Don’t Get Dis-Heartened- there are easy ways to eat healthy
Do you want to start eating healthier?
Confused by all the hype about eating right but under doctor’s orders to start eating better?
Worried that healthy eating will break your budget?
Take heart, there are lots of easy ways to start eating right. Eating healthy doesn’t have to cost a fortune, even though organic and pesticide free foods are really much healthier to eat. There are lots of easy ways to eat healthier everyday without changing your lifestyle. One of the most often overlooked ways to eat better is to control portion sizes. Even healthy food will make you gain weight if you eat double or triple the recommended portion size so read labels and always make sure that you’re eating the proper portion size.
Get Enough Vegetables
Not sure how to get the recommended amount of vegetables without eating a salad at every meal? Most people don’t eat nearly enough vegetables each day. There are lots of easy ways to add vegetables to your diet. Throw some vegetables into dishes that you’re already making like lasagne, pasta, casseroles, or stews. Making an omelette for breakfast? Throw in some tomatoes, onions, or other vegetables to boost your vegetable intake. Or drink a pure vegetable juice during the day as a pick me up instead of having a sugary snack.
Eat Less Sugar
Sugar, like salt, can be very bad for health, and most people don’t realize how many foods have added sugar in them. Whenever possible buy foods and beverages that are sugar free. When you’re making drinks from powdered mixes, like the drink mixes that are popular with kids, put in only half the recommended amount of sugar. When you do have sugar, make sure it’s the natural sugars found in fruit or 100% fruit juices but drink fruit juice sparingly. One way to control the portion size of high sugar foods like fruit juices is to only buy fruit juices in small drink boxes rather than in large bottles so that it’s easier to have just the recommended portion of juice.
Snack Smart
Want a snack to boost energy in the afternoon or during your favorite TV show at night?
Put the chips and other high fat, high sugar, high calorie snacks aside. Prepare in advance for a snack attack by cutting up some veggies and eat them with a small amount of fat free salad dressing, or have celery with organic peanut butter, or some air popped salt free popcorn when you want something crunchy. Other fast and easy but healthy snacks include yogurt, nutrition bars, low fat crackers with fat free cheese, fruits like grapes or apple slices, nuts, raisins, whole grain low fat tortilla chips with fresh salsa, and unsalted pretzels.
You can see, these little common sense steps can make a big difference in the healthiness of your eating. Surely you can think of other ways as well; why not buy low carb beer? Sugar free fruit juices? Apples instead of chocolate treats and so the list goes on…..Just have a look around in the supermarket next time you go shopping, and access whatever you put in your shopping trolley by its health choice rather than your normal urge to buy it – you will find it makes a difference to your behaviour and you might even find the shopping bill gets a little smaller with the right buys!
Charting Your Progress Can Make A Huge Difference
Why Charting Your Weight Loss Progress Can Make All the Difference
What is the key to weight loss?
All dieters have their bad days and their good days, so how can you manage it so that you have more good days than bad day?
Most people who have entered the back and forth, give and take, ebb and flow world of weight loss understand that it can be hard to stay on the straight and narrow when it comes to dieting. The key is staying motivated. Just because you had a bad dieting day does not mean you should abandon your health and weight loss goals altogether. You are some tips for charting your weight loss progress so that you won’t let yourself down.
Why does charting all of your weight loss progress make so much difference when it comes to succeeding in your weight loss regime?
There is one simple key to charting your weight loss progress, and that is it increases your sense of motivation. Motivation is the key to successful long-term weight loss. Without motivation, you simply cannot accomplish your weight loss goals. Here are some tips for helping you chart your weight loss progress so that you never feel tempted to abandon your weight loss goals for good.
Creating Your Own Personal Weight Loss Progress
The good news is there are tools abound when it comes to creating your own personal weight loss progress chart. There are many web sites online that allow you to create your own personal weight loss progress chart so that you can see exactly where you have been and where you are going. You simply have to fill out your starting statistics and update on a weekly basis. Of course, you can also create your very own weight loss progress chart so that you are inspired every morning when you rise and look at it in the morning.
Using Your Weight Loss Progress Chart as Your Great Motivator
What is the greatest thing about keeping track of your weight loss progress?
