Hi, remember me? Anyone (crickets).
Anyways I’ve been thinking about this for a couple of weeks now and while I’m sitting here between classes I thought I’d get some writing done.
Recently for my English class we had to do a research paper in the form of an advice column called “Dear Andy’ and I chose the question about what makes A good diet and how to lose belly fat. Of course having my experience with dieting and all the research I’ve read through Sparkpeople and some of the blogs I read I have managed to learn some things. I’ve had gestational diabetes three times and through making a lifestyle change for the better I lost 20 pounds. I know how to eat right and exercise, I have trouble implementing these things currently because for the first time in ten years I’m not home 24/7. Now all that being said I wrote a pretty good paper and all the fancy stuff I know off-hand I was able to back up with research from real sites like Livestrong and WebMD. Once we turn in our rough draft someone is chosen to read theirs then the class critiques it, and mine was chosen. Then people started telling what I should add and I was overwhelmed by the dieting advice people were telling me. A few things made me cringe to hear and I wondered just how much of this might be true and how mush was just plain wrong. So I thought I’d check on some of it and share what I found out with you.
1. Eating celery will burn more calories just by eating it then it actually has and you will lose weight.
While yes it is true (don’t get excited) it wont burn enough calories to justify running out and buying all the celery you can find. you need to burn3500 calories to lose 1 pound, that would be an awful lot of celery chewing my friend.
What I like to do is have raw veggies like celery or carrots ready to eat with some dip for a snack. My kids love it too, put them out while your making dinner and let yourself and the family snack and then you wont be so tempted to eat seconds (my problem). It’s also been suggested that you make your plate half veggies so you get more of the good stuff. All this will help in weight loss in the long run.
2. Running will help you lose lower abdomen fat.
Sadly we cant pick and choose the spots we lose weight in. Studies have shown that attempting to target one area for fat loss does not work. Believe me I wish I could aim for certain spots, that would be great.
Exercise is a good thing, running isn’t for everyone but it can be fun. If you don’t like to run there are plenty of options out there. Look for classes at your gym, don’t have a gym? There are some nice videos out there, you can check them out at the library or rent one at the video store. I once got a nice one out of a box of cereal!
3. You need some fried foods because some are good for you.
NO no no, my young padawan, just no. This is where dieting advice goes bad because some people just don’t pay attention to what the original advice was and start dispersing the wrong info like they know what they’re talking about. Fried foods taste good but they are not good for you.
The young girl who was telling our class this was mistaken in it’s not some fried foods that are good for you but some fats. There are good fats like olive oil, flax-seed oil, nuts and avocados.
these are the main three that stuck out to me the most, I need to research more to find out the truths behind some of the others I heard, I’m hoping I can get better at time management so I can try to get a blog post in about once a week. until then TTFN.
Disclaimer: I’m not a DR. or an RD, I’m just someone whose trying hard to get healthy and I read a lot. Through reading and learning I thought I would share with those of you who are interested. I’ve managed to read and learn a lot through the help of my friend Google.