Simple Weight Loss Strategies Part 2

If dieting doesn't work, what other strategies can you adopt for simple weight loss?
One possible approach is to design your own weight loss diet and learn to cook.

You know the type of food you enjoy and you know what's good for you and what isn't. It may seem that these are miles apart. However, it is possible to combine the two in a way that will make weight loss easy and keep your taste buds happy at the same time.

This technique will require a little time and effort, but the long term benefits – a healthier slimmer you – will be well worth it.

Start by making a list of all your favourite dishes, including takeaways and ready meals. Now think what could be added to these to make them healthier. And what could be taken away to make them healthier?

You've probably written vegetables and perhaps lean meat in answer to the first question and salt, sugar and fat in answer to the second. So let's look at your favourite meals. Fish and chips? Certainly likely if you live in the UK. Try oven chips with baked salmon, with a variety of frozen vegetables – you'll be cutting out so many calories by getting rid of the batter and deep-fried chips, that you can allow yourself a little ketchup. And this is very easy to cook.

How about sweet and sour pork? Cut out the batter again and use lean meat in a sauce with a little ketchup (I have this from a Chinese chef – tomato ketchup is the secret ingredient in sweet and sour sauce! If you can find sugar free ketchup, so much the better), tinned pineapple in juice (not syrup), some balsamic vinegar and a load of vegetables.

If you eat ready meals, read the labels and see if you can come up with a healthier version by omitting some of the unnecessary ingredients, such as wheat and sugar, and cutting down on the fat. Obviously, this won't be possible for all your favourite dishes, but sugar, wheat and excess amounts of fat find their way into so much of what we eat, that it's not difficult to make your own diet-conscious alternatives.

Learning to cook is a sure way to know exactly what goes into your mouth and will not only help you control your weight, but will also improve your health. Once you've mastered a few weight loss recipes, you can cook these dishes in bulk and freeze them. This will save time and will mean you always have something tasty on hand for times when you are busy, hungry and need something to eat in a hurry. Try getting the whole family involved – if you have kids this will really help them to become independent and what better gift can you give them than the key to a healthy future? And with so many children and teens struggling with obesity, teaching them simple weight loss strategies will help them avoid becoming overweight in the first place.

© Waller Jamison 2007

The Real Secret to Long Term Weight Loss

In one of the world's largest diet studies, it appears that diets actually damage your health. The results and the problems diets can cause should give you reason to keep reading.

According to Miller Jones, a professor of nutrition and food science at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota...

4th graders are aware of the word diet, especially the girls.

Recently a massive worldwide study concluded that diets don't work long term for the majority of people on them and it might even put your life at risk.

This type of yo-yo behavior is linked to many health problems. Because of the strain on the body of repeated weight loss and weight gain, the researchers found that the dieters would have been better off not dieting at all.

Research has shown the repeated rapid weight gain and loss associated with dieting can double the risk of death from heart disease, including heart attacks, and the risk of premature death in general.

For starters...

When you think 'diet' you are actively engaging in short term thinking. When you start to think of it as something you go on and then off again, that's the wrong direction.

Some of the BEST resources on nutrition are not diets. They are eating plans. They are the basics of eating correctly for the rest of your life. Eating for everyday living is something you can be taught. There's nothing short term about them.

"The benefits of dieting are simply too small and the potential harms of dieting are too large for it to be recommended as a safe and effective treatment for obesity." -Dr Traci Mann

A quick test is to simply look at any given plan and immediately ask yourself...

Can I eat this way for the rest of my life and not fall prey to hunger cravings or temptations?

Frankly...

If you are overweight, then thinking in the short term is exactly why you could be doomed to fail! As you bounce from one plan to the next, you become more and more frustrated.

FACT: Many diets that use a severe calorie restriction just makes it harder to lose the weight the next time.

FACT: Some studies show that repeated weight loss and regain actually increase the changes you'll gain even more weight the next time.

FACT: It shouldn't come as a shock that people who exercise report the most long term weight loss.

Now with all this in mind...

