Metabolism and Sleep lose => gain weight?

Metabolism is the process your body goes through to turn calories into energy. Exercise can increase your metabolism, both while and after you work out. If you exercise enough to build more muscle, your resting metabolic rate (the speed of your metabolism when you are resting) will also be higher.That's because muscle cells use energy to create motion and fat cells just sit there. Your metabolism is the slows when you're sleeping and the fastest when you're exercising.

Not sleep = gaining weight?
You may have heard of losing weight and become unhealthy from a lack of sleep. But did you know, there's a chance of gaining weight if you don't sleep? When you sleep, levels of the hormone leptin, which signals when the body needs or does not need more food, rise. When you don't get enough sleep, or sleep is interrupted, leptin levels are low, and your body thinks it needs more calories. You'll feel hungry, and therefore eat more. So sleep more! you also burn calories from sleeping!

*gasp* Food Label Fake-outs

When you pick up a tempting food, scan the nutrition label, and think, "Wow, cool" — because it's surprisingly lite or low-cal or free of trans fat — you expect those claims to be bona fide, right? Hah. Food packagers can be sneaky. Watch out for these 4 typical traps.

1. When it comes to comfort food, has it got to be Kraft's Macaroni and Cheese? Look twice. Like many boxed food mixes, the confusing label lists two sets of nutrition stats — and the first one is for the dry mix only. Unless you plan on eating your mac-cheese mix straight from the box, the prepared version (made with margarine and 2% milk) adds an extra 15 grams fat and 150 calories per serving to the figures on the label.
   
2. Just downed a tall (23.5-ounce) can of AriZona Mucho Mango juice blend? Brace yourself. The sugar hit is 75 grams, not 25, as a glance at the label suggests. And the calorie hit is 360, not 120. That's ?cause one serving is only 8 ounces — you're supposed to save the remaining two-thirds of the can for two more drinks.
   
3. Snacking on one of those smallish 3-ounce bags of multigrain Sun Chips? Smart, but note the itty-bitty serving size — only 1/3 of that bag! Scarf down more and you might as well be enjoying Oreos.
   
4. Sometimes you really need a cookie, right? Happily, the nutrition label on your fave brand says 0 grams of both, fat and trans fat. That's good enough that you can deal with the sugar guilt tomorrow, right? Sorry, but 0 doesn't mean zero. It means less than 0.5 gram per serving. Sure, that's not much — unless a serving is, say, two Snackwells Chocolate Mint cookies and by midnight you've finished the whole box. (Who, you?)

Shady labels like these give a whole new meaning to buyer's remorse. And wising up to nutrition tricks won't just keep you trim. Avoiding foods that list saturated and trans fats, simple sugars, or processed grains among their first five ingredients can make your real age 3.6 years younger. Sweet.

credit: Yahoo.ca

Facts about food labels
Serving size: recommended amount to eat
Calories and Calories From Fat shows how much energy your body gets from a serving of this food and how much comes from fat. On average, you should be eating about 2 200 calories per day and 30% or 73g should be from fat. At least 50-60% should be coming from complex carbs (about 302-330).
% daily value shows what percentage of total recommended daily intake of each nutrient you're getting in a serving of this food. In general, 5% is low and 20% is high.

Health tips 1.2.3..

#1: Enzymes in yogurt soothe and heal, so gently swipe plain yogurt on red, irritated areas of your skin. Keep on for 30 minutes, rinse, and repeat for another 30 minutes.
#2: Are you drinking enough water? Take your weight, divide it by two, and drink that many ounces of water each day.
#3: Breaking out a lot? To prevent the spread of pimple-causing bacteria, try not to rest your face in your hands or press he phone up to your chin when talking on the phone.
#4: Eat good fat. Healthy fats found in nuts, fish, and olive oil nourish cells and make your skin glow.
#5: During the day, snack on brightly colored fruits and vegetables -- like berries, carrot sticks, and apples -- to add antioxidants to your diet.
#6: Looking for a great all-natural cure for constipation? Drink lots and lots of water!
#7: Never eat because you're feeling depressed , angry, or sad. That's the best way to put on pounds!
#8: Eat healthy snacks, like granola or fruit, two to three times a day to maintain your energy level. Low energy can make you feel stressed.
#9: Stress headache? Pinch the tops of your toes using your thumb and index finger and squeeze for ten seconds, then release. Repeat two to three times until your headache is history.
#10: Listening to Mozart for 10 min. while studying could boost your brain power by helping you become more focused.
#11: Try not to nap after 4 p.m. or for longer than 35min, or you may have trouble falling asleep.
#12: In the mood for candy? Pick the one that lasts longest - a minute spent with one sucking candy on your tongue is better than a minute popping a bagful of Skittles nonstop!

Nestle Vitao Good or Bad?

Just recently, at my workplace, there are free cans of Nestle Vitao. What I realized was funny was that there were no single information on its nutrition value. On the package it mentioned there's vitamins C, E, and calcium and I wanted to know how much of the following nutrients but I couldn't find the nutrional value label!! Not even on the box it came in!!! This was a shocking surprise because I had always thought that nutritional labels are a must on packaged goods...I guess not.