The best thing is using your weight loss chart as your personal motivator. Whenever you feel as if you have not made any progress or perhaps you are feeling down after a bad day, take a look at your weight loss progress chart. Charting your weight loss progress is an important step that many dieters overlook when planning their weight loss goals.
Hang Your Personal Weight Loss Progress Chart in a Space You Will See it Every Day
You can hang it in your kitchen, in your bedroom, or perhaps in your home office—pretty much any place where you can see your progress chart on a regular basis. Still, you do not want to become obsessed with charting your progress every day. Put your weight loss progress chart somewhere where it is accessible and easy to view, but not where you will automatically be tempted to do calculations or obsess over it all the time.
Use A Large Graphical Chart That is Easy to Read
Don’t simply jot down on a random piece of paper your weight loss goal and your progress. Treat it a little like a fascinating research study. Buy a white board or put together a graphical chart that shows all your weight loss progress so far, and which is easy to update.
How Often Should You Update Your Weight Loss Progress Chart?
The best way to go about it is to update your weight loss progress chart on a regular basis. Once a week is a sensible goal for updating your weight loss progress chart. Again, do not become preoccupied or obsessed with charting your weight loss chart, but do use it to your advantage whenever you want to see your progress on paper.
Pedometer – can you see the use ?
Can You See The Value Of A Pedometer?
We hear it every day, we see it on TV, it’s on Big Losers, it’s even on the fast food ads at times – they all tell us it is healthy to walk! We all know that by now thank you very much – but by the end of a busy day most of us really don’t feel like putting our walking shoes on and setting out for a brisk march around the neighbourhood!
Now, here is the good news! Most likely you have been walking a fair bit already today – you just didn’t think of including it in your daily fitness journal.
I find it is very reassuring to notice that you have done a lot of exercise already – so to motivate yourself set small and achievable goals every day – and by the end of the day you can tick them off and feel real good about it – and not eat that huge piece of frustration chocolate cake!
Using a pedometer is a good way to keep track of fitness goals on a very manageable level.
If you set yourself a goal in the number of steps that you take each day or the number of miles, the good news is that the pedometer counts it all. Those who set the goal to run two miles or to walk two miles on a given route that is calculated at two miles will not be able to integrate their fitness plan into their everyday lives. If you wear a pedometer, you can make sure to count all of the activity that you do in a day. After all, fitness should be a lifestyle, and not just something that you do each day after you polish off a lunch of prime rib and cheesecake.
Using the Pedometer
In order to meet your fitness goals by using a pedometer, it is important to set intermediate goals for oneself. If you begin with the goal of walking five miles a day, and in the first few days you see that you only walk slightly more than one mile a day, it is easy to quickly become frustrated with yourself and with the plan you had devised for yourself. On the other hand, it is also possible that one the first day you will see that you walk much farther than you had initially set your goal. The best way to come up with your initial goal is to wear the pedometer for a few days without having any goal. Record your daily totals for a few ‘typical’ days and then average them to find out how much you generally walk in one day.
Once you have found out what your typical day looks like in terms of distance walked, it is possible to start setting some goals for yourself. If you feel that you are in pretty good shape and you really want to see some real results quickly, you could set yourself the goal of doubling the distance you walk in a day. If this seems too large a goal for you, or if you are overweight or out of shape, you could start yourself at walking 1.5 or 1.25 times the distance that you walk as your computed average distance.
Spicing it Up
In order to keep things interesting, because, well, it can get quite boring to use a pedometer to get to the same distance each and every day, you can vary your goals for each day of the week. Days when you have more free time you can set yourself a higher goal than days when your schedule is already pretty full. Another option is to set yourself a weekly instead of a daily goal. Each day, record your daily total and work towards your weekly goal. On the weekend, whatever amount you are short of your weekly goal should be the distance of your weekend hike.
Another good way to keep things interesting is to vary your speeds and vary your terrain. If walking three miles a day is do-able, try running one mile and walking two. Alternatively, try walking one mile on the beach and two miles on the sidewalk. All of these differences will not only make your workout more likely to burn fat and calories, but it will also keep your workout interesting, which is the absolute key to long-term weight control and weight-loss success.
Share the Burden – Lose the Weight
Anyone who has ever been on a diet can tell you that they are not easy to stick with and unfortunately, many people give up before they actually notice the beneficial results. Instead of trying to take the task of losing weight on by yourself, feel free to share the load. There can be different meanings for the expression of sharing the load.
