Break is Over!!

I hope everyone is ready for some rip roarin' new entries! Work, Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and getting very sick stopped me from writing. However, I am back. 10 pounds lighter and one belt notch closer to bringin' the sexy back.

Tonight, I will be back with a brand new entry.

Happy Hunting to my dear Chassidim

Break

As some of you noticed, there has been a lack of entries. Don't worry. I didn't drop the whole thing and run to Dunkin Donuts. Work has been crazy and I have been getting home progressively later. I will start writing again, next week, Wednesday.

Thank you all for reading my insanity.

Happy Hunting.

Labor Day Weekend

As many people know. I LOVE Bourbon. So, I will take this oppurtunity to explain something about booze and weight. Booze equals empty calories. Yes...it is delicious. It makes the pain go away. Makes ugly people good looking and helps white people dance. But they are about as empty as can get.

This weekend was a perfect example of how NOT to imbibe on a diet. From Shabbos to tonight was basically Bourbon rally. I faltered. On the plus side, I realized I can really dance...

For those of you who are actually good with their diets, weekends like this are great for weight loss. Sports, swimming, taking walks. Obviously, the more activity the better.

More to be written later...have to sleep some stuff off.

Happy Hunting.

Day 16

Yes, I know I skipped a day...

Let us talk about an uncomfortable topic for a second. Poop. Its a great word. Poop, poo, doodie, dookie... I get happy just laughing at these words. But, I digress. This isn't about my inability to leave 3rd grade. Its about digestion. What you eat has a tremendous effect on losing weight, your general well feeling, thoughts, everything. If you eat crappy chinese food 3 or 4 times a week, you will feel like an overweight, bloated MSG ridden blob. Eat some mexican food,you most likely will become bloated and flatulent. Not a comforting thought.

But does that mean you can't eat this stuff? No. Should you eat this stuff? Well, no, but it is soooooo good. Moderation is key with deep fried General Tzao's chicken and/or a Beef Burritto (See the other day about my love of the wonderful burritto.)

A real diet should consist or proteins, carbohydrates, FIBER (I will discuss this wonderful little colon cleanser later), fats and yes, some sugars. Balance is key in a diet. Going on a pasta and bread bender may be delicious, but it is not balanced and those carbs breakdown for use slower that anything. Not only that, carbohydrates actually, in the process of being broken down, turn in to a specific type of sugar and, if not used, gets stored in that spare tire.

Get used to cutting out candy bars and sodas. Donuts and high fructose syrup juices. They make you feel like garbage anyways.

Also, get used to eating less process foods. Whole grain breads, fruits and vegetables, water. Doesn't sound enticing? Well its not. Who wants to eat tasteless veggies, boiled till the devil doesn't want to look at them? Water? Tasteless, boring.

These foods don't have to be boring. Start looking around for interesting recipes and make them. If you own a TV or just watch TV on your computer, find cooking shows. My personal favorite is Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. He travels all over the world, eating local foods that look incredible. They use fresh ingredients (no deep fried, pre-packaged, MSG filled, garbage pieces of chicken.) They use spices. Don't be afraid of spices ladies and gentleman. A lot of them have serious health BENEFITS!!! If you have high cholesterol, eat some cinnamon every day. Eating a grapefruit everyday, if you are on cholesterol medicine, actually helps you reduce the dosages, and in some cases, the entire pill out of your repetoire!

Buy yourself a George Foreman grill for meat and dairy. You can grill fish and have a nice milchig (dairy) dinner. You can grill pineapples and put them on a handmade, fresh, delicious burger. Now we're talking! Good food, done right, will always prevail to fat people like me. And, added bonuses of it being healthy works too!

Water. As boring as it is, I can't stress enough about drinking water. There are different ideas of how much should be consumed everyday. 8 glasses is good I guess, I don't know, speak to your doctor. Drinking water is incredible. It helps regulate your entire body. It flushes out bad things, helps you retain skin elasticity, helps your brain, helps you digest. It is an amazing substance.

Back to the original topic though. What happens when you need to...release that water. Or the flip side, no pun intended. Fiber fiber fiber. Say it with me FIBER. You can get this wonderful substance from whole foods, grains, vegetables, fruits, Metamucil. Get some in your system. Eating something like 23 grams of fiber daily will actually help you drop the poundage without being on the can ALL day. Fiber acts like those scrubbing bubbles from the commercials. As it passes through you, it helps clean up your digestive tract. All of the extra waste that hasn't passed through you or is stuck in your system begins to make its way out. If you are feeling sluggish, tired, can't think straight, getting sick or generally under the weather, this could actually make you feel better.

Its like having bacteria just set up shop in your gut. A lot of bacteria are terrible and begin affecting the natural Flora and Fauna of your stomach, which in turn, makes your system focus on getting rid of those nasty vermin, but takes its energy away from other things. Again, the sluggishness hit and all of a sudden, you are on the couch, burping and farting, eating nachos watching Varsity Blues or some other horrible movie because you are too lazy to change the channel because the remote is just "too far".  Time for a clean start.

Water and Fiber. Diet and Exercise. This is the only way you'll feel better.

If you are normally sluggish and tired or can't seem to beat that cold. Try 2 weeks of diet and exercise, with tons of water and fiber. The difference will amaze you. And you'll be hooked.

Good luck out there. And...

Happy Huntings.

Day 15

So....um..yeah. Last night, I don't even remember writing that entry. I apologize for the complete idiocy. I guess not that the rest of this blog isn't ludacris, but last night was whacky. I honestly have no recollection of writing anything.

