Foodies100 Index of UK Food Blogs
Morphy Richards

Thursday 31 January 2013

Alkaline diet



What I’ve read recently about popular diets is that alkaline diet is the star of this year. Since Victoria Beckham twitted she is following this diet and other celebrities like Jennifer Aniston and Gwyneth Paltrow follow it as well it seems that this is the diet of the year.


Alkaline diet seems highly balanced and healthy. Besides, it can also generate impressive weight losses. So maybe it cannot hurt giving it a try.

Alkaline food diet is eating healthy food that metabolise the consumed food and leaves an ash (alkaline residue) of minerals such as calcium, copper, magnesium, iron and zinc. Alkaline ash food such as green vegetables, wheat grass, legumes, nuts and fruits based on the pH value is preferred in alkaline food diet. Such a diet helps to maintain the alkalinity balance in the blood without without stressing the body.

Benefits of alkaline food diet:

It prevents diseases from spreading in the body. It cures diseases like yeast infection, diabetes, allergies, heart diseases, cold and cancer.
Enhances good sleep.
It cures skin problems as the acidic toxins secretion becomes minimum.
A good and healthy diet to loose weight as the acid from the fat is released through alkalinity.
It provides energy, improves concentration, physical and mental stamina therefore boosting self-esteem.

What to eat in alkaline food diet?

Vegetables: asparagus, broccoli, green beans, green peas, egg plant, cauliflower, cabbage, beetroot, carrot, cucumber, fermented vegetables, lettuce, onions, pumpkin, sprouts, tomatoes and wheat grass to name a few.

Fruits: apple, orange, cherries, coconut, pineapple, lemon juice, grapes, honeydew lemon, grape fruit, lime, strawberries, peach, muskmelons, apricot and watermelon. Dry fruits: almonds, raisins as peanuts, cashews and walnuts are acidic in nature.

The alkaline eating plan also encourages the consumption of large quantities of water. On the other hand, the diet absolutely forbids the consumption of any kind of meat, sugar, caffeine, carbonated drinks, condiments, pastas and white rice.
Of all the foods that the diet allows consuming, 70% are alkaline, because these are the ones able to keep the pH of the human body at a maximum level of 7.45.
So, a healthy alkaline ash food diet is good for the body. Get rid of in-activeness, loss of energy, indigestion, body and head pain and heavy weight.



As you can see, the alkaline diet does not look very hard to follow, although it is basically vegetarian. Therefore, in case you wish to have the chance of experimenting something that stars are crazy about, you can try it, too. Nonetheless, you should not expect to look like Victoria Beckham after a week of dieting, as her svelte figure is also maintained through other secrets. The alkaline diet looks to be only one of them, so make sure not to expect too much after the diet, except a healthier body and a more balanced lifestyle.

Tuesday 29 January 2013

Tuesday with yoga - cobra position

If weight loss is your problem, yoga can be the simple answer to losing weight if doing it in a healthy way. I would like to show you some yoga position I am doing during my classess.
My yoga position of the day is the cobra pose. It is also called the Bhujangasana. 
The cobra pose owes its name to the fact that you need to lift your body like a snake's head in this yoga position. While doing the cobra pose, your body resembles a hooded snake that is ready to strike.



Steps To Do The Cobra Pose: 
1. Lie flat on your stomach and rest your head on your folded arms. 
2. Your feet must be kept together, upturned and flat. 
3. Look upwards with your forehead facing in the front. 
4. Bring your arms to your sides so that you can support your body weight. 
5. Lift your upper body while supporting your weight on your arms. Your body must be up from your waist going forward. 
 6. Arch your back as much as you can and push your head backwards while you continue to look in front. 
This yoga position helps relieve stress as it forces  to breathe deeply. It is a great yoga pose for kids because it helps to expand  chest. The more you use your lungs, the better it functions.  The cobra pose strengthens a lower back. It helps get rid of lower back and neck pain. This yoga pose also strengthens  arms.  It is a great yoga pose for women. This is because it helps regularise  menstrual cycle.  The most obvious benefit of cobra pose is that it aids weight loss. This is one of the best ways to lose belly fat. 
Do try it. How it helped you?

Saturday 26 January 2013

The 5:2 diet books

As the 5:2 diet is so popular maybe it's worth to look into some books.

