If the 3 day cardiac diet is one of the easiest and fastest ways to lose weight; so why haven’t you heard of it? The odds are good that you actually have already heard of it, or at least something very much like the 3 day cardiac diet, which has also been called the Birmingham Hospital diet.
This diet is one of a group of fairly similar diets that have been around for years, including the May Clinic Diet, the Grapefruit Diet, or the Cleveland Clinic diet. The purpose of all these diets is to enable a person to lose as much weight as possible in three days.
If you believe that the 3 day cardiac diet and diets like it came from these clinics, then the idea was to help cardiac patients lose the water weight and bloat before surgery. The institutions all deny that they originated these diets, but they are very effective at rapid weight loss.
You will find the 3 day cardiac diet is a high protein, limited calorie diet that emphasizes vegetables and lean protein. Because of the amounts of vegetable you’re encouraged to eat, there’s no risk of nutritional deficiencies arising, but you do need to make sure to only stay on it for three days at time, or the low calories will cause a metabolic slowdown.
For breakfast on each of the three days, you’re going to want to focus on getting in protein as well as some fats, so the usual prescription is water packed tuna or cottage cheese, about a half a cup’s worth, and two eggs, cooked in your preferred style.
This gives you a good mix of protein and fat, which are important for maintaining you hunger at manageable levels and giving you the materials you need to keep your muscles strong. Under no circumstances should you skip breakfast or not eat the full amount. You may have coffee or tea with it, but make sure not to use sweeteners or any dairy products.
Lunch will be a mixture of tuna and salad. On the first two days, you may have a half a cup of water packed tuna, and a salad of any size you like. Keep in mind, though, that the salad must be all vegetables – no cheese or croutons or the like.. Make sure to use olive oil as your dressing, and don’t skimp, you need the good fats for proper metabolism. On the third day of the 3 day cardiac diet you may increase to a full cup.
Dinner on the 3 day cardiac diet will consist of as much as you like of any kind of meat, prepared without sauce or breading. You need to back this up with two different types of vegetables, steamed and without sauce except for butter, which you should use on them.
Do not eat bread, pasta, or potatoes on the 3 day cardiac diet, because it will disrupt the weight loss formula of the diet. Remember to drink at least 64 ounces of water while on the diet, and don’t cheat, it’s only three days. Follow these rules and the 3 day cardiac diet will give you quick and easy weight loss.
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3 Day Cardiac Diet Is Fastest And Easiest Weight Loss Plan
Healthy Snacks
No matter if it is while we are watching television or a quick bite to and from picking the kids up at school, we all love snacks. We can't get away from that fact. So why fight it? Our whole life we have been told that snacking is bad for us. It will ruin our apatite, it will make us fat, it will break us out in pimples. Some of it is true, while on the other hand, it is nothing more than fiction. Snacking performs a very important role in our lives. Some times we snack because we are bored. We eat because we are bored. That 600 pound man didn't get that way because he was eating three square meals a day. He got that way because he was eating too much food. Our bodies tell us when we are hungry. That doesn't mean that it that all the time we are hungry we need food. But, if you have a good diet it does. There is no reason to cut out snacking all together. Snacking is also a great way to avoid things that we do as a pick me up some days. For example, we can eat a piece of fruit instead of going for that cola to get a jolt of energy.
The key thing to do is, to know what to eat and what not to eat. Here we will give you some snacking ideas that will help you choose what is right. It doesn't require a genius to figure it out, but you might be surprised at some of the suggestions. This might sound a bit strange, but I would suggest to you that you get a food dehydrator. You can get one for next to nothing and they are easy to use. I know that learning how to use something new isn't always as easy as it sounds, but believe me, these things are a snap to use.
You can dry all kinds of things in your dehydrator. The key thing to remember is to cut things thin. The thinner the item is cut, the faster they will dry. Fruits are a great thing to dry. You can dry what ever is one sale at the super market that you can find. You can also dry canned items. I would suggest that you start out with a few easy things. Start out with strawberries. They are about as easy as you can get.
