Gas problem

"People who are nervous or in habit of swallowing air often have belching problems. It also depends on the food they eat and the bacteria in their intestines," say Dr Lam Chi Wan, a member of the Medical Committee of the Hong Kong Gastrointestinal Health Foundation. "Highly strung people tend to be more susceptible to pain and bloating problems," he says.

Most gas is caused by swallowing air or the normal breakdown of undigested food in the gut. Breaking wind anywhere from 14 to 23 times a day is normal. The smell comes from bacteria in the large intestine that release small amounts of sulphur. Belching can exacerbated by fizzy drinks and eating too fast. Most belching can be controlled by eating slowly, avoiding chewing gum and not smoking. Antacids can also help. Sometimes excess burping may be a sign of an upper gastrointestinal disease such as reflux or peptic ulcer.

Gas pain caused by belching or bloating of the stomach and intestines my not be a serious problem. But severe pain in the centre or left upper part of chest, spreading to the shoulder area and accompanied by sweating, could be a sign of serious problem such as heart disease. "You should see your doctor immediately about frequent sharp chest pain," say Dr Lam Chi Wan.

A test that can save your life

As osteoporosis often causes no symptoms at all until a fall snaps a bone, the only way to tell if you have it is via a bone-mineral density test. This procedure is advised for anyone over 50 who has suffered a fracture and all womemn over 65. Right now, the test involves lying on your back while the arm of a special x-ray device moves over your body to measure the thickness of various bones.

CyberLogic, a New York research firm, has developed a simpler device that's around 23 cm long, run on four AA batteries and scans bones with ultrasound.

If the portable scanner proves as reliable as X-rays, it could be breakthrough, say osteoporosis expert Dr Ethel Siris. "A small device like this could make bone checkups part of a routine medical visit, becuase it's both affordable and user-friendly."

If testing shows you have osteoporosis, some major advantes in treatment can help. While there are several effective medications on the market, including Fosamax, Etidrate and Forteo, the latest wonder drug is Boniva, the first once-a-month pill for osteoporosis. The FDA recently approve this drug, which works by reducing the activity in cells respondsible for bone breakdown.

Should osteoporosis get severe enough to collapse a vertebra, doctor in the US have a new way to make repairs. two tiny baloons inserted into the bone through surgical tubes and inflated to push the bone back into its normal positiom. Bone cement is used to prevent it collapsing again

Brrrr

It's gross and kinda warm but damp here in NS. I HATE weather like this, everything is moist and sticky. My weekend was tiring and high-caloric. I attempted to have KFC Saturday night but it was SOOO greasy that it made me sick and I couldn't even keep it down. I haven't had KFC in a good four years and now I remember why. No beer though. Yesterday we got home late afternoon and opted to pick up a pizza. Yup my food choices were terrible - I had a coffee in the morning and then pizza for supper. No snacks or other meals. The plus side is that I burnt LOADS of calories going up and down the all the flights of stairs w/ heavy boxes!

Eating well today, loads of h20 and plan on hittin' up my elliptical tonight. I'm sure I'll be fine for the rest of the week and am going to pay extra attention to my foods so that I can have a good loss this week.

My exercise plan for the week is:
running outside x 2 (tues & sat)
ellipitcal at home x 2 (tonight & thurs)
gym x 2 (wed & fri)

Tomorrow we're having my family over for a BBQ. My Dad's going away for 2 weeks so it's a belated Father's Day/Going Away/Canada Day thingy. My plan is to make a curried potato salad and attempt a "healthy" version of my Dad's favorite, Black Forest cake. I will post pics/recipe if it turns out diet friendly!

The benefit of cardio exercise

Cardio workouts are an essential part of an effective training programme to achieve good health. Cardio is any exercise that raises and maintain your heart rate like, running, cycling, swimming, rowning, stair climbing, boxing etc.

