Gohyah Tea, Healthy Drink or Hype?

                                                                                                                   

 

Several days ago, my wife brought some Gohyah Tea home. She began telling me about all its healthy attributes, which I immediately knew I had to investigate. I first read the packaging, which stated in part, Gohyah according to folk-experience and newest research materials of medicine and pharmacy has the cholagogue, liver refreshing, diuretic effects, good for digestion, sound sleep and especially can prevent diabetes mellitus,nephrolith, gall stone, with anthelmintic effect. I had no idea what half of that was so I went to the company’s website. Their website was still under construction, but did have a picture and a price for the tea of around seven dollars, my wife bought the same amount for $1.79.

I then got on the internet and began searching for any scientific research that had been done on Gohyah. Gohyah is also known as Bitter Melon, and the scientific name of Momordica Charantia. After about 30 mins., I found a scientific research website, from  Cambridge (journals.cambridge.org), which had four studies that were taken from the British Journal of Nutrition. The articles initially stated that the studies conducted in Asia did not meet the scientific methods for evaluation, so they conducted their own studies using mice. I will not go into the 36 pages of scientific jargon that I went through. The bottom line was that in mice eating both a high fat and low-fat diet it reduced insulin resistance as effectively as the anti-diabetic drug TZD. It also suppressed the visceral fat accumulation and inhibited adipocy hypertrophy, which maybe associated with marketly down regulated expressions of lipogenic genes in the adipose. In english, the studies show that Gohyah has shown in mice that it helps regulate blood glucose, which improves insulin and prohibits the body from storing fat.

Disclaimer note, although the studies indicates it may help people with diabetes, do not change any medication without first talking with your doctor.

I have been using it for about a week, I have noticed the diuretic effect  and that my fat across my belly hasn’t gotten any bigger, which may also be a result of my exercise program. Additionally, start with small amounts to make tea until you get it to the strength you like. The darker the tea the more bitter it is, I normally drink it when its the color of light green tea. However, you will know immediately if its too strong and just add water to it. I have yet to take the remains of the tea after boiled and put it in my food to eat it. My wife will surprise me with that one, I don’t always like to eat new things. I hope this is helpful, if you do try it please post your comments here, thanks for your help in advance.

Davis Diet Update, June 2009

 

This update is a tad late, due to computer hardware malfunction and injury. My results as of June 4, 2009 were as follows.

Weight        197.4

Percent body fat     31.4

percent muscle      37.3

chest      43

waist      36

hips       36

From May 09 to June I lost about 3.4 lbs, which was a little below my target about 2.6 lbs. When I stalled I reviewed my diet, which I kept the same as before. I decided to increase my exercise by walking daily for an hour after my workouts. However, on May 27, 2009, I pulled my right hamstring playing softball. I am getting to old to play the way I do, I guess I need to slow down. Then that Saturday I was wrapping my hamstring an my back went out, I was barely able to straighten up and it took til the following Tuesday for me to be able to walk with out aids of my daughters old crutches. So needless to say I took a step backwards before realizing it and returned to 200 lbs. No exercising and no reduction in diet adds up to weight put on. I reduced my diet and have maintained that weight for the last two weeks. Whats hard is I was so use to working out it was really frustrating for me not to be able to do anything. My hamstring feels fine now, and my back has not hurt for two days. So I will start my exercises again on Monday the 22 of June. Due to the injuries I will start back with just exercises and walking, when I can do that without pain I will slowly increase the intensity and duration of my workouts. So word of caution be careful, and if you do hurt your self give it time to heal and start back slowly.

7 Tips To Add Results to Your Diet

These seven tips are not new, you may have heard them before and dismissed them. I use all of these tips and they seem to help me in my diet/LifeStyle Changes.

1. Never do your food shopping while you are hungry, in fact I try not to go into any store if I am hungry.  Mainly due to the snack foods and candy bars  usually being next to the cashier, and if I am hungry the snickers bars call my name, which increases my odds of buying one and scarfing it down.

2. Eat smaller meals throughout the day, two to three hours apart. I usually make my normal lunch plus one plain sandwich. I eat half of my lunch at about 10:00am, eat the remaining portion between noon and 1:00pm, and the sandwich at about 4:00pm, half my normal dinner at about 7:00pm and the other half just before I go to bed. This keeps me from starving at night and raiding the frig. It also helps to keep my body from going into a starvation mode, and tends to help keep my metabolism high.

