7 foods that will help weight loss

1. Homemade raisin bran
Description: Mix one cup of Total cereal, a packet of raisins, and 1 cup nonfat milk. This simple home recipe with 244 calories fortifies you with 100 percent of the Daily Value for most vitamins and minerals, boosts your protein intake by 12 grams, and gives you a sweet, natural fiber and sugar source.
You'll Save: 50 calories, 6 teaspoons of sugar, and 5 grams of fat compared with ready-to-serve raisin bran doused with a cup of 2-percent milk.

2. Scrambled whites with greens
Description: This low-fat, scrambled-egg alternative provides 54 grams of high-quality dietary protein in just 255 calories. First, spray your frying pan with fat-free Pam. Then pour the equivalent of four servings of Eggology egg whites (or Second Nature or Egg Beaters egg whites) in a bowl and blend with 1/2 cup spinach and 1/2 cup mushrooms. Heat the pan until the Pam starts to bubble, pour in the eggs, and fry until the eggs are nearly dry.
You'll Save: 40 calories, 100 milligrams of cholesterol, and 13 grams of fat compared with two normal scrambled eggs.

3. Balanced Diet Shake
Description: For something cool, tasty, and nutrient-filled in the morning, try a shake or smoothie. The Balanced Diet nutritional drink provides 180 calories with lots of complex carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals in a naturally flavored French vanilla or chocolate royale. Each serving includes 5 grams of dietary fiber and 10 grams of soy, or 40 percent of the daily minimum now recommended by the American Heart Association.
You'll Save: 60 calories daily and nearly 6 grams of fat compared with many other similar drinks.

4. Frozen fruit smoothie
Description: You can prepare your own personal antioxidant-filled fruit smoothie like the following one that runner Bruce Shapiro used to lose 30 pounds over the last few years. Combine and blend: one cup frozen, unsweetened blueberries; 1/2 banana; 1/4 cup wheat germ; and water.
You'll Save: 200 calories for each 2- to 3-cup serving, compared with many store-bought and canned smoothie beverages.

5. Toasted plain Lender's Bagel with natural jam
Description: Sure, a frozen bagel can't match a fresh one, but it's easier to obtain for many people, and a little toasting brings it to near perfection. Just spread with your favorite natural jam.
You'll Save: Anywhere from 160 to 360 calories and more than 10 grams of fat compared with similar bagels bought at Dunkin' Donuts and other outlets where the bagels are spread with cream cheese.
Lunch is the second-most-important meal of the day in your weight-loss plan. It boosts your energy level and regulates your metabolism to keep you on an even keel.

6. Health Valley chili
Description: The right soup is always a great part of your weight-loss arsenal. This can of fat-free chili is tasty, easy to prepare, and filled with healthy fiber.
You'll Save: 200 calories and 22 grams of fat compared with other prepared and restaurant chilis.

7. Spaghetti squash
Description: When prepared, the spaghetti squash actually resembles a plate of spaghetti, so you can add all your favorite sauces and toppings. Rich in fluids (about 92.3 percent water), carbohydrates, fiber, potassium, Vitamin C, and pantothenic acid (a B vitamin), spaghetti squash makes an ideal, low-calorie entre that's still filling. (Note: This is not, however, the best way to carbo-load for a marathon, or resupply your leg muscles after a hard workout. For that, you'll want a traditional plate of pasta, heavy on the spaghetti, and light on the sauces.)
You'll Save: 200 calories compared with 2 cups of wheat spaghetti.

9 of the Craziest (if not extremely dangerous) Diets

1. Master Cleanse

The Master Cleanse (aka the Lemon Cleanse and the Maple Syrup Diet) is a ten-day program that was developed by Stanley Burroughs in 1941. The whole idea is to detoxify. With this strict regimen, it is believed that the body should be rid of harmful toxins in the body, as well as losing weight and curing disease. In the period of these ten days, nothing is consumed except for lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper. It has been stated that some people have stayed on the diet for as long as 45 days. Crazy.

However, there are definite risks involved. The diet lacks many of the important vitamins and nutrients that are necessary for the body. You do lose weight for certain, but in return you are rewarded by massive headaches and constipation, due to the lack of food passing through the body.

2. Sleeping Beauty Diet
It was believed that the King himself, meaning Elvis Presley, was an advocate of the Sleeping Beauty Diet back in the 1970’s. Basically, in a nutshell, this diet is described as sleeping off unwanted pounds. So, you can sedate yourself for several days and lose weight at the same time. Nothing like multitasking.

3. Grapefruit Diet
Otherwise known as the “Hollywood Diet,” this fad diet basically involves eating half a grapefruit or drinking grapefruit juice with each meal. However, daily caloric intake must be below 800 calories. So the diet is strict, but weight loss is promised because of the supposed fat-burning enzymes found in grapefruit. Unfortunately, experts state that there is no medical evidence of this being true. Going further, the monotony of the diet is a prescription for future boredom that may result right back to bad eating habits.

4. Tapeworm Diet Pills
Regardless of how disgusting it sounds, some people desperate to lose weight have actually been interested in trying this weight loss option. You can get tapeworms by eating raw meat. The other option is in the form of a pill, which as many people know, is an urban legend.

