How to count and calculate calories

This is an interesting site that I discovered today while browsing on some health stuffs/weight loss websites. It might be useful to some of us who are planning to lose weight effectively. Sigh...


How to Count and Calculate Calories

Enjoy reading!

Cervical Cancer

I would like to share on something really important and useful to all my lady friends. Recently, while in a clinic, a leaflet on the counter caught my eyes and so I went closer to read the contents. It says in bold “In Malaysia, cervical cancer is the 2nd most common cancer affecting women.” A picture showed a solemn little girl with her sad daddy looking over a birthday cake on the table with a card that says… I love you mummy. And at the bottom of the picture says, “Honey, we still miss you everyday… Happy Birthday”

That was it. The entire message was too much for me but still, the urge of wanting to know more about this leaflet was strong. So, I took the leaflet and decided to read through the contents. What I found out from the leaflet is alarming.

In 2002, cervical cancer accounted for 12% of all female cancer in Malaysia. See the chart below to get a better idea of how disturbing the figure is.

And the second point says, virtually, every woman is at risk of cervical cancer, regardless of age or lifestyle.

So to say, you can be living a very healthy lifestyle and yet, you can be still at risk. Scary isn’t it, I thought to myself. I continued reading and came to know that cervical cancer are commonly caused by a virus called “high risk” HPV (Human Papillomavirus) that can be passed from one person to another during sex , though not necessarily. It can even be transmitted through just genital skin to skin contact. And here’s the strange thing. At least half of sexually active people will have HPV at some point in their lives and some leads to cervical cancer. To the lucky ones, this is because the body’s immune system gets rid of the HPV infection naturally within 2 years. However, in some cases, the infection persists and thus, leads to the risk of progression to cervical cancer. And I thought to myself again, why take the risk? Because I can actually be protected against the cancer causing HPV by just taking the vaccination. Yes, I thought to myself. It’s about time I should start taking control of my health and be a more responsible person. I have a daughter now and the picture shown on the leaflet sort of in a way, gave me a ‘wake up call’. I decided to proceed with the vaccination.

If I could recall correctly, a friend of mine who went for this vaccination previously told me that the vaccination (per jab) could range between RM 300 – RM 400. But guess what? This clinic charges only RM 200 per jab. In total you would need 3 jabs. The second jab should be given one month after the 1st jab. And the 3rd jab, 6 months after the 2nd jab. If you wish to go to this clinic, please let me know and I’ll provide you with the details.

So back to the story, when I consulted my doctor, she told me that even in schools now, they are giving out HPV vaccination for girls as young as 9. Some parents are outraged by this because they felt that it is not necessary for a 9 year old girl to get such vaccination. But I think should they be briefed properly on the intentions, these parents may change their mind and look at it at a different perspective.

My doctor told me that by providing vaccination to school girls, even as young as 9, allows the immune system to be activated before she's likely to encounter HPV. For example, if an adult, assuming at the age of 31 obtains vaccination, the level of protection is perhaps only at about 80% comparing to a school girl who gets vaccinated at say, age 13, could increase their level protection up to 90%. In short, vaccinating at a younger age allows for the highest antibody levels because the higher the antibody levels, the greater the protection is.

Here’s the thing, ladies:

CERVICAL CANCER is preventable. It is the easiest female cancer to prevent, provided with regular screening tests and follow ups. It is also highly curable if found and treated early.

And as a woman myself, I realized that since I came to know of this now, I cannot be ignorant about it. It is only right that I should help to create awareness on this issue. Actually the truth is, each one of us have this important role to play in saving women from contracting cervical cancer. I plead you to read on more on this, do research and more importantly, to consider the vaccination.

Some other information that is crucial to all of us.

There are 2 type of tests that can help to prevent or detect cervical cancer.

1) Pap Smear, advisable to be done 3 days after your period is completely cleared.
2) The HPV test. Talk to your doctor about whether this test is right for you.

If you

1) Do not have regular Pap Tests
2) Do not follow up with your doctor if you had a pap test result appearing not normal
3) Smoke
4) Sexually active with more than 1 partner….

then, you are under the category of high risk.

