Alrighty so not only do I write a blog about weight loss I read a lot of other people’s blogs about their weight loss. I tend to veer away from blogs that are done by trainers, so called fitness experts, companies etc cause I feel those ones are mostly trying to make me buy into their system of losing weight and buy their products which in my opinion, so not cool. People who are trying to lose weight are a tad desperate (generally) and even once they have realized that the best way to lose the weight is in a slow and healthy manner they still wish and want and beg the universe for a quick fix. Heck, even though I’ve tried diet pills, powders, shakes, diet foods and extreme diets and I know from experience they don’t work doesn’t mean everytime I see an ad for something new like that I don’t immediately google and wiki and yahoo and just in general research the shit out of it in the hopes it might actually be legit…sadly, they never are, sigh.
Huh, totally veered away from what I was meaning to type, oops! lol
What I am getting at is I am not in some sort of bubble while on this weight loss journey, I read and research and learn, I get advice (solicited and unsolicited), I try things I would never of thought of on my own in an attempt to not only lose my excess weight but to live a healthier lifestyle.
So, in an attempt to live my healthier lifestyle I am adding Milled Flax Seed in to my eating plan…sounds oh so yummy huh? *wrinkled nose* It’s not that I’m not open to trying it, I did buy it after all, I’m just…hesitant to start adding it to my foods cause, well, it’s flax seed, just the name alone evokes images of dry mouth, icky flavour, weird texture, blech! 😛 In fact, the only reason I finally bought some was because I was reading an article online about weight loss and healthy living and it mentioned adding flax seed to your smoothies and since I drink protein shakes I realized I could most likely add the flax seed to my protein shakes and not really notice it but still benefit from it. Awesome thinking right? *raised eyebrow*
In general I don’t feel the need to hide healthy additions to my eating plan within other foods so that I can tolerate them but just the idea of this flax seed is making me make faces that remind me of a kid whose faced with a plate of brussel sprouts. Yeah, that face! I am well past the age of making that face and yet, this flax seed is inspiring the muscles in my face to morph in to the disgusted look reminiscent of a child.
I placed the bag of flax seed with my protein powder so I can’t even “accidentally” forget it tomorrow when I make my shake…I know that will irritate me tomorrow when I make my shake but for now I am patting myself on the back for thinking ahead lol.
For those of you that are wondering, some of the so-called benefits to having flax seed in your diet are:
- Omega-3 essential fatty acids, “good” fats that have been shown to have heart-healthy effects. Each tablespoon of ground flaxseed contains about 1.8 grams of plant omega-3s.
- Lignans, which have both plant estrogen and antioxidant qualities. Flax seed contains 75 to 800 times more lignans than other plant foods.
- Fiber. Flax seed contains both the soluble and insoluble types.
Also, consuming flax seed will apparently help me to not get cancer, help protect me from heart troubles, help decrease inflammation, regulate blood sugar levels (this goes towards type 2 diabetes which I do not have but hey, ya never know!), regulate hot flashes (something I am a looooong ways away from worrying about) and lots of other things. It is important to note that consuming flax seed doesn’t magically make you lose weight, or boom! become super healthy. It is just one more tool to be used by those wanting to live a healthier lifestyle. Not that I believe by not eating it you are not living a healthy lifestyle…I don’t have a set opinion about it yet since I haven’t started eating it yet I just don’t want you to read this and think “oh hey, a super food, if I sprinkle this over my donut it makes my donut ok to eat”, sorry to say it just doesn’t work like that!
The so called experts say women who are preggos or breast feeding shouldn’t eat flax seed but it seems like women who are preggo or breastfeeding are restricted from a lot of foods so guess adding one more to the list won’t freak them out all that much. 😉
There are countless websites you can visit to find tips and tricks and suggestions in regards to flax seed, everything about how to eat it, how to store it, differences between the types of flax seed blah blah blah. I won’t retype all that info here since (1) it’s easy enough to find on your own (2) I won’t bore the bejeebus out of you who are reading this who have no interest in trying flax seed and therefore don’t care how to store it etc and (3) it’s late and I’m tired. 😛
Hopefully my little flax seed experiment works, otherwise I’m stuck with a bag of the stuff and no one to unload it on to lol I’m hoping to eat it daily for a month, I figure that’s a good length of time to monitor myself and see if I feel any differently because of eating it. It will be a completely subjective rating of the flax seed since I’m not tracking any changes within my body with medical tests etc (cause uh, who would do that?? *rolls eyes*) but at least by tracking how I feel, how much of it I eat etc over the next month I will be able to decide if it is something I want to continue adding to my food or if I can cut it out and thereby save the money of buying another bag once this one is gone. 😛
The Amazing Shrinking Woman 
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