Lose Weight Permanently the Vegetarian Way – 4 Lifestyle Categories That Will Absolutely Work!

Learning the importance of living rather than “D-I-E ting” can save your life. This is another in the series of learning to become a Vegetarian and eating to live. As we all learn to eat more vegetables, fruits, nuts our health will improve and our Medical needs diminish.

There are vegetarians and there are vegetarians. In this article I will discuss a key point I made in my previous article, Do I become a “vegan” overnight or gradually. It’s up to you to decide. Personality will play a key role. Make a plan and identify how you will transition. Once you are a vegan you will become the healthiest you’ve been in your life!

My recommendation is that your goal is to become a “pure” vegan. I will discuss what that means below. There are categories of vegetarian lifestyles and each will help in your transition from meat-eater and Standard-American-Dieter (SAD) to vegan. Here I will teach you four categories of vegetarian to help you determine the category you fall in and then determine how to go from that category to a pure “vegan”.

Some people claim to be vegetarians when really they’ve just cut back on their animal products consumption. This is the “beginner” vegetarian. On the other end of the scale, the “expert or pure” vegan eat no animal protein at all, or anything produced by animals – including milk, eggs, cheese, dairy, poultry, fish and honey. So where do you fit in? The first thing to do when approaching the vegetarian lifestyle is determine exactly what kind of vegetarian you are. Your goal for optimal health will be to become the “expert/pure” vegan. But keep in mind even a “beginner” vegetarian will improve their health as they eat less and less animal products.

There are four main vegetarian categories, although you can read articles about many others:

  1. Beginner Vegetarian: The beginner vegetarian is someone who has recognized the importance of reducing their intake of meat, poultry, dairy and fish products. They have heard of the vegetarian lifestyle but don’t really understand it. So, they say to themselves, friends and family, “I am going to become a vegetarian so I won’t eat as much meat, fish, dairy or poultry”. Although not a vegetarian in the true sense, they are at least thinking about becoming one.
  2. Lacto Ovo (Intermediate) vegetarian: A lacto ovo vegetarian eats mostly plant foods. They also eat eggs and dairy products including yogurt, milk, cheese and ice cream. This is the first step most people take when they switch to a vegetarian diet. It’s very easy to be a lacto ovo vegetarian because it fulfills their nutritional requirements and still tastes good. The mistake most new vegetarians make is that they think they can’t give up the old tastes they are familiar with. But as your food choices change so do your taste buds and the adaptations is easy over a very short time. Covering things with cheese might seem to be a viable crutch for the lacto ovo to get flavor but it also adds lots of lousy, very unhealthy fat! It’s also not far off from the Standard American Diet (SAD) since there are always restaurant choices – including fast food options -no matter where they are or who they’re with. A lacto ovo can usually find something to eat.
  3. Lacto (Advanced) vegetarian: Lacto vegetarians eat no animal protein or eggs. They do, however consume dairy products. Not avoiding dairy entirely makes cooking less challenging. Lacto vegetarians don’t eat eggs because, as ovum, they’re potentially animals or they choose not to eat eggs because they’re uncomfortable with egg farming practices. Lacto’s are a step beyond the Lacto-Ovo because they illuminated eggs, which is a good thing, but they are still limiting how healthy they could become if they just went a step further!
  4. Pure vegetarian (Expert ) or vegan: Expert or Pure vegans avoid all animal proteins and animal by-products (no meat, fish, poultry and dairy). This is the best form of vegetarian lifestyle as vegans get all of their nutrition from grains, vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts and seeds. They will reap the optimal health benefits the fastest. Evidence of this fact has been scientifically proven in books such as L. Colin Campbell’s “The China Study” and John Robbins’ “Healthy at 100″. Vegans are expert at avoiding all commercially produced foods that contain animal proteins – most breads are made with eggs, for example, and many nondairy products are thickened with casein, a protein extracted from milk. Even vegetarian “burgers” often contain eggs! Despite the challenges, the vegan diet is steadily growing in popularity in recent years since more vegetarians have become savvy label-readers and vegan-friendly food companies have created more products for them.

Finally there are “Pesco-Pollo” vegetarians who avoid red meat but eat poultry and fish; “Pesco” vegetarians who don’t eat poultry, beef or pork but they do eat fish; even the humorous “Lacto-Ovo-Pesco-Pollo-Carne” vegetarians who claims he didn’t fight his way to the top of the food chain to be vegetarian, obviously he is going to remain a die hard carnivore. But statistically, he will succeed in dying very young of coronary heart disease, diabetes, kidney failure or any other of the many health related illnesses due to high animal based protein (SAD) diets!

Once you’ve discovered which of these vegetarian lifestyles you currently are, labeling your lifestyle is less important than figuring out how to transition from a meat-based SAD diet to a pure vegetarian (vegan) one for all the health benefits.

Review – iWowWe Video Communication

With the tremendous popularity of the internet, people have become increasingly overwhelmed with the overload of information exchanged via emails, text messages, blogs, articles, social media sites and the other thousands of information sources out there on the world wide web.

Given this information overload, over the past few years, people’s attention spans have decreased thereby making video communication an effective tool for getting the message across. Though video sharing sites like YouTube, Metacafe, Daily Motion, Vimeo and others have come to the forefront in terms of video sharing, video email is starting to make its way to the mainstream.

