May 30, 2010

How to Lose Weight By Eating For Energy

Aree you bewildered when intuitive eating guides tell you to eat when you’re hungry and stop when you’re full? It can be a difficult skill to relearn after years of dieting and/or bingeing. One entirely different way to eat the right amount for your body is to change the goal from "getting full of food" to "eating for energy".

Food is fuel, but that sounds so sterile. A more exciting and empowering approach is to eat feel great. Eat until you feel light and full of energy. When you use this method, you don't even have to think about the amount of food in your stomach.

When you sit down to eat; ask your body to let you know when it has had enough. Pay close attention with each bite. You will get a subtle, but clear, message to stop when your body has had enough. You may even think you're making it up. The message will often come after just a small amount of food.

When you experiment by following your “full” signal and stop eating at that point, you will find yourself feeling light and energized. You may not even feel a difference in your stomach at all.

Make it a practice to give your body just what it needs…not too much…not too little.

As you eat, ask yourself if you need more energy…

*Will you feel better, lighter, more energized if you eat this bite?

*Will you feel comfortable and satisfied?

*Or will you feel heavy, tired, too full?

The body has amazing powers of self-regulation and will communicate its needs to you if you will listen.

At first it may feel strange to eat this way. Over time though, you will find that…

*Your energy levels are soaring.

*You are not getting sleepy after you eat.

*You feel less fuzzy.

*You feel more replenished by food.

*Fresh, unprocessed foods become more and more appealing to you and make you feel better.

*You are more creative.

*You feel happier and more at peace with yourself.

*Extra pounds have dropped away easily and effortlessly.

In the beginning it may seem like paying so much attention to your hunger and energy takes a lot of time and attention. Just remember that the skills you're learning will set you free from obesity and diet craziness for the rest of your life.


May 27, 2010

How to Lose Weight Without Having To Starve Yourself

I am somebody who has had an ongoing battle with my weight for most of my life. I have to be very careful what I eat as I seem to gain weight very easily. I have tried many diets, however I wanted to find a way of losing weight without having to starve myself or drink horrible milkshakes etc.

I have known and worked with many people and have been amazed at how much they seem to be able to eat without getting fat. I am sure I eat half as much as these people but am still twice their size, it is not fair!

One day I decided I needed to find my own way of losing weight. It was time to have a reality check and to be honest with myself. I knew that in reality I do very little exercise, I like all of the wrong types of food. I am a bit of a fast food junkie, this is only because of my busy lifestyle . One of my biggest problems though is that I like snack food, such as peanuts, chocolate and crisps.

I know that most people would advise me to stop eating all fatty type foods, especially the pizzas and chips. They would also no doubt, advise me to join a gym and to go jogging every morning. Get real! Those gyms are full of thin people, if I go jogging I might get mugged, and I am sorry but life would not be worth living without my weekly pizza!

I decided that what I would do is to basically eat a healthy type breakfast which would be cerial or toast. I would have a fairly light lunch, such as a sandwich, however for my evening meal I could eat whatever I wanted. The main thing and most difficult to implement would be the fact that I would be no longer eating between meals. The snacks had to go!. I am not trying to say that this was easy to do, however I had a need and was determined to lose weight.

For exercise I decided to leave the car at home, wherever possible, and walk to more places. I also started taking my children to the park more often. At the park we would play games such as football, cricket and baseball. It is amazing how much weight you can lose by having fun.

These things in time helped me to lose a lot of my excess weight.

May 25, 2010

How to Set Sensible Weight-Loss Goals

The key to any successful weight-loss endeavor is to set some sensible weight loss goals and not using weight loss supplments like colon cleanse elite , acai berry pure or natural acai at first. Setting goals will let you track your progress and gives you a definite target to aim for. You don’t want to aim too high and set yourself up for failure or even worse, risk your health by losing too much too fast. At the same time, you want to set a goal that is a little bit of a challenge. Here are some guidelines on how to come up with a sensible weight-loss goal.

Don’t lose more than 1 to 2 pounds a week.

You are aiming for slow and steady weight-loss. To set your goal, decide when you want to lose the weight by, and then expect to lose 1 or 2 pounds a week. So, if you figure a time period of 6 months, you want your goal to be around 26 – 52 pounds.

Even small goals will make a difference.

Don’t feel like you have to lose a lot of weight to make difference in your health. You will see benefits by losing as little as 10% of your body weight. If you weigh 150 pounds, losing 15 pounds may show an improvement in your overall health and the way you feel.

