Ways to Lose Weight That Can Help Everyone

Everyone is always on the lookout for the latest and greatest ways to lose weight. Previously I have written about how I believe that the only way to lose weight over the long term is to make changes to your everyday habits. The problem with diets is that the changes you make while on them are always radical and temporary in nature. As soon as you go off the diet, you go back to your old habits and the weight comes back. Making simple, long term changes to your eating habits is the key. In this article I'm going to outline some more simple changes that can help you achieve real, long term weight loss.

One of the biggest obstacles for weight loss, particularly for children, is the availability of soft drinks like Coke and Pepsi. They contain so many calories in the form of refined, concentrated sugar that you can easily drink your entire daily caloric intake in one sitting. What's worse is that so many restaurants these days offer bottomless refills, making it easy to overindulge. Whenever possible, it is best to avoid this glorified sugar water. Any kind of fruit juice would be preferable, and plain old water is the best. If you really feel like having a Coke, limit yourself to one glass. Pop should be viewed as a treat, like chocolate cake. To lose weight, you need to break yourself of the habit of having it with every meal.

For the sake of time, too many people out there skip breakfast. The big problem with skipping breakfast is that people often find themselves famished by the time 10 am rolls around. As a result they often grab whatever they can, which usually means an unhealthy choice like a pastry or doughnut. If you are rushed for time in the morning, try grabbing a piece of fruit like an apple. If you are just not that hungry first thing in the morning, this might be a sign that you are eating too much too late in the evening. In such a case try eating a smaller dinner, and try eating it before 7pm.

One of the best ways to lose weight is to eat more food in the form of fruits and vegetables. In your heart of hearts, I bet that you know that you should eat more fruits and vegetables too. Fruits and Veggies are all nutrient rich, low cal, and filling. When you eat a healthy serving of produce, you will feel fuller longer, and will wide up eating less in the long run. The only caution here is to go easy on the creamy dips, dressings, butter and cheese sauce that can often accompany such meals. Also, with produce like apples, always remember to eat the skin whenever possible. The skin often contains lots of fiber and nutrients in it's own right.

In a perfect world, you'd have the time to cook yourself a healthy meal every night. However, the world we live in is far from perfect, and we are often rushed. This is why we often grab fast food as a last resort. To combat this tendency, plan ahead for these hurried moments by having some healthy, frozen meals available ready to go. If this saves you from one trip to McDonald's, it will be worth it. Here's an additional tip. If you buy your healthy frozen meal from store, you will find that they often pretty skimpy on the vegetables. Try to round out the meal by adding a salad or some other fruit or vegetable.

The last habit that can help you lose weight is to get more sleep. Most people know that they could use more sleep, although few understand the connection between proper sleep and weight loss. The reason for this is that when you are groggy due to lack of sleep, you will often try and make up for it by grabbing a high calorie sugar food as a pick me up. When you are feeling tired, you are also much more likely to skip whatever workout regime you are on. This is why getting enough sleep is one of the easiest ways to lose weight there is.

So, there you have it. If you are interested in losing weight over the long term, all of these habits listed above can help you. None of them are difficult to do, yet all of them can lean to real, long lasting results. As I stated earlier, the way I lost 30lbs, and have kept it off, was by changing my habits. Always remember, diets don't work! If I can do it, so can you. If you have any questions feel free to visit my website and leave a comment using the "contact me" form. Good luck!

David Nordmark has long had an interest in natural fitness and health techniques. He runs the website at animal kingdom workouts.com

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Weight Loss - It's in Your Head

When you truly consider the weight-loss process, the battle waged is mostly in your mind. "Should I eat the corn muffin with butter or would it be better for me to have margarine or better yet, have jelly? What am I doing eating this muffin anyway? It's so caloric and filled with saturated fat. I'm such a pig. I have absolutely zero willpower." It's no wonder you'll eat that muffin with the butter and slather jelly on top to quiet that negative self-talk.

What you need more than a diet is a way to shift those negative self-defeating thoughts to more adaptive, positive self-statements. As with most things worth doing, this requires a bit of practice. First, become aware when you're using a negative statement, then determine what about that thought is faulty and finally, replace it with a self-defense response or coping thought. 

In the corn muffin example, instead of listening to "I'm such a pig" which clearly mislabels who you are, respond with "Pigs are animals and I am human. I don't have to be perfect."

Many people cannot change their eating habits until they change their thoughts about food, eating and drinking. By shedding "distorted" thoughts and replacing them with productive ones, eating habits can be changed. It is possible to rid yourself from many self-critical thoughts, but like any ingrained habit, it takes vigor and vigilance to change. Here are some other thinking distortions to challenge:

Shoulds. Should statements are more about other people's values, not ones chosen by the person who wants to lose weight. Additionally, should statements reflect an attempt by the dieter to motivate herself without really believing in the value. Better to determine what works for you. "I will eat up to two Hershey kisses daily and thoroughly enjoy them."

All-or-Nothing. This kind of reasoning is the foundation for perfectionism. An all-or-nothing individual views the world as black or white. Since there is no allowance for gray areas, the behavior is either perfect or a failure. "I've ruined my diet by eating all that pizza. I can't stay on a diet and I'll just always be fat." Maybe the problem does not arise from the behavior... maybe the problem is with the diet that does not allow for pizza. "I do not want to give pizza up for the rest of my life, so what I need is a way to include pizza in my diet without feeling like a failure. Let me try having a salad (dressing on the side) before the pizza to take the edge off my hunger."

