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General help
The MGC Chatbox Evo is really easy to use
You can :
Send chats : you just have to enter the text in the dedicated input field and then to validate it by pushing the return key ou by clicking on the OK button.
Format the chats :
once you un-collapse the chatbox formatting toolbar by clicking on the BBCode button, you have access to different formatting options for your chats. You can format a chat by selecting a part (or the totality) of it and then select one of the buttons/list. You can also add empty formatting tags by selecting nothing and clicking one of the buttons/menu thus allowing you to add the chat text afterwards between these tags.*
Access to the different channels : you can have access to different channels restricted to only some usergroupds or for specifics use of the chatbox. The different channels are accessible from the buttons on the left of the chatbox.*
Edit your chats (or others chats) : the edition of a chat can be done by a simple double-click on it.*
Use specific commands : some commands can be accessible in the chatbox depending on the will of the administrator(s) of your forum. These commands let you execute specific actions of formatting, management, etc... You will herebelow the information on the command which are accessible to you. You must notice that you are not forced to use the command prefixes (/command_name) when you use them in the channel they are attached to (except in the general channel).*
* : Depending on the settings chosen by the administrator(s) of the forum, you might not have access to all these features.
The information on the left side of food labels provide total amounts of different nutrients per serving. To make wise food choices, check the total amounts for:
* calories
* total fat
* saturated fat
* cholesterol
* sodium
* total carbohydrate
* fiber
Using the information found in total amounts
Total amounts are shown in grams, abbreviated as g, or in milligrams, shown as mg. A gram is a very small amount and a milligram is one-thousandth of that. For example, a nickel weighs about 5 grams. So does a teaspoonful of margarine. Compare labels of similar foods. For example, choose the product with a smaller amount of saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium and try to select foods with more fiber.
Calories
If you are trying to lose or maintain your weight, the number of calories you eat counts. To lose weight you need to eat fewer calories than your body burns. You can use the labels to compare similar products and determine which contains fewer calories. To find out how many calories you need each day, talk with your dietitian or certified diabetes educator.
Total Fat
Total fat tells you how much fat is in a food per serving. It includes fats that are good for you such as mono and polyunsaturated fats, and fats that are not so good such as saturated and trans fats. Mono and polyunsaturated fats can help to lower your blood cholesterol and protect your heart. Saturated and trans fat can raise your blood cholesterol and increase your risk of heart disease. The cholesterol in food may also increase your blood cholesterol. Learn more about specific types of fat.
Fat is calorie-dense. Per gram, it has more than twice the calories of carbohydrate or protein. Although some types of fats, such as mono and polyunsaturated fats, are healthy, it is still important to pay attention to the overall number of calories that you consume to maintain a healthy weight. If you are trying to lose weight, you'll still want to limit the amount of fat you eat. That's where the food label comes in handy.
Sodium
Sodium does not affect blood glucose levels. However, many people eat much more sodium than they need. Table salt is very high in sodium. You might hear people use "sodium" in lieu of "table salt," or vice versa.
With many foods, you can taste how salty they are, such as pickles or bacon. But there is also hidden salt in many foods, like cheeses, salad dressings, canned soups and other packaged foods. Reading labels can help you compare the sodium in different foods. You can also try using herbs and spices in your cooking instead of adding salt. Adults should aim for less than 2400 mg per day. If you have high blood pressure, it may be helpful to eat less.
Total Carbohydrate
If you are carbohydrate counting, the food label can provide you with the information you need for meal planning. Look at the grams of total carbohydrate, rather than the grams of sugar. Total carbohydrate on the label includes sugar, complex carbohydrate, and fiber. If you look only at the sugar number, you may end up excluding nutritious foods such as fruits and milks thinking they are too high in sugar. You might also overeat foods such as cereals and grains that have no natural or added sugar, but do contain a lot of carbohydrate.
The grams of sugar and fiber are counted as part of the grams of total carbohydrate. If a food has 5 grams or more fiber in a serving, subtract the fiber grams from the total grams of carbohydrate for a more accurate estimate of the carbohydrate content.
Fiber
Fiber is part of plant foods that is not digested. Dried beans such as kidney or pinto beans, fruits, vegetables and grains are all good sources of fiber. The recommendation is to eat 25-30 grams of fiber per day. People with diabetes need the same amount of fiber as everyone else.
