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Don't Overeat on the Holidays

2008-07-27T03:31:00.002-07:00

Halloween candy is the unofficial start of holiday eating binges. It’s hard to refuse those few morsels that “trick or treating” children leave behind. No one wants to throw food out, so most people bring the candy to work and spread it around.

It’s that time of year again - when all of us could learn a little restraint and still be able to enjoy ourselves at the same time. Please observe, or pass on the following information, to your loved ones, friends, and students. Last year, I lost 10 pounds during the holidays, and 21 pounds since then, by using the following guidelines.

After you eat, your stomach should be half full, or less, with food. For every two parts of food consumed, you should drink one part water. Leave your stomach at least one quarter empty for movement of air.

When eating at a restaurant or party, eat half a portion, maximum, and wait five or ten minutes. Restaurant portions are commonly two or three meals on a single or double plate. This is way too much to consume at a single sitting, and you may find out that once you pause and sip your drink, you are already full.

In the Providence, RI area, there are some restaurants
where the single portions could feed a family of four. No wonder a man of 200 lbs. is now considered thin.

Establish control over your appetite. Most of us feel
guilty if we don’t finish a plate. This is usually
conditioning from your childhood. Bury your guilty past and have the rest “wrapped to go.”

Here are a few more guidelines that will help you during the holiday season and throughout the New Year.

Always eat something for breakfast and never “skip it.” When you skip breakfast, you will over consume, later in the day.

Eat slowly and thoroughly chew your food.

If you love carbonated drinks – drink carbonated water without sugars or sugar substitutes.

Make sure your last meal, or last “snack” of the day, is small and nutritionally dense. Examples: Cereal with fruit, cottage cheese with fruit, vegetable salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, rice with vegetables, and light popcorn, without the extra butter and salt. For those who eat meat or fish: turkey, chicken, or salmon salad on top of fresh greens.

In the last part of your day, skip desserts, sugary
cereals, bread, and second portions. Second portions of carbohydrates can contribute to high triglyceride levels. If you absolutely must have sugar: Eat fruit salad, fruit with rice, or yogurt.

If you must have coffee or alcohol, beware that these should be consumed in extreme moderation. Both substances will dehydrate your body, and you will have to drink extra water to make up for it. Wine is much better than hard alcohol, but one or two glasses a day is the limit.

Coffee consumption should be held to the same
guidelines (one or two a day). Remember that green tea is a good substitute for coffee.

Nutritious food is not an excuse for over indulgence. Even when you eat all the right things, the volume consumed should be in moderation. It will take a lot of exercise to make up for overeating anything.

Make your meal a meditation, by focusing on the meal you eat at the kitchen table. Pause every few minutes, think about the amount you have eaten, be thankful for your life, and breathe. Do not engage in unconscious eating while watching television or driving the car.

© Copyright 2005 – Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

By: Paul M. Jerard Jr.

Paul Jerard is the director of Yoga teacher training at Aura in RI. He’s a master instructor of martial arts and Yoga. He teaches Yoga, martial arts, and fitness. He wrote: Is Running a Yoga Business Right for You? For Yoga students wanting to be a Yoga teacher. www.yoga-teacher-training.org

Top 10 Weight Loss Tips For Women

2008-07-27T03:31:00.001-07:00

If you've been looking for sound advice on weight loss programs and diet plans, we have some good news for you. We've compiled a top ten list of weight loss tips for women. These tips on losing weight are powerful and proven to get results. Best of all, you won't find any gimmicks or fads here. Only the best, most accurate and scientifically proven health advice made the cut and has been included in this fitness advice guide.

1) Our first weight loss tip for women is simply to exercise consistently. That may seem like common sense, but only 45 percent of adults are actually following their doctor's advice and getting the recommended minimum: 30 minutes a day, at least four days a week. After only four weeks of inactivity the body begins to shed muscle mass, and aerobic fitness levels start to diminish after missing only two weeks of workouts. That's why regular, consistent exercise is our first and most important weight loss tip.

2) Don't focus so much on fast weight loss. Instead, concentrate your efforts on achieving permanent weight loss. While it may be tempting to try the latest fad diet or prescription diet pill, keep in mind that quick weight loss doesn't always equate to healthy weight loss. As a matter of fact, when you diet without exercising, up to half of the weight you lose could be from muscle mass. Losing muscle is the absolute worst thing you can do when you're trying to acquire permanent fat loss, so don't be tempted by the gimmicks promising rapid weight loss. Focus on permanent weight loss through a sensible diet and exercise program, and you'll be pleased with the long-term results.

3) This weight loss tip is perhaps the best free medical advice you'll ever receive: Eat your recommended daily allowance of fruits and vegetables before indulging in any treats. This diet tip is so potent because it will help you realize better health in so many different ways. First and foremost, consuming at least five servings of fruits and vegetables each day will help us lose weight because fiber moves fat through our digestive system faster so that less of it is absorbed. High fiber foods also make us feel full sooner and stay in our stomach longer, slowing down our rate of digestion and keeping us feeling full longer. Following this health tip will also lower your risk of several cancers and heart disease.

4) As much as possible, eliminate 'white' foods from your diet. High sugar and high carbohydrate foods create an insulin spike that tells our body to start storing fat. They also trigger a blood sugar high, which is inevitably followed by a low. This drop in insulin levels leaves us feeling hungry, tired, and wanting to eat more. Specifically, at the bottom of an insulin crash the body craves more sugar and carbohydrates, setting us up for a vicious weight gain cycle. With this in mind, it's good advice to simply avoid 'white' foods whenever possible. Choose brown rice instead of white, whole wheat bread instead of white, and cut back on goodies made with white processed flour.

5) Actively seek out all the expert advice on health, diet and nutrition that you can find. There are many reputable sources of online medical advice available, and much of it is free. Knowledge is power, and the more you know about weight loss, the more likely it is that you'll be successful in your efforts. Look for free advice and fitness tips from qualified sources like health club owners, physicians, and certified personal trainers. In short, learn all you can.

6) Get at least eight hours of sleep each night. Research has shown that people who sleep only four hours a night have an 18 percent reduction in leptin, a hormone that tells the brain there is no need for more food, and a 28 percent increase in ghrelin, which triggers hunger. This is one weight loss tip that should be easy for anyone to follow.

7) Drink water. Drink LOTS of water. Water suppresses the appetite naturally and helps the body metabolize stored fat. Studies show that a decrease in water will cause fat deposits to increase, while an increase in water can actually reduce fat deposits. Why? The kidneys can’t function properly without enough water. When the kidneys don’t function to capacity, some of the work load is taken on by the liver. The liver’s primary function is to metabolize stored fat into usable energy. If the liver has to do some of the kidney’s work, it can’t function at its optimal capacity. As a result, it metabolizes less fat. More fat remains stored and weight loss / fat loss stops.

8) Although it's not a workout tip or an exercise tip, staying motivated is probably the most effective weight loss advice you'll ever receive. Since each person in different, motivational techniques will vary. However, many have found that charting fat loss progress to be very encouraging. Others maintain that the single most motivating action is to find a friend and commit to exercise together. Whatever method you choose, find a way to stay motivated if you want to write your own weight loss success story.

9) Essential weight loss advice for a woman is to not exercise like a man. That may sound strange at first, but the fact of the matter is that there are several separate and distinct exercise methods available, and not all are proper for women. In fact, some types of exercise could possibly cause women to gain weight (although any weight gain would be from added muscle, not from fat). For maximum fat loss, women should be engaging in not only aerobic exercise but also in light resistance training.

10) Our final weight loss tip is to carefully select vitamins and supplements to help you attain your fat loss goals. There are a million diet pills and weight loss pills on the market, but the vast majority of them may not be appropriate for you and your personal needs. Instead of buying what you see on the infomercials, take the time to research what's effective and what's not. Most importantly, speak with your doctor before beginning any supplement program. Medical research has given us many breakthroughs in the last few decades, and vitamins and supplements can certainly be a valuable tool in your weight loss toolbox. Take the time to investigate the options and choose wisely.

Although there's a mountain of health advice available today, our Top 10 Weight Loss Tips for Women are the best, most accurate and scientifically proven recommendations at hand. Take them to heart, and you'll be well on your way towards fat loss success.

By: Tracie Johanson

Tracie Johanson is the founder of Pick Up The Pace, a 30-minute exercise studio for women focusing on fitness, health and nutrition for maximum weight loss. Please visit www.letspickupthepace.com/ for more information.

Healthy Diets – Ten Steps to Easy Weight Control

2008-07-27T03:29:00.000-07:00

Healthy diets promoted by many companies and gurus are anything but healthy diets - in fact, they can be harmful to your long-term health.

So if you are looking for healthy diets then you should consider if they take into account the 10 points below, which are universal in scope and are actually not that difficult to follow.

1. Balance Fat and Protein

Fat should supply around 30% of your total daily calories. Limit your intake of fat by having more vegetables in your diet.

Eat lean meats, light-meat poultry without the skin, fish, and low-fat dairy products. In addition, make sure you limit vegetable oils and butter in your diet.

Protein should be around 15% of your calorie intake. Don’t fall for the myth of so-called healthy diets that recommend eating protein at the expense of fat, it’s not natural and can cause health problems.

2. Limit Your Intake of Saturated Fat

This is the kind of fat, found mostly in animal products, that increases blood cholesterol levels and has other negative health effects. It should supply less than one-third of the calories derived from fat.

Keep your cholesterol intake below 300 milligrams per day.

3. Eat Foods Rich in Complex Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates should contribute around 55% of your total daily calories. Don’t fall for the hype that carbohydrates are bad for you they are not, just make sure you eat complex carbohydrates.

To help get the right sources, eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and six or more servings of whole grains. This will help you obtain the 25 grams of fiber you need each day.

4. Avoid too Much Sugar

Many foods that are high in sugar are also high in fat. Look at the labels to see how much sugar is in a product - many products say they are low in fat, but they are high in sugar, and this turns to fat.

5. Eat Green, Orange, and Yellow Fruits and Vegetables

Examples would be broccoli, carrots, cantaloupe, and citrus fruits. The antioxidants and other nutrients in these foods are increasingly important in helping protect against a variety of diseases.

6. Variety

Eat a variety of foods - this really is the key to a balanced diet. Don't try to fill your nutrient requirements by eating the same foods every day - it won’t work.

7. Limit Sodium Intake

Your sodium intake should be a maximum of 2,400 milligrams per day. This is equivalent to about a teaspoon of salt. Therefore, Avoid salty foods and be careful to check food labels carefully for sodium content.

8. Vitamins and Minerals from Food

Supplements cannot substitute for a healthy diet, which supplies nutrients and other compounds besides vitamins and minerals. Foods also provide the "synergy" that many nutrients require so that they can be effective, and be broken down in the body and utilized correctly.

9. Maintain a Desirable Weight

Don’t ignore exercise, it only needs to be moderate, you don’t have to kill yourself in the gym! The two biggest causes of obesity are processed unnatural foods and our modern lazy life style.

10. Enjoy your Food

If you drink alcohol, eat chocolate, crisps etc you can - but don’t overdo it. Why shouldn’t you eat what you really enjoy? There is no reason why you can’t.

Healthy Diets are Balanced Diets

There are many healthy diets to choose from, and they’re all different, but the basis of any healthy diet should take into account the 10 points outlined here.

By: Stephen Todd

More dieting and general health information and FREE exclusive diet and health magazines, are available on our web site: www.net-planet.org

How To "Choose" Weight Loss

2008-07-24T00:20:00.000-07:00

I want to give you one of the most powerful keys I have ever learned and studied over the past few years.

You can have anything, be anything, and do anything in life if you just make the choice to do so.

The power to choose whatever you want is something that the words written here cannot give justice to.

Your future has not happened yet. In fact, you create your future. The choices that you make today will shape your destiny later in life. The fact that you are reading this book tells me that there is something that you want to change in the future regarding your present fitness and weight loss situation.

You can make it a habit to chose what it is you want in life. In fact, weight loss is also a choice you make. Much like you chose your mate, your occupation, or your place of residence, you can chose to lose weight and stay thin.

Being overweight is not a life-long sentence you have been handed down with nothing you can do about it. You can choose to change your situation at any moment. If you are at a moment of complete frustration with your current weight, now is as good a time as any to make the choice to change.

Is it a choice you are willing to make? Are you unsure of the first step to take after you've made the choice to change?

Do not worry. We are going to go over those steps. I am going to start with a clean slate with you, so even if you know little about losing weight, you will be successful.

Please do not make weight loss and weight management any harder than it really has to be. Sure, the willpower required may be a test of character, but the actual process required to lose weight isn't physiologically difficult.

You have to expend, or burn off, more calories than you consume. It seems as though the more we become technologically advanced as a society, the more overweight we also become.

Also, with all of the confusing and conflicting opinions on the best weight loss methods that are available, people are misled and misinformed about what it truly takes to lose weight permanently.

It's as though many people have suffered "paralysis by analysis". There is so many different points of view that become overwhelming, it causes some people to throw their hands up and do nothing.

The way to make weight loss permanent is to replace your old unproductive habits that created an unhealthy lifestyle with newer habits that support losing weight. It starts with choosing to do so.

Exercise your power of choice. You can choose to have anything, be anything, and do anything if you are willing to chose it. It is a tool at your disposal whenever you need it.

In fact, the very best tool you can use for long lasting weight loss is the tool between your ears. Your brain is the best piece of equipment you can use to lose weight and keep it off. The more you feed your mind with powerful, results producing information, the better you'll be.

Study weight loss. Make it your mission. But do not lose the simplicity of it.

Weight loss is no harder than choosing to eat right every three or four hours (the most important process in weight loss and weight management), exercising with some weights/resistance two to three times a week, and doing some form of cardio/aerobics two to three times a week.

To lose weight and stay in great shape does not require any more than 2 to 3 hours a week total of exercise. I've trained many people that have managed to stay incredibly thin and in great shape with only 2 hours a week total of exercise.

It all comes down to the way you choose to eat and live. It is your choice of lifestyle that determines what you weigh.

The most important step you can take is to make the choice that you are going to commit to this and stick with it until you accomplish what it is you want.

There are going to be many days where you want to throw in the towel and call it quits. But choose not to.

Have faith that you will get what you want. It will require patience and persistence, but so do all good things in life.

I asked you to dream about how it would feel to have your ideal body. How it would feel to be as thin as you want to be and as energetic and as vibrant as you'd like to be. How would you feel to have the strength and flexibility you want and to rid your body of those nagging aches and pains.

Dare to dream a little and then choose to go after and make those dreams come true. There’s a huge difference between identifying what it is you want and choosing to go after it. Identifying what you want is the first step in the process.

You must then make the choice to go after it. In fact, I've just given you the key that will unlock any fitness goal you may have now or in the future.

The key to permanent weight loss and superb health is the fact that you choose it. Weight loss, muscle toning, or any fitness goal you may have is simply a choice that you make.

Anything you want in life, any goal or desire can be yours if you simply choose to go after it. Things just do not fall into place naturally and without effort. Yes, they do fall, just not where you want them to.

You must first "think" of what it is you want and then choose to go after it. And if you do not get what you want? Try it again. Keep trying until you get it.

If you are persistent enough and work hard enough, whatever you wish for will be yours.

Whether you want to lose fat or gain lean muscle and increase strength, you choose to do so.

In fact, life boils down to a series of choices. The better choices you make, the better your life will be.

You can choose to slim down and fit into those jeans or you can choose to give into your false feelings of hunger and deprivation.

You can choose to get behind the wheel after drinking or you can choose to hand the keys to a friend. Some of the choices you make have a long lasting and dramatic impact on your life forever.

The great thing is, if you choose to go after weight loss, you can be assured that it's within your reach because others have accomplished it. Any problems that you may face in life, chances are that someone has faced them and has already battled and conquered them.

Just follow what it is they did to come out on top. The question of whether or not it's possible is not an issue.
It's whether or not you go after it. In fact, the choices you make dictate the life you will lead.

Where you are today is the result of all the choices you have made up to this point.

If you want better, you must make better choices.You can either move ahead or stay behind.

Remember, weight loss is a choice. It's a choice, much like we chose to go to school to further our education or a choice to take a new job.

We only do things after we make the conscious decision to do them and to put our heart into them.

You can want anything in life, but it's what you're willing to go after that matters. Look at your list of goals that you have identified.

Are you willing and determined to accomplish each and every one of those goals on the list?

It's that one small factor, the step between identifying your goal and choosing to go after it, that will determine whether you succeed at weight loss or not.

Simply having goals and choosing to accomplish them is what distinguishes successful people from those that merely wish.

It wasn't until I made the conscious choice to do a bodybuilding show that I began making plans about how I was going to win it.

It had started with a thought about what I wanted and how I was going to get it. But it wasn't until I made the absolute choice to do it that I took it seriously.

Choice is powerful. Choice can be the ignition switch that fires up your vehicle that will allow you to reach your goals.

Like I said at the top. You can choose to have anything, be anything, or do anything. The choice is yours.

Begin using your power of choice. Make it a habit to chose what it is you want in life and then resolve to get it. After you have thought about what you want, choose to go after it. So many people live lives of quiet desperation because they do not make the choice to act upon their dreams.

For whatever reason they are held back by fear and often times choose not to realize their dreams. Like I mentioned earlier, if you can dream it, you can achieve it.

Look over your list of goals you have written. I want you to make the choice, right now, whether or not you are going to go after your goals.

Choosing to go after your goals is like switching the "On" switch of a piece of machinery. Until you make the conscious choice to get what you want, you are still in limbo. By making the conscious choice to go forward, you start the process of taking steps to realize your goals.

Look over your list of weight loss goals. Are you going to make the choice to go full steam. Is something still holding you back? I can tell you from personal experience, until you make the choice to go after something, the likelihood of you realizing that goal is slim.

By: Shawn LeBrun

Lose body fat and gain lean muscle in the least amount of time possible. Personal trainer and natural bodybuilder Shawn Lebrun shows you exactly how: Visit Shawn Lebrun Fitness

How To Finally Lose Weight Rapidly

2008-07-24T00:19:00.002-07:00

Let's look at the effects and possible complications of obesity:

Obesity increases the risk of developing disease. Possible complications include:
• Heart disease
• High blood pressure
• Cancer
• Diabetes
• Gallbladder disease
• Breathing problems
• Bloating and stomach upsets
• Varicose veins
• Severe psychological problems

In fact, according to some studies, almost 70 percent of heart disease cases in the United States are linked to excess body fat, and obese people are more than twice as likely to develop high blood pressure.

Obese women are at nearly twice the risk for developing breast cancer, and all obese people have an estimated 42 percent higher chance of developing colon cancer.

Almost 80 percent of patients with Type 2, or non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus are obese.

The risk of medical complications, particularly heart disease, increases when body fat is distributed around the waist, especially in the abdomen. This type of upper body fat distribution is more common in men than in women.

The social and psychological problems experienced by obese people are also challenging. Discrimination for “fat” people is most likely to occur in educational institutions, employment, and social relationships.

Other psychological effects include stress, nervous tension, boredom, frustration, lack of friends, depression, inferiority complex, and poor self-esteem.

Here are some action steps to take.

1. The Proper Plan

Before taking actions in any problem we encounter, there should always be a plan first..

Beginning a task without planning is like building a house without a blueprint or fighting against a basketball team without a team play with your teammates. How can you expect a good outcome?

Losing weight is not at all different from any other situation. It also involves taking action based on proper plans built on good information. The better your plan, the more solid the information it is based on, the more satisfying your result.

2. Setting a Goal

Okay, so your weight is 20% above the considered normal for your height. You tend to eat more than 5 regular meals a day. You’re certain that you’re physically unfit. Now, the question is, what do you want to happen?

Setting a goal is the first step in planning. Know what you want to accomplish. This way, the road you are taking is clear. You can keep track of your journey – whether or not you are heading in the right direction. With a goal in mind, you are always motivated to finish a task, or in some cases, to start doing it.

3. Be Definite

Setting a specific goal, when planning to lose weight, improves your chances of success.

Be clear and definite with what you want happen.

Vague aims such as ‘I’d like to be healthier’ or ‘I need to lose a few kilos,’ tend to produce half-hearted efforts and poor results.

Instead, state your goal distinctly: ‘I want to lose 2-3 kilos this week and every week’ or ‘I will trim my waist line from 40” down to 32” by the end of the month.’

If you need to, write it down and put it where you will always see and read it. This way, you’ll always be reminded of what you want and need to accomplish by the end of the month, the week, or even the day.

4. Be Realistic

In establishing a definite goal, make sure that it is possible and doable – realistic, in simpler terms.

How can a goal like ‘I’ll lose 15 lbs in just a week happen if even the most accurate weight-loss diet suggests that you can only burn 6-7 lbs in a week?

Goals need to be sensible so that they can be achieved.

When you set an unrealistic goal, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. Many people give up on their goals because they fail to base their plans on the correct information.

5. Strategizing

After deciding on your goal, the next step is planning how to accomplish it.

Planning involves proper scheduling of activities throughout the whole day for a certain period of time.

These include exercises, meals, and rest.

It also includes the time these activities should be done, the duration, and in the case of eating meals, the food to be consumed.

This way, inappropriate spur-of-the-moments decisions can be avoided.

A proper and effective plan consists of quality time for performing such activities. Give yourself enough time to meet your goals. For example, sleep should be scheduled to last for around 8 hours a day so that you’ll be able to get enough rest. Lack of sleep may cause improper eating habit the next day.

Again, plans should be realistic. Include only time and activities you know you can accomplish for a given period of time.

After preparing the plan, write it down since you can’t always keep the many details in mind. Post it in a place where you can always see and read it to remind you what your plans are for the day.

Try your best not to skip anything in your scheduled plan. Work on making it happen.

6. Change your mind, change your life

The first step to change is in your mind. Once you can activate a positive intention, the process of change begins. If you really want something to happen, you have to say “yes” to it. Then, and only then, can you see and experience ways in which you can shift your reality.

By: Saleem Rana

Saleem Rana is a psychotherapist in Denver, Colorado. If you would like more information on how to rapidly lose weight, you can get it at theempoweredsoul.com/obesityhelp.html

Can Particular Foods Aid In Weight Loss?

2008-07-24T00:19:00.001-07:00

Just as certain foods can cause us to gain weight there are other foods that we can eat that will actually aid in weight loss. The key to the success of these foods is to avoid the temptation to add things like cheese, butter, and sour cream to these otherwise healthy foods.

The way this process works is quite simple. Certain foods actually consume more energy when digesting than they actually contain. The result is a negative calorie situation that helps in your overall diet plan. For example if you eat something that only has 50 calories and the body takes 150 calories to digest it you would have a calorie deficit of 100.

When we say that a food is a negative calorie food this is not to say that it is without calories, just that the effect of consuming and digesting the food creates a negative calorie situation. For example, eating lettuce with no salad dressing will create a negative calorie situation.

Some of the foods that work in this manner include fruits such as apples, grapefruit, lemons, and strawberries as well as foods such as lettuce, cabbage, carrots, and green beans. There are many others as well which you can find just by doing a search on negative calorie foods. All of these foods will be plant based and as close to their natural states as possible. You will not get the benefit by eating the foods from a can as they have too many additives and sugars which counteract the benefit. So stay as close to fresh as possible.

When implementing the negative calorie foods into your diet and exercise program you must be careful not to eat only these kinds of foods. Your body still needs a certain amount of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates as well as the attendant vitamins and minerals that come along with them to work properly. The use of these foods is merely to aid in the dieting process and it is not healthy to eat only these foods. This bears repeating, DO NOT eat only these foods. Use them ONLY to add another dimension to your overall weight loss program.

As with any diet program your results will be enhanced by including exercise in conjunction with your diet. You should aim for at least 30 minutes of exercise per day and work up to an hour a day. This does not have to be done all at once. You can break it up into increments of three or four different segments until you have the stamina to accomplish it all at one time.

By: Glenn Freiboth

Glenn Freiboth is a Certified Health Advisor lives in Illinois and has helped many overweight and obese people lose weight and keep it off. Get Medifast diet products at www.GetYouHealth.com

25 Tips For Restaurant Dieting

2008-07-24T00:16:00.000-07:00

Eating out is a part of almost everyone life and being on a diet shouldn’t prohibit you from enjoying this fun treat. Luckily many restaurants today offer healthy options and some even cater to different diet plans like the Atkins and South Beach Diets.

The rules to sticking to your diet while eating out are the same as when you prepare your own food. Fill up on fruits and vegetables and eat lean meats and fish in small portions. Stay away from all those rolls!

Whether you're having lunch with the gang, or enjoying a romantic dinner for two, you can enjoy delicious-tasting foods that are low-in calories and good for you, with just a little forethought and planning. Here’s some tips that might help you stick to your diet while enjoying restaurant cuisine.

1. Think Ahead. Get a menu from the restaurant if you are not familiar with their dishes and select a healthy dish ahead of time. This can save you from ordering something fattening under the duress of hunger pangs at the restaurant.

2. Order first. Be the first one in your group to order and you won’t be tempted to change your mind and order some deliciously fattening dish that one of your companions has orderd.

3. Ask for smaller portions. Don’t be afraid to ask for a kids or seniors sized portion. Most restaurants will accommodate you -- and often you'll pay less as well!

4. Ask about the preparation of any dish you plan to order. You want to avoid anything that is cooked in butter and always ask if they have a heart healthy or fat free option.

5. Drink a large glass of water before the meal. This will help you digest easier, feel full faster and therefore eat less.

6. If everything on the menu is high in fat or calories, ask if the chef could prepare a plate of fresh fruit and vegetables. Many restaurants offer a vegetarian selection, so if you don't see it on the menu, ask.

7. When ordering meat or fish, ask that it be grilled or broiled, and prepared without oil or butter. (When you eat it, use lemon or herbs and spices to give it flavor rather than heavy sauces).

8. Order an appetizer and a salad as your meal. Or a soup and salad. For dessert, choose fresh fruit.

9. When choosing soup, remember that cream-based soups have many more calories than broth-based ones.

10. If you're having a full meal, split the appetizer and desert with your companion.

11. If you decide to order pasta, tomato sauce has fewer calories than cream-based sauces, just like soup.

12. Choose breadsticks over bread, or if you eat bread, don't add butter. Stay away from muffins and croissants, and choose whole grain over white.

13. Choose steamed vegetables instead of baked potatoes or other starches. Again, use lemon and herbs and spices rather than butter to flavor them with.

14. Whenever possible, eat like the Europeans do, and have your biggest meal at lunchtime. Not only will you save money, but you'll cut down on calories at the same time!

15. Take the time to enjoy your meal. Savor the flavors and textures of your food, and enjoy the company you're with. When you eat slowly, you give your body's internal clock the time it needs to know when you've had enough. When you're full, stop eating. Ask your server to remove your plate so you're not tempted to keep eating while you wait for your companion to finish.

16. Ask for salsa on your baked potatoes, rather than sour cream and butter. Not only is salsa much lower in calories, but it adds a "spicy" flavor to potatoes.

17. Order salad dressings and sauces "on the side." This gives you more control of how much to use. Another tip for salad dressing -- rather than pouring the salad dressing on your salad, dip your fork into the dressing first, and then into the salad. You'll get the same amount of flavor, without all the added calories!

18. Choose brown rice over white rice (or french fries), whole grain breads and rolls over white. Not only are they lower in calories, but they are better for you.

19. Stay away from "all you can eat" buffets and salad bars. It's too easy to lose track of the amount of food you're eating, even when it's salads. If that's your only choice, then stay away from the pasta, marinated salads, cheeses and fruit salads with whipped cream. Stick to soups, raw vegetables and fresh fruits.

20. Have your soup first. It will help to fill you up, and most soups have fewer calories.

21. If you're craving something sweet, and don't want fresh fruit, choose sorbet. If you absolutely HAVE to have the chocolate sauce, use the same trick as you did with the salad dressing -- dip your fork into it first, then your dessert.

22. Split your dessert with your companion. You'll still feel like you got to be indulgent, and you'll only have to exercise half as long to burn off the extra calories!

23. When ordering sandwiches, order them with mustard only, rather than mayonnaise. Not only does mustard have almost no calories, but you won't miss the mayo!

24. If the portion you were served is large, only eat half of it. Take the other half home. Not only will you get two meals for the price of one, but you'll cut the calories in half as well!

25. Go for a walk after eating. Stroll along the beach, walk through a park, visit a zoo. You'll burn calories and get your exercise at the same time!

By: Lee Dobbins

Lee Dobbins is the owner of Low Carb Resource where you can find more about low carb eating, the glycemic index and dieting. Visit the dieting article archives for more dieting tips.

Set Priorities To Lose Weight

2008-07-24T00:13:00.000-07:00

I’d like you to ask you a question that you probably haven’t considered for quite some time: What’s important to you? Is it your family, your health, friendships, your integrity, your career, your faith or the amount you have in the bank? What’s important to you…..really important? Take a few minutes to carefully think about your answer. You might even want to write down the top five things that are important to you.

For many of us, this is a question we rarely (if ever) consciously ponder. Yet, every single day of our lives we are asked that same question – just not in so many words. It’s also true that every single day we answer that question. We answer not with our words, but with our actions.

What we do every day tells us what we really think is important. To get an unclouded and transparent snapshot of what we hold to be true priorities, all we have to do is examine how we use our time, how we give our attention, and where we commit our resources.

If you took the time to write down the top five priorities in your life, go back to that list now and really honestly think about how much time you devoted to each of those last week. Be honest! Nobody will see these answers but you.

What many people find when they complete this exercise is that they are actually spending very little time on what’s important to them. Did you list friendships as one of your life priorities, only to realize that you haven’t spoken with your best friends for weeks? Perhaps you consider family to be a valuable priority, yet you canceled the family vacation again this year due to work issues.

Or, like most people, maybe you listed good health as a top priority in your life. Yet you haven’t made the time to exercise for days, weeks, months or even years.

Later in life, when stricken with a dangerous and deadly disease, people often say "I'd give every dollar I have if I could just get my health back." By contrast, no one ever says, "I'd give up my health if I could just get a few more bucks." No one ever says that, but a lot of people live as though they believe it.

It’s time for a moment of truth: are your priorities what you thought they were? Does how you spend your time match up with what you listed as life priorities?

After going through this process, most people realize that they are spending far too little time on one of their top priorities: their health. Look carefully at the actions you have taken in the past regarding your health, and then look at the results. Does your reality parallel your priority list? Success in health, fitness and weight loss will not come from a priority list or what we think we’d like to achieve, but only from what we actually do day in and day out. The actions we took yesterday led us to where we are today, just as the actions we take today will determine where we end up tomorrow.

Take out that list of life priorities again and tape it up on the bathroom mirror for the next few weeks. Each morning you’ll be reminded of what’s truly important to you, and you’ll have the chance to organize your day so that you spend time on what’s important.

At this point in time, right NOW, your life is a clear picture of what has been important to you in the past – of what you have been committed to accomplishing. With that fact in mind, ask yourself one final question: what’s important to you now?

By: Tracie Johanson

* Tracie Johanson is the founder of Pick Up The Pace, a 30-minute exercise studio for women, focusing on fitness, health and nutrition for maximum weight loss. Please visit www.letspickupthepace.com/ for more information.

Burger King: Eat Like a Pig

2008-07-21T21:21:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I just have to shake my head... I was driving down the street when a spied a Burger King about a block away. It had one of those signs where they can promote a particular item or special, and this is what it had written on it:

"Ultimate Double Whopper: Eat Like a King!"

Right, I thought... more likely it should have read "Eat Like a Pig!".

I came home and decided to look up the nutritional (Ha!) info on this kingly bit of food and here's what I found:

Calories: 1,250
Carbs: 55 grams (26%)
Protein: 69 grams (33%)
Fat: 84 grams (40%)

Nice, huh? It's the highest calorie item on their menu. We're talking HALF the amount of calories the average man should be eating per day in ONE BURGER. Keep in mind that most people are going to order a side of fries with that, and the large size adds 500 calories to the tally for a total of 1,750 calories!

Keep in mind that while on my fat loss regime that's what my target was for the entire day!

On a side note, I checked out Burger King's "French Toast Kid's Meal" as I was curious how many calories might be in that. I mean it's for kids, right? So it shouldn't be THAT high in calories...

Try 670 calories.

Do you know how many calories Burger King's much-advertised "man-sized" Enormous Omelet Sandwich contains?

740 calories.

So here we have the difference between an item meant for a child and a big, hungry man standing at only 70 calories.

That's just bloody wrong, folks and it makes me angry. It should make you angry too.

By: Victor Holtreman

Visit Low Cholesterol Diets to learn how to lower your cholesterol level.

How To Determine Your Ideal Weight

2008-07-21T21:20:00.002-07:00

We can deduce that while excess fat isn’t healthy, fat is also not necessarily a bad thing. Without some fat in our diet, the body won’t make nerve cells and hormones or absorb some of the fat soluble vitamins. Okay, so how can you determine your ideal weight? Just how much fat and how many calories should you consume to reach and maintain a healthy weight?

One answer won’t work for everybody. So you need to do some figuring to determine how much fat and how many calories you can have. First, you need to determine your ideal weight. There are many different charts and some people use fat calipers and body fat testing to determine exact body fat levels. While your exact weight may depend on how much muscle mass you have here is a simple method to determine what that weight should be:

For Women

The ideal weight for a woman who is exactly 5 feet tall is 100 pounds. For every additional inch above 5 feet, add five pounds. If you are shorter than 5 feet tall, subtract five pounds for every inch you measure below 5 feet.

Next, determine whether you have a small, medium or large frame. Using a measuring tape, measure your wrist. If your wrist measures exactly 6 inches, you have a medium frame and the weight number you calculated above, does not need to be adjusted. If your wrist measures less than 6 inches, subtract 10 percent from your ideal weight. If your wrist measures more than 6 inches, add 10 percent to your ideal weight.

For Men

The ideal weight for a man who is exactly 5 feet tall is 106 pounds. For every additional inch above 5 feet, add 6 pounds. To determine whether you have a small, medium or large frame, measure your wrist. If your wrist measures exactly 7 inches, you have a medium frame and you do not need to adjust your ideal weight. If your wrist is smaller than 7 inches, you have a small frame and should subtract 10 percent from your ideal weight. If your wrist is larger than 7 inches, you have a large frame and should add 10 percent to your ideal weight. For men especially this figure may fluctuate a little or a lot if you are into bodybuilding, but these recommended weights are very close for the average person.

By: Glenn Freiboth

Glenn Freiboth is a Certified Health Advisor lives in Illinois and has helped many overweight and obese people lose weight and keep it off. Get weight loss products at www.GetYouHealth.com

If You Want Successful Long Term Weight Loss Eliminate Dieting!

2008-07-21T21:20:00.001-07:00

Now, I know what you are thinking. This guy has lost his mind! He is completely bonkers! Well hold on and hear me out. You will not be able to keep weight off for a lifetime by following a special diet. What you have to do is just change your eating habits and some of the foods you eat.

Because most diets direct you to either eliminate a large amount of foods or they restrict carbohydrates or fats too much they cannot be maintained over a long period of time and are doomed to fail.

