Alcohol and Weight Loss─Can You Have Both

Alcohol and Weight Loss─Can You Have Both?

Recently, my mother pushes my father to lose weight because he is over 80 kilos, but he is only 168 centimeters tall. Of course, Mom makes him to have the banana diet as I do. He has practiced the banana diet for about five weeks. It is very strange that my father’s does not reduce any weights after two weeks; although, it is not gaining more. Last time when we went back home, Dad suggested that they should go to Costco to supply his wine inventory. Mom found out that in the storage, Kaoliang wine, red wine, whisky are all gone. “There must be a big mouse in our home.”, said Mom─ My dad was born in the year of Mouse. No wonder he can not lose his weights; he drinks a small cup of wine every supper, and he thinks it does not matter. For improving he is wrong, I decide to search some articles for him to understand that alcohol contains high calories and no good for dieters.
The article: Alcohol and Weight Loss─Can You Have Both?is on http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/nutrition_articles.asp?id=563
The author directly told us that alcohol is the enemy to dieters. Although many experts say a single drink a day may be good for people’s health, such as reducing the risk of high blood pressure. But the truth is if you drink any kind of wine daily, you might ruin your diet plans.

Alcohol and Weight Loss─Can You Have Both?

The author points out some reasons. First, alcohol is metabolized differently than other foods and beverages: the former does not have the process of digestion; the latter has slow process of digestion.

The alcohol is absorbed quickly in the stomach and arrives at liver and brain in few minutes. In another hand, other foods and beverages which are after slow digestion change into body fat waiting to be stored in our bodies.
Second, alcohol is a diuretic which causes water loss and becomes dehydration. Alcohol not only burdens liver’s work but also makes our body lose important minerals─such as magnesium, potassium, calcium and zinc along with the urine. These minerals are important to keep the fluid balance, chemical reactions, and muscle contraction and relaxation of our bodies.
Third, alcohol lowers your inhibitions, which ruins your diet plans because alcohol actually stimulates your appetite. People can be full from a certain amount of calories from food, but several drinks can’t. There is a paper pointing out that if you drink before or during a meal, both your inhibitions and willpower are reduced. In this situation, the more you drink, the more you want to eat, especially ─greasy or fried foods—which can make you bigger and bigger. If you can not resist having a drink, at least you should wait until you have finished your meal, and then you can order your drink. A tip here: snacks (peanuts, pretzels, chips) which are salty accompany with drinks encouraging you to drink even more; you should drink some water between each alcoholic beverage.

Alcohol and Weight Loss─Can You Have Both?

Forth, other negative effect of alcohol.
People use drinking some wine to help them sleep, but the sleep won’t be very deep; as a result, people get less rest. Alcohol makes the stomach produce more acid causing the stomach inflamed; moreover, alcohol abuse leads to serious health problems－ stomach ulcers, liver disease, and heart diseases.

If you are going to have a drink later, you should eat a healthy meal first. Do not drink wine with an empty stomach. In this way it not only can protect your stomach but also can avoid overdrinking. Just as you drink out with friends, so you can do exercise over thirty minutes to balance your calories—but not skipping a meal.

Dieters need to watch calories, for you to know that one gram alcohol contains 7 calories; moreover, there is no nutrition in it. There is another important thing to pay attention is not mixing alcohol with other drinks, which will gain more calories. If you are going to mix liquor with anything, you should choose a diet or club soda, not fruit juice or regular soda; furthermore, dry wines usually have fewer calories than sweet ones.

The author provides a chart which lists the wines with the calories for people to think what kind of the wine they should order.


Drink Serving Size Calories
Red wine 5 oz. 100
White wine 5 oz. 100
Champagne 5 oz. 130
Light beer 12 oz. 105
Regular beer 12 oz. 140
Dark beer 12 oz. 170
Cosmopolitan 3 oz. 165
Martini 3 oz. 205
Long Island iced tea 8 oz. 400
Gin & Tonic 8 oz. 175
Rum & Soda 8 oz. 180
Margarita 8 oz. 200
Whiskey Sour 4 oz. 200


I took a diet program two years ago, the instructor warned us not drinking any wine, including beer. According to my father’s case, I think my instructor is right about it. As I mentioned before, I (as a successful dieter) recommend you water to drink, not juice, coke or soda. Therefore, my dear friends who are reading my blog: If you are on a diet, if you still want to have a drink, then you have to choose wisely.

Alcohol and Weight Loss─Can You Have Both?