What is worrying is there are no signs or symptoms for early cervical cancer. But, should you experience bleeding of discharge from the vagina, which you know is not normal, especially bleeding after sex, then go and check with your doctor immediately. And this information was again typed bold in the leaflet, so ladies, we must take note on this.

I think I have summarized what I read in the leaflet together with my other resources to a pretty short informative article here. If you want, you may pass this article on to your girl friends and family members. After all, sharing is caring. Value & take control of your life before it’s too late. This is in fact a reminder to myself as well.

Charts obtained from http://www.radiologymalaysia.org/breasthealth/about/FactsNStats.htm

Stress, stress and stress!!

You know how sometimes when you are so tied up with work and then you realize 8 hours a day is just not enough for you to finish up the backlogged work but at the same time, you know you cannot expect yourself to stay up too late to get the job done. What happens next? You are becoming stressful. And then you start to reflect on your whole days work.. why is it that you can’t get the job done, why this and why that and slowly but gradually you realized it's because there were many interruptions in your work flow. And for that.. got you even more stressful!

Okay, so don’t get me wrong here. I won’t be able to help you out on those work flow issues. I suppose that is all about time management and believe me, even I am still learning on that after being a secretary for more than 10 years now! What I would like to talk about today is on how to cope up with stress, be it the type of unnecessary stress, you asked for it stress, unavoidable stress or give it to me stress. (this is where you are the type of person who do not know how to say No) Yup, I want to talk about it because the truth is, I too have been pretty stress at work lately and so by talking about it, in a way, I am actually de-stressing. Yep, that is right. One of the method of de-stressing is by writing it out. Oh well, at least it works for me!

If writing is not your type, you may want to consider these then. Firstly, if you are very stress and you feel that your head is going to explode but because you are in the office, and there’s nothing much you can do about it except for to keep it within you. (For the sake of being professional) Therefore, one effective way to de-stress is try walking over to the pantry to make yourself a nice cup of coffee or tea.  Okay, here's the trick.  You gotta walk slowly because if you walked fast, you are indirectly creating stress to yourself again (remember the unnecessary stress type?). So, walk slowly and go indulge yourself with a nice cup of coffee/tea. When I say indulge, it basically means, you stand there.. take your time to make the coffee/tea, whichever you prefer, and appreciate the aroma while sipping it. Once you are done with that, now take your time to walk back slowly to your work station. Believe me, that 5 minutes break will really help a lot.

In fact, by just watching this lady sipping on to her coffee makes you feel kinda loosen up isn't it. AAaaaaaaahhhh...

Okay, say you are still stress. Now, don’t you go worrying about it because the key is, don’t keep thinking about the stresses!! So back to the you are still in a stressful situation. Trust me it helps on this. Turn on your PC speakers and listen to some songs. This is good because you get to work while listening to your favorite music. Okay fine. You don’t have speakers. Now, that’s too bad. But hey don’t worry! You can always do things that may soothe you after working hours.

Point is, don’t worry too much because if you do, you are basically welcoming stress with wide open arms. Remember give it to me stress? I always find that by keeping some time for myself does make me feel better because I get a chance to do things that I like, for myself. So after work, how about pampering yourself with a long warm bath. Some friends that I do know of, shower for less than 5 minutes! Unless you are in a hurry, why not try to learn to appreciate and enjoy the long warm bath? You owe it that much to your aching tension muscles. Even better if you use those sort of soothing aromatherapy shower gel like Lavender or Rose scented type. Trust me, it really works!

You may want to try exercising too. I actually felt the difference when I don’t exercise. That is why as busy and hectic my schedules are, I keep Thursday nights free and that is for my dance class. I found out that exercise releases endorphins, they call it the “happy hormones,” and that is why you WILL feel the difference after a good workout. Of course to practice this healthy habit, you have to be really, really disciplined to push yourself to kick start it.

Point is, we all have to find things that we love to do to de-stress. If we were to keep thinking about our problems and the stress till late nights and it snowballs till the following day, these problems will not go away.  When you are stress, you can't think of solutions.

We are in control of our lives and I truly believe that life is worth much more if you start to love yourself and appreciate the good things in life. In fact, as I am writing this journal, I am actually beginning to feel better already! La la la la.... See it works! 

 

Children's health. Is it our responsibilities?

