January 28 - Hot Lemon Water

10 Reasons Why You Should Drink Lemon Water in the Morning











1. Boosts your immune system: Lemons are high in vitamin C, which is great for fighting colds.  They’re high in potassium, which stimulates brain and nerve function. Potassium also helps control blood pressure.

2. Balances pH: Drink lemon water everyday and you’ll reduce your body’s overall acidity. Lemon is one of the most alkaline foods around. Yes, lemon has citric acid but it does not create acidity in the body once metabolized.

3. Helps with weight loss:   Lemons are high in pectin fiber, which helps fight hunger cravings. It also has been shown that people who maintain a more alkaline diet lose weight faster.

 

4. Aids digestion:  Lemon juice helps flush out unwanted materials. It encourages the liver to produce bile which is an acid that required for digestion. Efficient digestion reduces heartburn and constipation.

5. Is a diuretic: Lemons increase the rate of urination in the body, which helps purify it. Toxins are, therefore, released at a faster rate which helps keep your urinary tract healthy.

6. Clears skin:  The vitamin C component helps decrease wrinkles and blemishes. Lemon water purges toxins from the blood which helps keep skin clear as well. It can actually be applied directly to scars to help reduce their appearance.

7. Freshens breath: Not only this, but it can help relieve tooth pain and gingivitis. The citric acid can erode tooth enamel, so you should monitor this.

8. Relieves respiratory problems: Warm lemon water helps get rid of chest infections and halt those pesky coughs. It’s thought to be helpful to people with asthma and allergies too.

9. Keeps you zen: Vitamin C is one of the first things depleted when you subject your mind and body to stress. As mentioned previously, lemons are chock full of vitamin C.

10. Helps kick the coffee habit:  After I have a glass of hot lemon water, I actually don’t crave coffee in the morning. This is weird, I can’t explain it, but I’ll take it.

Water helps you stay hydrated. Your body stores more fat when you are dehydrated because your kidneys need help from your liver to function when your body is in this state. This hampers the liver's ability to burn fat. Water also is a natural appetite suppressant. Being dehydrated, in contrast, can cause feelings of hunger.  Lemon also boosts your body's ability to metabolize fat.

Thanks to Lajollamom for this info
http://lajollamom.com/2011/01/drink-warm-lemon-water-in-the-morning/

I started this morning with stevia added.  I haven't really figured out whether the stevia has any effect on the lemon water. I'll try it tomorrow without stevia and see if I can stand the drink unsweetened.

January 26 - Week 3 Weigh In

Today is weigh-in day at weight watchers.  I lost 1.2 lbs today making a total of 5.4 lbs.  It's a slow process, I just have to stick with it!  Slow and steady wins the race :-)

January 25 - habit

It's been over 3 weeks that I started my journey back to good health.  Tonight both of my daughters came into the kitchen to grab an apple for dessert, instead of looking for cake or chocolate.  Just goes to show you, that everyone in the household is affected by good habits.

Jan 19 -Week 2 Weigh In

I tracked everything I ate all week and kept within my allotted points. However I only lost .2lbs.
I think I may have had too much red meat and white bread this week.  Another problem may have been the cheese and crackers I indulged in at night with my daughter.

I fell while putting out the trash and hurt my hip, so this may be a problem with my beginning an exercise program.

I am going to try to concentrate on eating more power foods this week and see if that makes a difference in my weight loss.

I'm going to change my post titles to the date instead of the day, it'll be easier to keep track of my posts.

Day 016 Recipe Cards

I have some old recipe cards that I've decided to record all the new recipes I tried and liked.  It will be nice to have some new standby recipes to go to.

Day 015 Company for Dinner

I had a late Christmas Dinner of sorts tonight.  I watched what I ate all day and left most of my weekly points for the wine and gravy :-).  I used the crock pot tonight in order to relieve some of the stress of the day and it worked out perfectly.  It gets a little hard to prepare every meal every day.  I'm trying to find ideas to make it easier to eat healthy.

Day 014 Tuna fish Revelation

For the first time in about 5 years I ate tuna fish and I LIKED it!  I found a fabulous recipe for tuna casserole on Pinterest.  Here's the site where it came from..........


http://www.canyoustayfordinner.com/2011/01/11/tuna-noodle-casserole/