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Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Dieting for Weight Loss

When dieting for weight loss of the most common complaints are constantly feeling hungry. In order to help combat this, you may need to incorporate a quantity of the following strategies in to your dieting program. To start with, eat more high fiber foods. Whole grains, apples, pears, & lima beans are a great source of fiber as are lots of breakfast cereals. Simple does it however when it comes to fiber as it may be filling but there's some disagreeable side effects that may accompany heavy fiber eating (keep in mind that beans are a lovely source of fiber). Try using a product such as Bean-o when consuming larger amounts of fiber. You might also try spreading your fiber intake throughout the day than consuming all of your every day fiber directly.

Dieting for Weight Loss
The most common reason that people cite for dieting today is weight loss. While most of us would love to claim the noble mantle of dieting for health the massive majority of us are doing so for vanity. This, however, is a brilliantly acceptable & believable reason for making the lifestyle changes that are necessary in order to diet. In fact, this reason might proves to be a far greater motivator than lots of of the other often said reasons for dieting.

Another process for feeling fuller when dieting is to drink lots of water while dieting. Water provides an important service to the body & is very necessary when it comes to delivering all the nutrients where they need to go. Water also helps regulate your metabolism, which is very important to the dieting & weight loss process. Additionally, water will help you skin retain its elasticity so that your skin can go more basically back in to place one time the serious weight loss begins.

Learn to control your portions. They live in a world where portions are over inflated & tremendous sized so often that they no longer know what an appropriate portion looks like. Restaurant meals are very often over adequate for at least full meals & that is before salads, soups, appetizers, or desserts have been ordered. Learning to portion correctly can save you from over loading your calorie intake for the day massively. It can also help you get additional helpings of the lower calorie foods such as lettuce & other vegetables than taking such massive portions of calorie rich starches or fried foods.

Take your diet step at a time for the best results & be sure to incorporate additional physical activity in to the mix. Even gardening when done on a regular basis can burn calories, so can cleaning the house, & playing with the tiny ones. Take a walk to the park or the corner store than getting in the automobile & pull a wagon or push a stroller while you are at it. The added weight will be  resistance to burn a few additional calories.

Do not go "Gung Ho". There's limits to what the body & the mind can handle. When you go on a diet you are making a extreme modify to your bodies caloric intake. In case you go overboard you can lead to health risks along the way. Start cutting calories a tiny at a time & incorporate changes as you go than going in with an all or nothing attitude. In case you go overboard along with your dieting designs chances are that you are dooming your diet to failure.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Top 8 Healthy Diet Mistakes

