When weight becomes a burden

In my last post, I gave a counter argument, that it doesn't matter how you look if you're comfortable with your own skin. There is a point, however, when weight becomes a burden rather then just a bit curvy. When we start gaining weight, our fat cells expand to accommodate the extra nutrients that we consume.


When I go to my physician for my yearly check up, she always suggests that I should lose some weight even thought according to the growth chart they have been keeping since I popped out of the womb says that I'm only a little above the average for my age and height. She says that this chart is based on American standards, standards that are much higher then others in the world. The average caloric consumption, she says, is between 3,000- 4,000 calories, twice the calories needed for everyday life. Now shes not talking about athletes like Michael Phelps where he consumes 12,000 calories a day xD Pro Athletes can eat that much because they burn it all off during their training.


So if we are consuming double the calories needed, the excess is tucked away in fat cells. What most people don't know about is that fat cells excrete a hormone called Leptin. It is responsible for giving off the feeling that you're always hungry. So if you accumulate too much excess nutrients, the larger the fat cell gets, and the more leptin it releases causing you to always be hungry (Broad Insitiute). This leads to over eating and the cycle continues.

obese mouse on left, normal healthy mouse on right.

Its not just that fat cells make you hungry all the time if they get bigger but the strain put on your heart to pump blood to the rest of the body is to much. This increases the risk of a heart attack so the heart is more likely to fail. Breathing also becomes a problem. Too much weight is pushing against the lungs when they are trying to expand to intake air. When sleeping, the weight acts as a counter weight to the lungs expanding. This can lead to sleep apnea, where there are short periods of time when you cant breath. Over time, sleep apnea leads to brain tissue death.

Katy Perry - Firework =]

Dont worry about your weight, youre perfect the way you are

As an Chinese American living in the United States, I am told by my friends that my weight is perfect and I'm fine the way I am. But by Chinese standards, I'M OBESE :O but then again every one is like size -5 so thats not saying much... >.>

I took this picture from Sarah's blog and its from Dove. Dove has launched a campaign that mainly focuses on raising the confidence of women and how they view themselves.  Living in a society that is on average larger then every other country,  we need to feel comfortable  in our own skins. Food is just about my best friend and I shouldn't have to worry about what I look like.  I am curvy, yes but I'm also tall, 5'9" so the weight is evened out by the height. I used to hate the way I looked because I didn't look like the models that were shown on tv or that I didn't look like the models in pictures when i went out shopping with my mom for clothes. Why should we let others tell us whats right for us if we're comfortable with who we are?




Katy Perry sings about being yourself and not worrying about what others think or say about you. =)

Portioned

Dr. Oz, for those of you who dont know about him, runs a show called the Dr. Oz Show (surprise surprise xD). the link above is from youtube where if you skip to around 3:40, he talk about plate sizes.

Continuing with eating... PORTIONING.

When we go to parties, there are the HUGE plates that we use for the actual meal and then the SMALL plates for deserts. In the youtube link I posted, he talks about how the plate sizes have gotten larger since he was a child. 

By having a larger plate (a plate with a diameter of 12 inches), it gives the eater the illusion that there isnt much on the plate. This leads to piling on more and more food and we dont even realize it until we finish that plate that we feel bloated. 

With the smaller plates (not the tiny 6 inch diameter plates used for deserts but 9 inch like Dr. Oz mentioned), it makes small portions look big. This helps reduce the amount of food that is in front of us when we sit down and when we are finished eating, we don't feel like an overstuffed teddy bear. 

Portioning also can be used when speaking about the amount of each type of food we place on our plate. There are so many goodies at parties and if we usually eat the dishes that we like and sample the ones that look interesting. but yet once we're done eating the food on our plate, the host always tries to make us eat more. xD So instead of going over to the table and plopping some of the suggested food onto your plate, you could take a little bit of everything onto your plate at the beginning of the party and tell the host you've already tried everything :D

P.S.

If you go onto the Dr. Oz Show website, there's a link in the top right hand corner where you can get your own personal health plan and once you complete the questions, a bunch of tips will come up depending on how you answered the questions =) I find them very helpful and I recommend it to you!

Healthier Alternatives? numba one

Photo credit MotherofBrothers.com

Dont these cookies look amazing? =) I love making cookies and baking and icing and cakes and pudding and FOOD. I might as well should have said food in the beginning. xD So for this problem of gaining weight, especially during the holidays, my first suggestion is, Diabetic Diet!

:D

I personally have some experience because my mommy is pre- diabetic so our house is pretty much anti- carbs. LOL. Its okay since I love my mommy=) Most people would think that if you took out the sugar from your diet, it would just be a salty diet. BUT ITS NOT :D You'll be surprised how much sugar can be found naturally in fruits! Depending on how you make your veggies also allows for natural sugars to be expressed =) 

We are what we eat

Winter time always means warm houses and festivities, and where there are festivities, there are always people and food. :D All sorts of yummy food ^^ but then the problem is how to keep the weight off. =( Speaking for myself, I LOVE to eat! If eating was a sport, I'd be the first to sign up. With Christmas following a month after Thanksgiving, the list of parties keep getting longer and longer (just like Santa's toy list!). Turkey, bread pudding, corn, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, and stuffing all slowly evolve into Christmas cookies and sweets, candy canes and gift giving. Eventually after going to so many parties and consuming so much delicious food cooked by the different hosts, it's easy for the food to just stay with us. When it's the summer, it is so much easier to go out and run around and burn of the calories that we eat but what can we do in the winter when the warmth in the house just seems to welcome us in?