http://www.bhastrikinternational.com Thu, 09 Sep 2010 15:34:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 http://www.bhastrikinternational.com/the-lifestyle-of-a-vegetarian.cfm http://www.bhastrikinternational.com/the-lifestyle-of-a-vegetarian.cfm#comments Sun, 25 Jul 2010 13:25:56 +0000 admin http://www.crawbot.co.cc/?p=1643

One of the biggest injustices that the vegetarian movement has endured is that in popular culture, the image of a vegetarian is that of a fanatic hippy or cult member who is “off the deep end” and cannot think about anything else besides “saving a cow” and pushing vegetarianism on everyone he meets.

The truth is that the lifestyle of a vegetarian is not that different than everyone else in the culture. In fact, the odds are that somewhere in your social circle at work, school, church or in your family and friends network, you already know several people who are quietly enjoying the lifestyle of a vegetarian. So to help us get over the negative stereotypes to understand how a vegetarian actually lives, lets examine what is different about a vegetarians life.

The most significant difference in how a vegetarian lives is obvious because it is in how he or she eats. You will not find any meat in a vegetarian’s kitchen. Now this doesn’t mean that a vegetarian cannot live in a family and be at peace with meat eaters. If the home has one vegetarian but others who are not, you will be able to tell from the presence of soy and perhaps more fruit and fresh vegetables in the refrigerator. But the idea that vegetarians cannot be around meat eaters is false. If anything vegetarians are peace loving and can live their lifestyle around others who are not of their belief system very well.

Grocery shopping with a vegetarian is an eye opening experience and one that is quite different in more ways than you would suspect. Being a vegetarian isn’t just about what you don’t eat in that you don’t eat meat. It is also about a completely different approach to diet and foods. So you will not see a vegetarian buying food in the same way most people do. There will be much more time spent in the fresh produce section of the grocery store. The checkout basket of a vegetarian will give him or her away every time because it will be overflowing with fresh foods.

But shopping for food with a vegetarian means shopping in other places than the local grocery store. It means buying grains and beans in bulk at a warehouse store because that is one way that a vegetarian maintains health by replacing the protein and other nutrients that the rest of the world gets from meat and replacing it with proteins from beans and other natural foods. It also means shopping in farmer’s markets and even shopping in a vegetarian specialty store for some high nutrition meat substitutes like tofu.

The vegetarian movement is in harmony with many of the earth first movements such as the organic movement and the green movement. So a vegetarian kitchen will have more organic foods on hand to reduce the presence of harmful pesticides and other substances in the diet. Also vegetarianism affects the lifestyle beyond just the refrigerator and the pantry. You will not find leather clothing in a vegetarian’s closet and you wont find fur there either. That is became for the most part vegetarians are sensitive to animal rights and they don’t want to see the skin of animals used in their clothing.

The house of a vegetarian will also be a recycling house to do all that is possible to cut down on waste and to be earth friendly. Along with recycling bottles and cans as you might expect, a vegetarian recycles a lot right at home. A recycling home will often have a compost pile in the yard for food waste and it will also support a good sized garden to use that compost to grow at home organic foods to supplement a healthy diet.

For obvious reasons, a vegetarian will have vegetarian friends and belong to social groups and attend functions that support the vegetarian lifestyle. Eating out with a vegetarian will mean going to more ethnic food restaurants and you will see a lot of creativity in how to order foods in a restaurant. But contrary to popular opinion, vegetarian eating is more flavorful and diverse than the normal diet.

Just spending a day with a vegetarian will reveal to you a more harmonious lifestyle that is sensitive to the environment and at peace with itself. It is a healthy and happy lifestyle and one that should be attractive to all of us.

