Real Men Drink Pink

02/10/2012

Here is an interesting article from menshealth.com:

How to lose with booze

USA TODAY ran an unintentionally hilarious headline today: “Alcohol Industry Grapples with Nutrition Labeling.” That’s one tipsy part of the food pyramid, right? The one where peppermint schnapps lives? But alcohol has received quite a bit of notice as a health enhancer, recently, with the resveratrol in red wine getting quite a lot of credit for boosting cell function and extending life. It certainly makes a lot of people feel like living longer, with more opportunities to indulge.

But no matter how tropical your mixed drink or how light your beer, your choice of happy-hour h***h may not be as healthy as you think it is. Alcohol is still filled with empty carbs and calories that add up if you’re watching your weight. Yes, what you’ve read about the health benefits of booze is true. Beer and wine may help ward off coronary artery disease, hypertension, and even dementia. All of these benefits go bust, however, if you don’t practice moderation, generally accepted as no more than one beverage a day for women or two for men. Learn your limit, switch to a better bar order, and raise your glass to better health.

LIQUOR

In small amounts, ethanol, the pure form of alcohol, may raise good HDL cholesterol and encourage better bloodflow. Go overboard regularly and the effects reverse, increasing your risk of cardiovascular disease. The first law of liquor: Go easy. The second: Ditch drinks with inflated calories and loaded with sugary stuff.

Schnapps

This candy-like liquor is relatively low in calories, but it’s usually no more than a mixture of alcohol and artificial sweeteners.

Rum

Distilled from either molasses or cane sugar, this full-bodied liquor pops up most often in daiquiris and pi–a coladas, which, coincidentally, are some of the biggest calorie bombs at the bar. Try a dark and stormy instead: Mix 1 part dark rum with 2 parts ginger beer, plus a squeeze of lime. Refreshing.

Herb and Spice Liqueurs

Don’t let the herbs of a JŠgermeister or a GoldschlŠger fool you—these tipples usually contain more than 100 calories and 11 grams of carbohydrates per ounce.

Gin

This liqueur packs an herbal wallop from the juniper berries that are added to the alcohol during distillation. You probably know it as a central ingredient in martinis, but it also tastes great mixed with club soda and a lime wedge. The less you do to a good gin, the better.

Coffee Liqueur

Do you know why Kahlœa tastes so good? Yep, it’s packed with sugar. That’s also why it contains 91 calories per ounce. Combine it with Baileys and chocolate syrup in a Mudslide, and it’s like drinking an alcoholic dessert.

Brandy

Brandy is full flavored on its own, so there’s no need to add mixers (and extra calories). At 70 calories per ounce, a good bottle is worth the extra dough.

BEER

Resist the urge to chug: Limit your quaffing to two bottles (one for women), and you’ll reap the health rewards of beer while preventing yourself from carrying around a keg of your own.

Domestic

Just because American beers tend to be brewed up on the lighter side doesn’t mean they always go easy on the calories. Aim for a beer with less than 140 calories. Budweiser, Pabst, and Samuel Adams Boston Lager don’t make the cut.

Yuengling Lager, Busch, or Rolling Rock Extra Pale

Light Beer

Caution: The light beer you’re drinking may have more calories and less flavor than some of its nonlight competitors. Bud Light has about as many calories as regular Keystone Premium. Michelob Light has about the same amount as Bud Ice Light.

Miller Lite (96 calories), Michelob Ultra (95 calories), MGD 64 (64 calories)

Imports

Bass, Heineken, and Pilsener Urquell all contain 150 calories or more per bottle. With plenty of other imports on the market, look elsewhere.

Amstel Light (99 calories), Beck’s Premier Light (64 calories)

WINE

Wine can help you live a longer life, according to researchers. Resveratrol, a substance found in grapes, has been shown to protect the lining of arteries. Some wines have more benefits than others, but whatever bottle you choose, don’t feel the need to finish it. A glass a day is all you need to do you wonders.

Pinot Noir

This wine contains the highest levels of resveratrol. One study found that pinot noir had more than five times the amount found in other wines.

Sparkling Wine

Brut Natural, Brut Sauvage, and Ultra Brut have less than 3 grams of sugar per liter. Sec varieties can contain 17 to 35 grams of sugar. Doux wines contain more than 50 grams.

Cabernet Sauvignon

Moderate consumption of 1 glass of this red wine per day may help reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Talk about having wine on the brain!

Chardonnay

Buy the cheap stuff. Research has found that amines, typically found in top-shelf barrel-aged wine, are the most common culprit in wine headaches. California and French whites tend to have the highest levels of amines.

