You don’t need to pay for an expensive 2 – 3 week stay in 5 Stars Spa Hotel to lose weight. Yes, Spa procedures are great very relaxing and effective, but they are too expensive. And they don’t teach you how to live healthy lifestyle.

You will probably lose some pounds even more than you expected but then it becomes even more difficult to keep them off for good. If you don’t live healthy lifestyle it’ll be very hard for you to maintain your current healthy weight. Without healthy eating habits and the knowledge how to choose your food and how to prepare it into delicious healthy meals you will gain back most of the lost weight sooner than you’ve expected.

The Five Star Weight loss Program I am taking about here is completely different and has nothing to do with 5 stars hotels. It is a very simple program you should follow, in fact it’s exactly a program but more like a plan of 5 important things you need to do in order to start living healthy lifestyle, which inevitably will help you get healthier and lose the excess pounds, feel better and more positive about your life and well being.

For each of these 5 things you do right - give yourself one star - this way at the end of the day you will have all 5 stars truly and honestly earned/deserved. It is as easy as 1-2-3-4-5. Here’s what you need to do:

Sleep
Eat Right
Stretch
Exercise
Encourage yourself

Sleeping at least 7 to 9 hours at nights is the best thing you can do for your organism and I am sure it would greatly appreciate that.

Why is sleep so important?

In a huge study with more than 60 000 women, those who slept at least 7 hours at the end of the study weighed a few pounds less than the women who dozed less than 5 hours. While sleeping your body produces more of the hormone leptin (the hormone of fullness) and less of the hormone ghrelin (the hormone of hunger), so the more you sleep the less hungry you will be when you wake up.

Sleeping enough helps you cope better with depression, which as we all know often leads to emotional eating which only puts on extra pounds. Try to go to bed 15 to 30 minutes earlier every night (give yourself a star every time you do that) and you will definitely see how much better you will feel in the morning.

Eating right is a problem for everyone who has problems losing weight. Give yourself a star every time you eat in a way that makes your body feel great. For example instead of pastry for breakfast you can eat a cup of yoghurt with fruits, or drink a cup of milk with fruits. For lunch chose a salad with fish or other lean meat, or tofu. For diner it’s always better to choose fish or lean meat again over fatty steak. And please skip the sweets straight after meals like candies, ice cream or cookies (if you can’t resist wait at least an hour or two before eat anything else). Don’t eat those snacks late at night as well just before bed.

Stretching is a good muscle exercise for great relaxation in the evening after a busy day at work. It will also help you make exercising easier, and enjoy it more and do it more often. Yoga is great for that purpose, but you don’t need to learn it if you don’t want to. Stretching is simple there’s nothing you can go wrong with it and don’t invest too much time in it. Just give yourself a star every time you do it.

Exercising even without breaking a sweat is great for everyone who really wants to lose weight. Walking is great 30 minutes to one hour a day is perfect. Exercising not only reduces stress and burns the calories form the unhealthy fatty foods you might have eaten, but it also may curb your food cravings, prolong your life and make you more positive towards your life and family. And that’s not all the benefits you get…

While I am walking it makes me think about my life what I’ve done wrong, what can I do to make my and my family’s life better. Give yourself a star every time you fulfill your daily exercise practice, either with walking or other favorite workout – you deserve it.

Encouraging yourself is probably the most important of all five stars you can get from your five star weight loss plan. Even if you skip one or two of the other stars, don’t miss to give yourself a credit (star) for trying to be healthy, positive and strong toward achieving your weight loss goals.

Encourage yourself and you will be much more confident it a lot more areas of your life not only about losing weight. Being positive will help your overcome emotional eating, which is great by the way. Give yourself a star just for loving your body, if you don’t accept the way you look nobody will like you. Trying to change the way you look, in the good positive way, is the only healthy way you should proceed in order to get the result you want.

When talking about green tea being so beneficial and healthy to drink, there are a few things that bother me:

What about green tea during pregnancy?
Is it safe for pregnant women to drink green tea?
Can you get pregnant if you are drinking green tea?

The answers to all these questions are NO. It is NOT safe to drink green tea while pregnant.

Even though green tea is still one of the best ways to lose weight, pregnant women should be very careful with it. Due to its unclear and still serious side effects it may cause to the baby.

Why taking folate during pregnancy is important?

All future mothers must take folate, at least during the first three months of their pregnancy, because it is very important in order to prevent neural tube defects that affect baby’s brain development.

Why Green Tea is not healthy for pregnant women and their babies?

