500 Calories a Day diet: Letter from hospital bed

last week, i posted about my experience of the .500 CALORIES a day diet. Well, A friend of mine that has been on this diet for the pass 2 months sent me a text on Friday night from a hospital bed. Here is what her text says: 

Hi Nate, I hope you are doing well (and for once I mean in terms of emotions not just food). I am writing to tell you that if you are still at the stage where you can, please do GET OUT NOW. I'm sending this text from a hospital bed at the moment; I collapsed this afternoon with chest pains and it was only because an emergency paramedics happened to be passing that I didn't die. My blood
pressure was extremely low and my heart went into cardiac arrest. This I know, is absurd because i am very young.

they are re-feeding me with a nasogastric tube or something (basically it goes through your nose) because i am malnourished with basically no blood sugar. it is really painful and uncomfortable and i can barely move from the huge bruises where i fell. I don't know what this means in terms of recovery, in my mind i feel as anorexic as ever, but maybe a change will sink in. All i know is that I cannot encourage you to do this. I can't condone dying of a heart attack or organ failure or whatever because it SUCKS. Get out while you can.

Calories in Cashew nuts

1 medium cashew nut has 9 calories of which 6.3 is fat. Benefits of cashew nuts are:

• They are high in calories. They are packed with soluble dietary fiber, vitamins, minerals and numerous health-promoting phyto-chemicals that help protect from diseases and cancers.
• They are rich in  monounsaturated fatty acids which helps in preventing coronary artery disease and strokes by favoring healthy blood lipid profile.
• They are very rich source of minerals. Minerals especially manganese, potassium, copper, iron, magnesium, zinc and selenium are concentrated in the nuts. 
• They are also rich in many essential vitamins such as pantothenic acid (vitamin B5), pyridoxine (vitamin B-6), riboflavin, and thiamin (vitamin B-1). These vitamins are essential in the sense that our body requires them from external sources to replenish and essential for metabolism of protein, fat, and carbohydrates at cellular levels.

SOURCE: Nutrition and you

Calories in peanut (groundnut)

Peanut or groundnut can be eaten in different forms; it can be eaten boiled, raw or roasted. there are also ones roasted with honey. However you decide to eat your peanut or groundnut, the calorie content varies. Benefits of peanuts are:

• Peanuts are rich in energy and have many healthy benefit nutrients, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals.
• They are rich in mono-unsaturated fatty acids, which help in preventing coronary disease and strokes.
• It is a good source of dietary protein, full of amino acids which are vital for growth and development.
• Peanuts are good source of resveratrol, another polyphenol antioxidant, which has been found to have protective function against cancers, heart disease, degenerative nerve disease, Alzheimer's disease, and viral/fungal infections. 
• The nuts are an excellent source of vitamin E containing about 8 g per100 g. vitamin E helps maintain the integrity of cell membrane of mucus membranes and skin by protecting from harmful oxygen free radicals.
• They are packed with many important B-complex groups of vitamins such as riboflavin, niacin, thiamin, pantothenic acid, vitamin B-6 which contribute to brain health and blood flow to brain.
• They are enriched with minerals like copper, manganese, potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, and selenium.

Here are the calories content in peanut/groundnut:

Dry roasted: 1 dry roasted peanut contains 6 calories (imagine how many are in 1 cup)
Raw peanut: 28 grams contains 159 calories
Boiled peanut: 28 grams contains 90 calories
honey roasted peanut: 28 grams contains between 150 to 161 calories

More before and after pictures

mass thighs in size 24 jeans/ size 14 thighs (way to go)

More pictures below

look that the difference in the waist

90 kg /74 kg

Update: It is official

The truth about jeans is, it will tell the truth about your real size. well from my last update I was a UK size 16 jeans but a UK size 14 tailored trouser. I can official say that as of today, I am UK size 14 jeans. As for the tailored trouser, the 14 is very lose on me.
It means my workout is working well, I work out 5 days a week. I engage in cardio (although i hate
it) and strength training.

these two workout helps because cardio makes your body smaller while strength training get your body toned.

Am so happy, i have to congratulate myself because i have come a long way and still tring to lose more. From a UK size 24/26 jeans to a size 14. Am loving ME.......