Not only are strawberries easy, but when they are dried, they carry a punch of sweetness that only sugar can match. The great thing is, these are sweet, but they don't have the calories of candy. You can also dry veggies as well. Are you like me, do you love the instant soup mixes they sell at the store? Well, I love them but hate all the added salt. If you dry your own veggies, you can make your own soup. What I love is, I can control how much salt I add.
Here is something that I love to do as a snack. I take a handful of banana chips, strawberry chips, and about two apple chips. I take them and put them in some low fat yogurt. That makes for a snack that is good for you and something that I love eating. It doesn't get any better than that. You can snack on the dried food just plain. Grab some fruit chips instead of potato chips or candy. You really can't go wrong with dried fruits. They will last a very long time if you keep them in a baggie as well.
You can also make fish jerky, turkey jerky and beef jerky. I love making jerky because it saves me so much money. I don't have to pay over ten dollars a pound for jerky. I can use what ever cut of meat that is on sale at the store. You can always go with the same boring veggie platter for a snack. I do love my veggies, but this can get a bit boring at times. That is why I love the dried fruits and veggies.
A great veggie plate can be made up of any type of veggies. I would suggest that you make yours out of what ever is in season. That will produce the best veggie plate that you can. Also try putting a little oil and vinegar dressing on them. Don't use too much, but just enough to taste. Sprinkle salt to taste and also put some pepper or some pepper flakes on them. I love using pepper flakes because it gives the veggies a zing. You can also squeeze half a lemon over them for zing if you like.
You need to make sure that you aren't eating a healthy diet and snacking on foods that aren't good for you. I know tons of people who have a very good diet, but their problem is that they eat all kinds of junk when they snack. This doesn't serve any purpose at all. I'm sure you know people like this as well. Actually, I feel like yelling at them and calling them a moron.
If you must have some carbs, don't do anything stupid. Don't go running for the potato chips. Instead, eat some sliced potatoes and add some seasoning to them. I like to use Cajun seasoning myself. I think that adds the kick that they are lacking since there isn't any fat.
Another great snack idea is the small fruit cups that they sell in the stores. Don't get the ones that are in heavy syrup. Heavy syrup is a nice way of saying loaded with sugar. Also some of the pudding cups aren't too bad either. They also have yogurt cups these days too. They are good, especially if you get the ones with the fruit on the bottom. There you have it. The next time you feel guilty because you ate the wrong snack food, come back and read this article again. This will help you curve those hunger cravings and allow you to snack without the guilt.
Cholesterol: Good or bad?
In today’s world, almost everything is free… not that everything has no price. It just seems that we have reached the era where we become more aware of our health conditions. Thus, it seems to be the era of everything that is -free. Try scanning every available product in your local grocery and you will see what I mean.
Your bread is bromate-free; your yoghurt is fat-free; your cooking oil is cholesterol-free; your canned soup is preservative-free; and the list goes on and on. Now you are beginning to wonder about the next -free commodity that you would encounter.
This is not exactly bad. In fact, health experts encourage us to be more sensitive about the foods we eat and the nutrients that we get from them. However, not everything that is –free is healthy. Our bodies need certain substances to be able to function well.
Let us take a look at cholesterol for instance. Very simply defined, cholesterol is a fatty substance that occurs naturally in the blood, cell walls, and most body tissues. Cholesterol is made by the liver, and it enters the body via foods rich in saturated fat.
There are two types of cholesterol; these are what they termed as the good and bad cholesterol. Like the literary split personality of Jekyll and Hyde, it has a good side because it is needed for certain important body functions. But for many people, cholesterol also has an evil side. When present in excessive amounts, it can injure blood vessels, cause heart attacks, and stroke.
Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) is the "bad" cholesterol. This is the form in which cholesterol is carried into the blood and is the main cause of harmful fatty buildup in arteries. The higher the LDL cholesterol levels in the blood, the greater the heart disease risk.