It surprises me at times when I see things that shouldn’t be happening…happens. For instance, I walk pass a restaurant and upon seeing a mother carrying her child, I can’t help but to smile. Then as I take a quick glimpse at the child’s father, my blood began to boil. What the heck… the child’s father is having a good time puffing away. This is a typical inconsiderate scenario that happens every time and anywhere. It doesn’t take a genius to know that it is extremely unhealthy for a person to inhale 2nd hand smoke, what more a child !!

I may not know exactly what are the many other sicknesses that are caused by 2nd hand smokers but I do know one thing for sure… children who are exposed to environment like that are definitely not in a healthy environment and I know also that these children are more likely to suffer from pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma and not to mention, cancer!! We all know that cigarettes contain many harmful chemicals, so why can’t this father just don’t smoke. Sacrifice a bit for his child should be the right thing to do! If he’s desperate to have one, go walk far, far away and smoke for all we care!

2nd typical scenario, have you come across some kids, wondering about barefooted in shopping mall/streets, even with their parents around? Don’t get me wrong. I do know that bare foot walking is good for your feet. I know that it gives relaxation to the tired feet and it also helps to allow your toes to get straightened. But in this case, it's different. It is so unhygienic to allow a child to walk about barefooted on dirty floors and then only God knows if these kids wash their feet after that! Children can get tape worms if these parasites are present and by penetrating the soles of a child's bare foot.

A close friend of mine just shared with me a horrifying email. This email is about a child who had to go through a surgery to remove 3 kgs of tape worm from his intestines!! Okay, maybe this child didn’t get these worms by walking barefooted on streets, but we all know for the fact that it is all due to poor hygiene. And who is to be blamed? A child would not know how to practice proper hygiene and therefore, it is our responsibilities as parents to teach them!

In an interview between the doctor and the father as written in the email, apparently the father replied that this is a very common thing for his child to have worms as each time after he's being fed with medication, it is expected that he will pass out motion with worms! That is so terrible! Precautionary steps should have been taken after the 1st incident! It breaks my heart to see this poor child had to go through such a trauma. What makes it even more depressing is, this is supposedly an avoidable situation. As the email came with real life pictures, it's even more heart wrenching. I don't think I want to put the pictures here as it maybe disturbing to some readers. The bottom line is we really need to take concern of our children health and hygiene.

Know your liver 2

If you have read my blog earlier on Know your liver, this is a continuation on how you can take care of your liver :)










Now that you know, take care always and share this around! Cheers!

Know your liver

I received an email about getting to know about your liver and felt it was pretty informative. So here I am sharing it out with you guys and here it is drawn out to you (including me) in the simplest way!













To be continued....


So, when someone shares something of value with you and you benefit from it, you have a moral obligation to share it with others. True ? I so strongly believe in that. Cheers!

Breastfeeding..

As you know I am a mother to a beautiful 6 months old baby girl. And just like any other mothers, I want to give the best to my baby, including.. breastfeeding. And I know, to all mothers-to-be out there, you too would want to give the best to your newborn. When my daughter was born, I became very anxious and not to mention, excited too, because this is it! I have finally become a mommy! Considered sudah naik pangkat lah!

But so much of thoughts keep running on my mind, such as; will I be a good mommy?.. How am I going to protect her from any harm or from a broken heart when she grows up?...How am I going to cope up between work, husband and my baby?...and oh yes, I even have this question running on my mind all the time: Will I have enough milk supply to nurse her? Seriously, I really did. But to my dismay, I could only nurse her till about 2 months ++ when I realized that my milk supply was slowly decreasing. It did not make any sense to me at all, as my gynae told me that so long I continuously nurse my baby, the flow will increase! I became angry at myself because every time when I nurse my baby, she gets cranky and starts to whimper.

Eventually, I realized that it is because my supply is not up to her demands. Gradually, day by day.. I began to slowly gave up. Until..it came to one point that I asked myself.. how can I give up too soon! So I started doing a bit of research here and there in the net and to my surprise, I found out a few tips that is pretty interesting. I tried following this particular tip and yes, the good news is, my milk supply did improve, not much but it did. The bad news is when the supply slowly improved, I had to return to working life and because there is no proper room in my office that allows me to pump my supply privately..it eventually slowed down again, not to mention as well that because I had to start all over again to build up the supply while coping up with work, I had no choice but to slowly decrease nursing my baby.

