Tuesday, February 26, 2013

The Giant Strawberry

I found this GIANT STRAWBERRY when I took out the case of strawberries in our fridge. This is the biggest strawberry I've ever seen in my life! No lie! (Yes, that is my hand. It's the same size as the fruit!)



It reminded me of when we learned about GMO's, or Genetically Modified Organisms, in biology last year. GMO's include food that has been modified to grow bigger and faster, so it got me wondering if my strawberry was genetically modified. hmmm

Either way it was really delicious :P

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

9 Tips on How to Easily Lose Weight

For a while, I've been constantly gaining weight, and really want to do something about it. I have such low motivation, which is the main issue for me, but lately I've been looking in the mirror and feeling almost disgusted, so it's about time I start working on my weight loss.

I weigh about 125 pounds, when I weighed about 100 two and a half years ago. Most of the weight I gained is extremely apparent in my butt, a lot in my thighs, and a bit in the stomach area. I've been looking up stuff about weight loss a bit online lately, and I found that these are a few things I can change in my life in order to get my goal of fitness. I want to lose weight but i also want to be healthy.

9 Easy Tips On How To Lose Weight With Simple Lifestyle Changes

1. Drink lots of water. Not only will this give a person good skin, which is one of the reasons why I've always tried to drink as much water as possible, but it also kinda fills you up a little bit, so you will need to take in less food than you normally would to feel full.

According to an article written by Readers' Digest, "The average American consumes an extra 245 calories a day from soft drinks. That’s nearly 90,000 calories a year — or 25 pounds! And research shows that despite the calories, sugary drinks don’t trigger a sense of fullness the way that food does."

I feel like this is something I can improve on because water makes me feel good. I tend to be happier when i drink more water, and I feel refreshed. Over the past 3 years I developed a pretty good liking to water, so I don't think it would be that hard to change as long as I bring a water bottle around with me all the time.

2. Go on a brisk walk for 45 minutes each day. I know it's recommended by the Surgeon General to exercise for 30 minutes each day, I think about 5 days a week, so I've been trying to do that on the treadmill, speed walking at like 4 mph for about 35 minutes, which takes me a little over 2 miles, until the treadmill broke :/ After that I kinda lost my exercising momentum which it really took a lot of effort to start. It's winter, so I can't ride my bike, so it's been tough finding stuff to do. I might start going on walks around the neighborhood after reading this from Readers' Digest,

"The reason we’re suggesting 45 minutes instead of the typical 30 is that a Duke University study found that while 30 minutes of daily walking is enough to prevent weight gain in most relatively sedentary people, exercise beyond 30 minutes results in weight and fat loss. Burning an additional 300 calories a day with three miles of brisk walking (45 minutes should do it) could help you lose 30 pounds in a year without even changing how much you’re eating."

I can't run because I used to be a runner but with my crooked hips that I later found out about, I had a lot of knee, foot, and ankle problems, so I stopped running once and for all. I had to get orthodics afterwards and deal with a lot of pain, so now the most I will do is brisk walking. One tip I can give about doing boring repetitive exercise like running and walking is that if you bring along your iPod with some really good music on it, it will be less boring and more enjoyable.

3. Use blue tablecloths, plates, and the color in general around food. Since I am a teenager living with my parents, I don't really have any control over the color of the tablecloths and plates in our house, but this is a really interesting tip. Readers' Digest says that,

"Believe it or not, the color blue functions as an appetite suppressant. So serve up dinner on blue plates, dress in blue while you eat, and cover your table with a blue tablecloth. Conversely, avoid red, yellow, and orange in your dining areas. Studies find they encourage eating."

This is very interesting, and I will definitely remember this when designing my future house. Maybe I'll buy one blue plate for my own personal use in my (parent's) current house.

4. Use smaller plates and portions. Using smaller plates will make your plate seem less empty so you would be less likely to fill it up with more food. Here's what Readers' Digest has to say about this,

"Studies find that the less food put in front of you, the less food you’ll eat. Conversely, the more food in front of you, the more you’ll eat — regardless of how hungry you are."

"Serve your dinner restaurant style (food on the plates) rather than family style (food served in bowls and on platters on the table). When your plate is empty, you’re finished; there’s no reaching for seconds."

This should help control eating more food than you really need to by accident. So will this next tip.

