Easy Things to Do Outside of the Dieting Inner Circles

Several months ago I started on a diet that changed my world both physically and mentally it was called the herbalife advantage program.

I did not know it then but looking back on that experience changed the way that I think about weight loss.

Many people think that when you start a diet that it's all about looking good and getting in the shape you've always wanted but for me it was different; I started the diet because I literally felt like crap all the time.

You see I've had a fast metabolism all my life and could always really just eat what I wanted and never gain weight but then my bad eating habits started to catch up with me I realized that diets aren't just about losing weight; they are about being healthy, and sleeping better, and having more energy to do the things you want to do.

And so the physical reason for my dieting became about my friends, and my family, and my involvement in the community; In truth my physical reason for dieting became focused not on myself but on how I affected the people around me and I realized that a diet change was necessary for me to be in their lives for very long.

And so this is what I did to make myself more active.

First I made a status on my Facebook to say that I was going to be more active; It sounds so simple but it's probably the most important step because then the whole world would hold me accountable to my statement or at least my small group of friends would. And the great thing is that they not only held me accountable but also encouraged me to do what I said I would do.

The next step was to get involved in my community this was probably the hardest step mainly because my community is so small and also because they aren't very active either so I had to get out of my little town and start going to neighboring cities to be involved and volunteering all the while trying to be more healthy in my own eating habits, and also in my activities.

Step Three; The Personal Statement. 

The last step I made was to make a private proclamation to myself that I would be healthier and to do this I used notepad on my laptop computer to make over thirty copies of a page that said in the biggest font I could write "I Will Be Healthy" and I taped it on every wall in my house simply because when I was at home I was the weakest, and I needed that reminder keeping me on track everywhere I went.

These three steps are your personal key not only to losing weight, but to do anything you want to do. Dieting is not the answer and being active is not the answer either, but one healthy balanced diet plus an active life almost always equals weight loss and incredible energy and in addition it will put your energy to good use.

Stop dieting and start living healthy and you won't regret it.

Step outside your comfort zone and become healthy and active. If you ever need a friend or some help along the way then get a complimentary weight loss coach to help you out with your daily struggles at http://www.IkesNutrition.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Isaac_J_Bussey

Is Pain Stopping You From Losing Weight?

If you are overweight and suffer from pain in your feet that radiates from your heel, you are not alone. Almost one quarter of overweight people suffer from plantar fasciitis, a debilitating condition that causes heel pain and can limit a person's ability to walk or exercise. It is estimated that one out of every ten people will suffer from heel pain at some point in his or her life.

Being overweight and suffering from heel pain can create a vicious cycle. We all know that exercise is a key component to losing weight. The problem is that heel pain often strikes when you put more stress on your feet by increasing your physical activity. If heel pain then forces you to limit exercise, it becomes challenging to lose weight and can actually cause an increase in weight. Increasing weight and a sedentary lifestyle can cause more heel pain and other common health problems, such as depression and heart disease.

The good news is that when properly treated, most heel pain improves in 6 to 8 weeks. The bad news is that most people do not have the information to properly treat it. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons estimates that 2 million people seek treatment for plantar fasciitis every year in the United States, and several million more go untreated. Those who don't seek treatment often hope that plantar fasciitis will just go away on its own - which it usually doesn't.

Daniel Marein-Efrón, founder of a new company called Heeling Solutions, suffered from heel pain and weight gain for over a year. He became frustrated with his lack of improvement after investing thousands of dollars in special foot devices and visits to the podiatrist. He sought out the nation's experts on the subject of heel pain and found that the solution did not involve surgery or a magic pill, but several months of special stretches, icing, extra support for his feet and modifications to his lifestyle. After several months of sticking to this regimen, he was free of plantar fasciitis and training for a marathon.

"The first steps to relieving heel pain can be as simple as stretching your foot before getting out of bed in the morning, icing your foot regularly and wearing proper footwear," says Jeffrey S. Peterson, M.A., M.D Northern California Institute of Sports Medicine. "Many people also require additional steps such as using orthotics in their shoes or wearing a supportive foot device at night called a night splint."

How do you know if you have plantar fasciitis? Only a licensed medical professional can confirm your diagnosis. Seek out a practitioner who specializes in conditions of the foot and ankle, such as a podiatrist or orthopedist. The most common symptom of plantar fasciitis is intense pain with the first few steps in the morning. It can strike people of any age and is most common in people who are runners, overweight or spend a lot of time on their feet. For more information, go to http://www.heelingsolutions.com, or http://orthoinfo.aaos.org.