Posted by Guest

Those looking to drop a few pounds of fat and/or gain a few pounds of muscle typically pay quite a bit of attention to their dieting habits. After all, aside from regular visits to the gym, it’s what you eat that is primarily responsible for how your body looks and feels.
Not everyone that watches what they eat ends up eating the right things however. Between the wealth of misinformation available online and the typical lack of logic found in locker room conversations, many fitness buffs end up making the wrong sacrifices. Should you be looking for a better body, here are eight things that you shouldn’t do. 
Skipping Breakfast 
Skipping breakfast is probably one of most commonly made dieting mistakes especially among those new to the activity. In theory, skipping those morning calories makes perfect sense but unfortunately, it’s rarely an effective tactic when it comes to dropping the pounds. 
When you skip breakfast, your body doesn’t wake up properly. Your rates of metabolism remain low which means that you don’t burn fat properly until lunch time. Skipping breakfast usually leads to you eating that lunch a lot earlier too. 
Drinking Fruit Juice 
Most clever dieters know that soda is very much a no go but many still enjoy fruit juices. After all, the more fruit, the better, right? Fruit juices are actually not a wise choice for those on a diet due to their extremely high sugar content in the form of fructose. 
Like any other type of sugar, fructose is more than capable of making you pack on the pounds when consumed in large quantities. If you’re a fruit fan, stick to the solid variety. 
Too Much Protein 
If you want to bulk up, you need protein and lot’s of it. Many fitness fans take this too much to heart however and end up consuming far too much. Your body can only use thirty grams of protein at a time, any more than this and you are looking at increased fat, not increased muscle. 
There’s a reason professional body builders eat up to seven small meals a day. Protein needs to be consumed gradually. A massive steak for lunch is not helping you to achieve your fitness goals.
Using Supplements Incorrectly 
The marketing behind supplements can easily leave you believing that they are very much an essential component of a healthy diet. This is not actually the case. The science behind the benefits of many supplements is dodgy at best. And those that actually do work are commonly used incorrectly. 
Supplements are designed to supplement an existing healthy diet. They can never act as a replacement for the nutrients found in fruit and vegetables. And in many cases, provided you are eating the right fruit and vegetables already, the benefits of supplements are somewhat miniscule. 
Taking the Weekend Off 
Setting realistic goals is an important part of sticking to any diet in the long run. This means that allowing yourself to eat your favourite food once a week can certainly make sense. Many people take this too far however and take the entire weekend off. Doing so can easily lead to you undoing the progress you have made midweek. 
Many bodybuilders take an entire day off each week, allowing themselves to eat whatever the they want. They can only afford to do this however because they are working out so much. If you’re not a big fan of the gym, you need to stick to your diet every day if you want to actually benefit from it. 
Forgetting About Alcohol 
Regardless of how much you enjoy a few drinks at the weekend, the calories in a pint are just as fattening as those found in food. You don’t need to give up drinking completely but you do need to include your drinks in your daily calorie/carbohydrate calculations. 
It’s also worth noting that most people consume alcohol late in the day and calories consumed after eight pm are rarely converted into energy. Too much alcohol can therefore have a disastrous affects on your dieting goals. 
Eating Unlimited Health Food 
Another type of calories that many fitness fans don’t seem to worry about are those found in health food. It doesn’t matter if your chicken is grilled or fried, the calories contained within can make you fat just as easily. Therefore while healthy choices are certainly recommended, you still need to watch your portion sizes. 
Eliminating Fat 
Finally, we have the small matter of fat, the most feared of all food components. Limiting your fat intake makes sense, attempting to go fat free however certainly does not. A little bit of fat is actually necessary for a whole bunch of things, in particular, for effective digestion and keeping yourself feeling full. Eliminating fat is therefore more likely to hamper your dieting efforts than help them.
Monica Dillon is well known for her work in Adjustable Laparoscopic Stomach Banding procedures. She suggests that dental implants in Costa Rica is the best in terms of technology and pricing.
Article Source:http://www.fitnesspros.com/