The benefit are huge, regular cardio training will have an incredibly positive impact on your life. Here are just a few of them :

1.) Reduced risk of heart disease

2.) Reduced blood pressure

3.) Stronger heart and lungs

4.) Reduced reisk of diabetis

5.) Reduced depression and anxiety

6.) Increase metabolic rate

7.) Reduced stress

8.) Fat loss

9.) Reduced risk of osteoporisis

10.) Boosts immune system function

11.) Improve digestion

12.) Better sleep

13.) More energy

14.) Improved self-esteem and confidence

15.) Reduced risk of some types of cancer

Top 10 cardio tips:

1.) Always do a 5 to 10 minutes warm up

2.) Always do a 5 to 10 minute warm down

3.) Be consistents if you want results

4.) Include inclines and speed changes in your workouts

5.) Don't get stuck on the same machines- different machines use different muscles

6.) Set yourself target so you can see your improvements

7.) Learn correct technique

8.) Be sensible with your training, don't overdo it

9.) Get some good music to motivate you

10.) Always include cardio training at some point in your workout.

STS

Current Weight: 207.6
Start Weight: 286.5
Lost This Week: 0

Not sure what happened, got in 4 decent workouts and lots of h20, veggies & fruit. Oh well, this isn't a race :) Looking forward to to a nice loss next week...

Off to lug furniture and boxes!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Spreading the fat

When one person is overweight, close friends can pack on the kilos. Arecent New England Journal of Medicine study declared that people can actually "catch" obesity from close friends.

When researches followed 12,067 people over 32 years, they concluded that those of us with very close friend who are obese have 171 percent higher chance of become obese too. The theory goes: you're influenced by your friends, and if they overeat, you may unwittingly follow their lead. Suprisingly, spouse have less sway over belly tahn close friend of same sex. The good news is that it may also work in reverse. Hang out with thin people and you might lose weight.

Dads' roles in breast cancer

If your mum or her sister never got breast cancer, you don't have to worry, right? Wrong. You're just likely to inherit the BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations, the biggest genetic predictor of the disease form Dad's side of the family. Having the mutation means you have a 50% chance of getting breast cancer before 50. So ask Dad about his family history.

Ask your GP about testing for faulty BRCA genes at a specialist breast clinic if your family has a strong history for carrying that.

There are three options if you carry a known breast cance gene: have regular breast cance screening, have sugery to remove your breast or join prevention trial.

It's Friday!!

So glad the weekend is almost here! Has been a very long work week.

A few things to share:

1. I am wearing olive colored cords today that make my legs and rear look marvelous, hehehe :) Can't remember the last time I wore cords either!! I picked up a few things at Value Village last night including those, a nice shirt and an awesome dress coat - all Reitman's brand. Again the clothes from that store always look good on me! The best part, only $35! It's nice to be able to buy good quality used clothing while you're losing weight.

2. Have promised Lori a truck and our assistance this weekend as she moves out of the apartment that her and her ex and his new g/f currently share. (Don't even get me started on that whole situation.) Her new apartment is on the 3rd floor and the new building has no elevators, so I'll be getting quite a decent workout from all the stairs. Plan to indulge in some pizza and a few beer tomorrow evening though!

3. I got an awesome gym-quality elliptical and treadmill on loan from my boss; delivered to my basement earlier this week! We have them until he wants them back, he was happy not to have to put them in storage. I worked out last night for 30 mins on the elliptical (instead of gym as planned) and wow holy sweat! I LOVE having nice exercise equipment in my house; having the option to go the gym, go for a run or work out at home is so great!

Have a wonderful Friday ladies!!!

Grr...

I am SO disappointed. I called my doctor's office to make a follow up appointment (had an ultrasound of my liver last week - she thought the Lipitor was irritating it,) and turns out she's gone. Yesterday was her last day b/c her husband is in the military and they got posted to BC. I only had been a patient for about a year but she was the BEST. I had tons of issues w/ my previous MD (See: New Doctor for Curvy Girl) and was so happy to have found someone that actually took an interest in doing what was right for my health.