You can take this to mean sharing the load with someone else that is trying to lose weight as well. When you know another person who wants to shed pounds, you can work together and do many things such as planning meals, taking walks, joining the gym or anything else that will help you to stick to your diet.
It is easy to give in to the temptation of candy and other high calorie treats as well as to skip any planned exercise. If you have someone right there beside you to share your load, you can offer one another the necessary motivation to stay on task.
Famous people that you can think of tend to have a personal advisor or trainer that gives him or her the encouragement that they need to keep working towards their personal weight loss goals.
Therefore, the person that you choose to help you share your diet load is in an essence like your own personal trainer. They will offer you the pep talks that you may need time and again to keep going on your diet.
Another good way to share your load is by joining a support group that meets weekly. When you are a part of a group where everyone involved is attempting to loose weight will allow you to see the results and how you are progressing.
A group also lets you see that you are not alone in your quest for better health. If you have a moment where you feel like giving up or do not want to exercise or eat well, the other people in your group can support you. Perhaps they can go for a walk with you or offer to lend you an encouraging ear.
Family can be another wonderful source of support when you need someone to share your load with. Let your family know that it is very important to you to lose weight and become healthy.
You can let your family know that they can support your diet by all eating the same healthy foods that you are, or by offering you support in any way that you may possibly need.
One reason that many people gain weight is because they find themselves under stress. Therefore, it can be tough to stick to a diet when you find yourself in a stressful situation. If you share your load with your family, they can help to keep you out of situations where you may end up feeling stressed and tempted to cheat on your diet.
Women are very prone to eating when they find themselves feeling burdened and stressed out. Share your load to prevent this from happening whenever possible.
Time constraints can also make it hard to eat healthy and exercise. You could find yourself thinking that if there were more hours in the day that you could actually take in a healthy diet. It is important to understand that eating healthy foods is essential when you want to lose and then maintain a healthy weight.
Instead of trying to do it all yourself, find someone that you can share your load with. You are far more apt to be successful in your weight loss quest and to keep the weight off in the future. Keep in mind that when you share your load, it is far less for you to carry all on your own.
New Moms, – Let your Baby motivate you to loose some weight
You finally have your baby, pretty as an angel and sleeping sweetly in your arms.
For the first couple of weeks you are totally wrapped up in the new child, learning all you can about her wants and needs; memorizing every inch of her face, the dimples on her hands, and the sound of her breathing.
As the weeks go by and you have assured yourself that she definitely can survive without you being by her side every moment, you become to come a bit back into yourself. Your hair could use a trim and your eyebrows could use a wax, you notice. It’s time to address another concern as well, which concerns your tummy, hips, and, yes, backside as well. You may be someone’s mother, but that doesn’t mean you have to look matronly. You watched your weight and exercised when you were pregnant, but there’s still the issue of some pounds and inches that need to go!
The best news of all is that you are automatically burning more calories by the simple fact that they are carrying the baby around. Factor in the calories expended by lugging strollers, putting them in and out of the car, carrying all this up and down stairs and the weight can’t help but come off! Doctors recommend, though, that you shouldn’t lose more than two pounds a week, if you want to maintain the weight loss.
It’s good to know that your baby is already helping you on that score! Breastfeeding burns five hundred calories a day. New moms average an output of eight hundred millilitres of fluid. As the baby grows, your body will produce more milk for her requirements. Pretty clever of your little angel to arrange this weight loss for you!
Your baby will have a warm, comfortable time while you burn calories and think about it: carrying the weight of the baby helps burn even more calories! As you begin to take your baby out and introduce her to the world, putting your little one in a cosy sling right next to your body and have a saunter around the block, or through a park. You will both enjoy the closeness that a sling provides, while you will have your hands free to wave hello or pick a flower
When the baby gets bigger and graduates from sling to backpack or stroller, you will be able to cover more ground. Walking alone can burn two hundred calories an hour; pushing a stroller adds to that total, and walking uphill really starts burning those calories up! There are moms that power walk with a stroller; indeed, there are specially built strollers that have wheels more like bicycles than regular stroller wheels, and can manoeuvre much more quickly and better as mom steps up the pace. The moms suggest you do power walks first thing in the morning after feeding baby; if you linger too long you may come up with a clever reason to stay home!
