Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Kaline on December 16, 2010 at 8:19pm

Bula vinaka and welcome Marimba!!

 

Forgive us for the delayed response.  We've only just completed our Holy Week Observations.

 

 

Forging right ahead, we don't see anything within traditional Nigerian/African cooking and diet, that should really be the enemy to a flatter belly.  Unfortunately, for the African continent and those of us within Oceania-Pacific, with Colonisation came the evils of oil, butter, sugars, canned foods and salt, which for some reason or other, our different peoples are oftentimes flummoxed by overconsumption and poor cooking methods. 

 

 

Permalink Reply by Kaline on December 16, 2010 at 8:23pm

 

Fortunately for you Marimba, we have attended 3 Nigerian weddings, where the dishes are just nothing short of yummy, which could prove to be a dieter's nightmare lol  for it conjures that reflex of "just a little bit more."

 

Permalink Reply by Kaline on December 16, 2010 at 8:38pm

Straight off the batting mound Marimba, the contents of Nigerian/African cooking, consisting of soups, stews, seafood and land and game kebabs, don't set off the alarm, as a diet that could prove to be the enemy to your waist, so if we are to analyse and forage for the possible enemies within, we identify the following:

 

1. Coconut
2. Fatty fish
3. Sugars
4. Butter/Oils
5. Salt
6. White rice
7. White flour
8. Sweet fruits
9. Favouring sodas
10. Alcohol

 

In our opinion, when it ocmes to weightloss or to be more precise, target definition of specific body parts, we like to work with a menu that compliments you - the person, for if one introduces alien elements to one's eating plan, you won't be able to commit to it for too long.  Hence, the likelihood of failure. 

 

Our suggestion to you, being that you are of Nigeria, Africa, would be to customise, plan, journal and change "How you cook your food," and "How much you consume."  This is where you have to consider, the type of waistline you desire for yourself, bearing in mind, from our observation, that there are 2 degrees of Nigerian African Traditional Dress.  One where the belly is on display and the other, which is more conservative and conventional, and is oftentimes the choice of the older sets of your community.  You will need to ascertain your basal metabolic rate.  For the purpose of discussion, we will suggest 120lbs for you, if you are to bare your waist, to be your desired end point, which would mean, that you take 1,200 + 120, which equals 1320.  That means, you are allowed to consume 1,320 calories a day inclusive of your 3 main meals plus 2 or 3 snacks, depending on your need for boosters throughout your day (we suggest your meat kebabs as snacks; Light on the salt and spice - as you desire).  If you are going to opt to be the conservative dresser, then we suggest 132lbs, as your weight target, which translates to 1,320 + 132 = 1,654 calories permitted you to consume per day, before 5pm.  We suggest that you DO NOT consume more than the 2nd option, for on average, women who weigh 132lbs have waistlines between 32 - 34 inches, which keeps you within a safe zone, preventing any onset diseases and the like.  

Permalink Reply by Kaline on December 16, 2010 at 9:15pm

Having isolated what we interpet as detractors to your goal, we suggest the following:

 