*Sighs* now what? I got an appointment w/ another physician in the clinic for next week but unfortunately he's a man ;-P and I much prefer to have a female family physician. Apparently they have a new one starting at the end of August; I'm crossing my fingers that she's as good as Doctor Ullmark.

Other than that not much to report. Hit up the gym last night and have the same planned for tonight. Having a LOOOOONG day today and feel a tad grumpy :)

Growing brains with omega-3

Omega-3 is vital for foetal brain development and now it's thought a deficiency in the womb can lead blood pressure problem in adulthood.

Doctors also believe that if kids don't get enough omega-3, they may develop learning, psychiatric and behavioural problems later on.

A study by Dr Natilie Sinn at the University of South Australia found that fish oil supplement reduce hyperactivity, inattention and impulsiveness in half children who suffered from ADHD symptoms. Get more omega-3 to kids by giving them fish in food they enjoy.

Babies cue to language change

At four months, babies can tell wheter a speaker has switched to a different language by using visual cues alone (speaker's mouth shape and rhythm, and face movements -according to a University of British Columbia study)

But the study found that eight-month-old babies were abe to rely on these visual cue alone if they were from bilingual homes.

These findings suggest that babies growing up in bilingual enviroments maintain the inborn ability to use visual cues to distinguish between multiple language (learn). Older infant exposed to only one language no longer need this ability, so their sensitivity to visual information declines.

Red meat effect

A 12-year study of 90659 women aged 26 to 46 has found that high red meat consumption may be assiociated with an increased risk for hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer in premenopausal women. Subjects who ate more than 1.5 sevings of red meat a day had nearly double the risk of those who ate less than three servings a week.

"This study suggests that dietary factors may be related to a woman's chance of developing this type of breast cancer and more research should be done." says Eunyong Cho, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School

Quick Check In

Got out for a run last night. Wasn't too bad considering I hadn't ran in a month or so. I need to build up my endurance again though. I was out for 40 mins and ran for 20 of it. I was pretty happy with that and am motivated for the Natal Day run in August!

Tonight we're off to the gymbo. Am thinking of doing a mix of cardio equip - 10 mins on the bike, elliptical, treadmill, rower and maybe stairmaster :-p. We have a few errands to run this evening too, so we'll probably end up grabbing Subway for supper. Am going to pick up my reward for getting under 210lbs - Pasta Queen's book "Half Assed," looking forward to reading it this weekend!

Oh and some exciting news to share, I booked our trip down to the Blomidon Inn (my reward from my Mom for getting under 200lbs.) Decided to take a long weekend, and booked the 19, 20, 21st of September. I'm so busy these next 2 months, there's no way I can manage to get away anytime sooner. The valley is just gorgeous in September and I'm really looking forward to it. Plus I plan on being well under 200lbs by than so I will have loads to celebrate!!

Have a great day!!

Morning Girlies, Happy Monday!!

This weekend was great. Friday night we had an amazing session with our trainer, burned tons of cals!! Saturday we got the house tidied, lots of yard work done, groceries, meals made for the week and then relaxed for the night. Yesterday I spent the morning w/ my Mom, helping her set up her IPod and then went over to our friend's place for dinner. Was really yummy, he's an awesome cook!! The food wasn't the best calorie-wise but I ate small portions of it all - brushetta chicken breast w/ pizza pasta, garlic cheese bread. and didn't even have to turn down dessert, which was "Decadent Peanut Butter Dessert" - very yummy ice cream cake that included peanut butter and white chocolate. This recipe is NOT diet/WW's friendly (approx 400 cals/serving) but was one of the best desserts that I've ever had.

Tonight, depending on my work schedule/weather I'm either going to hit up the gym or go for a run. Plan on getting a good work out to help burn off last night's indulgence! On the menu today is oatmeal, yummy Broccoli & Cheese soup (recipe compliments of the lovely Jen!) and chicken alfredo w/ loads of veggies and some ww pasta!