If walking isn’t your style but you love the pool, taking your baby into the water can be a fun and magical experience for both of you. Babies usually love the sensation of the warm water that reminds them of the womb, and some mothers advise that fretful babies or babies having trouble going to sleep can be calmed. Moms can get even more benefit from the pool by using the baby while doing water aerobics. Just make sure the water is warm, of course!
Banish the Guilt and Get Back on Track
So you fell off the wagon and cheated on your diet, or have given up on dieting and exercise all together and now you’re feeling guilty. Don’t feel guilty. Guilt is just one more way that you keep yourself from being healthy. Everyone makes mistakes, but beating yourself up mentally is only going to keep you from your ultimate goal of getting healthy. When you feel guilty, you’re more likely to overeat, or to indulge in high fat comfort foods, which will just increase your guilt and lead to a terrible cycle of overeating and feeling bad. It’s time to forgive yourself for your mistakes, banish the guilties and get back on the weight loss track. You can start today.
Forgive yourself for making a mistake, for eating that brownie or those fries, and for not exercising in the last two weeks.
It’s not easy to forgive yourself for making mistakes, but it’s important to do things that are positive and will help you back on track when you cheat on your diet, or haven’t exercised in a month. Take small steps to get back on track to being healthy.
To get active again, start by taking the stairs at work every day instead of the elevator. Walk an extra lap around the store when you’re grocery shopping even if you already have the items you want to purchase. Take a walk around the block after dinner instead of sacking out on the couch in front of the TV. In order to banish the guilties and start feeling positive about losing weight and exercising try rewarding yourself with things other than food.
Here some rewards that might be good for you:
Did you love to paint or color when you were little? Buy yourself a paint set, or a box of crayons and a coloring book. Buy a new novel. Don’t have money to spend on new toys? Take yourself out for an afternoon walk around your favourite neighbourhood or to visit a free art gallery or museum.
Rewarding yourself in a healthy way doesn’t have to be expensive; there are lots of free and fun ways to spend an afternoon. Browse through a second hand store or novelty store. Go to the local library and spend some time reading about things that interest you. Visit a community center, many community centers offer free exercise groups, sports leagues, and arts and crafts classes. Joining a sports team or taking a fitness class is a great way to start feeling better about losing weight and being active, meet new people, and get some exercise.
A great way to banish the guilties and get back on the weight loss track is to get a friend to diet and exercise with you.
Together you can keep each other from falling off the diet and you can motivate each other to exercise. Set up a time to meet three nights a week or three mornings a week to go for a walk, or join a gym together. It’s much easier to start a healthy diet and start exercising when you’re doing it with a friend. Join a local weight loss group or start your own.
You can get back on the weight loss track and be on your way to being healthy and active, if you can let go of your mistake in the past and look ahead to the future. When you make a mistake and cheat on the diet, or you’re just too tired to work out, go easy on yourself, and don’t use that as an excuse to give up.
Have half a brownie if you absolutely have to have some chocolate, or stay home and take a nap and exercise an extra day later in the week. Staying flexible will help keep you on the track to health and fitness.
Stay Motivated during Your Diet
Some people are habitual dieters. This means that they are always looking for ways to shed the excess and unwanted pounds. Some people diet quite successfully. However, other people fall into common dieting traps that prevent them from losing the weight.
Here are some common mistakes that many people make when they are watching their weight.
Eating too many low-fat or low calorie foods:
If you are dieting, you often think that eating low-fat or low-calorie foods is the way to go. While it is certainly true that it is better to choose a low-fat food over a high-fat food, the mistake comes when you eat too many low-fat foods for the simple reason that they are low-fat. You have to remember that even low-fat foods add a big when it comes to calories. For example, if you are considering eating a chocolate chip cookie, you may have two choices, a low-fat cookie and a regular full fat cookie. One regular chocolate chip cookie may be 150 calories and 6 grams of fat and a low-fat cookie may very well be 150 calories and 2 grams of fat. This may lead you to believe that you can eat two or three of the low-fat cookies. But one look at the calories will tell you that eating three add up to 450 calories! The normal person that is dieting will aim for eating anywhere from 1200-2000 calories a day. You can see that 450 calories takes a big chunk out of your daily calorie allowance. If you plan on eating low fat foods, you should treat them as any other food and eat them in moderation.