Daniel Marein-Efron is a former plantar fasciitis sufferer and President of Heeling Solutions LLC. Mr. Marein-Efron has been involved with a variety of entrepreneurial business through his consulting company DMEX Consulting LLC.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Daniel_Marein-Efron

The Great 8 Eating Tips for Fast Weight Loss @ Body Perfect Fitness

Low Carb, Low Fat, More protein, Eat all the fat you want..... These are the many things we hear as we are bombarded with the latest and NOT always the greatest diet and eating tips when trying to find the Silver Bullet for permanent weight loss.

Well I thought that we would talk about common sense proven tips that will ensure that along with a solid fitness program, will help support your fitness and health goals for life.

Eating Tip 1

Eat Slow- If you read about the French Paradox, which discusses why the French eat a lot of fatty foods, but are a leaner society than that of the United States. They take their meals very seriously and it is one of the most important times of the day. You will get multiple benefits from this tip. Eating Slow will help your body absorb the food at the right level allowing you to fill up much quicker as it will not provide a tendency for you to OVEREAT!!! 

The other awesome benefit is that you can spend more time with your family so that you can share the important things in life with each other!!!

Eating Tip 2

Eat 5-6 times per day. Do not allow your blood sugar levels to drop, in between meals. By eating more often and eating the right types of foods that are on the low end of the glycemic index, you can keep your blood sugar levels more even throughout the day, and ensure that you are not getting those mid-afternoon yawns and also help keep the excess weight off. Remember that when you spike your blood sugar by eating simple sugars and refined carbohydrates, this will potentially cause your body to store fat!!!

Eating Tip 3

Eat Your Breakfast... I was bad at this many years ago, but I learned to fuel up early in the day. Eating a good solid breakfast to start your day helps supply you with the fuel you need to get started, especially if you are incorporating a early morning fitness program in to your day. You need the fuel to get your engine going in the morning. Do not starve your body early, because you may have the tendency to binge eat later, because your body gets into the craving mode. Feed your body early!!

Eating Tip 4

Slow down as the sun goes down. What do I mean by this? Well just as important as it is to eat a great breakfast to start the day, it is also as equally important to reduce your food consumption as the day goes on. So plan to eat a good solid breakfast, a good lunch, and reduce your meal portions at dinner time. Remember as you get closer to bedtime your body starts to wind down and you will not have the same opportunity at night to burn those consumed meal calories as you did earlier in the day. 

So eat more early and back down as you reach sun down.

Eating Tip 5

Give yourself 3 hours!!! Yes 3 hours before going to bed. Do not consume anymore calories. As I mentioned before, your body starts to slow down as the day goes on and gets ready for sleep. You do not want to consume a lot of calories right before you go to bed, because you will end of potentially storing those calories as FAT!!!

Your body sometimes give you a false sense of being hungry as you bedtime nears. You get those 9pm cravings... And a lot of people end up hitting the Refrigerator and over-consuming right before bed time... 

Not good for managing your weight and body fat %. If you just can't resist the munchies, then what I do is eat a few high good fat nuts. Like unsalted Almonds skin-on (good for fiber) or a couple spoonfuls of no sugar added all natural peanut butter. Eating a good quality fat food will satisfy your craving and will keep you from binging on something with lots of bad carbohydrates or simple sugars, like ice cream, cake or cookies.

Eating Tip 6

Stay focused on eating green in every meal. Always incorporate a good high quality low glycemic index dark green vegetable with each meal. I suggest things like spinach or romaine lettuce in your lunch time salads. Eating broccoli, asparagus, or steamed spinach as your vegetable at dinner time. All of these dark green vegetables supply your body with great vitamins and nutrients as well as being great sources of fiber and are naturally low on the glycemic index scale and will keep your blood sugar levels from spiking after eating. So think Dark green at meal time and challenge yourself to keep it as part of each and every eating event.

Eating Tip 7

Blend your foods.. Blending your foods means making sure that if you are eating a food item that does contain carbohydrates make sure that you incorporate a good low fat protein along with it. Eating a low carb tortilla wrap where the first ingredient is whole wheat flour that is unrefined. Add lean chicken breast as part of your filling in the wrap, maybe with some thinly shredded romaine lettuce and other veggies.