The EGCG (Epigallocatechin gallate - main active antioxidant compound of GT) is the reason why green tea must not be used by pregnant women, because it affects the way folate is absorbed by the baby’s organism, which may cause the above said defects.

How exactly Green Tea is not healthy?

EGCG affects the baby’s absorption of folate, by binding the enzyme GHFR and inactivating it. This enzyme is important because it is involved in folate absorption in baby’s organism. When this enzyme is deactivated the baby can’t absorb folate and the protection the folate affords to the neural system of the baby is highly reduced.

Why EGCG is acting like that?

Because it is chemically similar to a compound called methotrexate. This compound binds to DHFR enzyme (dihydrofolate reductase) and this way kills cancer cells.

Because of its chemical similarity to methotrexate, the EGCG also binds to the DHFR enzyme and deactivates it this way. And I said earlier when DHFR is deactivated the baby can’t use folate from mother’s organism.

Conclusion

Although Green Tea has shown great benefits for stopping cancer cells growth if taken on regular bases, it is not good to be taken by pregnant women. The good news is that you still will be able to take your favorite cup of coffee in the morning, but only if it’s not that strong as you have used to drink it before getting pregnant.

Medifast Diet is now offering great discount with a special coupon code that is valid through March 31, 2009:

Get $50 off on any purchase of $275 or more! Use Promo Code: MAR31C

Use Coupon Code: Mar31C

Valid through March 31, 2009.

This coupon can be used for all Medifast Diet Meal Plan Packages you purchase that are equal or more than 275 dollars. That means you can use this coupon code for all of the following packages:

4-week Medifast Variety Packages
for Women, Men and Diabetes

All Medifast Enhanced Packages
for Women, Men and Diabetes

Momentum Weight Loss package by Medifast

Hurry up because you have exactly 2 weeks to take advantage of this great discount offer!

Even if you don’t purchase a whole Meal Plan Package, you still can use the coupon if you order Medifast Meals that are equal or more than $275. You can choose from the huge variety of shakes, bars, puddings, Soups, Drinks and more…

Have fun shopping with us and don’t forget to use the coupon code

If you have tried to stick to a healthy low calorie diet plan and have failed at least several times, then home cooking of diet meals is just not for you. Not that you failed cooking healthily, but I understand if you find it difficult to cook low calorie foods especially for you, while the rest of your family continues to eat regular non-diet meals.

You have two choices – you can either start cooking low calorie diet meals for the whole family, or sign up for a diet food delivery service that delivers healthy diet meals cooked by your personal chef under the supervision of your personal dietitian.
Yes, ordering freshly cooked and frozen delivered meals directly to your door using diet food delivery service, like Bistro MD gourmet meals, is like having your own personal chef and dietitian.

Bistro MD is a very good choice for a diet food delivery service. It’s not just an ordinary low calorie diet plan – it’s a home diet food delivery service that includes three easy steps to start your successful weight loss journey:

Step 1
Choose a diet meal plan that suits your personal needs. Your choice depends on how much weight you want to lose and for how long. You can choose between full week and work week, as well as you can pick and choose which foods you prefer to be included into your personal diet menu etc.

Step 2
Order your diet meal plan online.

Step 3
Your meals are delivered weekly directly to your door…

Now you have all the healthy diet meals you need to lose weight, you just have to start the easy as 1-2-3 weight loss process – heat the meals, eat the meals regularly and you will start losing the extra weight gradually.

Why should I choose Bistro MD diet food delivery over other similar delivery services?

Because it is easy, clean and time saving…

Bistro MS requires:

+ NO cooking and hassle anymore preparing healthy meals for you only or for the whole family
+ NO cleaning around the kitchen or endless dish-washing after meals
+ NO shopping and wasting time in the supermarkets reading foods labels for the ingredients
+ NO calorie counting – your calories intake ranges between 1100 and 1400 calories per day

Bistro MD diet delivery is unique with its delicious restaurant quality meals and a huge selection of exciting menus to choose from – you can choose different menu every week and will never get bored. You will be truly amazed by the freshly cooked, frozen and quickly delivered meals directly to your door.

You can read our full Bistro MD Review or if you are ready to get started then…

Visit Bistro MD official website now!

I just read my previous New Year’s wish to you and I hope it came true for you all!

For the New Year 2009 I wish for me, my family, my relatives, my friends and to all you my dear readers all the luck in the world, to be healthy and happy with who we are!

I hope for the New Year you will keep coming back for more useful information, tips and advices on how to lose weight, keep it off for good and maintain great shape and spirits all year round.

I wish you all the best for the New Year and stay healthy!

Yours truly,

Galia