My Fluffy Life~

This morning before I went to work, while getting ready, I ate 7 cherry tomatoes as it was easy to prepare (almost no preparation except washing them). When I get to work, as usual I had my two slices of wholemeal breads with half a cup of coffee (yes, this much I allowed myself for caffeine). 

Around 12pm, I walked to the fruit stall and bought a slice of sweet papaya and started munching it.  

Around 1pm, I had my lunch; rice with butter mushrooms, vegetarian rending curry and broccoli!That is already at least 3 serving of fruits/vegetables that I had till lunch time. 

If I have another portion of vege for dinner and fruit for after dinner, I guess I would already reach my 5 servings of fruits/vegetables in a day! Yupeee!!! I don’t even need foods that burn fat! Of course in between sometimes I do snack on some junk food, sweets for my cravings.  

It isn’t that hard to achieve if you just put a little effort and plan accordingly~!

Don’t drink too much coffee, its bad for health. Take green tea, my friend that sell books for a living, advised me.

But little does he realised that green tea does contain caffeine too, though the amount is much lesser compared to those in coffee. However green tea is much more beneficial to our body as they contains lots of antioxidants which made it alright to drink as much as you want.

The length of infusion with hot water also reduces the caffeine intake using the same leaves.The younger the tea leaves, the more caffeine it contains!

Green tea teabags also contain more caffeine than the loose green tea leaves.It is important to remember not to use boiling water to prepare green tea as it would destroy the valuable therapeutic compounds found in the tea.

I do not like to eat oats though I was advised to take it daily as my bad cholesterol is much higher than expected for my age. I hate drinking fresh milk too as I do not like the taste as well. I thought it is better to take herbal diet supplements.

But lately I found something that I could drink, fulfilling the oats and milk requirement. Yes, the oats milk that I found at the mall the other day!It is a mixture of powdered oat into the fresh milk and surprisingly it tasted quite good to me. I have finished a packet of 1litre and today I bought another pack.

I think drinking a litre a week should be enough for my requirement, right? Or so I hope! (more…)

I try to drink some milk every morning for every other week but I have heard of so many milk myths that makes me a little doubtful.  But after checking it out, well, some myths are just..well, myths! It is not true.

For example, milk is bad for asthmatics which is definitely not true according to the American College of Nutrition Study as there is no scientific evidence to back it up.Milk causes kidney stones - University of Chicago shows that 600mg of calcium which is equivalent to two cups of milk a day doesn’t up the risk of stones forming at the kidney!

Drinking milk doesn’t cause you to gain weight as studies shown that people who consumed diary weighed less and has less body fat than people who don’t.So drink up your milk confidently as it is a promotional items for our body! We shouldnt believe those =)

I am not a big fan of green leafy vegetables and I suppose that is why my diets are lack of fibre.

So now, as I still have green leafy vegetables, I hope to find other alternatives food for replacement. As to prevent cancer and all other groggy diseases too. 

A list of high fibre food that I can find :�

• Wholemeal, granary and softgrain varieties of bread
  
• Jacket potatoes, new potatoes in their skins and baked potato skins
  
• Wholegrain breakfast cereals, eg. Weetabix, branflakes, unsweetened muesli, Shreddies and porridge oats
  
• Wholemeal pasta and brown rice
  
• Beans, lentils and peas
  
• Fresh and dried fruits – particularly if the skins are eaten
  
• Vegetables – particularly if the skins are eaten
  
• Nuts and seeds
  
• Wholemeal flour

My colleague made me felt bad about the amount of high-cholesterol-food that I am consuming and how I love them! She keeps stressing and giving me ideas on how I could lower them again. 

And feeling guilty, I had oat for dinner tonight.  I tried to make it more watery as I couldn’t bear the thick and bland taste of oat. This time, I put in some Chinese sausage and pickle while cooking which makes it more salty, rather than adding honey to sweeten it. 

And it turns out quite good and guess what? I think I can do this more often. Maybe twice in a week! Yeah, I should probably do more than that!  =P

I realised that I have been grinding teeth in my sleep and this freak me out a little. I do not know how long it has been going on but I’ve been told that I’ve been grinding for 3 consecutive nights.Is this due to stress, fatique or braces?

I am not so sure and thus I googled about the condition and found that it is labelled as Bruxism. It can cause fracturing, loosening or even loss of teeth! My goodness!

Apart from that, it could also affect jaws, result in hearing loss and change the appearance of the face.Some tips that I found out on how to prevent teeth grinding is as below :

- Avoid or cut back on foods and drinks that contain caffeine, such as colas, chocolate, and coffee.

- Avoid alcohol. Grinding tends to intensify after alcohol consumption.

- Do not chew on pencils or pens or anything that is not food. Avoid chewing gum as it allows your jaw muscles to get more used to clenching and makes you more likely to grind your teeth.

- Train yourself not to clench or grind your teeth. If you notice that you clench or grind during the day, position the tip of your tongue between your teeth. This practice trains your jaw muscles to relax

- Relax your jaw muscles at night by holding a warm washcloth against your cheek in front of your earlobe.

I love eating yogurt and sometimes I drink yogurt drink as well as cultured drink. Is it good for me apart from the lovely taste and smooth yogurt texture that I like? 

Apparently yes, as there are many goodness and benefit from consuming live and active culture such as :  

-        improve nutrient bioavailability, including B vitamins, calcium, iron, zinc, copper, magnesium and phosphorus.

-        Decrease rate of acute diarrhoea and rotavirus shedding

-        Improve lactose intolerance

-        Improve constipation among elderly

-        Promotes growth of healthy bacteria  in the colons and reduces the conversion of bile into carcinogens

-        Enhance immunity by regulating lymphocytes and antibodies~!

“Take more apples if you do not like oats”, said the health consultant.

And well, I used to take them weekly but then I switched to orange as it makes me less full after dinner comparing to apple.  But yesterday I bought some green apples and tried to get rid of the wax at the skin as I do not want to peel off the skin which contains a lot of vitamins.  

The health benefit and goodness of green apple includes containing both insoluble and soluble fibre that can lower cholesterol levels and prevent heart diseases. 

Apple also contains flavonoids and vitamin A, C, E and many other mineral~!

Another all time favourite of mine is cherry tomato. I don’t know if I like the taste or the crunchiness of it or simply because it is orange red in colour which means full of beta carotene, Vitamin A!

Yes, I like all orange or red colour fruit simply as I want to maintain good eyesight. It is one of my senses that I appreciate most and I want to take the best care of it. 

So what is so good about cherry tomato beside it is easy to eat, meaning you do not have to peel or cut them. Simply pop them into the mouth! =) 

They are packed with Vitamin A and C and lycopene which can help to prevent cancer, heart disease, high cholesterol and others~