The Fast Diet: The Secret of Intermittent Fasting - Lose Weight, Stay Healthy, Live Longer by Michael Mosley


Dr Michael Mosley, the medical journalist whose BBC Horizon programme alerted the world to the Intermittent Fasting phenomenon, presents the fascinating science behind the 5:2 diet. Mimi Spencer, award winning food and fashion writer, explains the practicalities of how to go about it.The Fast Diet also includes a calorie counter, full colour section, and a whole section of Fast 500 and Fast 600 menu plans which will enable you to incorporate this groundbreaking weight-loss system into your daily life.
 
 
The 5:2 Diet Book: Feast for 5 Days a Week and Fast for 2 to Lose Weight, Boost Your Brain and Transform Your Health by Kate Harrison

 

 


The 5:2 Diet will transform your body, your mind and your health. It’s the revolutionary part-time weight loss diet with lifelong health and anti-ageing results. This is the simplest, most flexible and most health enhancing weight loss programme.
 And The 5:2 Diet Book – packed with tips, science, recipes, inspiration and case studies from over thirty dieters – will help you join the revolution to lose weight, boost your brain and transform your body.


The 5:2 Diet - Eat Whatever You Want 5 Days a Week!: How to Lose Weight, Get Skinny and Live Longer by Fasting Just 2 Days a Week! by James Drummond






All books are available on http://www.amazon.co.uk, 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Feast-Weight-Transform-Health/dp/1481235966/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359225940&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Fast-Diet-Intermittent-Fasting/dp/1780721676/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1359225940&sr=8-3
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Whatever-Weight-Skinny-Fasting/dp/1908707127/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1359225940&sr=8-4



Thursday 24 January 2013

The 5:2 intermittent fasting diet

From time to time I go on diet and I make a resolution to loose some weight. How about you?
I usually try to follow one of those popular diets the Atkins diet, the South Beach diet, the protein diet, the cabbage soup diet, the baby food diet, the Hollywood diet.

Recently is 5:2 diet which is very very popular.



Dieta 5:2, why it is so popular and is it healthy?

The diet first reached the mainstream via a BBC Horizon documentary called Eat, Fast and Live Longer, broadcast in August 2012.
The 5:2 diet is based on a principle known as intermittent fasting (IF) – where you eat normally at certain times and then fast during other times.

Across seven days you eat normally for five days and on two non-consecutive days you stick to 500 calories (600 if you're a man). The 5:2 diet is also known as intermittent fasting.

As long as you don't binge on your 'feast' days, and make sure you stick to the calorie limit to your 'fast' days intermittent fasting has helped them lose weight, without the usual diet-related misery.

Fans of the 5:2 diet like its simplicity and flexibility. And if something unexpected comes up and we need to swap our fast day, we can.
Is the 5:2 diet healthy?
Most doctors and dieteticians say no. They claim that ss most very low-calorie diets is being bad for us and bound to fail that they slow down metabolism and once calorie intake goes up, our bodies store the energy as fat.
But the science seems to show that two days of fasting, non-consecutively, doesn't trigger this response and so we don't get locked into a demoralising fat-off, fat-on cycle.
Bad things are said about every kind of diet and doctors try to convinced us to balanced, healthy diet. However thousands of people go on diets, Atkins,proteins etc and many of them loose their weight, many of them start to eat healthy and they change their eating habits for better. So maybe these diets are not so bad, maybe they teach us something and help many of us have better live.
What do you think about these new diet, have you tried it, or maybe you have other methods to keep your weight unchanged?




Tuesday 22 January 2013

Say yes to a yoga

Going to a yoga lessons is what I've planned to do from a long time. And I make this my new year resolution, especially after my holidays, where I've tried yoga with private teacher.
What I want to achieve from it? I just want to take care of my health and good feelings, relax my mind and body. Hope I will achieve these.




 So what is yoga and how it benefits?


The word yoga originates from the ancient Sanskrit script and its literal meaning is ‘union’. Yoga is a technique which  unifies the body, mind and soul. It is a workout that helps strengthen the body, calm the mind and purify the soul, bringing us closer to a higher power and allowing you to gain higher consciousness.

These features of yoga have just convinced me to try it. The first classes have showed me that it is not so easy as it seems to be, that it need quite a lot of efforts, that my body is not flexible at all and that I will have to make a lot of work to stretch it that it will require a lot of patience from me.
It's turned out that yoga isn't boring and that it's not only a meditation but also physical exercises.