Use the Body Mass Index.

Feeling overweight, or thinking that you should lose some weight can be very subjective. To get a better feel for where you are at, you may want to calculate your Body Mass. Visit http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/bmi/calc-bmi.htm to find out what your BMI is and what it means. Adjust your weight-loss goal so you will eventually be in the “normal” category.

Speak to your physician.

Schedule an appointment with your general practitioner. He or she knows your medical history and will be able to advise you on how much you should lose. It is always a good idea to speak to your physician before you start any diet or exercise program.

Set Mini Goals.

Once you set your ultimate goal and have a time-plan for reaching it, break it up into several mini goals to reach along the way. Looking at a big goal can seem a little intimidating. Breaking it up into smaller goals allows you to focus on your first mini goal and gives you a feeling of accomplishment when you reach that goal. Then just move on to the next mini goal until you reach your big goal.

Now that you have your weight-loss goal and the mini goals in place, start by tackling your first mini goal. I know you can succeed by approaching weight-loss one step at a time. Your next challenge is just to get started.

May 22, 2010

Mind Over Matter: Key Strategies for Weight Loss Success

Katie, a 33-year-old mother of two, has been on her share of diets over the years. From Weight Watchers to the Zone to Sugar Busters, she feels as if she has tried them all. While she has had moderate success in losing weight from time to time, she has never found a long-term weight loss solution. Her weight is a point of contention in her marriage; her husband—who also happens to be obese—wishes she were thin, but says he loves her anyway. The two have been separated a number of times, and even filed for divorce once. The stress has caused Katie to begin binge eating again.

There is hope for Katie and others like her who feel as if they’re trapped on the diet carousel. The key to long-term weight loss success may not be the body, but the mind. Research indicates that those who have a positive outlook on life are more likely to lose weight—and stay thin. But how can you have a positive outlook when you’ve been burned so many times before? Is it possible to “will your way” to losing weight?

One technique that has been proven effective in sports training is something called visualization. For instance, a baseball player might visualize his bat connecting with a ball, leading to a homerun. A soccer player might visualize kicking the winning goal in a soccer match. And a golfer might visualize sinking the winning putt in the Masters Tournament.

The same technique can be used by dieters. Visualize yourself as thin. Picture yourself in that dress that is now two sizes too small. Imagine stepping onto the scale and being pleased with the result. Visualize yourself saying “no” to that piece of chocolate cake or that plate of Fettucini Alfredo. These mind exercises can help to spur you onto weight loss.

When people learn they are suffering from cancer, they are encouraged to imagine their cancer cells being destroyed by healthy cells. You can follow the same technique in order to lose weight. That means imagining your fat cells being destroyed by thin cells. Through such a method, you can “think your way” to a healthy weight.

In addition, it is critically important that you maintain a positive attitude. Be forgiving of yourself. If you veer off your diet plan, simply get back on course with your next meal. Don’t spend precious time “beating yourself up” over your failures. Instead, celebrate your successes—in a non-fattening way. For instance, when you reach a milestone—say you’ve lost ten pounds—reward yourself with a trip to an art museum or to your favorite coffee shop (but skip the cream and sugar). Marking milestones will give you a sense of accomplishment, a sense that you are triumphing over food.

Another helpful technique can be prayer or meditation. Some support groups even offer Bible-based weight loss programs that use scripture verses to help inspire. Taking stock of your life and handing your weight loss problems over to a higher power can be cathartic and may give you a sense of peace about your weight difficulties. It has been said that a clear head leads to a healthy body. Try praying or meditating ten minutes at the start of your day. Chances are you will feel refreshed and ready to tackle the weight challenges that come your way.

Yet another technique you might consider is role-playing. Grab your spouse or a friend and ask him or her to act out a situation in which you might be tempted to overeat. You’ll be forced to come up with strategies to fight temptation. This rehearsal could prove to be quite helpful when a real life diet dilemma comes your way. If role-playing works for job interviews, it should be beneficial for your weight as well.

Mind over matter is not just a clever saying. It can actually be the solution to your weight loss problems. By using your brain power, you can develop the techniques needed to make healthy food choices. When your mind and your body are both healthy, you have the best of both worlds.


May 19, 2010

Lose Weight with A Balanced Vegetarian Diet

When it comes to healthy weight loss, one of the secrets of success is to eat a balanced diet. Balance here means eating the right amount of nutritious food unlike the low carb food diet. In our fast food, take-out world, it is easy to get the quantities wrong and also miss out on the quality as well. So eat when you are hungry but don’t overdo it.

