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Thursday, April 17, 2008

Clearing up Confusion on Cheat Meals or "Free Days"

You'll often hear people talking about their cheat meals or Free Days while on a diet. This morning while doing some early morning cardio, I hear a guy talking to his workout buddy about how he puts away ungodly amounts of food on Saturdays- his Free Day. Wings, pizza, pretzels, cupcakes and of course plenty of beer.

This guy has obviously not read our Black Book of Secrets.

The cheat meal is meant as a mini reward for your hard work during the week. It breaks up the monotony of strict dieting and gives you something to look forward to. Many people report having an easier time mentally, thus increasing compliance rate. The cheat meal is not meant to undo all the ass busting work you've done all week.

The Cheat Meal Rules

The cheat meal is not license to cram every high calorie morsel in sight down all day. Just one meal.

The cheat meal is one (1) meal per week that you plan in advance.

The cheat meal length is your duration at the table. Once you get up, it's over Johnny.

Also, check out the best time to eat a cheat meal

Labels: cheat meal, dieting, free days

posted by Michael Collins @ 9:07 AM 0 comments

Monday, April 7, 2008

Having Problems Losing Weight? Drop the Diet Soda...

Are you a big diet cola drinker? Having problems losing weight? I know some people who pound down 6- 8 cans of diet cola daily to get their caffeine rush during the day. Since it's calorie free, this should be no problem, right? Well, not according to recent findings. Although there has been no confirmation that artificial sweeteners have inherently negative health effects, some researchers believe that the body is tricked into releasing insulin due to it's conditioning towards sweetness.

Basically, this means that your body thinks you're ingesting sugar and releases insulin in response. As you know, insulin is released into the bloodstream to process glucose from the food you eat. It is involved in some very crucial actions in the body. However, as anything else, too much is too much. And too much (chronically raised levels) insulin can cause some serious problems such as diabetes, high triglyceride levels, and high blood pressure.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention that insulin is a storage hormone and when it is chronically raised, it makes packing on weight easy and burning body fat as fuel damn near impossible.

So what do you do? Try gradually switching over to water or green tea. Or, go with my favorite which is seltzer with a squeeze of lemon or lime. Watch out for those restaurant lemons though, as you don't know how they've been handled. (Watch the video below if you haven't seen the study)

Labels: artificial sweeteners and weight loss, chronically raised insulin, diet soda and weight loss

posted by Michael Collins @ 4:08 PM 0 comments