Good Foods/ Bad Foods. If the truth be told, foods do not misbehave. Foods are not good or bad. While it is true that some foods have more nutrients or are more fiber-dense than others, all foods can be enjoyed. How we think about food colors what we eat and how much we eat. If a food is labeled as bad (such as fries), then for many individuals that food is taboo. When one eventually succumbs to eating the forbidden, French fries, bingeing may result. Rather than continue with dichotomous thinking of good food/bad food, shift to allow space for all foods you like without judgement. Instead of "I ate those fries which are so bad for me" to "I really enjoyed that small portion of fries. They really satisfied me."

Body Distortions. Rather than dwelling on how fat or thin you think your body is, it is extremely helpful to view your body in terms of what it can do for you. For example, when you look in the mirror, instead of zooming in on your stomach which "looks five months pregnant, although your last baby was nine years ago" tell yourself "my body has given life" or "my body enables me to go where I want to and allows me to have fun."

The conversations that are going on inside your head cannot be stopped. However, what you can do is to be aware of negative self-talk and understand that it has little to do with actual reality. When you believe this, you can respond to the critical voice with a more objective, coping thought. Although negative thoughts may not be stopped entirely, they can be quieted by listening to your compassionate, caring voice. In much the same way you would sympathize and listen to a close friend, listen to yourself. Be your own best friend and chances are you'll have greater weight loss success.

Helene Haber

Holistic Nutrition Coach

Helene Haber, HHC is a board certified health counselor. She designs personalized wellness solutions for women of all ages looking to enhance their lives, get their bodies back in shape and their health back on track. Email: TopCatHelene@aol.com.

http://www.integrativenutrition.com/graduates/HHaber.aspx

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A Brief Look at the Alkaline Diet Approach

Taking a close look at the alkaline diet is a good idea if you want to change the basic pH of your bloodstream and improve digestive health. The diet is not complicated and contains many foods that most enjoy. There is no secret pill or exercise program, just sensible food choices combined with reasonable portion sizes.

A lot of flexibility is allowed with the alkaline diet as long as the foods eaten create or maintain an alkaline pH in the blood. The foods that contribute to maintaining an alkaline environment in the blood are probably foods you already enjoy. Now if you decide to concentrate your food choices on those foods that produce an alkaline blood pH you won't have to give up any of the other foods you enjoy. The important point is to proportion the amount of alkaline-acid foods on a 75-25 scale. What this means is you will want to have alkaline foods make up 75% of the calories you eat.

You can then still enjoy some of the acidic foods as long as they don't go over the 25% threshold.

Tasty Alkaline Food Choices

Examples of alkaline foods are beets, cabbage, lettuce, avocados and celery. Examples of alkaline fruits are limes. lemons, grapefruit & figs. Fresh fruit and vegetable juices are great drink choices also. Cinnamon, curry and fresh herbs are great choices for seasoning dishes with added flavor. If you're a tea lover then green, ginseng and herbal teas are great hot alkaline drinks to include with your meals.

You'd be surprised exactly how easy this alkaline diet is to maintain and to obtain satisfactory results. Extensive alkaline food charts are easily obtainable so you can begin losing weight super fast.

We are giving away tips and tricks for free. Don't just take my word for it as your questions can easily be answered in http://www.newbodybykardy.com

Larry Layman

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Traveling a Lot? Here Are Some Tips to Eat Clean on the Road!

All the time I get asked great questions about working out and dieting while traveling. One person asked me a question that I also had questions about at first, "I am on the road A LOT with work and it is so hard to stick to a diet while traveling so frequently. Any pointers or tips to that can help me with this?" These are things that some of you may think would be common sense or natural to do but they aren't that way until you live through travel obstacles and learn the tricks of the trade.

First thing is set yourself up for success by researching hotels that have an option for a fridge and possibly a microwave. That way you can store food and then heat it up. If a microwave isn't possible stopping at gas stations along the way or finding one close to your hotel is another way to heat up your food, sounds funny but the microwaves they use to heat up those burritos you can easily use to heat up your food. Figured this one out because I needed Stryder's (my son) frozen homemade food heated up while I was traveling for my first show. So, then I decided to heat my meal up as well. It helps if you are prepping for a show and are eating tilapia because I don't care how many times you eat cold tilapia that mystery jelly is beyond gross and you will never get used to it.

Another thing is take easily open and ready to eat food for example packets of tuna, get the ones that you tear open they easily store anywhere and you can eat it right out of the package. Good snack/meal; tuna fish on rice cakes with a handful of almonds, easy, quick and no cooking involved.

I pre-measure all my oatmeal for the mornings and put them in Ziploc baggies, they easily store and you can heat it up with the microwave but if the hotel your staying at doesn't have a microwave, do not worry figured this one out too. Every room has a coffee maker run the coffee maker with only water in it (no coffee grains) then put the oatmeal in the coffee cup they provide, add water and cover for 3-5 minutes. viola, cooked oatmeal! With the oatmeal I usually have hard boil eggs, I Ziploc a couple of them and store them in the fridge or if a fridge isn't an option I take a big lunch box and keep refilling the ice from the ice machine at the hotel.

If you are crazy like some of us you can even pack a George Foreman, shop at a local grocery store and cook your meal right in your room. Sounds crazy but it works and soon after it pretty much becomes second nature, a lifestyle.

If you have a fridge or access to an ice machine you can pretty much prepare anything upfront, it just depends on how dedicated you are. It isn't always fun to travel with Tupperware and eat by yourself in your room, especially if its cold, but if it's worth it to you, you will make the sacrifice and even save some money.

Hope these tips help and will keep you on the right path or kickstart you in the right direction.

"Fail to prepare is to prepare to fail"

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