Eating Tip 8

Use splenda as your sweetener of choice, when looking for a simple sugar replacement. I have tried many sugar subs over the years an no other product has the taste of sugar like splenda does. Not equal and surely not sweet and low. Splenda is outstanding for sprinkling on low glycemic fresh fruit like blueberries, raspberries and strawberries, and I also use it to sweeten my drink of choice. Caffeine Free Green Tea that I infuse with cinnamon stick and whole cloves. What a refreshing cold beverage that keeps the caffeine out of your diet, provides you a great antioxidant and does not spike your blood sugar levels by using the no calorie sweetner in splenda.

So I hope you enjoy my GREAT 8!!!

These eating tips will help keep you on the right track, when it comes to living a healthy lifestyle.. All of these tips are the tools that I live by every day....

Stay tuned next month for more healthy eating tips @ Body Perfect Fit!!!

Robert Adams, Coach for Weight Loss, Certified Personal Trainer with NESTA, Fitness Enthusiast, and Executive Chef, will provide you one-on-one DAILY SUPPORT, as you pursue your life long dream of permanent weight loss and getting back to a healthy lifestyle. There is NO silver bullet, NO quick fix, NO magic pill, NO tricks, NO unrealistic claims, just a sound and proven method that will provide you a weight loss program that Works!!

Your weight loss coach will help you each and every step of the way providing you support, motivation, and will teach you the secrets that all slim people know, so that you can lose weight in a healthy way and allow you to maintain your weight and get back to your Body Perfect Fitness and Health for life.

[http://www.Body-Perfect-Fitness.com] Body Perfect Fitness- Your Customized Online Fitness Training Resource- The most comprehensive Online Fitness and Health Resource, dedicated to helping improve everyone’s overall Body Perfect Fitness and Health

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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

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Helene_Haber

 

Health and Fitness Training: The Ultimate Beauty Secret

In today's modern world, beauty does mean a lot. With the prettiest faces to captivate the general public, from magazines to televisions to websites, every girl wants to know one thing. What does it take to become the next "IT" girl? What's the ultimate beauty secret?

Living the life of the rich and famous is quite easy if you grace the covers of the beauty magazines. All it takes for a girl to live in the fab lane is to simply be beautiful. The ultimate secret to achieving beauty is health and fitness training.

Being healthy and fit is your ticket to success. But, it does come with a price! It takes hard work and patience to achieve it. It doesn't happen overnight, thus, you have to brace yourself. Let's get started!

Tip # 1 Pump your Heart 

The heart plays a vital role in your body. It pumps the blood which delivers oxygen and nutrients needed by your body. Thus, your heart always needs to be in great shape. To achieve that, make sure you pump your heart. There are many exercises which facilitate cardiovascular conditioning. The most basic of all exercises is walking or running. If you're just getting started, it's best to start your exercise by walking at least 30 minutes per day. You can schedule your walks at the time of your convenience. You can do it at your subdivision, at the park, or anywhere else you want to. Do the walking regime for about 4 weeks and after that transition to running. You can start running small distances then run longer ones as you go along. Once you've made this a routine, you'll definitely run your way to a better heart!

Tip # 2 Strength is Beauty 

Strength or resistance conditioning is always an important part of training. You have to exercise your muscles in order to keep your body toned. Also, it energizes you. Most women may fear bulking up but, you'll only bulk up if you allow yourself to be! The training is designed to tighten up loose muscles. It also decreases risk for injury and by being physically toned, you'll be more confident!

Tip # 3 Food to Feed your Soul 

Diet is very important in Health and Fitness Training. It's no good to exercise when you're not eating right. You may lose certain calories by burning them out, but, what's the use if you find yourself eating too much fat the next minute?! Thus, watch out after your food intake and make sure you eat healthy. Choose fruits over sweets. Also, replace carbs with high fiber-high calorie diet. Instead of eating a slick of cake, why not eat a whole wheat bread instead?! It would still be a delicious goodness yet a healthier one!

Health and Fitness Training will help you achieve beauty if you embrace it wholeheartedly. Undertake the necessary steps and do everything it takes. Before you know it, you might be the next girl the paparazzo's are stalking after! Start your beauty secret experience today by checking out http://www.trainingfitness.info. We have a free 7-day ecourse designed for you!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_C_Madison