Spring Clean 

 

Feeling like the spring still isn’t in your step after the winter months?

 

Follow these food tips for an energetic and re-energised new you! 

Though spring might mean the start of the warmer months (and the festive season right round the corner…), sometimes our bodies don’t experience this shift, and instead of feeling more fresh and invigorated, we remain in “hibernation” mode, carrying some extra kilos and feeling sluggish.  What’s needed is a clean sweep for renewed energy.  Here’s what to eat and drink…

Drink up – Water – drink, drink, and drink.  It’s common knowledge that it’s one of the most detoxifying and cleaning fluids.  Try to drink about 6 – 8 glasses a day.  Other good cleansing liquids include teas such as peppermint, chamomile, Rooibos and green tea. Try Herbalife Thermojetics Beverage which contains green tea extract.  It comes in 4 flavours: lemon, peach, raspberry & original and can be enjoyed hot or cold.

 

The F Word – Eating food rich in dietary fibre will help cleanse your system.  Fruit & vegetable fibre assists in slowing down the absorption of sugar in the blood, helping to maintain good energy levels, prevents constipation and digestive disorders.  Good food sources are: raw fruit & vegetables, dried fruit, wholegrains, lentils, beans, oats and brown rice.  If you don’t think you’re eating enough fruit & vegetables, try Herbalife Fibre and Herb Tablets.

 

High Energy – To keep energy levels and metabolism up, eat little and often (about every 3 hours) and choose slow-release carbohydrates to sustain energy levels throughout the day.  Top energy foods include:

Sprouts – for their high concentration of antioxidants plus trace minerals, protein, enzymes and fibre.

Grains – for a steady flow of energy and a good source of B vitamins.

Oats – these are full of energy nutrients and keep blood sugar levels on an even keel.

Parsley – for high levels of vitamin B12

Green vegetables – for B vitamins and energy nutrients.

Flax seeds – for omega-3 & omega-6 essential fatty acids.

Sunflower seeds – for magnesium, iron, copper, protein, vitamin B, essential fatty acids and zinc.

NB - Remember that some foods are energy thieves – sugar, salt, caffeine, alcohol, fried foods and highly processed food.

The Best Energy-Boosting Snacks – to ease your hunger between meals, try snacks that are also good for an energy kick-start: fresh bananas, oranges and apples; yoghurt, baby carrots, peppers, sugar snap peas, baby corn, cucumbers or tomatoes with a cottage cheese or hummus dip; a handful of almonds, pecans, walnuts or seeds; a slice of rye bread with peanut butter, tuna, lean turkey or chicken

 

Has Your Weight Loss Stalled?

Without realizing it, you could be sabotaging your diet. Learn about common diet mistakes that can stop you from losing weight and how to get your weight loss back on track.

“When people embark on an exercise and food program to lose weight, they automatically think that ‘magic’ will happen. “In theory it sounds great, but it takes much longer to lose weight and more effort than this simple combination, even when all good intentions are there.” It’s easy to trip yourself up along the way with common diet mistakes or by not being vigilant in your efforts. Here are 12 reasons your weight loss could be stuck

 

You're Not Exercising Enough

 “Many people overestimate how much they are burning when exercising. Many factors determine calories burned, including duration and intensity of exercise, whether the intensity is varied, and the type of exercise. Weight-bearing exercise, like running, walking, and aerobics, leads to burning more calories since gravity requires the body to work harder. With non-weight-bearing exercise, like cycling and swimming, there isn’t as much gravitational stress on the muscles, which means fewer calories are expended,” explains Kraus. “The best way to truly monitor your exercise would be via a journal and heart monitor to see the actual duration and intensity, and how they could be increased.

 

You're Not Getting Enough Sleep

 

 “There are many regulatory hormones secreted at night and during periods of sleep,” says Kraus. “The lack of sleep could possibly affect the proper sequence of hormone release.” Staying up late may lead to extra calories if you snack when you watch late-night TV or party with friends.

 

You're Too Stressed

A study done at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and the University of Pittsburgh found that stress can lead to weight gain in women, particularly in middle-aged women. “There seems to be a link between having altered sleep patterns and fat conservation — both possibly hormonally related — but also many women simply manage their feelings with food, eating mindlessly, because food is a very accessible and quick soothing resource,”  And unfortunately, an easy way for the calories to add up.

 

 

You're Skipping Meals

Skipping meals can lead to food cravings and overeating later in the day — reaching for whatever food is available and making up for the missed calories by eating more. Research at Vanderbilt University found that after approximately 72 hours of not eating consistently, the body shuts down its calorie-burning abilities and begins to store fat, warns Kraus. In clinical studies, after one week, healthy women were seen to lose 16 percent of their resting energy expenditure, which led to increased fat storage and a decrease in metabolism.