5. Eat slowly! I've known this one for a while, but I never seem to follow this tip because I am always rushing to get back to something and whenever I do something slowly, I feel like I'm wasting time and that I should hurry everything to finish quickly so I can get back to my busy life. This feeling might be useful for hurrying when I'm doing something that wouldn't matter how quickly I do it, but when it comes to eating, I need to calm down, take a chill pill, and eat slower. The reason this is helpful is explained here,

"Put your fork or spoon down between every bite. Sip water frequently. Intersperse your eating with stories for your dining partner of the amusing things that happened during your day. Your brain lags your stomach by about 20 minutes when it comes to satiety (fullness) signals. If you eat slowly enough, your brain will catch up to tell you that you are no longer in need of food."

6. Use vegetables as "fillers" for meals. Using vegetables can help make you feel fuller and therefore allow you to consume fewer calories while still feeling full. One vegetable that I would recommend eating is celery because it actually has negative calories. This is because the amount of calories consumed is less than the amount of calories a person burns while digesting celery. That means you burn calories eating! I wish that would be so for pretzel m&m's but I guess I can't always get my way. If you don't believe me about the negative calories, google it!

"Eating water-rich foods such as zucchini, tomatoes, and cucumbers during meals reduces your overall calorie consumption. Other water-rich foods include soups and salads. You won’t get the same benefits by just drinking your water, though. Because the body processes hunger and thirst through different mechanisms, it simply doesn't register a sense of fullness with water (or soda, tea, coffee, or juice)."

"You can eat twice as much pasta salad loaded with veggies like broccoli, carrots, and tomatoes for the same calories as a pasta salad sporting just mayonnaise. Same goes for stir-fries. And add vegetables to make a fluffier, more satisfying omelet without having to up the number of eggs."

7. Stop eating because you're bored! I am a major culprit of this crime. I don't eat out of technical boredom, but a lot of the time I'll be very busy and have a huge to-do list, which overwhelms me, so instead I will just watch a movie or tv show and try not to think about doing my work. I like to eat while doing this, even when I'm not hungry. Another terrible thing I do is procrastinate on homework and sometimes I subconsciously look for anything to do besides the actual homework. I tell myself "I won't be able to focus on work if I'm hungry! I must get something to eat!" and "If I don't eat I could get hungry while doing homework!" and "wow I don't feel like doing this. I wonder what's in the kitchen."

If I stop doing this, not only would it be better for my health, but it would also help me get my work done and procrastinate less.

8. Eat more in the morning and less at night. The reason behind this is the same reason you always hear  that you're not supposed to eat right before bed --the earlier you eat, the more time you have to burn off the calories during the day. You don't want to eat at night and then go to bed right after without working off any of the calories you just ingested because it would all turn into fat. Readers' Digest says,

"Get most of your calories before noon. Studies find that the more you eat in the morning, the less you’ll eat in the evening. And you have more opportunities to burn off those early-day calories than you do to burn off dinner calories.

Close out the kitchen after dinner. Wash all the dishes, wipe down the counters, turn out the light, and, if necessary, tape closed the cabinets and refrigerator. Late-evening eating significantly increases the overall number of calories you eat, a University of Texas study found. Stopping late-night snacking can save 300 or more calories a day, or 31 pounds a year."

9. Brush your teeth after each meal. Readers' Digest says, "Brush your teeth after every meal, especially after dinner. That clean, minty freshness will serve as a cue to your body and brain that mealtime is over."

This sounds like it could work, and even if it doesn't, at least you will still have spectacular dental hygiene!

That's all I have for you today! If you want to read the article I referenced in this blog post, click here. If you have any tips of your own, leave them in the comments down below.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Safe Haven Movie Review and Experience

Today I went to see "Safe Haven" in the movie theatres with one of my good friends, Amy (the asian one haha) and my sister Candice and her newish boyfriend, Alex. We're on break from school and have both been dying to see the movie. I wanted to go on Valentine's Day with the girls but it was a school night and the parents weren't down so we had to go today, the 19th of February.

Anyways, the movie was great. You could tell it was by Nicholas Sparks because of the way it was directed. It reminded me a bit of the notebook because of the rain scene, but it was different than all of his other movies. I'm not going to do a plot overview because I don't want to spoil it for you but it's basically about a girl who is running for someone and falls in love with a man whose wife died to cancer.

I would highly recommend watching this movie. Even though it's a chick flick, there is a bit of danger in it and I think guys would like it too. Amy, Candice, even Alex, and I all liked it. Bring a cute boy to see the movie, it will make it funner :P

That's it for now. But speaking of boys, click here to see how my Valentine's Day went!