Vocabulary:

metabolize 使新陳代謝 to turn food, minerals, etc. in the body into new

cells, energy and waste products by means of

chemical processes.

diuretic 利尿劑 a substance that causes an increase in the flow of

urine

dehydration 脫水 losing too much water from your body

inflamed 發炎的 (of a part of the body) red, sore and hot because of

infection or injury

club soda 蘇打水 soda water

(調酒用)

magnesium 鎂 mineral

potassium 鉀 mineral

calcium 鈣 mineral

zinc 鋅 mineral

Wii Fit

I play Wii Fit to control my weight and practice balance.
Here are films introducing Wii Fit games.

Doctors Use Wii Games for Rehab Therapy

Except the diet of food, I suggest people who want to lose weight should have more exercises to burn the extra calories. Averagely, the figure as I was－183 centimeters tall, 105 weight－needs 2000 calories input a day. I can not do many activities as normal people do; therefore, my parents bought the exercising equipments as the therapists have offered to help me exercise at home. I love to play Wii－occupational therapy when I was in the hospital and back home. Playing and rehabilitating at the same time; moreover, Wii helps me lose weight, too.
Therefore, I would like to introduce you an article “Doctors Use Wii Games for Rehab Therapy” By Lindsey Tanner, from The Associated Press, February 9, 2008.
http://conversation.cgu.edu/ebhc/files/519/2880/WiiTherapy.pdf

Here is the summary of the article:
"Wii habilitation."－ Nintendo's Wii video game system becomes popular. It is not only the teen TV games but also becomes a trend in rehab therapy for patients recovering from strokes, broken bones, surgery and even combat injuries.
The traditional physical therapy: stretching and lifting exercises－painful, repetitive and boring－but they help the sick or injured regain their strength, and they have to do them. To tell the truth, many patients think PT (physical therapy) really is a “pain and torture”, said James Osborn who works at Herrin Hospital Illinois.

Doctors Use Wii Games for Rehab Therapy

On the contrary, using the Wii game－ motion-sensitive controller, the movements are so similar to traditional therapy exercises, but patients become so interested in the game. As Osborn said, “In the Wii system, because it's kind of a game format, it does create this kind of inner competitiveness. You may be boxing or playing tennis against some figure. On the screen, it's amazing how many of our patients want to beat their opponent...When people can refocus their attention from the tediousness of the physical task, oftentimes they do much better…" The most popular Wii games as physical therapy as sports－baseball, bowling, boxing, golf and tennis are fun to operate. Patients wave a wireless controller which directs the actions of animated athletes on the screen and at the same time patients achieve movements with fun.


The Hines Veterans Affairs Hospital at the west of Chicago recently bought a Wii system for its spinal cord injury unit. Pfc. Matthew Turpen who is 22 years old; he paralyzed from the chest down in a car accident stationing in Germany last year－playing Wii golf and bowling from his wheelchair at Hines. “A lot of people don't have full finger function so it definitely helps being able to work on using your fingers more and figuring out different ways to use your hands and arms”, Turpen said. It is the same situation at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the therapy is suitable to patients injured during combat in Iraq, who tends to be in the 19 to 25 age range－a group that's "very into" playing video games. WakeMed Health has been using Wii games at its Raleigh, N.C.Hospital for patients from 9 years old to people in their 80s. "They're getting improved endurance, strength, and coordination. I think “it's very entertaining for them”, the therapist Elizabeth Penny said. “It really helps the body to loosen up so it can do what it's supposed to do”, said Billy Perry who is 64 years old, a retired police officer, received Wii therapy at WakeMed after a stroke on Christmas Eve.
Although there's plenty of evidence that Wii games help in rehab, researcher Lars Oddsson, a director of the Sister Kenny Research Center at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, wants to put the games to a real test. The center bought a Wii system last summer working with the University of Minnesota to design a study measuring patients' function before and after this “Wii hab as someone called it…You can certainly make a case that some form of endurance related to strength and flexibility, balance and cardio would be challenged when you play the Wii, but hard scientific proof is needed to prove it”, Oddsson said.
Wii actually can provoke the motivation to the patient, but overuse becomes a big problem. As Dr. Julio Bonis of Madrid spent hours playing Wii tennis and got tendonitis as a real tennis player can get. People should pay attention to overuse Wii.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/09/AR2008020900956.html 03.11.2009
After reading the article, I think the motivation of exercising is very important. Doing fun exercising like Wii makes me feel no pain but lots of challenges and pushes me to do the exercise again and again.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary

1. rehab

=rehabilitation 康復 the process of helping to cure somebody who has

a problem with health

2. animated 栩栩如生 alive; of pictures, drawings, etc. make to look as if they are moving as real

3. Pfc. (陸軍)

一等兵 soldier: private first class

4. paralyze       癱瘓             become powerless and unable to function

5. tendonitis      肌腱炎        inflammation of a tendon

Amazing Tomatoes

Tomatoes are very popular in my family. Mom cooks them as a vegetable, not a fruit. When I decided to lose weight, tomato soup becomes one of my best friends. Except eating bananas and drinking water, I would like to recommend my favorite dish. I eat tomato soup when I go back home in Kaohsiung. Before I tell you how to cook, I would like you to read the article from http://www.tomato.org/ .

