Apparently women have been asking their personal trainers how to get their arms like Mrs Obama’s pretty much like some wanted the Rachel, Victoria Beckham or even Farrah Fawcett haircut over the years.

According to Women’s Health it isn’t as easy as a hair cut though.  And I can testify to that fact.

Michelle Obama has a full body workout – doing cardio, weight training and a whole host of other training to look as gorgeous as she does.

From her photos you can tell that she doesn’t have much body fat anywhere – much less her arms.

I found this workout for arms on Women’s Health – although it doesn’t only target arms.

Personally I do yoga exercise most days (around 6 days a week), weight training with 2kg dumb bells, walk most week days for 30 minutes as well as pilates (or other strength training about 3 times a week). Plus when I get the courage again, I will add road running to that list in the next few weeks.

Even though I don’t look anything like Mrs Obama, I absolutely love training and feel lifeless and drab when I don’t.

Most people don’t drink enough water.

If you can’t seem to get that weight off, try drowning your sorrows in nature’s magical weight-loss mineral. It works, and here’s why:

• The metabolism of fat.  If the kidneys are water-deprived, the liver has to do their work along with its own, lowering its total productivity. 
•  The problem is that, though many decide to increase their water intake, very few stick with it. During the first few days of drinking more water than your body is accustomed to. What is really happening is that your body is flushing itself of the water it has been storing throughout all those years of “survival mode”. As you continue to give your body all the water it could ask for, it gets rid of what it doesn’t need.
• One recent finding, as irresponsible as it may be, that caffeine increases the body’s fat-burning potential has many people loading up on coffee before going to the gym. Caffeine is in essence, a diuretic, and diuretics dehydrate. Caffeine may increase the heart rate, causing a few more calories to be burned, but this is at the expense of the muscles, which need water to function properly. Never mix caffeine and exercise. In fact, your best bet is to stay away from caffeine all together. It’s a big bully that pushes your friend water out of your system.
• Water is the best beauty treatment. You’ve heard this since high school, and it’s true. Water will do wonders for your looks! It flushes out impurities in your skin, leaving you with a clear, glowing complexion. It also makes your skin look younger. Skin that is becoming saggy, either due to aging or weight loss, plumps up very nicely when the skin cells are hydrated.
• In addition, it improves muscle tone. Iif your muscles are suffering from a drought, you won’t notice a pleasant difference in your appearance. Muscles that have all the water they need contract more easily, making your workout more effective, and you’ll look much nicer than if you had flabby muscles under sagging skin.
• “Eight glasses a day? Are you kidding?!” It’s really not that much. Eight 8-ounce glasses amount to about two quarts of water. This is okay for the average person, but if you’re overweight, you should drink another eight ounces for every 25 pounds of excess weight you carry. You should also up this if you live in a hot climate or exercise very intensely.
• This water consumption should be spread out throughout the day. It’s not healthy at all to drink too much water at one time. Don’t let yourself get thirsty. If you feel thirsty, you’re already becoming dehydrated. Drink when you’re not thirsty yet.
• Do you think water is yucky? Drinking other fluids will certainly help hydrate your body, but the extra calories, sugar, additives and whatever else aren’t what you need. Try a slice of lemon or lime in the glass, or if you really think you hate water, try a flavored water. Just make sure you read the labels. Remember that you’re going to be consuming a lot of this fluid. It’s probably a good idea to stop drinking water a good three hours before you go to bed. You know why.
• “How cold should it be?” This is debatable. Most experts lean toward cold water, because the stomach absorbs it more quickly. There is also some evidence that cold water might enhance fat burning.
  On the other hand, warmer water is easier to drink in large quantities, and you might drink more of it without even realizing it. Do whatever suits you, here. Just drink it!

When you drink all the water you need, you will very quickly notice a decrease in your appetite, possibly even on the first day! If you’re serious about becoming leaner and healthier, drinking water is an absolute must. If you’re doing everything else right and still not seeing results, this might just be what’s missing.

Written by Maia Appleby.

Even though I started eating more healthily at the start of September.

I even made my easy vegetable soup recipe for those times when I got too lazy to make a proper meal for lunch or supper.

Many eating plans and diets suggest snacking on fruit, nuts, certain health bars, yoghurt etc. inbetween meals.

What are those people trying to help us lose weight or help put more on?

What ever happened to eating 3 meals per day?

Since I’ve started snacking between meals, I’ve noticed that I’m actually putting more weight on.

Everything revolves around planning and eating meals.

It used to be so easy in the days when people were actually a lot less heavy than we are now. 

We ate at breakfast, lunch and supper.  And we had proper meals at each meal time.

No obsessions with food and watching the clock on the best time to start eating.

So I’m cutting out on snacking and only eating my three meals a day without obsessing over healthy snacks.

I try to get my vegetables and fruit and nuts in during meal times and for the rest and I eat sweet treats on occassion.

No more obsessing about healthy food for me.

Innocent words you would think, but my thought was, “what size does she think I am???”

Even though I’ve always worn a size 32 until recently, I have been wading through the size 34s on the sales rack.

My friend says she wears a size 36!

She never works out though and I do nearly every day of the week!  For heaven’s sake, I completed my first half marathon a few months ago.

Admittedly I have been tucking into the puddings after supper on cold winter nights.  And we’ve had a few of those in good old Cape Town this past winter.

And we’re always looking for an excuse for a party at work.

And my family loves eating good food.  Not to mention my friend baking and selling biscuits!

But I’ve never had to worry about my weight before.  I never weigh myself, other than at medical check ups once in a blue moon.

 So now I am thinking of starting my first.diet.ever. Although I will first try and cut out extra cups of tea and coffee and drink water instead.