Getting back to the basics is important. Instead of snacking constantly during the day, do your best to eat three regular meals. Cook or have your food cooked using wholesome, natural ingredients and then eat with others in a relaxed manner. It is not only a question of what you eat, but how you eat that counts.

You may be surprised to know that in France, the land of fatty cheeses and gourmet foods, people in general stay slim. The reason is apparent if you go to a local outdoor market where large quantities of fresh vegetables are sold. The French prepare balanced meals and still manage to eat together more often than their counterparts in the USA.

So, sit down with your family and friends and eat nice meals together. If you are troubled by “demon hunger” during the day, eat a few pieces of fruit rather than a donut or any other fattening food.

While there are many fad diets (low fat, low carb, 1000 calorie diet etc.) that are being promoted today, it is far better if you can settle into a way of life that you can easily and happily follow for the rest of your life.

The traditional diet of yoga practitioners has been a vegetarian diet. The yoga diet consists of fruits, vegetables, grains and milk products. You can not only survive on such a diet, but you will thrive as well, and lose weight all at the same time.

Try it out. Substitute meat dishes with soy products, lentils and other legumes, and whole grains. You can get enough protein (especially if you also consume nuts and milk products) so you don’t have to worry about it.

You can also enjoy yourself in the process. Instead of an ice cream thick shake, blend together fruits, juice and yogurt and make a healthy smoothie. Losing weight does not require you to suffer; it is only a question of choosing your food well and balancing your lifestyle.

If you want to lose weight on a long term basis you have to change your diet or your pattern of exercise or both. Try out a balanced vegetarian diet and if you find it helpful, then stick with it for the rest of your life.

May 17, 2010

How to Exercise To Lose 10 Pounds

You decide to lose 10 pounds. Before you do anything else, think about your preferences. Do you jog at 6 a.m. every morning, even when the 30 degree weather turns your nose into frost? Or, do you shudder at the thought of getting up early and prefer to wrap yourself in a down comforter?

Your preferences towards exercise determine what you should do to lose weight. Let’s say you spend most of your leisure time sitting on the couch, reading a murder mystery. While you may not call yourself a “coach potato,” you do classify as an inactive person. Simply realizing this fact puts you one step forward to losing 10 pounds.

The next step involves deciding how to exercise, which is part of any good weight loss plan. Sure, going to the gym may be the first option that comes to your mind, but you have more choices. You may breathe a sigh of relief after reading the last line, since the gym may not be comfortable or convenient for you.

Other options to get more exercise can require more creativity, but the process is worth the extra effort. For instance, do you drive to the farmer’s market every weekend? Assuming it's not too far, you might consider getting a cart and walking the distance— a few blocks of walking makes a difference.

Other alternatives have to do with work. Maybe you park close to the building. As a substitute, you can park further away to give yourself a mini-workout before you reach the office. Then, at lunchtime, go for a sight-seeing walk around the neighborhood, perhaps taking a colleague along.

At home, you can continue finding convenient ways to exercise. Do you zap a frozen dinner in the microwave and then sit down to do nothing? As a replacement you can cook a wholesome, delicious meal and get some exercise in the process running around preparing it.

And don’t forget about involving your family in exercise as well. Find an indoor playing center, with a playground and various activities. Or, shoot hoops in the backyard with your kids or by yourself. If you don’t want to miss a football game on television, tape the game or listen in on the radio.

Since television can be a huge obstacle to exercise, here’s another way to work around this problem. The next time you decide to watch a video or a television program, don’t sit down. Instead, get up and do aerobics while you watch.

Depending on your preferences, you may want to get a home gym, with an exercise bicycle, treadmill, boxing gear, or an abdominal exerciser. These options give you the ability to workout in the privacy of your home. But, choose equipment that you will actually use.

It comes down to making changes in your lifestyle that you can handle and sticking with this routine. Soon, the “exercise” will become second nature for you, making you 10 pounds lighter and happier.

You might even have enough extra energy for that morning jog.

May 13, 2010

How to Deal With Snack Attacks

Ever get a snack attack between meals in your diet food plan? Who hasn't? But snack attacks can actually work as an advantage for your weight loss.

Snack attacks are actually a good thing because eating frequently instead of waiting until you're extremely hungry is a good way to avoid overeating.