]]> http://www.bhastrikinternational.com/the-lifestyle-of-a-vegetarian.cfm/feed 0 http://www.bhastrikinternational.com/fad-diets-to-avoid.cfm http://www.bhastrikinternational.com/fad-diets-to-avoid.cfm#comments Fri, 23 Jul 2010 20:43:20 +0000 admin http://www.crawbot.co.cc/?p=1641

Unfortunately most weight loss diets are actually fad diets. All to often diets that describe themselves as being new or revolutionary are actually diets that are twenty or thirty years old come back for a second or third wave of popularity. Good examples are the Zen diet, which is simply a revival of hippie macrobiotic eating theories from the mid 1960s, the Zone diet which is based on food combining principles that have been around since the turn of the 19th century and the Atkins diet which was initially pioneered in the 1970s and had a Gloria Swanson type comeback not too long ago.

The best way to identify a fad diet is to determine if it is based on any of the following principles:

It is based on the way Neanderthals eat It is based on foods from the bible It is based on your blood type It is based on eating mostly protein and no carbs It is based on eating mostly carbs and no protein It is based on eating no fat It is based on eating fatty foods It recommends the eating of negative calorie foods It recommends eating only one fruit such as grapefruit It recommends drinking more than three cups of coffee a day It claims that you can eat whatever you want

Perhaps the most popular of these diets are the High protein/low carb diet that are based on the idea that carbohydrates are bad, that many people are “allergic” to them or are insulin-resistant, and therefore gain weight when they eat them. This includes the South Beach Diet, the Zone Diet and the Atkins diet. These types of diets induce ketosis to accelerate weight loss. Ketosis is an abnormal body process that occurs during starvation due to lack of carbohydrate. Ketosis causes fatigue, constipation, nausea, and vomiting, none of which are part of a healthy lifestyle. Long-term side effects of ketosis are documented to include heart disease, bone loss, and kidney damage

The truth behind weight gain in this society is that people are eating more total calories and getting less physical activity. Your body simply doesn’t distinguish between types of calories when it comes to weight gain or loss only the number of them.

Crash diets dehydrate you, low calorie diets put your body into starvation mode so you plateau so you can’t lose one more pound and high protein diets stress your kidneys and clog your arteries.

The truth is that you do need protein and fat in the diet, both serve important metabolic and physiological roles in the body. Fad and crash diets, such as the ones described above are not only unhealthy but they are also cause rebound weight gain. Also most diets, even though diet gurus write them cause an initial weight loss but the ultimate result is that you gain all of the weight back the minute you go off the plan. If you don’t gain it back within a couple of diets, you are likely to gain it all back plus a bit more within a year.

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If you’re one of those people who have asked themselves, “How can I lose 10 pounds in a month?” then you’ve probably thought about things like joining a health club or putting yourself on some starvation diet. The problem with these two solutions is the first one doesn’t really give you enough time. I mean certainly I whole heartedly recommend that anyone trying to lose 10 pounds in a month get on some sort of exercise program. But I just don’t think that’s enough in such a short amount of time. And starving yourself is going to be uncomfortable and will likely just make you lose water weight.

Now, if you’re not concerned about putting the weight back on it might work for you. But if you’re to go through the trouble of losing the weight in the first place, you might as well keep it off. Earlier in my life I had an important occasion come up (my wedding) and I asked myself the same question-How can I lose 10 pounds in a month. And I found out that it was indeed possible. And I did join a gym but a much bigger consideration for me was how I was going to change my eating habit. I didn’t have much faith with the popular diets books and I couldn’t (or wouldn’t) spend money on the ones advertised on TV.

The gist of what I’ve learned in my online research is that you need to be given a whole new way of thinking about how and when you eat various sorts of calories. For instance, should you combine fats and starches? How about protein and starches? Did you know it’s best to eat fruit before your meal instead of in a desert after a meal? That way it isn’t fermenting in your belly waiting for your main meal to digest. You’ll want to get an understanding of how the two main hormones that affect metabolism work. You need a way to shock your body into burning fat instead of storing it.

So if, like me, you’ve been looking for a way to quickly and safely lose the weight you need to, check out the link to my site in my author’s box below.

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