Diet Hack: Green Tea

I'll admit it, I love the feeling that eating and drinking give me. It's social, it's decadent, it feels rich. Of course, the foie gras that goes straight to my thighs and the champagne that slows my metabolism should be off the menu.

Enter green tea. Obviously, green tea is almost no calorie, but it's also tauted to speed the metabolism and curb the appetite. Even if it doesn't do anything to speed your weight loss, it's not going to slow it down.

But if you want decadence, flowering green tea is the way to go. It's a work of art in a glass of tea.

My mother came back from her trip to china with a gorgeous set of tea balls that when steeped unfurled into colorful flowers that enhance the floral flavor of the tea.

Image courtesy of hhas.com who sells flowering tea bulbs for $1.30 each.

*Diet Hacks are features that give tips on how to effortlessly lose weight. They are not a substitute for a healthy diet and daily exercise.

JTV: Chinese Food

Yesterday at the Rockband get together I did have some Coq Au Vin. I have a hard time serving people completely vegetarian meals because there seems to be a negative stigma against not providing meat protein as a dinner party host.

I made some great vegetarian sides like cauliflower au gratin, garlic green beans and whole wheat couscous, of which I have plenty of leftovers that I'll be eating for the rest of the weekend.

Yesterday, for lunch I had a bean and cheese burrito. I think going forward I'll have to get those from Taco Bell because I can only assume that authentic restaurants have animal lard in the beans. At least, that's what fiance keeps reminding me.

I'm back eating vegetarian and stopped into the Veggie Wokery, a vegetarian Chinese restaurant and ordered basil eggplant, hot and sour soup and a side of multigrain brown rice. IN the soup I came across faux squid! It actually had the consistency of squid and you could barely tell it wasn't real squid!

Here's another reason to go vegetarian, courtesy of the Vegetarian Times:

"2 You'll save your heart. Cardiovascular disease is still the number one killer in the United States, and the standard American diet (SAD) that's laden with saturated fat and cholesterol from meat and dairy is largely to blame. Children as young as age 3 who are raised on fast food and junk food show early signs of heart disease, according to the Bogalusa Heart Study done at the Louisiana State University. Cardiovascular disease is found in one in nine women aged 45 to 64 and in one in three women over 65. Heart attacks are also deadlier to the fairer sex: 53 percent of women who have heart attacks die from them, compared with 47 percent of men. Today, the average American male eating a meat-based diet has a 50 percent chance of dying from heart disease. His risk drops to 15 percent if he cuts out meat; it goes to 4 percent if he cuts out meat, dairy and eggs. Partly responsible is the fact that fruits and vegetables are full of antioxidant nutrients that protect the heart and its arteries. Plus, produce contains no saturated fat or cholesterol. Incidentally, cholesterol levels for vegetarians are 14 percent lower than meat eaters." -Norine Dworkin

Image courtesy of itofoods, where you can find vegetarian squid.

JTV: The First Step

For some people I think that jumping into vegetarianism sounds awful. My family, full of serious meat eaters, couldn't understand why I would forsake something like meat when I went vegetarian years ago. At the time it was based on a principled value: that the reason why animal meat is bad for you is because we're not supposed to eat it. Afterall, why does animal fat, with the exception of seafood, have such a bad effect on the human body?

I'll be the first to admit, I'm not the best at doing things that are good for my body. Like drinking. I know that vodka club soda is not good for me but when I'm out there it is in my hand asking me to drink it.

But thinking about why vegetarianism is a good choice for my life is probably how I'll stick to it. So courtesy of the vegetarian times, here is reason number 1:

"1 You'll live a lot longer. Vegetarians live about seven years longer, and vegans (who eat no animal products) about 15 years longer than meat eaters, according to a study from Loma Linda University. These findings are backed up by the China Health Project (the largest population study on diet and health to date), which found that Chinese people who eat the least amount of fat and animal products have the lowest risks of cancer, heart attack and other chronic degenerative diseases. And a British study that tracked 6,000 vegetarians and 5,000 meat eaters for 12 years found that vegetarians were 40 percent less likely to die from cancer during that time and 20 percent less likely to die from other diseases." --Norine Dworkin

Image courtesy of DesiThreads who actually sells the shirt pictured.

Journey to Vegetarianism

I think the healthiest time in my life was when I was a vegetarian. My body felt good, my mood was better and my mind was focused. Whenever my body feels awful I think about how detoxing with a month or so of veggies would be great. So today I started.

On my way to work I picked up a small container of strawberries from a local farm and 2 containers of basil seaweed from my favorite vegetarian restaurant. I have a bottle of water and a bottle of orange juice and I'm hoping it'll all get me through the day. When I get home I'll probably have some soba noodles.

I realized that part of being a successful vegetarian is to give up any notion of the Standard American Diet which usually comprises of some protien, a carb and a vegetable side. Indeed we can subsist on fruits and vegetables alone.

Today I feel lighter already and have already taken in more water than I normally would. I'm not even going to think about the calories.

Diet Hack: Chewing Gum

Last night the fiance and I were talking about his body building period. His uncle was an award winning body builder that helped fiance lose quite a bit of weight. Aside from being on a really strict diet that has turned him off to tuna forever, fiance swears by chewing gum.

It makes sense though because he was chewing winterfresh gum which imparts quite a minty taste. The taste of mint will curb the appetite because it signals the end of a meal. Mint itself will aid in digestion.

But that's not all this wonder treat does, here's a short list of additional benefits:
-Prevents tooth decay.
-Removes the bacteria that causes bad breath.
-Diverts oral fixators from talking and eating.

So if you're looking for a mindless way of reducing your calories, look to a sugar free mint gum and chew it
*Diet Hacks are features that give tips on how to effortlessly lose weight. They are not a substitute for a healthy diet and daily exercise.