1. White rice is to be substituted with whole grain rice, which is basically the unhusked, unbleached white rice.  You might actually enjoy the flavour, for it has a nutty finish.
2. White flour or wholewheat flour are to be substituted with wholegrain flour.  If you absolutely must use white flour, please opt for ascorbic acid bleached flour, to prevent bloating and allergic reactions, which oftentimes have led to the widening waistline, as a side effect.
3. Substitute super fatty fish, for the talapia-type variety, or even shellfish, turtle, octopus and the like. 
4. Having perused popular Nigerian recipes online, we couldn't help but notice the quantity of oil used to prepare soups, stews, deep fried foods.  We suggest you acquire an oil spray bottle spray and choose canola oil, which should maintain the flavour of your cooking, but is dispersed through the spray.  You could pour all the contents which will need frying in to a deep bowl, spray spritzes no more than the volume of one tablespoon per day, less if you're able and massage in to the contents you need fried, spread on a baking sheet, then oven-fry.  For your soups and stews, you may spritz the oil on to the bottom of your pot, throw in the ingredients which'll require quick sauteeing to allow your flavours to marry, then proceed as usual. 
5. Nigeria is very much like Fiji, despite the Oceans that separate - us being of the Pacific and you being of the Atlantic lol  With Colonisation, both nations have chosen to claim British/French/Dutch pastries and baking as our very own lol to the level where some will claim its traditional.  With pastries, as we are certain you are well aware, butter ... A lot of butter is desired, to attain that smack your lips taste lol  Otherwise, it just wouldn't be pastry.  Margarine is a good substitute here and if you are able, we have personally tried with "I can't believe it's not butter," and it is simply devine.  True to its brand.  But portion-consciousness is imperative. 
6. Salt - is the deceptive ingredient of all, for it sneaks up on you.We've noticed that the constant within all the recipes we've cited using salt, in Nigerian/African cooking, is the statement "salt as you desire" or "salt to your taste" which will lead to the over consumption of normative salt allowances per person per day, where oftentimes people cook without considering salt which may already be in preserved/canned foods and even seafood or pickled foods.  You are only permitted ONE TSP per day.  Anymore than that and you're opening yourself to health problems maximum and the minimum of water retention.  Kindly refer to our graphics for our suggestions here.
7. We are all brought to believe that any piece of fresh fruit is generally good for you.  Oftentimes, they fail to mention, in moderation and the need to avoid  fresh sweet fruit. Some people don't even realise that canned fruits don't count.  Frozen fruits - Yes.  As a woman, we suggest you mind the size of your fruit and the serving portion per snack or dessert or in your beverage.  Surprisingly, mangoes and pineapples are allowed;  Bananas and oranges  require close monitoring.  
8. Sodas and alcohol.  Apparently, some statistical suggestions have alluded to the over consumption of sodas and alcohol by Nigerian Africans, which has led to the rise in obesity and diabetes, within your region, just as it obviously has throughout Fiji's world communities.  Upon perusing your traditional teas and juices, we found that if hibiscus tea and the pineapple juice aren't sweetened are your options,rather than the fore mentioned, then you should be able to steer clear of the sucrose conversion to fat.
9. Water should become your lifeline.  Refer to the Water Cure thread in the main forum - a discussion added by the Creator - Roi.  Our consumption suggestion is there and you might actually find the connection  he provided interesting. 
10. Substitute sugar with stevia.  Not agave, not honey, not raw sugar, and most certainly not those artificial sweeteners.  It's not that stevia is necessarily better, but it is good calorie-wise and quantity needed. 

Permalink Reply by Kaline on January 6, 2011 at 5:45am

 

 

 

As sampled by this selection of veggies, fruits and what have you, which isn't all of the available regularly consumed varieties in Nigeria/Africa of the Atlantic, all we can recommend to you from this knowledge-base Marimba, is for you to elect to consume some of it raw or close to raw, as you possibly can, for it will prove to be more nutritious for you naturally, to subsidise its regular usage, of being heated overmuch.  The rule of thumb is, the more heat applied to veggies, the less nutritious it is. 

 

Permalink Reply by Kaline on January 13, 2011 at 10:08am

Hullo again Marimba,  Having posted this article for interest reading in the forum, we thought it appropriate to add it here, for it directly addresses what we had discovered in our sharing to you, through our tabulated # 8, where the effects of alcohol was said to be an additive to the expanding weight of the Nigerian African Atlantic community. 

 

Wanna Lose 10 Pounds This Year Without Dieting? Stop Binge Drinking.

 

(CC) Abby Stanglin/Flickr

I’ve got a hot diet for 2011 that’s guaranteed to help you drop at least 10 pounds this year without giving up any of your favorite foods or pledging allegiance to Atkins, Dukan or Oz. It’s called the Quit Binge Drinking Diet, and all you have to do is stop binge drinking. You’ll lose weight, feel great and have more energy. Sound too good to be true? Read on.

