Tag: fasting

Gut feeling (kombucha)

Kombucha….. pretty nasty stuff I would have to say, but just like it is nasty it has its health benefits.

(Kom-boo-chuh) no it’s not koombaya this is beverage is a made of either green or black green tea which is fermented with bacteria and yeast, known as SCOBY the tea becomes carbonated as it ferments making it a fizzy drink

So my wife has been on a new kick about this drink and she claims that they are delicious and that the flavor makes a big difference but I swear they all taste like vinegar well, at least to me they do.

I know that there is a large amount of people that love the stuff and drink it casually and my question for them is as follows:

How long have you known you are a psychopath?

Haha just kidding haha

Apparently there are many health benefits to drinking the stuff, one of the benefits that I have experienced is the gut health and what I noticed the most was less bloating. It has helped improve the way I feel.

Here are the potential health benefits of kombucha

1. Gut health- the drink is rich in probiotic bacteria which is similar to eat healthful bacteria found in the gut, this may help improve digestion. Kombucha has been found to help treat diarrhea, ease irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) to strengthen the immune system.

2. Infection risks- kombucha has the ability to kill microbes and bacteria that may cause infections making it easier for the body to fight them off.

3. Mental health- no this might seem like the odd one out of all of the other benefits but it has been found out that depression can be linked to inflammation so the anti-inflammatory properties of the drink can help with some symptoms of depression.

4. Cancer risk- in studies done in both 2008 and 2013 they found the possibility of kombucha helping to help treat or prevent the risk of getting cancer. The studies suggest that kombucha helps by preventing cancer cells to grow.

-2008 kombucha study on cancer

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/.18979556/

-3013 study

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221052391200044X

5. Heart disease- it has been found that kombucha can

6. Weight loss- Green tea is one of the main ingredients to kombucha, and green tea itself helps burn more calories, which suggests that kombucha has the same benefit for weight loss.

These are just some benefits of kombucha and there are still ongoing studies that I’m sure will uncover more benefits to drinking it.

There is also one other thing I want to add and that is that the suggested serving one should consume is no more than 12 oz in a day, one bottle contains 16oz which may lead to the consumption of excess sugars because well, (it contains fruit)as well as excess caffeine from the tea.

Before you decide not to try this drink based on my opening sentence, take a chance and give it a try I only wrote that based my experience who knows maybe you would like it.

The one and only brand that I have tried has been health-ade kombucha Pomegranate flavor .

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size:

8fl oz

Amount Per Serving

Calories from Fat 0

Calories 40

Total Fat 0g

Sodium 10mg

Total Carbohydrates 9g

Sugars 3g

Protein 0g

Paleo Approved

I’m going to start off with an update on how I am doing with the paleo diet and well I’m going to be honest it did not go well. I stuck with the diet for the first week of the month and even though it was a short run I must admit that I felt an increase in energy. But just because I did not stick to it for march it doesn’t mean that I’m giving up on it. The great thing of self improvement, is a lot like using the jump rope if you hit you foot and it stops just start up again until you find your rhythm. Due to my work schedule I have not had the time to sit and do my research to better understand what the paleo diet consists of but now that it is going back to normal I can get back at it

I have found a more comprehensive list of what foods are allowed with the paleo diet and I have found that the list is actually not as short as I thought it would be. There are the basic meats vegetables and fats.

But what types of food are all in these categories? This is a common question that has both a simple answer as well as a difficult one because there is a huge variety of foods and all we have to do is weed out the types that are accepted.

Here is a short list of approved foods:

Meats: try to make sure they are lean instead of fatty

My go to’s are beef, turkey and chicken

Other options are: rabbit, organ meats like liver, elk, deer, venison, quail, pheasant

Fish:

Wild salmon, mackerel, tuna, bass, tilapia, halibut, cod

Shellfish:

Oysters, crab, crayfish, lobster, prawns, mussels, scallops

Vegetables:

Artichokes, zucchini, squash, sweet potatoes, bell peppers, kale, celery, onion, pumpkin,

Broccoli, tomato, eggplants, cauliflower, radish, carrots, cabbage

Fats:

Fruits:

Apples , Passion fruits, lemon, blackberries, strawberries, papaya, pears, pineapple, kiwi, apricot, banana, grapes, plums, watermelon, melon, mango, guava

Nuts and seeds:

Almonds, macadamia nuts, pecans cashews, walnuts, pumpkin seeds

Sweeteners:

Raw Honey, palm sugar, Agave syrup

Now a short list of non-approved foods:

Starchy vegetables:

white potatoes, tapioca yams

Cereal Grains:

Barley, rice corn, wheat, wild rice buckwheat and any processed foods made with cereal grains.

