The Ezine For Every Woman Struggling For The Body She's Always Dreamed Of!

August 18, 2003

Issue # 20

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Contents

1. Ramblings

2. What’s the fuss about Calcium Supplements?

3. Sweet 'N Spicy Chicken

4. Your Commitment will make you successful

1. Ramblings

Yes I know, I wanted to send this newsletter to your every two weeks and now have passed again four weeks since the last issue. I am very sorry for that!

But it is summer and here in Europe it was just too hot to do anything except going to the swimming pool ;-)

And I was on vacation in Morocco and it was just wonderful! If you ever have the opportunity to go there, you definitely should do so. Unfortunately people (except in the hotels and touristic places) don’t speak very well English, but French. And my French is, let’s say, more or less miserable…

Apart from the nice, white sand beaches at the Atlantic coast there are such wonderful cities like Essaouira and Marrakesch to visit. You will feel like being in on of the fairy tales like, 1001 nights or Ali Baba.

Off course I didn’t do any sports during vacation. (Who would?), but at least I managed to walk on the beach for one hour every day and despite the great breakfast and evening buffet at the hotel I managed not to gain any weight.

This IS something, don’t you think so?

How did I manage? The secret is pretty easy: I made myself eat one full plate of different salads (without sauce, just vinegar and oil), and before letting myself “conquer” the rest of the buffet. By the time to go for dessert, I definitely couldn’t eat anything else…

Try it, it feels good, because you don’t have to deprive yourself of anything. Just start with the salads, then your stomach will do the rest for you.

2. What’s the fuss about Calcium Supplements?

Have you seen lately all the promotion about dietary supplements and especially calcium supplements. I have, and it made me curious: Do I need to take Calcium, too?

I started some research and the answer (like always) is not an easy yes or no. Here are the facts:

If you are on a healthy and balanced diet, you do not need any additional Calcium. But chances are, you aren’t eating as healthy and balanced as you should.

Surveys showed that most of us don't get enough calcium in our diet. The daily allowance recommended by scientists is for adults and children over four at least 1,000 mg of calcium every day. Older persons, pregnant and nursing women have even higher requirements.

Ok. Suppose you DO get enough Calcium with your diet, does it mean your body absorbs enough of it?

Not necessarily. In fact, the studies show that we typically only absorb about 30% of the dietary calcium we eat!

Why does this happen?

Your body needs basically two few things to absorb Calcium in sufficient quantity.

1. Stomach acids

2. Vitamin D

This gives you the possibility to enhance Calcium absorption of you body without taking Calcium supplements.

Your stomach fills with strong acids to break down the foods when you eat. Therefore it is recommendable to eat Calcium rich foods towards the end of your meal. For example you could always drink a glass of milk or eat some cheese when you finish your meal.

Vitamin D is especially important to calcium absorption. Studies show that 80% of women are deficient in Vitamin D! This means to eat a lot of Vitamin D rich foods like milk (especially the one fortified with Vitamin D and Vitamin A), fish and cod liver oil.

By the way, your body does manufacture Vitamin D when it gets sunlight. I always knew it was healthy to be in the sun ;-)

Ok, now you know what to do, in order to help your body to absorb enough calcium. But what happens, if you just hate milk? Or the sun doesn’t shine for month? Or you’re pregnant and need more calcium than usual? Or you are on a diet?

Well, in these cases, you should turn to calcium supplements. Off course, you can always use the Calcium supplements, because the generally won’t do any harm. But make sure you follow the directions on the package, use your common sense, and always consult your doctor or pharmacist before you start taking any supplement.

I for myself decided to take calcium supplements only during winter time and found the Coral Calcium the one with the best quality and a good price.

If you decide to take calcium supplements you can check out Coral Calcium for yourself. And I’d be happy to know if you liked the Calcium supplement or not.

Coral Calcium

3. Sweet 'N Spicy Chicken

Makes: 6 servings

Ingredients:

- 1 1/2 lb. fat-free chicken breasts

- 1 1/2 tsp. onion powder

- 1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder

- 1/2 cup mustard

- 1/2 cup pineapple juice

- 1/4 cup brown sugar substitute

- 1 tsp. horseradish

Directions:

- Prepare medium-hot grill and lightly spray with nonfat cooking spray.

- Combine pineapple juice, brown sugar, mustard and horseradish in a small saucepan; place directly on grill and cook 5-10 minutes.

- Sprinkle chicken breasts with onion and garlic powder.

- Cook chicken breasts 10-15 minutes, brushing frequently with sauce, until no longer pink and cooked through.

- Turn chicken once while grilling.

- Serve remaining sauce with chicken.

Nutritional Information:

- Calories: 171

- Carbohydrate: 13 grams

- Cholesterol: 71 milligrams

- Dietary Fiber: <1 gram

- Fat: <1 gram

- Protein: 29 grams

- Sodium: 546 milligrams

4. Your Commitment will make you successful

Taking action without being totally committed to it can be worse than taking no action at all. Because when you have any level of resistance to what you're doing, you're simply not going to be very effective at it, and the effort will be largely wasted.

Always keep in mind that you can decide to do it or you can decide not to do it. But it is vitally important to make one decision or the other, and then to follow it with your full commitment.

To make progress, you must have yourself on your own side. You won't get very far if you have to work against your own resistance and resentment.

If you're going to do it, commit yourself to it. Commitment is a decision you can make for yourself, regardless of the circumstances, regardless of whose idea it was originally.

Commitment is the act of sincerely putting your heart into what you're doing. If you have no interest in being committed, then why would you have any reason to go through the motions?

Rather than fighting against your own resistance, be supported by your own commitment. That will often make the crucial difference between success and failure.

If you want to learn more about motivation and will power take the free 20day email course by Charles Burke:

More Luck

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Marion