The idea behind this diet option is that these parasites secrete protein in our intestinal tracts that make our digestive processes less efficient. Since the tapeworms are already doing the work of digesting for you, you can actually lose pounds by this method because in essence, you can eat whatever you want. The tapeworm is already breaking down the food for you for its own growth. Disgusting.

Fortunately, the FDA has banned this diet “option”. It is both dangerous and downright gross.

5. Vision-Dieter Glasses
Okay, so this option isn’t really dangerous. It’s more along the lines of stupid. These glasses were designed so that when you wore them, the food you saw looked unappealing. So with the blue tint of the lenses, food might look less desirable, but at the same time, so will you. Shame.

6. Cotton Ball Diet
Cotton. It’s the fabric of our lives. But can eating cotton balls help you lose weight? According to some, it was believed that eating cotton balls could suppress your appetite, since apparently they are low in calories, but high in fiber. The side effect? They could clog your digestive system, since cotton balls, you know, absorb things. And they’re kinda fluffy, so imagine what it could produce. Ew.

7. Diet Fork
This is just as silly as the vision-dieter glasses. If the size of your fork is smaller, that means your food portions should be smaller too, right? What a concept. Next.

8. Ear Stapling
Sure, there is such a thing as ear piercing. But ear stapling? This diet involves stapling your ear cartilage because it supposedly suppresses your appetite. However, this method is illegal in Florida and can cause infections, nerve damage, and extreme pain. Duh.

9. Diet Patches
These are designed for the lazy. Nicotine patches help smokers avoid the craving, and they are also FDA approved. However, diet patches are not. So while these patches seem too good to be true, it’s best off to save your money and lose weight the right way. The effect of these diet patches will most likely not help you at all.

Anxiety cannot protect you from the ills of tomorrow but it can rob you of the joys in today

15 Facts About Running

Fact 1

Even if you’re a super-slow jogger, you’ll burn at least 10 calories per minute of running. That means you’ll run off half a block of Lindt Dark Chocolate in less than 23 min!

Fact 2

The record for most marathons run on consecutive days is 365! Belgian runner Stefaan Engels, knows as the “Marathon Man” set the record in 2011, aged 49!

Fact 3

Athletes dressed in red are more likely to win events than athletes wearing any other colour.

Fact 4

The fastest mile (approx. 1.6km) ever run was by Morrocan, Hitcham El Guerrouj, in 3:43:13 in 1999.

Fact 5

The fastest mile for a woman was set by Russia’s Svetlana Masterkova, her time was 4:12.56 – the run was in 1996 and hasn’t been seriously challenged since!

Fact 6

An average man has enough energy in his fat stores to run non-stop for 3 days at 24km per hour. That’s FAST considering about 10-12km per hour is the average pace general punters run at. Please don’t try this at home

Fact 7

The oldest person to complete a marathon was born in 1911, making him 100 years old at the time. He was an Indian man named Fauja Singh. AND guess what? Fauja didn’t even start running until he was 89 years of age. It’s never too late!

Fact 8

Women were excluded from the Boston Marathon until 1972. But that didn’t stop them. In 1966, Roberta Gibbs, hid behind a bush and jumped out to complete the run and finished “unofficially” in 3:21:25! She was the first woman to complete the course.

Fact 9

Over 1 billion pairs of running shoes are sold world-wide each year.

Fact 10

12 of the world’s top-20 distance runners are members of the Kalenjin tribe of northwest Kenya.

Fact 11

Runners who played ball sports (i.e. soccer or footy) as kids had nearly 50 percent fewer stress fractures than runners who didn’t. Stanford University researchers found that runners who played ball sports had, “greater and more symmetrically distributed bone mass.” (Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine)

Fact 12

Physically active people have a 60 percent lower risk for Alzheimer’s disease than coach potatoes (The Lancet Neurology – Sweden)

Fact 13

In the feet, 26 bones, 33 joints, 112 ligaments, and a network of nerves, tendons, and blood vessels have to work together when we run!

Fact 14

Strides are extremely consistent among professional runners, usually between 185-200 steps per minute!

Fact 15

Music can boost your running performance by up to 15%! But only if you’re a particular kind of runner. If you tend to focus inward while running, music probably won’t help you much… but if you look for stimulus from your environment, pump the tunes to get over the finish line more quickly!

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11 Facts About Depression

1.      Roughly 20 million people in the United States suffer from depression every year. 
 2.      1 in 4 young adults will suffer an episode of depression before age 24.

3.      Women are 2 times as likely to suffer from depression than men.

4.      People who are depressed are more prone to illnesses like colds than non-depressed people.

5.      Continuous exposure to violence, neglect, abuse, or poverty may make people who are already susceptible to depression all the more vulnerable to the illness.

6.      Depression is a common mental disorder. Globally, more than 350 million people of all ages suffer from depression.

7.      There are interrelationships between depression and physical health. For example, cardiovascular disease can lead to depression and vice versa.

8.      Depression affects all people regardless of age, geographic location, demographic, or social position.

9.      The World Health Organization estimates that depression will be the 2nd highest medical cause of disability by the year 2030, 2nd only to HIV/AIDS.

10.  Many creative individuals experienced depression, including Ludwig van Beethoven, John Lennon, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Georgia O’Keefe, Vincent van Gogh, Ernest Hemmingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Sylvia Plath.

11.  Over 8% of adolescents in the United States suffer from depression at a given time.