Tag Archives: healthy living lifestyle

Enter: Flax Seed

29 Mar

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. 😛

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So Many Things

18 Mar

I have so many things I want to blog about tonight it’s crazy lol I have had post ideas almost everyday since my last post but never had time to write them up so now they are all circulating in my head and want to be released in this one post, how oh how do I pick just one? Maybe little bits about everything and in the future I can elaborate if I want to write more? Seems as good a plan as any! 😛

I said in my last post I want to be physically active daily and boohya! (that is so not how to spell the marine sound is it?? lol) I was! *happy dance* Not always in an organized gym visit type of way but in some way…oh wait, I had one day of rest I think, hmm, yeah, yeah I did, due to scheduling and muscle pain (from the previous days workout) but I don’t feel bad about it cause I was active all the other days and ate better then I had been so all in all, I made a lot of improvements in my “healthy living lifestyle” this past week. Personally, I think that deserves a happy dance, don’t you?

Now, what did I do for exercise? That is the fun part! I went to the gym a couple times, one of those visits was after a work shift that ended at 9pm, certain days my gym is open till 11pm, sweet huh? I didn’t get to complete my entire workout because I didn’t get to the gym until 9:45pm and I requested some help for the stairmaster (I wanted to try a new piece of cardio equipment) and the help was long in coming and not really that great, sigh, oh well! I also ran on that visit and used some weight machines aaaaaand did some free weights. I was that annoying person who worked out till literally the last second the place was open lol. You should’ve seen the guy working, he was so irritated but whatever! You are open till 11pm so I am staying till 11pm! neener neener 😛 lol

I also had a great time with my friend KL. Normally when we hang out we go to a movie or dinner or something else sedentary. Not that there is anything wrong with those activities but now that weather is theoretically getting nicer and while we are still young enough to have energy in the evening after a day of work why not do something active? The evening we went out it was pissing rain so no outdoor activity for us! We did something way better though, we went to this boxing class thing. I can’t call it boxing cause it wasn’t us with a boxing coach actually boxing in a ring or anything. It’s basically a twist on that Curves place – ya know, that place where you show up, do a 30 minute circuit training exercise deal and then leave? Ok, so imagine that idea, the 30 minute circuit training but based around boxing, oh, and only for women so no intimidating smelly men to get in the way, lol. Cool huh? I had a lot of fun, it was a really great workout, we were both sweating by the end and neeeeeding water. There is a trainer there who kinda helps push you along, motivationally I mean not literally, and there is a buzzer that lets you know when to not only switch stations but when you are at your station when to switch from normal speed to double time. See, you stay at each station for 2 minutes and in 15 second intervals you go from normal speed to double time. Oh, and the stations are organized so you go from a high intensity activity to a lower intensity activity, so the first station is hitting a punching bag using a left-right jab combo, the next station was abs I think…I can’t remember the order but you know what I mean right? Please say right! lol If you already having boxing or kickboxing training like we both do it is a breeze form wise to get through the circuit and you can really focus on speed and intensity. If you don’t have any experience it might take a bit of adjusting but you’ll get the hang soon enough. 🙂 I would like to join there, switch it up between the gym and that place buuuuut it is expensive, I think it was $50 or $60 bucks a month, something like that, just to do a 30 minute circuit where you’re mostly hitting punching bags and cushions, no sparring or anything…so I am hesitant to join…I think it’d really help me with getting in shape and being stronger for dragon boating but if I do join it won’t be till next month cause of budgeting.

The other exercising was using my exercise bike and doing stuff at home, I didn’t wimp out though, I was doing high intensity and then low intensity exercises to get my heart rate up and get real benefit from my at home workouts. Sidenote, the cat thinks I am nuts, lol, and he sits behind me when I do a sit up so when I go down I bump him and then he has hurt feelings and I have to give him a treat later to make it up to him, brat. 😉

The abso best workout I am going to get though is tomorrow when, dun-dun-dunnnnn…Dragon Boat  season starts!!!!! You can not find a person more excited then me right now! We start training tomorrow so at 7:30pm I will be out on the water, rain or shine, warmth or cold, in sickness or in health lol Seriously, so psyched for this! 😀

hmm…I didn’t get to all my post ideas and already this post is pretty long, guess I’ll have to leave the rest for next time. Let me leave you with a picture of tonights dinner which I actually cooked! No buying dinner for me tonight, I slaved away 😉 and made a healthy meal of grilled red and yellow peppers, steamed asparagus and three skinless boneless chicken tenders that are sweet thai chili sauce flavour. Oh heads up, there is a story behind those, which I guess I am saving for another day lol

Tonights homemade dinner! Mmm!

Tonights homemade dinner! Mmm!

OMG! I almost totally forgot! I watched the finale of The Biggest Loser tonight and am so psyched that Danni won! By one freakin pound! Holy crap! She was always my fave contestant and I am so so so glad that she won! I am going to use her as my inspiration for the next while, when I have a day where I think I can’t do it I’m gonna think of her and how she kicked ass and decide that if she did it then so can I! 😀

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