Best of Holiday Weight Loss Tips

Posted by Guest
According to people, it is not possible to lose weight during the holidays but if you apply some common sense strategies, it is not impossible at all. A collection of the best of holiday weight loss tips are discussed below:
Holiday Weight Loss Tip #1 – Always Eat Breakfast
Never skip your breakfast. A study reveals that having your breakfast daily tends to make you lose weight and puts you on the slender lot. Breakfast works wonders for our metabolism. If we starve the whole day and then have a late evening dinner, we are more likely to overeat and pile on the calories.
Instead we should start our day with a low calorie breakfast. It could be a small bowl of cornflakes or oatmeal with a serving of a fruit of your choice or may be a glass of low fat skim milk.
Holiday Weight Loss Tip #2 – Fill Up on Fiber
Fiber diet is very useful as it helps the digestive system to function better. It also helps to monitor the blood glucose levels and control hunger. Before eating any simple carbohydrates (sugar, white flour, potatoes), go in for some vegetables, salads and whole grains.
Put this practice into action while attending Christmas parties or dinners. Adding some lean protein to the fibrous food provides you with a winning combination to help you easily keep your eating pattern under control during holidays.
Holiday Weight Loss Tip #3 – Water down Alcohol
Another good way of reducing calories is to water down your alcohol. Drinking one glass of water after consuming a glass of alcohol will help you avoid drinking too much and thus help you in reducing intake of high calories through alcohol. This will also prevent you from undergoing dehydrating hangover the next morning.
Holiday Weight Loss Tip #4 – No ‘Pigging Out’
Pigging out means eating a large quantity of food at a time without being hungry at all. To avoid this, the best way is to keep away from the table and the kitchen cupboard most of the times.
This is also known as ‘binge eating’ and it throws out your weight loss efforts for a loop. You can do in with a few treats throughout the season but have to commit yourself that it does not have to be done without any valid reason.
Holiday Weight Loss Tip #5 – Big Eyes, Little Stomach
Don’t heap your plate with food. Your eyes may love all the sumptuous delicacies laid out in front of you and entice you to have as much as possible, but don’t fall into this trap. Instead, take little servings of food. Taste everything but always in little measures.
Holiday Weight Loss Tip #6 – Skip Second Helpings
You have to make a commitment not to go in for a second helping no matter wherever you eat, be it your home, restaurant or a party. A second helping is always taken when the food is tasty and delicious rather than the person being really hungry.
This practice makes us take in more calories than we actually need and thus, we increase our weight instead of going the other way of losing it.
Holiday Weight Loss Tip #7 – Work It Off
Perhaps you were not able to control the taste buds and you ate and ate and ate! Now, to compensate for this indiscretion, what do you have to do? Of course, you have to work it off now!
You can either go for a gym or work out at home for the next few days. However, to make the workout effective, either you have to extend the length of the workout or increase the intensity of the workout to reach the weight you started with before the holidays.
Conclusion
Holidays are a time of enjoyment and merrymaking with family and friends. However, if you are following a weight loss plan, make sure you do not let it go haywire just because you couldn’t control the hunger for delicious foods.
Author Bio:
Samantha Kingston is an experienced health blogger who believes that ‘health is wealth’. If you are looking for exclusive weight loss deals, she recommends DietToGo coupon codes and Weight Watchers coupons. Take a look!
 Article Source:http://www.fitnesspros.com/

Top Reasons Why Most Diets Fail

ousted by Guest in Weight Loss
Everyone has dieted at one point in his or her life. Whether it’s a fad diet or something you’ve created on your own, most diets fail for one reason – it’s one size fits all. This approach fails because everyone is different and therefore everyone deserves their own, strategic diet plan that fits their needs, not the needs of a general group.

Poor support structure

Have you ever been on a health kick when all of the sudden your significant other surprises you with a decadent dessert that smashes all the hard work you’ve been doing? How about when you’re at a social gathering and the french onion dip and potato chips are staring you down?
It’s hard to stay on track when you’re working towards a goal on your own and the people around you are not fully supportive and trying to help you stay on track. When dieting, it’s important to surround yourself with friends and family who want to challenge you and will help keep you on track so you can achieve the success you’ve been working so hard at.

Unrealistic expectations

Celebrities are poor representations of what we should look like. While many of them are fit and trim and can show off how a disciplined diet and experienced trainer can give you a rocking body, it’s unrealistic. Non-celebrities don’t have the time nor the budget to put into achieving a celebrity-style body.
In reality, you need to realize that a healthy lifestyle and diet requires time to see success. You can’t exercise for two weeks and expect to lose 20 pounds in that time. If you work hard and continue the exercise regimen, you’ll see results at a healthy pace.

Dieting as a short-term solution

Fad diets are short term. South Beach diet, Atkins, etc are just a temporary fix and not a lifestyle change. Rather than choosing a short-term fix for your diet, take the time to come up with a plan that you can stick with long-term. It’s unreasonable to think that dieting for a month or two is going to positively impact your body. By choosing a plan that fits into your lifestyle, you can find what works best and make it your new way of living, not a temporary fix.