No matter what eating plan you choose or what your goals, just drop the word 'diet' from your vocabulary and pick a plan you can stick with for life. That encourages slow weight loss or weight gain. That doesn't "demonize" foods but helps you pick and choose from healthy alternatives and explains the reasons why.

If you are always changing your eating habits for special events or every 8 weeks, you might be dieting. Before you start your next diet, that's the time to step back and ask yourself if you know all you can about proper, healthy nutrition. Learning how to eat correctly is something you can stick with for life and avoid the common frustrations.

Breast Health And Other Diseases In Women

The female breasts are a very important part of the female body. Their proper health needs to be maintained. An inability to do so may result in breast related diseases. There are various other conditions that can affect the female breasts. Due to this, care has to be taken and certain tips should be followed for healthy breasts. Diseases that affect the breast include benign fibrocystic breasts as well as breast cancer.

Some information about one particular disease that affects the female breasts is given. Knowledge about the cause and treatment of breast cancer is inadequate. Breast cancer can develop irrespective of the age group. Breast cancer need not necessarily run in families. Breast cancer can happen to any women. But if there are cases of breast cancer within the family then chances increase considerably. So, it is better to get a check up done regularly. Usually, people think that breast cancer occurs due to the presence of a gene that has been mutated. This mutated gene could be BRCA1 or even BRCA2. The absence of this gene doesn't imply that breast cancer will not occur. About ninety percent of women who are detected with breast cancer do not have this particular mutated gene in them or in their family.

Breast cancer does not really develop if the women are exposed to risk factors that are already known. In spite of not knowing the risk factors women can fall prey to breast cancer. A major portion of women who have breast cancer have not really had any exposure to the existing risk factors. This implies that each and every woman has equal chances of developing breast cancer. Unfortunately, breast cancer is not a disease that can be prevented completely. A drug called Tamoxifen can reduce the chances of suffering from breast cancer. But complete prevention is not possible. The cause of breast cancer is still not known. The only method of living through breast cancer is to detect it early and get it treated.

Breastfeeding can reduce the chances of occurrence of breast cancer in the perimenopausal stage. Studies have been conducted to find out if hormone replacement can be done in order to reduce the chances of breast cancer. In spite of tremendous research in the field of breast cancer, its causative factors are relatively unknown. Proper care of breasts should be taken to maintain good health.

How Can I Lose 10 Pounds?

"How fast can I lose 10lbs if I burn off 500 calories by running 4-5 miles a day, and eating 1200 calories?"

I get questions like this a lot via my fitness business.

I'll give you a rough guideline but I can't answer this question
with 100% accuracy because I don't know your metabolic rate (how
many calories you burn during a normal day), the type of food you
eat, how often you eat, how much sleep you get, etc.)

So let's look at some examples. If 1,700 calories a day keeps
your weight the same and you reduce your caloric intake, you'll
lose roughly 1 pound per week.

There are 3,500 calories in a pound of fat. 7 days per week x
500 calories per day equals 3,500 calories per week. So, if you
added the running that burned 500 calories per day, this would be
another pound lost per week.

Now, keep a couple of things in mind. 1,200 calories per day may
be too low, which will cause your metabolism to slow down. This
is how people who go on a diet end up gaining all the weight back.

In addition, if you are not doing any weight training, about half
of that weight lost will be muscle, which will also slow down your
metabolism, again causing weight rebound and putting you in a worse
situation than before you lost the weight.

This is why I said roughly one pound per week up above. A pound of
muscle is only 600 calories and since you'll be losing muscle and
fat, you may lose more than a pound by burning 3,500 calories in a
week.

In addition, your body shape won't change. You'll just be a smaller
version of you, or what I call skinny fat.

You should add some weight training to your running plan, 2 to 3
times per week.

I would also reduce the amount of running you are doing, both in
number of days you run, and how far you run each day. Consider only
running that distance 2 or 3 days per week.

Consider performing high intensity interval training instead of the
running on 2 other days per week.

In addition, keep track of your calories. You only want to lose 1 - 2
pounds per week (you may lose more in the beginning. And keep in mind
that how you look is more important than the scale. If you lose 10
pounds of fat and add 10 pounds of muscle, you'll way the same as you
do now but you'll look a thousand times better.