Yoga helps to modulate stress. This in turn reduces the heart rate, thereby lowering blood pressure and easing respiration. Yoga, as an effective way to fight stress, also helps to become strong and less sensitive towards pain.Thanks to it me start to know our body, our breath and our strength.
After these first classes I've seen that I am more relaxed, I have more energy and more smile on my face:-)


I will try to show you what I've learn, what positions and what is they impact and benefits.
How about you?Have you tried yoga before, what is your experience?Or maybe you prefer other forms of fittness?



Friday 18 January 2013

Skincare in winter

Today I would like to write more about skincare. It will be about skincare in winter.
In winter we should especially take care of our skin and follow some more tips which help us look younger and healthier.




1. Protect exposed skin - don't forget about scarf and gloves. Our neck and hands exposed to cold and dry air become more drier.
2. Provide extra moisture to combat drying environment - Never forget about moisture your body after bath and shower. Especially during winter skin dries out so adding an extra layer of moisture will protect our skin.
3. Avoid products with strong detergents and fragrances - beautifully smell body lotions, body washes and soaps causes very often skin irritation especially in dry winter weather. Use mild soaps with extra moisture, non-fragrance body lotions and use non-fragrance laundry products.
4. Moisturise your hands - use a lot of hand creams to protect your hands
5. Never forget about sunscreen - we need to protect our face from the sun even in the winter.

Thursday 17 January 2013

Skincare



I am sure that everyone old and young, during spring, summer, autumn or winter has some problems with skin. How often do you have a moments that you don't want to look into the mirror as your skin isn't perfect?
I think that we should always follow good skincare regime and I am sure it will help our skin to recover from late nigths, unhealthy diet, stress, central heating, cold weather etc.

Take care of you skin all year round and below there are few the most important tips which I always follow. And what about you how do you care about your skin? Do you have any special tips?


  My skincare tips:

1. Beauty start from within - healthy, well balanced diet, 5 small dishes during the day contain vegetables, fruits, fishes, proteins.
2. Hydration - ensure that you are properly hydrated, drink a lot of mineral water
3. Daily sun protection - protect your skin year round using sun protection skin and it will keep wrinkles away in the future
4. Moisturise - good daily moisturiser morning and evening help to nourish and protect the skin
5. Keep skin clean- always remove your make up before going to bed, however tired you are
6. Weekly treats - it is w0rth to do face mask once a week to moisturise and clean your skin - I always do this on Saturdays
7. Peeling - Good peeling removes dead cells that causes dullness and encourages your skin to produce new ones for a healthy grow


Tuesday 15 January 2013

Chocolate Chocolate. Can it help to loose weight?

I love chocolate. I love chocolate bars with nuts and raisins and I love drinking chocolate.
It is lovely treatment especially in the winter evenings spent with book or good movies.



What about you? Do you like chocolate? What is your favourite one? Milk, dark, with orange or chilli?

Chocolate has a bad image as a high-calorie food that people should avoid. Yes it is high calorie so we need to be careful with the amount we eat but eating chocolate has a lot of health benefits.Yes, yes it is true!
The natural flavonoids in chocolate improve blood vessel function and heart healthy benefits and what is more eating chocolate could help with weight loss by helping to control cravings.
So are we going to eat chocolate?


A little chocolate reduce overall calorie consumptions but it is necessary to choose the right kind. The dark chocolate is the best one and it is over milk chocolate when it comes to satysfying cravings and it also has greater health benefits. Moreover the more cacoa in the the dark chocolate the better. So choose a bar with cacoa content of 70%, 80%, 90%. The drawback is that it can taste more bitter.







So if we eat a bar of chocolate it is a high chance that we eat less calories in the next meal and it reduces the desire to eat other unhealthy foods that are high sugar or fat.
Additionally dark chocolate lower blood pressure and may reduce risk of stroke and heart attack. We won't that when we nibble on cookies, muffins, doughnut.
And chocolate lowers levels of stress hormones and make us feel happy!

So maybe chocoholism is not so bad? So maybe when we feel like eating something sweat in the evening a little bit of chocolate will be good for us?What do you think?
I think we shouldn't feel guilty eating a little bit or drinking a cup of chocolate in the evening.

Enioy them!

Little Miss Spoon