Legumes:

Beans, garbanzo beans, lentils, snow peas,

Fats:

all seed oils trans fats bad saturated fats

Dairy:

no dairy products such as cheese, yogurt, ice cream

And absolutely no processed foods such as candy or anything containing too much sodium such as hotdogs, salami or deli meats

Paleo diet. So Easy A Caveman Can Do It: I hope 😳

To start things off I am proud to say that I have lost 7lbs this month so far which makes it a total of 128 lbs pounds lost woohoo!!!
From 350lbs
To: 222Lbs

Every now and then I get bored of the recipes that I cook for myself which makes me either change up the diet or look for new recipe ideas to try. Lately I have been getting a bit bored with the food that I have been eating and I feel like it is time for a change I have been looking for new methods of dieting and there is one diet that I have heard of before but have never really looked into, which is the paleo diet. I have decided that for the month of march I will be giving the diet a try to see what effects it has on my body and how it makes me feel. As of right now I am not on a specific diet I just count my calories and stick to similar recipes so that it does not get too confusing but with the paleo diet I feel like there will be more structure because of the foods that it allows me to have. So far what I have found out, is that the paleo diet or Primal diet basically is a diet based on what our ancient ancestors presumably consumed during the Paleolithic era, hence (paleo). This diet consists of consuming lean meats such as poultry, and red meats, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds basically anything that was consumed during the hunting and gathering era, making sure to keep the consumption of grains, legumes, dairy products and any processed foods to a minimal.

(what?!?, you mean I can’t have any donuts? how will I survive?)

My plan going into trying this new diet (well new for me) is that I will make sure to do my research and allow myself one cheat meal per week in order to avoid any diet burnout which trust me, exists I mean nobody wants to diet 100 percent of the time. I will also be trying to keep a journal on how this makes me feel that way I can compare where I started to where I currently am. As far as my workouts I will be doing the same on that I have been doing because I feel like it is very effective and I am seeing great results.

Tips on how to start off a new diet or anything:

1. Always start with a positive attitude that Is the key for success.
2. If you mess up and eat something or some things that you should not it is ok just make sure to get back on track because that is how we learn
3. Research is important, at least know the basics of what you are getting yourself into
a. You are setting yourself up for failure if you go in blindly.
4. Consistency is key, but also you are on your own schedule not on anyone else’s
a. If it takes you two months to lose 10 lbs that is ok progress is progress.
b. Don’t give up future you will be thankful for your dedication to becoming better.

How Fast II

Benefits of Intermittent fasting

I have been fasting since the end of September 2018 at first it was confusing because I was under the impression that skipping a meal was bad, and that breakfast was the most important meal of the day but it got much easier when started to learn more about it. After reading a few articles and books on the the subject I quickly learned about the physical and mental benefits of intermittent fasting. The first two days of fasting were the hardest because I felt like I was going to overeat as soon as my window opened and I am not going to lie I did overeat a few times but once I got into a routine it became much easier. Once I was able to get past the hunger pangs I was able to notice a few differences and one of them was that any bloating that I would feel after eating was reduced. There are many benefits to fasting and once you are able to get past the hunger pangs you are able to certainly feel them.

Although it seems like Intermittent fasting like a fairly new idea, it was a method that was common in ancient life when when hunting and gathering where the only means to survive. Back then they obviously did not have a choice, because of the scarcity of the food they had to make it last.

Benefits of intermittent fasting:

1. Helps take off and keep off the weight

a. Eat fewer meals which means less calories consumed.

b. Hormonal changes, your body will adapt to fasting which in turn enhances your body’s ability to burn calories

c. It takes 10-12 hours for the energy from meal to be used up by the body and then it has to resort to the stored energy (fat).

2. Fasting will help regulate your digestive system allowing it to better repair and revitalize

a. Fasting helps the body eliminate toxins and waste from the body

3. Helps with the increase of energy, I know it seems hard to believe trust me I was as much of a skeptic until I started to feel this benefit for myself

4. It allows your muscles to recover faster.

a. This is something that I was more amazed at because I was feeling sore for less time allowing me to progress faster in my fitness I was able to increase the weight that I lifted more frequently

b. Also one of my favorite effects of this was that my joint pain decreased substantially. My knees would hurt after a good workout and after Jiu-jitsu but now the pain is low to none. This is because my body had more time to work on repairing itself rather than to try and use the energy of the food from the day before.

5. Fasting can also help build character:

a. It has helped me become more disciplined by creating a schedule in which I can be more productive during my day.

b. It has helped me become strong enough to fight off temptations outside of my cheat meal, that might compromise any fitness progress that I have made that day or week.

Overall the benefits of fasting are huge and the only way for anyone to be able to feel them is by trying it out. Yes it will be horrible at the beginning, trust me I struggled with it at first but like I said once it becomes a habit it will be much easier. You don’t have to start off with the 8hr eating window and 16hr fasting, maybe it is best if you try at first maybe 12/12. Remember the 21/90 rule? 21 days to create a habit and 90 to create a lifestyle, well this applies to fasting as well it is only hard at the beginning and eventually it will become a no-brainer.