 

You're Eating Too Many Calories

You might think you’re cutting back on portions, but may not realize the real number of calories you’re eating. Use measuring utensils and a food scale; learn visual cues to estimate portion sizes. For instance, a portion of protein is the size of a deck of cards or a checkbook, one cup of rice or pasta resembles a baseball, and one ounce of cheese looks like two playing dice. Keep a food journal of everything you eat and drink to be truly aware of the total amount consumed over the course of the day.

 

You're Drinking Too Many Calories

“Very often people lose sight that beverages can contribute a significant number of calories,” Consider the calories in these 12-ounce servings: regular soda, between 150 and 200; no-sugar-added fruit juice, up to 180; sweet tea, about 150; and many sports drinks, 100 or more. Drinking three servings daily over a week can add up to 3,500 calories, or the one pound of weight you could have lost. “Switch to good, plain water, and you will save lots of calories and start to see the weight come down,” or of course drink your THERMOJETICS TEA!!!!!.

You're Too Lax About Diet and Exercise

You go to the salad bar and load up on veggies, but then add hundreds of calories with rich dressing and toppings like grated cheese, bacon bits, and croutons. You burn 300 calories by walking for three miles, but then eat a muffin with the same number of calories, erasing the effect of the workout. “You need a healthy, calorie-controlled meal plan with exercise to help maximize calorie burning and encourage the calorie deficit needed for weight control,”  Resist becoming lax about calories because you exercise, and resist becoming lax about exercise just because you’re cutting calories. Stick to our healthy breakfast HERBALIFE SHAKE to start your day off the right way.

 

You're Slipping on Weekends

 “Weekend indulgences add up very quickly,” Having an appetizer before dinner, eating extra snacks, and splurging on dessert and alcoholic drinks will increase your daily intake by several hundred calories. “The problem is that whatever is eaten over the weekend will have an impact over the entire week. Rather than taking in 1,300 calories a day on your Herbalife programme, that could lead to weight loss, your average might end up being closer to 1,600, wiping out any weight loss,”. One solution, is to eat specific indulgence foods over the weekend within your diet calorie limit.

 

You're Diet-Impatient

 “Weight loss needs time for us to see results, for the body to change its shape, access its fat stores and use them for energy, and re-contour itself by building lean body tissue,”  

 

You Might Have a Medical Condition

Any condition leading to decreased mobility and less activity will make the ordeal of trying to lose weight even more of a challenge because exercise is limited and you might end up eating more if you’re home with more free time to snack. Some medications could lead to difficulty managing weight or even to weight gain, including steroids, some psychiatric medications, insulin, and certain beta blockers. Talk to your physician about alternatives, such as receiving some rehabilitation activity, adjusting meds, or follow a specific meal plan.

 

You've Reached a Plateau

Hitting a plateau is a common occurrence, but you need to realize that it isn’t “all about the weight,” You might be experiencing positive physiologic changes that may not be evident just by looking at a scale : As you’re losing fat tissue, you could also be gaining more lean body tissue and getting leaner. In time you’ll resume your weight loss, as your metabolic rate starts to increase. What appears to be a plateau could also be due to other factors including irregularity or fluid retention.

 

You Don't Need to Lose More Weight

Your body could be trying to tell you that you are at an appropriate weight for your size and your height. Any further attempts at weight loss might lead to muscle loss and a slowing of your metabolism  because it could take an extremely restrictive meal plan to attain and maintain a lower weight. Ask yourself why you want to continue to lose weight, if you could still manage a healthful lifestyle in doing so, what is inspiring you to want to lose more, and how healthy or appropriate that inspiration really is.

 

Your Herbalife Newsletter      
September 2012

"What we achieve inwardly will change our outer reality"

-          Otto Rank-

 

6 Ways to Calm Hunger Pangs

 

 Do you start getting hunger pangs at 11:50 a.m. in anticipation of lunch? We've all been there. The cause is the hormone ghrelin; released when the stomach is empty, it sets off a chain reaction in the body to make you hungry. In general, you want to keep levels of ghrelin low during the day so you can keep hunger in check. Apart from an empty stomach, there are several factors that can raise ghrelin levels, including drinking alcohol, eating too few calories, and eating greasy, fatty foods. Here are some strategies that will help you manage these triggers and keep your ghrelin levels from rising:

Have a substantial breakfast. One study showed that people who ate a higher-Protein breakfast produced 33 percent less ghrelin throughout the day and felt satisfied for a longer period of time.  A Breakfast featuring a Herbalife shake is Your Best bet. Or have a whole-wheat  muffin with organic peanut butter, a cup of strawberries, and some low-fat yogurt.
Choose complex carbs and get more fiber. Insulin and ghrelin go hand in hand. When insulin goes up after you eat, ghrelin goes down. If you eat the wrong kind of carbohydrates — refined carbs such as white bread and pasta — your blood sugar rises dramatically. In response, your body releases a surge of insulin to clear that sugar from the bloodstream. The insulin does its job very efficiently, and the resulting low blood sugar causes hunger sooner. These constant blood sugar ups and downs can wreak havoc on your metabolism, so it's best to eat complex carbs and fiber, which delay the release of sugar into the bloodstream so that insulin levels are kept stable and you feel full longer.
Eat on a schedule. Research has found that ghrelin levels rise and fall at your usual mealtimes, so eating on a schedule prevents spikes in ghrelin. If you're running errands and are away from the kitchen at one of your typical mealtimes, carry a small bag of almonds or other nuts with you — you can eat a little something to keep your stomach satisfied until you can get home and have a real meal.

Emphasize high-volume, low-calorie foods. Levels of ghrelin remain high until food stretches the walls of your stomach, making you feel full. High-volume, low-calorie foods, such as salads and soups, reduce ghrelin levels long before you've overeaten. All green veggies and any foods with a high water content count as high-volume, low-calorie foods.
Eat protein. Protein-rich foods can also suppress ghrelin levels — they help create a long-lasting feeling of fullness. Try adding whey protein to a low-calorie smoothie. (If you're sensitive to gluten, just be sure to check the ingredients list; some whey protein products contain gluten.) One study found that whey brought about a prolonged suppression of ghrelin.
Drink More water. During a National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, they identified one appetite reducing agent that is costless, does not require any medical prescription and never has and side effects. This is water. According to the researchers, water fills up the stomach with zero calories so When you feel hungry, drink more water. If you really don't like plain water, then add some flavour with our Herbalife Thermojetics Beverage - Available in Original, Lemon, Peach or Raspberry flavours.

R222.00

Enjoy it Hot or Cold

Your Herbalife Newsletter
 September 2012

 Multivitamin Magic

 

 

Increased stress levels, a poor diet and exposure to pollutants can rob your body of essential nutrients. As a result, you may look and feel tired, get sick easily or have difficulty shedding that excess weight.

According to a recent study reported in the International Journal of Obesity a study of obese women was done and those that were taking a high quality multivitamin lost an average of 3.6kg compared to the other group who lost 0.9kg in the same time.  Lower concentrations of vitamins and minerals can lead to weight gain.  A good multi can help to break down fat and burn more energy. 

A leading pharmacist and nutrition expert warns against taking a “one-a-day multivit”  as it is impossible to fit everything you need on a daily basis into one tablet.  The best multivitamin is 3-a-day tablet that supplies what you need in 3 “doses” that you can take with each meal giving you the ultimate top-up.  An absorbable multivitamin in FOODSTATE (not all are!) repairs cells on a cellular level and aids energy and vitality on an ongoing basis.

Herbalife Multivitamin Complex gets absorbed immediately and contains 22 different vitamins and minerals including A, B, C, D, E, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Chromium, Zinc, Potassium etc. At the excellent price of R151 is for a month’s supply. 

 

Safe for kids too!

Q&A about Formula 1 Nutritional Shakes

David Heber, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.P., F.A.C.N., Director of the Center for Human Nutrition at UCLA* and Chairman of Herbalife’s Scientific and Nutrition Advisory Boards, answers some of your most frequently asked questions about the Formula 1 shakes

Q: What are the components that make Formula 1 shakes a healthy, satisfying meal?

A: Formula 1 shakes provide high-quality soy protein, healthy carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, amino acids and other nutrients to provide the cells of your body what they need for optimum health.† You will be able to tell the difference from your usual breakfast after the very first shake.

Q: Is the soy protein in Formula 1 shakes beneficial to both men and women?

A: Yes, the soy protein in Formula 1 shakes is definitely beneficial for both men and women. Numerous scientific studies demonstrate the benefits of soy protein for heart health when included as part of a healthy, low-fat diet, which is why Formula 1 shakes have a healthy heart symbol on every label (except Tropical Fruit flavor, which contains less soy).†

Q: How can one product, Formula 1 Nutritional Shake Mix, be ideal for both weight loss and weight maintenance?

A: Research shows that drinking two shakes a day and eating one healthy meal will lead to weight loss, while having one shake a day will keep the weight off for years. Formula 1 shakes are the ideal meal for everyone, whether they want to lose weight, keep off the weight they have lost or just maintain their naturally healthy weight.†

Q: If I'm lactose intolerant, can I use soy milk to make a shake?

A: Yes, simply add soy milk to Formula 1 Nutritional Shake Mix and you should have no problem. By the way, most humans are lactose intolerant to some degree. You lose nothing when you substitute soy milk for dairy milk from a health standpoint.†

* The University of California does not endorse specific products or services as a matter of policy.
†These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.