Cake or death – A dieter’s worst mistake

When it comes to diets, there’s hundreds, all of which comes with strict dos and don’ts. Now for most people, if they say they’re going on a diet, they mean all in, living on salad and water.

But then something terrible happens. They keep at it for a week and then they’re faced with a slice of cake and they cave. Within seconds they’ve gone from driven to eat health and be better, to rolling in the dirt covered in cake crumbs while the band waggon leaves them behind.

At this point they’ve given up. They think because of this one piece of cake, their diet is ruined so they may as well give it up.

I call this the Cake or Death approach to dieting. This is the number one biggest mistake a dieter can make.

The reason for this is if you’re so strict on yourself with your diet, you are probably going to fail. And when you do, you think it’s ruined and there’s no point in trying again.

When realistically, if you’ve been eating well for two weeks, then one slice of cake isn’t going to suddenly undone all that good work.

This extremely approach to dieting is very hard to stick to and is the wrong approach.

If you want to lose weight, you need to be going for a long term and sustainable approach because this may be much slower weight loss, but you’ll actually be able to maintain the weight loss.

Here’s my alternative to the Cake or Death approach to dieting.

1. Don’t go extreme. Base your diet on true balance and on good healthy nutrition. That means lots of protein, lots of veg, a small amount of carbs, and the occasional treat. Remember you can have that slice of cake, just not every day or even every week. They’re treats and you must treat them that way
2.  Don’t have a set ‘cheat day’. What happens with a cheat day is you’ll cheat just because you can. If you’re going to have a treat, have it because you’ve been wanting it all week and you can’t stop craving it, not just because it’s your cheat day and you can have something ‘bad’.
3. Don’t diet, change your lifestyle instead. No strict diet in the world will help, if you drink wine and beer every night, just like cutting out everything sugary doesn’t help if you’re eating endless amounts of bread and potatoes. You have to change your lifestyle and make it one you can maintain.

And don’t forget about exercise.

If you want to read more about the kind of eating plan and exercise I’d include in this healthy lifestyle, you can check out my blog post about the ‘Get-Fit-Not-Thin Revolution’.

Don’t try be skinny, try be health and a better body will follow on. One slice of cake doesn’t ruin everything, just keep it balanced and you’ll be well on your way to feeling fit and healthy.  

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/12314099/?claim=ezhbuk6pfmr">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Ripped Freak – The Review

In this Article I’m reviewing a product called Ripped Freak. This is a fat burning tablet supplement which I've been taking for the last three weeks. Ripped Freak has been created by the people at Pharma Freak.

Ripper Freak is actually a fat burner designed for body builders. The big strong, manly muscly kind. It was even recommended to me by a friend who I’d stick under the body building category. You can’t miss its very masculine yellow and red box. It's is kind of a funny contract to the pleasant raspberry taste and smell of the tablets themselves. The reason for the raspberry is everyone’s favorite, Raspberry Ketones.

It’s been said that the claims that Raspberry Ketones help burn fat were never really tested on humans. Only on rats… But it seems, judging by all the success stories springing up from them, there must be some truth to the claim.

Now, some may say it’s a little hypocritical to have a challenge for women to start loving their bodies one week, and to then start taking fat burner the next. But there’s more to Ripper Freak than just its claim to being an amazing fat burner.

Firstly, one Ripped Freak tablet is equal to about three cups of coffee. This is probably why I’ve been able to cut my coffee consumption down to just one cup with breakfast. The beauty is I’ve generally had more energy with Ripped Freak than I would just with coffee. And it’s not just ‘I’m awake' kind of energy, but strength energy.

During pole I’ve found that I feel stronger and able to push myself further. So Ripped Freak has done more than possibly help me lose weight, but it’s helped me push myself and get my pole mojo back. Big thumbs up on that front.

Another huge benefit that I’ve found while using Ripped Freak is that my cravings for sugar have dropped drastically. Before I started taking it I found I was really struggling to say no to sugar, but now the cravings really have dropped to almost nothing. I really noticed it when I decided to have a few Love Hearts which are my favorite sweet in the whole world. Now normally when I start eating them, I can’t stop until the role is finished. This time I had about 5 or 6 and then put them away. So another awesome benefit.

Ripped Freak is a really easy to use product as well. It’s just one tablet first thing in the morning as soon as you wake up. That’s it. You can take a second one if you choose to but then it’s normally around mid-day. You just have to take it at least three hours before go to sleep. Otherwise that caffeine kick’s going to have your up forever!

The instructions say you should take your tablet with a minimum of 8 ounces of water (It’s an America product hence the ounces) which equals a small glass of water. This sounds like an old ‘rule’ but trust me, if you just have like a mouthful of water to get the tablet down, you’re looking at some rather unpleasant heart burn. I found that out the hard way.