Not exercising:
Most people just do not love to exercise. However, if you are actively trying to lose weight, some form of physical activity each day is a necessity. You do not have to be a marathon runner in order to get the right amount of exercise each day. Start off slow by walking a couple of times around your block and then build up from there. Not exercising is the worst thing you can do for any diet. Make sure that if you are trying to lose weight, you add in exercise to help you shed the pounds faster.
Splurging or rewarding yourself with food:
Everyone, whether dieting or not, deserves an occasional treat here and there.
However, if you are serious about your weight loss, then you need to take a hard look at these little splurges that you may take. When dieting experts recommend that you splurge every now and then, that doesn’t mean every day or even once a week. Instead, it means that you should eat a small amount of your favorite food a couple of times a month. It also does not mean that you can eat an entire pepperoni pizza on your splurging days. One or two slices are all that you should have. Moderation is the key to any successful dieting program. Another common mistake that people make when they diet is to reward themselves with food. This does nothing for your diet. So if you are looking to reward yourself for a small victory in your weight, then consider buying yourself a new pair of shoes, getting a manicure or buying a new book. These types of rewards will not cause you to gain weight.
When you are serious about losing weight, then you need to stay focused and motivated. Understanding the common dieting traps will help you do this and will also help you lose the weight and keep it off.
3 Common Dieting Hazards and How to avoid them
If you have found yourself in this situation that creates resolutions and cannot stick with them, there are three common perils that you can avoid that may help you to stay on track.
The biggest pitfall in dieting is when you turn towards a diet that comes from the shelf that promises you fast and simple results without any work involved. Off the shelf diets tend to fall into the groups of pills, liquids or various magazine recipes that guarantee you dropping entire dress sizes in a limited amount of time.
Due to the fact that so many of us are desperate to shed pounds, sales pitch diets tend to capture our attention. We want to believe that these fad diets will work so we are willing to give them a try. They are bound to fail though as a proper weight loss routine calls for consistency, putting in a lot of effort and you have to be determined.
Many of us fall into the trap of turning to treats high in calories or that we find comforting when we are in the grocery store. That means that if we find a pill that we believe can allow us to eat whatever we want yet still lose weight, we want it to be the truth.
However, this is exactly the hazard that so many people run into with fad diets. Even if you do happen to shed some pounds, your just apt to gain them back again in no time at all.
Yet another diet hazard comes in the form of either not eating at all or cutting back on food in extreme amounts. To start with, these diets are very hard to follow as you will be hungry and tempted to cheat on your diet.
Also, this is a very detrimental way to treat your body. Your body needs a certain amount vitamins and minerals that you can only find by eating a healthy, balanced diet. Instead of trying to cut food out, just eat smaller portions of the foods that you enjoy.
You can easily avoid this diet hazard by altering your lifestyle. You can decide to eat healthy foods such as vegetables, grains and staying away from foods that are high in fat and calories.
The last diet hazard comes in the form of what is known as the yo-yo effect. This happens when you actually do shed pounds from one of the fad diets and then you give up the diet and then return to your past, poor eating routine.
When this occurs, you can actually see yourself gaining more weight than you ever have before. There are some insulin and glucose reactions that occur in your body that can aid you in loosing weight. They experience a strong hit by the sugar and calories being consumed by your body. This leads your body to think that it was being starved and now it is being allowed to consume sugary, high calorie foods.
This will cause your body to flip over and hold onto more fat just in case you are going to take away the calories again. Bodies were created to work hard and work on a set amount of food.
The best way to avoid these dieting hazards is to put in some time for research on diets.
Consider talking to your doctor and see what they have to suggest. Your doctor is the best one to advise you on the proper way to lose weight while staying healthy.
Form a Habit for Healthy Living
So you’ve decided to start running to help reach your weight loss goals and get fit?
Running is a great way to stay fit and lose weight, but it can be hard to start a regular running routine. People who are really busy might find it difficult to make the time to run regularly. Having a safe, well –lit place to run and proper clothes and shoes for running is also very important. Even though running is great exercise, running is hard work and many people find that they stop making time to go running after the first week or so. If you’re determined to stick with running to meet your weight loss and fitness goals, there are some important ideas that can help you stick with your running for weight loss goals.