On the other hand, High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) is the “good” cholesterol. This "good" cholesterol carries blood cholesterol back to the liver, where it can be eliminated. HDL helps prevent a cholesterol buildup in blood vessels. Low HDL levels increase heart disease risk.
So before you go into your cholesterol deprivation program, remember that cholesterol is essential for human life. It builds and repairs cells, it is used to produce sex hormones like estrogen and testosterone, it is converted to bile acids to help you digest food and it is found in large amounts in brain and nerve tissue.
Losing Fat Fast: Is it possible
The first thing you need to know if you want to lose fat is that you need to BURN fat. Burning fat is all about using up more calories than you take in. If you eat more calories than your body uses throughout the day, these additional calories will be stored as body fat. To prevent a build up of body fat you need to either reduce your calorie intake or increase your daily activity levels - doing both will have the best effect on reducing body fat.
This simply means that the more fat you want to lose then the greater the amount of calories you have to burn off. To help you achieve and speed up your fat loss, here are few things that helps.
Speed up your metabolism—Exercise speeds up metabolism. The more active your lifestyle the more likely you are to have a quick metabolism and lose weight.
Metabolism does control weight, this is true. What most people don’t know is that they do in fact have the ability to control and adjust their metabolisms and thereby control their weight. Exercise does speed the metabolism up. The more active your lifestyle the more likely you are to have a quick metabolism and lose weight. It may not be healthy for all of us to get into a highly active lifestyle all at once but it is possible to get there as quickly as you safely can as an individual.
Eat healthy balanced diet— Be sure to eat a variety of foods, including plenty of vegetables, fruits, and whole grain products. Also include low-fat dairy products, lean meats, poultry, fish, and legumes. Drink lots of water and go easy on the salt, sugar, alcohol, and saturated fat. A large part of the battle in fighting fat and a slow metabolic rate is the western world’s view of food as entertainment. In addition to taking on an active lifestyle you will need to stop looking at food consumption as a means of gratification. This is what causes us to be gluttons. Instead of stopping when our hunger is sated we continue on until we are stuffed to get more enjoyment out of it.
Get plenty of rest and sleep— Sleep and other lifestyle patterns can help or hinder the rate at which we metabolize foods. An active lifestyle should lead eventually to being able to exercise to exhaustion; this in turn should keep your metabolism quick and your fat content low. By extending oneself to ones limits you fully utilize the lungs, heart, and muscles and burn fat most efficiently.
Be strong mentally—Try not to be obsessed by your weight. Everyone has a bad day. Do not punish yourself. Try to lose any guilt feelings towards the mistakes you have done. Instead, just move on, start again and enjoy life as it comes.
Diet and Sleep
The food you eat not only contributes to the quality of your weight and general health, but also on how well you sleep. Some foods help you sleep better. While others can make sleep difficult or even impossible.
Foods that improve sleep include fruits, green leafy vegetables, whole grain breads and cereals, and mushrooms. Even spices such as dill, sage and basil help with sleep problems.
Drinking milk before bedtime, a common method to aid sleep, is actually effective. Milk actually contains tryptophan, which can be converted to serotonin, the hormone that controls sleep. Honey, turkey, egg whites and tuna also contain tryptophan, which are good night time snacks.
Alternatively, caffeine-rich food and beverages should be avoided right before going to bed. This includes coffee, tea, chocolate, cocoa, soft drinks and some medications. Some foods that are rich in tyramine can also affect sleep. Tyramine actually causes the release of a substance that stimulates the brain keeping you awake. This is found in bacon, cheese, sugar, ham or tomatoes.
Spicy foods, on the other hand, may cause gastrointestinal reflux or heartburn. While sweet or greasy foods can also cause indigestion and bloating. And though alcohol can make you sleepy, it actually upsets sleep patterns later in the night resulting to frequent waking in the night to urinate.
Even how much and when you eat affect sleep patterns. It is best to keep the last meal of the day light. Eating too much or heavy meals before sleeping may cause indigestion, heartburn and discomfort. It is recommended to start with a hearty breakfast, the main meal of the day around noon, and a light supper early in the evening.