New Weight loss goals

The last time i posted about my magic numbers i weighed in at 177 pounds (80 kg), today am setting new weight loss goal. As of today i am 163 pounds (74 kg). My goal is to lose more 10 to
14 kg. so i have like 10 - 14 kg before my final goal.

My mini goals are :
160 pounds (72 kg)
155 pounds (70 kg)
150 pounds (68 kg)
145 pounds (65 kg)
140 pounds (63 kg)
135 pounds (61 kg)

This means, more cardio, more strength training and less fat and carb

500 calories a day diet

In my journey to lose weight I have researched about different diets. I read about the milk diet, cabbage soup diet, maple syrup diet, 500 calories a day diet etc. a lot of people swear by these diets, for example Beyoncé lost a lot of weight just doing the maple syrup diet. I have never tried any of these diets but an opportunity came for me to try out the 500 calorie a day diet.  So a friend asked me to help her out in her project. She is carrying out a 3 weeks research on very low carb
diet and 500 calorie a day diet. So I signed up for it, well let me tell you, this is no joke.
So let me take you through my experience. I didn't sleep well at night thinking how on earth I was going to spend 3 weeks living on 500 calories daily. I signed up for it so I had an obligation to do it. Okay
Day 1 : I had 3 egg whites for breakfast (75 calories), for lunch I had 1 chicken breast (260 cal) and I pita bread (125 cal) so for dinner I had half an apple (40 calories). It was kind of easy at first but I knew the dangers of this diet.
I continued the second and third day but it was difficult because I couldn't concentrate and study, I was angry (well a hungry man is an angry man) and couldn't even do simple workouts. After the 3rd day I quit but I have already lost 1kg. The fact is that a lot of celebrities do this diet and they swear by it but the dangers of this diet outweigh the benefit.

One advice I will give to anyone trying to lose weight with this diet is to stay away from it, it is a plague. Every day, people come up with different diet plan to make money or to make a name. Don’t get me wrong, these diets works like magic but I will tell you why you should avoid it.

Dangers: if you are overweight, the only solution for you is to lose weight. There is no two ways about it but losing weight must be done in a HEALTHY way IF you intend to keep off the weight for life. This simply means that you will be losing weight at the expense of your well-being or health if you decide to use this diet.

500 calories a day is too small for the human body, even if you are 6yrs old or a skinny person or an overweight person. It is advised that to minimize your calorie intake; it should take around 1000 to 1200 calories a day (even for someone trying to lose weight). . In following this diet, you will lose a lot (A LOT) of weight in a short time but very harmful in a long run. This is because it will deprive your body from the necessary nutrients it need to function, it will put your body in a starvation mood, what this means is that the body being smart strongly reserves every fat in your body (because the diet has made your body believe that you will continue feeding it little or no food). This will even make it very hard to continue losing weight. Instead of losing weight, you will end up with fatigue, hunger, anger, hair loss, irregular flow of your monthly period etc.

If you are trying to lose weight, I suggest you do it the healthy way. an exercise with 1000 to 1200 calorie diet plan. The easy way is never the best way.

Like I said, I quit the 500 diet after the 2nd day.

WEEK 8 Habit Challenge: Find Healthy Alternatives

This is the week 8 of the weekly habit challenge and its all about finding healthy food alternatives to some unhealthy foods.

• Instead of eating white bread with tea for breakfast why not swap it for something feeling like wheat bread or oat meal. instead for going with a cup of tea filled with milo (lol) and co, or thick milk. just use a tea bag with a dash of milk. 
• swap sugar for sweetener
• who doesn't love snack and most of our snacks are sweets, biscuits or pastries. you can swap these for fruits like apple, orange, banana, or any fruit of your choice.
• swap red meats for fish, skinless chicken or turkey
• try brown rice once in a while. you can swap white rice for millet
• instead of filling your plates with food, fill it with vegetables 
• swap any colored drink for water
• swap your butter for humus (will give the recipe later in the post)
• swap your regular Irish potato to a better filling sweet potatoes
• swap your salad cream for homemade salad dressing.