3. Drink a lot of water, around a gallon or more a day, and make it ice water. This not only helps hydrate your body, but it also helps burn calories as your body warms the water, which uses calories and then urination helps flush the body and expels heat. Initially, I was running to the bathroom every 20 mins, but after about a week my body got use to the proper amount of water and adjusted so I am not running all the time. Prior to doing this I tended to be dehydrated all the time, which has alot of negative effects. I have noticed that my skin and color look better, and drinking a lot of water helps me loose weight, the scale doesn’t lie.

4. Keep uncomfortably cool. This helps burn calories as your body increase blood flow to the skin to help regulate your temperature. This one is hard, at first. I turned the thermostat down to 68 degrees, climbed out of my sweats and socks, exchanging them for shorts, a T-shirt and bare foot. You want to be cool, not shivering or getting goose bumps. I also slept in my shorts and T-Shirt, and left my upper body outside of the covers. Sleeping was a little harder as my wife is cold natured and would keep pulling the blankets and comforter up, which caused them to flop over on top of me. I finally had to fold the comforter in half,and put it all on her side of the bed.

5. Maintain good posture, it burns more calories and helps firm up your stomach. Until I started paying attention to this one I never realized how often I would sort of slump down when sitting and how often I would either be laying down, or leaned over sideways on the couch. Also when I walked I tended to slump my shoulders instead of standing up straight with shoulders back and stomach in. The first several days I was actually sore in my upper back from keeping my shoulders in the proper position. Good news, I have had fewer lower back pains.

6. After dinner wait 20 to 30 mins., and go for a moderate pace walk for about 30 mins. This will increase your metabolism for a limited time, and after you get use to it, its a lot of fun. I will either get on the treadmill, or my daughter and I will go for a walk. Either way, it gives us some Father Daughter time, and helps he reduce my excess energy and stress.

7. Sleep, everyone is different but the general rule is get 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Sleep is the most often over looked and is one of the most important things we can do. Sleep is when your body, mind, and spirit is renewed and refreshed. I use to sleep 5 to 6 hours a night, mainly because of my type a personality, I would lay down and my mind would start running at 100 miles per hour. It would take me 30 to 45 mins. to fall asleep and a lot of the time I would end up getting up for an hour and watching TV until I was almost falling over before I would go to bed. I credit my diet changes and exercises with reducing my stress and allowing me to fall asleep quicker and I now sleep about 7 & 1/2 hours a night. This also gives me more energy during the day, no more 30 min naps before dinner.

I did not make up these tips, some of them I have heard for years around work and the gym. Others I found in reading articles, books and on the Internet. Regarding these tips, exercise and diet, I found a book written by Ellington Darden, PH.D. He has over 40 years of experience in the field of diet/exercise and has been involved in numerous studies on weight-loss. He has worked for Nautilus and currently does studies and articles for Bowflex. His book is titled, The Bowflex Body Plan, and has a lot of good basic information regarding diet and exercise. That is explained in a very concise and easy to understand format. It’s cost is around $30.00 and is well worth the price.

Lipozene, What’s In It and Does It Work?

Lately, Lipozene has been advertised on T.V., and other areas, for weight-loss and to reduce body fat. As we all know, if anything helps reduce weight odds are pretty good that you will also lose fat. However, in this case the active ingredient is Amorphophallus Konjac Root, which I view as a natural supplement. I am very familiar with this ingredient, however I know it by its Japanese name “Konyaku”. My wife has been putting it in her food, and mine for many years. It increases fiber and swells in the stomach to give you that full feeling and yes it does work as a diet aid. The interesting thing is this, you can buy the pills for about $30.00, 60 pills or a 30 day supply if taken as directed. Or you can go to a speciality or Japanese food store and pick up konyaku for around $2.00 to $3.00 for a block, that is about 3/4 the size of a pound of block cheese. I usually see two types, a gelatin block, grey in color with what looks like little specks in it, and a whitish gelatin block. The packaging is usually a plastic bag filled with water and the Konyaku. Usually it is added to any style of soup, after having been cut into smaller slices, or it can be eaten cold as a compliment to fish. As far as I can tell there is not much taste too it, but it took me a while to get over eating a gelatin, for some reason I don’t like the consistency of it. With that said, if my wife fixes it I will eat it.

Bottom line, it works and if you want it, decide which style you like, Pill or Konyaku. You can have your supplements natural or from a bottle, you make the call.