You may also take vitamins and supplements to aid sleep. Calcium and magnesium helps induce sleep. Calcium-rich foods include milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, sardines, salmon, broccoli, tofu, egg, and calcium-fortified food. Magnesium is found in nuts, almonds, cashews, beans, and spinach. Vitamins B6 and B12 are often beneficial and used in the treatment of insomnia. Some of the foods that contain Vitamin B6 are liver, meat, brown rice, fish, butter, wheat germ, whole grain cereals, and soybeans. Foods rich in Vitamin B12 include some plant milks, some soy products and some breakfast cereals.
Be careful on what foods you eat. It can directly affect the way you sleep. By improving your eating habits, you will have a better chance at a good night’s sleep.
Breakfast Ideas
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I'm sure that you heard that all the time when you was a kid. But, it is true. Breakfast is one of those meals that people today tend to skip. I really don't understand this. Maybe this is why people are so uptight in the morning. They have the shakes from not eating. You might have a busy lifestyle, but you need to make sure that you have time for breakfast. Breakfast is one of those meals that you must eat. I don't think there is any choice about it. I know that most people who do eat breakfast, tend to be the type that run out of the house with a donut in their hand. This really isn't a good idea. I don't know why people jump to the sugary breakfast foods. I guess it is why people drink coffee. They need that bolt of energy to wake them up. Or they think that maybe they can avoid eating a good meal by eating something full of sugar. After all, they feel energetic after eating a bunch of sugar.
Have you ever noticed how hard it is to wake up at work? Have you noticed how during the day you get tired? This is because you aren't getting the right foods for breakfast. You don't realize how important this meal is. Every day you should have a good meal for breakfast?
What are some good things to eat for breakfast? First, let's start off with what you shouldn't eat.
Don't eat donuts. For the reasons we spoke above.
Don't eat any cereals that are loaded with sugar. This is nothing more than empty calories. They don't offer you anything. Not only that, but too much of this and you will gain weight. Have you ever noticed how sluggish you feel before lunch? This is because you are eating too much sugar!
Don't eat a ton of fried foods. Don't eat a bunch of bacon, fried eggs, and some french toast. The added fat will weigh you down.
Don't eat those pasties that come in the boxes. These are loaded with sugar. They don't offer you anything that is actually good for you. They rob you of all the things that you should be eating.
Don't load up on coffee. Don't think because coffee can give you energy, that you can drink it instead of eating. Now, what you should be eating.
Eat a cereal that is low in sugar. Cereal with milk is a great breakfast. It is a good all around meal.
Try a new egg sandwich. People seem to love the egg sandwiches at fast food restaurants. Why not make one at home? You can put some cheese or some lean ham on yours. Use your imagination, these are fun to make.
Eggs are good for breakfast. I'm not going to go through the whole mess about how they say eggs are bad for you. Don't buy it. Eat them, but eat them in moderation.
Pancakes. These can be great from time to time. Try to get yourself one of those griddles that you don't need to add fat too. If you get one of those, you will be able to eat these more often. To cut down on calories. Instead of using butter and syrup, put fresh fruit on yours. I love eating mine with fresh fruit on top of them.
Juice is great for breakfast. Get that pick me up that you need without the caffeine of morning coffee. You don't have to worry about getting the shakes if you drink too much juice. Though, you might get the shits, but not the shakes.
Old fashioned toast. This is still a great thing to eat. Just don't load it up with too much butter or other things.
Oatmeal. I know that most of you probably hated oatmeal when you were a kid. But, this is some great stuff. Add some milk and a bit of sugar and you have a breakfast that will stick to your ribs.
Fruit salad can be great for breakfast. I love things that taste refreshing that don't take all day long to make. Throw your favorite fruits together and call it a meal! There you go. A good breakfast isn't as hard as you might think that it is. All you have to do is stay away from the drive through window and you will be fine. Also, don't eat those pasties in a box. They are nothing but junk food.