I finally did manage to get some silver shoes for the wedding too. I'm not sure if I'm entirely satisfied and will probably still check around more before I leave for Newfoundland.

Off for some coffee, have a lovely day ladies!

Definitely Back in the Game!!!!

Current Weight: 207.6
Start Weight: 286.5
Lost This Week: -2.8

Yup, I had a busy but fantastic week! It feels so awesome to have my gym routine back!!! I just can't believe how close to onederland I am! :)

Oh Yah, Back on the Train!!

Well girlies, I finally feel 100% officially back in the game! We hit up the gym last night, cooked a nice healthy supper, made our lunches and went to bed at 9:30pm (no night time eating!!) and it was WONDERFUL!! I woke up this morning feeling very optimistic about the next 40 lbs (and beyond...) I'm very relieved.

No real plans for tonight, just cook a nice supper and relax. I'm trying not to make too many plans for the weekend either, but I am going to get out and find some silver shoes. I made the appointment to have my dress altered and I have to have the shoes (and bra...which is a whole other pain in the ass!) with me when I go for the fitting. I'm hoping the bride will come with me and we can make an afternoon of it. Need to pick up some sparkly jewelry too.

Hope everyone's having a wonderful week!

Night Time Eating

I've been struggling with eating at night these past several weeks. I never had this problem before but I realized that was b/c I was going to the gym after work and then eating Supper around 7:30 instead of 5:00 and wasn't hungry or bored when I did this.

So we packed the gym bags & snacks and are finally getting back to the gym today. I'm excited and can't wait to have this final part of my routine back. I'm going to attempt to the hit the gym Tuesdays, Thursdays & Weekends. I also have to get back into running as I signed up for the Natal Day Road Race, which is August 4th. Everything seems to be settling down though and I'm so glad.

Anywho, back to work now!

Forest Fires and Such...

So I had a bit of a crazy weekend. Friday night we went out w/ Jason's branch to The Argyle for Supper. (Was yummy and mostly healthy, will do a review later) When we came out we heard all these news reports that Porter's Lake had been evacuated and all roads were closed due to huge forest fires. At its largest the fire stretched 15km by 3.5kms.


We had no idea what was going on. I couldn't get a hold of anyone so we ended up staying at our friend's place in Halifax. Saturday the roads were still closed and the fires were still going strong, so we headed out to out to Bayers Lake and stocked up on the essentials. Got these "City Shorts" from Reitmans, LOVE that store so much - everything seems to look good on me! Ended up getting home late Saturday night via back roads, the trip took approx 2.5 hours when I should've taken 30 mins. Was the smoke in the sky even crazy!! Our road was fine though but there's tons of burnt out trees only 2-3 mins away. They started to open a few roads this morning but not the main highway, so Jas took a vacation day. We're open for business but since the highway is still closed, its been pretty quite. I had to run an errand this morning and drove through one of the areas that was badly damaged, was really creepy to see and SO close to many homes. We're very lucky that the wind was blowing the other direction and our road wasn't in danger.

I didn't have my scale w/ me on Saturday morning so I'm using my WI that I did on Friday morning, of 210.4 lbs. I didn't get a chance to track my food this weekend, the power was on/off all day and so was the internet, plus I picked a lot. (I had frozen yogourt for breakfast on Sunday..... I should be reprimanded for that, lol!) Anyways sticking to everything this week and hope to finally be under 210 this coming Saturday!

Current Weight: 210.4
Start Weight: 286.5
Lost This Week: -1.4

I'm crossing my fingers that I can finally make it back to the gym this afternoon. I've managed to get caught up on a lot of work already this morning so I should be able to get out of here on time!

Hope everyone has an awesome Monday!

Working on Getting Focused

I'm slowly getting back into the "Me" mode. I've made an effort to get my butt out and exercise, and it feels good. Food wise I'm doing okay too. The scale is being quite favorable this morning as well...! All I really had to do was have a pep talk with myself; thought about what I really want.