Fullbar Taste Test

On May 1, 2009 I wrote an article regarding Fullbar. Shortly after publishing that article I was contacted by Fullbar. Fullbar clarified that the Fullbar diet programs recommended use of the fullbar  for a six day a week regiment. This would in fact make the 144 bars a three month supply with a cost of about $1.22 a bar.

Fullbar offered to send me samples of their product to try, which I accepted. I have tried many protein bars, and all kinds of diet bars, with and without granola. The one thing that these products all seem to have in common is they are either, a tar type substance that requires you to drink a gallon of water, just to wash them down your throat, or they have the consistency of Styrofoam and taste like cardboard. Needless to say I wasn’t exactly looking forward to having to taste the fullbar.

I received the fullbars and several packets of Aqua Full and promptly waited several days before I worked them into my diet. To be honest I did not use them as normally directed, one bar with a glass of water 30 min. before the two largest meals of the day. My current eating schedule is 6 small meals a day, 200 to 300 calorie breakfast and lunch, 500 calorie dinner, and three daily snacks around 200 calories each. I actually eat about every three hours or so, which seems to workout well for my current lifestyle. I decided to use the Fullbars as my snacks, and was I surprised. The fullbars are soft and moist, I didn’t have to wash down every bite with a gulp of water, and they tasted very good. The bars I ate were the Berry Bliss, which contains cranberries and strawberries, and the Almond Cranberry bar,   I drank the recommended amount of water with them. Usually about two hours after my snacks I will begin feeling just a tad hungry, but with the fullbars I had to remind myself to eat again at the three hour interval. Regarding the Aqua full, on my current eating program I drink between 1 & 1/2 to 2 gallons of water a day, which is really hard for me, I do not really like water by itself that much. A lot of the diet powders that are used to make water drinkable are too sweet for me, I tend to like juices and such a little on the tart side. The Aqua Full was also a surprise to me it tasted great, and allowed me to drink my bottle of water and enjoyed it as opposed to drinking plain water, something akin to water-boarding for me.

My evaluation of theFullbar and Aqua Full, is two thumbs up. In fact I will be placing an order with them for more of the bars. Not only because they taste great, are under 200 calories, and keep me full for the three hours prior to my next meal. But it is easy, just open the bar and eat, no guessing about calories, carbs, fats and all that other stuff, no weighing, measuring, or cooking involved, a great time saver and I can eat them anywhere at anytime. Just makes it a lot easier.

Disclaimer, I am an independent blogger. I am not involved with Fullbar as a spokesman, advertiser or in any other way, shape, or form, nor do I receive any compensation from Fullbar or anyone connected with it. This article is based on my opinion of their product after having tested it, and my belief that Dr. Snyder and Fullbar provide a great product at reasonable prices and that those products perform as advertised.

Fullbar Diet & Dr. Snyder Fact or Fiction?

                                              

I had began seeing Dr. Snyder’s television commericals for fullbar, and wondered if this was just another scam, by a fake Doctor, or the real thing. I decided to check out this Dr. Snyder and see what I could find-out. To say the least I was very surprised, everything that he says in the commerical regarding his practice is true. The real story here is what he did not say in his commerical. first off I am not connected to fullbar or Dr. Snyder, and have never met him. With that said I found that he is a really motivated individual regarding his practice and his continued education in his field of medicine. When he increased his skills or education he went to the best Doctor’s in that field to learn from, and in one case went to one of the busiest Centers to learn a new technique because they were the experts in that field. Based on my research of Doctor Snyder I would have to say that he is an honest, hard working and dedicated professional in the area of weight-loss and Bariatric procedures.

Regarding the product Fullbar, based on the information given on the commericals and the research that I have done. It is and does exactly what the commericals says. However, just based on the Nutritional Facts from the fullbar website, they are better than candy bars, but not necessarily other foods such as plain oatmeal, or Orville Redenbockers smart pop popcorn. Both oatmeal and the popcorn have 0 sugars, slightly less carbs, with oatmeal having 0 salt and the popcorn having a little more than double the salt. My basic idea is weight-loss is by changes done gradually over time that become a regular part of a healthy diet, or better referred to as LifeStyle Changes. Now technically if you were to continue using the fullbars forever that would constitute a lifeStyle Change.