You'll also be smaller as a pound of muscle does not take up as much
space as a pound of fat.

I hope this helps.

Good luck! I'd love to hear your results and questions (see below).

Carbohydrates Are Not The Key To Weight Loss

Carbohydrates are the body?s major source of energy which enables the many body organs to function properly. Carbohydrates taken in by the body is broken down into glucose which provides the much needed energy of the human body. With the glucose that was produced as the human body consumes carbohydrate-rich foods, the pancreas secretes an important hormone called insulin which transfers the glucose from the blood to the different cells of the human body. That in a nutshell explains how important carbohydrates are and why everyone should not totally eliminate the intake of carbohydrates through their diet plans.

To explain why carbohydrates is not the key to weight loss, it is important to know the two different types of carbohydrates contained in the food that people eat. One is the carbohydrates in its simplest raw form of sugars found in fruits and vegetables and the other one is complex carbohydrates which are found in cereals and potatoes. Both of these forms of carbohydrates have good and beneficial effect on the body because they produce energy which is badly needed by the body to function properly. However, not all foods are good supplier of carbohydrates whether simple sugar or complex carbohydrates. Sugar sources of carbohydrates found in fruits and vegetables are good carbohydrates because they these sugars are unrefined and come in their simplest natural form. And aside from this fruits and vegetables also contains phyto-chemicals which make it a good source of nutritional needs.

Complex carbohydrates are also good for the body if they are taken in by eating fiber-rich carbohydrate heavy foods such as cereals, whole wheat bread and whole grains. Aside from giving the body good supply of sugar to produce energy, these foods are easily digested and are not stored in the body as fat. The bad carbohydrates rich food that should be avoided are those that come from foods made of refined sugar such as cookies, cakes, carbonated drinks and others because of the high sugar concentration in these foods which are hard to digest and most often than not remain in the body as stored fat.

Going to the question of whether carbohydrates are the key to weight loss, the answer is either a yes or no. Like any other food, anything that is taken in excess of how much the body needs is always a bad thing. The same thing is true for carbohydrates, whether it is simple or complex, good or bad carbohydrates; the important thing to remember is that, both affects weight gain, if not taken moderately. It should always be remembered that any amount of carbohydrates taken in by the body which is not consumed and converted into energy will remain in the body as stored fat, which would contribute to weight gain.

So, is a low-carb high-protein diet the best way to lose weight? The answer is still either yes or no. It would still depend on what type of protein is taken in as part of the diet. Protein like carbohydrates also contributes to weight gain if not taken at the right proportion and not consumed by the body properly. But this is not saying that low-carb high protein diet has no effect on weight loss, actually it has an effect on weight loss. However, Too much of protein and less of energy producing carbohydrates may not be good to one?s over all health. The body needs energy from carbohydrates and the nutrients from protein rich food to build up muscles and for other sustenance.

Carbohydrates intake may lead to weight loss, it is a proven fact. But to say that it is the key to weight loss is not true. Depriving the body of the much needed energy from carbohydrates may lead to weight loss, but the effect on the over all health of the body must also be considered. The best way to achieve weight loss is by attaining weigh loss objective without sacrificing total body health. To do this, the key is still moderation in the intake of the essential nutrients whether they are carbohydrates, protein among other things. And of course, ensure that these nutrients are properly utilized by the body through maintaining a healthy and active lifestyle.

Weight Loss Success Made Easy!

Weight loss is a game, similar to solitaire. It's a game that you play by yourself. The sooner you realize that it's you and only you that's going to make the weight loss happen, the closer you've just gotten to your own weight loss success.

This doesn't exclude personal trainers and perhaps your very own diet guru. You can, and should, acquire all the positive support you need, but in the end one truth will hold: only you can lose the weight. No diet pills. No magic weight loss spells. No Hollywood 48-hour pineapple juice voodoo.

Now once you've come to terms with this, you can get onto the activities you will need to begin—and stick with—to accomplish your weight loss goals.

Below I've included 3 absolute beginner must-dos, if you "really" want to lose weight.