What most people fail to do at the outset is to realize that the main reason for eating is to give your body what it needs to stay healthy. Talk to Jack LaLanne, he is over 90 years old and he has never eaten so much as a piece of candy or drank a soda or beer. He only puts natural foods in his body. He says is man makes it he doesn’t eat it. The fact of the matter is natural foods just taste good in addition to being good for you.

Another problem with diets is that most of them expect you to count calories, fat grams, or carbohydrates every time you eat something. Is that something that you can do for the rest of your life? Do you want to?

Once you have achieved your optimal weight what you want to do is eat just enough to maintain the proper weight and be careful not to allow the weight to creep back up on you.

To be successful in losing weight and keeping it off it has to be because you want it as well and you cannot be doing it for someone else. There is no way that you can stay disciplined if you aren’t doing it for yourself.

The most important tool in your ability to maintain your weight at the level that you desire is your mind. That’s right. It is not an exercise machine or a pill or potion. You have to set your mind to it that you want to do it and that it is important to you.

In order to develop healthy eating habits that can be followed for a lifetime it is crucial that you learn about the nutrients in the foods that you are eating. With the internet this is simple. All you have to do is go to one of the Medical sites like MedWeb or the government’s Food and Nutrition Information Center.

The problem with many so called diets is that they end up making your body go into starvation mode and you end up gaining weight instead of losing. The best method is to eat a healthy balanced diet of moderate portions and be patient.

By: Glenn Freiboth

Glenn Freiboth is a Certified Health Advisor lives in Illinois and has helped many overweight and obese people lose weight and keep it off. Get Medifast diet products at www.GetYouHealth.com

How To Lose Weight Even If You Can’t Stick To Any Weight Loss Program

2008-07-21T21:19:00.001-07:00

Maybe you’re like me and can’t stick with a diet for any length of time. I don’t know how much time and money I spent looking for something that works.

I either couldn’t get going with the diet or I spoiled a good run with a binge, usually more than one because I felt guilty about my failure.

Supplements didn’t work because they either were supposed to reduce my appetite but I ate even if I wasn’t hungry. Or they were supposed to increase my metabolism but I would have had to be burn like a jet engine to get rid of the extra food I kept eating.

Was I weak, undisciplined, or lazy? At times I thought so (why else would I have a problem), but that’s not the way the world saw me. I was a work horse, pushing myself hard through illness or fatigue. I was the reliable rock at work. I could negotiate multi-million dollar deals. I was considered courageous in the face of adversity. And I was a regular gym member.

Yet for a long while, food and body issues ruled my life. I now know it’s because I needed the plunge into food, to deal with stress and emotional tension of any kind. My irresistible food cravings were a well-worn survival pattern that couldn’t be reversed with either willpower, or rational insights about my “issues”.

Then I started studying bio-energetics, how we have energy systems that govern our chemistry, and therefore our emotions.

That explained why even therapy couldn’t make a dent in my behavior. Having insights about why I overate, didn’t dissolve the long-established “energy imprint” that pushed me to hide from stress and tension in food.

And knowing about my patterns wasn’t enough to break the chain, because when I had the urge to eat, it wasn’t my rational thought process that was engaged, but my primitive instinctual self.

So if diets didn’t work and a heavy workout schedule wasn’t enough to compensate for my overeating, what was the solution?

Since I couldn’t fight my food cravings, I had to eliminate them.

I had to learn how to dissolve my tension, both the emotion itself and the energy pattern behind it. How? I use a combination of tools including EFT and Releasing. If you don’t know these, you can get results by just being more aware of the tension, and focussing on your intent to let it go.

Life happens and stress is building as the world is accelerating. We can’t isolate ourselves from it. But we can become masters at defusing its effects.

I also needed to change my belief that I was doomed to either overeat or be miserable fighting the urges to indulge. And that’s something else that couldn’t be done on a rational thought level.

Maybe some people can just wish away their unproductive beliefs; I couldn’t. I had to use a particular form of guided visualization. And I had to do it after I had dissolved the “energy knots” that were choking me, or the message didn’t sink in.

Then weight loss came as a natural consequence of healthy behavior. And I didn’t need to be afraid of food anymore. Life is too precious to waste on stale Twinkies.

By: Helene Desruisseaux

Helene Desruisseaux is a success trainer and co-founder of MakingPeaceWithFood a weight loss program designed to eliminate food cravings. Get from their website a free report on "The top 5 mistakes people make when they try to lose weight."

Think Thin to Lose Weight

2008-07-21T21:16:00.000-07:00

Your battle with weight might have begun in your childhood, as you attempted to find out how many cookies you can eat in one sitting. Or maybe it occurred around the time you step foot on college campus for the first time. Those late nights of studying might have led you to late-night binge eating sessions. Or maybe you gained a good amount of weight after the birth of your first child, and seemed to be stuck with it ever since. Regardless of the cause, weight gain is a serious matter. It affects your energy levels, your stamina, and your overall health. Obesity has been linked to numerous diseases, including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.

Once you determine that you are overweight, the first step to a thinner you is to make a commitment to bring your weight under control. This can be a daunting venture. In essence, you have conditioned your mind to think like a fat person, rather than a thin person. In order to reverse this mindset, you need to learn to think like a thin person.

What exactly does this mean? How does a thin person think? To begin, it means that you must abandon your preconceived ideas about food and eating. Eating might have become a social event for you, and as a result you’ll need to learn to become sociable without food. This is the same struggle that alcoholics face as they learn to socialize without beer or liquor. This lesson is tough, and yes it can be difficult, but try it and see the results for yourself.

Thinking thin or rather thinking like a thin person also means that you need to develop new coping strategies. You might be viewing food as your friend, the one you turn to when things aren’t going well. You might also be eating in secret, because feelings of shame arise as to the amounts of food you eat. You need to sync your public persona with your private persona, and your diet should do so as well.

A significant number of thin people exercise without even noticing it. Activity is a normal part of their day. The same thing needs to be true of you. You need to exercise as much as possible; let it become second nature to you. Don’t allow it to become a chore, let it be the fun part of your week. Take an inventory of your preferences. Whether you like tennis, bowling, badminton, or running, choose the activity that best represents your style. Then exercise diligently, preferably six times per week. This will boost your metabolism so that you burn fat at a faster rate.

Also, if you have any fear of exercising, overcome it! As an overweight person, you might find exercise to be frustrating, and you might fear what other people will think of you as they watch you exercise. You should realize that chances are no one is paying attention to your exercise routine. Don’t let fear get in the way of progress.

Thinking thin also means controlling portion sizes. This can be difficult, especially when eating out. However, the key to effective weight loss often lies in limiting the amount of food you intake, and the first step is portion control. Consider using smaller plates in order to control your food portions, and to ensure that food portions are not too large.
Also realize that thinking thin does not happen overnight. It can take a long time to develop your thought patterns and changing them can be a challenge. The important thing to remember is to take one step at a time and keep in mind that your weight loss will not happen instantly. It will sometimes take months of hard work to reach your ideal weight. However, the good news is that once you get into the habit of thinking thin, it’s a trait you can benefit from throughout your life. The difference between a fat person and a thin person is not just a matter of the body, but of mind as well. Once you realize that, you will be well on your way to accomplishing your weight loss goals, short term and long term.

By: Michael Bens

Authored by Michael Bens. For more great information on weight loss, diets, nutrition, and living a great healthy life style visit Gabae Weight Loss

Enjoy The Benefits From Weight Loss!

2008-07-20T04:26:00.002-07:00

To state the obvious, there are great benefits from losing weight. Though losing weight is not easy, the long-term effects would probably be of help to anyone considering to shed those unwanted and unhealthy pounds.

Here are a few of the remarkable advantages from losing weight.

1. Weight loss prevents high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke
That is a three-in-one benefit from losing weight. It is a fact that heart disease and stroke are one of the primary reasons for disability and death in both men and women in the US. People who are overweight have a higher risk to have high levels of cholesterol in their blood stream as well as triglycerides (also known as blood fat).

By decreasing your weight by a mere five to ten percent, it could positively decrease the chances of having or developing heart disease or a stroke. Plus, how your heart functions would also improve as well as your blood pressure, cholesterol and triglyceride count will decrease.

2. Weight loss prevents type 2 diabetes
Both types of diabetes, type one and type two are linked with being overweight. To those who already have diabetes, regular exercise and weight loss could help in controlling your blood sugar levels as well as the medication you may be currently taking. Increase your physical activity. You could simply walk, jog or dance. It helps get those blood streams moving as well as lose those unnecessary pounds.

3. Weight loss helps reduce your risk for cancer
Being overweight is linked to various types of cancer. Specially for women, the common types of cancer that is associated with being overweight include cancer of the uterus, gallbladder, ovary, breast, and colon. Men are at risk too from developing cancer if they are overweight. These include cancer of the colon, prostate and rectum. Extra weight, a diet high in fat and cholesterol should as much as possible be avoided.

4. Weight loss reduces/eliminates sleep apnea
Sleep apnea is a condition where one could temporarily stop breathing for a brief period and then would continue to snore heavily. Sleep apnea could cause drowsiness or sleepiness during the day and – because of being overweight – could result in heart failure. Weight loss could help eliminate this problem.

5. Weight loss reduces the pain of osteoarthritis
When one is overweight, the joints of knees, hips and lower back would have to exert double – if not triple – effort to carry the body through out his / her waking, walking and moving life. Weight loss decreases the load these joints carry and thus decreasing the pain of one who has osteoarthritis.

By: John Lim

Lots more FREE weight loss information!
Just visit www.weightlossartist.com. Proven weight loss secrets and diet tips will all be revealed!

Top Twenty Weight Loss Tips, Tricks and Solutions

2008-07-20T04:26:00.001-07:00

Here are some everyday, helpful hints to get you started, keep you going, and help you stick to your diet.

1. Never leave home "starving." Always have a light snack before eating dinner in a restaurant, such as a piece of fruit, a glass of juice or a carrot.

2. Don't go food shopping on an empty stomach! You'll be tempted to buy everything in sight.

3. Don't be tempted by treats. Store them out of view, off counter-tops and as out-of-reach as possible.

4. Don't eat in front of the TV. Watching the boob tube -- instead of watching your plate -- lulls you into overeating. Also avoid being tempted by food and snack commercials.

5. Make it a rule in your house to confine your meals to the dining room or kitchen table! Never eat standing up! This leads to mindless snacking.

6. Think before you drink. Alcohol adds lots of calories, but no nutrients. Also, it weakens your willpower to avoid the wrong food choices. Hangovers can cause wicked cravings for fatty or high carbohydrate foods that can sabotage any attempt at weight loss.

7. Fill up on soup first. Begin every meal with non-cream hot soup; it forces you to eat slowly and fills you up so you won't overeat.

8. Take time to taste your food. Don't gobble food down! Rushing through your meals doesn't give your brain the time that it needs to signal your body that you are full.

9. When dining out, request sauces and low-calorie dressings on the side.

10. There is no law that requires you to finish everything on your plate.

11. Prepare a shopping list (with menu ideas in mind) and stick to the list. Avoid being tempted by bargains that grocery stores place on the outer aisles and at the back and the front of the store. The healthiest foods are usually in the long narrow aisles.

12. Use non-stick pans to reduce the need for cooking with fat.

13. If you must use oil, try a flavorful one like olive or sesame oil. Now remember, a little goes a long way! Make just a spritz of oil go even further by buying a Misto. A Misto is an aerosol can that you can fill with a good fat such as olive or canola oil.

14. A pinch of grated cheese or blue cheese will provide a flavorful kick without adding a lot of calories to a salad or grain dish.

15. If you cook in large quantities for your family, store leftovers in individual serving size containers. This is a way to practice portion control for yourself so you don't eat too much at one sitting.

16. Nibbling off someone else's plate may seem harmless -- but those calories do add up!

17. Drink six to eight glasses of water a day. A beverage before mealtime will also help you feel full faster and longer. Water also helps your body digest food, which is especially important now that you're eating a fiber rich diet.

18. Store really tempting treats in opaque containers or silver foil -- and stick them in the back of the refrigerator. Out of sight out of mind!

19. Are you stuffing yourself? If you have to loosen your belt a few notches after meals you're definitely eating too much!

20. Mashed bananas, prunes and apple sauce are great baking substitutes for fat, especially in bread, brownie and cake mixes.

By: Roy Barker

Publisher & Author: Roy Barker. More detail and recommended guides are found at www.weightmanagement-weightloss-resource.com/ where you'll see easy weight loss assistance is at hand.

A Doctor’s Secret Formula For Weight Gain. You Too Can Be 20, 40, Even 60 Pounds Or More Overweight!

2008-07-20T04:25:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we find it hard to gain all the weight we would like. Our love handles are not quite big enough. We have two or three chins but would like more. We love the way our arms jiggle and we can’t get enough of it.

It can be frustrating. You would probably like to be fatter and can’t seem to manage it. But by following these secrets you can start packing on the pounds. It’s not as hard as you might think.

1. Skip breakfast. This is a good one. Just don’t eat when you get up. This will let you get off to a sluggish day. With any luck you can just drag yourself around the whole day at half speed. This is good for 10 pounds at least.

2. Never drink any water. That way your body won’t work efficiently, and it will help so you don’t get good blood flow to your muscles. And you won’t get rid of any toxic wastes that might build up, so your metabolism will stay slow. And make sure that you have some sugar in anything you drink. Sodas are good, especially if they have caffeine, because the caffeine can help keep you a little dehydrated. Done right, this is worth 10 pounds or more.

3. Avoid the protein. This is a key point. Make sure you eat meals without protein. Doughnuts are good. Bagels and cream cheese are even better. That way you can turn your food directly into fat. Otherwise some of what you eat might become lean muscle, and lean muscle burns up too many calories. Another 10 pounds.

4. Skip meals. Then you can eat huge meals all at once. That way, even if you don’t eat too much for the whole day, you can take it in all at once and you can turn most of it into fat. After all, if you spread it out through the day you will just burn it up and you won’t be able to pack on any fat. Five pounds at least.

5. Never under any circumstance get any exercise. Make sure you don’t find any exercise you enjoy, and if you do make the mistake and exercise make sure you go overboard, totally exhaust yourself, and then collapse in a heap. That way you won’t keep on exercising. An easy 8-12 pounds.

6. Watch plenty of television. If you can take up enough of your time watching soap operas, situation comedies or sports on television, you will be able to reach your weight gain goals. You won’t have to worry that you might burn up some calories, you won’t have time for anything else, and with luck the inactivity will make you feel depressed, and that can really boost your binge eating. Good for a solid 10 pounds.

7. Make sure you don’t know what you are eating. Eat only prepackaged foods and drive through foods, and don’t read the labels. And pick only salty foods with hidden sugar and sugary snacks with hidden salt. That way you can have foods that are high in calories, low in nutritional value, and that never fill you up. This tip alone may get you to your weight gain goals. It’s good for at least 20 pounds.

Take heart. You can gain weight. Others have done it and so can you. These are the secrets to successfully putting on weight and keeping it on. You don’t have to do them all. Just pick one or two, and you will soon be on your way to gaining all the weight you ever wanted!

By: Dan Curtis

Dan Curtis, M.D. is Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of South Florida. He is the author of Dr. Dan’s Super Weight Loss Plan. Sign up for his free newsletter: Dr. Dan’s Super Weight Loss Tips, Tricks and Secrets. Click here-- www.superweightlossplan.com/newsletter/

What Can I Eat That Won’t Make Me Fat?

2008-07-20T04:24:00.000-07:00

There is no magic formula to losing weight. If there was there wouldn’t be a new diet book on the market every week.

But there is one thing that comes as close to it as you will ever get: protein. If there was one “magic bullet” to weight loss, protein is it.

Protein was the original diet food. Remember the old fashioned diners years ago? They had the diet plate, and it was a hamburger patty and a salad. It wasn’t the salad that was the diet part, it was the hamburger.

To know why protein works for weight loss, you have to understand a little bit about it. Protein is made up of small building blocks called amino acids. When your body takes in protein it breaks it down to these amino acids, which then go through your blood to all parts of your body. Every cell needs amino acids.

Then when the amino acids get to the cells they are put back together. The body uses them to make muscle, and there is muscle everywhere. It is in your arms and legs and abs. And when these muscles build up they burn up a lot of calories, and this helps you lose weight.

There is also muscle in your heart and in your arteries. Extra protein makes these muscles strong so you won’t have a heart attack or a stroke.

Protein is also used to make antibodies to fight off infections and keep you well. So you need it to have a body that is lean and healthy and strong. Bodies that are lean and healthy and strong are beautiful.

But the benefits of protein even go beyond that. You might wonder what happens if you overeat on protein. Won’t that just get turned into fat too? Not likely.

It is very hard for your body to make fat from protein. For one thing, it takes energy to break protein down to amino acids and then make these amino acids into fat. And this burns up calories.

But there is another benefit to protein when you are trying to take weight off. This is the effect of protein on your metabolism. When you have a fast metabolism your body burns calories quickly. When you have a slow metabolism your body burns up calories slowly and you tend to gain weight easily.

There is an effect of protein on your metabolism that scientists have known about for a long time. It is called the “specific dynamic action” of protein. What this means is that when you eat protein your body’s metabolism speeds up for a period of time. And when it speeds up it uses more calories.

Your body knows what you are putting into it. It knows that proteins are used for building strong bones and muscles and nerves. When you take in protein it knows it is time to get busy, to build, and to make your body strong.

It knows that you are giving it the fuel it needs and the building blocks it needs, so it goes into action. This is the specific dynamic action of protein, and it happens whenever you eat protein. When you eat protein your metabolism speeds up and you burn more calories.

So this is one of the keys to your weight loss success. Eat protein frequently and in small amounts. It should be lean and it doesn’t need to be much. A couple of ounces is more than enough. Do this and you will take a giant step on your road to permanent weight loss.

By: Dan Curtis

Dan Curtis, M.D. can help YOU lose weight. Sign up for our free newsletter: Dr. Dan’s Super Weight Loss Tips, Tricks and Secrets. It's free! Click here-- www.superweightlossplan.com/newsletter/

A Fat Loss Tip For Every Body

2008-07-20T04:22:00.002-07:00

It seems that no matter where we turn, there are slick marketers trying to sell us fat loss supplements or the newest weight loss fat burner pill. Products like the fat loss patch and fat loss pills are advertised in magazines, on the radio and on every television station. Some unscrupulous advertisers are even pushing dangerous fat loss steroids on their websites, despite the well-documented adverse reactions.

Why are there so many fat loss products on the market? The short answer is, because people want them! Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that 80 percent of overweight individuals and almost 87 percent of obese individuals are trying to lose or maintain their weight. With numbers like those, it's no surprise that a new quick weight loss fat burner is introduced every month!

As is the case with many things in life, fat loss programs vary widely in their effectiveness. Some dietary fat loss supplements are proven to work for some people, while others are a complete rip-off. It's important to note, however, that even the best fat loss supplement that has worked for somebody will never work for everybody because we're all unique individuals.

People Are Different, And So Are Solutions:

Because you're reading this article, the odds are good that you're looking to achieve some fast fat loss yourself. Perhaps you've tried a few fat loss diets in the past. Maybe you've experimented with low fat weight loss cooking and diet recipes. Fat loss protein powders or bars are another tactic you may have tried in your quest to lose weight.

Anyone seeking rapid fat loss needs to keep in mind that some, or perhaps none, of these strategies may work. For example, fat loss supplements work for some people, but they won't work for everyone. Each person has their own particular body chemistry and will react differently to a fat loss pill or formula, so what worked for your friend may not work for you.

Fat loss diets work for some people, but they won't work for everyone either. Just because your co-worker went on a low fat weight loss diet and had great success doesn’t mean that the same thing will necessarily be true for you. There's a good chance that the diet she used will not appeal to you or will be impractical because you're also cooking for a family and your friend is not.

So when trying to increase fat loss using weight loss pills or diet plans, it's important to remember that quick fat loss can only be achieved when you find the solution that's right for you.

A Fast Fat Loss Tip For Every Body:

There is, however, a fast fat loss tip that actually will apply to every single person on the planet. The best way to experience body fat loss is by engaging in fat loss workouts on a regular basis. Did you catch that? The best way to experience body fat loss is by engaging in fat loss workouts on a regular basis.

Not just any old workout will do, either. Real fat loss exercise consists of both aerobic (cardiovascular) training and resistance (strength) training. Far too many people (both men and women) only participate in aerobic exercise, not realizing that fat loss weight training is critical to any weight loss success story.

Regular and consistent exercise has been proven to help people of every body type, every nationality, every height, every weight, and every fitness level. There are no exceptions! So although many fat loss methods may not apply to you, this one absolutely does.

So along with (or instead of) that new fat burner or low fat recipe you're trying, be sure to make time for a good workout today. It's the only permanent fat loss solution for every body.

By: Tracie Johanson

Tracie Johanson is the founder of Pick Up The Pace, a 30-minute exercise studio for women focusing on fitness, health and nutrition for maximum weight loss. Please visit www.letspickupthepace.com/ for more information.

A Fat Loss Tip For Every Body

2008-07-20T04:22:00.000-07:00

It seems that no matter where we turn, there are slick marketers trying to sell us fat loss supplements or the newest weight loss fat burner pill. Products like the fat loss patch and fat loss pills are advertised in magazines, on the radio and on every television station. Some unscrupulous advertisers are even pushing dangerous fat loss steroids on their websites, despite the well-documented adverse reactions.

Why are there so many fat loss products on the market? The short answer is, because people want them! Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that 80 percent of overweight individuals and almost 87 percent of obese individuals are trying to lose or maintain their weight. With numbers like those, it's no surprise that a new quick weight loss fat burner is introduced every month!

As is the case with many things in life, fat loss programs vary widely in their effectiveness. Some dietary fat loss supplements are proven to work for some people, while others are a complete rip-off. It's important to note, however, that even the best fat loss supplement that has worked for somebody will never work for everybody because we're all unique individuals.

People Are Different, And So Are Solutions:

Because you're reading this article, the odds are good that you're looking to achieve some fast fat loss yourself. Perhaps you've tried a few fat loss diets in the past. Maybe you've experimented with low fat weight loss cooking and diet recipes. Fat loss protein powders or bars are another tactic you may have tried in your quest to lose weight.

Anyone seeking rapid fat loss needs to keep in mind that some, or perhaps none, of these strategies may work. For example, fat loss supplements work for some people, but they won't work for everyone. Each person has their own particular body chemistry and will react differently to a fat loss pill or formula, so what worked for your friend may not work for you.

Fat loss diets work for some people, but they won't work for everyone either. Just because your co-worker went on a low fat weight loss diet and had great success doesn’t mean that the same thing will necessarily be true for you. There's a good chance that the diet she used will not appeal to you or will be impractical because you're also cooking for a family and your friend is not.

So when trying to increase fat loss using weight loss pills or diet plans, it's important to remember that quick fat loss can only be achieved when you find the solution that's right for you.

A Fast Fat Loss Tip For Every Body:

There is, however, a fast fat loss tip that actually will apply to every single person on the planet. The best way to experience body fat loss is by engaging in fat loss workouts on a regular basis. Did you catch that? The best way to experience body fat loss is by engaging in fat loss workouts on a regular basis.

Not just any old workout will do, either. Real fat loss exercise consists of both aerobic (cardiovascular) training and resistance (strength) training. Far too many people (both men and women) only participate in aerobic exercise, not realizing that fat loss weight training is critical to any weight loss success story.

Regular and consistent exercise has been proven to help people of every body type, every nationality, every height, every weight, and every fitness level. There are no exceptions! So although many fat loss methods may not apply to you, this one absolutely does.

So along with (or instead of) that new fat burner or low fat recipe you're trying, be sure to make time for a good workout today. It's the only permanent fat loss solution for every body.

Article Source: http://www.dietarticles.info

Tracie Johanson is the founder of Pick Up The Pace, a 30-minute exercise studio for women focusing on fitness, health and nutrition for maximum weight loss. Please visit www.letspickupthepace.com/ for more information.

Choosing Fruits and Vegetables For A Healthy Diet

2008-07-18T16:41:00.001-07:00

The new food guidelines issued by the United States government recommend that all Americans eat about nine servings of fresh, raw fruits and vegetables each and every day. This is important to provide your body with the minimal levels of essential nutrients and antioxidants needed by each and every cell in your body to support optimal health. When you first hear that number, it may seem like a lot, but it is actually much easier than you think to fit that many servings of fruits and vegetables into your healthy diet plan. Shelves of the grocery stores are bursting with fresh fruits and vegetables. Uncooked, these provide essential nutrients, fiber and even a portion of the water you need every day of your life. In addition, vegetables and fruits are some of the least expensive, most nutrient rich, foods in the supermarket. With all these fruits and vegetables to choose from, it is very easy to make these nutritious, delicious foods part of your daily meals and snacks.

Adding nine servings of fruits and vegetables to your healthy diet plan is not as difficult as it sounds. Seek a variety of foods; choose foods with different colors because those colors are indicators of different nutrients inside the cells of the food. As a general guideline, the nine servings come out to two cups of fruit and two and a half cups of vegetables every day. Most people who add this to their diet quickly find that they no longer have cravings during the day and save money on other snack foods which typically provide no nourishment of any kind. So not only do you improve your diet, you can save money and experience the health benefits of a diet, high in whole foods and low in sodium, fat, simple carbs and preservatives.

As your wean yourself from a life of snack foods to better foods, you may experience some changes as your body uses the improved fiber and higher levels of nutrients to deal with your biological "to do list." This is normal so keep at it and eventually you should experience more energy, better sleep and a variety of other benefits reported by people who share a better diet.

When shopping for fruits and vegetables, choose a variety of different colors. This is for more than purely aesthetic reasons. Different color fruits and vegetables have different types of nutrients, and choosing a variety of colors will help ensure you get all the vitamins and minerals you need each and every day.

New recipes can also provide you the important opportunity to try out some fruits and vegetables you have never tried before. Be sure that you're cooking things lightly to preserve as many of the essential nutrients as possible. Try to avoid putting any of your food through the microwave because the penetrating radiation heats water, sugar and fat molecules inside the food as well as on the surface and will damage even more of the essential nutrients than conventional cooking practices.

Many people mistakenly believe they do not need to eat nine servings of fruits and vegetables every day if they just take a vitamin supplement. Nothing could be further from the truth. Supplementation should be a means to supplement, not substitute, the benefits of a healthy diet. Fruits and vegetables contain far more than micronutrients. They also contain the more complex phytochemicals, phytosterols and essential fiber that you need to support proper cell function and optimal health.

While fresh fruits and vegetables are not the only component of a health diet, they are an essential one and are typically left out of the Standard American Diet (which is S.A.D.). Choose optimal health and choose a healthy diet. By adding fresh, raw fruits and vegetables to your daily diet, you too will discover the benefits that others do when they choose a healthy diet.

By: Dave Saunders

Dave Saunders is a professional lecturer, and certified nutritional educator. He enjoys creating interconnections through his writings and lectures to help others create context and see new discoveries and technologies in more a practical light. You can find out more about new discoveries how to benefit from a Healthy Diet at www.glycoboy.com

Nutrition - Good Fat vs. Bad Fat

2008-07-18T16:40:00.000-07:00

This series of articles deals with nutrition. We've all heard the old saying 'you are what you eat', so let's take a good long look at what we're putting in our bodies.

Most of us WANT to eat healthier, but sometimes it seems that forces are working against us. Fast food is just so tempting. Sally at the office brought donuts to share again. Our schedule is so busy we don't have time to cook healthy food. Finally, it's true that junk food is often less expensive than healthy food. How fair is that?

Today's topic is fat. Not all fat is bad! As a matter of fact, some fats are downright good for you. The key is understanding the difference between the two.

GOOD FAT:

Over the years, Americans have been fed different stories about choosing the right foods for optimum health. When researchers warned that too much fat in your diet leads to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and a host of other health problems, Americans jumped on the low fat, no fat bandwagon with little success.

New studies reveal that we must have some fat in our diet for good health and reduction of disease. The omega-3 fatty acids are said to be 'essential' because they can not be produced by the body and must be obtained through our food sources.

Omega-3 essential fatty acids can come from either plant or marine sources. They can be found in fish and fish oil, unrefined vegetable oils, raw nuts, seeds and beans. Linolenic acid, the marine source, can be found in certain fatty fish such as mackerel, lake trout, herring, sardines, albacore tuna and salmon. These fish and fish oil supplements contain bioavailable docosahexaenoic (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic (EPA) acid, the two kinds of omega-3 essential fatty acids crucial to good health.

The plant based omega-3 essential fatty acid is alpha linolenic acid (alpha meaning plant) and can be found in omega-3 rich oils such as flaxseed, canola, soybean and walnut oils. These plant sourced omega-3 EFAs don't metabolize in the body like fish oil. They need to be broken down by the body's enzymatic system into DHA and EPA before the body can reap its powerful benefits. Flaxseed oil, the plant source highest in omega-3s, is a great alternative for vegetarians and those who can't tolerate fish or fish oil capsules.

BAD FAT:

The worst kinds of fat are trans fats and saturated fats.

"Trans-fatty acids are bad for hearts and arteries. They drive up production of cholesterol like saturated-fatty acids [i.e. like butter, animal fat, etc.], and promote atherosclerosis... I am certain that TFA's will eventually be found to be detrimental to health in many other ways as a result of their effect on membrane and hormone function. I believe they promote the development of cancer and degenerative disease, increase inflammation, accelerate aging, and obstruct immunity and healing. Therefore, I make a scrupulous attempt to keep them out of my diet, and I urge you to do the same. In practice that means avoiding margarine, vegetable shortening, and all products made with them or with partially hydrogenated oils of any kind." [Dr. Andrew Weil from his book: Eating Well for Optimum Health" pp. 90-93:]

How do you spot transfatty acids? Look for "hydrogenated" or "partially hydrogenated" in the list of ingredients. They're all over the place.

THE COST:

It is possible to eat more healthy fats without breaking the bank. Yes, fish is fairly expensive when compared to other meats, but a healthier diet doesn't have to be expensive.

Some money-saving ideas on this topic:

1) Buy fish on sale.

2) Many grocers sell flash-frozen fillets which taste almost as good as fresh, but cost a whole lot less.

3) Ask the butcher when fish is 'cheapest'. Prices can vary widely throughout the year. Stock up when the price is right.

4) Shop the ads. Buy fish only when it's on sale, even if you have to visit a store other than your favorite.

5) Buy the 'whole fish', which is always less expensive than buying fillets or fish steaks.

6) Be very careful to shop price when looking for flax seed. Bulk flax seed at the local supermarket typically sells for 89 cents per pound. The exact same flax seed at a national health food store sells for $9.99 per pound. Sure, the health food store sells it in a pretty gold bag - but $9.99 per pound? Who are they kidding?

7) If you can't stand the taste of fish, consider fish oil or flax seed oil supplements. Affordable and easy to swallow, these are a great alternative.

8) Walnuts are an excellent source of good fats. Buy in bulk to save money. Even better, stock up during the holidays when they're on sale.

9) Don't be afraid to use coupons. Check your Sunday newspaper for coupon inserts.

10) Finally, look for a 'sell by' sale. Fish (and other perishable items) are required by law to state a 'sell by' date. This is the day by which the retailer must sell that product. Often times, a grocer will dramatically reduce the price of fish (or other items) on the 'sell by date'.....they either sell it below cost or lose all their money the next day (it is a health code violation to sell perishable items past their sell by date).

We've barely scratched the surface of this topic: good fat vs. bad fat. It would be a good idea for each of us to do some more research on fats and how they can impact our health.

By: Tracie Johanson

Tracie Johanson is the founder of Pick Up The Pace, a 30-minute exercise studio for women focusing on fitness, health and nutrition for maximum weight loss. Please visit www.letspickupthepace.com/ for more information.

Cravings and Yo-Yo Dieting

2008-07-18T16:39:00.002-07:00

Yo-yo dieting, also referred to as “weight cycling,” is when cravings overpower any positive effects that a dieter has received by following whatever program allowed them to lose weight.

You usually hear cravings and yo-yo dieting mentioned when a person loses a certain amount of weight, gains it back, and then loses it again, feeding into a vicious cycle of dieting ups and downs.

The cravings that come with yo-yo dieting can be quite a physically, as well as emotionally draining process.

Unhealthy Practices

There have been studies done on people who feed into the cravings and yo-yo diet, determining that these repeated cycles of weight loss and weight gain is an unhealthy practice. It results in the weakening of the body, as well as decrease in the functionality and strength of the body’s major organs, immune system and overall health of the individual.

Looking for a quick solution to a weight problem is more likely to end in diet failure - these quick fixes come in many forms.

When people starve themselves in order to lose weight, they are more likely to give into craving and yo-yo dieting.

Fad Diets

Another way cravings and yo-yo dieting come into play, is when a dieter chooses to follow a fad diet. Some of these diets involve eating one particular type of food group, such as grapefruits or cabbage soup, as well as eliminating major elements from a diet, such as avoiding carbs. The weight soon returns when the dieter abandons whatever strict regimen they were following, giving into cravings and yo-yo dieting patterns.

Depression and fatigue are factors that also contribute to the failure of a diet not based on healthy eating habits accompanied by regular exercise.

Once the weight creeps back, the dieter then resorts back to the quick fix for help. This pattern continues until the dieter has decided to follow a sensible diet and exercise plan, leaving behind the cravings and yo-yo dieting.

Lifelong Diet Plan

Dieters must learn how to commit to a lifelong plan to losing and maintaining their weight through healthy means. If a person is unwilling to make this sacrifice of watching what they eat, then they are more likely to fall victim to cravings and yo-yo dieting.

Giving into cravings and practicing yo-yo dieting can lead to detrimental effects on the overall health of an individual.

Cholesterol

A study published in the Journal of American College of Cardiology stated that yo-yo dieters displayed low levels of the “good” cholesterol that prevents heart disease. It was also shown that women who had succumbed to their cravings and yo-yo dieted had the worst results. This was the case in women who had lost and regained at least 50 pounds.

Other complications arising from yo-yo dieting include the increased risk of developing gallstones, as well as a slight increase in a patient’s blood pressure.

Obesity

Even though the issues surrounding cravings and yo-yo dieting are disadvantageous to a person’s health, it is not worse than being an obese individual. Obesity increases a person’s risk for stroke, heart disease, diabetes, as well as cancer.

By: Stephen Todd

More dieting and general health information and FREE exclusive diet and health magazines, are available on our web site: www.net-planet.org

Be a Smart Food Shopper

2008-07-18T16:39:00.001-07:00

Want to lose a few pounds? Start shopping smarter. If you know which foods are healthier and how to read the food labels, you're on the way to lowering your weight.

Here are a few helpful tips

The Fat Fighters

A diet high in fiber can take weight off quickly.

Eat fruit, (don't forget berries, blueberries, full of antioxidants, raspberries, lots of fiber, strawberries, believed to be a cancer fighter, blackberries, (have anti-inflammatory properties,) elderberries, black currants, (not easy to find) , vegetables, pasta, anything made with whole grains, beans, breads, a bran muffin.

Fiber will make you feel full. It swells up in your stomach.

Eating oatmeal, lowers your blood sugar. And therefore, you will be less likely to get diabetes.