However, I wished so much that I found out about this tip from the beginning so that I could nurse my baby for a good 3 months and in fact, if the supply was so overwhelming, heck! I would even take a drive back home just to pump out the milk! Okay, I do want to stress out something here, and that is to the fathers. Breastfeeding can become really stressful especially in my case where the supply is low. If you were to keep pressuring your wife to nurse her baby, she is going to get very stressed up and trust me, it won't help. So, please try not to do that. Instead, gently talk to her and support her emotionally because she is vulnerable. A big thanks to the hormones! So, to all mothers who are facing this problem, please remember this.. you are not alone.

So anyway, it is interesting that I found out in the net that there is such a herb called Fenugreek that can actually stimulate milk production. This herb is normally used in one of the ingredients to cook curry. However, in the pharmacies, it is sold in pill form. There are even some sold in tea bag form. I searched high and low for this supplement and eventually found it in GNC Live Well Malaysia. Here is a snapshot of how the bottle looks like.



If you read it on the net you may find that there are mixed reports on the effectiveness of fenugreek on increasing milk production, but I have to say that it worked pretty well for me. I do have to warn you though, that after taking this..your sweat might begin to smell like maple syrup. Basically it's smelly! But who cares! We just want to give the best to our baby, right? I hope you are still with me on this. lol.

I also found out that a possible danger associated with fenugreek is that the herb is related to peanuts, the food most likely to cause an allergy and the allergic reaction in a baby is quite high. Many cases of colic, stomach upset, and diarrhea have been reported among babies whose mothers take fenugreek. But since I have tried and neither I nor my baby experience any of these, I feel that I should share this information out and really, I do recommend this to any mothers who are desperately finding ways and methods to increase their milk production. But my advise is, please make sure you consult your gynae first before consuming this. I am no doctor. I am only recommending this based from my experience. :) And oh yes, this is to be taken only after child birth and not during pregnancy!

Of course, you will find more tips in the net if you were to do more research but I have not tried those and hence, I will not recommend on something that I have not tried myself. Last but not least, I read somewhere before in an article that a woman should nurse even when her breasts do not feel full or heavy because she will still have milk that can be drained. Good Luck and if you have more tips to share, please do post it on the comments box. Cheers!

Green Tea

Are you a green tea lover like me? Well, if you are, then good. We have something in common. You see, I started loving green tea say about +/-8 years ago. It all started when my husband and I started dating. Oh well, no..we didn't fall in love over a cup of green tea if that is what you have in mind. You see, when there's a lunch gathering over at my husband (back then - boyfriend)'s home, and after a hearty satisfying meal, (thanks to my mother in law who cooks extremely well! Really, you must try her nasi goreng/mihun goreng/mutton curry & her very own asian style spaghetti recipe..and many other dishes, too many to mention lah! it will take one whole page to list down all her specialties!) Okay, so yeah, after a good meal, it's a routine that my mother in law prepares a bag of green tea each for everyone. Now, you must be wondering what the heck am I talking about green tea for. Well, you should know a little of me by now (if you've read my 101 tips for weight loss) I am health conscious person and if I came across anything that is good for us, hey..it's my pleasure to share! FOC, mind you :) So, back to the green tea story, I am pretty sure you do know by now that green tea is good for you. But what exactly does it do to your body? If you already know, then good for you! How about posting up some comments, if I missed out any good points. But for those who have a bit of question marks here and there, well I hope you'll find this information beneficial.