Lastly, swap your sitting around for taking a long walk

Update: 163 lbs

Finally the scale moved (exhales), first week October was very terrible and long. well worked out morning and night, ate well but the scale refused to move. Thank God it didn't move up (lol). I guess i was losing fat and gaining muscle because i was losing inches off my body. So today i lost 5 lbs which is 2.2 kg.
let see how this week goes (fingers crossed) 

Calorie in plantain

1 Slice of Fried plantain contains 68 calories



1 medium plantain (raw) contains 220 calories

My Dream numbers

A dream number is a weight that one is emotionally attached to. Well I think about it and I know some fat people also think about it too. Let’s say, you got married weighing 200 pounds and after some years have accumulated more weight to like 280 pounds. Maybe, just maybe, your dream number or magic number like some people call it might be 200 pounds because you connect it to when you felt happier or sexier (lol). It is okay to have your dream number in your head. You reaching your dream number will be such a huge achievement. Now let’s think about it. What is my dream number?

300 pounds: I was soooo huge that when I looked in the mirror I couldn’t see my face. All I saw was fat, fat and fat. I hated going out or even going shopping the best I could do was shop online most of the clothes were really shapeless and annoying but what can one do.

250 pounds: I struggled so much to weigh this, with strict diet and so much workout but I made it and passed it.

220 pounds: I can remember it was during winter and losing weight was hard because of the weather, I had to work hard 4times to even lose as little as 2 pounds but at the end I overcame.

200 pounds: I developed a very bad habit when I weighed in at 200 pounds because I hit plateau and the scale refuse to move, I weighed myself constantly like every day morning afternoon and night. It so much frustrated me that I nearly gave up. Gave up yeah, but after that what’s next? I had to move away from 200 so I tired gym, it was as boring and demotivating as nothing I have seen. I hated it and felt left out. So I quit the gym. And after 2 months I was down to …….185

185 pounds: I felt so happy leaving 200 pounds and now at 185. But I realised one thing. I was never planning to be too skinny (I want some meat on me too but not too meaty). I dreamt of moving to 170 pounds and after 2 months I landed on 177 pounds. Am still at 177 now but hopefully will throw away 10 pounds hahahahahahahah soon.

177 pounds: hurray am here now…… I have decided to set myself mini dream numbers considering that I am scared of having loose skins.

170 pounds......
165 pounds..........
160 pounds........
155 pounds.......
Maybe 150 pounds ……..

Who’s with me on this?  But remember reaching these dream numbers won’t happen by magic but by hard work, determination and dedication.  I know what I want and am out to get there.

Calories in Egusi Soup

Egusi soup with 2 pieces of meat and few chunks of stock fish is about 700 calories per serving.
Okay, lets say you eat it with 2 wraps of pounded yam, that is another 400 calories.

Egusi contains 60% of fat, 30% of protein, 10% of carbohydrate

Calories in MOI MOI

• Using white beans with the measurement of 1/2 peak milk cup is 189 calories 
• salt (1 tablespoon) 0 calories
• one quarter of an onion 16 calories
• groundnut oil (1/2 tablespoon) 60 calories
• 1 maggi cube 5 calories
• crayfish 1oz 20 calories

Then if you are adding egg, 1 large hard boiled egg is  78 calories

so the total is 368 calories 

WEEK 7 Habit Challenge: Sleep

This is week 7 of the habit challenge, and this weeks habit is getting enough sleep. this might sound simple but its is not. I am a late night person, i always find it hard to sleep early but am doing well. Recent studies have identified that insufficient sleep can be linked with breast cancer, diabetics and heart disease. when you deprive yourself sleep, that is when you start getting hungry. if you find yourself snacking or overeating at night its because you are depriving yourself of sleep.

so how much sleep is good for someone?
most people will need 7 to 9 hours sleep a day. Sleeping 6 or less hours might increase the risk of health problems.
Tips to help you have a good sleep 

• some say, don't workout before sleeping but if i don't workout before sleeping, i cant sleep at all. try it and see if it works for you.
• daily exercise 
• Don't eat a heavy meal before going to bed.
• try sleeping the same time every night.

To some this is impossible, maybe because you have to wake up early for work or you have kids to prepare to school. just give it a try, another thing is that, if you are eating right, working out well and yet you are not losing those weights, try sleeping early, get like 7 to 8 hours sleep for one week and see what the changes will be.

Stop making excuses