WL Must #1: Exercise. It doesn't matter how much at first, just do it. Do it, and do it often. Begin and be consistent. Do something today. The faster you begin something, the better your chance of keeping with it. Don't delay.

WL Must #2: Adjust your eating "slightly." Do not… I repeat, do not attempt to completely alter your dieting habits. Too much of a change almost guarantees you will not stick with it.

You see this all the time with New Year's resolutions. People start out hardcore motivated for weight loss success, and then two weeks later (maybe sooner than that) they succumb to the gravity of their old weight "gaining" lifestyle.

They fall flat because they tried to do too much too soon.

WL Must #3: Treat weight loss as a priority. This is the opposite of "Must" number too. Don't pity-pat or half step your beginnings. There is a fine line you must walk at the very beginning of every weight loss program.

You've been out of the game for a while (maybe forever). You must step out of the weight loss gate with purpose, but also control. You must be able to measure your limitations and gradually increase your diet and exercise abilities over time.

Patience and balance will guarantee your weight loss success. Begin where you are, feel good about that, and then progress slowly over time. Do this and your weight loss success is only a few miles down the road.

The Secret to Successful Dieting

With every new client I encounter, they all say the same thing to me. "I can't stand my gut and the rolls of flab that hang over. How do I look like you?" My answer to all of them is "diet. You need to eat 6 nutritious small meals a day every three hours in order to keep your metabolism up which will help your body burn fat and use food as fuel. "And that's when I get the deer in the headlights look. "How on earth can I eat 6 meals a day every three hours?"

Simply put, you need to be proactive about your diet and most people don't know how to go about doing that. Once I get past the nutritional coaching and explaining to my clients that not only do they need to eat ENOUGH calories, but they have to eat the RIGHT calories, I explain to them that if they learn to become proactive about their diets, the rest just falls into place.

I have a ritual that I go through every week and I have this down to a science. I go to the supermarket and buy enough boneless-skinless chicken breasts, fish, lean cuts of beef, broccoli, green beans, to last me a week. Every Saturday or Sunday afternoon, I pre-cook all my meals for the week including my brown rice, sweet potatoes, broccoli, green beans, etc.

Once all your foods are cooked, it's easy to plan out your meals on a daily basis. My meals are stored in plastic containers. I have a nylon cooler that I carry around with me every where I go. All I need to do is pull out six meals and place them in the cooler. Some easy meal suggestions are a can of tuna over baby spinach with some low fat dressing, pre-grilled chicken with brown rice, egg white omelet and old fashioned oatmeal heats up quickly in a microwave, low fat cottage cheese with an apple and some almonds, grilled chicken with steamed broccoli, low fat no sugar added yogurt with a scoop of protein powder mixed in. This is an example of some of the meals you will find in my cooler on any given day.

For those of you who work a corporate job and say that they can't take short breaks to eat, I say nonsense. Yes you can. What about all those smokers you see outside that take 20 minute smoke breaks several times a day. You can certainly take 5 minutes to do something healthy for yourself. I had lived the 8-5 life and as a trainer, I have 5 minutes between clients and within that 5 minute break I am able to eat. It can be done. With your meals already pre-cooked, all you need to do is put your plate in the microwave for 1 minute to heat up your food and eat a delicious, nutritious meal.

Supermarkets now have foods that are pre-cooked which make it easy to have a nutritious meal when you're in a hurry and have no time to cook. Most supermarkets now have rotisserie chickens and salad bars so all you need to do is pick up a chicken and a salad (spinach, romaine, baby greens) with a low fat dressing or some steamed green veggies. As for fast food, when in doubt, always order the grilled chicken sandwich with side salad and for those of you watching your carbs you can always ditch the bun. Places like Moe's Southwest Grill and Chipotle's now have naked tacos which you can essentially make your own meal in a bowl. When I eat at places like that, I will order chicken in a bowl with black beans, lettuce, salsa and guacamole. When dining out I order grilled chicken or fish with salad, a sweet potato and a steamed green veggie.

Yes, you can eat six meals a day AND make better food choices.