I’ve been researching video communication during the past year and have tried several video communication platforms. These platforms mainly offer video email and video conferencing as tools to communicate online with one or more persons. One such video communication platform is iWowWe which offers video email and conferencing.

Video Email

The iWowWe video email platform is available free and I found it quite user-friendly and easy to use. Some video communication platforms charge a monthly fee that could range from $10 to $20.

iWowWe has hundreds of pre-designed video email templates to use in their library so you can customize each video email to your recipient. For example, if you’re sending a birthday greeting to your friend or family member, you can choose one of several birthday templates.

If you’re the creative type, you can even create your own video email template by using your pictures and embed your video message to personalize your email. The platform offers drag and drop functionality, so customizing your templates is quite simple.

In order to create and send your video email, you follow the steps below:

  • Add your recipient contact email addresses;
  • Enter the Subject of your email;
  • Schedule when you want to send the email (i.e. now or later);
  • Choose a video (record it now or upload one already recorded);
  • Choose a template (pre-designed or customized);
  • Enter a signature (optional); and
  • Send the video email.

Video Conferencing

The iWowWe video conferencing is similar to the WebEx platform (GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar) wherein you can use it to do one-on-one video chats or conduct online video meetings or conferences with several people. Through the video conferencing platform, you can share presentations, collaborate using a whiteboard and even share you screen with your audience.

The WebEx platform charges approximately $49 monthly, whereas, iWowWe charges $19.95 monthly. The iWowWe video conferencing platform offers a 50 seat room as well as unlimited number of people can join the meeting via teleconference. A phone number for teleconferencing is offered free of charge in case you would like to use this feature when setting up a video conference or webinar.

One good feature that I particularly liked about the iWowWe platform is that participants don’t need to download any special software to attend the video meeting. All they do is click the link and enter the meeting.

To set up a video conference and invite participants, you follow the steps below:

  • Choose a meeting title or name;
  • Set a password to enter the meeting (optional);
  • Choose a scheduled time for the meeting;
  • Enter a brief description for the meeting;
  • Choose the participants by using their email addresses;
  • Invite participants for the meeting.

So far, I’ve been enjoying using both video email as well as video conferencing to keep in touch with friends and family as well as for business and professional purposes. There is a learning curve to people who have never used these sorts of platforms, however, it not difficult to learn watching the video tutorials.

5 Reasons You Should Quit Your Job And Work For Yourself

Have you ever dreamt about escaping the 9-5 rat race? Does the idea of working for yourself excite you? Many people often state they would like to work for themselves but when it comes to actually taking action people seem to run the other way. Coming up with many ‘what ifs’ and worrying about financial stability and so on.You can start your own business just as a hobby with a few hours each night after work. It doesn’t mean you have to quit your job straight away, if you are that worried about having no income to support yourself. If your business shows signs of growth then you will know when the time is appropriate to pack it in and live the self employed dream.Here are 5 simple reasons that I hope will motivate you to take action on any business ideas you have.1. Establishing Your Own Numbers. Everybody can take a rough guess at what they will earn over the next 5,10 or even 20 years in a regular job. People seem to get attached to the so called job security of a mid level manager job earning $45,000 per year. But in this current economic climate no one knows what jobs will stay and which won’t. We can all work out how much we can save if we earn ‘X’ amount for ‘Y’ number of years. But can we really plan for what happens during that time? When you work for yourself you set the numbers. You have the ability to take it as far as you like, instead of slaving away earning money for other people. You can set your own goals and don’t stop until you get there.2. Construct Your Own Schedule. Sick of waking up to the alarm every morning? Just imagine, you have to complete this same routine, day in day out for the next 30-40 years! Slogging away at a 9-5 just to earn a few years of retirement where you can finally ‘enjoy’ life. Work for yourself and you construct your own life. Work when you want and for how long you want.Some people are extremely productive at work over a couple of hours, others will only produce the same amount of work over 20 hours throughout the week. People then spend the rest of their time staring at the clock waiting for Friday to come. When working for yourself you can maximise your productivity levels. Only putting the hours in when you know you are going to complete the most work.3. Work From Anywhere. One of the biggest growing industries in terms of working for yourself is the internet. This industry allows people to work from wherever they want! Having true flexibility and freedom. You are no longer constrained to a tiny office space and can work anywhere with a laptop and an internet connection.4. Follow Your Passion. Are you working in a job purely just for the pay check? Do you have a passion for something but have never pursued it? Create a business involving something you love and you will never get sick of working. How much easier would it be to be productive and actually produce results when its on a subject that you actually like?5. Be Your Own Boss. Everybody has had a boss that they’ve disliked or even hated. Become self employed and your the boss! You choose where you want the business to go. You choose who surrounds you in your work place and who you outsource your work too. The amount of responsibility may be daunting for some people, but forcing yourself into that position will make you adapt. It will bring out the creative side in you and allowing you to open up your mind to new ideas.I hope these 5 basic tips have given you the inspiration to pursue your dreams. To escape the 9-5 rate race and follow your passion. Now is the right time to start taking action! Not tomorrow. NOW! Just start and never look back.