High fiber diets absorb the fats in food before you can absorb it and gain weight.

These foods have less calories, for example,

An apple unsliced and peeled, has 75 calories and 3.5 grams of fiber

But if you drink 8 ounces of apple juice, it has no fiber and almost
120 calories!

Since you cannot only eat fiber, you should also include some healthy fats in your diet.

The good fats are:

Monounsaturated fat

In olive oil, canola oil, avocados, almonds, peanuts and cashews

Polyunsaturated fat

Omega 6 is found in:

corn oil, soybean oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil.

Omega 3 is found in:

herring, salmon, sardines, trout, bluefish, walnuts, wheat germ, canola oil.

Try not to eat:

Saturated fat

Found in butter, chicken skin, coconut oil, fatty meats, palm oil, cottonseed oil. Always include oilve oil in your diet, it is naturally cholesterol free.

Trans fat

some cookies, pie crusts, snack foods, some crackers.
It is believed that trans fats are worse for you than saturated fats.
They can raise the bad cholesterol levels.

By: Phyllis Wasserman

writer and gourmet cook. Visit my websites: www.the articlegenie.com and submit all your articles for FREE! Play Poker at www.medicineestore.com

How To Power Up Your Weight Loss

2008-07-18T16:37:00.000-07:00

Although many people just can’t get their head around it, weight training is one of the best ways to speed up your metabolism. Muscle burns more calories because it is active tissue that creates energy, unlike fat which is just sitting there! Don’t be afraid of adding a little muscle mass, it will do you good.

Cut back on your carbs, especially sugar carbs and carbs from junk food. Taking in too many carbohydrates is one of the big culprits in fat storage. Anyone who reduces the amount of carbs they eat will see an increase in fat loss. You should keep carbs around one gram per pound of LEAN body weight per day and make sure they come from good carb sources not junk food.

Spread your meals out over six per day instead of three. Doing this will allow your body to assimilate your food better and will also keep you from eating too much at one sitting. Your body can really only utilize about 30 grams of protein per sitting at most for example. The other benefit is that it keeps you feeling full so that you don’t give in to hunger pangs.

The next hint is to eat more protein. Protein maintains lean body mass or muscle so it only makes sense that eating more protein will help you to lose fat. Muscle mass burns more calories which is a good thing. Your body needs protein to build and maintain the muscle mass.

Cut back on saturated fats because they are the ones that are the big problem in contributing to poor health and obesity which can lead to diabetes. Not all fats are bad. Some are good and some are bad. Essential Fatty Acids are just that, essential. Stay away from too much unsaturated fat.

How many times have you heard it? Drink more water! Water is crucial to the proper functioning of our bodies. It helps the body to create blood, keeps our joints lubricated, and is essential to many other functions. We can go for many weeks without food, but without water you will die in a matter of days. That should tell you how crucial water is. Drink at least a gallon a day, just spread it out so that by the end of the day you have taken in at least a gallon.

Another thing you will want to do is to make sure that you have good and reliable coaching and information. Don’t try to go it alone, this is where many people fail.

By: Glenn Freiboth

Glenn Freiboth is a Certified Health Advisor lives in Illinois and has helped many overweight and obese people lose weight and keep it off. Get Medifast weight loss products at www.GetYouHealth.com

Weight Loss Diet – Eat to Lose Weight

2008-07-15T22:55:00.001-07:00

More than deadlines to meet and clients to satisfy, the pressure to look good is far more intense these days. Women hanker after hourglass figures and men need to be Greek Gods. It is no wonder that every second person on the street is on a weight loss diet. Weight loss diet is the topic of conversation in public places, private parties, on buses and cabs, by the beach and the dinner table.

Before you plunge in to any form of weight loss diet, few issues need to be sorted out. Embarking on a diet to lose weight doesn’t mean indiscriminate slashing of calories. It is true that you need to cut down on the calories but at the same time, you cannot compromise on your nutritional intake.

There are representatives from all the food groups in an ideal weight loss diet plan to ensure that all forms of nutrients enter your body. So there are actually not many don’ts in a weight loss diet. However, you need to steer clear of junk, fried and fast foods, chocolates, candies, cakes and aerated drinks.

Proteins form the building blocks of your body and as much they form the prime ingredient in any lose weight diet plan. One gram of protein per pound of body weight is recommended for every individual whether you lead an active or sedentary life. Meats, sea fish, milk and egg whites are good protein sources.

Any weight loss diet plan will advise you to go green. Fruits and vegetables abound in minerals and vitamins and are low on calories too. Gorging on them will make you healthy, without making your calorie intake spiral out of control.

While harping on the theme of a weight loss diet, a myth needs to be expounded. All fats are not bad. Fishes and nuts are excellent sources of good fats.

Open any newspaper or magazine and you will find a weight loss diet plan peeking at you from every nook and cranny. But most overlook the role of water.

Water is life and in your diet to lose weight, water should be the backbone. Water flushes out the toxins from your body and revitalizes you. Deprive yourself of water and you will soon find your entire mental as well as physical states in shambles.

In essence, a weight loss diet plan counsels having all types of food, but moderation should be the key. Gorging and starving are equally bad. Mix and match your foods so that your taste buds are not weary and be sure to have 1200-1500 calories daily.

The path to a perfect figure is waylaid with temptations in the form of fad diets, single-food diets, protein and liquid diets. Each one claims to be a fast weight loss diet. There are no shortcuts to losing weight and their tall claims should be taken with a pinch of salt.

The perfect weight loss diet aims to keep you healthy while endowing you with a flattering figure.

By: David Maillie

David Maillie is a chemist with over 12 years experience in biochemical research and clynical analysis. He is an alumni of Cornell University and specializes in biochemical synthesis for public, private, and governmental skin care interests. He can be reached at www.bestskinpeel.com

Diet Plan for Success - 10 Reasons Structure Works

2008-07-15T22:54:00.000-07:00

Going on a diet tends to have negative connotations. Diets are confining and tortuous, you'll be hungry all the time, and you'll have to eat tasteless stuff like celery and puffed rice.

More than that, you'll be imprisoned by the almighty diet, unable to indulge in anything but what Lord Diet dictates.

We want to eat anything we want whenever we want it.

However, a well thought out eating plan pays off in many ways.

To paraphrase the late Janis Joplin, freedom really isn't free. In nutritional terms, it costs a lot in what it extracts from our health.

Just like a budget saves you money and a calendar finds more time in your schedule, a confirmed diet spices up your dining experience.

Structure sets us free and human beings need structure. Children thrive on it and even our pets need routines. Let's look at the benefits of a written, structured plan for eating.

1. You won't have to decide what to eat or hear those dreaded words: What's for dinner? You'll know what's for dinner and you won't be racking your brain while staring at empty cupboards trying to whip something up with what's on the shelves.

2. Free your mind for other things. If you're not obsessing over what you're going to eat, you can think about other things that are more important and certainly more uplifting.

3. Save money at the grocery store. Stock up on sales, curb impulse buying, and get out of the store faster.

4. You'll have less guilt. You're more likely to stay on track with your weight loss goals with a defined diet, then you can allow yourself a treat every so often without the guilt!

5. Get the nutrition you need. Haphazard eating usually doesn't involve healthy choices. Plan for protein, vitamins, and minerals with fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

6. Limit calories. If you want to consume 1,200 calories per day, you're more likely to do so if you've planned a 1,200 calorie meal ahead of time. Spur of the moment choices almost always mean higher calories.

7. Get energized for exercising. Healthy eating means you'll feel better and motivated to take a walk, run on the treadmill, or workout with a video.

8. Eat a variety of foods. Scheduling a wide variety of foods when you plan in advance is much easier than trying to be creative at the last minute.

9. You can eat in a relaxed atmosphere at home. Simply following a plan and getting out the ingredients gives you much less stress than going to a noisy restaurant or a crowded drive-through.

10. Elevate your style of eating. Decide to dine instead of chow down. Serve your meals on real plates or china instead of plastic take-out containers or leftover pizza boxes. Invite friends over for a meal you've planned and enjoy stimulating conversation.

Take some time to plan a healthy diet. Set up a menu and a grocery list. Don't forget the snacks.
Follow your plan and see if you can derive even more than weight loss.

By: Kathy Ferneau

Kathy Ferneau has created an excellent resource for information on diets, healthy eating, and exercise. Get a free smoothie recipe e-book just for visiting! www.lose-weight-diets.com

Color Your Meals For Optimal Nutrition

2008-07-15T22:53:00.000-07:00

As you learn more about nutrition you may find the issue of eating an appropriately balanced meal to be a bit confusing. There isn't any, single super food that provides the body with all that it needs. Instead we need to nourish the body with balanced amounts of good, whole foods which provide a variety of nutrients and other beneficial nutritional components to promote good health.

Amazingly enough, nature was designed to give us some clues. Many fruits and vegetables are color coded to help identify the types of nutrients found within. By striving to eat a more "colorful" diet, we can better achieve a balanced intake of healthful food and benefit from better nutritional support.

Many of these colors come from antioxidants. These molecules have been shown to provide a cancer-fighting arsenal to the body as well as to potentially reverse some of the biological markers of aging when consumed regularly, and in appropriate amounts from quality sources.

The antioxidant Lycopene provides a red color to some fruits and vegetables such as tomatoes. When the tomato is vine-ripened the color of the meat inside is a very deep red indicating higher levels of Lycopene than what is found in green-harvested varieties. Lycopene has been shown to protect the DNA from free-radical attacks which reduces mutation and incidence of cancerous cell development.

An orange color indicates the presence of Carotenes which are converted to Vitamin A inside the body. Studies have shown that while chemically isolated Vitamin A supplements may exhibit liver toxicity at very low levels, carotenes derived from food have been shown to be safe even at very high dosages. Carrots are an excellent source of carotenes, but remember that cooking damages this antioxidant so raw, or lightly cooked carrots are necessary for optimal nutritional support.

Yellow is the color of Lutein and Quercitin. These nutrients are beneficial for clear vision and good health of the retina and have also been found to have anti-inflammatory properties. They are found in corn, bell peppers, apples and pears, but are also found in many green, leafy vegetables like kale and spinach.

Antocyanines are found in foods influenced by the purple color. These antioxidants are important for good blood circulation and health of the retina. Many berries are rich with this antioxidant and again they should be eaten raw for the best nutritional benefit.

Finally a scarlet color comes from foods containing the antioxidant Beta Cyanine. An excellent source of this color comes from the beet and has an anti-anemic benefit to those who include this regularly in the diet.

Adding more color to the diet can provide health benefits as well as create a more interesting menu. Colorful meals are more attractive which is probably what inspired our ancestors to add these foods to their diets in the first place. Be sure to "eat from the rainbow" and you'll greatly improve the balance of your diet in vital nutritional support.

By: Dave Saunders

Dave Saunders is a professional lecturer, and certified nutritional educator. He enjoys creating interconnections through his writings and lectures to help others create context and see new discoveries and technologies in more a practical light. You can find out more about new discoveries in health and nutrition at www.glycoboy.com.

5 Steps To Finding The Best Diet

2008-07-15T22:52:00.000-07:00

“Saying there’s one best diet for everyone is a little like saying there’s one best type of music for everyone,” Michael Dansinger, M.D., director of obesity research at the Atherosclerosis Research Laboratory at Tufts-New England Medical Center, says. People should consider a broad spectrum of options.

1) Cut The Easiest Calories First.
Eliminating the nonnutritive foods that are least important to you can have a major effect. Avoiding sugared soft drinks and juices and outsized baked goods, such as mega-bagels, alone could eliminate 500 to 1,000 calories a day from your body.

2) Choose A Safe Dietary Plan.
If you have any kind of medical condition, check with your doctor before starting a weight loss attempt, especially if you’re drawn to one of the more nutritionally extreme diets such as Atkins. Don’t strive for rapid weight loss. Losing more than 1 to 2 pounds a week can cause undesirable health effects, with the Medifast weight loss plan being the exception. Increase fiber intake gradually and drink a lot of water to avoid digestive upsets. Also, consider taking a multivitamin pill while you’re cutting the calories.

3) Consider Personal Preferences.
Someone who doesn’t like red meat will find Atkins very difficult to follow, and someone who does will probably find the vegetarian Ornish diet intolerable. Those who like variety may tire of the limited menu of a meal replacement diet.

4) Follow the Rules.
If the diet says to eat one half cup of rice, be sure to measure it in a measuring cup. If you’re supposed to eat a snack at 3 p.m. then eat it. The more faithfully people adhere to a diet, the more successful they will be.

5) Be Ready To Switch.
”You have to ‘date’ the diets and be ready to fail a few times before you find the right one that you can stick with. If after three weeks, you find a diet too difficult or unpleasant to follow or you are not losing weight then try another.

Whatever option you choose it’s very wise to seek personal support and encouragement. Surveys show that a counselor was second in effectiveness only to devising their own personal diet and exercise plan. Whether support is one-on-one or in group support behavioral support can help people lose weight. One of the largest diet studies ever conducted, involving more than 3,200 overweight people at high risk for diabetes, found that intensive counseling to support diet and exercise changes worked better than a drug to prevent diabetes and induce consistent weight loss.

By: Glenn Freiboth

Glenn Freiboth is a Certified Health Advisor lives in Illinois and has helped many overweight and obese people lose weight and keep it off. Get weight loss products at www.GetYouHealth.com

Simple Tips for Easy Weight Loss

2008-07-15T22:49:00.000-07:00

Current statistics reveal that 75% of Americans are overweight and 40% are obese. For those who desire to lose weight and obtain optimal health, sometimes it can be overwhelming trying to figure out where to start. From the Atkins Diet to the South Beach Diet; from the low fat to low carb diets, there are numerous weight-loss plans to choose from. In addition, given conflicting information as to what works best, it can be difficult deciding what to do.

For those who have tried many diet plans with no success, it becomes more difficult and frustrating. Many people forget that a diet might work wonders for their friend but won't work well for them...not because the diet is "bad", but because each body reacts differently. However, there is a way to lose weight that is easy, fast, and doesn't involve deprivation or calorie counting.

Before the weight loss tips are discussed, it's important to address some background information about body genetics and why weight loss can be difficult.

Before anyone starts a diet, it is important to note that each person has a different body build. Some people are short and stout while others are tall and thin. Some have big hips and shoulders, and others are short and very muscular. Genetics can determine body shape and a person's natural build just as it does eye color, hair color, skin color, and so on. The good news is that genetics do not determine whether or not one will be fat, but will determine one's body shape. This means that not every woman can expect to be tall and thin like a Hollywood actress or supermodel such as Tyra Banks. Not every man can expect to be defined and muscular like The Rock. The goal, really, is to be at a comfortable weight for one's body shape and to feel good about it.

So, why are people overweight? Here are 11 of the most common reasons:

1. Slow metabolism: People who are overweight have a hard time burning off food. As a result, the fat is stored.

2. Emotional eating: Those who struggle with weight often eat when stressed or when other emotional upheavals are happening in their life.

3. Hormonal imbalances.

4. Eating portions that are too large.

5. Eating lots of "diet food" (that is low fat,low carb, and "sugar free" foods). Kevin explains in the book why this is a problem.

6. Build up of toxins in the body.

7. Eating late: Late-night eating can cause food to convert to fat more easily.

8. High susceptibility to growth hormones: These hormones are given to animals to help them grow faster and larger, so meat and dairy have residual growth hormones. In humans, these hormones can result in increased fat storage.

9. Not eating breakfast.

10. Numerous diets: Going from diet to diet has a negative impact on the metabolism and causes weight loss to be much more difficult.

11. Food ingredients: The reasons why are amazing and beyond the scope of this article. Readers are encouraged to read for themselves Kevin's two books.

Simple Tips for Easy Weight Loss:

Now that there is a better understanding of body genetics and why people have a tendency to be overweight, here are the tips for fast, easy weight loss.

Tip #1: Drink water upon arising: First thing in the morning, drink eight ounces of distilled water, bottled water, or filtered water (not tap water).

Tip #2: Eat a big breakfast: This should be done 45 minutes after getting up in the morning. Suggested organic foods to choose from (they must be organic) are apples, bananas, rye bread with no sugar, plain yogurt, tuna, lamb, tomatoes, carrots, peppers, raw honey, wild smoked salmon, and so on.

Tip #3: Drink distilled water throughout the day: Eight glasses is recommended

Tip #4: Walk non-stop one hour each day: This doesn't have to be power walking; just walk at your own pace. Walking outdoors is best.

Tip #5: Stop eating after 6:00 PM: This is hard for some people, but do the best you can.

Tip #6: Do a candida cleanse: Candida is yeast overgrowth in the colon that can cause all kinds of health problems. Check online for "Candida Cleanse" or go to your local health food store.

Tip #7: Do a colon cleanse: This cleanse cleans out the digestive system, which is clogged and sluggish in many overweight people. Once again, check online or go to your local health food store.

More and more Americans are becoming overweight. Extra weight can result in many health issues and negatively impact one's emotional state and self-esteem. However, for those struggling with this problem, there is hope. You can lose it and keep it off. Now that you have a understanding of body genetics and why you might be overweight, take action today! Commit to trying at least a few of the steps.

By: Nicky Pilkington

Find out more about Diet and Nutrition at healthandfinesse.com

Weight Loss Timing Is Everything - Part 3

2008-07-15T01:59:00.001-07:00

In this series of articles we're examining the timing of fitness. We've already looked at when to eat for minimum fat storage, and also when to exercise for maximum fat loss.

The previous article was about morning exercise. Besides the benefits of burning more fat, morning exercise has several other beneficial effects:

1) Shifts our biological clock to kick-start key physiological systems long before we wake up. This enhances most bodily functions throughout the day.

2) Increases mental acuity. Exercise causes a release of endorphins and insulin-like growth factor I(IGF-I) that increases both mental alertness and acuity. True, this benefit is apparent at any time of day we decide to exercise, but early-morning workouts will facilitate this brain-enhancing effect. That mental sharpness we feel after our workout can last for more than eight hours! If we work out later in the day, we could be 'wasting' this effect on the time we're watching television or sleeping.

3) Provides an overall good feeling. After completing a challenging bout of physical exercise, we get a 'rush' and a feeling of accomplishment that stays with us for the entire day.

4) Puts us in a 'healthy' mindset that enhances our body awareness throughout the day.

5) Ensures workout consistency. Studies show that people who work out in the morning are more likely to consistently stick with their exercise program and diet.

PRIME THE PUMP:
The exercise timing tip in this article is not for everyone, and also is not for the faint of heart. However, if we really want to prime the pump and accelerate our fat loss efforts, this tip is something we should all at least consider.

As we all know, raising our metabolic rate is one of the keys to fat loss. Raising our metabolic rate burns calories and gives us energy.

One of the biggest bonuses to getting that regular workout is that our metabolic rate remains elevated even after we're done exercising. Research shows that resistance training boosts metabolism for hours after the workout.

University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, researchers showed that intense weight training boosted metabolism after the workout. Scientists estimate metabolism by measuring oxygen consumption. Exercise increases post-exercise metabolism by increasing muscle temperature, stimulating chemicals called uncoupling proteins that increase calorie burning, and disrupting normal cell functions (cell water, electrolytes and minerals). Elevated post-exercise metabolism can make an important contribution to weight control.

Different doctors and researchers have come up with different results as to how long our metabolism stays elevated after resistance training. Because we all have different body types and different genetics, the answer will be slightly different for each of us. However, it's safe to say that the vast majority of us will experience a higher metabolic rate for at least four hours after a good workout.

TIMING TIP OF THE WEEK:
That was a big build-up to our timing tip for today. So, without further ado.....

For maximum fat loss, consider doing two-a-day workouts. Once in the morning and again sometime after lunch. Yes, it will take a little more effort. Yes, it will take a little more time. But the rewards will be tremendous.

Each time you exercise, you burn calories. Two-a-days will obviously double that result. Just as important, if we time those two-a-day workouts so we're doing one in the morning and another after lunch, we will increase our metabolic rate all day long. That will give us more energy and force our body to burn more calories throughout the day.

The first workout will prime the pump for the day, giving us all the benefits listed above. About the time our metabolism starts to return to normal, the second workout will again raise our metabolic rate.....putting us on 'afterburner' and smokin' those calories for the rest of the day.

Can't get back to the gym for a second round of exercise? How about walking on your lunch hour? How about walking home from work? Or how about mowing the lawn when you get home? As we've said over and over again, some exercise is better than no exercise, so be creative when coming up with ideas for the second 'workout' of the day.

As we've discovered, timing is everything. Although it may not be for everyone, two-a-day exercise will blast our metabolism and fat-loss efforts into the stratosphere. To get the most 'burn' from this tip, just be sure to space those workouts four or more hours apart!

By: Tracie Johanson

Tracie Johanson is the founder of Pick Up The Pace, a 30-minute exercise studio for women focusing on fitness, health and nutrition for maximum weight loss. Please visit www.letspickupthepace.com/ for more information.

How To Stick To Your Diet Away From Home

2008-07-15T01:58:00.000-07:00

It’s one thing to stick with your diet regimen when you’re at home, in control of the contents of your refrigerator and your portion sizes. But what about going out to dinner with friends? Worse, how do you stay on track when your dream vacation has you seated by the dessert cart at every meal? Eating right when you’re out of your comfort zone can actually be easier than when you are at home, so long as you think smart and plan ahead.

Getting in shape can be an arduous journey, and you should allow yourself to celebrate along the way! However, celebrating doesn’t mean two helpings of dessert. Instead, focus on these simple tips to help you enjoy your dinners out on the town without compromising your weight loss goals.

Incorporate meals out like any others. Don’t skip meals beforehand, setting yourself up to be starving, then overeat. Plan, don’t be afraid to call ahead and find out what the specials are going to be and figure out a couple of choices, so that you don’t stress out when you arrive and order foods that are not the best options for your diet.

If the restaurant or event is going to serve you buffet-style, again, call ahead to plan. If that’s not an option, here are a couple ideas. First, ask someone with whom you’re comfortable sharing your dietary concerns to help you. Tell him or her what foods you can eat (or what you cannot eat) and ask the person to fill a plate for you. Or second, walk up to the buffet table(s) beforehand with no plate. Just take a casual stroll around and see which foods are being served. Then decide if you would like to ask someone else to place your selections on a plate for you or if you would prefer to get them yourself.

First of all, use manners and eat slowly. Not only will this help with your digestion, it slows your eating down so that you don’t “gulp” and be a chow-hound, eating everything in sight. If out with others, remember you are also there for socializing, so talk between bites. Set your eating utensils down while you chew. Have a sip of water between bites. The goal is not to see how fast can you wolf down the food while someone else is talking.

Food has become our society’s way of bringing people together, bonding friends, and building relationships. Unfortunately, for those of us looking to cut back on what and how much we eat, this can make previously enjoyable dinner dates to be dreaded and avoided tasks.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Remember why you’ve been invited out in the first place: to enjoy the company of others. You do not need certain amounts of food or certain types of food to accomplish this. Still go out, but help choose a place with foods you can eat. For example, opt for a restaurant with salads and low-fat menu choices instead of a place with all deep-fried batter-dipped menu choices and heavy desserts. The worst thing you can do for your self-confidence is to shut yourself off from your circle of family and friends, or to stay shut in the house all the time. After all, when you do meet your weight loss goal, you still want friends around to enjoy it with!

If you’re nervous about your willpower, go through a couple of trial runs with other friends who are watching what they eat. In this case, peer pressure can be a positive thing, as you all encourage one another to make healthy meal decisions.
Avoid the urge to compete with one another to see who can drink the most water and eat only shredded lettuce leaves. Instead, choose an old favorite and split it with a partner. This way, you won’t feel deprived and your portion size will automatically be limited. Not only will your waistlines be smaller, but so will your bills!

Chances you, whatever restaurant you will be frequenting has heard every request in the book—twice. If you’re concerned you won’t be able to find something on the menu that meets your needs, call ahead and explain what you’re looking for. Even if it’s not on the menu, they may be able to whip something up especially for you if you’ve called in advance.
Phoning early can also provide nutrition information for certain meals, if you need this information. And be flexible and open to new ideas. The cook may have his or her own special recipes and ideas.

By: Gregg Hall

Gregg Hall is a business consultant and author for many online and offline businesses and lives in Navarre Florida with his 16 year old son. For great diet products go to www.zefarilhealth.com

Five Ways to Keep the Holiday Pounds Away

2008-07-15T01:57:00.001-07:00

With the Holiday season fast approaching, you may have concerns about keeping those extra pounds at bay. It seems that even though the holidays themselves are only a few actual days, food is in abundance from Thanksgiving through New Year's, and temptation can be overwhelming. The following tips can help you survive the season with minimal damage.

Keep the focus on family and friends

All too often, the emphasis is on the food rather than spending time with those we love. If you try to keep the focus on family and friends, this can help you shift mental gears and see the food as secondary. Yes, many people have food traditions that make the holidays special, but this is usually only a dish or two. However, when you think about it, is it really the food that makes the holiday, or the memories that the food invokes? Go ahead and make you favorite holiday dishes, but keep portions a reasonable size and focus on the time together. Also, try to avoid the feeling that you have to stuff yourself on your favorite holiday meals because you won't have the opportunity for another year. This type of "all or nothing" thinking can make you act in ways you might not otherwise.

Eat Only Until You're Full

We've all heard this one before, but it bears repeating because it is so easy to overeat during the holidays. This includes not only the actual days, such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's, but also in between. This is a season of leftovers, and tasty ones at that, which can make overeating easy. Because the holidays involve a lot of parties, conversation, and occasional drinking, it can be very easy to get distracted by the mood and "forget" that you're on your third cream puff. Make a conscious effort to monitor your level of fullness and stop when you start feeling full. This can be easier said than done, but the extra effort can be worth it. Are the few moments of gratification worth the many hours afterward feeling miserable? In the moment, yes, which is why it takes a conscious effort to monitor intake.

Choose Your Parties Wisely

While it's tempting to accept every invitation, consider the long-term effects. Do you really need to attend every party that comes your way? Not necessarily. Yes, parties are great fun, but they are also an area where temptation is great and willpower is low. As your holiday invitations come rolling in, consider the ones that are important. The office party, for example, may be one that you need to attend to stay in good graces with the boss; the party hosted by a co-worker that you barely know can probably be skipped. It can be hard enough avoiding all the goodies that people bring to the office and well-meaning friends give for gifts; adding extra social gatherings only makes it harder to say no or to limit your intake.

Focus on Your Long Term Goals

When you think about it, the holiday season is relatively short, even though it feels like it's a few months straight of nothing but eating. However, if you break it down, there's a manageable lull between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and even between Christmas and New Years. As you navigate the actual holiday days and your chosen parties, keep your long-term goals at the forefront of your mind. Yes, the holiday treats are tasty and tempting. Think of the little ways you can enjoy the holidays and still keep the bigger picture in mind. As you reach for that second helping, ask yourself if the short-term satisfaction is worth the long-term costs.

Keep your confidence up!

During the holiday season, with so much going on, it's very easy to throw your good eating habits and diet plans out the window for two months. Sweets and baked goods are constantly available, and it may just seem like too much to try to keep to your eating plans. However, throwing in the towel simply sets you up for failure. If you believe that it's pointless to try to eat well, then you probably will see those extra pounds creep on. Remind yourself that, with a little bit of planning, it is possible to make it through the season with minimal damage, but you do need a bit of confidence in yourself.

By: Mike Singh

Mike Singh is a fitness instructor, who writes about health & fitness products reviews,elliptical trainers reviews,low carb diet recipes online!

Some Helpful Tips For Dieting

2008-07-15T01:56:00.000-07:00

If you are like most you will have to diet sometime in your life. I know I have dieted off and on for years going all the way back to my bodybuilding days when strict tuna and water diets were the means to attaining as low a body fat measurement as possible. I would like to share with you some of the things I have learned over the years to help with the dieting process.

Regardless of the diet you choose it is essential that you set goals for what you are trying to achieve. When I say goals, I mean written goals. If you don’t write your goals down your chances of success are almost nil. Also, set rewards along with the goals. If you reach a certain weight goal in a week reward yourself with a favorite snack, in a small portion of course. Another thing you can do is reward yourself with some new clothes.

Now, let’s get into the dieting itself. Many diets are doomed to fail because they make you hungry. Yeah, I know everyone tells you that if you are trying to lose weight you have to be hungry, but you don’t have to be feeling like you are starving all the time.
One way to avoid this on any diet is to split your meals into smaller portions and eat every 3-4 hours instead. This is what all professional athletes do because it makes the most efficient use of the food you are taking in.

Another simple method is to realize that your stomach’s size is naturally about the size of your fist. Knowing this, when planning a diet the portions you are consuming should be about the size of your hand during each meal. Most of us eat five or six times this amount.

One time tested method I have used in addition to the smaller meals is to drink lots of water. I know you have heard this stressed over and over but not only is it crucial for removing toxins when you are dieting, but it will also help you to feel fuller.

When choosing a diet, investigate it fully and also ask your personal physician about it. There are a lot of scams out there, especially on the internet. If someone tells you that you can lose ten pounds overnight or even every week, don’t believe it. The maximum you will lose on a long term diet is around three pounds per week. You have to remember, it took a while to put it on and it will take awhile to take it off too.

By: Gregg Hall

Gregg Hall is a business consultant and author for many online and offline businesses and lives in Navarre Florida with his 16 year old son. Get diet products at www.shop4diets.com

What Are The Components Of A Good Diet?

2008-07-15T01:54:00.000-07:00

Good nutrition is the foundation of good health. To be able to choose good food products, and understand if your diet should be supported with supplements, you need to have knowledge of the Basics of Nutrition.

The foundation of a diet is built with four basic nutrient groups. These are carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and water. These are all needed in proper balance for your body to be able to function in its optimum level. A diet also has to provide proper level of vitamins, minerals and micro nutrients.

70 percent of the body is water. It is involved in every function of the body. An adequate amount is at least eight 8 ounce glasses every day. Tap water is generally obtained from surface water or from ground water. Most people assume they are getting clean, safe, and healthy drinking water from the kitchen tap. Often this is not the case. The greatest concerns about water quality focus on chlorine, pesticides and parasites. Chlorine has been added to the public water supply for a long time to kill disease causing bacteria. The levels of chlorine in drinking water today can be quite high. Some byproducts of chlorine are known to cause cancer. Also, pesticides are suspected of causing an increasing incidence of cancers, especially breast cancer. The reason for this, as some scientists believe, is that certain pesticides can mimic the action of the estrogen hormone in the body.

Today more than half of the cities in United States fluoridate their water supplies. In many states it is required. Fluoridation of the water supply has become standard because it is believed to help develop strong bones and teeth. So far there is no convincing scientific evidence to support this claim. It is known however, that chronic fluoride use results in numerous health problems including osteoporosis and osteomalacia, and that it also damages teeth leaving them mottled. The naturally occurring form of fluoride, calcium fluoride, is not toxic, but this form of fluoride is not used to fluoridate the water. The salts used to fluoridate the water supply, sodium fluoride and fluorosalicic acid, are industrial byproducts that are never found in nature. These are very toxic, and are also used in rat poison and insecticides. Concern of the safety and health effects of tap water has made many people turn to bottled water.

Carbohydrates are the main source of glucose in blood. Glucose is the major fuel for all cells and the only source for the brain and red blood cells. When there is more glucose in the body than it needs for fuel, part of the remaining portion can be stored in the liver for later use and in the body as fat. Carbohydrates are divided into two groups, simple and complex carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates include all sugars, like fructose, sucrose (table sugar) and lactose found in dairy products, and several other sugars. Large amounts of simple carbohydrates found in fast food and refined food, can lead to a number of disorders, like hypoglycemia, and diabetes. Food high in refined simple sugars is usually also high in unhealthy fats, which should be limited in a healthy diet.

Complex carbohydrates are also made up of sugars, but the sugar molecules form longer and more complex chains. Fiber and starches belong in this group. Many vegetables, whole grains, beans, and peas are rich in complex carbohydrates. Most of the fiber is not digested. Fiber in food results in bulkier and softer stool, which will help to keep the colon clean and prevent constipation and hemorrhoids. It binds certain substances in the digestive track, which would otherwise result in the formation of cholesterol. This way it reduces blood cholesterol level and the risk of heart disease.
A high fiber diet also reduces the risk of colon cancer. The daily recommended amount of fiber is 25 grams.

Protein is essential for growth and development. It is needed for production of hormones, enzymes, antibodies, tissues and energy. There are two groups of dietary protein; complete and incomplete protein. Incomplete proteins are foods which contain some of the essential amino acids, but not all of them. When you combine two incomplete protein foods, you get a high quality complete protein meal. Amino acids are the Building blocks of protein. Amino acids are divided into two groups; essential and nonessential amino acids. Essential amino acids must be included in the diet, and nonessential amino acids can be built by the body from other amino acids.

It is not necessary to get the protein from meat. Because of the high fat content and antibiotics and other chemicals used in raising cattle and poultry, most meat should be eaten in moderation. Most Americans eat too much protein. The recommended amount is about 50 grams protein a day.
All soybean products are complete protein foods. The only animal-derived product that could be recommended for frequent use is yogurt, but not the ones that are sold in the supermarket and filled with sugar, artificial sweeteners and colorings, and other additives. Health stores sell unsweetened natural yogurt, or you can make it yourself and sweeten with natural juices, fruits and berries.

Fats are needed for normal brain and nerve tissue development. It is the most concentrated source of energy available for the body. For adults, excessive fat intake will lead to obesity and numerous other disorders, like heart disease, high blood pressure, and colon cancer. After about two years of age, the body requires only small amounts of fat, but during infancy and childhood fat is necessary for normal brain and nerve development.

It is clear by now that if your goal is to reduce or control a high cholesterol level, you need to avoid saturated fats and products with trans-fatty acids. This includes hardened vegetable oils (margarine and shortening) and most animal fats. Total calories from fats shouldn’t be more than 20 to 25 percent of daily calories.

Vitamins, minerals and micro nutrients are necessary for good health. The FDA (food and drug administration) has formulated recommended daily allowance (RDA) levels for vitamins. These recommendations are only enough to prevent the deficiency disease, but not enough for maintaining maximum health. Especially people who are suffering from chronic illnesses, under great stress, recovering from surgery, mentally or physically ill, use alcohol, are very active and exercise, will need higher amounts of nutrients.

Always consult your health care provider before following any recommendations, starting a new health program, or making changes to your diet or medication.

By: Tarja Anchor

More information about nutrition, organic produce, diets, herbal remedies, body cleansing, and vitamins at Nutritionbases.com

What Are Calories? How To Burn Calories?

2008-07-14T04:43:00.002-07:00

We know that we need to burn more calories than we consume to lose weight. But just what exactly are calories? How are calories being burnt?

Calorie is a form of heat measurement. It is the amount of energy that is required to raise one milliliter of water by one degree Celsius. Calorie measures the amount of heat or energy that is released when you burn food down.

Calories are burnt through a complicated process that oxidizes food to its basic components. For example, if you burn a sugar, it will turn into carbon dioxide. However in the body, the food burnt is converted to forms of energy.