It helps keep blood sugar levels normal and brain chemistry in balance.

By pre-planning for snacks and eating the right food you can use snacks in your favor instead of feeling guilty afterwards.

Here is a healthy snack tip. A key to losing weight and keeping it off is eating more negative calorie or fat burning foods with lots of volume but few calories.

Eating fat burning compatible or negative calorie foods creates a calorie deficit that requires your body to use stored fat as energy. Here are a just few examples of healthy snack ideas that are negative calorie foods:

Apples, cantaloupe, carrots, cod, corn, crab meat, grapes, lobster, low-fat yogurt, mangoes, pineapple, raspberries, strawberries and watermelon.

Avoid late night snacks because your body's metabolism slows way down when you sleep. That means anything you eat just before you go to bed will turn to body fat.

If you eat vending machine snacks they contain high fat and you can forget about reducing body fat because these snacks can sabotage your weight loss quickly.

Also, beverages like smoothies, sweetened coffee drinks, soft drinks, fruit drinks, sports drinks and flavored teas contain a lot of sugar that will end up as body fat.

Snacking on blackberries, peaches or red and green peppers can help you meet your daily recommendations of fruits and vegetables. You need two to four servings a day.

Snacks such as low-fat yogurt or low fat cheese can help you meet your daily calcium requirement. You need two to three servings per day.

Believe it or not, small changes like these can have a huge difference in your weight lose at home results. Remember, successful weight loss is just a combination of the right choices.

So the next time you have a snack attack at home or at work you'll know how to use it to your advantage for weight loss success.

May 11, 2010

How to Reduce Weight Fast and Lose Fat Forever Fast Weight Reducing Tip

So you have tried quick dieting to reduce weight. You have also popped all kinds of weight reducing pills you can get your hands on. To your delight your effort seemed to work as you begin to lose body fat steadily. Then one day, before you reach your desired weight, you begin to notice that your weight seemed to stay the same even though you are still on the diet and popping those weight reducing slimming pills. To your horror, you discover that the weight you had lost is beginning to pile up once again. Instead of reducing weight, you are now gaining weight. Sounds familiar?

What happened? Simply put, slimming pills and fad diets are only short term strategy to reduce weight and keeping body fat at bay. To reduce weight and lose fat forever, your caloric expenditure must surpass your caloric consumption. Aren’t you doing that in your diet? Yes you are. But when you are on a diet, you go hungry and your body will signal to your brain to conserve fat for energy because your body is built with a mechanism to conserve fat during famine and it will not know whether it is famine season or that you are on a diet. In this instance, your body will consume your muscle for energy instead of your body fat and this spells trouble because your muscle is a great calorie gobbler. So with less muscle, your fat burning capability grinds to a screeching halt.

What about those weight reducing pills you are taking? If you are popping appetite control pills, your body will react like you are on a diet, so the same thing happened. What about pills that help to increase metabolism or reducing starch intake? Sure, they will help to burn a few calories or restrict some calories from turning into body fat, but are enough calories burnt or restricted to reduce weight permanently or are you going to take those unhealthy weight reduction pills forever? Obviously not, isn’t it?

So to reduce weight and lose fat forever, we need to do 3 things.

Cardio exercises – Do cardio exercises at 65-85% of your maximum heart rate to burn tons of calories

Lift weight – Train with weights to grow muscle or at least prevent muscle loss. The more muscle you have, the higher will be your natural fat burning capability. You will burn fat even when sleeping. In other words, you lose fat permanently.

Eat small frequent meals – This will signal to your brain that food is in abundance and that your body need not conserve fat in case of famine. So eat 5- 6 meals at 3 hourly intervals. However, do make sure that your meals are small and that your caloric intake do not surpass your caloric expenditure.

When you incorporate these 3 elements into your lifestyleand weigt loss diet , you will not only reduce weight and lose body fat, you will also keep the weight from creeping back. That means, you will reduce weight and able to maintain your ideal weight forever.


May 6, 2010

At Home Weight Loss

Welcome to my at home weight loss blog,

if you are like me then you hate to go in a gym or a diet party. I like to do my exercises and diet at home. A lot of people are thinking that way and because of this I created my at home weight loss blog with some information on how to start your weight loss at home succesfully and effective.

Losing weight in the comfort of you home is very comfortable but you have to stay organized otherwise you will fail with you at home weight loss. You have to follow your diet and exercise plan correctly every day and then you will see results pretty fast.

And now start your at home weight loss ;)

Petra