There are different names of Tomatoes― Tuh-MAY-toh, Tuh-MAH-to― all mean a delicious, nutritious fruit, more widely known as a vegetable. Tomatoes are not a kind of vegetables; they are actually a fruit, a kind of berries. China, United States and Turkey are the top three countries produce tomatoes, more than 125 tons in the world.

Tomatoes are easy to be planted in the garden; therefore, they are most common plants you may find in many U.S families’ garden. People can plant seeds or small tomato plants. Heirloom tomatoes are most popular among home gardeners and organic producers; they seem to resist more disease and produce very tasty, interesting fruits. There are many different tomato plants, red fruit mostly, but also ―yellow, orange, pink, purple, green and white― they are all tomatoes’ varieties.

Some facts for you to know:

※Tomatoes are the state vegetable of New Jersey

※ In Arkansas, it is both the state fruit and state vegetable.

※ In the state of Ohio, tomato juice has been the official beverage since 1965.

※ Joseph Campbell mass produced the first tomato soup in 1897.

※ The first recipe is credited to Maria Parloa for her tomato chowder in the book, the Appledore Cook Book, in 1872.

There are hundreds of tomato recipes for everything from tomato marmalade to fried green tomatoes, and they are good for your health. Tomatoes contain an antioxidant, excellent source of lycopene, which fights free radicals to prevent─ cancer, heart disease and premature aging─ when tomatoes have been cooked such as ketchups and tomato products. What is lycopene? Lycopene ― an antioxidant ― can fights free radicals which can potentially cause cancer, heart disease and premature aging. It commonly exists in tomatoes and carrots; it also can interfere with normal cell growth and activity.

Vocabulary

1. chowder 海鮮雜燴濃湯Chowder is a thick soup containing pieces of sea food.

2. antioxidant抗氧化劑An antioxidant is a substance which slows down the damage that can be caused to other substances by the effects of oxygen. Foods which contain antioxidants are thought to be very good for bodies.

3 free radicals 自由基 atoms that contain one or more unpaired electrons. Free radicals are believed to be a cause of ageing, heart disease, and some cancers.

4. premature 早熟的 mature or ripe before the proper time.

5. marmalade 含有碎果皮的果醬marmalade can mean preserves made with fruit other than citrus. The recipe includes sliced or chopped fruit peel simmered in fruit juice and water until soft; indeed marmalade is sometimes described as jam with fruit peel. Marmalade is often eaten on toast for breakfast.

6. lycopene茄紅素 a red crystalline substance, C₄₀H_56, that is the main pigment of certain fruit, as the tomato and paprika, and is a precursor to carotene in plant biosynthesis.

the Therapy and Taboo of Taiwan’s Medical Vegetables and Fruits .

After reading the article, you must understand how important tomatoes are. Now let me introduce a good book for you, and you can take this book as a nutrition guard book―the Therapy and Taboo of Taiwan’s Medical Vegetables and Fruits .

It contains clear pictures and illustrations. You can easily know the therapy and taboo of vegetables and fruit in Taiwan. I show you some pages which I scanned from the book. Here is the ingredient of the traditional tomato soup from my mom’s family. I eat the soup when I am at home in Kaohsiung.

steps of cooking tomato soup

Here are the steps to cook a pot of delicious tomato soup:

steps of cooking tomato soup

Then, put a sliced onion, carrot, Jew’s-ear, and mushroom.

steps of cooking tomato soup

Cook with tender fire after boiling about ten minutes

Steps of making tomato soup

Put sliced pork, broccoli, celery, and it is ready to serve.
I know that my mom claims that I can eat as much soup as I want, that the calories are not high enough to over daily needs, that the nutrition is in full, but I still dare not eat too much. This pot is my dinner. My dear friends the tomato soup is really a cuisine for dieters. I (a successful dieter), recommend you my family tomato soup which is delicious, which is easy to cook, which makes you feel content after you finish your soup.