BOTTOM LINE: Dr. Snyder and the Fullbar diet are for real. Be sure and double check the cost and the S&H charges as this inflated the cost per bar to about $1.35 as opposed to the cost of about $1.22 per bar. Also if used as recommended in the commerical, 2 per day one before the two largest meals of the day, for a three month period would come to 180 bars, where as the advertised buy 2 months and get the 3rd free will send you 144 bars, at 2 per day is about a 72 day supply. This was the only area that gives me a little concern, based on their commericals and claiming you will be receive a 3 month supply, that should be about 180 bars. A 90 days supply shortfall of 36 bars.

Update: If you view the comments to this article you will see that Fullbar has clarified the numbers above. The recommendation is to use fullbar 6 days a week.  With the use of 6 days a week would be a 3 month total of 144. I appreciate the correction. Please view the fullbar comments in the comment section of this post.

Davis Diet and Exercise Update.

The Davis Diet and Exercise Plan, Update #2.   I have continued my original program, but on the exercise portion I am constantly changing the exercises and have altered the Cool running  programs just a little bit. As I moved between the perfect push-ups, the standing bars, and the bowflex routines I keep track of what exercises seemed to work best. I have also included some dumbbell workouts. My friend had by 35 lb dumbbells and had just found them an returned them to me. I use these for flat bench flies, I like the stretch I get with them. I also use the dumbbells for shoulders and biceps, mainly because I like the extension and positions I can use them in and they target those areas a little bit better for me. I still work-out with the weights three days a week, and it usually take me about 45 min to an hour.

Regarding the Cool running, I had made it up to week#7, running for 25 min. However, I had the treadmill set at 3.5 for the walking and 5.0 for the running, so I was always a little under the distance in the program. Being a type A person and wanting to do a little bit more, I went back to week #3 and started walking at 4.0, and jogging at 6.0. After all I want to get my time down to 10 min a mile. I have also started walking at 4.0 for an hour every evening on the days of weight training, mainly because it helps me to keep from snacking at night, the worst part of the day for me.

As far as food goes, I am still using the Herbalife meal replacement shakes for breakfast and lunch, and eating either crackers(saltine) or rice crackers for my snack’s in the late morning and afternoon. Yes, I do eat a snickers every now and then, but I always give myself a pre condition. If I eat it, I have to do something to deal with the extra calories involved, such as do extra walking or running, instead of riding in a golf cart I have to walk the course, or my least favorite chase my dog around the backyard for 20 min., which my dog loves.

This week is #11, I have lost a total of 15 lbs, I now weight 200 lbs which comes out too about 1.4 lbs per week, right where I want to be. My body fat is down to 35.5% and my muscle mass is at 36.1%. I have moved down two notches on my belt, and my pant size is down to a 36 from a 38, and the 36 size pants are a little looser now. You can go back to my last months article to compare the two, but basically I am losing between 1 to 2 lbs a week, and as far as the diet it gets easier and easier every week, I feel more like I am controlling what I eat and when I eat it instead of feeling like food is controlling me.

I hope this helps you too make small changes in your diet and exercise programs and to demonstrate that even on a tight budget you can lose weight and get into shape on a shoestring.

 

 

How to Determine LifeStyle Changes for Medical Conditions?

 

Over the last several months I have received a lot of inquires about what LifeStyle Changes to make for medical conditions that are or maybe impacted by diet, weight or fitness. I am not a doctor, so I will not give medical advice, but I can give you ideas on how to proceed and what information you need to know. It would appear that most people are to lazy, want others to tell them what to do, or just get too confused with too much information and don’t know what to do or how to do it.

At your initial Doctor visit when you receive news regarding a medical condition that can either be impacted by diet, weight, or your level of fitness, ask your Doctor for list of foods you can or can not eat. Ask him/her for exercises that you can do safely. Doctors usually have handouts that they can give you or they may refer you to a specialized field to assist you. Usually, after you get home and start thinking again you realize you had questions you did not ask at the office. Start a list of the questions, and keep it handy over the next several days or until your next Doctor visit. continue to write down your questions until you visit your doctor again, and remember to take your list with you. Secondly, you may look up as much information regarding your medical condition as you can find on the Internet. I personally start with WEB-MD, The American Journal of Medicine, and any major teaching hospital that Ican find, such as Chicago’s children’s hospital or the Mayo Clinic in New York. Make sure the hospital is a well respected authority concerning your medical condition. After completing your search for information and learning as much as you can, it is time to formulate a plan, on what changes you need to make to improve your medical condition. If it is weight loss, find a program that fits your LifeStyle, and that you can adjust too. Now some conditions will require a complete change in your LifeStyle and it must be done immediately, others may give you more time to adjust your LifeStyle in more controlled manner. Example is diabetes, your diet will change immediately, you have to reduce sugar intake and carbohydrates that cause your insulin levels to spike. While a non-life threatening weight problem may allow you to begin making small changes to your diet at a time, and a slow progressive fitness program to assist you in reaching your goals.