So therefore when you consume food, the food is stored as body fat or glycogen (stored in liver and muscles) to be burnt for energy. Your body’s preference is to burn glycogen first than body fat when you expand energy such as exercising.

The more muscle mass you have, the more calories you will burn. This is because muscle cells are metabolically active where fat cells are not because fat cells do not have much function and are thus not active.

Different food type carries different amount of calories. There are about 4 calories in a gram of protein or carbohydrate and about nine calories in a gram of fat and naturally, the more fat you eat the more calories your body will store.

Some people raise their metabolic rate by eating several small meals a day instead of three big meals. By eating more frequently, your insulin level is also regulated and less insulin will then be converted to body fat.

So how can you burn more calories and further raise your metabolism to naturally burn more calories? Well, build more muscles as explained above, eat frequent small meals and exercise to expand energy and thus burning calories in the process.

By: Chris Chew

Chris Chew is a personal trainer of actors, pageant winners and fashion models. He is the author of "Burn Fat Build Muscles Fast". See his websites Burn Fat Build Muscles Fast System and Singapore Fitness Trainers

Super Healthy Diet Plan!

2008-07-14T04:43:00.001-07:00

Get ready to lose 10 pounds! By paying attention to the amount of food you eat, eliminating unnecessary sugar and fat from your foods and making sure you include absolutely delicious meals and snacks to keep your taste buds happy. Use this easy-to-follow and super healthy diet plan to lose the first 10, the last 10, or any 10 in between! Because it’s a balanced and flexible program, you can stay on this diet as long as it takes.

Top Fast Secrets
• Keep track of everything you eat and drink. No need to estimate calories – just write down the type of food or beverage and the amount.
• Cut your fat intake in half, that means half as much margarine or butter on toast, vegetables and your muffin, half the mayonnaise on your sandwich, and half the oil in the pan when you saute foods. You get the idea!
• Limit the sugar treats to three times per week maximum.
• Include good sources of protein at meal, chicken, fish, legumes, peanut, cottage cheese, eggs or yogurt.
• Eat at least one meatless lunch and dinner each week to reduce fat, increase fiber, and get yourself into the habit of building meals around whole grains, beans and vegetables.
• If you’re not currently using skim milk, go down to the level of fat content in the milk you use. For example, if you currently use two percent, use only one percent. If you insist on whole milk, try two percent.
• Eat at least two servings of fresh fruit every day. Choose whatever type of fruit is in season.
• Instead of fruit juice for breakfast or snack, drink water. Add a slice of lemon or lime for zest.
• Include two servings of vegetables with lunch and dinner, for a total of at least four servings per day.
• Choose one to two servings of foods made from whole grains with every meal.
• Shut off the TV whenever you eat – that includes meals and snacks. Studies show that we automatically eat larger portions when we snack in front of the tube, and typically those foods are high in fat and sugar, which means excess calories!
• Choose calories you can chew – that means only calorie-free beverages (except for milk) Sodas are loaded with empty calories, and fruit juices provide less fiber and vitamins per calorie than the fruit they’re made from.
• Plan ahead for meals and snacks so you know exactly what you plan to eat. Last-minute choice tends to be higher in calories and lower in satisfaction.

DISCLAIMER: This information is not presented by a medical practitioner and is for educational and informational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read.
Since natural and/or dietary supplements are not FDA approved they must be accompanied by a two-part disclaimer on the product label: that the statement has not been evaluated by FDA and that the product is not intended to “diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.”

By: Hans Hasselfors

About the Author: Hans Hasselfors is the founder of SubmitYourNewArticle.com. Visit our article directory for varied articles about diet plan.

Eating The Right Way Towards A Healthy Weight Loss

2008-07-14T04:42:00.002-07:00

Here are some tips to eliminate bad eating behaviors. It may actually help you in your weight loss plans.

1. Eat Slowly
To begin with, it is important to eat slowly. Studies have shown that at least 10 minutes is required before the brain receives the message that the stomach is full.

Your meals should last at least ten minutes. Lengthen your meal by engaging in conversation, resting your fork between courses, chewing slowly and drinking plenty of water between courses. You should also wait at least ten minutes after your main meal before deciding if you need dessert. Within that period of time, you may discover that you weren’t really hungry after all.

Also, do not eat directly from an ice cream carton, tortilla chip bag, or cracker box. Otherwise, you could find yourself easily overeating.

2. Eat At The Table
Eating at the table prevents you from trying to engage in multi-tasking, such as surfing the ‘Net, watching television or flipping through magazines while you eat. At the table, you’ll be forced to concentrate on how much food you are putting into your mouth.

If you eat anywhere else, you may lose track of how much food you’re consuming. Abandon the idea that you must clean your plate. Research has shown that more than half of adults insist on cleaning their plates even when they are already full. This means that you are overeating simply out of politeness.

3. Keep Food Out Of Sight
Do not keep food in plain view during the day. If the cookie jar is open or the pretzel bag is out on the table, you’ll have a tremendous urge to eat, even if you are not hungry. After a meal, put your food away. This way, you’ll actually have to do some work to get at food before you consume it.

4. Change Takes Time
You may be self-conscious at first as you attempt to change your eating habits and begin your weight loss plans. It will take some time to correct those bad habits.

You’ll quickly find that your new eating habits have helped you to lose weight. Hiding your food and eating more slowly will not in themselves cause you to lose weight, but they will help you to curb your overeating over the long run.

If you happen to overeat, don’t spend a great deal of time sulking. Accept your mistake and take corrective actions. Otherwise, you could find yourself eating out of frustration, or going off your diet or weight loss effort entirely. It’s better to sabotage a single meal than a lifetime’s worth of meals.

By: John Lim

More Free Weight Loss Tips at WeightLossArtist.com
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Diet Tips – Five Easy Ways to Lose Weight Fast!

2008-07-14T04:42:00.001-07:00

Many people hate the idea of rigid diets - the good news is that if follow the five proven weight loss tips below, you will lose weight easily.

The diet tips require no real willpower and can improve anyone’s diet and chances of healthy weight control.

1. Drink Water

One of the most effective diet tips is to drink plenty of water. In fact, water is possibly the single most important catalyst in losing weight and keeping it off.

Water acts as a natural appetite suppressant by keeping your stomach full and fending off dehydration that leads to hunger cravings. Water also provides the additional benefit of flushing out toxins from the body and keeping it hydrated.

Water also helps your body metabolize stored fat by helping the kidneys flush out waste. When you don’t drink enough water the liver that works to provide stored fat for energy also takes on the role of helping the kidneys eliminate waste and thus becomes less effective at metabolizing fat.

2. Eat Breakfast

Many people believe one of the best diet tips is skipping breakfast, as it will help them lose weight, this is totally incorrect. Skipping breakfast can make you hungrier later in the day leading to distorted satiety signals (i.e. it's hard to determine when you're full). This can actually result in eating more as a result.

If you don’t have time to eat breakfast or don’t like to, at least have a liquid meal to fuel your body after sleeping and having no nutrition for several hours.

3. Increase Fibre Intake

Eating lots of foods rich in fibre helps keep food moving through your bowels. Just like water, fiber rich foods bulk you up and make you feel full. In fact, the average person could lose around 10 pounds a year just from doubling their fiber intake.

High fiber foods are generally low in calories and fill you up, so eating more of them means you’re eating fewer calories and leaving less room for calories from other foods. Fiber also cuts calories by attaching itself to some of the other proteins and fats that you eat and eliminates them as well.

The average person consumes about 8g of fiber per day, but many experts recommend 25g. Start your day with a high fiber cereal and keep eating fibre throughout the day.

4. Eat Healthy Fats

Many experts claim that fat causes obesity, raises your cholesterol and causes heart disease, but this is not strictly true. If fat is all that bad, why is it part of our natural diet chain? The reason is fat can be very good for you.

Fat provides the body with essential fatty acids (linoleic and linolenic acids) needed for normal reproduction and growth, as well as for production of prostaglandin, a hormone like compound that regulates blood pressure, blood clotting, and inflammation.

When eating fats you should eat healthy fats. Eating “healthy” fats includes the cold-water fish, mackerel and salmon, nuts, and olive oil. By eating healthy fats over unhealthy ones you will lose weight.

5. Lean Protein

Protein is a great weight control tool because of the immediate satiety factor and because it keeps you full for longer periods. It also balances out carbs by preventing insulin spikes that can lead to a drain in energy and sugar cravings.

Protein also helps maintain muscle mass, which is very important in the fat burning process. At least 20% of calories should be in the form of protein.

By: Stephen Todd

More dieting and general health information and FREE exclusive diet and health magazines, are available on our web site: www.net-planet.org

10 Tips To Avoid The Holiday Bulge -And Inner Thoughts About Them

2008-07-14T04:39:00.000-07:00

Do you find it almost impossible to stay conscious and contentious about weight and nutrition during the holidays? Of course you do. More than half of all Americans are overweight. All American's are in this together.

You can take heart from a new government study which shows most Americans gain about a pound over the holiday. You're not alone. The study shows that during the holiday period, for the people in the study, two main things influenced the holiday weight gain: level of hunger and level of activity. Those who reported being less active or more hungry had the greatest weight gain.

If you can stay focused on dealing with just those two things, you'll probably win.

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of weight gain," according to Dr. Samuel Klein. He is Director of the Center for Human Nutrition as Washington University in St. Louis, MO. "Preventing the increase in weight is a lot easier and better than actually gaining weight and then trying to get it off again."

The answer is simple. Eat less and exercise more.

The good news is that most of the people overestimate how much they had gained. Fewer than 10% gain 5 pounds or over.

The bad news is that although the one pound gained seems like a small amount, that weight WAS NOT LOST during the rest of the year and those single pounds accumulate over the years and add up to obesity.

Here are some helpful hints and tips put together by skinny people to help you avoid the tiny little weight watching issues you face during this joyous season [along with the thoughts going through weight watcher Wanda's head as she listened to the skinny people happily chirping out their advice. NOTE: Wanda isn't her real name.]

1)."You SHOULD stay active, darling. The best thing for you to do is to stick to your regular schedule and routine." [Routine? Wanda's family doesn't have no stinking routine in November and December. Wanda doesn't have no stinking time for her regular yoga classes, workouts at the gym, long dog walks, you ninny, because in addition to shopping, home decorating and cooking, Wanda has to take every one of the kids to EXTRA practices and activity for pageants, concerts and freaking fund raisers! Wanda's too ACTIVE to stay active, darling.]

2). "Don't let yourself get hungry. Don't arrive at the party starving. Be sure you eat your normal, healthy meals, especially breakfast. A protein rich breakfast "resets" the body and starts it off not hungry. Don't starve yourself, thinking you can "save up" calories. Fill up before the big holiday feasts with healthy vegetable snacks." [Normal? There ain't no stinking "normal" in November and December, and Wanda's not sure she ever has normal, healthy meals. She's got a life to run. Wanda doesn't't't know where YOU'RE having Thanksgiving, but Wanda's family's appetizer table has God's own Cheese Puffs and Ruffles with sour cream/onion dip, Brie on sourdough and 80 plates of cookies and bowls of peanut M&Ms on every available surface! There is nary a vegetable snack in sight.]

3) "How can you keep the pounds off at calorie rich parties? Stay away from the food! Literally ... stay on the other side of the room from the buffet table or appetizers tray. [Wanda liked this one. She'll just go plant herself in the bathroom and lock the door. Maybe she can find a place under the pile of coats in the back bedroom. A nap sounds nice.]

4). "Wear clothes which are slightly tight and your favorites. You'll think twice about the third helping if you can't let your belt out a notch. Always remember there's about 8 pounds between dress sizes." [What skinny sadist came up with this bright idea? Wanda bets she's a size 2, and hides an eating disorder!]

5). "Portion size is the real secret. Keep salad portions large and all other portions extra small. When it comes to sweets, think quality, not availability. Just because the candy corn is there doesn't mean you have to eat it. Don't be afraid to cut off "just a bite" of a high calorie treat. Put the rest back on the serving tray. If you're the hostess, pre-cut high calorie items into tiny portions to help your friends. Just a bite may be plenty to satisfy you. [Just a bite! Just a bite? Wanda's stressed to the max and darn it, Wanda DESERVES a candy treat ... and a WHOLE one. Heck, Wanda's double stressed, so she deserves ...]

6). "You don't need to be stressed. Take Time for You. Get a massage or a nice facial. Sit down and slip your shoes off." [Don't you know Wanda's facing a month and a half on shopping overdrive and the only place to sit down is at the mall's fast-food court? McDonald's doesn't have a massage spa. If Wanda slips her shoes off, she'll NEVER get them back on again, you fool.]

7). "Keep up your food diary ... every day of the holiday ... it will help you pinpoint your special weaknesses. Just one 150 calorie chocolate chip cookie each day will add up to an extra pound in only 3 weeks." [Wanda can't even find her food diary in chaos house. And, she really needed the information on the cookies. Thank you very much. Wanda just ate three, and she doesn't need any food diary to pinpoint this little weakness.]

8). "Only eat things you really want and care about. So what if your neighbor brought okra au gratin everyone's raving about? Use that space on your plate for a homemade roll, hot from the oven. Put real butter on it. Life is choices. Treat yourself to what you want and LEAVE THE REST IN THE SERVING DISH."[Good advice. How thankful do you think Wanda'd be after a feast of Brussels sprouts and tofu salad while she's passing the yams, potatoes and gravy to Aunt Lucille? Wanda bets Lucille's glad she got granddad's wiry build instead of those wonderful wide childbearing hips from grandma's "peasant" stock!]

9). Drink water instead of alcohol which has empty calories and lowers will power. Avoid sugary sodas which throw your metabolism into pendulum swings. [You didn't mention eggnog. Eggnog is OK, then, right?]

10). "Don't eat while you cook. Those little "tastes" can turn into 1000 calories before you've blinked." [Wanda just spent 304 hours in the kitchen, cooking. She HAS to taste everything before she serves it, or they'll hate it and won't love her any more. And besides, cookie dough doesn't have any calories, does it?]

Well, that's all 10 pieces of holiday advice. Here's just one parting thought from Wanda.

Santa's fat and everybody loves him! The baby Jesus is fat, too. The turkey is so fat it can hardly stand up! Nobody buys a skinny Christmas tree, do they? Get a grip. Get a life. Have a HAPPY holiday.

By: Nicky Pilkington

Find out more about weight management at www.rapid-weight-loss.info/

Do You Know How To Spell Success With Weight Loss?

2008-07-12T23:45:00.001-07:00

You’ve seen the ads: Lose 10 pounds in one week? You’ve seen the headlines in the magazines at the checkout counter: How I Dropped 37 Pounds in Four Weeks. Appealing, isn’t it? Of course it is. But that is not how you spell success.

When you’re overweight it weighs on you. It wears you down. Physically and mentally, it’s a problem that you just want to be rid of. But it is a unique kind of problem.

If you had a drinking problem, as bad as that can be, you could quit. Put down the bottle, and that’s it. Solved.

If you smoke cigarettes, same thing. Toss the pack and go cold turkey. It is tough but you can do it. You can solve that problem in one day.

But if you are overweight, you can’t just give up eating and be over it. You can skip a meal. You can even fast for a week. But eventually you have to eat again. There is no way to stop eating forever and there is no way to lose weight immediately.

Fine, you understand that. But still you want to take it off as fast as possible. Naturally, who wouldn’t? But there’s the trap. So you see the ads. You read the headlines. And you get sucked in .

They suck you in and you suck yourself into a trap. The trap is believing that you really can lose 10 pounds in one week. Or lose 37 pounds in four weeks. Or whatever else they are trying to sell you. And it is a trap.

The human body, your human body, can only take off fat at a certain rate. There is a limit. The limit for most people is about 1-2 pounds per week. Not 10 pounds per week. But 1-2 pounds per week.

You can lose more weight than that. But you can’t lose more fat than that. The limit of fat loss is 1-2 pounds per week. If you lose more than that you are losing lean muscle. And when you do that, when you lose that lean tissue, your metabolic rate slows down. The metabolic rate is how fast your body burns up calories, and if you are overweight this is extremely important.

This has been proven many times in scientific studies. At the University of Rochester researchers found that a rapid weight loss diet caused the resting metabolic rate to decrease 18%. (The safety and efficacy of a controlled low-energy ('very-low-calorie') diet in the treatment of non-insulin-dependent diabetes and obesity. Arch Intern Med. 1988 Apr;148(4):873-7.)

See, it is this simple. If you go on a rapid weight loss diet, you lose fat, but you also lose muscle. Your metabolic rate drops. So you burn up fewer calories. So when you go off the diet (you can’t starve yourself forever) you gain the weight back faster than ever.

Have you done that before? Have you dieted, lost weight, but gained it all back?

Rapid weight loss is not the way to permanent weight loss. Yes, I know it is hard. Yes, I know you want to lose weight right now. Yes, I know the ads and headlines are appealing. But they are leading you into a trap. If you don’t learn this one thing you will be trapped in being overweight for the rest of your life.

You cannot lose weight and keep it off, and have the body you want with rapid weight loss programs. It does not work. It is a trap.

So how do you spell success in weight loss? You spell it P-A-T-I-E-N-C-E. If you can only learn patience, and then learn what really does work to keep the weight off for good, you can lose the weight and have the body you want.

By: Dan Curtis

Dan Curtis, M.D. can help YOU lose weight. Sign up for our free newsletter: Dr. Dan’s Super Weight Loss Tips, Tricks and Secrets. It's free! Click here-- www.superweightlossplan.com/newsletter/

Seven Tips You Need To Know About Permanent Weight Loss

2008-07-12T23:44:00.000-07:00

Weight Loss is becoming a current issue in the whole of the world in these days. Obesity has become a menace to the people of develop countries. Due to increase of comfort and mechanism the manual work has almost ceased in the rich state of the population and the obesity has become a serious problem for this rich and nourish persons.

A lot of health centers under brand names has mushroomed in every city and claimed to weight loss within week, fortnight, or in a month. Mechanically they achieved their claims but such weight loss is injurious to the health as well as it is totally temporary. As and when the person left the health center, He regains his weight with in a month or so. To achieve permanent weight loss or control over weight the following tips are very useful and having no side effects.

1.As a general person should drink at least eight glass of water in a day. Water not only protects from dehydration but also dissolve the extra fatness to keep the body slim and fit.

2.As far as possible wholesome and natural food should be taken. Fried and roasted food should be avoided. Fruit and vegetable should be the main ingredient in your diet as food and vegetable keep you fit but also reduce the extra weight/fatness deposited in abdomen.

3.Refrain from junk food and fast food, as these are the main cause of obesity and cancer.

4.Adopt total vegetarianism. It has been established that the non-veg are more prone to the total disease such as heart attack, Cancer, Diabetes and non-vegetarian become the overweight where as vegetarian remains within the standard weight as per medical weight chart.

5.Morning walk for at least for one hour daily should be the regular phenomena and if possible evening walk can be enjoyed.

6.Weekly fast should be undertaken. Extra fat deposited during the week are consumed in the weekly fast.

7. Body massage is very useful for weight loss. The look warm mustard oil should be massaged at least once in a week and than enjoys the bath. Massage and the sun bath will not only activate your body but also reduce your weight, but care should be taken that the massage over abdomen should be done anti-clock vise and massage over the lower portion of the body should be upward and massage over the upper portion of the body should be downward. In this system of massage your blood circulation will be more effective and friendlier to your heart.

By: Vijay Kumar

Vijay kumar is an Expert Author on the Weight Loss topic. Please Visit for more detail www.gazalplanets.com

If You Don't Track Your Diet… You Are Wasting Your Time

2008-07-12T23:43:00.002-07:00

Frankly, I’m puzzled whenever I hear this from somebody who’s frustrated with their lack of gains:

Me: So what are you eating? How many calories per day and how many do you need?

Them: I don’t know. I just eat.

Huh?

Yes, it’s true. People don’t track their diets, don’t calculate their calories and just guess at what they need. They have no idea where they are going, very little facts on how to get there and yet are frustrated and mad when 6 weeks later they don’t see the results.

Imagine, for a moment, that’s it’s 6-months from today. And you’ve made no progress. Wouldn’t you be frustrated?! I sure would.

But here’s the deal, there’s a real simple method to make sure you don’t end up like so many people you’ll hear about. Please don’t be the person who just “eats” or does whatever without a plan. If you aren’t tracking your diet you are wasting your time!

Let me explain…

In order for your body to change, you must do something different. Let’s suppose that you want to burn as much fat as possible. What’s the first thing you should do now that you have a long-term goal in mind?

Here’s a h-i-n-t!

Make a plan!

A quick plan for losing fat:

1. Determine how many calories a day you need based on your situation

2. Track your daily food intake (yes you should count calories

Bodybuilding manuals go into great detail about how to calculate your caloric intake, giving formulas and such.

Anyway, a typical conversation might go like this:

"Excuse me? My wife made spaghetti bolognaise yesterday, I can't be asked to weigh my meals in order to count the calories, can I? (What would she think about me (not to mention what I would think about myself ;-) ?)

I tried to go to fitday.com and calculate the calories, but it totally eluded me how many grams they were and looking for pasta and meat in different categories is a hassle anyway, so the site was no use for me with that.

Good heavens, there must be a way to go without the calorie counting, mustn't it?"

Despite what you may have heard…

Tracking your diet (counting calories) is important and I'll tell you why and how you can get around the whole calorie counting ordeal.

You see, in order to lose fat or gain muscle you need to know what you are eating in order to do such.

Let's say you need 3000 calories a day to maintain your current weight at your current activity levels.

Now you decide you want to lose fat.

Training more and more, more cardio, longer sessions will just tire you out. You can bump up the cardio and do certain fat loss tips and techniques but overall keep in mind:

Where do I burn the fat:

80% of fat loss comes from diet and 20% from cardio.

As you can see, the area you want to manipulate is the diet.

Back to the example.

You decide to lose the fat. You know you need 3000 a day to maintain. You do some calorie calculations and find that you want to be aggressive and cut your calories by 20%. It's aggressive but it's just enough to get fast results without making your body go into a 'starvation mode' and hold onto everything it's got.

Except you don't want to count calories.

That's sort of like saying...

I want to start in New York and get to California but I don't want a map or directions. I just want to drive West.

It just won't work. You might zig zag here and there. Maybe one week you'll eat less and lose a pound. The next on vacation you'll overdo it and gain 5 pounds. Who knows. You won't.

But do you have to count each calorie? And especially when you look at homemade items that have some many ingredients? What do you do?

While this isn't the most accurate method, I just basically get a good estimate by looking up the general food item, quantity I consumed and input that.

Over time, because I eat a lot of the same things for breakfast, I already know the calories and I don't need to track it anymore. I know via portions that a bowl of oats is such and such calories and how it adds into my total daily allowance.

I personally do not weight each piece of food. I will go to lunch, look at what I'm eating and know generally what portions of what I ate.

At the end of the day, I know roughly that I'm 20% below my maintenance for fat loss and 20% above for weight gain.

The problem that most people have is exactly what you describe.

They DO NOT want to track what they eat.

The bottom line is, if you don't know where you are, and where you are going, you really don't know how you'll get there and it's no wonder so many people are frustrated.

Look, you don't have to track every single piece of food you put into your mouth. And I know that when there's a home cooked meal, you aren't likely to know what's in it. But you can and should generally get an idea.

Eventually you can track your portions if you tend to eat a lot of the same things every day.

If you don’t track your diet, you are wasting your time.

By: Marc David

Marc David is a bodybuilder, writer, and author of the the e-book "The Beginner's Guide to Fitness and Bodybuilding" (BGFB) The Beginner's Guide is oriented towards fitness minded men and women who are just starting or have worked out for years without results. To learn more about the Beginner's Guide, visit Beginning-Bodybuilding at: www.beginning-bodybuilding.com

What is Self Mastery? - Part 2

2008-07-12T23:43:00.001-07:00

To continue with our overview of the physical component of self mastery, it goes without saying that walking is a valuable aerobic exercise - but you have options. You can use a bicycle for nice days, or use indoor aerobic exercise equipment for use on inclement weather days.

My personal favorite is the elliptical trainer. Elliptical trainers allow you to cross train - they are very low impact exercise equipment - you use upper and lower body - and they don’t cause excessive wear in your joints.
Elliptical trainers provide a weight bearing workout that tones muscle, adds to bone density, and burns more calories than an exercise bike.

Some of my clients have literally shed weight away with regular use of an elliptical trainer, Yoga classes, and a moderate diet. That leads into the next aspect of physical health: your diet.

Diet has to be moderate and something you can live with. If your diet causes you to be depressed, you can’t stick with it, due to your mental health. However, that doesn’t justify a “junk food” diet.

So where do you start? Look at your diet now and make moderate adjustments. Don’t get pulled into a “fad diet” that insults your intelligence and causes rapid weight loss. Most clients gain all that weight back, and then some, after they get off the quick fix diet. Hence the nickname, “yo-yo diets”, is a suitable label.

Yoga does have diet plans, and eating in moderation is a key factor. Eating affects mental, physical, and spiritual health. Sometimes the motivation for excessive eating is not due to hunger at all. Food is used to replace an empty feeling, and eating becomes an emotional response, resulting in health problems, due to over consumption of food.

Therefore, eating should be restricted to balanced, nutritionally dense, and moderate meals. You should consider your immune system, daily nutritional requirements, and sustaining strength while consuming meals and drinks throughout the day.

Personal hygiene is another area to consider. Yoga has cleansing practices (Kriyas or Shatkarmas), that would not be entirely accepted in the West. However, suffice to say, that you should keep your orifices clean, brush your teeth and tongue, floss, drink a lot of pure water, monitor your skin, and listen to your body. A little prevention goes a long way in regard to your health.

Yoga also teaches you how to breathe fully from the bottom of the lungs. There are many Yoga breathing techniques called, “pranayama.” The best result from this practice is to get more oxygen into your blood, and proper breathing can make you feel more energetic.

The last point to bring up about your physical health is that you should be taking a daily multi-vitamin and mineral supplement. Choose one of good quality and research your choice. Choose an appropriate supplement for your age and gender.

By: Paul M. Jerard Jr.

Paul Jerard, is a co-owner/director of Yoga teacher training at Aura Wellness Center. He has been a certified Master Yoga teacher since 1995. He is a master instructor of martial arts. He teaches Yoga, martial arts, and fitness to children, adults, and seniors. Recently he wrote: Is Running a Yoga Business Right for You? For Yoga students, who may be considering a new career as a Yoga teacher. www.yoga-teacher-training.org

Lose Weight To Gain Confidence And Self Esteem

2008-07-12T23:41:00.000-07:00

To lose weight is simple. Yes, you heard it right, it is simple. All it requires is your commitment and dedicated discipline.

NUTRITION - Physiologically, you have to burn 7000 calories to lose 1 kg or 2.2 pounds. You can lose those weight through a combination of decreasing caloric intake to a healthy level and expending calories through physical activities such as taking up an exercise program.

For example, let's say you are consuming 2,000 calories a day, when you decrease caloric consumption by 300 calories (a small cheese burger) and burn another 200 calories through exercise a day (25 minute jog), you would be at a 500 caloric deficit.

So, just by eating 300 less calories a day and expending 200 calories a day through physical activities will result in a net of half kg lost per week. You are then losing a slightly more than a pound of fat per week. This can be done too by eating food that you enjoy! Simple as promised isn't it?

Do eat six small meals a day. This will keep your metabolism engine humming throughout the entire day and at the same time, your body will not starve thus will not conserve too much fat. At the same time, as your body is being fed continuously the nutrients that you eat are being utilized more effectively.

WEIGHT TRAINING - Never embark weight loss without weight training because when you are on a diet or cardio (aerobics) only program, you will lose some muscle mass as well. When that happens, your metabolic rate will slow down and fat will be conserved.

You want to lose weight from body fat and not lose weight from muscles. Furthermore, your goal of being sexily attractive and desirable is also defeated because without muscle tone when weight is lost, you will only end up a smaller version of what you were before without any nice sexy curves and muscle tone.

With nice defined toned muscles and less body fat, you will gain self confidence and self esteem real fast.

As a beginner, workout three days per week on alternate days for about 45-60 minutes with weights.
Perform exercises for the entire body -- doing about 2-3 sets per body part for 8-12 repetitions.

Why do you want to build muscle besides just looking gorgeous? Well, another reason is that for every pound of muscle gained, your body burn an additional of 20-40 calories per day! You burn fat even when you are sleeping! Interesting isn't it?

Your body will feel firmer, stronger and you will see muscles building up within weeks. Weights are needed to sculpt the type of body that you desire. Just 45 minutes to an hour in the gym will do. Your body needs to recover and if you lift weight intensively, you will produce a hormone called cortisol which can destroy muscle cells after an hour or so of intensive lifting. So more is not better.

Below is a list of recommended exercises you can choose from for each body part:

Leg muscle workout -- squats, lunges, leg extensions, leg curl, calf raise, stiff legged dead lifts

Chest/Pecs/Pectoral muscle workout -- bench press, incline press, dumbbell fly, push-ups

Back muscle workout -- dead-lifts, chin ups, pull-ups, seated row, barbell rows, pullovers

Shoulders/Deltoids/Delts muscle workout -- military press, lateral raise, front raise, shrugs

Biceps muscle workout -- hammer curl, dumbbell curl, barbell curl, concentration curl

Triceps muscle workout -- triceps kickbacks, diamond pushups, press-downs, dips, tricep extensions

Abs/Abdominal muscle workout -- bicycle crunch, basic crunch, reverse crunch, knee-ups, the plank, hanging leg raise

AEROBIC EXERCISE - Commonly called cardio workout. Perform cardio 3-4 days per week for 20 minutes. Try to stay in a range of 65- 80percent of your Maximum Heart Rate. Your maximum heart rate is 220 minus your age. In addition, change your mode of cardio every few weeks. The body is designed to adapt, so you need to change your workouts frequently.

Aerobic exercise will help rev up your metabolism (power walking, jogging, swimming and mountain biking). It works like magic when combined with weight training. Try different forms of cardio like participating in active sports. Find an activity that you enjoy!

LIFESTYLE CHANGES - When your lifestyle changes slightly, your weight loss goals will fall into place. You have to start thinking in terms of improving your health, fitness, nutrition and exercise habits.

Forget about fad diets or popping diet pills or slimming pills which usually cause drastic reduction of caloric intake. These diets are difficult to stick to and because of the massive caloric deficit, your body will go into the famine mode and conserve fats for emergency use. Your body will also cannibalize your muscles for energy and that means a slowing down of your fat burning metabolism.

You will sooner or later hit a plateau and when you are off the diet or stop taking diet and slimming pills , all your extra pounds and kilos will come right back.

Your general fitness and health will also improve day by day. It doesn't matter whether your goal is to lose 10kg or 30kg. Once you have this "lifestyle change" habits, it will get a lot easier.

GOALS - To make your goals work, write them down! Make them measurable and realistic. For example, a short-term goal might be, "My goal is to lose 1 pound per week for the next 4 weeks." A long-term goal might be "I will lose 20kg by ......" And then set out the steps on what you are supposed to do and do then it.

Review your goals each week to internalized them within yourself. If you experienced a setback or standstill with your goals, don't panic and give up! Plod on! Soon you will be richly rewarded by owning an attractive and desirable body that others can only talk about!

And that's it. Simple? Yes. But for it to work, your commitment is crucial. Gain back your confidence and self esteem now.

By: Chris Chew

Chris Chew is a personal trainer for actors, male pageant winners, fashion models and other celebrities. See his websites Transform your body in 12 weeks and Personal Trainer Certification

Miracle One-Bite Weight Loss Trick

2008-07-11T00:48:00.001-07:00

Remember the old "betcha can't eat just one" potato chip commercial? The idea was that if you gave in and ate one potato chip, before you knew it, the whole bag would be gone.

So dieters have this adage burned into their memories, thinking they can't let any "forbidden fruit" even touch their lips, lest they fall off their diet and descend into an engorgement abyss.

But are dieters like alcoholics where just one taste of alcohol leads to intoxication?

Some experts will tell you to just say NO to food temptations. This may work for some, but not everyone has the same psychological makeup and each individual responds to different motivations.

Oddly enough, depriving yourself of that treat can build it into a bigger monster than it needs to be.

The constant fear of chocolate cake or fettuccine becomes all consuming.

If you are the type of person who falls off the diet wagon, becomes depressed, then dumps the weight loss program totally, perhaps you need to indulge yourself in a small way.

Better to take one small bite, get that needed flavor, then let the urge pass.

Of course, you don't want to worship the one bite and plan your day for it, either. Moderation is the key.

First, decide what nondiet food you are yearning for. Is it sweet? Salty? Fat-laden?

Second, plan how often you need to "quench" the craving. Every day? Once a week? Whatever keeps you on track for the long term is the answer here.

Now, get a small piece of whatever you have been yearning for. Buy a candy bar, take one small section of it, about one inch square, and give the rest to a friend.

Buy a snack size bag a potato chips and share it with a hungry child.

Or, go out for lunch with a friend who is not dieting. Arrange in advance for them to order that food you are dreaming about. When your meals arrive, you take one small portion from them, satisfy the craving, then happily crunch down that salad.

Consume your food slowly, chewing thoroughly, and savoring the taste.

When it is gone, think back on how much you enjoyed the experience. Feel good about the fact that you didn't need an entire cake to satisfy you, just a tiny portion. Think about how good your stomach feels when it is not stuffed with food. Congratulate yourself for sticking with your weight loss plan.

By: Kathy Ferneau

Kathy Ferneau has created an excellent resource for information on diets, healthy eating, and exercise. Get a free smoothie recipe e-book just for visiting! www.lose-weight-diets.com

Beware The Summer BBQ!

2008-07-11T00:47:00.000-07:00

Now that it's summer, it's almost impossible to avoid the ever-popular summer BBQ. Some of our favorite meals are cooked over charcoal, but we still need to be aware that many of the traditional 'summer' foods are packed with fat and calories!

Isn't it ironic that some of the 'fattest' foods make their debut in the summer when we're all trying to fit into that bathing suit?

So which traditional summer foods will break the belt?

HOT DOGS. Although they're small, the typical hot dog contains about 30% of your daily saturated fat intake! At about 180 calories each, hot dogs may seem quite harmless until we realize that 140 of those calories are from FAT. Don't forget that the average hot dog bun has 110 calories, which boosts the total to 250 calories per hot dog.

HAMBURGERS. Ground beef comes in all sorts of varieties, from 'full-fat' to 'low-fat'. You'll pay more for the low-fat version, but it's worth it. The average hamburger has about 275 calories and 12 grams of fat (includes the bun). That's slightly less fat than the hot dog, but more calories. "The secret to keeping the burger lean is to avoid the high fat toppings such as mayonnaise, bacon, cheese or sauces and instead, garnish simply with ketchup, mustard, tomatoes, onions and relishes" (Source: Ontario Cattlemen's Association). Pile on the high-calories toppings and you'll boost the calorie count to 800 or even higher!!

POTATO CHIPS. A summer BBQ just wouldn't be a BBQ without the chips! But while we're enjoying the crunch, we're putting on the pounds. Many brands of potato chips contain about 150 calories per serving. Doesn't sound like much? Consider that what they call a 'serving' is really one ounce.....11 chips. Here's another way to look at it: each SINGLE potato chip provides a bit more than 1% of your daily recommended fat intake!