A NOTE ON MIXERS Adding the wrong mixers to your drink can inflate calories and fill your glass with unwanted artificial ingredients. As a general rule, stay away from sodas and energy drinks, which contain crazy amounts of calories, and go for no-calorie club soda instead. Avoid bottled mixers, too—they’re often little more than sugary corn syrup and food coloring. Use real, 100 percent fruit juice as a swap.

02/08/2012

Here is some general info about Plexus and how to get started taking the accelerator! Let me know if you have any questions!

Plexus Slim Accelerator contains the following:
Proprietary Weight Loss Formula* 342 mg
Trace Mineral Blend 50 mg
Calcium (Seaweed-Derived) 30 mg
Magnesium (Seaweed-Derived) 15 mg
Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine HCl) 5 mg
*Dark Chocolate, GeranaX, Natural Caffeine, Green Tea Extract, Vanadium Chelate, B-Phenylethylamine HCl
Suggested Use: In the morning, take one capsule with one stick-pack of Plexus Slim. This product is not intended for long term use. It should be taken to help jump start the weight loss benefits of Plexus Slim. If you are taking Plexus Slim strictly for non-weight related health benefits, this product is not necessary.
Recommended: Drink 8 glasses of water per day. Do not take too late in the day as sleep may be impaired. Do not exceed suggested use.

How I use it:
Take accelerator in the morning with breakfast (or a small snack if you don't eat breakfast). If you are going to take the accelerator with the pink drink, test your tolerance level with the accelerator by consuming only 1/2 of the capsule the first few days. Open the capsule and pour half of it in your pink drink. After checking your tolerance level you may consider taking the whole capsule 1 time a day at the same time you drink your pink drink. Limit your intake of caffeine while taking the accelerator and be sure you are drinking 6-10 glasses of water a day. The first night or two you may notice difficulty falling asleep, make sure to take the accelerator first thing in the morning to avoid any sleep-time issues. VERY important to weigh and measure the morning you start taking it. Some lose inches over pounds!

After the first few days, I decided to take the Accelerator in the morning and drink the Pink Drink around 3:00 or before lunch if I'm feeling particularly hungry... this helped me by curbing my appetite throughout the whole day! Play around with it and see which way works best for you, everyone is different!

Also, if you are sensitive to caffeine, start by taking 1/4 of the accelerator (mixed in your pink drink) and work your way up from there...

Let me know if you have any questions! Can't wait for you to get started!

02/07/2012

Here is your daily weightloss tip,brought to you by www.livestrong.com

What Is The Difference Between Sugar In A Piece Of Fruit And Sugar In Fruit Juice From Concentrate?. Depending on the brand of fruit juice concentrate, some or all of the sugar in the juice may be the same as that found in a piece of fruit. However, this is not the case in many brands of fruit juice...

02/04/2012

Here is your daily weightloss tip,brought to you by www.livestrong.com:

Daily Motivation For Weight Loss

Staying motivated each and every day is one of the most difficult and essential requirements to be successful at losing weight and maintaining weight loss. Motivation levels will vary from day to day, or hour to hour. They tend to be high at the beginning of a weight loss program, but quickly wane when the going gets tough. Being highly motivated means you exercise on a consistent basis, even when you don’t feel like it and you stick with the healthy dietary choices, even when you’ve have a bad day.

SELF-ESTEEM AND SUPPORT Losing weight is something you have to do yourself and nobody can do it for you, but ironically you can’t do it alone and outside help is necessary. According to the American College of Sports Medicine, both self-esteem and support from others are required to stay motivated every day to remain on the weight loss path.

BUILD YOUR SELF-RELIANCE Challenging yourself daily, trying out new tasks or skills, big or little, setting small, obtainable goals and going out of your comfort zone all develop self esteem and self confidence. When you experience small achievements and taste success, the more motivated you become. These are the building blocks to the level of self-reliance required to lose weight. After all, only you can do this.

BE CONNECTED Get the help you need, whether it’s finding a workout buddy, subscribing to an expert online weight loss website, attending a local group meeting or hiring a personal trainer. Your friends and family can provide valuable encouragement, but the assistance of an outsider, a committed workout partner or exercise professional can hold you accountable on a daily basis, increasing your chances of reaching your goals.

KEEP A FOOD JOURNAL Keeping a daily food and activity journal is a useful and fundamental tool to track your caloric intake, protein, carb and fat percentages, fiber, sugar and sodium ingested and calories burned through exercise. Food and activity journals range from hand-written logs to web programs and smartphone apps.

