Brown is better than White!

The other day my brother went shopping for bread…and he asked me what’s the difference between brown bread, fiber bread, whole wheat bread…

my answer was, DUHHHHHH!!!!!

So my search began…the discoveries were quite interesting…

Basically whole wheat bread is made from whole grains. What defines a whole grain? Whole grains are grains that keep their bran and germ (see picture below).

Look out for:

• Many breads are colored brown (often with caramel) and are  made to look like wholegrain (but they are not!).
• Whole grains contain fiber and antioxidants (such as Vitamin E and selenium, iron, magnesium, zinc and B vitamins). When whole grains are refined, fiber and antioxidants are completely or partly removed. 
• However, fiber is not indicative of wholegrain. So, the amount of fiber differs from grain to grain. Some bread products may have things like bran, peas, or other foods added to increase their fiber content.

Ok, so, why do bakers refine whole grains? Why is white bread so much easily more available and cheaper?

Wholegrains are often more expensive than refined grains because their higher oil content is susceptible to rancidification. Originating from the word, rancid, rancidification is when the oils/fats in the grains interact with oxygen and make bad smells and taste (icky sticky!). When making whole grain products, antioxidants (like vitamin E and C are added) to help delay rancidification. This complicates the processing, storage, and transport of whole grain produce.

5 reasons to go whole:

1. contributes to decreasing the risk of type II diabetes 
2. decreases the risk factors of heart diseases and attacks
3. lowers LDL (bad cholesterol) and thus in turn reduces the incidence of a heart attack
4. prevents constipation
5. decreases the occurrence of certain cancers

This is my 2 grains on the topic ;)

Further reading:

http://www.healthcastle.com/brownbread-wholegrain.shtml

http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/brown-bread-facts-1497.html

Meal plan Jan 27th

FORGIVE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday's meal plan was a carboholic carnage!

Today's guilt degree is hitting boiling point!

so yesterday, le cafe had for lunch shepherd's pie (delish!)

then i was out watching a musical play and in the intermission was starving to death...attacked a turkey sandwich (from seattle's best)...

oh woes me

Lesson learnt

Musical plays and dieting do NOTgo hand in hand

Jan 26th meal plan

morning:
skinny cafe latte (in hopes the 'skinny' will rub on to me)
cornflakes + milk

morning snack:
1 nectarine

lunch:
stuffed grape leaves from back home (yummmmmm!)

afternoon snack:
2 carrots
1 cadbury eclair bonbon

evening:
1 cucumber
1 banana

late evening:
2 skewers of grilled lamb cubes
1 small bread
1 small salad

there was no chicken in any of my meals today, yayyyy!!! although chicken is healthier than red meat, but i Luuuuv my red meat!

A persecuted fruit...meet the AVOCADO

The other day I had a rather disheartening conversation with a girl friend about the nutritional value of avocados. Unfortunately, the prevalent misconception is that avocados are equal to a bar of butter. 
Seriously...a bar of BUTTER?! Avocado = Butter...Like what ze hell?? Where were they in biology and chemistry class!!!!


Ok, we gotta go back to basics: 

• Butter = bad fat = bad cholesterol = LDL = polysaturated fat = heart attack = DIE
• Avocado = good fat = good cholesterol = HDL = monosaturated fat = healthy heart = LIVE

A summary of my readings on avocado benefits include:

• The word 'avocado' comes from Aztec word ahuacatl...which means 'testicle'...hehehehehhe! Would you like a teste?! Hahahhaha! Anyway, it's just in reference to its shape...a rich a nutritious teste! lol
• It's a fruit, not a veggie!
• Packed with many good nutritional elements including: magnesium (helps people relax), lutein (vitamin good for the eye sight), calcium (good for the bones and for relaxing), potassium (prevents heart disease, stroke, and blood pressure) and finally HDL (good cholesterol that helps lower bad cholesterol. It also protects against cancer)

Readings on avocados and their benefits:

Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avocado

Fun facts: http://www.avocado.org/about/fun-facts

Guacamole: http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/the-health-benefits-of-organic-guacamole/

Medical forum: http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=50717

Vaat ze hell is LDL! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LDL_receptor

Finally, something that tastes good and is healthy! There is a god!

  

I want to make you sweat...A La La La La Long A La La La La Long Long Li Long Long Long

I had promised to do some research on sweat and exercise. 


My findings are:
If you sweat while you exercise then you are burning fat 
If you are just sweating because of:
1-heat from a hot environment like tanning or sitting in a sauna
2-heat from too much clothing or from wearing heat inducing body wraps
THEN the lost sweat is only water lost from your blood system!