So what's a summer-BBQ-lovin' person to do? Relax! There's no need to avoid the fun this summer! By just making a few creative adjustments to the menu, we can enjoy the family picnic while keeping our diet under control.

Try fruits, veggies and baked beans instead of chips. We all know the health benefits of eating more fruits and vegetables, so focus on those instead of full-fat potato chips. High in fiber and low in calories, these choices will help us feel full without putting on the pounds.

Try a ground turkey patty instead of a hamburger. It will save you more than 100 calories, and it's really not bad tasting! Be sure to look for SKINLESS ground turkey, which has far fewer calores than just 'ground turkey'.

Consider putting some boneless, skinless chicken breasts on the BBQ instead of beef. Lower in calories and fat, chicken breasts are a good choice for any event.

Don't forget about fish! The choices are almost endless, and the health benefits are overwhelming. Put some salmon on the BBQ and enjoy! "We recommend eating fish (particularly fatty fish) at least two times a week. Fish is a good source of protein and doesn’t have the high saturated fat that fatty meat products do" (Source: americanheart.org).

Finally, watch the drinks. High-calorie beverages like lemonade and Kool-Aid boast between 60 and 100 calories per glass, and sometimes even more. A single can of soda usually contains about 160 calories. Choose low-calorie drinks like iced tea (unsweetened) or just plain old water.

With just a little effort, the summer BBQ doesn't have to add inches or pounds! Choose healthy, low-fat and low-calorie foods instead of the traditional fare and keep those pounds off!

Have a GREAT summer!

By: Tracie Johanson

Tracie Johanson is the founder of Pick Up The Pace, a 30-minute exercise studio for women, focusing on fitness, health and nutrition for maximum weight loss. Please visit www.letspickupthepace.com/ for more information.

Some Simple Tips To Help You Eat Healthier

2008-07-11T00:46:00.002-07:00

All the different diet gurus espouse diets that are polar opposites of each other. The Atkins diet tells you to stay away from carbs and other experts tell you that carbs are important. The key to long term weight loss and attaining and maintaining your ideal weight is to eat healthy foods. The tips given here will help you to do just that.

The first thing to think about which is rarely covered in diet books and programs is in regard to your grocery shopping habits. Grocery stores typically keep all the processed foods and junk foods on the interior of the store so just make a trip around the perimeter and load your shopping cart up with natural foods like fresh fruits and vegetables. When shopping for proteins opt for fresh fish and poultry. If you want red meat go with only lean cuts and eat red meats sparingly.

Another tip that many people cannot seem to get their head around is to eat more meals. Let me explain. Instead of skipping meals which slows down your metabolism or eating three big meals that leave you bloated and overfull eat several smaller meals. Ideally you should eat meals about the size of your open hand every three to four hours. This will allow for the most optimum absorption and will also help you to feel full.

Eat foods as close as possible to nature. Fresh raw foods are the absolute healthiest foods you can consume. If it comes in a box it is generally to be avoided. Eat fresh potatoes instead of mashed potatoes from a box for example. Raw natural foods are lower in calories and are rich in vitamins and minerals that your body needs to be healthy.

Keep your food from being boring by experimenting with a variety of different spices and cooking methods. Just because you are dieting doesn’t mean that your food can’t taste good. Grilling is a great way to add a different taste to your food and you can even grill vegetables by placing them in tin foil. One of my favorites is to take sliced squash and zucchini, sprinkle minced garlic over them, wrap them in tin foil and place them on the grill. Try this one, I promise you will like it.

Always watch your fat intake and be careful of products that say “reduced fat”, that doesn’t always mean that it is acceptable. There are many high fat products that offer a reduced fat version that is still way too much fat. Another issue with some low fat products is that they replace the fat content with a form of sugar that ends up adding just as many calories and will end up sabotaging your diet efforts. I urge everyone to only drink low fat or skim milk as well. This alone will significantly reduce your fat and calorie intake.

By: Gregg Hall

Gregg Hall is a business consultant and author for many online and offline businesses and lives in Navarre Florida with his 16 year old son. For more on health food products go to www.shop4betterhealth.com

Copy Others When Trying To Lose Weight

2008-07-11T00:46:00.001-07:00

Over the past few years while working as a personal trainer, I've been fortunate enough to study weight loss, and more importantly, success. I've also come to realize a very important concept about both of them.

Successful weight loss is not so much what you know. In fact, success with weight loss is also not completely dependent upon what you do. What is important and what ultimately leads to permanent, successful weight loss is what you know and do together that makes all the difference.

Let me illustrate the point that simply just exercising or just dieting without knowledge of what to work on doesn't guarantee success.

I've worked in a health club setting in the past both as a personal trainer as well as a fitness coordinator.

I've seen many, many people exercising without a trainer and without knowledge of what it truly takes to change their body.

Many of these people, even working out five to six times a week for the two years I worked in this particular health club, did not change their bodies hardly at all in those two years.

In fact, I witnessed many people exercise for hours a day, six days a week not slim down or gain lean muscle at all. They were doing something, in fact, many of them were doing quite a bit. But were they making weight loss a habit or just an hour's worth of time spent six or seven days a week. I will tell you this: Simply exercising a lot is not the key to weight loss.

These people were missing a key element that consisted of more than just doing exercises. They were missing the element of being informed and educated about the principles behind weight loss.

They were missing the principle that weight loss must be more than exercise, more than diet, and more than aerobics.

Weight loss must be the correct approach to all of these and must be in such a proportion that they become habit soon after implementing them.

The flipside is true as well. Just knowing how to change your body will not change it without taking some form of consistent action and putting the knowledge to use.

The key to achieving permanent weight loss is the combination of knowledge and action, knowing and doing.

Over a long enough time, this combination of knowing and doing will hopefully evolve into habit where you start doing certain things that attribute to weight loss without even consciously thinking of them.

You begin eating certain healthy foods at certain time. You become used to going directly to the gym after work.

Weight loss must be a habit for it to be long term. Any time you revert back to the old, unproductive lifestyle, the chance of that old weight also comes back.

Any time that you decide to abandon these principles you run the risk of ending one habit pattern and forming another one.

If you have any doubts that changing your body for the better will also change your life for the better, I can tell you personally that it does.

Since I've lost over 50 pounds three years ago, my life has changed dramatically.

I have more energy, I feel better about myself, I have a new fulfilling career, and much more.

And it all started when I hit the point of frustration and decided that enough was enough.

From that moment of frustration came a moment of clarity, one that stays with me to this day. For out of that frustration came desperation and dissatisfaction and out of dissatisfaction came power.

Power to finally take responsibility of my actions, power to choose having a great body over having a piece of pizza.

This dissatisfaction produced great motivation because I was at a place where I no longer wanted to be and I knew it would be me and only me that made the choice to change.

I began to ask myself very hard questions that only I knew the answers to.

Soon after really getting to know exactly what I wanted to acheive,I went from a depression-like state to finally having purpose and knowing why I was put here on this earth.

Just 12 weeks prior, I wasn't even sure if I could walk up the stairs of my house without getting tired.

I was constantly talking to my self negatively and many times told myself that I was too fat to feel happy and was too fat to make anything worthwhile out of my life.

Now I was entering a fitness competition and no longer had the overbearing feelings of depression and anxiety. I made this all happen in 12 weeks. This was enough time to make certain productive actions habit.

I also made the decision to study certain aspects of success in weight loss and success in life. My belief was "Hey, if there are people achieving and recieving exactly what it is I want to have, then it's possible for me to get it as well."

I think that was the deciding point in my life where I made success and weight loss a journey. It was and still is a journey I undertook not just to help myself escape the depressing chains that often come with being overweight, but more importantly a journey I make to help other people realize that they do not have to put up with the frustration in their lives from being overweight.

If you're willing to make the choice to change, you can follow the same steps I took to change my life.

However, you need to be frustrated where you are right now. If not I am not sure the motivation to continue will be powerful enough to stick this out.

Good things come from combining frustration with a plan. So as I talk to you using the words in this article, I want you to understand that I am going to take your hand and lead you through the path of weight loss habit and ultimately success.

You can take comfort in knowing that I've been on both sides. I want to take you to this other side with me.

Make a study of successful weight loss and resolve to learn exactly what it is you need to do to change your body.

I learned what it took to lose fat by studying other bodybuilders, fitness competitors, and athletes. I learned they all took certain steps to get lean, toned, muscular bodies.

That's when I realized that if you model and copy other successful people, you too can achieve similar results.

It's the same principle behind using a roadmap. It's quicker following a path that has already been laid out for you than trying to arrive somewhere by trial and error.

Use my roadmap of weight loss success. It's not a difficult map to follow. In fact, the simplicity of it often times makes people think that it may not work. Many people are afraid of simplicity They feel that anything worthwhile has to be achieved through a long and difficult process.

This is just not the case. I was able to get my best body ever by simply following some simple, effective methods that soon became habit for me anyways.

You will not have to make weight loss a long study, just make it a study. You will soon see that the recommended advice in this program and any other that you study have been around for as long as you can remember.

You will also read things you have read many times before. Again, its because there really is not anything new that has been "discovered" about weight loss.

The age-old advice of proper nutrition and exercise is still useful today. But if that's all it took, why is it we are getting more overweight as a society each and every year. A full 60% of the U.S. adult population is now considered overweight.

Americans are spending over 35 billion dollars each year on health and weight loss related products. This seems to be of little success.

Things are not working because people are not approaching it correctly. People see weight loss as something they work for for a ittle while and then give up. That will not work. Weight loss must become and stay a habit for it to be permanent.

If you follow and use these steps laid out in this book until they become habit, you will not have to worry about weight loss again. The Law of Cause and Effect is in direct use here. If you take specific actions, you will get certain results.

We are struggling as a sociey with weight loss because people are attempting to combat it with short term solutions and it is not a short term problem.

We have to get to the root of the problem, which is peoples behavior towards weight loss. Successful weight loss is 80% behavior and only 20% "know-how." The age old advice of "Eat nutritiously and exercise often" falls into this "know how" group and simply doesn't get the job done.

The answer lies in the "behavior" end of the plan. Once you begin to change your behavior for the better, you will also begin to change your outcome. By changing your behavior so that certain steps you take become habit will ensure that weight loss will follow as a direct result of that behavior.

Shortly we will cover some of the steps you can take to change your behavior and, in effect, your life.

You can have anything you want in life by copying someone else that has already achieved and has what you want.

You can learn and study the things that others have done that has led them to the same goals you have.

Why spend all that time re-inventing the weight loss wheel. Just begin dooing some of the things they did to achieve what it is you want.

By learning from books, tapes, courses, and other informative tools, you can learn, study, and have anything that anyone else has.

The mere fact that they possess it is proof that you can as well. You are human and they are human. What anyone else has and has done, you can as well. The only variable is how hard you are willing to work to get it and the effort you put in.

The possibilities are endless for what you can learn, do, and have by studying what others have done successfully.

This can be the case with weight loss and fitness as well.The deciding factor is whether or not you'll take the action necessary to get what you want.

Simply reading a "how-to" book will not help you much if you don't put it's principles into action. That is the reason that most "self-help" books contain action exercises at the end of each chapter. Knowledge is not much use by itself.

It's what you do with that knowledge that matters. By putting into action certain steps, you more than likely will get certain results. That is not the case with just reading something and failing to use it.

You must apply to your own situation what it is you just read and that is where the magic begins.

You have the power to decide what you will do and what you will accept in your life.You must be willing to demand more from yourself than others would demand from you. You can start by making better choices in your life about how you eat, live, and exercise. The result will be a greater physical and emotional self than you have ever experienced before.

After all, changing your outside for the better goes hand in hand with changing your inside for the better.

So if you're looking to lose weight, gain muscle, or achieve any worthwhile goal, find someone that's already done it and copy what they did!

By: Shawn LeBrun

Learn how to lose fat and gain toned muscle in less time. Personal trainer and natural bodybuilder Shawn Lebrun shows you, step-by-step, exactly how to get your best body ever: Visit Shawn Lebrun Fitness

Fitness Expert Reveals How You Can Actually Lose Weight During The Holidays

2008-07-11T00:41:00.000-07:00

Well, it's that time of year that most of us either love or hate (or a little of both).

The holiday season is upon us and although you may be likely to pack on some pounds during this time of bountiful food, with a little planning, that doesn't have to be the case.

Below you'll find some simple tips from personal trainer and fitness expert Shawn Lebrun that will help you stay thin through the holiday season.

1. Nibble on food throughout the day.

If you graze and snack on a little here and there all day, you will not build up that chance to be extremely hungry.

Instead of eating one large meal, which ends with an unbuttoning of the pants to let your extended stomach go free, try having 2 or 3 smaller meals throughout the day.

Not to mention, eating smaller snacks throughout the day keeps your metabolism burning faster.

Two or three hours before the "sit-down dinner, snack on some fruit, some carrot and celery sticks, or any other lower calorie foods. Then, when it's dinner time, you won't be as hungry.

2. Skip the gravy, dressings, and high-calorie condiments.

If you're cautious about calories but still want to enjoy the main Thanksgiving feast, skip the gravy and fatty dressings.

If the turkey is too dry without some type of sauce, use ketchup or a low-fat gravy. Many times, the dressings and condiments are worse culprits than the foods you put them on.

3. Eat more vegetables with your meal.

Instead of loading up the potatoes and stuffing, choose to have more vegetables with your turkey.

On a calorie basis, you're better off eating a larger serving of veggies than you are carbs like potatoes, rice, stuffing, or bread.

4. Drink a lot of water throughout the day.

This will help with hunger throughout the day. Water is a great appetite suppressant and if you're constantly sipping all day, you will not find yourself starving.

5. Go outside and be active

Sitting around the house all day watching T.V., smelling the food cooking will keep you salivating and your stomach growling.

Take a pre-dinner walk with the family or the dog. Go to the park, watch the kids play ball. If you're really motivated, go for a jog/run before dinner or later in the evening.

Being active will not only help burn off more calories than sitting in front of the tube, it will also keep you from being in "eating mode" from the kitchen aromas.

7. Have a smaller dessert

Don't skip dessert, just moderate it. Have a small sliver of pie with a larger serving of Fat-Free Cool Whip or other non-dairy topping.

Again, my feeling is to enjoy yourself and eat a little of anything you want. The holidays are not a time to feel deprived. They are meant to be happy, spending time with friends and family.

If you're dedicated to being in shape, one day will not ruin your results.

By: Shawn LeBrun

Shawn Lebrun is an online fitness trainer and natural bodybuilder. Learn how he can help you build muscle, lose fat, and help you get your best body ever in 2006! Visit Shawn Lebrun Fitness.com

Trick Your Body To Lose Weight With A Little Fat

2008-07-10T04:48:00.001-07:00

Two out of three Americans are overweight. The primary cause is that we eat more and exercise less. There is no doubt that the more advances we make that enhance our lifestyle the heavier we become. Wait a minute! What about all those low-fat foods that we eat now? How come I reduced fat in my diet but I’m still gaining weight?

It’s a simple answer. A few years ago we all became aware of the detrimental effects of fat in our diet. What did we do? We began to concentrate on lowering cholesterol and taking fat out of our diets. This is a good thing. However, The National Center for Health Statistics studied eating habits of 8,260 adult American between 1988 and 1991. Their research showed that Americans had significantly reduced their fat intake but still packed on the pounds. How can this happen? There is no mystery. In the process of counting fat grams, we stopped counting calories! Many of us bought in to the theory that if it is “low-fat” it won’t make us fat.

WRONG!

You can’t forget about counting calories. If you eat more calories than you need the body will store them as fat. It doesn’t matter whether the calories are from fat or carbohydrates. One school of thought believes that eating small amounts of fat can actually keep you from over indulging on total calories. The theory is that dietary fat causes our bodies to produce a hormone that tells the intestines to slow down the emptying process. You feel full and therefore are less likely to overeat. Adding a little peanut butter to your rice cake may satisfy your hunger for a longer period of time, thus preventing you from eating more than you need. Here’s more news that is surprising. Tufts University scientists put 11 middle aged men and women volunteers on a variety of average, reduced and low-fat diets. What were the results? Extremely low-fat diets which provided only 15 percent fat from calories (this is a diet near impossible in real life) did have a positive effect on blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
However, a reduced-fat diet (much more realistic) only affected those levels if accompanied by weight loss. In fact, they concluded, cutting fat without losing weight actually increased triglyceride levels and decreased high density lipoproteins (HDLs), the “good” cholesterol that helps protect again heart disease.

So try this little trick and add a little fat to your diet and see what it does for you. You will be surprised by the results.

By: Glenn Freiboth

Glenn Freiboth is a Certified Health Advisor lives in Illinois and has helped many overweight and obese people lose weight and keep it off. Get Medifast weight loss products at www.GetYouHealth.com

How To Cop An Attitude With An Overzealous Hostess

2008-07-10T04:47:00.001-07:00

We all encounter those hosts and hostesses who feel it is their duty to make us eat whatever their specialty is and generate a sense of guilt if we do not flatter their creation by stuffing ourselves with it, regardless of our weight control plans and weight loss goals. Here are some nice ways to decline her offering.

For example's sake, we will use her justly famous (but horrendously caloric) cheesecake.

10 Nice Ways to Decline:

1. Thanks, but I came to enjoy your company, not your cheesecake.
2. I'll trade everything on that plate for a cup of your incomparable coffee.
3. Before I eat anything, I'd love to see your new vacation pictures.
4. This time I'm really losing weight so I can't break down, even though I know how delicious your cheesecake always is.
5. Thanks, but no thanks.
6. Thanks, but I'm on a mission - to thin-dom.
7. It looks too good to eat . . . I'd hate to spoil it.
8. I'm on a very strict diet that unfortunately bans your terrific cheesecake.
9. I already filled up on your wonderful dinner, perhaps next time. 1
0. Wow, that looks gorgeous but it just isn't something I'm allowed right now.

When these don't work (and they won't), bring on the big guns - the declinations that ensure your hostess will not continue to press you further but may actually retreat to the other side of the room to bug someone else.

The Big 15 (That Really Work):

1. Sorry, but I'm allergic to cheesecake . . . my eyes swell shut.
2. Thanks, but cheesecake always gives me flatulence. 3. Thanks, but I'm already so full I'm having trouble keeping everything down . . . where's your bathroom? 4. Thanks, but I see my personal trainer first thing in the morning and if I've slipped, he's a sadist!
5. I spent the day at the dentist's office so I couldn't touch anything.
6. My aunt got food poisoning from eating cheesecake and I just can't face it anymore.
7. Sorry, but I hate cheesecake.
8. My grandmother was eating cheesecake when she died. I've never touched it since.
9. I'd love to, but cheesecake always gives me immediate hives.
10. Sorry, but I'm a cheesecake alcoholic. One bite and I'll eat the whole thing.
11. Sorry, I don't do cheesecake - and you shouldn't either, honey.
12. I'm fasting this week and it's time for my enema. 13. I'd love some, but cheesecake always makes me throw up.
14. Cheesecake always makes my crowns fall out.
15. If I eat that, I'll be forced to lead all your guests in 50 sit ups immediately afterwards.

Caution: you may not be invited back again for a while (but you're on your way to successful weight control).

By: Virginia Bola
Dr. Bola is a psychologist and an admitted diet fanatic, specializing in therapeutic reframing and the effects of attitudes and motivation on individual goals. She is the author of a psychology-based workbook for permanent weight control. Reach her at: www.DietWithAnAttitude.com/index2.html

Weight Control: Operationalizing Your Plans

2008-07-10T04:46:00.000-07:00

We have such good weight loss intentions. We emotionally beat ourselves up for lack of self-discipline, weakness, cheating. We swear to change, to put looks and health ahead of comfort and self-indulgence. We promise to change. We want, more than almost anything else, to be the svelte, attractive individual we see in our own minds.

Before you run off, filled with enthusiasm for your latest, greatest, and final (you swear) weight control plans, slow down and take the time to operationalize your goals and the likelihood of your success will increase exponentially.

Here is one method:

"I'm going to lose 25 pounds before summer so I can feel comfortable in a bathing suit."

Take that dream and break it down into specific, limited steps:

1. Take at least a week to carefully select the diet, eating plan, or exercise routine you intend to follow.

2. Aim to adhere to your plan for at least 5 days per week for the loss of one pound.

3. If weight loss is less than a pound, determine to follow your plan for 7 days per week until you reach that one pound per week goal.

4. If you lose more than a pound, smile and enjoy.

5. Limit new or additional exercise routines to 10 minutes at a time, once per day, 3 days per week. You may easily want to do more but try to limit yourself. That will keep your desires strong and have you eagerly looking forward to the second month when you can expand your routines substantially.

"I'm going to let everyone know that this time is it - I am truly determined to reach my goal."

Before you share your intentions with everyone, pause and consider:

1. There are some advantages to having family and friends know about your plans. Not wanting to disappoint them or appear as a failure in their eyes may motivate you to bypass the inevitable temptations that frequently arise. However, you do expose yourself to disapproval if your goals are not met or if you encounter the dreaded plateau which others often do not understand.

2. Determine who should know. If you have a history of failed weight control attempts, the response to your newest plan may be only a cynical shrug or, worse, the negative response of "Why is this time any different? You've never stuck to it before." If you suspect that you might hear something like that, don't say anything about your plans until you are well on your way.

3. Do family members or friends have a vested interest in seeing you remain overweight? Do your fat friends fear that your success will make them feel bad about themselves? When you diet, do you become cranky and difficult for your family to live with? Does your spouse or parent equate food with love and can't handle your rejection of their treats?

4. Don't be a diet bore. No one else (unless you belong to a weight control support group) is half as interested as you are (right now) in the number of calories, grams of fat and carbohydrates in everything on the table, nor why what they are eating is bad for them.

5. Consider not telling anyone about your plans and make a game of it. Rather than saying "That looks good but I can't have any," fool everyone by stating "Sorry, but I just feel like having a salad . . . I just want a hamburger without that soggy bun . . . I have this recent craving for fish/vegetables." No one will second guess your decisions on what to eat when you make it clear that it is your choice, not an unpleasant necessity. When they notice that you have lost weight, pretend to be surprised and watch them roll their eyes in envy.

"I love this new eating plan because I can have so many tasty meals if I just make a few substitutions."

Ah, the so human desire to avoid pain is alive and well. Analyze your thoughts:

1. Face the fact squarely that dieting is not going to be a festive cruise through delicious and taste-tempting fodder. Yes, there are ways to make cottage cheese less chalky and spike vegetables with extra flavor. Later, when you reach your goal, you can start to indulge your epicurean creativity. For the initial, drastic steps, you are going to have to seek fun and satisfaction in other pursuits while acknowledging that, for now, food isn't very exciting. Grin and bear it: the less tempting your plate, the easier it is not to overeat. Remember that you are trying to fight temptation not encourage it.

2. Be honest with yourself and don't try to circumvent your plans by relying on claims you know are false. If you are pursuing low carb eating, candy bars which claim to be "low carb" are not something you want to devour with abandon. Whole grain bread is nutritious but consuming everything in the form of a sandwich will never result in reaching your goal. If your diet advises "Any amount from Column C," use your intelligence to see that it doesn't mean stuffing yourself completely, and often, even if your intake is limited to vegetables, protein, or whatever your plan allows.

3. While skipping meals can often cause problems, cutting out courses is usually totally beneficial. Who decreed that a meal should conclude with dessert? The goal is to curb that sweet tooth, not assuage it. Why mess with "low calorie" treats such as jello or fruit compote when you can skip dessert entirely and opt for a cup of freshly brewed coffee or green tea?

"This time, it's different. I really want to lose weight and look good in my clothes."

Have you ever heard yourself say that before? Consider a little personal introspection:

1. Why is this time different? When you tried to lose weight in the past, weren't you as equally determined? What about your life is different this time? Is the diet new and may work better than those you have tried in the past? Have you become increasingly worried about what overweight may mean to your health and longevity? Are you newly single and feel that appearance is suddenly more important than enjoying fine dining?

2. Has your attitude about food changed? If you continue to think about food, watch television cooking shows (just looking for low calorie recipes, of course), and plan meals with anticipation, you are doomed. As long as you remain tied to the American national infatuation with food, you will never really take control of your weight

3. Examine and modify your attitudes about food. Push eating into a non-dominant section of your overall lifestyle and maximize your pleasure in non-food pursuits. That is the secret to regaining control of your weight, your health, and your ability to live a live without the compulsions that have kept you a prisoner inside the bloated body you detest.

Complete analysis of how you are going to set your goals and how you will handle the requirements of "real life" is what can set your present effort apart from prior attempts, and prior failures. Successful long term weight control is more than what you eat, it is what you are.

By: Virginia Bola

Dr. Bola is a psychologist and an admitted diet fanatic, specializing in therapeutic reframing and the effects of attitudes and motivation on individual goals. She is the author of a psychology-based workbook for permanent weight control. Reach her at: www.DietWithAnAttitude.com/index2.html

Are You Eating Healthy?

2008-07-10T04:45:00.000-07:00

Is there an easy way to determine if your diet is healthy? Fortunately there is.

First a list of the obvious factors in an unhealthy diet: too much sugar, too much fat, too much alcohol, too much caffeine and too much salt. Nobody recommends that you cut any off these things out entirely, but you must control your intake.

Some antiaging experts such as Dr. Perricone think American women in particular eat too little fat.

Alcohol and caffeine have been show to be good for cardiovascular health.

Salt is necessary to life.

So everything in moderation.

Now, how do you determine if your diet is healthy?

Do you eat a variety of different foods. No one food contains all the nutrients you need to be fit and healthy. Fruits, grains, breads, vegetables, diary products, protein from meat and fish, beans, nuts and even herbs and spices should all be consumed.

There is some speculation that some of these foods interact in such a way as to improve their antioxidant or their disease fighting power.

Also by consuming all the food groups you are getting at least the minimum recommended dosage of vital vitamins and minerals as well as sufficient dietary fiber to not only help digestion, but also to prevent gastrointestinal diseases.

If possible, it’s best to eat fresh foods, but you have to balance this out with the rest of your life. Few people can shop daily for the freshest ingredients for their meals.

A healthy diet will contain 5 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables every day. When shopping follow Dr. Perricone’s advice and buy a rainbow of dark, rich colored produce. Those dark colors mean you are consuming healthy amounts of vital nutrients such as vitamins a and c as well as natural beta carotene.

Like your mother used to say (or maybe it was Kellogg’s) you have to start off your day with a good breakfast. Maybe you can’t face poached fish in the morning, but you can eat healthy whole grain bread or cereals, an occasional egg and a cup of coffee.

Are prepared foods worse than fresh? Many experts say yes. Prepared foods do seem to have excessive salt if nothing else. But you can buy healthy prepared foods by reading the labels and looking out for high fat, sugar or sodium content.

We finally come to water. Our bodies are mostly water as is the world around us. Drinking plenty of water is essential. You will feel less hungry. You skin will look healthier and plumper (this is good once you start to age). It flushes toxins from the body. So drink as much as you can.

One way to determine if you’re on the right track is if you gain weight without trying or even while dieting. This will not happen if you are eating right and exercising regularly.

Now for the goodies.

Have a piece of rich dark chocolate for desert once in a while. A glass or two of red wine a day is good for your heart. Coffee is rich in antioxidants. And sex is one of the best exercises you can do.

Again: all in moderation (except maybe for the sex).

As Dr. Spock used to say: “Live long and prosper.”

This article is for informational purposes only and does not purport to offer medical advice.

By: Jean Bowler

Jean Bowler was a ballet dancer and instructor, a teacher, a personal trainer and a cosmetics consultant. She is editor of Ageless Beauty

Five Really Tough Dieting Tips

2008-07-10T04:43:00.000-07:00

If you are losing, trying to lose, or think you need to lose, weight, you are probably as sick as I am of those "easy" and "quick" diet tips that NEVER work!

The following tips are neither quick nor easy. They are tough, uncomfortable, and demanding (but they work).

1. Don't Eat.

On a permanent basis, that obviously doesn't make sense unless you have a secret death wish. On a temporary basis, it is worth considering. Just like the recovering alcoholic who takes it one day at a time, not eating for "just today" becomes do-able, once in a while. If you can convince yourself that you can have anything you want to eat, tomorrow, not eating becomes a viable alternative for today. On an even shorter-term basis, delaying a planned meal for a few hours can be useful if you stick to what you had planned to eat and don't wolf everything in sight to "make up" for your temporary deprivation. A decrease in the total caloric intake for the day, the week, the month, is the over-riding goal.

2. Get Your Body Moving.

We all know that activity is necessary to burn up our own fat. Exercise can be tedious, boring, and interferes with getting everything done in our time-starved lives. Those who love exercise, spending hours at the gym or training for marathons, don't have a weight problem like the rest of us couch potatoes. So how do we find the time and the motivation to incorporate some physical movement into our lives? If we don't have the time or the opportunity for exercise sessions (work, commuting, kids, chores), we can sneak activity breaks into stolen moments of time throughout the day. Reset your alarm 15 minutes earlier and perform calisthenics - jumping jacks, killer exercises, sit ups, jump rope - while the coffee brews. Sneak 5 to 10 minutes every few hours during the work day to walk around the building, perform isometrics at your desk, or run up and down the stairs. 5 to 10 minute mini-workouts scattered throughout your usual schedule can add up to an hour or two of activity bursts per day, significantly boosting the equation of calories in vs. calories out that leads to increased weight loss.

3. Eliminate "Kicking it up a notch."

While "BAM!!" spicing up our food is pleasurable and fun, it also increases our intake of calories because our food is so good that our taste buds are in a constant state of excitement. To lose weight consistently, we need to become disinterested in food to the greatest extent possible. Let's face the fact that carrot and celery sticks are never going to make our mouths water; a cup of yogurt, cottage cheese, sauerkraut, or tuna is okay but will never lead to the pure delight of a divine bowl of jambalaya, pasta, a dripping cheeseburger, or a sizzling pizza. We need to limit the excitement in our lives to non-eating activities and keep our food in the boring, tedious range so that we can limit our involvement, enjoyment, and delight in eating. The less we look forward to our meals, the less we will eat which is our goal.

4. Practice positive visualization.

Use props to help you "see" yourself thin so that your weight loss goals become a tangible, vital part of your everyday life. Instead of the latest "Who done it?" mystery novel, read clothes catalogs before going to bed. The airbrushed perfection of the Victoria's Secret and Banana Republic models may be difficult for you to emulate but they do encourage your dreaming of an attractive physical appearance. A mental vision of yourself as model-thin is a technique to pull up every time you are faced with food during the day and bolsters your "won't" power for declining edibles you know you don't need. This technique doesn't work as well for men but encourage the male in your life to emulate their favorite sports figures. Watch movies and television not with an eye to escaping from yourself and your humdrum world but as a peep into a world you intend to inhabit. Visualize yourself as the hero or heroine of your favorite shows: can you even imagine a fat caped crusader, an overweight vamp, or an obese romantic lead? Maintain a clear vision of yourself as slender, sexy, and fit and you have something to help you through the tempting, alluring, almost-impossible-to-resist times in your daily life. It is that mental image of your future self that can encourage you to "just say no" to the immediate delights surrounding you.

5. Eliminate snacking.

The traditional "three squares a day" eating pattern was based on breakfast, lunch, and dinner as the primary meals of the day. Today, it is not just our meals that have led to our national overweight, it is our between-meal snacking that has fostered the epidemic of obesity. Have you noticed that there always seems to be food available? Everywhere we turn, there is something to eat: potato chips, nuts, cake, ice cream, tortillas, chicken wings, Doritos (Saddam's favorite) and a myriad of salty, spicy, salivation-inducing snacks that have nothing to do with our need to eat to survive and everything to do with our overweight. If we can eliminate these between meal boosts and concentrate on three (two is better) meals a day, we can start to bring our weight in line with our goals. Our tendency is to nibble throughout the day - a sprinkling of this, a handful of that, and an eye-hand-mouth combination that results in our 24/7 intake of something. Its allure is incontrovertible: the salty, spicy, or sweet aftermath of their ingestion lingers long on the tongue and the memory (and even longer on the hips).

By: Virginia Bola

Dr. Bola is a psychologist and an admitted diet fanatic, specializing in therapeutic reframing and the effects of attitudes and motivation on individual goals. She is the author of a psychology-based workbook for permanent weight control. Reach her at: www.DietWithAnAttitude.com/index2.html

Making It Through A Diet Day

2008-07-09T02:40:00.000-07:00

Most of us are aware of the AA axiom of "One day at a time." It speaks to the secret of any long term goal - concentrate on taking the right step and the journey will take care of itself. Like the alcoholic who faces the urge to drink at every turn, the overweight fataholic must also steer a narrow passageway through the shoals of temptation and the deadly barrage of food advertisements, ubiquitous drive-throughs, social occasions, and office treats.

While no one would suggest that a recovering alcoholic has it easy, the plain fact is that controlled eating is more difficult because we can't stop cold turkey, at least not on a permanent basis. We must eat to live (but how many of us live to eat?) else die of starvation.

Sometimes, cold turkey seems the easiest way to go. Talk to anyone who has been on a fast and they will enthusiastically describe how after about three days, they no longer even wanted to eat, felt no hunger, and blissfully enjoyed their new sense of freedom and independence from food.

But even a fasting proponent will admit that, at some time, eating must be restored, preferably in a measured, controlled sequence. Returning to real life can be a jolt! This real world living of ours demands that we make it through each day with as few lapses as possible, demanding an arsenal of weapons to help us fight the good fight against our powerful and omnipresent enemy: fat.

Here are some tools to help you get through each day. Mix, match, add others you find, as needed.

1. Consistent Awareness.

Never, ever, (is that strong enough for you?) allow even a seed to pass your lips without being consciously aware of it. You may choose to eat something or you may elect to skip it. The important concept is that you are making a choice and that you control that choice. How many of us pop something into our mouth absentmindedly, almost unaware of what we are doing? How often have you set a second cookie aside and when you reach for it it'' gone? We don'' even remember eating it so we can'' say we enjoyed it. What a waste --of both an innocent cookie and the pleasurable taste it provided.

2. Substitute delay for denial.

It is sometimes just too hard to say no. If that's the mood you're in, tell yourself you'll wait a little bit and have it later. Chances are that your mood will change, your better self will regain the upper hand, and you'll elect not to have it at all. (And if you do eat it, do it with full awareness and identify your emotional state for recording in your journal).

3. Avoid hot button situations.

If your coworkers pork out on mid-afternoon treats, schedule your beak for that time and go for a walk. You'll feel so virtuous and re-energized by the fresh air that when you return to your desk, even the remaining scraps will not merit a second glance.

4. Avoid public discussions.

Don't fall into the habit of discussing your diet with coworkers. Everyone is on a diet, it seems, and everyone is trying something different. Before you know it, the pros and cons are being earnestly discussed, the forbidden and allowed foods debated, and the whole crew is totally focused on food - a sure recipe (forgive the pun) for disaster! We want you to concentrate on that significant portion of the world that has absolutely nothing to do with eating. Don't think food, don't talk food, don't visualize food, and the likelihood of avoiding eating increases dramatically.

