Most diet programs do not work because they are based on the concept of food deprivation. That’s why if you’re interested in losing weight in a healthy way, you should embark on a diet that rewards you with foods that you enjoy. 

Treating yourself to a food you like after dieting all day, is like rewarding yourself for a job well done. The snack can be the treat you get for running five miles, or going all day without eating a bag of crisps.

The idea is to eat any snack that is less than 100 calories.  Here is a list of foods that meet that requirement –

Once upon a time, (the 1960′s actually), there were five Brummie lads who liked beer and music. Sitting in the pub drinking their local ‘Brew X11′ for the “Men of the Midlands”, they decided to form a band.

One of them had heard that the Birmingham brewery Mitchells and Butlers were looking for a band to play at their trade fairs. So they decided to call themselves the M & B Band and tried to get sponsored by the brewery.

Why do some people have problems getting rid of fat, no matter how they diet or exercise? To understand this you need to distinguish between 3 types of body fat.

1) Structural Fat

Structural fat is part of the building blocks of the body. This type of fat surrounds the joints and the internal organs. This fat is like a soft cushion which facilitates movement and prevents bone grinding on bone. This is not the fat you want to lose while you are on a diet, as it is integral to the structure of your body and to accomplishing even the simplest of movements.

If you reply to your WordPress blog comments, you may as well do it in a Google friendly fashion. However I also want my blog to look good, and I insist that my replies must be in sequence. i.e immediately after the relevant comment.

The answer to this conundrum is to install a free WordPress plug-in called “WordPress Thread Comment“. This automatically installs a reply button after EVERY comment, (not just at the end of a list, as is the normal WordPress facility).

The Future Homemakers of America  was written by Laurie Graham in 2001. It’s a friendship saga that lasts over a couple of generations. Starting in East Anglia, UK, where the USA Air Force was based to combat the ‘Russkies’ during the 1950s Cold War.

The story follows the American women married to USA pilots, who travelled to different foreign bases with their husbands.  Laurie Graham takes us through Korea and Vietnam, revisting the Cold War years when the world was on the edge of destruction.

Although I’m an atheist I am interested in religious beliefs, metaphysics and philosophy. I am however a lazy atheist, so I like to explore these concepts, NOT in academic text books, but in science fiction novels.

CONTACT is a novel by the late scientist Carl Sagan about first contact with alien lifeforms. Sagan’s enthusiasm and belief in Alien Intelligences led to the establishment of SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestial Intelligence).

Contact was an excellent science fiction novel exploring themes of religious belief, science, rationality, faith and god. Contact is also a hollywood film staring Jodie Foster. The film version however, left out my favourite part of the book.

Replying to your blog comments is not just a matter of courtesy, it’s also a factor for your SEO matrix.

I always make my comment replies stand out by having them in italics and coloured blue. (Check my previous post on WordPress Blog Comments for step-by-step instructions on how to do this).

This post is an update concerned with SEO, which has been prompted by a debate on our Masterclass Forum. The consensus of opinion is that it is better  to reply to a comment, using the standard reply form on your public blog.

It was only about a decade ago that all fat was considered bad for natural weight loss. However, nowadays fat is divided into two different categories – good fats and bad fats.

The good fats are essential to heart health, brain functioning and healing. The bad fats cause all kinds of ailments including diabetes, cancer and heart attacks. 

Good fats are called unsaturated fats. Unsaturated fats are divided into two categories – monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats. Both types can help lower elevated cholesterol levels.

You can predict your marathon time based on how long it takes you to run 800 metres. Don’t believe it? The secret lies in ‘Yasso 800s’.

This year I discovered an amazing new marathon workout. Amazing, because it’s the simplest marathon workout you’ve ever heard. (And simplicity in marathon training, is much to be prized). Amazing, because I’m convinced it actually works.

Yasso 800s have been devised by Bart Yasso , race services manager at RUNNER’S WORLD magazine. Amby Burfoot, the Boston marathon champion, takes up the story….

Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter are all visible this month, but none of them are at their best, so I always concentrate on Galaxy spotting in May. First we need to find our night sky friend, the Plough constellation (‘Big Dipper’ in the USA).

The Plough is the easiest constellation to find, but this month it seems to be hiding? That’s because in May it’s right above your head!….Crane your neck back, and there it is, directly overhead. Looking at the Plough through binoculars or a telescope, you can peer outside the Milky Way at four of our Galaxy neighbours; M51, M81, M82 and M101.