That's my findings in summary. To read more about this, my fave site is wikipedia (but never just read wiki alone, always back it up from different sources/sites)
so, here's the wiki link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspiration


Other links that explain the link between sweat, exercise, and weight loss:
this is a good one ;) http://www.beautyandlace.com.au/sweating.html
http://hubpages.com/hub/Perspiration-Exercise-and-Weight-Loss
http://thehealthzombie.com/2009/12/27/perspiration-exercise-routines-and-weight-loss/
http://www.wisegeek.com/why-does-exercise-cause-sweating.htm

Jan 25th meal plan

morning:
me cafe latte and yellow light cheese with Arabic bread


noon:
nectarine


lunch:
meat kebbeh from my work's lovely cafeteria (they gave me 3 pieces...and i ate them all! next time cut down to 2 pieces)
small yogurt with cucumbers 
small salad


afternoon:
2 carrots
1 coffee with coffee mate


evening:
2 cucumbers
1 Oreo cookie


late evening:
2 skewers of chicken
small arabic loaf of bread
small salad
small boiled veggies 

1 banana

I stopped eating the veggies mid way through...just as I was a few mouthfuls in...when I realized they had butter! No wonder they tasted so GOOD! 


Note to self: if boiled veggies taste so good, then they MUST have butter. DISCONTINUE eating immediately!


Feelings:
minor guilt about the Oreo cookie
But huge satisfaction levels too. It was a caramel Oreo cookie...absolutely fantastic orgasmic!

Jan 24th meal plan

morning:
mandatory mug of  milk and nescafe
small bowl of cornflakes and some milk


noon:
sour grapes


lunch:
pasta, chicken, and chicken broth (made in cafeteria, so loads of unhealthy oil)
salad


afternoon:
small nectarine


dinner:
2 skewers of grilled chicken
1 small arabic loaf of bread
salad (my mandatory greens, yummmm!)
1 low fat strawberry yogurt


not too bad...but can cut off some foods...

Yesterday's yoga

So, part of my scale journey is to try out different approaches. My roomie is doing yoga around 5 times a week. and I'm joining in! but i wont be joing her for 5 sessions a week...I would get bored out of my mind! I'm going to try and do it twice a week (more than enough relaxation, stretching, and spirituality). Thurs night morning at 7am and Sat morning at 9:30am.

my first session was yesterday. the instructor is a really nice gal, she had a bit of morning breath, which can be a turn off. but i persevered. and god did i persevere, i mean, perspire!!! the mat (which was for the instructor - eeks!) was soaking wet. and the funny thing was that neither my roomie nor the instructor perspired. is it cos they are better than me in the yoga? or that they are more fit than me? or do fluffy (ie fat) people perspire more? i will do a search on that and get back to you with some answers.

that was my main source of exercise for yesterday. today, there will be no exercise :(  I have rehearsals for a play. the peformance is next weekend, so I have rehearsals everyday this week minus wed. there goes my exercise down the drain!

ah, well, c'est la vie. there will be always be the week after!

To scale or not to scale!

This is a project blog with a specified timeline and end date. I still haven’t chosen the deadline expiry date. Soooo, am currently living in Doobie. It's a great experience. Started out tough, but getting much better! Have a neat selection of friends: from the loud and rowdy, to the artsy fartsy, and to the blingy blingies. My inner self has undergone a good and positive transformation: from optimistic thinking, patience (shit loads of it...you need it in Dubai when dealing with cabs!), improved social skills (actually listening to people and not just pretending to listen to them, lol), to adding up...hmmm or should I say PILING on the POUNDS! Have looked into the usual suspects: gym, no eating, ordering 'healthy' food, cooking healthy food, taking pills, taking vitamins, drinking 3 liters of water (and spending the day peeing!), etc. Anyway, so what will be different this time around? Welll...I'm not sure :|

 
I was thinking that IF I put myself in a vulnerable position, expose all my weaknesses (ie FLAB!) to the world, and have a deadline, then I will be FORCED to live up to the dream. Basically I have a hypothesis I would like to test:
1-If I go public, then the spotlight (if anyone finds and reads this blog) will motivate me to realize my not-so-far-fetched dream
2-Having a 'deadline' and a 'goal' would put more pressure on me to work toward it, again under the spotlight of other fellow bloggees and bloggers.

The 'official start' date will be Feb 1st and the official end date will be July 1st!
So, I have 5 mths to get my freaking act together :D

Read on for more tales about the scales ;)