5. Drive past the drive-throughs.

No matter their marketing claims, fast food doesn't belong on your diet, any diet. Even the salads are drenched with fatty dressings and perked up with extras. Everything else is fried - food cooked in animal fat that barely has to change its chemical composition to turn into human fat. If you're stranded on the road, find a good deli.

6. Stay away from fat people.

In some offices, there are whole departments where the staff are uniformly overweight. Being around fatties is guaranteed to turn up the pressure to eat, to give in, to abandon your goals and dreams. Seek out the skinnies - you may feel frustrated when you see them eat carelessly without the dire consequences you suffer, but it will stiffen your resolve to gain their appearance to lessen your self-consciousness about the cut of your own bloated jib.

7. Vary your routines.

We are all creatures of habit. If we didn't possess habits that allow us to accomplish the basics without thinking about it, we'd be worn out by over stimulation, having too, too much to think about to get anything done. Eating, though, is an area where we want to steer clear of habits (because, if you remember, we want to be aware and in control). Without thinking, we slip into the habit of an egg mcmuffin on the way to work, or a bagel with cream cheese at our desk, or a drink when we get home, exhausted by an over demanding day. If possible, try changing your work hours, meal times, getting up and going to bed routines, and regular meetings with friends. The change will increase your recognition of the comfortable habits you unwittingly developed in your old schedule.

8. Find a second job.

Some of you, no doubt, are shaking your heads thinking that the current demands on your time are already overwhelming. If your days are already crowded with your job, your kids, school, chores - you don't have a problem with boredom and the basis of your overeating must be sought elsewhere. Many of you others, be honest, have long evenings stretching out before you, filled only with television (and eating), socializing (and eating), shopping (and eating), or pastimes - crafts, computers, music reading (and eating). If you fill that spare time, in which the lure of nibbling looms boldly, with a part-time job (paid or volunteer), you can significantly lower your daily intake while simultaneously bringing in a little money or gaining a sense of pride in helping others. You can always quit and take it easy later but the change may help you make a diet breakthrough that will reward you handsomely.

9. Don't eat in bed.

The common expert advice is to only eat in the dining room and make each meal an event. Sometimes that is effective but in our rushed lives often unworkable. But draw the line somewhere: bed is for sleeping and making love, much better alternatives for your weight loss goals than midnight refrigerator raids.

10. Learn to live with leftovers.

Many of us hate to see anything go to waste. Remnants of childhood want or simply years of motherly training lead us to cringe at the thought of throwing perfectly good food away. Kids are so smart - they eat only what they want and just leave the rest. We can't bear that so we clean up their plates, make sure we send none of that expensive restaurant meal back to the kitchen, or nosh absentmindedly on the remnants of food we tucked carefully into the refrigerator. Ask yourself: when was the last time you threw away a half full bag of chips? A piece of chocolate? The final piece of cake? No, we tidy up to avoid the emotional pain of waste, and increase our girth in the process. Once you or the kids are done, try to get in the habit of immediately throwing the remainder out - into a messy garbage pail which will avoid the temptation to retrieve scraps later. The longer food stays in sight, the more likely you are to scarf it down. If waste is so painful to you, go save the environment, not the leftovers on your table that have never yet made it to a starving child in China.

By: Virginia Bola

Dr. Bola is a psychologist and an admitted diet fanatic, specializing in therapeutic reframing and the effects of attitudes and motivation on individual goals. She is the author of a psychology-based workbook for permanent weight control. Reach her at: www.DietWithAnAttitude.com/index2.html

Weight Loss At Work: Non-Food Rewards

2008-07-09T02:39:00.002-07:00

The e-mail comes out at noon. "To celebrate your hard work this week, there is cake and ice cream in the big kitchen at 3 today. Be there!"

The universal reward for hard work always seems to be food: cake and ice cream, a catered lunch for in-service training sessions, pizza for the overtime crew, bagels and cream cheese to brighten up a bleak Monday morning.

Food seems to be the perennial favorite for any kind of work reward because it is universally accepted. Some of us (we hard core dieters) may pass on the sweet stuff but usually find something allowable. In a world where two thirds of us are overweight or obese, is there nothing else available as a gift that cuts across all individual interests?

Recently, we had a whole week at my company devoted to employee appreciation. The primary rewards were, of course, food but other things were added: a company baseball cap, a hiking water container, a lunch bag, and a handwritten note of thanks to every employee from their supervisor. The cap was a bust for those of us with any modicum of fashion sense; the insulated flask and bag were food related, and the handwritten notes were superfluous - good supervisors show their appreciation of hard work constantly while a handwritten note from a harsh supervisor, no matter the "thanks" stated, means diddly squat to a resentful employee.

The HAS to be something else, doesn't there? We human beings have few things totally in common and eating is the primary universal. Other common bodily activities such as urination and defecation are not easily translatable into some kind of reward system. We are all involved in physical activity, to some degree, but that is often more a chore than a delight.

When it comes to our other senses, we all differ so much that one person's pleasure is another person's pain: music, perfume, pictures, or massages are differential tastes rather than general givens.

Money is almost always acceptable but the small amounts that would be individually generated to replace a free dessert or snack would be so minimal that their reward value would be insignificant.

So what can those of us on a permanent diet, and alarmed about our coworkers' increased girth, suggest?

How about plants? Small individual pots or a larger department shrub would save our waistlines while adding to the health and esthetics of our environment. I calculate, just within my call center, that if a plant had been given to each department, instead of an edible goodie, for celebrations over the past 5 years, that I would now be working in a lush rain forest of exotic plants where the stale re-processed air conditioned air would be purer, more humid, and a thousand times fresher. Morale booster and health benefits in one fell swoop!

How about the gift of time? In our overly busy pressured lives, who would not be immensely grateful for a free hour here or there. Rotate it through each department, letting one or two people leave early on a Friday afternoon. That would means something and would carry no cost so upper management should be ecstatic.

Instead of a handwritten note, how about getting Supervisors to perform their subordinates work duties for an hour or so, once in a while? Can you imagine the morale boost for an employee to get off the telephone, or the machine, or the computer, and shoot the breeze with friends for an hour while their duties are performed by their supervisors? And if mistakes are made - so much the better. It creates a sense of equality and inter-relationship between workers and supervisors that is generally lacking in a corporate environment.

How about free "Get out of jail" cards for every line worker? Each person gets one free card and additional cards can be given by supervisors for outstanding work, ensuring that the better workers have more cards. The cards can then be used as excuses for small transgressions - coming in a little late, leaving early, making minor mistakes. With the use of the card, a worker avoids verbal coaching, warnings, or being put on report. And let employees use their cards for coworkers who may need them - think of the teambuilding that would accomplish!

Flexibility of hours, assignments, and days, is another area where workers will universally respond: not to money, or food, but to accommodation of individual needs. Give each employee a wish card and then allow them to use it to get something they need.

What does all of this accomplish? It allows for employee rewards without fats and carbohydrates. Now isn't that worthwhile?

P. S. I'm recommending this to my company. I'll let you know if they buy it!

By: Virginia Bola

Dr. Bola is a psychologist and an admitted diet fanatic, specializing in therapeutic reframing and the effects of attitudes and motivation on individual goals. She is the author of a psychology-based workbook for permanent weight control. Reach her at: www.DietWithAnAttitude.com/index2.html

Food Journal: A Mirror To Yourself

2008-07-09T02:39:00.001-07:00

All the weight control experts recommend keeping a record of what you eat. Seeing your daily intake in black and white reality can boost your pride in your self-discipline, gently confront you with some less than stellar choices you've made, or cast you into a morass of guilt and depression when you face the epicurean debacle that your food intake represents.

A food diary can become so much more useful for your weight wars if you use it as a tool for self-exploration and self-discovery. It allows you to create an oasis of support that anchors you in a world tossed by competing priorities, overwork, incredible dietary temptations, and social pressures that all lead to frustration, inwardly directed anger, diminished self-esteem, and terminal fatigue.

What do we need to do to create such a tool?

1. Buy a good spiral notebook with lots of pages and a hard cover - you're going to keep this for a long time so avoid anything that's going to easily fall apart.

2. Enter the date you started your journey: this is the baseline against which you will compare your entries for the next several months. Under the date, enter the following information as accurately as you can make it, as of this very moment:

Age
Height
Weight
Measurements
Waist
Bust
Hips
Thighs
Upper arms
Clothing size
Type of hairstyle
Any daily exercise obtained
Today's primary mood
Self-Appraisal (find 3 adjectives for each area)
General appearance
Size and shape
Personal characteristics
Interpersonal relationships
Self-value
Family or romantic relationships
Self-satisfaction

3. Each day, you are going to enter not only what you ate, but the thoughts and emotions that accompanied the food. Note: Don't become obsessive - it more productive to keep this daily but if you run out of time and energy now and then, skip it, and get back to it when you can.

4. It is going to take some thought and memory-searching to ferret out what you need so find yourself a quiet spot where you can be alone and quiet. Keep your book there, close at hand, so you can quickly visit when you want to record anything that occurs to you.

5. Start teaching yourself to identify the inner landscape that accompanies your food intake. Focus on the moments before you ate: How did you feel at the time? Were you (genuinely) hungry - create a 1 to 10 rating scale for yourself, ranging from "not really" up to "starved, faint, light-headed." Were you bored? Were you anxious and trying to calm yourself down? Were you angry and stuffing that anger down your own throat? Were you feeling sorry for yourself? Were you with good friends and just wanted to be part of the group? Were you just not thinking? Were you trying to punish yourself -or someone else? You may find that you ate several times a day for the same reason or that the triggers to eat differed throughout the day depending upon the circumstances and people involved at the time.

6. Once you have jotted down everything related to the minutes before you ate (you may start out with very little to say but as you warm to this exercise, you will find yourself recording more and more information), consider how you felt directly afterwards. Did you feel satiated and serene? Did you feel proud of your food choices? Were you satisfied with all your selections? Did you feel stuffed and uncomfortable? Did you feel guilty about the choices you made? Were you angry with yourself for giving in to temptation and blowing your diet for the day? Did the food make you light and energetic or heavy and sleepy? Did you think about tomorrow morning's weigh-in with dread or anticipation?

7. Take a look at the day from the perspective of now (last thing in the evening or a look back the following morning). Try to look at your entries as if they belonged to someone else. As a dispassionate third party, what are your conclusions about the individual who recorded this data? Is this a self-aware, consciously motivated person or someone who lives on auto-pilot with little planning or direction? Is this someone who has internalized their diet goals and attempts to control their environment and intake? Is this an individual who merely 'talks the talk" but pursues actions that break those verbal rules? Is this a happy person who is cheerfully continuing the weight struggle with a sense of humor and self-forgiveness? Or is this someone who resents the conspiracies of nature which attempt to load on as much fat as possible, to ward off some improbable future famine?

8. If you are generally satisfied with the day's food intake, give yourself a mental pat on the back and relish the day's accomplishment. Promise yourself that one great day proves forever that you can do it. Identify a small, non-edible, reward for your self-discipline, inner strength, and personal commitment. Record your conclusions and bask in the self-satisfaction you so richly deserve.

9. If you feel disappointed in what you read, remind yourself that it is only one day in a lifetime of thousands of days. Forgive yourself and start over. Think about one or two changes you can make so the following day's record will not be quite so disappointing. Guard against swearing that today will be perfect: you are not going to get there overnight but you will get there, over time, slowly, one step at a time. You are learning to take baby steps that will nudge your food intake into closer alignment with your goals. You are going to gradually add techniques to your arsenal of weapons to keep temptation at bay. The simple fact of intake awareness will keep slowly propelling you towards the goals you have so carefully set.

10. At the end of your entry, enter your weight for the day - it will always fluctuate a little bit but will show you how you are doing when viewed over a period of time.

By: Virginia Bola

Dr. Bola is a psychologist and an admitted diet fanatic, specializing in therapeutic reframing and the effects of attitudes and motivation on individual goals. She is the author of a psychology-based workbook for permanent weight control. Reach her at: www.DietWithAnAttitude.com/index2.html

How to Curb Food Cravings at Night to Lose Weight Naturally

2008-07-09T02:38:00.001-07:00

Wanna lose weight naturally and more quickly? Then you've got to control your nighttime food cravings! All food cravings are diet-killers, but the ones that hit you late at night seem to be the toughest to overcome. What's worse, late-night eating has been shown to be a leading cause of weight gain. Your body has much less need for calories at night, so anything you eat is more likely to be stored as fat.

According to a recent USDA study, overweight adults tend to eat significantly more calories at night than normal-weight adults, but they eat only slightly more calories at other times of the day. Another recent study from the University of Texas showed that it's much easier to overeat at night, mainly because late-night snacking seems less satisfying than snacking earlier in the day. Other studies have found that many people eat close to 50% of their daily calories at night!

Obviously, controlling your nighttime eating is vital if your goal is natural weight loss and better health. Of course, it's easier said than done. Here are some very effective tips for curbing food cravings at night:

1. Eat breakfast -- It's been proven that people who skip breakfast have a much harder time losing weight. By eating a big, healthy breakfast in the morning you'll give your body the energy it needs and dramatically reduce hunger and cravings later in the day.

2. Eat several small, healthy snacks and meals throughout the day -- People who eat small meals and snacks every few hours, earlier in the day, tend to feel better and have more energy. They also tend to eat fewer overall calories, especially at night. Keeping yourself from getting hungry may be the best craving-stopping technique out there!

3. Eat a "healthy-sized" dinner -- Don't make the mistake of eating too small of a dinner. You might think you're saving calories but you're just setting yourself up for hunger and food cravings later in the evening. Eat a good, medium-sized dinner that includes lots of high-fiber foods (like veggies, salads, and whole-grain breads, pastas, etc.). It's best to eat more protein and less fat and carbs at this meal because it's less likely to be stored as fat.

4. Keep your mind occupied at night -- Many people have a bad habit of eating when they're bored. They get home at night and "zone out" in front of the TV, often with a bag of chips or cookies at their side. It's called "mindless snacking" and it's a huge cause of weight gain, especially in America. Avoid the TV all together and replace it with something more interesting, like reading a good book, writing letters to friends, or doing a favorite hobby.

5. If you need to snack at night, choose healthy options -- It is possible to snack late at night without piling on the calories (and the fat). Fresh veggies and fruit are good, great-tasting options. So is low-fat, low-sugar yogurt and cheese. If you need something a little more "satisfying" have a piece of whole-grain toast with a small amount of natural peanut butter on top, a handful of mixed nuts, or a bowl of whole-grain cereal with low-fat milk. Finally, some people find that a cup of decaffeinated herbal tea really helps take their mind off food altogether.

By: Jamie Clark

Jamie Clark is a health researcher and writer. He is a co-editor of FreshHealthyUseful.com. Learn more about natural weight loss at www.freshhealthyuseful.com/main/natural-weight-loss-guide/ .

SomethingThat Tastes Good and Is Good For You

2008-07-09T02:35:00.000-07:00

One good thing about a lot of the new medical research being reported is that things once considered forbidden for any health conscious individual are now okay again.

Of course some people might question why substances like wine, beer, coffee or bread, which were perfectly acceptable foods to countless generations that came before us, suddenly turned into such sinister things. That question is beyond my ability to answer.

So let’s look at the latest good news. Researchers in Italy studied the effects of chocolate on health and came to the conclusion that rich dark chocolate is actually good for you.

It seems to have some of the same affects that vitamin C exhibits, namely in helping the body to use insulin more effectively and lowering blood pressure.

The study compared dark chocolate and white chocolate – which isn’t really chocolate since it contains no cocoa solids.

Those who enjoyed 100 grams of dark chocolate daily for 15 days had lower blood pressure and better insulin function. The theory is that dark chocolate contains flavonoids that lower the risk of heart disease and certain cancers.

Those who ate white chocolate exhibited no such change.

Another study of older men in The Netherlands, known for its luscious chocolate, indicated those who ate the equivalent of one-third of a chocolate bar every day had lower blood pressure and a reduced risk of death.

Dark chocolate is high in fat and dense in calories, so it might not be the best food to live on, especially if you’re already overweight.

And recent studies on the effects of fat on women’s health threw the whole nutritional establishment on its ear.

Dr. Jules Hirsch, Physician in Chief Emeritus at Rockefeller University, who has spent his career studying the effect of diet on weight and health has stated that “They (the studies) should put a stop to this era of thinking that we have all the information we need to change the whole national diet and make everybody healthy.”

So who knows if chocolate will cure all ills? I strongly suspect it will do no harm if eaten in moderation.

If you want to try this out, have a piece or two of nice dark and rich chocolate with a glass or two of a fine red wine at night. Your life will be fuller for it and, if you’re lucky, you’ll live longer because of it.

This article is for informational purposes only. It does not purport to offer medical advice. Do not make any changes in your diet without consulting your physician first.

By: Jean Bowler. For more articles about diet and nutrition, visit Antiaging Nutrition

Shopping Thin - Improve Your Health and Your Waist Line

2008-07-08T03:47:00.001-07:00

If you want to improve your health and your waist line, the first place you should start is what you keep in you’re fridge. People’s current eating habits have never been worse. You could work out for 2 hours at the gym each day, but if you continue to eat French fries and frozen pizza’s for dinner, you’re never going to get the body you want. The following article is intending to give you tips on what to buy when you go to the grocery store.

First of all, you should never attempt to go hungry on an empty stomach. This is just silly, because all you are doing is torturing yourself. If you go to the store while starving, you are much more likely to buy fattening processed foods that you could imagine cooking up as soon as you get home. So going after a meal, or at least have a whole grain muffin first.

Before you go to the store, you should also make a list of what you are planning to buy, that way you won’t get side tracked and start wandering down the chip aisle. As for the foods you want to include on your list, there should be a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables along with low fat meats. Separate your list into the foods groups so you won’t be running all over the store, again, chancing bumping into the chip aisle. Your list might look something like this.

Meats
Extra lean ground beef
Chicken breasts
Ground turkey
Salmon
Shrimp
Back bacon
Filet mignon/or other high quality low fat steak
(meats to avoid would include full fat ground beef, real bacon, chicken wings or legs, fish sticks, anything deep fried, sausages and hot dogs. All of these meats contain a lot of fat and are very bad for your heart.)

Dairy
Eggs
Egg whites
Low fat milk (skim, 1% or 2%)
Cheese
Butter
Margarine (olive oil varieties are good)
Yogurt
Cottage cheese
Low fat cream cheese
(you should avoid creams and homo milk unless you are using it in small quantities for coffee. Real butter and cheese is ok, as long as you aren’t eating it in large amounts. Also avoid unhealthy margarines that contain a lot of hydranataed oils.)
Fruits and Vegetables
This is a category where you can pretty much chose anything you want, since all fruits and vegetables are healthy. You should, however avoid canned fruits that are packed with sugar. Fruits and vegetables that are brightly colored contain more healthy properties. Berries are especially good for the skin, heart and cancer fighting agents. Be sure to include canned tomatoes and tomato sauce which has been shown to be more healthy than fresh tomatoes-although these are still good)

Grains and legumes
Whole grain pasta
Brown rice
Jasmine rice
Basmati rice
Whole wheat or whole grain breads
Beans (caned or dried)
Bran cereals
Oatmeal
Barley and other such things, like musili
(Despite popular opinion in the past few years concerning carbohydrates, these types of carbs are very healthy and will encourage weight loss as long as they are eaten within moderation. You do, however, want to avoid white breads, white rice, white pasta and pastries.)

If you follow the basic guide lines of this list and watch your portion control, you should soon find that your waist line and your blood pressure has decreased.

By: Barney Garcia

Author Barney Garcia is a proud contributing author and enjoys writing about many different topics. Please visit my web sites @ www.neat-resources.info and www.nic-nak.info

There is Only One Healthy Way to Weight Loss

2008-07-08T03:46:00.000-07:00

The Internet and our bookstores are filled with literature full of spectacular claims and quack formulas, all shouting, "Lose those extra pounds the fast, easy way". But the truth is (unless you like to be fooled at the expense of your own health) there is only one safe and effective way to achieve the correct weight and to keep it at that figure. That way is to follow a balanced nutritional program, and to follow it consistently. To do that means changing your way of eating and implementing self-discipline. But first you have to make up your mind that you want to do it, and then do it. And then stick to it.

Seven Rules for Getting Your Weight Down and Keeping it Down

Once you have given yourself a powerful incentive, and have decided, "I will get my weight down and keep it down," then the following rules will help you:

1. Follow a menu plan and use dietary supplements.

2. To curb your appetite, nibble a few low-fat hors d'oeuvres a little while before mealtime. (This raises the blood sugar level and takes the edge off your appetite.)

3. Eat a substantial breakfast and a small lunch.

4. Try to have small servings of the food you eat.

5. Avoid second helpings.

6. Forego dessert if it is high in calories or fats.

7. To know exactly where you stand each day, be a calorie counter, a serious one. Use a table of foods and caloric values.

By glancing at the following table that shows the total number of calories needed daily for a man (or woman) of average weight and height at various ages, you will be surprised to see how much you really overeat. You will observe also that the calory requirement declines with age. Thus a man who is 5 feet 10 inches tall and has the normal weight of 150 pounds, requires 2020 calories between the ages of 14 and 15, but only 1600 when he is 60.

Similarly, a woman of average height (5 feet, 2 inches) and weight (125 pounds) requires 1600 calories when she is 14, but only 1260 calories when she is 60.

OBESITY AND HEART DISEASE
Relationship of Age to Caloric Requirements

Weight Age Calories
Sex Male Height 5' 10" 150 14 - 15 2020
16 - 17 1890
18 - 19 1800
20 - 29 1730
30 - 39 1730
40 - 49 1690
50 - 59 1650
60 - 69 1600
70 - 79 1560

Sex FEMALE Height 5' 2" 125 14 - 15 1600
16 - 17 1490
18 - 19 1410
20 - 29 1370
30 - 39 1360
40 - 49 1340
50 - 59 1300
60 - 69 1260
70 - 79 1230

By: Gail Metcalf

Gail Metcalf writes about the issues of being overweight. Her site, Healthy You is dedicated to publishing information leading to a healthier life.

How to Determine the Number of Calories You Need

2008-07-08T03:45:00.000-07:00

To determine the number of calories you require each day from your food, it is necessary to make very exact mathematical calculations based on detailed knowledge of your metabolism, body frame, hereditary and constitutional factors, specific energy expenditure each day, climatic conditions, emotional state, digestive tract structure, physiology, and still other variable factors. Since this is an impossible or impractical method for those who want to lose weight, the average person should following a simple "rule of thumb" method:

For: MARKED OVERWEIGHTS

A person who is markedly overweight is one who is 30 per cent or more above his normal weight. This means that if, for example, you weigh 180 lbs. but should, according to our table, weigh 135 lbs., then you are 45 lbs, overweight. In that case you should reduce your weight by using a 800 calorie diet menu.

For: MODERATE OVERWEIGHTS

If you are moderately overweight (i.e. 15-30 percent; you are, 20 to 45 lbs. over and weigh from 155 to 180 lbs. but should weigh 135 lbs.), use a diet menu for the 1000 calorie daily food intake.

For: MILD OVERWEIGHTS

If you are only mildly overweight (5 to 15 per cent above your normal weight; 7 to 20 lbs. over and weigh from 142 to 155 lbs., whereas you should weigh 135 lbs.) then follow a 1200 calorie diet.

After you have lost an average of 2 lbs. each week and have achieved your normal weight, you should then follow a low-fat maintenance diet. These diets range from approximately 1500 calories to 2200 calories. They are recommended for the average individual who does light work with a moderate expenditure of calories in average daily activities such as housework, office work, light factory employment, sales work, driving a car, or a moderate degree of walking.

Maintaining Your Proper Weight with a Regular Calorie Count

Since individuals vary so widely, it is imperative that you watch your weight carefully with an accurate scale. If you find that you are gaining a little or a moderate amount of weight (1 or 2 lbs. each week) then you must subtract 200 to 500 calories from your daily menus. You can then reduce a pound a week and stay on this "maintenance" diet to keep your weight on an even level.

This may mean that your maintenance diets require only a daily food intake of 1200 or 1500 calories every day from then on. Perhaps the elimination of one or two slices of bread and jam, or cutting down on sugar, may be all that is necessary to take 200 or 300 calories off your daily menus. To eliminate the required 500 calories from your daily meals, it may be necessary to omit potatoes, or to avoid completely sugar and starch foods. Once you have decided to do so, it is simple to follow the menus. It does take a few minutes of your time to watch the calories, but you will be giving yourself a reward of years added to your life. That's the biggest health bargain in modern history!

By: Gail Metcalf

Gail Metcalf writes about the issues of being overweight. Her site, Healthy You is dedicated to publishing information leading to a healthier life.

5 Weight Loss Tips You Can't Go Wrong With

2008-07-08T03:44:00.000-07:00

If it's time to drop some pounds, you have your work cut out for you. Losing weight is never easy, but there are certain things you can do to make your job a whole lot simpler. These five tips should help you in your quest for a new and slimmer you:

1) Be patient. I'm sure this isn't the advice you wish to hear, but you need to. The excess weight you now carry was not gained in a hurry, and it won't be lost in one either. You need patience and persistence to reach your goal. You need to resolve yourself to the fact that it could take a great deal of time and effort to reach your ideals weight.

2) Be dedicated to whatever weight loss tasks you assign yourself. It's not enough to just set a few goals and forget them. You need to work your program, whatever it may be, everyday without complaining. You can't overstate the determination that is required in losing weight. You're changing the way you eat and live, which is a fundamental shift for any of us. It requires that you change the way you behave, in order to improve the way you live.

3) Keep detailed notes of your effort. You have to write down what you eat and how much you exercise or you'll have nothing to look back on as your journey progresses. You can't know how far you've come, if you don't recollect where you started. The more detailed you can be, the better. Write down every single thing you eat, no matter if it's one piece of candy. This will really make you become aware of how you eat, and awareness is the first step towards change.

4) Set a specific goal for your weight loss. Spell it out as clearly as you can. If you want to lose weight because you want to look better at the beach, then make that your goal and picture the whole event in your mind's eye with exquisite precision. You should be able to easily and clearly explain when asked what your goal is. A well defined goal gives much greater force to all of your efforts.

5) Stay positive! You'll have down days like anyone when losing weight. Weight loss plateaus are common, and will happen to the best of us. So what? Just grit your teeth and go on about your business. You're the one who stands to benefit the most from a slimmer, healthier body. You can't expect that anyone can do it for you, or that anyone will feel bad for you if you're having a tough day on your diet. A diet is a beneficial change in your life that opens the doors for more possibilities than you can imagine. Having improved your basic fitness levels is always a boost to your self esteem and the well-being is well worth the effort.

These five tips should give you a heads up on your diet. Don't be afraid to stumble here and there and you can expect to have your share of challenges, but the outcome is well worth it. Good luck!

By: Darren McLaughlin

Please visit the Weight Loss section of the Featherish Diet Forum

Best Diet - 3 Key Features Your Diet MUST Have For Weight Loss Success

2008-07-08T03:42:00.000-07:00

So you've made the resolution that THIS is the year you're going to lose weight and get in the best shape of your life. You're not going to settle for second best - you're going to achieve that dream body you've always wanted.

Great news - this is actually the best time to make that commitment. Why? Because you can take advantage of the powerful momentum and energy a New Year brings to achieve your weight loss dreams.

But there's nothing worse than committing to lose weight, only to get lost among the 5 gazillion diets out there. It can get confusing - you may end up wasting a lot of money and effort. You may end up wondering which diet is really the BEST diet for you.

In order to have rapid weight loss success, you have to find the best diet for you (a.k.a. the diet that will speed you towards your dream body at lightning pace). There are millions of diets - but only a few that are best for you and your lifestyle.

The best diet for you will have the 3 key features listed below. Choose your diet with these 3 key features in mind and you're already halfway to your weight loss dreams.

#1 Proven Success Rate

Are there before and after pictures of people who have lost weight with that particular diet? Are there customer testimonials? Have there been independent studies done on the diet's success rate?

The diet you choose doesn't have to have all three of these but try to find at least some kind of proven success rate before choosing that particular program.

Finding a diet with a proven success rate not only lets you know that the diet works but it also helps give you the confidence that the diet will work FOR YOU.

Confidence is one of the most underrated factors in a successful weight loss program. If you've tried and failed with diets before you especially need that extra boost of confidence to carry you through the more difficult times in the diet. By reminding yourself that this diet has been proven to work - you'll be able to keep going and reach your weight loss goals.

A related feature that gets extra points is if the diet has been recommended by an expert or a physician. Again this boosts your confidence that the diet is safe and effective.

#2 Affordable.

Losing weight should not cost you thousands of dollars (unless we're talking about surgery here and that's an entirely different article). The best diet will be affordable for the average person.

If the diet costs too much, be very suspicious and look elsewhere. There are too many shady diets out there and as a consumer, it pays to be cautious.

I'll give you an example of what I mean:

A close friend of mine went to a well-known weight loss clinic in our area and was told she had to pay the yearly fees up front (around $1000 NOT including food). They also told her she had to buy their food in bulk (like $500 for a year's worth of chocolate). When the chocolate gave her heart palpitations and she had to take it back, they told her it was non-refundable. She was out the money for the chocolate. Plus, she feels she can't leave the program because she's paid the yearly fees (which, you guessed it, are also non-refundable).

She unfortunately made the mistake of ignoring her instincts and paying way too much money for a diet program. If you notice you're being asked for hefty fees right out of the gate, warning lights should be flashing in your mind.

Now on the other hand, the best diet WILL cost you something. It actually is better if you put some cash on the table for your diet program. Why? Because when we invest in something we're more likely to stick with it. When we invest in something we are more likely to follow through and get the results we want.

For example I did a liver detox several months ago. I'm not really into liver detoxing but I read an article and figured I'd try it.

The detox kit cost me a whopping $50 and when I opened the instructions they told me I had to give up junk food for two weeks. In any other universe I would have laughed and simply forgotten about detoxing my liver. But because I'd shelled out $50, I was invested - I decided that I hopefully wouldn't starve from lack of junk food over two weeks and suffered through it.

If I'd gotten the detox kit for free there's no way I would have followed those instructions. But because I was invested, I followed through and now have a healthier liver thanking me for it.

So when searching for the best diet, putting out some money on yourself and your dreams of a better body is actually a healthy thing. Just keep in mind that you shouldn't have to spend thousands of dollars on it.

#3 Compatible with Your Tastes and Lifestyle

This is THE most crucial step however it's the one where most people go wrong. When choosing a diet, they simply pick one and go, without considering if it is compatible with their tastes and lifestyle.

For example, if you hate feeling deprived or empty you might want to choose a program that lets you eat many times during the day so you don't feel hungry. If you get bored easily you want a diet program that gives you tremendous variety and flexibility. If you don't do a lot of cooking or food preparation, you'll want to look at a program where the food is pre-made for you.

Diets are like cars - there are hundreds of different models out there, each with their own unique features. And they can get you where you want to go. But your personality might fit better with certain features than others.

Dieting is hard enough. Don't make it harder on yourself by choosing a diet not compatible with who you are. Setting yourself up for success will also guarantee that you'll stick it out until you reach your goal.

And one other thing, the best diet will be one that you can get excited about. Choose a diet that you enjoy, that you believe in, that may actually be - gulp - fun.

Emotional excitement will fade in time, yes. But it can give you enough of an emotional push to get you over the initial hump. By that time your first few pounds will have come off and will serve as your continuing motivation.

So those are 3 key considerations when looking for the best diet. Keep them in mind and you will progress in leaps and bounds towards your dream body. Remember, planning now may seem boring - but it's the key to your future weight loss success.

By: Vienna Miller

Vienna Miller is a contributing writer to Weight Loss Reviews - offering reviews of weight loss plans that work. For the latest reviews & articles visit www.FreeToBeThin.com/Articles.html

Eat And Be Thin!

2008-07-06T17:02:00.002-07:00

Ok, so there are a few pounds hanging around on you that you'd like to get rid of. You could diet, you could exercise, but that's a lot of hard work, requires effort, and besides, you are a bit busy and don't really have time for that at the moment.

So what can you do to shed those extra pounds and become slimmer? How can you lose weight nice and easily?

Well you can Eat and Be Thin!

Yes, you’ve heard me right, you can eat food and become thinner.

No, this doesn’t mean a diet of chocolate, cakes and fatty foods. It means watching what you are eat and balancing your food. By eating the right types of food at the right time of day you can actually lose weight – and not be starving.

The traditional approach to weight loss is to reduce your calorie intake. Unfortunately your body has an evolutionary response to this. Your body immediately thinks there is a famine coming and starts to store fat so that you can survive throughout it.

So therefore by reducing your calorie intake you are actually putting on fat and sabotaging your efforts at weight loss!

By eating the right foods at the right intervals you can actually eat yourself slim without going hungry and piling on the fat.

Of course you can always go on a low carb, high protein diet, but think about what that does for your body? The human body is not meant to survive on that kind of diet and when you do so your arteries will fur up and it will damage your health in the long term. Sure you can lose some weight with it, but the problem is, you start eating any carbs again the weight comes straight back on.

New research has shown that an effective method of weight loss is to rotate your eating patterns, which forces fat to burn. By shifting the types of calorie you eat, you can shift the weight much easier.

As your metabolism has no idea how many calories you will eat tomorrow or the next day, it bases its calorie burning pattern on what you have consumed in the last few days. It makes the assumption that you are going to continue to eat in the same pattern.

So what you do is shock your metabolism by doing the opposite of what it expects, that is, you are not going to continue eating the same types of calories and meals. In order for this to be effective you have to eat foods that are fat burning compatible, which means your body can burn these foods entirely and then switch to burning your fat.

Through the Idiot Proof Diet you can learn more about these fat burning foods and how you can use them to get rid of that excess weight permanently without starving.

By: Jason Johns

Jason E. Johns is a personal success coach and is dedicated to helping you achieve the results you desire. For more information visit the Idiot Proof Diet site.

Can TV Teach You Anything about Dieting

2008-07-06T17:02:00.001-07:00

All over the world, night after night, millions of people are riveted to their TV sets - but not to watch the latest soap, or CSI. Not to watch Jay Leno or Sex in the City. Not to see who outwits, outlasts and outplays others in Survivor. No - they are spellbound by the efforts of a small band of obese people trying to overcome the effects of years of overeating.

It's not surprising that for so many people this is compulsive viewing. Obesity is the new epidemic. Fat children lumber around school playgrounds while their overweight mothers fill shopping carts with wrong choices. Then... they sit down at night to watch The Biggest Loser. They see dramatic weight loss and startling new body shapes beginning to emerge. They want the same results - and they begin to think it might be possible.

But who has four or five hours a day to work out? Who can afford a personal trainer several times a week? And who has the luxury of their own personal adviser on calorie content and smart food choices? The answer is: not many people. But you have to remember that this is television: it's a false situation. As the players keep reminding themselves and the viewers: "This is a GAME. You have to make the most of your time here - it's going to be so much harder out in the real world."