Sorry.

So yeah, last night the gym was closed by the time I got home from work. So I went to sleep. Sleep actuall IS important in weight loss and general health. Its kind of a "reset" and recoop from the days activities. So make sure you get your sleep. That doesn't mean sleep all day. 6-8 hours is sufficient. I usually run on less, but that is because I am a buffoon. Do not follow my lead on this.

For those of you like me, ADD has become an active part of my lifestyle. The constant tapping, the racing mind, the attention span of a gnat.A good time had by all. So working out sucks with this ADD. My inability to focus on anything, while sweating to the oldies, has become bothersome and particularly difficult. Here are some tips for that focus:

1) TV
2) Movies
3) Music
4) If you can read, go ahead, but it is difficult.

Do yourself a favor though. Don't work. Don't do your bills. Don't do anything too serious. You will equate working out with tremendously boring and horrible things. Like bills. The working out becomes a chore. So, just have fun. The boring stuff can wait.

Happy Hunting.

Day 14

Just got home from work. Gym closed. So is the blog for the night. Simon needs sleep.

FYI- When dieting and working out, make sure you drink enough water AND sleep. Sleep repairs muscles and its an easy work out. You are sleeping and if your metabolism is running from the gym, you're losing weight laying down and sleeping. G-d is great.

Happy Hunting.

From FoxNews.com

We're often told that losing weight is a simple mathematical equation of calories in, calories out. Burn more calories than you eat and you’ll lose fat. However, is it really that simple? The truth is that the actual “number” of calories you consume is not the only factor that affects your fat-loss efforts.

In this article, we’ll discuss five other things that should be considered when determining the effect of your diet on your waistline, primarily overlooked fat loss factors. Incorporate this knowledge into your workout and nutrition routines and soon you'll be ripped like Ryan Reynolds — and attracting looks from fitness babes like Amy Weber and Jamie Eason for it.

1. The Thermic Effect of the Food You Eat

The thermic effect of food (TEF) measures the amount of energy that is required to support the processes of digesting, absorbing and assimilating food nutrients as well as the energy expended as a result of the central nervous system's stimulatory effect on metabolism when food is ingested. Of the three macronutrients, protein carries the highest thermic effect. Eat more protein; burn more calories.

2. The Fiber Content of the Food You Eat

Due to its chemical makeup, fiber is classified as a carbohydrate; however, it is unlike other carbohydrates in that it is an indigestible nutrient. Even though each gram of fiber contains four calories, these calories will remain undigested and will not be absorbed. Therefore, if you were to consume 300 calories of red beans (a food in which nearly 1/3 of the caloric content is from fiber), approximately 100 of these calories would pass through your intestinal tract undigested.

3. The Glycemic and Insulin Indices of the Food You Eat

The glycemic and insulin indices are scaled numbers that refer to how quickly a particular carbohydrate source enters the bloodstream as sugar and how much insulin is needed to rid that sugar from the bloodstream, respectively. Generally speaking, there is a positive relationship between the two; the quicker sugar enters the bloodstream, the more insulin is needed to rid that sugar from the bloodstream. When high levels of insulin are present within the blood, fat burning is brought to a screeching halt, which is anything but desirable for those whose goal it is to obtain a lean, muscular physique. Don't let this be an overlooked fat loss factor.

4. The Different Macronutrients Present in the Food You Eat

Although insulin's primary function is to shuttle glucose (sugar) into skeletal muscle, it also carries many other nutrients to their respective storage sites — this includes lipids (fat). Since carbohydrate ingestion stimulates a large insulin response and fat ingestion gives rise to blood lipid levels, when the two are consumed together, they promote the greatest fat storage.

5. The Size, Frequency and Time of the Meals You Eat

Large, infrequent meals tend to promote storage of the ingested nutrients, as the body is unsure as to when the next feeding will take place. Conversely, consuming smaller, more frequent meals will result in an increase in metabolism and utilization of the ingested nutrients. Also, ingesting a large amount of carbohydrates before bed spikes insulin, deters nocturnal thermogenesis and increases fat storage during sleep. On the contrary, consuming a great deal of calories early in the day does not bring about this problem; rather, these calories are likely to be used as energy to support daily activities.

Fight the Fat

As you can see, someone could be eating a relatively small amount of calories daily, but at the same time be promoting a great deal of fat storage by: 1) Making poor food choices; 2) Combining macronutrients in a nonproductive fashion and; 3) Consuming food infrequently and at inopportune times. To illustrate this further, let's take a look at a recent study that analyzed the diets of 38 police officers. This study discovered that although the officers were consuming a hypocaloric diet (fewer calories than they burn), they all had unhealthy levels of body fat and had been gaining fat mass over the past five years. If all you had to do to lose fat was consume fewer calories than you burned, then these individuals would be losing fat, not gaining it.

To confirm the importance of the factors that I previously mentioned, let's take a look at some of the other things this study noted:

— Only 15 percent of their diet consisted of protein, the macronutrient with the greatest TEF.

— Their diet contained very little fiber.

— Over 50 percent of their carbohydrate intake was derived from simple sugars, which have very high glycemic and insulin indices.

— They didn't note this, but I'm willing to bet that they didn't avoid the fat-carb combo.

— They ate infrequently — only 10 percent of their caloric intake was consumed at breakfast and over 50 percent was consumed right before bed.

By now, it should be obvious that fat loss isn't just a matter of calories in, calories out. And while it’s a little more complex than that, you can easily use the tips in this article to ensure you’re getting the most from your dieting efforts.