Firstly, green tea benefits the immune system because of its high concentrations of polyphenols. Now, what is Polyphenols? I did a bit of research here and there and found out that Polyphenols is actually a kind of chemical that (at least in theory) may protect us against some common health problems and possibly certain effects of aging. Read more http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=16619 Now, there are four primary polyphenols in green tea and they are often referred to as catechins and clinical tests have shown that catechins destroy free radicals. What is free radicals? Again, some research was done and this is what I found out. In animal tissues, free radicals can damage cells leaving the body vulnerable to cancer, heart disease and other degenerative diseases. For example: Heat, ultraviolet radiation, and ionizing radiation all generate free radicals. So you see, it is therefore, very important that we consume green tea because the antioxidant found in green tea, which I found out is called Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), is at least 100 more times more effective than Vitamin C and 25 times more effective than vitamin E at protecting cells and DNA from damage which is believed to be linked to cancer, heart disease and other serious illnesses. What other benefits does green tea brings? Well, the common knowledge that we know is it reduces high blood pressure. Drinking green tea represses angiotensin II, I have no idea though what is this but what the heck, it's enough for me to know that it leads to high blood pressure. Now you know why, after a heavy meal especially if you just had a good meal of banana leave rice for example, it is good that you should have a nice hot cup of green tea.
Secondly, green tea actually helps to lower blood sugar and finally as I have mention above, it is believed through studies conducted, that green tea catechins are effective at preventing cancer. In short, to layman's understanding, when drinking the recommended amounts of green tea, (usually about 3 - 4 cups per day) the human body is cleansed from toxins that usually causes health problems, which in return improves your health and your lifestyle as well. As a matter of fact, based from my experience, if you consume green tea regularly, you will feel relaxed, full of energy, and even develop a good outlook in life! Ooh.. by the way, did I mention, I specifically drink this brand called OSK ?

Weight Loss

For mothers like me who's desperately looking for methods to shed off that extra kgs, trust me.. it's never easy. Firstly, you have to be damn discipline and stick to your work outs/evening jogs and the worst of all, controlling food intake!! Again for food lovers like me, who can resist a nice hot plate of nasi lemak in the mornings or a delicious treat to McD's sundae cup with strawberry toppings in the afternoon. Yup, it's never easy to control, that's why I am always on the net, looking for tips and hoping to find one that can continuously motivate me. In the end, I realized one thing. People like us need motivations!! That's right. Motivation so that we will still be bersemangat to carry out the golden rules to loose weight. So, friends.. it is my duty hereby to share with you the below article, so that you in return will feel bersemangat and may we in the end all look beautiful and hot and remain hot. *giggles* But I must warn you, this is one freaking long article, so choose what you think is relevant and fits well. Enjoy...

1. Drink plenty of water. Our body needs a lot of water so give in to water. Water is not just way to flush out toxin but if you have more water in your body you will generally feel healthier and fitter. This it self will discourage any tendency to gorge. The best thing about water is that is has no calories at all.

2. Start your day with a glass of water. As soon as you wake up, gulp down a glass of cool water. It’s a wonderful way to start you day and you only need a lesser quantity of your breakfast drink after that. A glass of water lets out all your digestive juices and sort of lubricates the insides of your body. You may have your morning cup of tea but have it after a glass of water. It is good for you.

3. Drink a glass of water before you start the meal. Water naturally needs some space so that you feel fuller without actually having to stuff yourself.

4. Have another glass of water while you are having the meal. Again this is another way of making yourself full so that you can actually rise from the table eating less but feeling full just the same. Instead of drinking it one gulp, take sips after each morsel. It will help the food to settle faster so that you get that feeling that you are full faster. SIDENOTE: Water is such a remarkable thing, but seldom do we give it the credit that it deserves. Did you know that over 66% of your body weight is nothing but water’ It’s amazing! Water also plays a vital role in weight control, which is why I donated so much space to it, above.

5. Stay away from sweetened bottle drinks, especially sodas. Hey all those colas and fizzy drinks are sweetened with sugar and sugar means calories. The more you can cut out on these sweetened bottle drinks, the better for you. So if you must drink sodas, then stick to diet sodas.

6. Include in your diet things that contain more water like tomatoes and watermelons. These things contain 90 to 95 % water so that there is nothing that you have to lose by feasting on them. They fill you up without adding to the pounds.

7. Eat fresh fruit instead of drinking fruit juice. Juice is often sweetened but fresh fruits have natural sugars. When you eat fruit, you are taking in a lot of fiber, which is needed by the body, and fruits of course are an excellent source of vitamins.

8. If you do have a craving for fruit juice then go for fresh fruit juice instead of these that contain artificial flavors and colors. Or even better, try making your own fruit juice taking care not to sweeten it with too many calories.