 

Binge Drinking Statistics

Binge drinking is a form of rapid alcohol consumption — about four or more drinks in two hours for women and five or more drinks for men over the same period — that causes a spike in blood-alcohol concentration to above 0.08 percent. Of all the alcohol consumed in the U.S. by adults, 75 percent is in the form of binge drinks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When you only consider underage drinkers, the ratio jumps to 90 percent.

The numbers indicate that binge drinking is most prevalent in men between 18 and 34 years old. Almost 25 percent of 18-to-34-year-olds had a binge drinking episode within the past month when polled by the CDC. Binge drinking isn’t just for youth, however; these graphs from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System indicate that binge drinking not only continues into adulthood, it also increases with household income:

Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System

Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System

A CDC study found that over 33 million people admitted to binge drinking at least once in the past year. The following map from the CDC indicates the spread of adult binge drinking in 2009:

CDC

Binge Drinking and Body Weight

Alcohol has a direct effect on your body weight and shape; the notorious “beer belly” is perhaps the most popular phrase that describes the repercussions of binge drinking. When you drink, a small portion of the alcohol calories are stored as fat; the liver converts most of the alcohol into acetate, which enters the bloodstream and is used as fuel instead of fat. What that means is that the fat that your body should have used for fuel is instead stored as unburned fat calories.

 

Let’s not forget the booze-fueled food choices you make while intoxicated, such as burgers, pizza, nachos or even the “Fourthmeal” that the Taco Bell marketing camp is trying to impose on hard-partying drinkers. Drunken dining adds even more calories to the equation.

The Quit Binge Drinking Diet

The Quit Binge Drinking Diet is easy; in fact, it’s not even a diet. Just give up binge drinking. You can still drink alcohol; just limit yourself to no more than two drinks per day. This method is scientifically proven not to ruin your social life. Washington State University created these handy graphs that dispel the cultural myth that “more is better” when it comes to drinking. The buzz that you feel after your first drink or two rapidly deteriorates as you continue drinking. Those with an alcohol tolerance feel even less of a buzz than those without an alcohol tolerance, no matter how many drinks they consume. Finding the balance point, or what WSU calls the Point of Diminishing Returns, is essential.

Washington State University

Caloric Effects of Binge Drinking

How much weight can you lose in a year if you quit binge drinking? It depends on what and how often you drink. The Consumer Federation of America has a handy printout of the calories in beer, wine and spirits. Here’s a screenshot:

Consumer Federation of America

If you binge-drink twice a week and your beverage of choice is regular beer, over the course of a year you’ll consume 71,520 extra calories — that equates to 20.43 pounds. Even if you switch to light beer, consuming 10 beers a week nets you 52,800 calories, or 15.08 pounds. On the lower end of the scale, if you only drink four light beers a month, you’ll still consume 5,280 calories, or 1.5 pounds, over the course of the year.

What if you drink more often than twice a week, though, or consume more than just beer?

How does your binge drinking add up over the course of a year? Try the College Drinking Prevention calculator here.

An Informal Binge-Drinking Case Study

In case these numbers sound inflated, I did an informal case study with two of my fellow twentysomething friends: one male, one female. They are college graduates with full-time jobs who reported regular binge-drinking episodes on the weekends, during sports games and at after-work happy hours.

The male (22, 6’1″, 220): During a typical week, he reported consuming 12 beers, 10 servings of distilled spirits (such as gin, vodka, tequila or whiskey), and 24 glasses of red or white wine. Over the course of a year, that’s 206,304 calories, or 58.9 pounds.

If he limited his consumption to just two beers a day, he’d consume 100,128 calories, or 28.6 pounds. That’s over 30 pounds’ worth of calories that aren’t consumed, and he’s still drinking every day.