Sugar alcohols
Sugar alcohols (also known as polyols) include sorbitol, xylitol and mannitol, and have fewer calories than sugars and starches. Use of sugar alcohols in a product does not necessarily mean the product is low in carbohydrate or calories. And, just because a package says "sugar-free" on the outside, that does not mean that it is calorie or carbohydrate-free. Always remember to check the label for the grams of carbohydrate and calories.
List of Ingredients
Ingredients are listed in descending order by weight, meaning the first ingredient makes up the largest proportion of the food. Check the ingredient list to spot things you'd like to avoid, such as coconut oil or palm oil, which are high in saturated fat. Also try to avoid hydrogenated oils that are high in trans fat. They are not listed by total amount on the label, but you can choose foods that don't list hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil in the ingredient list.
The ingredient list is also a good place to look for heart-healthy ingredients such as soy; monounsaturated fats such as olive, canola or peanut oils; or whole grains, like whole wheat flour and oats.
Mayo, salad dressing, coleslaw, hash browns, butter spreads, french fries, and sour cream -- it's easy to pack on the pounds from consuming too many calorie-laden condiments and side dishes. But fortunately, a few easy swaps will enable you to maintain flavor while dropping calories (and inches!). Take a look at the sample menu below -– I've trimmed 1,745 calories simply by tweaking the side dishes and condiments that accompany this breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
BREAKFAST: ORIGINAL MEAL: Scrambled eggs with ¾ cup hash browns, 2 strips bacon, two slices toast with butter, and a cup of coffee with 4 TB half-n-half and 2 teaspoons sugar.
BETTER MEAL: Scrambled eggs with ¾ cup fresh fruit salad, 2 slices toast with reduced-fat margarine spread, and a cup of coffee with 4 TB skim milk and one teaspoon sugar.
Savings on just condiments and sides = 645 calories!
LUNCH: ORIGINAL MEAL: Turkey/cheese sandwich with 1 TB mayonnaise, a 1/2-cup scoop of coleslaw, and french fries w/ ketchup.
BETTER MEAL: Turkey/cheese sandwich with mustard, ketchup, or reduced-fat mayonnaise; one cup of vegetable soup; sliced lettuce and tomatoes, plus pickles.
Savings on just condiments and sides = 520 calories!
DINNER: ORIGINAL MEAL: Chicken with mixed vegetables; salad with croutons and creamy dressing; one baked potato with butter and sour cream.
BETTER MEAL: Chicken with mixed vegetables; salad (no croutons) with low-calorie dressing; one baked potato with reduced-fat sour cream or marinara sauce.
Emotional Eating: What Triggers Your Eating Outbursts?
By Sari Harrar for The Biggest Loser Club
"What is my hand doing in the cookie box? Why did I eat all those chips last night? I've got 6 hours of work to do in 4 hours…time to order a pizza."
When life gets tough, your mind can wreak havoc with your eating plan. Before you know it, you've whizzed through the drive-through and asked for the chocolate-glazed doughnut with your morning coffee. Grabbed dessert with your lunch. Left your healthy snack in your tote bag and sprinted for the cookies somebody just left on the snack table at the office. Later, perhaps you slow down and put the pieces together: Maybe that spat with your husband triggered the doughnut incident. Perhaps feeling bored or lonely led to the lunch dessert. Or a big deadline inspired that dash for the sweets at work.
Wired for High Carb
But don't blame a lack of willpower. We're wired to reach for high-carb, high-fat foods under stress, say University of San Francisco researchers. In lab studies, they found that stressed-out rats binged on sweets. Filling up on high-calorie foods actually switched off stress hormones. The rats aren't unique: Humans seem to do the same thing. In prehistoric times, it was a brilliant adaptation: Having a food craving after fighting off that saber-tooth tiger insured you would rebuild your energy stores and live to fight another day.
The difference? Early humans burned thousands of calories in their daily struggle to survive, then reached for roots, nuts, or berries. We stress about stuff like work, relationships, money, or health—mental struggles that burn few calories—then grab the Oreos. The result? Diet slip-ups. Weight gain. And more.