Lack of exercise

Sure it’s possible to lose weight by just dieting, but by adding some exercise into your day you’ll see additional changes to not only your body but your mind as well. Exercising boosts endorphin levels, improves fat burn, helps to give you more energy, lowers your stress levels and even helps to improve your memory.

Not tracking your progression

If you’re afraid to step onto the scale due to embarrassment, you’re making a huge mistake. By not tracking your weight-loss progress, you’re missing out on a slew of benefits. Keeping track of your progress can help you lose weight twice as fast and help you stay motivated, especially when you recognize a week without change. By setting a goal and being able to measure success, you’ll be more likely to stay on track and achieve your goals.
Diets may fail on their own, but if you combine your diet with some additional steps, the sky is the limit. Eat right, exercise regularly, be realistic and track your progress and you’ll be amazed by the changes you see over time. Not only will you see a difference in the mirror but you’ll feel a difference internally as well.
Annie Williams is a freelance writer who focuses on healthy living. Her diet consists of a balance of whole foods and liquid proteins to keep her full and focused for longer periods of time. She hopes her knowledge can help others who are inspired to be healthy and live long lives.
Article Source:http://www.fitnesspros.com/ 

6 Healthy Packed Lunch Ideas for Any Age

Posted by Guest in Foods
As much as we hate to pack lunches for ourselves, it’s the best option to save money and eat healthy. Whether the lunch we pack is for us or our children, there are endless possibilities when it comes to packing nutritious and delicious lunches. Here are some of the best and easiest health food items to include in your bagged lunch from now on.

Fruits and vegetables

This is an obvious one, but fruits and vegetables are always great options for lunch. Cutting up some vegetables or fruit and putting them in bags is easy and simple for lunch and convenient to eat at any point throughout the day.

Homemade granola

When it comes to granola, you have to be super careful of the sugars that a lot of store bought granola contains. That’s why homemade granola is your best bet, especially for lunch. Granola can be made is big batches, can be stored easily and is easy to transport. The grains used in granola are healthy and satisfying and made to keep you full longer, which is a huge advantage of eating it.

Hummus

This Mediterranean dip made out of chickpeas and different spices and flavors is easy to make yourself and a delicious snack. Just blend together some chickpeas with your favorite flavors in a food processor and you could have hummus for a month! The great thing about hummus is that you can freeze it and save some for months down the road. Hummus is great on crackers, with carrots and even on different breeds.

Cheese

Cheese has a pretty bad reputation, but it’s not all that bad if you eat it in reasonable quantities. Pay attention to the quality of cheese when you’re buying and stay away from the overly processed cheeses at the store. If you check the labels and can’t understand half of the ingredients, you should probably pass. But if you can find some minimally processed cheeses, these make a great snack and provide a great source of calcium.

Peanut Butter

Peanut butter is one of those snacks that everyone has in the back of their pantry, well besides those with peanut allergies. Peanut butter is a perfect snack and great dip for fruits and even vegetables. Stick to the natural peanut butter when buying it at the store since it’s full of healthy fats and has no added sugar, no added trans fat and isn’t made with preservatives. The consistency might be something to get used to, but once you do, you’ll never go back to the processed stuff.

Trail Mix

Trail mix is a great snack to bring to the office for lunch or even save for a mid-afternoon snack. Trail mix can be made to your liking, with nuts, dried fruits, chocolate, crackers, and anything else you wish! As long as you don’t have a nut allergy, trail mix is a great source of energy to pick you up at lunch time and get you through the rest of the day.
Whether you like sweet or salty, there’s a snack option above for any type of appetite. You don’t have to run to the vending machine next time you’re getting hungry. Save your money and the calories and pack yourself something easy and nutritious. Your body will thank you later, and you’ll feel better about the choices you made too.
Becky Karn is a freelance writer and health advocate. She’s researched and studied some colleagues who have gotten their masters online in health administration is, and is still learning from their health choices and knowledge of nutrition.
Article Source:http://www.fitnesspros.com/