Well I'm not hungry. Why do I have to eat?"

Not feeling hungry is the sign that your metabolism is slow, my friend. We have to change it, fasten it, so that you can burn more fat.

Eat Less to Lose Weight? Riiiight.

The first tip that I'm going to give out is a weight loss tip. I'm currently in Malaysia right now, and there's not a lot of overweight people here. But still, most people think that there's always some parts in their body that are not slim enough, not sexy enough, and so on.

Usually, people gain weight because either they eat too much or not active enough, but either way, their exercise is not enough to burn the calories.

From this understanding, almost everybody think that to lose weight, they have to eat less. This is why most people on diet eat less than three times a day. Most of them even hold back, and get as hungry as they can be to lose weight.

image credit to bingeeatingbulimia.com

But what do they get? They don't lose that much weight, and even if they do, in a few weeks or months, they weigh more than their "original" weight. They even say that they don't eat, and they don't feel hungry. This is because their metabolism has slowed down, and their calories burn slowly.

So here's my first tip: if you want to lose weight, NEVER eat less than three times a day!


If you want to lose weight, eat five or six times a day, with less portions. Three meals a day, with two or three snacks in between.

In my next post, I will give you an example of eating six times a day. The key is to eat less calories, but more frequent, to activate the metabolism in your body.