Kick the Habit For Good: Quit Smoking Resources from Your COPD Guide at About.com

Pictured to the right is what your lungs look like if you are a smoker! If that is not enough to make you quit immediately, as your most excellent COPD guide for About.com, I have devoted an entire section of my website to quitting smoking. Learn more about quitting smoking from tips to help you quit to the health hazards of secondhand smoke by visiting Quitting Smoking or my site's homepage to discover everything you ever wanted to know about COPD but were afraid to ask at http://www.copd.about.com/.

How to Avoid a Winter Cold

Winter Colds are the worst, aren't they? And to top it off, colds are the result of a virus for which there exists no cure! So, the best that we can do is try to prevent ourselves from catching one in the first place. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and that is so true when it comes to the common cold.

I have written a really cool article on EHow giving you tips and advice about how to NOT catch a cold this season! Click HERE to read the entire article NOW!

Wu-Yi Tea: Diet Miracle or Diet Scam

Wu-Yi Diet Tea is said to have many properties that essentially improve your health as well as promote weight loss. The benefits that are advertised about this "wonder" tea include:

• anti-carcinogenic properties that reduce the risk of cancer


• assists in managing high cholesterol levels


• lowers blood pressure


• inhibits the abnormal formation of blood clots


• helps with digestion


• improves immunity


• relieves tiredness


• Powerful Fat Burner
  

But are the miraculous effects of this so called "diet wonder tea" a real miracle or just another money making scam? Judge for yourself by doing your own research before buying into their high priced marketing advertisement efforts. You can start by reading this incredible article written by a fellow hubber, Maddie Ruud on hubpages.com.

Follow this link to learn The Truth About Wu-Yi Tea.

Eating Out and Dieting Part 1

If you are like me, you are ALONE and tend to eat out alot instead of cooking for your little ol' lonesome self! The challenge, then, becomes how to continue on your weight loss journey and still lose weight, when confronted with all those tasty, high calorie menu options that most restaurants seem to offer? This post will serve to review some of my favorite restaurants and the menu plans they feature. Each week I will feature a different restaurant that I have reviewed and hopefully, this will inundate you with information along with providing you some fun and interesting options for your dining out pleasure, while still maintaining your weight loss.

I like to frequent restaurants that are conscious of my dilemma, ones that offer a low calorie meal plan or some type of healthy menu plan. I also prefer eating at places that can give me some printed information about the nutritional content of the foods I eat, IE; calorie, fat, carbohydrate and dietary fiber content. In utilizing this information, I can then make well-informed food choices for myself, or not, if I have decided that I want to splurge that night!!!

Most of you Southern Californians are familiar with Marie Calender's, and since this is one of the restaurants that is close to my house, this is where this story begins.

When I walked in and sat down, the first thing I did was order a glass of Merlot, yes, wine is ok on a diet, as long as you only have 1 bottle and not two!!! LOL! Just kidding, but one glass is not going to kill me, so I ordered it. After reviewing the menu, I realized immediately that they did not include any nutritional information at all on it, so I asked the waitress if they had that information written down someplace else on a separate pamphlet. She advised me that they did not! Hmmmnnn, for some reason, I thought that was some sort of law in California, but maybe not. Anyways, to make a long story even longer, since I did not have that information, it was up to me to use the brain God gave me to make my choices based on my own current knowledge of healthy eating. So, in turn, I then looked over the menu.