Something else I really like is the bottle comes with a diet plan and exercise plan (that's the card you can see in the picture of the product). Both are designed for those muscly gym-loving body builders but they’re awesome to use as guides. I use the diet plan as a guide to the short of things I can and should be eating at certain times of the day. So that’s really useful.

Ripped Freak is very expensive. R599 for 60 tablets, so it’s a two month supply. There is a benefit to buying expensive diet supplements like this though, or at least I think so. Because of the fact that there is no perfect miracle fat burning supplement on earth that will get rid of your fat while you sit on that couch and eat cake, you become more aware of what you eat when you’ve paid good money for a supplement. Knowing this is an expensive product you don’t want to waste your money by eating junk and therefore not getting the full benefit, so it really help give you motivation to stick to a healthier diet.

Ripped Freak isn’t readily available in South Africa but you can buy it from Chrome Supplements. I went to the one in Bel Air center.  

Now for the part that really matters. The weight lose...

On the left is the photo I used in my beautiful body challenge, on the right a photo taken last night after using Ripped Freak for three weeks.

Now, I'll be honest, I definitely haven't lost as much as I'd like to have, given I've seen and heard reviews of this product where people have see visible results after only two weeks of use. But maybe that's because I just don't exercise enough. Maybe teaching two dance classes a week and poling at least three times a week just aren't the same as going to the gym every evening. 

But I will say this, if you look closely, not too closely though, at my after photo, I do think my hips look marginally narrower and I feel when I look in the mirror that I've got more definition in my stomach. Sadly even the best fat burner in the world can't directly target my stupid thighs but again it has only been three weeks. 

Over all, Ripped Freak is a nice diet supplement that's helped with my energy levels, my cravings, my motivations and my eating habits. Whether or not it's truly an effective fat burner for an average person like me who doesn't live only in the gym, the jury is still out.

But I shall up date you after I've finished my full two months and let's see if my opinion has been changed.

Getting hooked on Aerial Hoops

So I’ve been pole dancing for about 1 year and 1 month (just over) but this Friday was the first time I tried aerial hoop/lyra.

I’m not going to lie to you.

It was awesome.

It’s very different to pole in that it requires less wrought iron strength. On a pole you’re always supporting your own weight in some way. On a hoop you always have something above or below you carrying your weight.

It’s a different kind of pain though. Because a Lyra is much thinner than any pole, it ‘bites’ into you more. You're also generally carrying the weight in your hands, elbows, backs of your knees or back. Because of this I’ve got rather blue legs.

If you do pole already and you want to try the lyra you won’t have too much trouble as the hardest part is inverting into the ring, after that, it’s all about balance.

Advanced pole is all about how strong you are, but advanced lyra is all about how flexible you are. So if you’re flexy then lyra might be right up your ally.

This was my first time ever in one and I found it quite easy to understand the balance and tension points that you need to create in order to hold moves. Here’s a little of me messing around on the lyra.

(they're not great photos cause they were taken on my old blackberry, which yes I still use)

Well that’s a little about my first lyra experience J

The Two Week Challenge

Are you ready for another LivingLovingLifestyle challenge?

This one doesn't require you to take body photos or make public declarations though. This is much more of a private challenge. This is The Two Week Challenge.

The idea behind The Two Week Challenge is that very specific short term goals are much easier to achieve than vague long term goals are. What this means for you when you want to change something is that if you just say well I want to lose weight or stop smoking, chances are you're not going to succeeded.

But if you say "I'm not going to touch a single cigarette for two weeks" or "I'm not going to eat sweets for two weeks", then you'll probably succeed because that's pretty ease to achieve. 

If you can get through those two weeks, then maybe you'll go, "well I've gone two weeks without it, so maybe I can go another two weeks"

If you get through another two weeks then maybe you'll say "I've gone a month, lets see if I can go another month"

And if you're able to keep achieving these specific short term goals, then the next thing you know, you'll have kicked a bad habit, changed the way you do something, or picked up a good habit.

Presently I'm on The Two Week Challenge and I want to cut down the amount of coffee I drink to one cup with my breakfast, and to stop eating sweets and chocolates so often.

I'm just under a week in and so far so good, I'm starting to find that I'm getting through the day without feeling particularly tiered and even if I'm still fancying sweets, I'm finding it easy to not have them. 

So come on and let's try The Two Week Challenge together.

If you haven't joined The Beautiful Body Challenge yet, please do so, you can find me at Ashley Kim-Ginger on Facebook or @KimGinge on Twitter or you can leave a comment for you.

Good luck and happy life changing :)