Chronic stress keeps the high-anxiety hormone cortisol circulating in your body, triggering carb cravings and at the same time making cells more insulin resistant. Your blood sugar rises. It's another evolutionary trick: Higher blood sugar meant extra muscle fuel for prehistoric emergencies.
Cortisol's other trick: It directs more fat storage around your waistline. That was great 100,000 years ago: Abdominal fat is released and burned more readily than body fat elsewhere on your body. Extra belly fat was a cave woman's reserve gasoline tank; today, it makes zipping up your jeans a challenge and can even raise risk for diabetes and heart disease.
Find Your Triggers
The real challenge of stress eating: Identifying and sidestepping triggers. Cutting stress and boosting happiness are proven to cut blood sugar and cortisol levels—and boost your odds for weight loss success:
In an encouraging Duke University study of 108 women and men with high blood sugar, those who had stress-management training lowered their blood sugar significantly. Study participants soothed their stress with a variety of techniques: progressive muscle relaxation, deep breathing, and positive mental imagery, as well as by stopping high-tension thoughts. (You can buy a compact disc and manual of the relaxation-training program used in the study at www.richardsurwit.com.)
Happiness counts, too, as researchers from England's University College London discovered when they tested the moods, saliva, and blood of 200 middle-aged Londoners. The result: The happiest people had levels of the stress hormone cortisol 32% lower than the most unhappy folks. Lowering stress can allow you to slip an ancient weight trap.
The pay-off? An easier time sticking with your healthy new eating plan. A year-long Stanford University study of 740 men and women found that 67% of those who cut their stress levels were able to stick with a healthier eating plan that included more fruits and veggies, less fat. In contrast, just 48% of high-stress study volunteers were successful.
Tips for De-Stressing
These tips can help you cut your overall stress—and avoid in-the-moment food temptations when you're feeling anxious, lonely, angry, or simply down.
Claim 15 minutes a day for you. Take a walk, sink into a hot bubble bath, or try a calming technique like yoga or mindfulness-based stress reduction.
Yoga works on an emotional level to make losing weight easier. It cuts cortisol levels immediately, research shows. And can help you lose more weight. In a University of Pittsburgh study of 59 overweight, inactive women (ages 25 to 55) who all followed low-fat diets and walked regularly, those who also did a yoga routine 3 days a week lost 27 pounds in 4 months. In contrast, study volunteers who did strength-training lost 23, and those who simply walked and dieted lost 20. (The lesson: Don't skip strength-training (your muscles and bones need it!); doadd stress reduction that will help you stick with a healthy eating plan consistently.)
Another option: mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). This easy-to-learn and thoroughly modern, non-religious form of meditation can make you healthier and happier. It's all about following your breath and slowing down so that you can pay attention to your moment-to-moment.
MBSR classes are easy to find through local hospitals and adult-education classes. To find one nearby, type your zip code into the locater service at the University of Massachusetts Medical School's Center for Mindfulness website: http://www.umassmed.edu/cfm/mbsr/.
Figure out your stress-eating triggers. Do you eat when you're angry? Bored? Lonely? At a party when you're feeling nervous? Pay attention to the situations that prompt you to reach for extra helpings or snacks. Once you've identified your triggers, brainstorm solutions. You might decide to write a letter to the person who's ticking you off next time you're angry (no need to send it—the purpose is to acknowledge and release feelings), or to rediscover a hobby you once loved if you're feeling bored. Arrange a lunch date or outing with a friend if you're feeling lonely.
Keep a journal. Paying attention to your feelings by writing them down is a powerful way to make yourself feel valued—and feel better—without resorting to sour-cream-and-onion chips. Keeping a feelings journal, where you can also note how your eating plan is going, can also help you spot stress-eating signals and danger zones early.
Get more sleep. Up late paying the bills, finishing office work, or catching the late show? Night time is prime time for stress eating, because your body is trying hard simply to stay awake. Resolve to turn in sooner.
Have more fun. When life is busy and your to-do list is long, it's easy to turn to food as quick entertainment and solace. In fact, you may be missing out on other healthy pleasures that would be more satisfying. When was the last time you enjoyed your favorite activities—such as going to concerts or dog shows, gardening or museum-hopping, roller-skating or antiquing? Make time for fun and you may find you don't need that ‘fun pack' of cookies, after all.