IS it harder in the real world? Probably. But you can take lessons away from watching this reality show. You can make it work for you, as well as for the contestants. Here are three practical and useful lessons you can put to use immediately.

1. Put Weight Loss First.

In the Biggest Loser household WEIGHT LOSS COMES FIRST. Make it come first in your household, too. Sounds simple, doesn't it? It is. In fact, so simple that many people just overlook it. They try to fit exercise and meal planning around everything else in their lives, instead of making it a priority.

Think: what is most important: getting the weight off, and becoming fit enough to put years on your life - or watching another TV show? Sit down with a pen and paper and allot at least one hour a day to planning meals, recording what you eat, and doing some form of exercise. You've still got 23 hours left to do everything else!

2. E is for Exercise - and Enjoy!

What else do you notice in the Biggest Loser household? The more they exercise, the more they seem to enjoy it. Oh sure, they grunt and they groan; they sweat and they complain. But as the weeks go on, you'll hear them say things like: "I never thought I'd say that I look forward to working out - but now don't feel right if a day goes past without exercise!"

The secret to enjoying exercise is finding what's right for YOU. If you don't really enjoy the gym, look for other forms of exercise. You need a mix of cardio and resistance training - but it doesn't have to be on machines. Walk, swim, dance, climb hills, push a wheelbarrow in the garden... there are endless choices that can be fun for you. Research what happens to various muscle groups - and to your heart - when you exercise, and pick activities that you will enjoy.

3. Identify the Triggers.

Emotions run high when the contestants have to face their demons. Weight gain is rarely from just a physical cause. If you keep a food diary, and faithfully record not only what you eat but when (and why) you eat it, you'll soon see a pattern of emotional eating. What are YOUR triggers? Boredom? Tiredness? Family arguments?

Once you have identified these triggers, you can start working on strategies to defeat them. This can be as simple as challenging yourself every time you want food. ("Am I hungry - yes or no? If I'm not hungry, then why do I want to eat? Am I really just thirsty? If I'm running to the fridge because I'm upset, is there something else I can do to feel better? Is there a long-term solution that will fix this forever?" and so on.) If you're not yet ready to deal with the root cause, then be prepared with food that won't add to your problems with the resulting rolls of fat. Make sure that you have 'good' food at hand - but also food that you LIKE.

These are just three of the lessons that anyone can take away from watching The Biggest Loser. And you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you did it all by yourself.

By: ian Williamson

For More Diet Articles by Ian Williamson please visit www.real-articles.com/Category/Diet-and-Weight/59

Weight Loss: Tweaking Your Lifestyle

2008-07-06T17:01:00.000-07:00

Despite our national propensity to overeat, under-exercise, and grow steadily heavier and more out of shape, we all yearn to be slender, fit, and attractive. Our culture rewards the thin and the beautiful; look at how we devour celebrity gossip, mesmerized by the looks and energy of our current favorites.

Why the discrepancy between our aspirations and our reality? There are a plethora of reasons, most of which can be traced to the simple fact that life gets in the way.

“I’d love to cut back on my food intake,” we think, “But I have to attend all these work functions and have little control over the meals that are served.” “I would really like to get in shape,” we complain, “But there’s no free time and I can’t afford a personal trainer like the movie stars I see.” “I really want to take care of my skin and my body,” we wail, “But I’m so busy that a quick shower and a slap of moisturizer is all I can fit into my schedule.”

It would be so wonderful to have loads of free time: to plan our days; to cook low calorie, healthy meals; to exercise without time constraints; to be able to pamper ourselves without the pressure of deadlines. Unfortunately, our lives are too hectic for that to happen in the foreseeable future. We can throw up our hands in frustration and join the legions of the overweight and the unfit, or we can work out a personal plan that fits within our lifestyle, taking us where we want to go, albeit not quite as quickly or completely as we would prefer.

Your life, your time, the demands and responsibilities you face, vary on an individual basis. You will need to calculate what works for you, and what cannot be realistically accommodated. Here are some ideas to consider:

1. Diet

Eating on the run, at your desk, or on the rubber chicken circuit, wreaks havoc with even the best-laid diet plans. If you weigh even a pound more than you’d like, try to identify where you are going astray.

If fast food on your way to an appointment is your downfall, look at what you order. Almost all drive-thrus these days offer salads. The problems with those salads can be minimized by throwing away the little bag of croutons (fried) and omitting the packaged dressings (loaded with fat). Carry your own individual container of low calorie dressing, opt for (unsweetened) ice tea, black coffee, or a diet soda, and avoid those sugar-laden colas like the plagues they are.

If you lunch at your desk, ask yourself what are you eating? If it’s takeout, by all means have a cheeseburger or a sandwich. Just discard the bread or bun and eat with a plastic knife and fork, cut into raisin-sized pieces that will fill you up fast. French fries and onion rings? You just don’t want to go there.

Is your office always filled with snacks and treats (as most of them seem to be these days)? When the snacks come by, go to the bathroom or, better yet, take a brisk walk around the building to beef up your “won’t” power and clear the vision of goodies from your head.

If business lunches, dinners, or those awful meeting banquets are your obstacles, plan ahead. Lunch is relatively easy: salad (with your own dressing, of course) or fish and cottage cheese are available almost anywhere. For dinner, try two low calorie appetizers instead of an entrée. Best of all is something that you have to work at – crab legs, unpeeled shrimp, an artichoke (hold the hollandaise) – it will take a lot of time and no one will notice how little you are actually eating.

Banquets are particularly difficult because a plate is plunked in front of you, filled with food you would never order by choice. Cut whatever protein and vegetables there are into little pieces and chew slowly. Spread the rest out over your plate and play with it to delay the onset of a syrupy dessert. Get a cup of black coffee and place it squarely in front of you to thwart that eager-beaver waiter who keeps trying to slide a plate of pie onto your table.

Entertaining in the home creates a different set of problems because usually you know the hostess and want to avoid creating any bad feelings. Fall back on allergies as no one wants to see you break out in hives in the middle of their party. Carry a club soda or mineral water with you and no one will notice that you’re not drinking.

Over a period of time, these little changes can have a significant impact on your weight. If you’re hungry when you get home, make sure that you have some liquid protein or a health shake available to complete your daily nutritional needs.

2. Exercise.

With the best of intentions, millions of us purchase gym memberships. If we all actually used them on a regular basis, as we promise ourselves we will, there would be waiting lines spilling into the streets. Health clubs can keep signing up more and more members because they know that the number of regulars will stay about the same as the new enrollees will show up in a burst of initial enthusiasm but within a few short weeks will gradually fade away.

Unless you have a job with very regular hours, something few of us enjoy these days, it’s difficult to commit to going somewhere on a regular basis. We mean to go but then an important meeting comes up, our significant other asks us to do something, or the kids pester us to drive them somewhere.

Our high demand lives almost force us to obtain our exercise at home. Television is replete with home equipment that promises to flatten our abs, define our pects, and re-sculpt our entire bodies. Despite their assurances that the equipment easily folds away, we know our apartments can never accommodate a Bowflex or a Nordic Track. Where do those buyers live? In the suburbs, we suspect, where the expensive equipment is soon relegated to the basement or the garage to gather dust until some future yard sale comes along. Equipment, except for minimal contraptions such as elastic bands and hand weights, are just too much trouble, and setting them up takes too much time.

Slipping exercise into your schedule is most easily handled (and therefore more likely to be regularly repeated) by pursuing activities that can be initiated without any preparation time, special clothes, or long periods free of interruption. The old standbys of pushups, situps, stretches with weights, yoga, and calisthenics have stood the test of time for a reason. They can be inserted into your crowded schedule at odd moments of the day and require no preparation except a short warm-up. Some of the newer programs: callanetics, pilates (some), killer exercises, and video workouts also fit these requirements.

When you unexpectedly find a secret half hour free, take a walk and, if you can, magnify its benefits with an occasional bout of sprinting.

Such a plan may not make you into a Mr. or Ms. Universe but it will keep you limber and semi-fit while avoiding that energy-devouring guilt you develop when you set your sights too high and then fail to follow through.

3. Taking care of yourself.

We have all read the accounts of Cleopatra bathing in asses’ milk to bleach and smooth her skin. But she was a Queen, for heaven’s sake! She didn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn to fight the traffic into the office. She didn’t have to take care of a husband, a house, or a child. You’d have the time to leisurely bathe if it weren’t for cleaning the house, washing the clothes, finishing that report for the office, helping the kids with their homework, cooking dinner, and picking up Aunt Mildred at the airport.

We know we need to take care of ourselves. We want to perform the routines that will stave off the signs of age that wait just around the corner. We would love to take a long daily bath or shower, polish our skin to perfection with a loofah and scrubbing powders, envelop ourselves in skin softeners and lotions, and pamper our face and hair with special cleansers, masques, and skin brighteners.

Again, our lives get in the way. We work out a minimal routine of makeup remover, toner, and moisturizer. We shampoo our hair when we can and occasionally find the time for a special oil treatment or facial. It is hard to be fully motivated when the signs of age are brief and fleeting. When I have more time, we tell ourselves, I’ll work on it. Twenty years later, the wrinkles have set in, the jowls have puffed out, and our skin carries the scars of sun, wind, and gravity. Then we bemoan our lack of care through the years and try to minimize the ravages of time already indelibly imprinted on our looks.

By all means, stick to your rapid daily routine. Sure, you could get up earlier in the morning and have time for more self-care but you’re already, like most working-age Americans, sleep-deprived.

One solution is to identify one period a week when you can steal a couple of hours for yourself. Women, especially, shortchange themselves, too busy taking care of everyone else and ignoring themselves. Stake out your claim to that two hour window as if your life depended on it. Use it only for you. Use it to take deep treatments for your face or your hair. Use it to practice relaxation, listen to music, or walk in the rain. Use it to pamper every part of your body and spirit. Use it to think about yourself, and your goals, and your dreams. Use it to appreciate yourself and the good things life has brought you. Use it to lay plans for future self-development and use it to become your own best friend and confidant.

Our lives are so filled up with what we have to do that our wants and internal needs are often unmet. In even the busiest and most demanding schedule, there are moments we can carve out for ourselves, but only if we absolutely insist on it. Right now is the time to become assertive about your own self. You too deserve a brief moment in the sun.

By: Virginia Bola

Dr. Bola is a psychologist and an admitted diet fanatic, specializing in therapeutic reframing and the effects of attitudes and motivation on individual goals. Visit her at: www.DietWithAnAttitude.com/index2.html

Look On Aisle 5

2008-07-06T17:00:00.000-07:00

Have you ever stopped to calculate how much time you spend in each section of the supermarket?

Apart from the non-food areas of drug store supplies, rubber goods, and diapers, most stores have about 10 distinct food areas: produce, dairy, meat, ethnic foods and pasta, canned foods, prepared foods, drinks, frozen foods, snacks, and deli.

The areas where most of our intake should focus, if we are watching our weight and our health, are always on the edges, against the wall: produce, meat, dairy. We can easily navigate through 80 or 90 percent of the store without bumping into them.

Next week, I’ll get vegetables, we promise, as we wade into the packaged and frozen foods that fit so much more neatly into our time-starved, rat-race lives. It is so much less time and trouble to microwave a plate than slow simmer or steam something, plus there’s all that cutting and chopping time we just can’t spare.

The frozen stuff doesn’t taste as good but luckily the manufacturers figured that out and added butter sauce or cheese sauce to give it more flavor, a few nuts or other crispy additions to add some snap – nothing is plain any more.

We stock up on packages loaded with chemicals we can’t even pronounce. We pick up bags of quick snacks with nary a nutrient in the bunch. We throw fluffy breads and crackers into our cart, knowing they are merely edible plates.

Ten years ago, I lived in a Korean neighborhood. I couldn’t read half of the market’s signs and ingredients but shopped there anyway because of the atmosphere, dominated by an enormous variety of produce that took up at least half the store’s space and all the product of local Asian growers. Trying totally new, strange-looking roots and fruits was exciting: sometimes marvelous, occasionally vile.

The new wave of "natural" and "whole" food markets reaching out for the pocketbooks of the upwardly mobile, nouveau riche suburbanites initially appeared promising. They are now prospering on their overpriced produce, still imported or grown by the mega-corporate farmers, sprayed, fertilized, and artificially ripened. They allow shoppers to feel pure and organic by hanging pictures of home-town farmers throughout the store, farmers who could never produce the quantities such chain stores demand.

We have taken our markets into the age of the superstores where everything is available but nothing is natural. What are we doing to our poor bodies? We feed them junk and then spend a fortune on trying to acquire the “natural” look.

Fat chance (pun intentional)!

By: Virginia Bola

Dr. Bola is a psychologist and an admitted diet fanatic, specializing in therapeutic reframing and the effects of attitudes and motivation on individual goals. Visit her at: www.DietWithAnAttitude.com/index2.html

Smart Eating

2008-07-06T16:57:00.000-07:00

For several years, I ate a vegetarian diet; the only problem was that my definition of "vegetarian" was too limited; I had a meatless diet, but in the regimen that I kept, there were very few alternate protein sources, like soy or fish. I ate mainly low-fat complex carbohydrates ( brown rice, whole grains, pasta, vegetables and legumes),believing that as long as I avoided fat, I was on the path to nutritional salvation. Despite my running, my weight soared. I was hungry all the time. By 5 o'clock, I felt I had been run over by a truck and more often than not, steered straight to my favorite Tim Horton's for my almost daily fix—coffee and bagel. Those were the days I felt sanctified for not succumbing to a donut; but little did I realize then that my whole-grain bagel fared little better than a Boston Crème in terms of body mechanics: both were filled with carbohydrates which shot up my insulin level, which in turn increased my appetite and made me feel more tired. The bagel was a temporary fix because on most days, my heaviest eating occurred from 5pm onwards.

Once I increased my consumption of protein, my body started shedding both water and fat. I was not on a high protein diet—but made sure I had 30% protein, 50 percent complex carbohydrates and 20% essential fats. I also learned how to select my protein with intelligence. Not all proteins are alike and animal proteins are laden not only with fat but chemicals and hormones. Instead of relying only on meat (with its accompanying levels of fat) for my protein source, I had soy protein as well in my daily meals.

Fruits and vegetables became mainstays for almost every meal. My standard fare consisted of a small bowl of unprocessed oatmeal and soy protein shake with a cup of blueberries or strawberries for breakfast and another soy protein shake plus a large green salad for lunch.I have been on this regimen for almost 4 years now.No longer a vegetarian,I eat some form of meat 2 or 3 times a week. My evening meal is usually composed of whole-grains, legumes, stir-fry veggies with lean chicken,turkey, salmon or chickpea falafel. My body has returned to a kind of internal balance. I am back to a size 4(my wedding dress size); I have more energy now than I ever did and I cannot even remember when I was sick (more than 5 years ago).

Why do you need protein?

1.Your lean body mass is the metabolically active part of you. It consumes energy, repairs the daily wear and tear of vital body structures and it replaces fluid and body chemicals. It is dependent on protein.

2. If you go on a low-calorie, high carbohydrate, low protein diet, you can easily lose up to 50% of your muscle tissue. Each pound of active muscle mass that you lose reduces your metabolic rate—which means that you can just have tea and toast twice a day and still gain weight. This is very similar to what is known as "sarcopenic obesity"—a condition sometimes found in women who are thin; but because their lean body mass is low and percentage body fat is high, they are still in the obese range in their BMI index.

3. Your body has its own intelligence system as well. If you go on a low calorie, low protein diet, your body will think it is in starvation mode and it will respond by lowering your metabolic thermostat.

4. What you need to do is consume enough protein to keep your metabolism high. Protein is known to be fat-burning. Your body uses very few calories to burn carbohydrates, especially those that are high in glycemic index. These foods dissolve easily in your stomach, release insulin into your bloodstream which increases the body's tendency to store fat. Protein, on the other hand, is tougher to metabolize. Your body actually uses more calories to digest a hard boiled egg than a piece of toast. In the process of digestion, your body also burns fat, converts fat to lean muscle tissue. And the more body mass you have, the faster your metabolism will become and the more calories it will burn for day to day activities.

5. If you eat an adequate amount of protein, your body will not crave carbs or sugar. Why? Because it is well fed. Most cravings are the result of a body that is hungry for nutrients.

The upshot of all this is that we need all the macronutrients—protein, carbohydrates and fats. But we also need to eat with intelligence. Not all proteins are alike and we must be savvy enough to choose vegetable protein more often than animal protein, good low-glycemic carbs more often than high-glycemic carbs, and we must eat enough omega fatty 3 fats to balance out the omega 6. If we carry out all the above suggestions, as well as keep a good exercise regimen and maintain viable ways of stress management, we are well on our way to beat both weight and aging issues.

By: Mary Desaulniers

A weight consultant, Mary is helping people reclaim their bodies through nutrition, exercise, positive vision, creative engagement. Visit her atGreatBodyat50 or at ProteinPower

Weight: Give Us Something To Shoot For

2008-07-04T18:38:00.001-07:00

We have all seen the new Dove commercials that feature “real” women rather than the impossibly “ideal” models that are usually selected. While the Dove girls are universally attractive and fit, they also reflect different sizes and shapes, designed to represent the average American woman. Is that what we want?

Glorifying our diversity seems, at first glance, a positive development which should lead to increased self-content and improved self-esteem. Comparing ourselves to the imperfect bodies displayed is supposed to lessen our self-criticism and sense of inadequacy.

Does it?

We are a race of strivers, constantly seeking to better ourselves. Self-improvement is the biggest marketing niche of the Twenty-first Century, from books and classes to online information products, magazines, and television. The gurus of our day, from Oprah, to Martha Stewart, to Dr. Phil, to Donald Trump, all entice us towards improving ourselves, our looks, our relationships, our finances, our surroundings — our whole life. We are dissatisfied with ourselves as we are because we have caught a glimpse of what we can become.

To keep us motivated in that direction, we need a vision of perfection to work towards, even if we know we’ll never quite get there.

When it comes to weight control, what will keep us riveted on our goal? To look as gorgeous as the cover models on Cosmopolitan or the chunky figures in the Dove Ads? Would a book on diet or health sell if the pictures show fat, flabby participants? Would a gasp of delight and a round of applause greet the appearance of a size 18 model waddling down the runway?

We welcome the lanky, completely fat-free models because, in our mind's eye, they look as we want to look in every dress or suit we put on. We admire the lines and the cut of designer clothing, not the bulges and rolls that dominate so much of our lives. We see ourselves in our hearts, not in our mirrors.

We don’t want to be patronized by the marketing mavens. We don’t want a subtle reminder that we need to set our sights lower or aspire to something less than excellence. We want a dream that soars, that inspires us to unbelievable heights. We want a vision to move towards, no matter how unlikely it is that we will reach that destination.

So keep your condescending “Go ahead and settle for this” approach away, please.

Robert Browning suggested: “Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?”

By: Virginia Bola

Dr. Bola is a psychologist and an admitted diet fanatic, specializing in therapeutic reframing and the effects of attitudes and motivation on individual goals. Visit her at: www.DietWithAnAttitude.com/index2.html

The Meaning of Hunger

2008-07-04T18:37:00.000-07:00

In the weight loss industry, hunger is a dirty word, the villain that must be stopped in its tracks; however, it is this determination to eradicate hunger that has created the worst propaganda for diets. DIET has become a dirty word, associated with pain, starvation and all things "undo-able." But if we look at hunger more closely, we will see that villainy is only part of its heritage. Hunger is more like Edmund in "The Chronicles of Narnia." His cravings for Turkish Delights temporarily made him succumb to the wicked Witch until he broke through the cold inertia of her spell and re-created himself anew.

Hunger can be more appropriately viewed as an interim stage, part of a process of transformation. What we learn from our hunger is the key to long-term success in weight management.

There are different kinds of hunger; there is the real hunger for sustenance that comes after a hard day's work. This hunger is necessary for our survival as it tells our body that it needs to replace the energy that has been expended.

Then there is the hunger we feel when we are bored—the Sunday afternoon variety that creeps into our bones like a bout of flu. You feel hungry even after a meal and you can't seem to shake it off.

A more insidious form is the hunger we feel at the end of the day, a hunger that is ravenous, partly because we are hungry, but mostly because we are carrying the ravages of the working world home and we have no other avenue to tame the beast. This is the form of hunger that leads to unbridled bingeing and weight gain, and as long as the issues ( at work or at home) remain unresolved, the body will deposit layers of subcutaneous fat much like an armor to shield itself against what it feels to be an unjust grievance.

Yet it is this hunger that is the most redeeming of the three as it places in our path a problem that is actually an opportunity for personal growth and transformation. Change is inherent to the nature of the body; it is through change that we evolve, through change that matter is transformed into light. "Many physicists believe that all matter is ultimately composed of trapped light," so claims physicist Fred Allan Wolf in his book "Mind into Matter" (46). We are "trapped light" when we are trapped by the "unconscious ideas that we've been taught"(62)—such as "I am this or I am that. I am not good at this. I am meant to be fat or slow or lethargic." These are all part of the armor that keeps us tied to the ground.

But this trapped light can be released when matter is brought into motion. We are not only talking about physical motion like exercise (which fits very well into the particulars of this dynamic), but creative motion—the meaningful activity which we all know is capable of birthing the unknown or suppressed self, the self trapped by inertia and fear, the self that sees no way out of its misery other than bingeing itself to oblivion. Jungian analyst, Marion Woodman, calls this inertia "the Great Mother crocodile," that prefers "sleeping in the mud to transforming in the fire"("Dancing in the Flames" 24). She is playing on the words "mother," "matter," "mater"—primal mud of oblivion.

Edmund was part of this primal mud (he was looking for his Great Mother in the Witch) until his perception was cleansed and he saw a new reality. " No new reality can exist without a new perception of reality"( "Mind into Matter" 49).And that's why the hunger Edmund had for Turkish Delights takes on new meaning; it will no longer be fed by the Cold Spell; it will now be fed by the body in motion—the Great Battle against the Witch for Narnia.

And so it is with us. We need to find out what the source of our hunger is. What is the grievance that is eating us up? What unrealized dreams lay dormant under our cold spell? What possibilities for growth and spiritual awakenings have we stifled because of work, relationships or fear? What changes need we make to resurrect those dreams and desires? Will the path be difficult? Yes! Will it be fraught with danger? Yes! But need we fear it? No! Because we have the power within us to "birth" this new self. And as long as we keep our vision steady before us, we will succeed. Moreover, there are guides along the way—weight loss coaches, well-meaning friends and family, our own intuitions—these can provide us with the tools to make the journey successful.

It is far more dangerous to keep things the way they are. The armor of fat and denial we have built around us becomes more impenetrable with time. Unless we choose to see and create a new reality, the old Mother prevails.

That's why it is so important for us to understand the meaning of hunger. Sometimes hunger is not simply hunger for food. It is hunger for the emergence of a new self, hunger for a birth that, like any other birth, is a labor in progress. Are we serious enough about our well-being to confront our hunger, turn its energy around so that it serves, rather than stifle, us?

By: Mary Desaulniers

A fitness and weight consultant, Mary is helping people reclaim their bodies through nutrition, exercise, positive vision and creative engagement. Visit her atGreatBodyat50 or at ProteinPower

Combining Strength Training and Diet to Lose Weight Safely and Steadily

2008-07-04T18:36:00.001-07:00

People who go on a diet do so for a few main reasons: to lose weight, to improve their overall well-being or both. Many people who diet for weight loss fail to lose weight or, if they do lose, fail to maintain the weight they lost.

As any fitness expert will tell you, losing weight comes down to two main factors: consuming less calories and exercising. This is so true that if someone significantly increases the amount of exercise they do but maintains the same caloric intake, they will almost certainly lose weight anyway. Forget all that you've heard about fad dieting - the safest and smartest way to lose weight is through combining diet with exercise.

One of the best forms of exercise to perform if you are trying to lose weight is strength training. Contrary to what you may think, strength training may be more important than aerobic exercise for weight loss because although it increases muscle tissue, strength training burns more fat than aerobic exercise. Of course, this is not to say that people who are overweight should not perform aerobic exercise - as aerobic exercise has its place in any exercise routine. However, strength training should also be included in your routine as well.

Many people - particularly women, shy away from strength training exercise as they think that strength training will cause them to "bulk up" and look unnatural. The image that many people have about strength training is probably an unrealistic one for most people. Unless you are a serious bodybuilder, you will probably not gain the amount of muscles mass that most bodybuilders have. It is important to emphasize, therefore, that if you are trying to lose weight, strength training exercise will help you to maintain the lean muscle mass that you already have underneath your body fat while you are in the process of losing weight. In the end what you will have is a greater proportion of lean body mass to body fat. This means you will be thinner but you will have the muscle and strength that you had when you were overweight.

Unfortunately, many people who go on rapid weight loss programs will usually lose a good deal of their muscle mass along with the fat they lose. It’s important to note that a significant loss of muscle mass can lead not only to lowered metabolism and a loss of bone density as well.

Conversely, strength training exercise will not only speed up the rate at which you lose weight, it has numerous other health benefits as well, including:

1) Builds and strengthens your bones - which protects you from osteoporosis

2) Increases your endurance - giving you more energy for your activities

3) Tones and sculpts your muscles - giving you a better looking physique

4) Increases your self-confidence - the better you look the better you feel!

If you are considering beginning a strength training program, don't think, however, that you need to workout in a gym for hours at a time to get the benefit that strength training offers. Significant benefits can be gotten with consistent workouts lasting about 30 minutes each time and performed 2 -3 times per week. An easy way to begin is to train with simple weights in your home.

The most important thing you will need to keep in mind about weight loss is if you want to lose weight effectively and keep it off, including some form of strength training exercise in your routine is essential not only to your overall weight loss program but also to your general health and well-being and the way that you age as well.

Furthermore, by combining strength training exercise and taking full control of your eating habits, you will begin to lose weight the best way possible - safely and steadily.

By: Patricia Zelkovsky

Patricia has been interested in health and fitness since the early 70's and takes a no nonsense approach to weight loss Strength Training & Fitness

Weight Loss - The Mental Process

2008-07-04T02:34:00.000-07:00

When you go on a diet and decide you want to lose some weight, most people think “I’ll stop eating so much, maybe do a bit of exercise and be my ideal weight in just a few days”. Sadly, these people end up disappointed and usually heavier than when they started.

Dieting is not just a physical process but a mental one too.
If you do not have the mental processes right then your diet will be a struggle and possibly fail. By having the right mental approach and being in control of your brain you can turbo charge your way to your ideal weight.

So how do you get in control of your brain then?

Before I reveal that, you need to know that you are made up of two parts.
You have your conscious mind, which is your ego – the part that chatters on all day.
Then you have your sub-conscious, which is the part that grows your hair, your nails, pumps blood around your body and so on.

This is a very powerful thing to know, because most people fail in their diets because they do not have the sub-conscious mind working with them, and so it sabotages their efforts.
Consciously you want to lose weight, but sub-consciously you enjoy the extra weight for various reasons, e.g. security, lack of attention from the opposite sex, etc.

The first step in making any change is awareness. This means you become aware of the way your brain works and how you think about yourself and weight loss.

For example, lots of people will say, “I’m struggling to lose weight” or “I hate dieting” or something along those lines.

The words you use program your sub-conscious mind. When you say things like this you are giving a strong message to your subconscious mind which takes it all on board.

The same if you say, “Why can’t I lose weight?” or “Why am I always eating so much?” or anything like this your sub-conscious mind will give you the answers and tell you why! And how will that make you feel – not so good I imagine!

Being in control of your mind means being in control of what it says to you – it doesn’t operate on its own doing what it wants, it operates in a pattern that it has learnt over the years from you. And the nice thing is, this habit – you can change it!

So the first step is to become aware of what you say to yourself when you talk about your dieting and weight. What do you say? Think about this now …

Is it positive and encouraging? Or is it not?

Over the next week, listen to how you talk to yourself about your weight, your appearance and your diet.

Now you are more aware of what you are saying to yourself about dieting and losing weight, you can start to reprogram yourself and get rid of those patterns.
When you hear yourself say something that is discouraging or negative about yourself stop yourself immediately and change it into something positive and encouraging – something that makes you feel good.

When you start doing this you will soon notice that your diet becomes so much easier and the weight disappears!

By: Patricia Zelkovsky

For more weight loss information please visit: www.The-Weightloss-Guide.com Weight Loss Information, Dieting Articles & Weight Loss Free Samples

Combat Cellulite with Diet, Exercise, and Determination

2008-07-04T02:33:00.000-07:00

Losing weight can be a difficult undertaking. Temptations abound and there's always a great excuse to cheat. But when it comes to burning body fat and keeping it off, a smart dieter takes a multi-pronged approach to the process. Getting rid of fat takes more than diet, supplements or exercise alone. It takes dedication and a thought-out plan.

Before jumping into any diet or exercise plan designed to burn fat and reduce cellulite formation, it's a good idea to consider a few things:

* General health. If overall health is good and no chronic conditions are present, just about any smart, well-balanced program is likely to do the trick. If there are extenuating circumstances, such as diabetes or heart conditions, it's a very good idea to seek medical advice before going it alone.

* Goals. No diet and exercise plan is complete without a defined goal. Even if it's just five pounds, a goal helps set focus and determination. Plus, it gives a dieter something to strive for.

* Balance. Don't undertake any diet or exercise plans that bill themselves as panaceas. It takes a good balance of a healthy diet, exercise and determination to burn fat and keep it off.

* Make sure to build muscle. Losing weight and gaining flab doesn't do a person much good. Be certain to include body-toning exercises in the mix along with a good cardio workout. If the heart's not healthy, nothing will be!

As you go forward choosing a plan to lose weight and burn fat, there are a number of ways to do so. Here are some ideas to help shed some extra weight while exercising and being smart about food choices:

* Eat a low-carb snack about an hour and half before a workout. This will give you enough energy to sustain a good pace.

* Make sure to breath through the nose. This increases endurance.

* Include variety in a workout. If you lift weights and then jog every single day, you'll get bored, plus you might reach a plateau in your weight loss sooner than you'd like. Mix it up and have fun. Be sure to make certain all parts of the body get a good workout at least a few days a week.

* Include weights along with cardio. Strength training helps build muscle as other efforts burn fat.

If you've never worked out before, be certain to get advice about good technique, posturing and pacing. Starting out blind is not a good idea and can lead to unnecessary injuries that can derail weight loss plans. When handled correctly, exercise can really boost the fat-burning process.

Don't forget to balance exercise and diet smartly. Exercise alone likely won't result in long-term goals being met and the same is so for dieting alone. Be smart with choice and avoid fads that don't include a healthy, balanced meal plan.

Losing weight, burning fat and avoiding the build up of cellulite is a process that doesn't happen over night. With time, dedication and smart planning, it's a process that can be mastered.

By: Tom Sample

More Resources

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www.cellulite-advice.com
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www.treadmill1.com

Change Things Up For Continued Weight Loss

2008-07-04T02:32:00.000-07:00

Start to plan your health goals today. You can feel better, you can look better, and you might be around longer.

When you are setting weight loss goals, exercise usually has to be part of that plan. If you are anything like me, exercise is not something you view as fun. The nice thing is that it doesn’t have to be all that boring.

You should realize the right state of mind is important when you are seeking weight loss goals. Prepare yourself mentally. Then do it. Here is an exercise regimen that could help anyone lose some weight, it helped me too.

The first couple of weeks are very important. You don’t want to over extend yourself to the point that you are sore and you don’t want to exercise anymore. You should find that right area. Start doing your cardio for 20 – 30 minutes a day. Do this for the first three weeks or so. Once you have been through the first three weeks you should be able to increase your time to 40 – 50 minutes a day.

You are probably wondering where the excitement might come from. You are probably wondering what is going to keep this program from getting boring. Let’s face it; the change in scenery will come from changing your cardio type and finding exciting places to do it. Try jogging for a couple of weeks and then try swimming for the next couple. You could then change it up to some type of sprint routine or a brisk bike ride in the evening.

There are plenty of things you can do to help with the boredom that sometimes comes with exercise. You could find a lake to jog around or even a mountain trail to hike if you live near the mountains. What if you try walking around the mall or you could bike ride to work if you are close enough. Get out to the park or find a local high school track to run on. Get a partner that will keep you motivated. I have used many of these to keep me going in my program. They definitely help. As you can see there are many things to keep your cardio program alive as long as you are willing to find it.

The idea is to mix it up. By mixing your cardio routine up a bit, it will decrease the boredom that you may face with exercise. Finding a partner to motivate you and for you to keep motivated helps you maintain reliability. You now have to think of someone else. Use these tools. Use them and get fit. Enjoy your path to good health.

Always consult a physician before starting an exercise regimen.

By: Joseph Simcic

Joseph Simcic owns Big Daddy's Health Spot dedicated to providing over 3000 health products including natural herbal supplements and vitamins. Sign up for the newsletter for discounts.

5 Short and Sweet Tips For Easy Weight Loss

2008-07-04T02:30:00.001-07:00

Want to get rid of a bit of extra weight? Here are five easy steps to help you get rid of that weight.

Tip 1 : Be nice to yourself

So many people invest a lot of time and effort beating themselves up about how they look and what they eat, but does it do them any good?
No! If you are encouraging and supportive of yourself, just as you would be for a child who was learning to walk, you will find that you get rid of weight so much easier – and a side effect of this is that you will feel much better about yourself.

Next time you are about to beat yourself up about slipping on your diet, just stop, take a deep breath and remind yourself you are doing a great job and that you won’t be repeating that again. You’ll notice a difference very quickly.

Tip 2 : Get Support

If you are trying to lose weight and the people around you are not supportive or encouraging then it is going to be an uphill struggle. Find yourself a friend who has the same goals (to get rid of weight) and work with them. Get them to encourage and support you as you do to them. This will make you feel so much better and help you to achieve success.

Tip 3 : Set Goals

How much weight do you want to get rid of? A couple of pounds? Twenty pound? More? Less? So many people say they want to get rid of some weight – define some weight – is it a pound? Ten pounds?

If you do not set weight goals then you are not going to know where you are heading. Decide exactly how much weight you want to get rid of and when you want to get rid of it by. Set yourself milestones and goals – and make sure they are achievable.

Tip 4 : Tell A Friend

Tell a friend about your weight goals and get them to hold you accountable for them. Tell them what you will achieve and when you will achieve it by. Tell them what you will do if you hit your goal and what you will do if you don’t reach your goal. Make sure the latter is something that will motivate you to hitting your goal!

Tip 5 : Don’t mix carbs and protein

Mixing carbs and protein can affect your digestion and impact your weight loss goals. Try to ensure your meals are balanced – eat protein one meal, carbs the next, but avoid the two together. You’ll notice a big difference in how you feel.

These five simple tips will help you to get the most out of your weight control program and to reach your ideal weight quicker and enjoy your diet much more.

By: Patricia Zelkovsky

Patricia has been interested in health and weightloss since the early 70's and knows how to seperate hype from fact. Weight Loss Tips & Ideas

Help Yourself Lose 10 Pounds by Jogging

2008-07-03T21:13:00.001-07:00

For the vast majority of people, weight gain is a very slow, almost imperceptible process. Most of us are familiar with the experience of stepping on a scale and wondering just where, exactly, did those pounds come from? For most people, the weight comes from times in the past year where they indulged. What happens is that you indulge for a week or two (vacation, Christmas) and then go back to your normal lifestyle -- you do nothing to lose the weight. So these small weight gains stay with you and build up over time. For this reason almost anyone would love to lose 10 pounds at some point, and a great way to do so is by jogging.