9. Choose fresh fruit to processed fruits. Processed and canned fruits do not have as much fiber as fresh fruit and processed and canned fruits are nearly always sweetened.

10. Increase your fiber intake. Like I mentioned, the body needs a lot of fiber. So try to include in your diet as many fruits and vegetables as you can.

11. Go crazy on vegetables. Vegetables are your best bet when it comes to losing pounds. Nature has a terrific spread when it comes to choosing vegetables. And the leafy green vegetables are your best bet. Try to include a salad in you diet always.

12. Eat intelligently. The difference between man and beast is that we are driven by intelligence while beasts are driven by instinct. Don’t just eat something because you feel like eating it. Ask you’re self whether your body really needs it.

13. Watch what you eat. Keep a watchful eye on every thing that goes in. Sometimes the garnishes can richer than the food itself. Accompaniments too can be very rich. Remember that it is the easiest thing in the world to eat something without realizing that it was something that you should not have eaten. Selective memory you know’

14. Control that sweet tooth. Remember that sweet things generally mean more calories. It is natural that we have cravings for sweet things especially chocolates and other confectionary. Go easy on theses things and each time you consume something sweet understand that it is going to add on somewhere.

15. Fix times to have meals and stick to it. Try to have food at fixed times of the day. You can stretch these times by half an hour, but anything more than that is going to affect your eating pattern, the result will either be a loss of appetite or that famished feeling which will make you stuff yourself with more than what is required the next time you eat.

16. Eat only when you are hungry. Some of us have the tendency to eat whenever we see food. We use parties as an excuse to stuff our selves. Understand that the effect of a whole week of dieting can be wasted by just one day’s party food. Whenever you are offered something to eat do not decline it completely bit just break of a nibble so that you appear to mind your manners and at the same time can watch your diet.

17. Quit snacking in between meals. Do not fall for snacks in between meals. This is especially true for those who have to travel a lot. They feel that the only time they can get a bite to eat is snacks and junk food. The main problem with most snacks and junk food is that they are usually less filling and contain a lot of fat and calories. Just think about French fries tempting but terribly fattening.

18. Snack on vegetables if you must. You might get the pangs of hunger in between meals. It is something that you can very well control. Or even better, try munching on carrots. They are an excellent way to satisfy those hungry pangs and are good for your eyes and teeth. True, you might end up being called Bugs Bunny, but its miles better to be called Bugs Bunny than fatso.

19. Go easy on tea and coffee. Tea and coffee are harmless by themselves. It’s when you add the cream and sugar that they become fattening. Did you know that having a cup of tea or coffee that has cream and at least two cubes of sugar is as bad as having a big piece of rich chocolate cake’

20. Try to stick to black tea/coffee. Black tea or coffee can actually be good for you. But personally I would like to recommend tea rather than coffee. The caffeine in the coffee is not really good for you because it is an alkaloid and can affect other functions of your body like the metabolism.

21. Count the calories as you eat. It’s a good idea to have an idea of the calories that most food items have. If it is a packed thing then the label is sure to have the calories that the substance has.

22. be sure to burn out those extra calories by the end of the week. If you feel that you have consumed more calories than you should have during the week, it happens you know, and then make sure that you work off those extra calories by the end of the week.

23. Stay away from fried things. Fried things are an absolute no-no. The more fried things that you avoid, the lesser weight you will gain. Fried things are called so because they are fried in oil or fat. And even if the external oil is drained away, there is still a lot of hidden oil in it so stay away from it.

24. Do not skip meals. The worst thing you can do while watching you diet is skip a meal. It has just the opposite effect of what you want. You need to have at least four regular meals every day.

25. Fresh vegetables are better than cooked or canned vegetables. Try to eat your vegetables raw. When you cook them, you are in fact taking away nearly half the vitamins in them. And canned vegetables too are processed and are not nearly half as good as fresh vegetables. When you buy your vegetables it would be a good thing to see if the label says that it is pesticide free.

26. Nothing more than an egg a day. Eggs are not such a bright idea. It would be best to reduce your intake of eggs to maybe three in a week. But for those of you die hard egg fans, you may have up to one egg a day but nothing more than that.

Article taken from Fitness Tips For Life. For further tips, please click: www.fitnesstipsforlife.com