In general I'm a tad grouchy b/c our car is on its last legs and I'm going to have to try and make time to go out and buy a new car in the middle of all this. Plus one of my good friends is getting married in August and I'm trying to plan her shower etc and it's just not happening the way I want it to.

However, it's gorgeous out today already and I'm feeling good again in my new clothes, so I guess there's lots to be thankful for (oh and its pay day too, lol!)

Feeling a Bit More Like Me

I feel hot today. I'm wearing one of my new shirts and my patent leather heels. I'm starting to feel girly finally, I like it! (Excuse the blurryness of the pic)
The past few days have been okay. I had pizza last night for supper though but we did get out for a nice walk on the local trail, plus the rest of my day was fruits & veggies and loads of h20. I haven't really been too off w/ my calories, there was just a lot of convenience food over the past several weeks. I feel like I've got the exercise routine back too, which is a relief - a run is in order for tonight

In other exciting news, I ordered a new toy that should be arriving next week:
My new pink laptop & mouse, lol.

The Reality - My WI

Current Weight: 211.8
Start Weight: 286.5
Lost This Week: +1.4

OK, this hurts but I suspected I would be up so I'm dealing and moving on. I don't think I'm as active as I need to be with the calories that I'm eating. Before when I was going to the gym and running a lot I could eat what I ate this week and lose. Obviously brisk walking a few times a week isn't cutting it. We're attempting to get back to the gym this week, although I'm not looking forward to the 4:30am wake-up. We're gonna do that on Tuesday/Thursday. I NEED to get back out running, it's been a week and a half.

A Little Retail Therapy....

What started off as a simple trip to find silver heels (for my friend's wedding this August) turned into a full day of browsing the malls solo. Was great actually; I wandered as I pleased. I went to 6 shoe stores and have yet to find a decent pair of silver heels/sandals. The dress is navy blue not sure why I can't wear a black heel but... bride's decision. Such a pain though :-p

Me... after a hard day of shopping :) HOLY BAGS UNDER THE EYES. Wow those long days are apparently getting to me. Yesterday was brutal, I left work at 6pm (got in at 7am) and went back over around 9pm to check on things - we have a big job going out today. I have been working my ass off though and it feels good but I'm exhausted, Obviously.
A few new shirts, really love the one in the middle w/ the belt!
Some pants, all size 16. Still amazes me that a year ago I was a in tight 24's :)
Finally got the new Sophie Kinsella book and a few others, plus some cheapo sunglasses from Retitmans! I can't wait to relax with the books!

June Action Plan

In an effort to get totally back in the groove I'm making an action plan. This past month has been total shit. I'd just started my new plan and my game was back and this happened.

One-Year Anniversary (July 9) - is only 5 WI's away. I'd love to be around 200-205 lbs by then. This seems attainable.

June Exercise Challenge - I will aim for 20 stickers again. But I also want to aim for 40 km of running. That's only two 5K's per week. Jason and I were talking about trying to get to the gym by 5:30 am to work out before work; think this might work but only once or twice a week since we'd be getting up at 4:45am - yuck.

Living Life to the Fullest - Remember that my health IS important and the effort I make each day is WORTH IT! Make sure I do one thing each day to better my life.

So that sums up my mindset for June.

Life Goes On

I want to go on record and confess that I didn't track my food all weekend AND I still over ate quite a bit. The exercise has all been non-existent since Wednesday. My pants feel tight this morning. So I'm snapping out of this, for real. My scale is hidden away until next Monday. I'm opting not to hop on and see the damaged b/c at this point I feel that it won't help the situation. I AM taking control though and not letting this sabotage my success so far.

Today I'm eating:
Breaky - apple cinnamon oatmeal w/ apple sauce & flax seed, coffee w/ milk & sugar

Lunch - chicken sandwich, cucumber & green pepper, yogourt cups

Supper - steak w/ veggie omelet, toast

Snacks - animal crackers, apple, popcorn

SATC

Absolutely fantastic!!!!!