Marie does offer a "lighter bites" menu option, but they only give you a choice of 3 entrees under that category. They also have a variety of petite salads to choose from, but surprisingly, salads, depending on the one you choose, can be pretty high in fat, carbs or calories, so, again, nutritional information would have been helpful at this point. Continuing on, the lighter bites mealplan includes:

• Fresh grilled Atlantic Salmon
• Roasted Turkey with Tomato Basil, and
• Grilled lemon chicken with broccoli

Each of the above is served with a house salad with low-cal vinaigrette dressing. They also all include vegetables, but no potatoes, rice or bread. These all sounded like great choices to me. Salmon, chicken and fish are lower in calories than red mean, just remember, NO SKIN! (I know, that is the best part!) Veggies are very low in calories, virtually calorie free and having no bread etc, means no carbs, so this is a great start, but I still have no idea of how many calories etc. that I am putting into my body. Anyways, my choice for the night was the salmon. It arrived with a plate full of broccoli and tomatoes and a pretty hefty serving of fish. I only ate half of the salmon, and took the rest home for later, as it appeared to be two servings and since I am trying to lose, who needs the extra calories. It is always a good idea to make it a habit to always take home half of what you ordered and eat it the next day. Portion sizes in most restaurants are humongous, and that is probably why we, as Americans tend to lean towards the hefty side at times!

In conclusion, this restaurant serves good food, but I would like to see them incorporate nutritional information in their menu. If I were rating restaurants on a scale of 1-10, the lowest being the least appealing to the health conscious dieter and the highest being the most, I would probably give it a high 5! Stay tuned for next weeks chapter of Eating Out and Dieting, Part 2. Hope you all have a Merry Christmas if I don't post till then.

In the meantime, I have just written a dark and grisly tale on hubpages about the dark side of medicine. Check it out here:

The Dark Side of Medicine: Doctors and Nurses Who Kill

Avoid Overeating for the Holidays

Well, folks, the holidays are approaching and we are all looking forward to the tasty delights that await us during those special holiday dinners. Maybe a delicious, savory honey glazed ham, sliced to perfection paired with golden, Gulliver Cream Style Corn and Sweet Potato Casserole will adorn your holiday table. Or perhaps you prefer a tryptophan loaded, Golden Brown Turkey filled with Roasted Chestnut Stuffing and tangy Orange Cranberry Sauce on the side. Whatever your pleasure may be, most of us ultimately overeat during the holiday season and end up gaining a few extra, unwanted pounds. To avoid having to commit to yet another weight loss program for the New Year, try these simple tips that will help you make better choices in the long run and avoid overeating for the holidays.

1. Whatever you do, don't starve yourself all day before attending your holiday dinner parties. This is a holiday no-no which will definitely cause you to overeat at the holiday mealtime. Make sure to eat a healthy, well balanced breakfast and lunch prior to attending any holiday party.
2. Drink plenty of H2O, (water that is folks). In fact, drink a full glass of water before sitting down to the holiday dinner. Drinking water gives you a feeling of fullness and also ultimately increases your metabolic rate. This will help you burn those extra holiday calories. It is recommended that you follow the 8x8 rule, meaning drink 8, eight ounce glasses of water per day.
3. Eat an apple before you sit down to your holiday meal. Studies have found that those who eat an apple before a meal consumed 187 fewer calories in comparison to those who don't. Eating an apple before your meal will also give you a feeling of fullness, which will help you to avoid overeating.
4. Exercise, exercise, exercise. Plain and simple, your weight is determined by how many calories you consume minus how many calories you burn. So, if you consume more calories, as is often the case during the holiday season, then simply exercise more to balance out the excessive caloric intake. Adding an additional 15 to 30 minutes to your exercise regime will not only help you avoid excess holiday pounds, but it will cause you to be more conscious about what you are putting into your body during the holiday season. We cannot say enough about exercise!
5. Take along healthy snacks to your holiday affairs. Yogurt, nuts, fruit, protein bars, whatever your favorite healthy snack may be, having a snack before the big, sit down can help you avoid extra or excessive portions.
6. Limit your alcohol consumption. Alcohol erodes your committment to portion control and making careful food choices. Alcohol adds calories to an already calorie-overloaded holiday dinner. If you must have a drink, then limit yourself to 1 and you will thank yourself in the long run. Remember, it is unsafe to drink and drive and it is also unsafe to drink and diet!

We all want to enjoy the holidays without the additional stress of worrying about gaining weight. RN Online hopes the above information will keep the holiday pounds off, and the holiday smiles abundant!