Fasting tips:

1. Start off slow if you are not willing to test your will power

2. Eat food that is healthy

3. Skip first or last meal not the middle one that way you get the best out of this method

4. Push through the hunger pangs you will become a better person trust me.

HOW FAST?

For this week I am going to start with the basics how I found out about Intermittent fasting and other weight loss methods that I have tried and I will give you a basic idea of what exactly it is.

I have tried different types of diets in my weight loss journey and I found a few that were very effective but they always had the same results once I met my goals which was the yo-yo effect. I would always put some weight back on once I got off the diet it seemed like it was a never ending cycle of dieting and then reaching my goals only to put the pounds back on I honestly thought that I was going to have to diet for the rest of my life and that was something that I was not willing to do.

Here are some dieting methods that I have tried that have been effective

1. vegetarian diet (not vegan)- This type of dieting was the first one it was the on that started my weight loss journey and I lost a total of 50lbs but since I love steak and all of the meaty deliciousness this was not maintainable. With this diet I couldn’t eat anything that my family cooked because it all had meat it was great for weight loss and it made me feel amazing with more energy and motivation but it also made me cry because I couldn’t eat carne asada.

2. Mediterranean- essentially this diet consisted of having seafood and since I was not very experienced in cooking fish my go to was Cod or shrimp, after a while I was just not able to stand the smell of fish but it was very effective oddly, this was when I learned about veggie substitutions in plates that included pasta(such as zoodles or zucchini noodles). I lost my next 30 lbs on this diet.

3. Counting calories- this method has been the most effective one that I have used and it was super hard, I didn’t know what I was doing I just knew that I had to do this. I learned that the easiest way to keep good on you calories was by cooking all of the meals at once and having putting them away or meal prepping. With this method I lost another 20lbs.

4. Keto- well what can I say about this dieting method to tell you the truth I did not lose any weight with this because I gave up about a week into it. It looked amazing on paper, I mean you get to eat cheese, bacon, steak and ham and what not and the results of other people were great. I could not get past the feeling of it I always felt gross and it really affected my skin it was just not for me. I knew of the keto flu which was the name of the reaction and that it was normal, all I had to do is get passed the first couple of weeks and it would go away. I plan to give this method a try once again to see what results I have but it will not be anytime soon.

I am not trying to persuade anyone to not try any of these methods my point to this is to motivate everyone to try different methods. All of these worked for me it pushed me to lose 100 lbs but the reason I kept moving on and trying more methods was because I kept hitting a weight plateau which made me lose motivation which made me gain some of the weight back, which pushed me to try something different. With the calorie count method I did not plateau but it was starting to get hard and there was not way that I could do it forever and I did not want gain the weight back so I started doing some research which helped me better understand why I was not losing anymore weight. In my research I stumbled across intermittent fasting, it stated that all of the top stars in Hollywood do it and that it is a new trend, I normally do not believe those types of ads but I decided to focus on finding more information about the subject and what I found was that it was simple to do all I had to do was skip one meal a day and that it normally would be breakfast. Yes, I know what you are probably thinking WHAT, SKIP THE MOST IMPORTANT MEAL OF THE DAY? Yes that is exactly what I am saying, if you skip one meal a day a you will naturally consume less calories.

For example:

If your normal day is like this

Breakfast 500-800 cal

Lunch 600-800 cal

Dinner 700-1000 cal

You are consuming anywhere 1800 to 2600 cals per day by the way if you’re not into bodybuilding then you should probably not be having 2600 calories. Now eliminate one of those meals and naturally you will be consuming less calories, the meals that are options for cutting out are either breakfast or dinner. Since you are eliminating meals it is easier to plan out what food you will be consuming during the time you are able to eat.

So to be exact, fasting is scheduling when you eat and I do not mean scheduling like eat chicken at 3pm then at 5pm and so on, intermittent fasting is just setting a time of the day that you are able to eat for example my schedule goes like this:

(Since I work night shift I had to make two schedules one for workdays and one for days off.)

1. The days that I work I eat my first meal at 6 then I snack any time before my next meal and usually I eat it whenever I have a free minute at work. My last meal of the night is between 130 and 2 am which is an 8 hour window meaning I fast for 16hrs but I make sure that I get all of my calories in with those two meals and the snack.

2. On days that I do not work I don’t eat until either 12pm or 2pm depending on how hungry I am feeling of course my first day off I fast for a shorter amount of time but my window still closes at 8pm or 10pm putting me back on the 8/16 fasting schedule.

At first it might sound confusing but when you get used to it the schedule works great, plus fasting has been what made me survive the holidays I managed to stay the same weight and I ate everything ha.

There is so much more information that I want to share with you about intermittent fasting so keep an eye out for my weekly posts I will be going over where the idea of intermittent fasting comes from what other types of this dieting methods there are.