You’re turning Violet, Violet!

It appears Willy Wonka got it wrong. If you remember, Violet juiced up into a nice plump ball, but scientists in Arkansas have discovered that the purple juice in berries such as blueberries may help prevent obesity.

In the new study, researchers found that mice fed a high-fat diet for 8 weeks plus drinking water with purified anthocyanins from blueberries and strawberries gained less weight and had lower body fat levels than a control group.

So this is decent news for me as I loves me some blueberries and I make a pretty mean breakfast smoothie that I will now share with you.

• 1 cup vanilla yogurt
• 1 banana
• 1 cup of low-fat milk
• 1 packet of cooked blueberry oatmeal
• 1 cup of blueberries
• 1 teaspoon of flaxseed
• 1/2 teaspoon of psyllium powder
• 6 or 7 ice cubes

Blend until smooth and enjoy one heck of a power breakfast!

Time to Overhaul the Diet

I’ve tried many of them, Atkins, South Beach, Abs Diet, the list goes on and on, and they all worked to some degree.  The problem was when I went off the diet, I immediately went back to eating pints of ice cream in a sitting, and to no one’s surprise, I porked back up.

Many people blame the diet for not working. Not me, I blame me for not sticking to it.  But honestly it is hard to stay away from those foods you love so much.  Sadly, the only secret to losing weight is exercise and changing your eating habits permanently, there is no magic pill.

For about the last year I’ve been eating a mostly vegetarian diet, and fortunately, I’ve been able to sustain a weight loss of about 50lbs, but I still have more to go.  Since were going to run a full marathon in September, I’m going to have to step it up in terms of getting closer to my goal weight.

I’m going to do this by cutting out most junk from my diet, keeping a close count of my calorie intake, and upping my exercise habits.  In addition to my running plan, I’m also going to get back into the YRG-DVDs that I purchased right before Christmas, and I’m going to switch on and off with the P-90 program for strength training.

I’m still researching exactly how many calories I should shoot for in a day to keep up with my metabolism. The information out there varies wildly from 1500-2700 a day.  If anyone has any suggestions of what number I should try to hit, please let me know.