Coconut oil coffee

Add 1 tbsp of coconut oil to your cup of joe for extra richness, an extra energy boost, and to help you curb your appetite. The coconut oil boosts your metabolism, plus the fat keeps you full until your next meal.

Coconut oil is made up of MCTs (medium-chain triglycerides). The main advantages of MCTs include:

• Absorbed quickly by the body (digestion) and quicker to use for immediate energy.
• Enhances ketone production which have therapeutic (energy, cognitive) and nitrogen retention (protein sparing) advantages.
• Increase energy expenditure and metabolic rates.
• Reduce hunger/suppress appetite.

Additional tips:

• If you don’t like the oiliness or if you do like a lot of froth, mix it together in a blender.
• For sweetness or extra flavor, add a bit of vanilla and Stevia.
• For creaminess, add a pat of unsalted grassfed butter.

You can find high quality coconut oil at Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Vitamin Shoppe, and online. See this article from Evolving Wellness for tips on choosing a good coconut oil: http://www.evolvingwellness.com/essay/how-to-choose-a-coconut-oil-comparing-best-and-worst-brands.

How to take care of someone with the flu or common cold

Well, it’s flu season and everyone I know seems to be catching it. If you start to feel sick (sore throat, extra tired and weak), start taking medicine and vitamins (e.g. Vitamin C, zinc), and drink plenty of fluids (water, hot honey lemon ginger tea). Gargle salt water. Take a day or two off work to rest. Stay in bed but also try to step outside and get a dose of fresh air and sunlight. Make sure you eat something, even if it’s the last thing you want to do. The sooner you start treating your illness, the sooner you’ll recover. And remember to do your coworkers a favor and don’t go to work if you’re coughing and sneezing all over the place. Also, I don’t know if it’s true or not but last week my massage therapist told me a massage will intensify/worsen your symptoms but shorten the duration of your cold or flu.

Now, on to the point of this post…

If someone else you know is sick, then read on for tips on how to provide proper care for them at home.

Basic tips:

• Know the difference between the cold and the flu. Treat accordingly.

Flu or cold? (article) http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/cold-guide/flu-cold-symptoms

• Bring them easy-to-digest food, medicine, and plenty of water. Don’t wait for them to ask you.
• If they refuse to eat, try feeding it to them.
• A straw or bottle makes it easier to drink water when you’re feeling weak. Help them hold up the cup.

• Keep track of the medicine they’re taking throughout the day, including their regular prescriptions. Make sure they are taking it on time.

• Keep track of their temperature to make sure they don’t have a fever. If they do, give them the proper medicine and bring them a cool damp towel to wipe their forehead and back of the neck.

• Put a trash can next to them if they are nauseous feel like throwing up.
• Make sure they are warm. Bring them more blankets if needed. Or bring them a hot water bottle (if you don’t have one of these, fill a plastic soda or water bottle with hot/very warm water and screw the lid on tightly).

• Bring them Kleenex if they have a runny nose.

• Rub Vick’s Vaporub or something menthol-y on their throat and chest if they are congested or have a cough.
• Throat numbing sprays are good for sore throat or an uncontrollable cough that keeps you up all night.

Food and drinks:

• Ginger tea (add lemon, honey, and/or garlic if desired) helps if they have a sore throat or cough.

• Powerade, Gatorade, or Ginger Ale to replenish fluids and electrolytes, especially if they are throwing up or have diarrhea. For kids, give Pedialyte. Ginger ale is also known to help with nausea, digestion, and cramps. Note that too much sugar can worsen diarrhea though.
• Chicken noodle soup (chicken, carrot, celery, onion, broth, salt, pepper), rice porridge (rice, water, optional: salt, ginger, scallion), oatmeal porridge (oats, water, salt, egg mixed in; optional: small pieces of pork), rice noodles (rice noodles, broth), or something else that’s warm, simple, and easy to eat and digest.
• Crackers are a good food to eat, especially after throwing up because they can absorb excess stomach acids.
• Bananas help if you are suffering from nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
• Popsicles are good for getting your needed liquids when you don’t want to swallow. The coldness is also good for sore throats.

Most importantly…

• Check up on them every couple of hours. Call them on the phone if you’re not physically there. Make sure they’ve been eating, drinking, and taking their medicine.
• Take them to the hospital if there are no signs of getting better, or if they show extreme symptoms.
• Call their doctor, or the advice nurse (they are available to give advice over the phone 24/7)

And if the person has diabetes…

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/diabetes/index.htm

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/diabetes/articles/2009/10/02/diabetes-and-the-flu-6-things-you-should-know

If they have asthma…

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/asthma/index.htm

If they have a thyroid disorder…

http://thyroid.about.com/od/relatedconditions1/a/flu-thyroid-information.htm

If they have heart disease or have had a stroke…

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/heartdisease/index.htm

http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/flu-guide/heart-disease-and-flu

Other high risk people…

This includes children, those over age 65, pregnant women, those with cancer, HIV, and AIDS, and those with other medical conditions. Read more at: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/disease/high_risk.htm

Warning about cold/flu medicines and those with medical conditions: READ THE LABELS! Those with special health concerns should avoid cold and flu medicines that contain decongestants and stimulants, which interfere with medications, elevate blood pressure levels, and cause all kinds of other undesirable problems.