Depending on who you talk to, jogging is considered the best exercise to lose weight. The reason is because the high intensity of jogging burns a lot of calories. If you're looking to lose 10 pounds, there are a lot worse things you could try than a half-hour jog a few times a week.

Jogging is also preferable for many people because it incorporates exercise in a more interesting way: trying to lose 10 pounds by going to the gym 3 times a week isn't a whole lot of fun. It will certainly feel like "work" as you count off the minutes of your workout. Jogging, on the other hand, requires nothing but a pair of shoes, and allows you to enjoy some scenery.
One of the problems people face when trying to lose 10 pounds is incorporating exercise into their daily routines. Most of us are busy enough as it is, and can't find the time to go to the gym at scheduled intervals. If you're trying to lose 10 pounds, you'll find that jogging is a much more flexible activity - you don't have to drive to the gym: you can do it wherever and whenever you want.

While jogging is an excellent way to lose 10 pounds and increase your fitness level, you should keep in mind that it is harder on the body then a lot of other physical activities. Jogging involves lurching your full weight around repeatedly - this is precisely why it's such a good workout - and this can cause stress on the joints in your knees and feet. You should also keep in mind that jogging is an intense physical activity, so if you're starting from a very low level of fitness it may be a little too much, and you may want to work up to it.

As long as you keep the above in mind though, you'll find jogging an excellent way to lose 10 pounds. As an added bonus, jogging is recognized as one of the best ways to maintain weight as well, so you don't have to worry about a diet that gains all the weight back once it's stopped. And even though you may be jogging primarily to lose those 10 pounds, you'll also be doing wonders for the health of your heart and cardiovascular system.

By: Abbas Abedi

By Abbas Abedi—To make all aspect of life easier you might take a look at my blog self---help.blogspot.com title="Self Help">Self Help

Some Healthy Tips To Lose Weight

2008-07-03T21:12:00.002-07:00

Although some people find themselves dealing with more serious weight problems, most people who want to lose a little weight are relatively healthy. If you want to lose 10 pounds, there's a good chance that those pounds were gained very slowly of the course of many months - the weight doesn't represent a problem as much as a few times during the past year where you overindulged (usually the holidays) and failed to make up for it.

Here are some tips to lose those 10 pounds:

Pick Your Time
Weight loss involves very personal issues for most people, and is closely related to their self esteem. It is crucial that you attempt to lose 10 pounds at the appropriate time - at a time where you otherwise feel good and satisfied with your life. If you try and lose 10 pounds during a period of time in your life where you have a lot of stress or other distracting things going on, you drastically increase your chances of failure, which will only make things worse.

Change Your Diet
Try as much as possible to balance your diet. This doesn't mean that you have to starve yourself -- rather make a point of getting no more the 30% of your calories from fat. Eat more fruits and vegetables and try to add as much variety to your diet as possible. Try new things, and new meal ideas.

Keep Track Of Your Progress
The problem with dieting for many people, especially in the early stages, is that even if the diet is working they can't see any results. It's hard to really notice if you lose 1 pound. For this reason it's important that your track your progress, so you can have a good sense of the accomplishments you've made. By calculating how many calories you've eaten and how much you've burned through exercise each and every day, you can track how many calories (and ultimately how much weight) you are losing.

Do It With Friends
A great and fun way to help you stick with your plan is to undertake your project of losing 10 pounds with a friend. Not only will you be able to provide support for each other and track each other's progress, but you'll be able to engage in fun exercise activities together.

Make Your Plan Realistic
It's important that you set achievable goals for yourself. For example, with just some basic changes in your lifestyle and eating habits, you can lose 1 pound a week. There's no need to be in a huge rush to lose weight, and trying to lose weight quickly often requires a regimen that is difficult to keep up. For most people, it is healthier to lose weight slowly than with drastic dietary changes.

Many people would like to lose 10 pounds, and almost anyone can if they follow the advice above. By avoiding a "quick fix" and sticking with long term healthy choices, you'll find your project to lose 10 pounds will leave you not only thinner, but healthier and feeling better about yourself.

By: Abbas Abedi

By Abbas Abedi—To make all aspects of your dieting easier you might take a look at my blog Healthy Weight Loss

Shed Pounds With One Simple Step

2008-07-03T21:12:00.001-07:00

If you cut out 100 calories a day you will lose 10-12 pounds in a year. The best part of this is that is effortless! One hundred calories are 4 pieces of hard candy or two large piecs of buble gum, 1/3 of a candy bar and half a piece of pie. It does not get much simpler to loose weight than this.

Here's the bottom line: one pound is equivalent to 3,500 calories. Whether by making slight changes to your diet like the ones listed below or exercising, a deficit of 500 calories a day will lead to the loss of a pound a week! Remember, it's the small changes we make every single day that make a big difference in the long run!

Most diets, weight loss and fitness programs fail because they are too rigid, require big changes from the start and have too many rules to follow. This all adds up to big stress for the individual. More stress and you have to put more mental energy into it to succeed. The focus is on getting through the program and "finishing it." Final result? You go back to your original behavior and weight problem because the program wass too hard, and no permanent weight loss.

Get off the never-ending weight loss failure merry-go-round. The secret to permanent weight loss is slow, almost transparent and easy changes in eating habits.

The more transparent, effortless and painless your weight loss efforts are, the more they become permananent. Making a 100 calorie change a day is as simple as passing on 2 Oreo Cookies. Here are some additional easy things to do to get that 100 calorie change:

Switch to water first thing in the morning instead of fruit juice. Fruit juice is high in sugar. Since most of us are dehydrated in the morning, water's the best thing to do the trick anyway.

- Switch to sugar-free yogurt instead of eating regular yogurt.

- Switch to a low-fat store-bought bagel instead of a bakery bagel.

- Use an all-fruit spread on top of low fat or fat free cream cheese instead of flavored cream cheese on that low-fat bagel.

- Replace bacon at breakfast with reduced-fat turkey bacon or Canadian bacon.

- Steam veggies instead of sautéing them in butter or oil.

- If you drink a lot of soda, switching to diet soda will probably save you hundreds of calories a day.

- Switch to boiled shrimp instead of steak on shish kebabs.

- Replace 1 tablespoon of regular mayo on your turkey sandwich with 1 ½ tablespoons of reduced fat mayo.

- Indulge in Sunday-morning French toast... modified. Use non-fat milk and egg whites instead of whole milk and eggs.

Pick just one of these suggestions and you'll see the results in just a few months. If you want to do a little more, take a walk each morning or evening. A 30 minute walk five times a week will shed almost double the amount of weight in a year for you. So, do something "small" for your self. Surprise yourself in a year!

By: Joyce Jackson

JM Jackson is a fitness, health and weight loss consultant in northern Califormia. For more information see Weight Loss Hypnosis.

Ten Tips For Weight Loss Success

2008-07-03T21:11:00.000-07:00

Here’s ten simple steps to help you get rid of that excess weigh with ease:

Tip 1 : Empty Calories

Many of the fizzy drinks that you buy such as sodas are full of empty calories that do you absolutely no good – even the diet ones have empty calories. Cut back on these and drink water instead (not fizzy artificial water) and you will benefit from the many good effects of drinking lots of water too.

Tip 2 : Avoid Aspartame

Many diet products have an artificial sweetener in them called Aspartame instead of sugar. The idea is that this reduces the calories in the product. Unfortunately, Aspartame is not very good for you. Firstly, it’s a neuro-toxin, that is, it kills brain cells, and secondly it makes you crave carbs. So by taking a product with Aspartame in it you are actually going to crave more food!

Tip 3 : Avoid Frying

Fried foods are full of fat which really don’t help your weight loss program. If you grill, boil or bake food instead then it will be much healthier for you.

Tip 4 : Use Mustard

By putting something such as mustard or horse radish sauce on your food it will heat up your body. This heating up of your body is actually your metabolism speeding up, so therefore by putting these hot sauces on your food you are helping yourself to burn more calories.

Tip 5 : Avoid Junk Food

It’s very easy to snack on junk food – it’s convenient and tempting, which is the point! To avoid this temptation, carry around with you some healthy snacks such as nuts or fruit. You are often tempted by unhealthy food because it is easier to get to that healthy food. If you have something healthy to eat with you then it is easier and more convenient that the junk food!

Tip 6 : Never Shop on an Empty Stomach

If you go shopping on an empty stomach then it is much more tempting to buy junk food and food you don’t really want. Always make sure you have eaten before you shop as you are more likely to buy healthy food.

Tip 7 : Keep Your Home Junk Food Free

If you keep your house free from junk food then you are less likely to give in to cravings and eat unhealthy food. Oftentimes you get these cravings but it is too much effort to get out and buy the junk food, so if you don’t have it in the house you’ll avoid it!

Tip 8 : Eat Breakfast

If you are busy it is very tempting to skip breakfast. Unfortunately it is probably the most important meal of the day and if you skip it then you may end up feeling lethargic. You will also be more tempted for a quick calorie boost from junk food if you miss this meal.

Tip 9 : Eat Before 8pm

If you eat too late at night then the food doesn’t digest properly and sits in your stomach. By making sure you don’t eat after 8pm you will allow your body the chance to properly digest your food and sleep much better too!

Tip 10 : Buy Smaller Plates

When you diet, you often cut down your food portion size. Unfortunately, if you continue to use the same sized plates then psychologically you feel bad because the plate isn’t full – particularly if you are eating with someone who has a full plate. A smaller plate will help you to feel more comfortable with the smaller portion, and hence less calories.

These ten tips will help you get rid of that excess weight quickly and easily and enjoy the process!

By: Patricia Zelkovsky

Patricia has been interested in weight loss since the early 70's and knows how to seperate weight loss hype from weight loss fact. Discover the Weight Loss Facts at www.The-WeightLoss-Guide.com

5 Steps To Weight Loss Heaven

2008-07-03T21:08:00.000-07:00

To ensure you become one of those that achieve permanent weight loss from lifestyle change and dieting, here are my 5 weight loss steps that you can trust to help you lose those unwanted pounds.

Step 1: Always Eat Breakfast

Everyone’s heard the famous saying 'breakfast is the most important meal of the day'. It’s more than just a saying its absolutely proven to be true.

Nothing gets our metabolism going faster than breakfast after a good night's sleep.

Sleeping causes our metabolism to slow right down and breakfast helps us to kick start it up again.

However having an unhealthy breakfast won’t help so the key is to have breakfast and make sure it’s healthy. Try to incorporate wholegrain cereals and breads, low fat dairy products like milk and yoghurt and fruit.

Step 2: Drink Loads of Water and Get Plenty of Sleep

You need to make sure you drink lots off water throughout the day. Water has many health benefits and helping with dieting is one of them. The more water you drink the less hungry you’ll be as you will feel full and it helps detoxify your body.

Make sure you get enough sleep as this will ensure your body gets enough time to recuperate and face any challenge.

Step 3: Calories, Calories, Calories

You have to know how many calories you are eating. If your daily calorie intake is more than the amount of calories you burn then you will put on weight. It’s a game of numbers. You need to know how many calories you need to maintain your current weight and then drop 50 calories a day and you will begin to lose weight.

Once you know these things, you also need to keep track of how many calories you consume each day so that you can compare them to your target and make any necessary adjustments.

Writing down your calorie consumption after each meal will help you realize how much of an effect the little piece of candy here and the occasional cookie there has on your weight.

We usually eat the same foods so you should familiarise yourself with the amount off calories in your usual foods. Try cutting the portions if need be.

Step 4: Take your time

You shouldn’t try to lose weight too quickly. This could also have a detrimental effect on your health as the sudden change will shock the body.

Don’t forget we want to burn the fat on our bodies not all the muscle. For our bodies to burn fat we need to exercise at a certain heart rate if our heart rate is too high it is easier for our bodies to get energy by burning proteins and carbohydrates in our body instead of the fat.

Rapid and significant weight loss from dieting alone is usually indicative of a very calorie restrictive diet which is also counterproductive because for most of us it is unsustainable.

Step 5: Exercise (don’t panic)

Muscle and activity keep our metabolism up which is why weight training to build or maintain our muscle mass and aerobic activity like walking, jogging, cycling and swimming are so important to those of us wanting to lose weight

Dieting alone is not the best route to weight loss and to staying in an ideal weight range.
To lose weight safely and keep it off for as long as possible, always combine dieting and exercise.

Finally, I just want to say you should have a goal. You need something to motivate you and embed that into your mind so that when you feel low you can visualise your goal and motivation and this will keep you strong. Never underestimate the power the mind has over the body.

By: Fame Ahmed

Fame Ahmed is a well known author worldwide. He has written numerous works on various topics. He is an expert in research and writing reviews and articles based on his findings. Penis Enlargement Review

Dining Out On A Diet

2008-07-02T22:11:00.000-07:00

You don’t have to stay home to eat healthy. Most restaurants have low fat options and are quickly adding low carb menus. Before going out, call around and find a restaurant with a menu that will be a good match for your diet. Once at the restaurant, there are ways to enjoy a guilt free meal.

The secret to success is in the initial ordering—you don’t want to find yourself staring at a plate of bad choices, and regretting it only after the plate is empty.

Some experts suggest that once served, you should ask for a take-out container and put half of it away for the next day’s lunch or dinner. This works great if you are incredibly self-controlled. However, if the knowledge that there is more food under the lid of that Styrofoam container is too much—change the way you order.

Side dishes, children’s plates, and appetizers are all great alternatives. Request that extras like gravy, butter, sauces, salad dressings, and sour cream be served on the side. Slightly dipping a fork in a condiment before you stick it into your food is a great way to limit the extra calories while adding flavor to your food.

Don’t be afraid to substitute. Substitute a salad for fries, a green vegetable for potatoes, or low fat versions for their fat laden counterparts. If there are no substitutions available, ask to have the item left off the plate. Such a request may result in your waiter explaining that you have to pay for it anyway. Simply let him know that you don’t mind—or you’ll end up paying with your waistline.

Sometimes another person at the table will want the item you want left in the kitchen. If this is the case, ask the waiter to serve the item on a separate plate.

Fast food restaurants offer a challenge to the average weight loss plan. However, if you must go to one, there are usually a few healthy choices you can make.

Order a salad, grilled chicken, or a roast beef sandwich. If you are on a low carb diet, request a plate and a fork with your sandwiches so that you can eat it without the bun. In casual and fine dining scenarios, simply choose items according to the way they are cooked, avoiding anything that is battered and fried. Instead, order items that are steamed, broiled, baked, roasted, or poached.

Stay away from food that is creamed, cheese sauce, or items marinated in oil. Especially destructive to your weight loss efforts are casseroles and pastry crusts.

As for drinks-- water, diet sodas, and ice tea are all good choices. A single glass of wine fits nicely into most diets, but only if you have the willpower to pass on a second glass when offered.

Desserts don’t have to be off limits, especially if everyone else at the table in partaking. This will only cause you to dig into the ice cream in your freezer with wild abandon once you get home. Choose a dessert that does not come with ice cream, whipped cream, or any kind of sauce. But only order it if you have someone willing to share it with you. Have the waiter bring it out already divided up.

There is no reason not to enjoy a guilt free dinner out. There are many options available, you just have to make the right choices.

By: John Savage

john savage has taken a keen interest in dieting and weight loss for many years. Click Here to visit his blog and discover 3 keys to living fit and youthful at any age.

Weight Loss Tips Without Losing Your Appearance

2008-07-02T22:10:00.000-07:00

Be it girls or boys, be it men or women all of them are conscious of their body now. One must be careful about his health now days as more number of new diseases is emerging day by day. Weight losing tips helps you lot to prevent obese. The emerging diseases, most of them are weight related diseases.

The excess weight is the root cause of many ailments. People put on more weight than required because we have machine for each and every work that we used to do manually some time back. The net result is less physical activity. As a result of this the intake is more than the output, which results in excess weight. So this is the high time to adhere weight-losing tips.

The first and foremost weight-losing tip is exercise. The exercise is the natural way of interfering with the physiology of the body to elicit the desired effect. Exercise for weight losing is easy to practice. Exercise for weight loss is cost effective and there are no side effects. Weight loss exercise can be regarded as an elixir to the health.

Weight loss exercise is an important parts any effective weight loss program. When we work out or exercise each and every muscle of the body that participates will burn out the calories. More you burn out calories more slim you can become as the excess calorie is utilized instead of getting stored in the body in the form of fat.

There are countless benefits of regular weight loss excercise. Weight loss exercise makes the bone strong. Exercise will improve the blood circulation all over the body. Hence there will be increased flow of blood to the bone at the time of exercise so also the essential nutrients. Weight loss exercise will keep the circulatory system and the respiratory system in a good condition. The increased flow of blood during exercise to all over the body will make the heart work better. The heart will be used to tackle the sudden increase in the workload. Exercise will test the efficacy of the lung, as lung is one of the organs that need to cope-up with the sudden increase in the workload. The gaseous exchange needs to be quicker. The increased intake of oxygen will rejuvenate the respiratory system.

As the increased blood flow supplies the nutrients to the skin during the exercise, the skin tone and the elasticity is maintained. Exercise increases the metabolism of the body. More calories are burned from the body during excercise. This prevents the excess calorie from getting converted and stored in the body thus distorting the body shape. Exercise controls the blood glucose level thus preventing the on set of diabetes mellitus a disease that cannot be cured. Exercise also controls the blood cholesterol level thus preventing majority of the heart diseases including heart attack. The increased blood sugar and cholesterol can indirectly contribute to obesity that requires weight losing tip or plan. Exercise also increases the body's natural pain alleviators, called endorphins.

In addition to helping weight loss, exercise reduces the emotional and mental stress. Exercise helps to improve the functioning of the brain, rejuvenating the brain with the increased supply of oxygen and nutrients. Considering the above-mentioned benefits, the exercise is the best weight losing tip. Above all the exercise has the ability of slowing the ageing process.

By: Casey McCarthy

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10 Pounds to Lose and What to Do?

2008-07-02T22:09:00.000-07:00

Got 10 pounds to lose? Don’t torture yourself by not eating and taking weight reducing drugs that may not be beneficial to you in the long run. You may be dying to lose unwanted fat in your body but you don’t have to do it in an instant. Have patience and gradually and diligently work on your aim. Soon you’ll realize those 10 pounds you ought to lose will just be a part of history.

So you have 10 pounds to lose? Check out these simple yet effective ways to lose ten pounds gradually and safely:

Exercise

The best way you can do to get rid of those ten pounds is to exercise. The reason why you get fat and gain weight is that the calories (energy) your body has gotten from the food that you eat are more than what your body needs or what you utilize. The excess calories not burned up are then stored in form of fat. The stored fat becomes your alternative source of energy when what you eat is not enough to provide for your energy requirements. However, when you consistently take in more calories, the tendency of your body is to store more excess calories in form of fat. The unconsumed fat is the one that makes gain weight.

Exercising would help you burn those stored calories and thus prevent weight gain. As you increase your physical activities, more and more energies are consumed so calories that you take in don’t accumulate in your system as fats. However, bear in mind that exercising is essential to good health and should not only be done if you’ve got 10 pounds to lose. Make it a habit in order for you to maintain your good health even as you grow older.

Eat the Right Food and the Right Amount of Food

Eating the right kind of food, that is, low-calorie food and the right amount of food is very important if you are serious about losing weight. The principle here is that you have to take in only the right amount of calorie you shall be consuming as all the excess will just be stored as fat. Also, drink lots of water.

Sleep Early and Get up early

Most people do not realize they have already gained so much weight within certain period of time. This is because gaining weight can be a long and sluggish process. Everyday, you gain a pound or two without noticing it. Then suddenly when you check your weight you realize you already got 10 pounds added to your weight, which means you got 10 pounds to lose as well. For most busy people, exercising may not be a good idea as it may take much of their time.

Sleeping early and waking up early in the morning can be one of your alternatives. Getting up early means doing more things earlier. Since you do not eat much or you probably eat much healthier food in the morning, you are more likely to burn calories (as you move around the house, prepare your breakfast and your things) from fat that have already been there in your system. Moreover, if your reason for not exercising is your “lack of time,” getting up early would give you time for exercise, even just the basics such as brisk walking for a few minutes.

By: Dave Poon

Dave Poon is an accomplished writer who specializes in the latest in health and weight loss. For more information regarding 10 pounds to lose, please drop by at weightloss.answerwisely.com

Quick, Simple Weight Loss Tips

2008-07-02T22:07:00.000-07:00

With my fitness clients I am often asked questions relating to weight control. From dropping a few pounds to big New Year’s resolutions after the holidays, people want to know how to get slimmer
and stay that way.

The first step in achieving and maintaining a healthy
weight is making healthy choices that fit your lifestyle and allow you to do what you already
enjoy.

Here are a few of the most common weight loss question I get:

How do I know I’m at a healthy weight?
The best answer is "How do your feel?" If you are happy, energetic and able to move your way through the day with ample energy reserves you are more than likely a decent weight. From here, it's just a matter of fine tuning yourself. That is, a fitness or walkin program or perhaps a small tweak in your diet such as switching to low fat milk products.

If you do not feel like this, then the first place to start is a body mass index. Body mass index or BMI is a guideline for helping one to judge their body weight. A BMI over 27 is considered overweight. The higher the BMI is above the normal range, the greater the degree of overweight for an individual.

People with a higher percentage of body fat tend to have a higher BMI, except for individuals such as body builders, because muscle weighs more than fat.

Carrying excess body fat puts you at risk for health problems such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and certain cancers. Here is how to calculate BMI.

1. Take weight (in pounds) divide by height (in inches).
2. Divide the results in Step 1 by height (in inches).
3. Multiply the result in Step 2 by 703 = Body Mass Index (BMI).

Can I lose weight by counting fat grams or calories?
You can, but it will drive your crazy. Long term changes require smarter choices. Change to low fat milk and dairy products or whole grain breads.

If you want to count calories understand your calorie intake must be less than calories burned. Portion size is also important to any healthy eating plan. Large servings of even low-fat foods can contribute to weight gain.

Is a weight plateau bad?
A plateau during a weight loss program is normal. Your body requires fewer calories to function as you lose weight. Everyone’s body levels off at a different weight. Gradually increasing physical
activity can help you to continue to lose weight during a plateau. The bottom line is any physical
activity helps you toward a healthy lifestyle.

What is the best way to lose weight?
Slow gradual weight loss is the healthy way to lose weight. The secret to successful weight control is not only losing weight it is maintaining the weight loss permanently. A good aerobic fitness program, which means as little as 30 minutes of walking 5 days a week, will keep you in good shape.

Weight Control Tips
Be realistic - make small changes over time.
Be flexible - balance what you eat and what you do.
Be sensible - eat foods in moderation.
Be active - don’t forget to move!

By: Joyce Jackson

JM Jackson is a fitness, health and weight loss consultant in northern Califormia. For more information see Weight Loss Hypnosis.

Close Kept Secrets to Weight Loss Lesson #6 - Be Positive

2008-07-02T22:04:00.000-07:00

I am so proud of you and your accomplishments. You’re embarking on your own journey and you astound me because you want something more, something that surpasses what you currently know. You are such a gift from God and He is right there with you as you’re on your journey to discover you—peeling back the layers to find the wholeness that already exists.

When I went through my transformation to discover myself after being very sick and peeled back my own layers and changed my thoughts, I had a difficult time adapting to the new me. For years I had been this person who lived in fear and worry and attracted everything that was separate from God; I didn’t know the person I had become.

Here I was experiencing a higher vibration of energy encompassing peace, love and joy and didn’t quite know what to do with these feelings. I was having new conversations with people on a whole different level and saying goodbye to some when I felt the need to do so. You may experience this as well. People are going to see changes in you and might be unsure of what this means for your relationship with them. Try not to be alarmed as there might be relationships that you’re going to have to say goodbye to because they don’t represent who you are any longer. Make sure you thank them for the role they played in your life (either in person or writing it down in a journal). This is necessary for your healing. Be aware of it and embrace it.

Wayne Dyer, my mentor who wrote The Power of Intention, eloquently states “Surround yourself with the conditions which you want to produce.” If you’re looking for harmony, then attract only those people, those experiences that will produce harmony. Likewise, if you want to attract weight loss, then attract those people, those experiences that will help you produce weight loss. If you are around people who always want to eat in an unhealthy way, how is this going to help you in your quest to lose weight? What are you going to do about it? To quote Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.”

This is the intention of these lessons. To show you that you already have all the answers within. I am the one who holds your hand to guide you to your answers. As Wayne Dyer serves as my mentor, I will serve as yours. I’ll be your coach, your cheerleader to say, “You can do it.” It’s so easy to look outside yourself for the answers, but the answers always lie within. We need to be ready to be open and to listen to our inner voice, our spirit. Sometimes we can listen to the itty bitty committee that is within us as well. Have you ever heard of this committee? They tell us that we can’t do it. They shout at us and say “Who do you think you are to lose weight. You’re never going to be able to do it. You’ve tried in the past and haven’t been successful.”

Take a few moments and write down all the thoughts you’ve had in the past that supports the committee’s existence. Every thought that you’ve had that you couldn’t do it, it’s too hard, everyone else can lose weight but me—all those I can’t statements.

Right now, express gratitude to the committee. Take a moment and thank them for their presence because you needed them at one time. Our challenges can be our greatest gifts so it’s important to communicate gratitude because of the lessons we’re supposed to learn. Remember, the itty bitty committee is our own negative thoughts.

Ready to have some fun? Stand up and visualize the committee as these small, troll dolls lined up across the floor. Now turn around and shake your hineys at this committee while shouting and laughing, “I am my ideal weight. I am a beautiful person. I am a lean, mean, sex machine. My butt is nice and shapely. I am a Divine child of God.” You can keep going with this and use any affirmations you would like and have more fun. Here’s a bumper sticker we could make….my thighs are smaller than your thighs. Now, you’re changing your thoughts to embrace a higher vibration of energy to attract only positive people and experiences in your life. Keep practicing and use the EFT tapping points too!

We haven’t talked about exercise yet so here’s your homework. Exercise your little (notice I said little) hineys off. Pick something that you like to do and do it for at least ten minutes a few times each week. It can just be walking around the house. You can turn on butt movin’ music and dance around the house for a few minutes…even more. If you have children, get them involved. Dance with your significant other. They will love this time with you.

As you’re exercising throw your body into it. Let your body know that you love it and are giving it the attention it deserves. Your blood is moving, your toxic cells are leaving your body. Your lungs thank you, your muscles thank you. Every part of your body is feeling the exhilaration. Ba bye, fat cells!

Thank you for letting me part of your life and help you. You are the most incredible person there is and I’m very blessed to have you in my life.

By: Tami Close

Tami Close is a weight loss consultant, and uses an integrative method, including fat burning products from Isagenix. She is a #1 best selling co-author with Mark Victor Hansen, Deepak Chopra and Wayne Dyer.www.tamiclose.com

Close Kept Secrets to Weight Loss Lesson #7 -- Be a Spiritual Being

2008-07-02T03:16:00.002-07:00

Well, look at you go! You keep moving closer and closer towards your goal. How extraordinary are you? Do you want to know? You are the most extraordinary person on this earth!! To quote Wayne Dyer, we are spiritual beings having a human experience. With this in mind, how can you be anything but Divine as a spiritual being! Keep this in mind when you’re on your journey to achieve weight loss.

Did you do your homework assignment and include exercise in your routine? Was it great to dance around shaking that booty? Your body must have been in heaven shouting, “More, More, More!” For me, I incorporate a few different things: walking, dancing, yoga, pilates, walking and running. I have to get outside and breathe in all that God has created. In fact, I’ve been thinking about running a marathon. Can you imagine at the age of 49 doing this? I’m going to start out with a 5K in the Spring and then go from there. I have a person in my life who is serving as my coach to offer encouragement to let me know I can do it. I have to exercise as it boosts my energy level and makes me feel good. Turning 50 next year is transcending me into experiencing everything as if it is all brand new. I feel as if I’m 21 again. I have no wrinkles—ya, right!

I’ve been coming into contact with so many people who have forgiveness at the core of their weight issues. I know a previous lesson focused on forgiveness and I would like to focus on it again in this lesson.

Whom do you still need to forgive? Include yourself in this process. What thoughts do you still have that are not connected to God? Write them down now.

Writing will help you get your emotions out. Do you journal? If you don’t, I would highly recommend it. I journal each night and this is where I express my thoughts and then I also include gratitude for those things that I have and those things I have yet to receive. I believe everything is right there waiting for me.

After the first of the year, I will be offering a FREE one hour teleconference call—you only pay for the cost of the phone call. Isn’t this exciting? You’ll be on the phone call with others who are going through the same thing. What a great opportunity to connect. I can’t wait!

Don’t ever give up! I read something that Donald Trump said. If you’re going to think, you might as well think BIG! So think BIG weight loss. Those extra pounds are just melting away. You can do it! You’re releasing the pain, the stress so that you manifest all that is yours by Divine right. You’re going to look great in that slinky outfit. I’m so proud of you for focusing on yourself. God is so proud of you too! Go for it!

By: Tami Close

Tami Close is a weight loss consultant, and uses an integrative method, including fat burning products from Isagenix. She is a #1 best selling co-author with Mark Victor Hansen, Deepak Chopra and Wayne Dyer. www.tamiclose.com

Game Plan For Dieters

2008-07-02T03:16:00.001-07:00

If you make the wise decision of trying to get more exercise, you’ll need to figure out what you are able to do and how long you are able to do it. I’m not talking about what you could do in your glory days. I’m talking about what you can do right now. I’ll give you an example.

When I was in college, I wasn’t very fat or heavy at all. I used to jog three miles a day religiously, until the day I got a job, and then I just didn’t seem to have the time for it anymore. With a little patience and a lot of junk food, I grew to be over 60 pounds heavier than my former self. Then, out of the blue sky, I decided to take up jogging again. I bought a pair of cheap running shoes and headed for the local high school track. There was quite a variety of people walking, running, and playing soccer. I saw a few high school-aged people and even some women and men over 60 or 70 years old. I thought, “This is great, I can look forward to 40 more years of jogging.”

I remembered that I had liked to stretch before the three-mile-joy-ride, so I stretched out my thighs, calves, and any other leg muscles I could think of. I was set to go, and I couldn’t wait to get the “runner’s high” that I used to experience daily.

The first ten steps were a little bit uncomfortable, and of course they would be. I hadn’t attempted to jog in seven years (and 60 pounds). “But I only need to run twelve laps,” I thought to myself. That would be three miles.

I started out strong, but within the first half lap, I had slowed considerably and I was having trouble breathing. This isn’t how I remembered it. What was going on? I feared I might collapse right here on the track, and then the grandma runners would pass me up one by one and laugh. I couldn’t let that happen.

Since I could barely run, or breathe, I decided to start limping. It didn’t matter which leg I chose as long as it remained consistent. I slowly limped onto the grass in the center of the track and pretended to be assessing the damage to my leg. I was actually sucking wind quite violently.

A few people stopped to ask if I was all right. All I could think to say was, “Damn, it’s the same muscle I pulled six months ago.” I’m glad they didn’t ask me which muscle. I then massaged my leg all over but concentrated most of my efforts on my left ankle. Within five minutes I was up and limping again, this time straight towards my car.

Even though I seemed to pull off the fake limping act, I still felt miserable. I hadn’t even run one lousy lap. I got in my car and raced away. I couldn’t go straight home until I had collected all of my painful thoughts and sorted them out. Instead, I headed to the one place that I felt most welcome...7-Eleven. I don’t remember what I feasted on that day, but I didn’t imagine that the clerk was laughing at me as I had imagined the other runners back at the track had been. In fact, no one really laughed at me that day, but they might have if I hadn’t been such a great actor. And knowing that they could have laughed at me, I ate like a king and queen combined, and I cleansed myself of the imagined laughter. I wanted a hug that day, but maybe what I really needed was therapy.

The story illustrates that you need to exercise at your current level of ability. If it has been five years since you’ve exercised, you cannot expect yourself to pick right up where you left off. Experiment a little and see what your body can actually do right now.

Another gem I will peddle to you is the idea of starting small and building up to bigger routines as you become ready. If you decide that walking will be your favorite means of exercising, don’t try for ten miles on your first day. You can easily start by just walking around the block each day for a week.

Next you can try expanding your walk to involve a few more blocks. The following week you’ll add even more blocks, and in six months or so, you just might be walking three or four miles. Make sure that you build up gradually, rather than biting off more than you can chew. It’s much better to have a continuous string of successes than a setback every four weeks.

After you lose ten to fifteen pounds, you will feel able to exercise longer. The more you lose, the more you can do. That seems a bit backwards to me. The people who most need to exercise are the same people who can do the least amount of it. It’s a cruel world. Don’t think—just get started right now.

When you are ready to begin exercising, remember that you will be doing this each day. It is important not to get bored. If you keep your exercise bicycle in the garage, make sure you also have a television or radio in the garage. Watching television or listening to the radio passes the time a little faster; before you know it, your 30 minutes are up.

One friend of mine is a big advocate of varying your routine often. If you’ve been walking on flat land as your exercise, perhaps the next thing to do is to try adding some hills to your walk. Then perhaps you could bike on certain days and swim on others. I agree that this would be a better overall workout than exercising the same way each day. However, I’m lazier than he, and we both know it. He has weighed 100 pounds less than me for a stretch of nearly ten years, so he must be doing at least a few things right.

Whatever your exercise plan will be, make sure you keep at it. Make a schedule and stick to it. Let it be a regular part of your day, like brushing your teeth or feeding your dog or cat. It’s easy to say you will just take one day off, but sometimes that day can turn into days or weeks.

Plan ahead for the winter or off-season. You may not be able to jog for long stretches at a time during the winter, depending upon your local climate. Buy that exercise bike, or take up an indoor exercise such as aerobics.

It is also wise to be mindful of the time of day you prefer to exercise. I knew a lot of people at my office that liked to get up early in the morning and exercise. I always had a hard time getting up early, since I had been used to staying up so late (when I was twenty-something). But many things would keep me from exercising after work. I was often too tired or mentally drained after work. I also belonged to some clubs that met in the evenings, and I still needed some time to see my friends. Yes, life was busy, but I’m sure it’s been busy for you as well. Given my situation, I eventually realized that I could exercise more consistently if I woke up one hour earlier and exercised in the morning. Was that easy for me? No. It took me three or four months to adjust to my new schedule. But once I found myself bouncing out of bed very early in the morning, I knew I would continue to do so.

The best news about exercise is that it gives your metabolism a jolt to help you burn more calories even after you’ve finished exercising. That’s truly a deal you can’t pass up. So stop whatever it is that you are doing and go exercise right now. Yes, I mean it! Hurry! Right now!

By: Johnny T. Flynn

by Johnny T. Flynn - Author - Heavy Lettuce: Adventures of a Journeyman Dieter, ISBN: 0976352516, website: www.heavylettuce.com, email: Johnny@heavylettuce.com