The female (25, 5’5″, 140): During a typical week, she reported consuming 25 mixed drinks (spirit and juice or soda). Over the course of a year, that’s 196,800 calories, or 56.2 pounds.

If she limited her consumption to just two mixed drinks a day, she’d consume 110,208 calories, or 31.48 pounds. That’s almost 25 pounds’ worth of calories that aren’t consumed.

We know that drinkers tend to exercise more than non-drinkers, and these friends reported that they participated in vigorous exercise four to six times a week. Even with the best of diets and the toughest of workouts, however, the caloric effects of alcohol are too large to ignore.

The Bottom Line

Drinking in moderation isn’t terrible; many studies even support moderate drinking. If you don’t want to quit drinking altogether, just cutting out binge drinking will save a ton of stress on heart, overall health and, of course, your waistline.

(By Marissa Brassfield for CalorieLab)  http://calorielab.com/news/2011/01/12/binge-drinking/

 

 

 

Permalink Reply by Kaline on December 16, 2010 at 9:23pm

Good things to know:

 

1. One cup of chunky beef stew with rice = 181.17 calories.  Two cups of chunky beef stew with rice = 362.33 calories.
2. One cup of chunky beef stew with potato or sweet potato = 170 - 180 calories. 
3. One cup of chicken stew with the skin on = 350 calories. NB:  215 calories of the total calorie-count, comes from the fat and skin. 
4. One boiled egg with yolk - 48 calories. 
5. One cup of shredded coconut = 283 calories.
6. One cup of coconut milk = 552 calories.
7. One cup of coconut cream = 792 calories.

Please do not consume more than 3 ounces per meal (main. meals).  You may consume 2 ounces of meat per snack time

Permalink Reply by Kaline on December 16, 2010 at 9:35pm

Marimba, to further aid you, with some suggestions, apple cider vinegar (3 teaspoons), diluted in to one cup of water, 15 minutes before you sit down to eat each of your 3 major meals (possibly whilst you're prepping your meal) should help you control your portions, cleanse out your system from any stuck gunkI and is a good fat flush.  *** Please brush your teeth thoroughly following your consumption of this concoction, for apple cider vinegar will very likely melt your teeth, if you do not attend to washing out your mouth + brushing your teeth well, before your meal, for it also has residual effects. 

 

If you are not at all rebuffed with the idea of cereal breakfasts, like plain oatmeal with some fruit, then you may add milled flaxseed in place of a sweetener like sugar or you may throw on to a salad or any other dish you think won't be alternated all too much by the milled flaxseed. 

 

 

 

 

We sure hope that you have spoken to your General Practitioner about your desire to embark on modifying your body shape via your dieting.  If not, please do so and following 6 weeks of this discipline, and still the tummy has not reduced some or greatly,kindly consult your physician to recommend specialist doctors, like an edocrinologist, for one. 

 

Permalink Reply by Kaline on December 16, 2010 at 10:28pm

All that we have committed, thus far, are the lifestyle altering conscious parts of the discipline Marimba. 

 

This subsequent part - is not only the fun and effortless part, but it will most certainly prove to be "that" agitator you need to separate your belly, from the masses.  Took awhile with this particular post, for we had to choose the most effortless and less likely to hurt or damage during training abdominal exercises, ideal for both beginners and advanced.

 

Firstly Marimba, before we even suggest belly targeting exercises, you will have to learn to breath correctly to fully utilise every mid torso muscle, which might be storing unwanted bad fat, to force them to burst and be excreted through exit portal 1, 2 and/or 3.