Find a Partner
One of the best ways to make sure that you make time to go running every day, or even just a couple of times per week, is to find a buddy or two to go running with. You will be less likely to make excuses not to run when your friends are waiting for you and are counting on you. Also, running with friends can help motivate you to run even when you are tired or stressed out. Make sure that your running pals are at the same fitness level that you are at, or you will get frustrated and so will they. Starting out at the same fitness level makes it more likely that you will all progress towards your weight loss and fitness goals at the same pace. There are lots of ways to find some running buddies. Head to a local park and talk to some of the runners there to start making friends at the same fitness level, or put an ad in the local paper or on a social networking or fitness website looking for local people to run with. There are running clubs that meet several times a week that accommodate runners at all levels of fitness. Call the local community center to see if they have any information on a local runner’s club, or convince some friends or family members who also want to lose weight to go running a few days a week.
Run at the Same Time Every Time
Another idea to make sure that you stick with running to meet your weight loss goals is to run at the same time every time. Whether you want to go running everyday, or just a couple of times during the week, running at the same time each day will make it part of your daily routine and make you more likely to stick with your commitment to go running on those days. After a few weeks of running at the same time on the same days of the week going running will seem like a normal everyday activity.
Keep Running Shoes and Workout Clothes with You
One of the biggest excuses that people use to put off going for a run when they know they should is that they don’t have workout clothes or running shoes with them. Keep a gym bag in the car or in the office with a second set of workout clothes, workout socks, and running shoes. Then it doesn’t matter if you need to stay late at the office, you can still go for a quick run during a lunch break or coffee break. Even if you can’t run for the amount of time that you would usually run for it’s worth going for a run. A short run is better than no run at all, and keeping running clothes and running shoes with you all the time will make sure you can always squeeze in a run even when you’re pressed for time.
And after you have done this for a few weeks you will notice that it has become a habit!
And you will feel weird NOT going for your normal run – be it long or short – but healthy living is starting to become a habit for you now!
Motivate your Child to Exercise
Grandparents can remember when children’s TV programming came on television roughly at the time the sun came down during the winter months. Nobody had to tell us that the outdoors was fun; but for a multitude of reasons modern children haven’t gotten that message.
In other words, kids got a bunch of exercise because there really wasn’t much else to do. The combination of outside stimuli and frenetic childhood energy just naturally had kids whooping and hollering until that first streetlight came on and it was time to come in.
How, then, can today’s parents motivate their children to exercise?
The time to start your children exercising is before they can walk! Put them on your back and show them you enjoy the outdoors; point out birds and cats and other interesting features of the neighbourhood. Whistle and hop a little bit (babies like hopping) and give them the fun feeling of a body in motion and the idea that being outside is a fun place to be. When they begin to walk, take them out to practice. If you have a bike, put them on the back for fun rides. As the child gets older, supply them with some fun stuff to do. This doesn’t have to be expensive; a tire hanging from a tree could suffice.
Make exercising a fun family activity! Start early by trooping the whole family out for a walk around the block for no reason except it’s nice to walk. Be silly and sing at the top of your voice if you want (soon your children will be mortified if you do so, so take advantage now). Go hiking, swimming, and kicking around whatever nature is near to you.
Speaking of nature, while teaching your kids that the outside is not terribly boring it is also a good time to teach, or to let them discover, that nature is to be protected and respected.
Encourage any aspect of the outdoors they might be interested in, be it fuzzy caterpillars, birds, or animal tracks. This will also encourage them to be out and active.
Sports are another fine way to encourage exercise. Have family or neighbourhood softball or whiffle ball games. Take your kid out to have a catch. Go to school games to encourage your child to strive, if that is his nature. Even if your kid is a born spectator, that’s all right; he’s outside, jumping up and down, and yelling for his team.
Perhaps you have noticed my drift, which is: it’s hard to get your kids up and motivated about exercise if you’re not.
Sitting on the couch and telling them to go out in the fresh air and run around may not sound as if you really mean it.
If all of a sudden you decide that your kids are not fit enough and need to exercise, it will probably sound like one of mom or dad’s wild ideas that will go away in time if ignored long enough.
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