Workout update

I started a new boot camp class yesterday. I haven’t really worked out in the past 8+ months since my back injury. On top of that, I just recovered from the flu (I had to take two days off last week, just after the holiday)…so within the first ten minutes of the workout, I felt exhausted and dizzy. I had to sit through a good chunk of the class, but I was able to rejoin for the ab workout at the end. When I got up, I realized there was a piece of chewed up gum stuck on my butt. Fun.

All in all, I probably worked out for 20-25 minutes. I went back to work and within hours, my body started feeling sore which continued throughout the next day (today). The new boot camp spot is pretty relaxed…almost too relaxed to the point of being disorganized. They don’t have stations to help keep you moving along with each set of exercises, and the instructor doesn’t keep count or keep track of what’s going on. The venue is also smaller than the previous one I went to and they make you run laps around the block to warm up.

By the way, a warning about boot camp classes…make sure you fully understand what you are committing to before you sign up! You can be stuck on a totally ridiculous contract, like my coworker was with the previous place I went to. They convinced him to do the 12-month contract at a lower monthly price than a month-to-month, and now that he wants to cancel early to save money, they are charging him $350 upfront (based on how many months completed, not how many months left. How whack is that!). I ended up quitting that boot camp because of other shady things I noticed — insensitive language used in marketing campaigns, vague wording and communication about actual pricing of plans, and the fact that they wouldn’t let me freeze my plan after I was injured in the car accident and my chiropractor advised me not to work out until I let my back recover for a few weeks. The workouts there were great, but I was EXTREMELY turned off by the way they do business. Hence, I moved on and tried The Dailey Method, which is low impact, and now this new boot camp spot for a more intense workout.

Today, I just went to the gym in the office building during my late lunch hour (5pm) and did some cardio. I listened to some music while walking and running on the treadmill, and continued my current read, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement (Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox), while on the bike.

Babe has been working out as well. He’s been going to the gym for cardio (30-45 mins) and sauna (15 mins). He’s also been low-carbing it (last weekend, we went to the Asian supermarket and he got himself some lap xuong, longanisa, and lemon citron tea). We grilled up some sriracha BBQ chicken, Korean beef short ribs, and veggies (zucchini, eggplant, cabbage, tomato, onion, garlic) on Saturday night and had leftovers on Sunday.

My current weigh-in: 126 lbs

His current weigh-in: 235 lbs

Shared Goals for 2014

So we decided to write out our personal New Year resolutions on separate pieces of paper a few days after New Year’s Day. We then read each others’ resolutions aloud, and added what we felt the other should also include. All the resolutions and goals that appeared on both our lists we added to a new list – our “Shared Goals for 2014” list – which we organized into main goals with corresponding mini-goals.

1. Be active, healthy, and fit.

• lose weight
• go to the gym
• be active
• put health first

2. Eat right.

• prepare meals
• plan meals
• cook together
• eat out less

3. Extra income.

• ebay
• craigslist
• find hot items to buy/sell

4. Be more organized, punctual, and productive.

• use time more wisely
• more activities on days off

5. Communicate better as a couple.

• be more detailed (less vague) about everything, especially when one has a problem
• not afraid to speak your mind

Dr. Oz’s Two Week Rapid Weight Loss Diet

I went through my DVR recordings and decided to watch the latest Dr. Oz episodes I recorded. One of the JanYOUary segments combined all the advice from Wheat Belly Diet (I own this book and the accompanying Wheat Belly Cookbook) and other sources, forming a diet plan that helped the show’s audience lose an average of 9 lbs per person in two weeks.

Watch the segment of the episode here:

http://www.doctoroz.com/episode/dr-ozs-two-week-rapid-weight-loss-diet

Full instructions here:

http://www.doctoroz.com/slideshow/dr-ozs-2-week-rapid-weight-loss-plan-instructions

Cheat sheet:

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/dr-ozs-rapid-weight-loss-plan-one-sheet

More on Wheat Belly Diet:

http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/

~~~

Here’s a summary of the plan:

Eliminate the following from your diet:

• Wheat
• Artificial sweeteners (including diet sodas and sugar packets)
• Sugar
• Alcohol (contains sugar)
• Coffee (drink green tea instead)
• Dairy (except for greek yogurt)

Each morning, drink hot water with lemon.

10 benefits to drinking warm lemon water (article) – http://tasty-yummies.com/2013/03/18/10-benefits-to-drinking-warm-lemon-water-every-morning/

For breakfast, make a smoothie. Use almond milk (unsweetened, vanilla flavor), 1/2 cup frozen berries, 1/2 banana, 2 tbsp rice protein powder, 2 tbsp flaxseed powder. Alternatively, you can make a green smoothie with green veggies, green apple, banana, and lemon (see my previous blog post on the Glowing Green Smoothie by Kimberly Snyder).

Green smoothie recipes (website) – http://simplegreensmoothies.com

For the rest of the day, eat the following: greek yogurt (you can make a dip for your veggies with it), 6 oz protein (chicken, turkey, fish), 1/2 cup brown rice, organic green tea, olive oil, avocado. Snack on nuts, hummus, or pickles. Fill up on unlimited low glycemic index vegetables (see list below). Make vegetable soups. Use homemade vegetable broth or buy low sodium kind from the grocery store..

Take a probiotic each morning to speed up weight loss.

The best probiotics on the market (article) – http://www.womenshealthmag.com/nutrition/best-probiotics

Take a multivitamin daily.

No meals after 8pm, or before 8am.