It is your life and health, become an expert on your Medical condition, make a plan to implement LifeStyle changes that will help you defeat the condition or at least that will make an improvement. Lastly, implement your plan, continue to educate yourself, track your results, and if needed make changes as they are required.

allie diet pills, what exactly is it?

Recently, I have seen the allie diet pills advertised on television. In the ad they make a big deal out of being the only FDA approved diet pill and promote their diet plan. So I decided to look into it a little bit, and see exactly what allie is. Allie’s active ingredient is orlistat, a pancreatic lipase inhibitor. In plain English it binds to the emzyne that the body produces to break fat down so that it can be absorbed into the body for use. If the fat can not be absorbed by the body it simply pass through and exits the body, thereby reducing the amount of fat intake. Regarding the FDA approval, orlistat was initially approved by the FDA as a prescription under the name of Xenical and contained 120 mgs of orlistat. In 2007, the manufacture reduced the dose to 60 mgs, and received FDA approval to market orlistat over the counter as allie.

There are several side effects associated with orlistat, oily spotting on underwear, flatulence (farting), urgent bowel movements, fatty or oily stools, increased number of bowel movements, abdominal pain/discomfort, and inability to control bowel movements. After reading thes side effects, I recalled seeing these same side effects a while back.  Remember the Lay’s potato chips that were marketed as WOW potato chips? Where they used a new oil, olestra to stop the body from absorbing the fat and were marketed as fat free. Well the side effects which caused the chip to be removed from the market, as far as I recall,  were and are pretty much the same. With that said, depending on where you look, the stats I have seen say that between 1 in 250 and 1 in 70 patients experienced one or more of the side effects in the first three months and that about 50% were resolved with in one to four weeks. Additionally, since orlistat also can keep certain vitamins such as vitamins A,D,E, and Beta Carotene, from being absorbed by the body and recommend that a multi vitamins be taken either several hours before or after the use of orlistat. Lastly, the cost. I found the starter kit of allie cost about $55.00 for 90 tabs and came with a CD program. The refill which consisted of 120 tabs cost was about $65.00. These would last you about 30 to 40 days based on the recommended dosage. Allie has also learned that people do better with weight-loss when diet and exercise are included and that there is some kind of follow-up, or counseling that is connected with any weight loss plan. What I found interesting was if you go to their website you will initially enroll in their diet plan and management system, no shopping cart to purchase allie, but they do ask if you have or have not already purchased the pills.

I personally would not use this product for several reasons. I do not like the side effects associated with them, and do not believe that their use actually makes any long term changes to the amount of fats consumed. Additionally, my personal benefactor of gaining weight is carbohydrates, not fat. Lastly the cost, why pay 50 to 60 dollars a month to block something from being absorbed into my body, when its cheaper, easier, and less costly not to eat it or at least as much of it in the first place. There are a lot of weight-loss programs out there that are good and promote healthy eating choices, as well as a lot of fitness and exercise programs that are geared to long term, lifestyle changes to control weight. At the end of the day the choice is yours, educate yourself and make the decision that is best for you, many people like and do well on supplements, and in some cases they are needed to get the materials your body needs.

 

 

Acai Berry, Weight-Loss or Commerical Scam?

                                                                                                         

Once again, my e-mail box has been full of Acai Berry for weight loss emails. So I decided to do a little research and see what I could find. Before I get into i, if your looking for information regarding Acai Berries, go to the weight loss section on the left of this page and scroll down to the second page. There you will find an article regarding the facts of the acai berry, dated 1-13-09 under the heading, ACAI BERRY, WHAT IS THE TRUTH?

Regarding the Acai Berry and weight-loss, there have been no scientific studies regarding its use for weight loss or for colon cleansing. Does that mean that the Acai Berry has no practical use for weight loss? In a word no, based on my scientific background and common sense, Acai Berry is a fruit and as such, it would be reasonable to assume, that it contains fiber. Can fiber help you lose weight, Yes. Now the question is how much do you want to pay for fiber? No doubt that Acai Berry fiber would be more expensive, than say your regular fiber supplement that can be purchased at most stores. As many studies have shown the intake of fiber and water would assist most Americans in losing weight. Bottom line, its your money spend it wisely.