So being the curious me...I went on the wonderful internet and tried to look it up. And guess what? I couldn't find much information about it anywhere??!! At last I came to this website: About Caloriecount: http://caloriecount.about.com/nestea-vitao-calories-ft89104 There was this person who called Coca-Cola Canada and learned that since Nestel Vitao is called a Nutrition or Health Drink they are not required by law to inform people of the calories, sodium or carbs in the product...soo I guess no nutritional label? Here are the facts on the Nestea (341ml can) but I still couldn't find the vitamins and calcium info.

Green Tea with Fuji Apple: 90 Calories, 24g of sugar, 24g of carbs, 60 g of sodium and 18.8 caffeine.

White Tea with Mandarin Orange: 90 Calories, 23g sugar, 23g of carbs and 60g of sodium and 10.9g of caffeine.

Red Tea with Acai Blueberry: 90 Calories, 25g of sugar, 25g of carbs and 60g od sodium, no caffeine

...as told by company...

I suppose they are more healthy...if I to believe the company...and I don't. If it's so healthy, why didn't the company just show the nutrional label?? How hard is that? putting a label on...unless it's not as healthy as it seems. Despite of its healthiness, I doubt I'll ever drink it.

Annoying problems you CAN get rid of...hopefully

Mouth ulcers
Mouth ulcers aka. canker sores are tiny, whitish-red craters that crop up on the tongue, gums, or inside the cheek. I always get them and they are soooo annoying. Every time I eat or sometimes when I talk, they hurt. So I decided to research a little about his annoying problem. Apparently there are many different causes for mouth ulcers but the most common cause for minor mouth ulcers like mine are dehydrated mouth, biting on the tongue (yes, I accidentally bite myself on the tongue) and nutritional deficiency, especially iron, vitamin B12, folic acid (vitamin B9), vitamin C, etc. Also small cuts from eating crunchy foods such as chips and French bread can leave small cuts in mouth that may trigger mouth ulcer developments. Brushing teeth too hard and oral hygienic products that contains sodium laurl sulfate also irritates the the mouth.

There are other causes that causes more severe mouth ulcer problems that I highly doubt causes my problems:
- Virus, bacteria and fungus
- Stress or mental trauma
- Poor oral hygiene, diseases in digestive tract, bowel or skin diseases, hormonal imbalance

There are remedies for mouth ulcer and some of them can be a little weird...actually all of them are kind of strange. I never tried any of these methods yet, but I hope they work:
- Chew some holy basil leaves
- Eat raw tomato
- Alternately gargle with warm and cold water
- Drink hot tea

To prevent mouth ulcer:
- Cut back on canker-causing foods: sugary goods, citrus fruits, coffee
- Drink tender coconut water
- Eat different fruits and vegetables...make sure enough nutrients
- Use normal toothpastes (with fluoride)
- Brush teeth lightly
- Relieve stress from exercise

Charley horses
Charley horses are muscle cramps in legs or feet. It's such an interesting name but why horses? XD They usually occur within a few hours of exercising or in the middle of the night. I usually get them during the night. Charley horses usually mean one of two things: 1) you just started a new sport and are stretching your muscles in different ways, but your muscles are not used to it yet 2) you're dehydrated. Minerals such as sodium and potassium helps muscles to relax and contract. So without them = a cramp.

To prevent charley horses:
- Always strech calves and feet before working out
- Stay hydrated

Farting
Farting can be annoying and sadly they can't be stopped...that won't be very healthy then. But there are ways to ease the farting. Ease farting = ease up on the fiber. Fiber are not as digestible so it can ferment and produce gas in intestines. Cabbage and broccoli are considered gassy greens so it's better to eat less of these and more of the other green veggies. A supplement like Beano will help body to digest the fiber better. Also eating and drinking too fast, along with drinking carbonated beverages can cause excess swallow of air and form excess gas.

**茶**TEA**

Last summer, I went to a tea shop in China as part of my summer camp program. That shop was said to be one of the best tea shops in Beijing. I learned a lot and sampled some really great tea. ssooo I ended buying some. They taste fantastic! and great for health too^^

A banana a day keeps the fat away?!

Apparently.

I found this article saying that according to a Chinese paper, bananas are being sold out rapidly in Japan (and now Taiwan too, I think) because of a new special “diet” that everyone is trying out. What you do is, eat a banana for breakfast and then for the rest of the day you can eat whatever you want; except for sweets. And even though rice contains sugar, it’s still okay to have rice. ?? How does that work??? Who ever follows this idea must be very desperate in losing weight, have no self control, is lazy, or just a plain idiot. This must be the stupidest diet I've ever heard. I guess banana gives you energy without making you really full. I guess this prevent you from getting hungry and eat bunch of other stuff?? Bananas helps with the digestive system. I guess you can eat alot because you'll poop it out later?? I have no idea how this actually work. O_O