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Diet Mistakes Can Influence Weight… (Huh?)

LS Digital Media — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 14:34:05 +0000

Well, it’s like this. Not everything we write on this blog has to be directly about internet marketing does it? It’s January and, like most people in London, I’m on something of health kick at the moment.

So… as a special treat for all your part time keep-fit enthusiasts here’s some good common sense advice that I’ve garnered from various sources recently.

Core Concept: Diet Mistakes Can Influence Weight

Relying on Crash Diets

Determined to lose 5 kilograms as fast as possible, you turn to a crash diet. Perhaps your plan calls for nothing but grapefruit or cabbage soup each day. You slash your daily calories to fewer than 1,000 – and sure enough, the kilograms disappear. However, when you eat so few calories, you train your metabolism to slow down. Once the diet is over, you have a body that burns calories more slowly – and gains weight more quickly than ever before!

Skipping Breakfast

Skipping breakfast seems like a simple way to cut calories, but the result can be insatiable hunger the rest of the day. This may lead to unplanned snacking at the office or eating a super-size portion at lunch, which can increase calorie counts. However, a breakfast high in protein and fibre can reduce hunger throughout the day. In fact, studies show people who eat breakfast every morning are more likely to maintain a healthy weight.

Losing Track of Your Snacks

Maybe you count calories meticulously at every meal, but what about all those snacks between meals? There’s the seemingly endless temptation to eat snacks at your desk, the little slice of cake at the office party, or a quick ice cream. All of this mindless snacking adds up and could sabotage an otherwise well-planned diet. If you’re serious about counting calories, you may want to use a notebook or a web based application to keep track of each bite.

Not Snacking at All

While mindless snacking can increase the size of your waistline, thoughtful snacking can do just the opposite. People who eat several small meals and snacks a day are more likely to control hunger and lose weight. Snacking helps keep your metabolism in high gear, especially if the snacks are protein-rich. Nuts are a good high-protein choice and research suggests people who snack on nuts tend to be slimmer than those who don’t.

Loading Up on Low-Fat

Low-fat products can play an important role in your diet. Just remember that low fat isn’t the same as low-calorie and it’s not a license to take second and third helpings. If you pile your plate with low-fat cake, you may end up eating more calories than if you had a smaller slice of regular cake. The best way to know how much fat, sugar, and calories you’re getting is to check the nutritional label.

Sipping Too Many Calories

When counting calories, many of us tend to overlook what’s in our drinks. This is a big mistake when you consider that some fancy coffees and alcoholic beverages have more than 500 calories. Even the calories in fruit juice and soft drinks can add up quickly. What’s worse is that liquid calories don’t curb hunger. You’re not going to eat any less after a high-calorie drink.

Drinking Too Little Water

This is one of the simplest diet blunders to fix. Water is essential for burning calories. If you let yourself get dehydrated, your metabolism drags – and that means slower weight loss. Research suggests adults who drink eight or more glasses of water per day burn more calories than those who drink less, so try adding a glass of water to every meal and snack

Setting Unrealistic Goals

Telling yourself you’ll lose 10 kilograms during your first week of dieting is probably setting yourself up for failure. If you know you won’t be able to do it, you may never start your diet in the first place. If you do diet and lose 2 or 3 kilograms in a week, instead of celebrating, you may feel discouraged that you didn’t reach your goal. A realistic goal is vital to successful dieting.

Avoiding Exercise

When you don’t exercise, you place the entire burden of weight loss on your diet. If you become more active, you can eat more of the things you like – and still lose weight. The key is finding an exercise you enjoy.

Simple diet mistakes can derail your best efforts to fit back into that favourite pair of jeans. If the scale seems stuck, there’s a chance you could be making one of these nine common weight loss blunders. Relying on Crash DietsDetermined to lose 5 kilograms as fast as possible, you turn to a crash diet. Perhaps your plan calls for nothing but grapefruit or cabbage soup each day. You slash your daily calories to fewer than 1,000 – and sure enough, the kilograms disappear. However, when you eat so few calories, you train your metabolism to slow down. Once the diet is over, you have a body that burns calories more slowly – and gains weight more quickly than ever before!

Skype issues with my Mac

LS Digital Media — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:38:33 +0000

My major gripe with Skype since I’ve been using SnowLeopard is that the video call functionality has simply refused to work. That’s quite a major gripe since my Mac Book has got a great built in camera just waiting to be used.

I have been trying to work out what was going on for a few days. Well, now I have found the solution on the Skype for Mac blog. It turns out that all is now well as Skype have sorted this and several other issues that I didn’t even realise existed with their latest hotfix. Skype 2.8 hotfix 1 for Mac can be downloaded here.

First Day of Spring 2009

LS Digital Media — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 09:53:16 +0000

Google Trends is an interesting and often entertaining site to browse as it gives an insight into popular trends people are searching for on an hourly basis. I was just having a look on this beautiful and sunny morning here in London and, quite naturally, one on the hottest searches at the moment it for the ‘first day of spring’.

So… when exactly IS the first day of spring here in London?

Well, the short answer is that officially it is tomorrow the 21st March. However, if we look at the true definition of spring it is today – Friday 20th March. Let’s investigate.

Spring tends to arrive between the 19th to the 23rd of March but it changes on a yearly basis. This is because the first official day of spring is the Vernal or ‘spring ‘ Equinox. This is when the sun is directly above the equator – when it rises due East and sets due West. It does not do so on the exact same day every year because the calendar is not exactly the same length every year. This morning the sun was above the equator, crossing to the northern hemisphere, at 5:48 GMT. So we are most definitely now into the new season.

For the Southern Hemisphere, this is the moment of the autumnal equinox. For those who are interested, the word ‘Vernal’ comes originally from the Latin word for bloom and refers to the fact that, in the northern hemisphere, this equinox marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring. An equinox is a time when the nights are as long as the days and the vernal equinox is recognised the world over as the start of the new astrological cycle.

Fed up with 3 Mobile? Call their Executive Office.

LS Digital Media — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:46:35 +0000

If, like most of their users, you would rather gouge your own eyes out than have to deal with 3 mobile’s customer services in Mumbai, help is at hand. Three Customer Services are renowned throughout the UK for having some of the worst customer care in the industry. Hell – the worst!

We can now reveal the contact details of their grandly entitled ‘Executive Office’ somewhere in Scotland. You may not be able to understand their English any better but at least they won’t be reading everything they say to you off a computer screen.

In particular, Thomas Kerrigan and Lynsey Petchey have been particularly helpful.

Direct phone number for 3 (Three) Executive Office: 08707 330 295

3 (Three Mobile) Executive Office

Hutchinson 3G UK Ltd

123 St Vincent Street

Glasgow

G2 5EA

email: executive.office@three.co.uk

Good luck!