 

1. Breathing - This technique, once mastered can be executed seating, standing, lying down or when walking, running, Exhale all the air from the base of your seat and push it up and out through your mouth, until you feel you have completely released it from your body.  Now, breathe in and suck in as much air as you possibly can, visualising your belly pushing against your spine, until you can not possibly squeeze your tummy anymore.  Now start over and repeat 25 times in quick repetitions.  Start slow, until you've mastered the techinique, which should take you a day, then proceed with the fast repetitions.  Add 5 reps per week to your initial 25.  You should attempt to do this 3 times a day minimum.  The more you do it, the better sculpted your tummy will be. 
2. Seated abdominal crunch. Begin with 18 repetitions, twice a day.  Sit on the edge of a chair with hands behind buttocks and grasp the sides of the bench.  Lean back slightly and extend legs out in front, keeping feet about 4 to 6 inches off the floor.  Bend knees and pull them in toward chest while leaning forward slightly with the upper body.   Slowly return to starting position, but do not let feet rest on the floor in between repetitions. ** Remember to apply the breathing technique to this;  Legs in - breathe in;  Legs out - exhale.  Coordinate it, without rushing through the exercise, for accuracy within the number of required gets the results.  Rushing through it, with a slapdash attitude will prove to be disappointing. 
3. Seated obliques crunch.This exercise is best done sitting on a bench or in a chair without arm rests. The first level involves holding arms across your chest and bringing an elbow down and across toward the opposite thigh or knee as you raise the foot 1-2 inches off the floor, then alternate with the other knee and elbow. If you are doing the exercise correctly, you will feel the right obliques contract as you bring the right elbow to left knee, and vice versa. Be sure to keep the abdominals tight and return to upright and center with each repetition, exhaling as you crunch down and inhaling up. These are similar to oblique exercises on the floor with the knees bent at right angles, only here gravity is working WITH you rather than AGAINST, so to get the most out of the exercise really concentrate on keeping abs tight and stay extended out from the hips.  As you progress, you may start lifting your knees higher towards your body, to increase resistence, *** remembering to exhale during the crunch and inhale during the stretch.
4. Pelvic tilt.  Inhale first using the breathing technique, then initiate the pelvic tilt movement. Upon breathing out, your abdomen should feel as though it has touched your back, as though you are squooshing its full weight on to your spine. (This happens naturally as you exhale.) An effective pelvic tilt will utilise this leverage which starts when the abdomen pulls in whilst exhaling.  Continue with the contraction and see how far you can tilt the bottom of your pelvis towards the ceiling.  Never force it.  Think gentle progression with exacting attention to your breathing.  This will result in your low back gently stretching and reaching in the direction of the floor or wall. Inhale to come back to start -- Allow the spine and pelvis to return to their original position. This movement takes less muscle work than the previous movement of bringing the low back to the floor or wall. Most of the effort needed to return to the starting position comes from breathing in. Just allow the body to come back to where it began.

Please note, that it isn't important to increase on the different types of abdominal exercises. What is of grave import, is for you to choose 3 you can nail, increasing the repetitions per week for definition and NOT mass building.  You're wanting to define your muscles and burn fat, not build muscle upon muscle and most especially, NOT break the muscle threshold to create megasized muscles  - most unattractive on women.

Permalink Reply by Kaline on January 6, 2011 at 5:40am

 

We were remiss of attentioning our recommendation for you to obtain a pedometer or clearly set out half an hour a day, for a brisk walk.  We recommend you speed-walk for a minute straight, to raise your heart rate then control your strides, to maintain that heart rate, for the full half hour or in 15 mins intervals.  Either in your am or your pm.  This compiled with the above-stated ab techniques and breathing should help immensely. 

 

Oh, remember to do your breathing exercises whilst walking too please Marimba. 

Permalink Reply by Kaline on January 6, 2011 at 5:36am

 

We've taken the liberty of creating this graphic, showing a medley of meats used in Nigerian/African Atlantic Cooking.  Your leaner meats don't post too much of a problem.  However, the organ meats are always debatable, where its likelihood to raise one's cholesterol needs close monitoring.  But still, like any life changing decision, moderation is key.  With meat proteins, close attention needs to be maintained for protein over indulgence can also lead to the unused elements turning to sucrose (which turns in to fat).