TIPS
Every day brings with it new circumstances and challenges which can lead to setbacks. Planning for these obstacles can help mitigate some of the damage. For instance, if you have a party to go to and you fear you may overeat, try eating before you go, so you won’t be hungry when you get there. If you are starving by the time you get home from work, take a healthy snack to eat on the drive home. Always keep healthy snacks available, at home, at work and in the car. Small changes made on a daily basis can keep you motivated and make a big difference in your weight loss efforts.

REFERENCES American College of Sports Medicine: Self-Esteem, Support Key to Realistic Weight Loss

Weight Loss For All: Weight Loss Motivation

National Institute of Health: Daily Food and Activity Diary

Article reviewed by demand68117 Last updated on: Jul 10, 2010

02/03/2012

Here is some information about Bio-Cleanse. It is sold in 120 count and 180 count packages. The Price is $29.95 for the 120, and $39.95 for the 180.

02/01/2012

Here is a Tip from Brenda, a Plexus Ambassador.

TIP of the Day:) BRENDA'S TOP WEIGHT LOSS STRATEGIES!! By Plexus Ambassador and Women’s Health Specialist Brenda Eastwood, RNCP

1. Do not consume ANY aspartame (Equal, Nutrasweet or Spoonful). Aspartame doesn’t have calories but one of its ingredients (the amino acid phenylalanine) blocks the production of serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter (chemical message) that controls your cravings for food. High calorie carbohydrate-rich snacks will help boost serotonin levels so the more aspartame you consume the more carbs you crave to help boost the serotonin and the fatter you get.

2. Sit down, slow down and enjoy your food. Food eaten quickly has just as many calories as food eaten slowly, but you will enjoy it more. Wanting more food has a lot to do with not “savoring it the first time round” or not giving your body enough time to realize that it is no longer hungry.

3. Avoid eating after 7:30 PM (unless you suffer with low blood sugar and need a protein snack before bed). Optimum fat-burning periods usually occur from the evening meal (no later than 7:30 PM) to breakfast at around 7 AM. Normally, during this sleep/fast period, the body switches to fat burning by around 1 AM, as long as insulin is not elevated along the way. How is insulin elevated? By eating carbohydrate food. And the higher the carbohydrate content of the food, the more insulin is produced. Insulin takes sugar out of your blood and takes it to your cells for burning as energy. If you don’t need the energy, then the sugar is turned to fat.

4. Protein should be the first food into your mouth in the morning. Protein stimulates glucagon which is a hormone that retrieves fat out of storage. Whereas, if the first food in your mouth is a carbohydrate, you signal for insulin which can cause your body to go into fat storing mode.

5. Alcohol in any quantity inhibits the metabolism of fats. The liver must detoxify the alcohol before it can attend to the burning of fats, and this process slows fat metabolism by about a third. What I have found by joyful experimentation is that small amounts of alcohol daily is worse for the weight loss process than the same small amounts divided over two to three days per week. In other words, if you wanted to have a glass of wine daily, you would be better off to have 2 glasses of wine each day over 2 days per week or 3 days if you are prepared to lose weight more slowly.

6. Use your non-dominant hand when eating. If you are right handed then try using your fork with your left hand. Using your non-dominant hand while eating forces you to eat more slowly and it makes you focus on holding the fork properly. Since you will be eating at a slower pace your body will be able to properly give you the "full" signal before you overeat.

7. Ruin your food; yes I said "ruin your food". When you are out at a restaurant or even at home and you are eating meal and start to feel full, pour ketchup, salt, pepper, or any other food deterrent over the remainder of your meal so that way you will not finish the meal just to finish it.

8. Find a picture of yourself at your heaviest and place it on your refrigerator door. Putting the picture of yourself on your fridge will definitely stop you from grabbing that not-so-healthy snack. The picture is a visual reminder of why you are watching calories in the first place.

9. Wear tight clothes. We all know that when we are wearing tight jeans or tight pants the last thing we want to do is go eat. Wearing tight pants will easily remind you of which foods to eat, and how much. (Plus the bloated belly feeling in tight pants, not so appealing)

10. Drink water or eat soup before a meal. One thing that water and soup have in common is that water is as you know 100% water, and soup is mostly water. Drinking a lot of water or eating soup before a meal tricks your brain into thinking you’re full even though it is just water weight. Next time you are out to eat order the low calorie soup such as minestrone, vegetable or chicken noodle or down a glass of water before eating.

WOW!!!! These are FABULOUS TIPS, alot that I'd never even heard before! Now that we have been armed with information, LET'S DO THIS!!!