And maybe only have dessert on Sundays. 

I certainly exercise enough…but apparently exercise doesn’t do much for weightloss.

How could this happen????

Yesterday my colleague and I were standing at the tea trolley making our beverages when we ran out of full cream milk.

He suggested I rather use the fat free version as it was anyway better for me!

“What?!!!” I asked not very nicely.

“Are you saying I’m fat!!??”

Fortunately for him he finished making his tea and never said another word.

I of course couldn’t leave it at that.

What can I say? I was having a bad day!

I told everyone who would listen that he suggested I use low fat milk.

All my female colleagues who heard the story reacted in horror and asked him how he could make a suggestion like that to any woman.

He sheepishly apologised and said he didn’t mean it like that, but it changed nothing!

Now I’ve never been overweight a day in my life, but PMS does things to a woman. It makes the most balanced (or how we’d like to think of ourselves) person act out of character and it does make us feel fat.

But seriously, regardless of the situation, no man should ever suggest low fat anything to any woman.

Unlike an ex-boyfriend who (suspiciously) once asked whether I put on some weight around the stomach area.

“Don’t worry,” I said to him, “I’m not pregnant, if that’s what you’re thinking!”

They deserve what they get after that!

She returned from maternity to the 7de Laan set  a bit heavier but subsequently lost 10kg through Weigh-less.

According to Sarie, Bertha reached a peak and then…nothing.

She then went on another diet called Dr Cohen’s first personal diet and lost 15 kg in two months!  She now wears a size 32.

The diet is apparently based on your blood test results.

According their website,  the diet:

A Day of Bertha’s Diet Plan looks something like this:
She can put together her on daily menu, which inlcudes protein and vegetables.
Daily she can have up to 5 Crackerbread biscuits and 2 fruits, as well as diet cold drinks, coffee and tea(with sweatner – no milk or sugar) and enough water.

* Mornings
An egg with spinach or mushroom and
1 Crackerbread-biscuit.
Coffee or tea.

* Snack
When she feels for something sweet, Bertha puts some cinnamon on a Crackerbread biscuit and eats with with a piece of fruit.

* Afternoon
A tin of tuna with half a tomato, baby marrow, mushrooms, cucumber and balsamic vinegar.

* Snack
A piece of fruit and Crackerbread biscuits.

* Evening
Stir fry with chicken or red meat(no fat) and vegetables.

Now it’s time to lose the extra kilos pilled on over the Easter Weekend.  One way would of course be to eat correctly and exercise.  We can always do with a kickstart though.

The Grapefruit Diet is also knows as the Hollywood Diet which has been around since the 1930s.

The diet revolves around eating a grapefruit or drinking a glass of grapefruit juice with every meal – at least 3 times a day. 

Exercise like walking, running, gym, hiking, etc are also advised in conjunction with sensible eating habits.

 It is said grapefruit contains key compound that prevents excess dietary fat and carbohydrates from being absorbed.

When you eat grapefruit before every meal it provides a feeling of fullness and reduces hunger.

Apparently the Grapefruit Diet Plan works in conjuction with any healthy eating plan or fad diet like the Atkins Diet, etc.  Just add a grapefruit before a meal.

I can live with that!

Harley Pasternak is diet guru to the stars. He helped Milla Jovovich lose 70 pounds of baby weight after her pregnancy.

Milla did stress however that her weight loss was due to hard work – diet and exercise.

The 5 Factor Diet for starters is a 5 week plan.

Each of the recipes Harley has as part of the plan, has 5 ingredients and prep time takes no more than 5 minutes. I’m starting to like this more and more.

Exercise consists of a 5 day plan with 5 sessions takes just 5 minutes.

Anyone can do this, can’t they?

For more information as well as tips visit the website http://www.5factordiet.com .

This one is by Dr Ian Smith, who believes that 80% of losing weight is mental.  He suggests you start a journal 10 days before starting to get into mental shape.

The Four Day Diet works in cycles of 4 days, although it can be lengthened by repeating days.

The first module over 4 days is called the Induction Module: which includes fruit,vegetables, legumes, brown rice, yoghurt and salad.

The second module is again over 4 days and is called the Transition Module: reintroduces food into the diet.  All 4 days are the same.

The Protein module lets you load up with protein for 4 days.

The Smooth Module lets you eat your favourite foods for 4 days, without overdoing it.

The Push Module is said to be the easiest module of the lot.

Then there is also the Pace Module and the Vigorous Module.

If you still have the energy after reading about all those modules, then head on over to www.50millionpoundpromise.com.

There is a book called The 4-Day Diet by Dr Ian Smith which you probably will have to purchase to get the full diet.

It is based on the story of Daniel – he of the lion’s den –  in the Bible. 

Daniel and his three friends were captured and held prisoner. 

While incarcerated they rejected the food given to them by the King of Babylon, believing that the food was originally offered to the gods and eating it would mean defiling themselves in the eyes of their God - the God of Israel.

After 10 days they turned out to be healthier than the other prisoners who ate the defiled food and were given high positions in the King’s court.

And so the Daniel diet made it to the modern world many many centuries later.

The fast is extended for 10 days and is based on the vegan way of eating – consisting of vegetables and fruit. 

Other food include nuts and seeds, brown rice, oats and barley. Legumes such as dried beans, peas and lentils are a part of this diet as well.

Drinks include 100% pure fruit juice and water.

Foods to exclude are meat, white rice, white flour, fried foods, caffeine, alcohol, carbonated drinks, refined sugar or sugar substitutes, margarine, shortening, fats, foods with preservatives or additives, etc.

This fast/diet becomes very popular during Lent for Christians of the Catholic and Anglican churches.