~~~

Low glycemic vegetable list:

• Artichokes
• Artichoke hearts
• Asparagus
• Bamboo shoots
• Bean sprouts
• Broccoli
• Brussels sprouts
• Cauliflower
• Celery
• Cucumber
• Daikon
• Eggplant
• Leeks
• Lentils
• Beans (green, kidney, garbanzo)
• Greens (collard, kale, mustard, turnip)
• Mushrooms
• Okra
• Onions
• Pea pods
• Peppers
• Radishes
• Rutabaga
• Squash
• Sugar snap peas
• Swiss chard
• Tomato
• Water chestnuts
• Watercress
• Zucchini
• Cabbage (green, bok choy, Chinese)
• Salad greens (chicory, endive, escarole, iceberg lettuce, romaine, spinach, arugula, radicchio, watercress)

More on low-glycemic diet:

http://lowglycemic-foods.com/glycemic-index-diet/

 

coffee vs. thyroid medication

The dilemma for many of those who have to take medication every morning to treat hypothyroidism is when to take it, before or after our morning coffee. Since thyroid medication must be taken on an empty stomach, it’s best to take it first thing when you wake up. As for when to reach for that cup of joe, it can vary by individual. According to this article, studies show that it’s best to wait at least one hour after taking levothyroxine (Synthroid, Levoxyl, Levothroid, Unithroid) to drink your coffee. If you drink it within that hour, absorption of the thyroid medication can be reduced anywhere from 25% to 57%. So now that you know, you can plan your morning routine accordingly.

make your own healthy soda

A couple of months ago, my sister and I stopped by Williams Sonoma at Stanford Shopping Center and tasted this all natural soda they brewed up to demonstrate the pricy but amazing Hurom Slow Juicer and SodaStream soda maker. The only ingredients you need to make this delicious fruity, fizzy drink are: green apple, ginger, lemon, and water. Use the soda maker to turn tap or filtered water into sparkling water with your preferred amount of fizz, and then throw the other ingredients in your juicer. Mix and combine the output in a glass and serve.

Getting ready for Vegas

Babe has been trying to lose weight to get ready for EDC and his brother’s bachelor’s party in Vegas. He said he’s been going low carb these last few weeks, but he hasn’t shed a single pound. He said his pants feel looser though, so that’s good!

His friend has also been dieting and working out. Is it only guys who feel they have to “get ready for Vegas” or do ladies do it too? Is it any cause for concern? Even if he really did get “Vegas ready,” it would all be discounted by the fact that he plans to eat GOOD while he’s out there… Yesterday, his friend texted him a picture of the buffet flyer! 🙂

Boot camp update

I got into a car accident a few weeks ago (a Mercedes Benz rear-ended my car on the freeway after all the cars in front of me and I suddenly stopped at an interchange) and got whiplash. I have been seeing a chiropractor twice a week for my back and neck since then, and I have at least another week of treatment to go. Last week, the doctor said I could try working out again and to let him know if I get any flare-ups. I had asked my boot camp instructor Matt if I could “freeze” my paid 6-week membership until the doctor said I was ready to return, but he said I would have to pay for another month’s membership and then could make up the missed time after that. I hope his offer is still good by the time I’m ready! My goal is to go back this week or next week. I’ve been aching to go back and in that time managed to convince one of my coworkers to join. I have also been trying to persuade a few others to get on it as well! The problem is we all work long hours, and the boot camp times are not that favorable to our schedules. They normally work from 8:30-9:30am to 6:30-7:30pm.  I normally work from 10-11am to 7-9pm (and I commute 40-60 mins each way).

Newest gym rat in the fam

Summer has started…for my little sister who’s in high school, that is. Her plans for the summer are to find a job and to get fit. One of her good friends became really toned after joining the gym less than a year ago, and this inspired her. My sister is very athletic (tennis captain and softball player) but, in my opinion, eats too much junk food such as chips (Hot Cheetohs, Takis, Turbos Flamas), Mexican food, and sweetened drinks (Thai tea and milk tea with tapioca pearls, Starbucks Frappuccinos). I received an e-mail from my gym with a Memorial Day deal to add a family or friend to my membership for $24.99 with no initiation fee, so I brought her in and got her signed up. We worked out together with a bit of cardio on the treadmill to warm up and then a TRX workout. When I’m not able to go to the gym, our other sister takes her. Our other sister joined a few months ago since she has a good friend who’s a personal trainer there. We go together after work sometimes (less often than we should), but we try to keep fit by also running and hiking outdoors.