Tune into your true hunger level. Is it emotional hunger or real hunger? Before you bite, stop and rate your hunger level on a scale of 1-10—with 1 as ‘famished' and 10 as totally stuffed, the way you'd feel after a big Thanksgiving dinner. The time to eat: when you're around 3. The time to stop eating? When you're at a 5-7: comfortably satisfied, but not overly full. Reaching for food when you're not at a 3? Pull back and remind yourself that it will be snack time, or mealtime, soon.
Snack on fiber-rich carbs plus protein. When snack time does roll around, treat yourself right with a satisfying little feast of fruit or veggies plus protein. Try apple slices with a tablespoon of peanut butter for an afternoon snack. A handful of cherry tomatoes plus a stick of low-fat string cheese in the morning. A few slices of chicken or turkey on a slice of whole-wheat bread instead of an afternoon muffin.
Fit your snack into the calorie level recommended on your eating plan (many morning snacks are around 80 calories, afternoon snacks are often about 150 calories) by mixing and matching these items: Have one protein plus one veggie in the morning, one protein plus one fruit in the afternoon. You can also try a serving of whole grains, such as a slice of whole-wheat bread, instead of the protein, or in place of fruit in an afternoon snack.
Good protein choices include: 1 hard-boiled egg, 1 tablespoon peanut butter, ½ ounce nuts (such as 12 almonds, 8 cashews, 8 pecans halves, 26 shelled pistachios, or 6 walnut halves; 2 slices of roasted chicken breast meat (about ¼ of a chicken breast); ½ cup of yogurt.
Fruit choices: Any fresh fruit, or a half-cup of chopped or sliced fruit.
Get moving! Physical activity cuts stress and pumps feel-good endorphins throughout your body, while burning calories. Make a new commitment to getting a half-hour of activity most days of the week. Great options include walking, aerobics videos and DVDs, a class or strength-training at a gym, or simply choosing active fun like hiking, bowling, swimming, or skating.
Sarí Harrar, former health news editor at Prevention magazine, is a freelance writer specializing in health, science, and medicine.
Beets
Beets are one of the best sources of folate, a nutrient which lowers your blood levels of homocysteine, an inflammatory amino acid produced by the body.
One cup of beets provides only 60 calories, no fat, about 40 percent of your daily value for folic acid and four grams of fiber. Enjoy beets raw, sliced.... or prepare a delicious beet salad by tossing them with olive oil and a splash of lemon.
The leaves and stems are also packed with nutrition - sauté with garlic, olive oil, kosher salt, ground black pepper and dig in!
Cabbage
Part of the cruciferous vegetable family, one cup of chopped cabbage contains 20 calories, two grams fiber and is loaded with sulforaphane, a cancer fighting chemical that's been shown to decrease cellular damage throughout the body. Add cabbage to your salads, order steamed ‘moo shoo vegetables' at your local Chinese restaurant (request sauce on the side and go easy!), or prepare low-calorie coleslaw.
Guava
Guava is a tropical super fruit. One cup provides 110 calories, 376 milligrams Vitamin C (that's more than 300 percent of the daily value), 699 milligrams potassium and nine grams of fiber!Guava also provides a hearty dose of lycopene - an antioxidant that appears to fight prostate cancer (when it comes to lycopene, most people only think about tomatoes). You'll find this exotic fruit in Latin grocery stores and at high end markets.
Swiss Chard
This vegetable's greatest health benefit comes in the form of lutein and zeaxanthin - a matched pair of antioxidants - found in high concentrations in the tissue of the macula.
Because they absorb 40 to 90 percent of blue light intensity, these nutrients act like sunscreen for your eyes. Studies have shown that eating foods rich in lutein and zeaxanthin can increase the pigment density in the macula-and greater pigment density means better retina protection, and a lower risk of macula degeneration. One cup steamed Swiss chard provides only 35 calories.
For a few more calories, try this delicious recipe: Over high heat, warm two tablespoons olive oil in a large, non-stick frying pan. Add two cloves garlic and cook one to two minutes, stirring constantly.
Add two pounds Swiss chard and sprinkle with kosher salt. Cook four to five minutes until the Swiss chard is soft and reduces half in volume. Serve immediately.
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