The Secret to Weight Loss Success - Simple Strategies Revealed

Many of us are creatures of habit, especially as we age. We buy the same foods from the same stores, and prepare the same dishes over and over again. It's no wonder that we are bored. If you are serious about weight loss, and you are ready to embrace the journey, then you will need to shake things up. This not only means eating healthier and losing weight, but most importantly eliminating ALL your bad habits that affect your relationship with food. You are going to need to think differently about how you conduct your life and the choices you make.

Losing weight may not be easy, but it doesn't have to be painful. In fact, the weight loss process may just be the most empowering experience you will ever have. Once you make the conscious effort to stick to some simple strategies, weight loss will soon become a distant memory, one which you should not have to re-visit again. The following is a weight loss plan of action compiled by top trainers, dieticians, and wellness experts.

-Set realistic goals. Avoid the "fad diets" and supplements at all costs.

-Keep a food diary. Record everything you eat - everything. This is your bible.

-Don't skip breakfast.

-Make one easy change to your diet at a time. Start small and don't get overwhelmed. Remember, the most important thing here is to be consistent.

-Keep portions under control. Portion your food into four or five small meals throughout the day. Use smaller plates and make the food look appealing. Presentation is everything!

-Eat half your meal. When out in a restaurant, have the server wrap up half your meal before you start eating, or share your meal with a friend or spouse.

-Read food labels and keep track of calories. Don't obsess about the calories - just eat foods that are low in fat and avoid sweets and alcohol.

-Substitute fruits and vegetables for higher calorie snacks. Focus more on what you can add, (i.e.: whole grains, fruit and vegetables, and lean proteins), rather than what you are giving up.

-Have healthy snacks on hand, wherever you are. Whether at home, out shopping, or in the car, a snack should always be accessible in case you get hungry.

-Increase your physical activity, and choose exercises that can be easily integrated into your lifestyle. Combining cardio with strength training, along with a healthy diet, is the key to effective weight loss. Strength training is better for long-term weight loss than dieting, because eating fewer calories lowers the body's metabolic rate, adjusting to the fewer calories taken in. After depriving the body by dieting for a while, it takes fewer calories to regain the weight (proof that fad diets don't work). Strength training however, helps in weight loss by increasing muscle mass so that the body burns more calories, even when at rest. The cardio activity will help get your heart rate up and increase your body's endurance and efficiency.

-Be accountable. Weigh-in in front of someone, if possible.

-Get enough sleep. Try to achieve at least 7-8 hours a night.

-Look at the big picture. Feeling good in your own skin by making healthy choices, will keep you motivated to stay on track.

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

Need An Easy New Year's Diet Recipe? Discover 5 Steps To The Best Diet For Life

So, it's New Year's resolution time again. Are you preparing for the umpteenth New Year's diet recipe? Which one will it be this time around? The cookie diet, the cayenne pepper diet, the Suzanne Somers diet, the maple syrup diet, a rapid weight loss pill, or one of the other quick weight loss fads of the moment? Why don't you join me in making this New Year's diet a common sense occasion? Let's take a look at 5 easy-to-take steps that can introduce you to the best diet for life. Steps that stop yo-yo dieting permanently, while ensuring fat loss and a healthy, toned body.

Step 1. Don't Get Ripped Off With Rapid Weight Loss Pills And Potions

We have all seen the ads:

Lose 10 pounds in 3 days.
30 Pounds in 30 days.
Drop 2 sizes in 2 weeks without exercise.
Vibrate your way to a slim figure.
Shake off 50 pounds of fat with magical shakes.

The weight loss industry knows its vulnerable target market intimately - especially when it comes to New Year diets. These innovative marketers are very much aware of the buttons they need to push to get you to part with your hard-earned cash. The two main themes are instant gratification and anything that sounds like an easy, quick fix.

Let's use our common sense. The weight came on over a long period. The bad habits weren't formed overnight. How can we expect to lose all the 'bad stuff' overnight and keep it off for life? If we don't change our lifestyles, the unwelcome pounds will just come piling back - and invite a bunch of friends to boot. How many times have you dropped a number of pounds in a short period, only to gain it back with dividends within an even shorter period? Isn't it time to say: 'Enough'?

Step 2. Use Your New Year's Diet To Lose Fat, Not Water And Muscle

It is fairly easy to lose weight. It is much harder to keep it off. If you want to be successful in your weight loss efforts, you need to keep a close watch on your body composition. If you are losing water and muscle, you are not doing your body any favors. In fact, you will be slowing down your metabolism, causing an even greater weight gain headache.

If you choose the road of patience, you will be more likely to lose the fat, without putting your metabolism on a go-slow strike in the process. There simply is no way to do this overnight. Your target should be to lose around 2 pounds per week. Use tools such as a skinfold caliper to check that you are in fact losing fat. This can be done at home, but you may get more accurate results at a health club.

Step 3. Throw Out The Shakes, Meal Replacements And Starvation Tactics

The best diet for life should include a new healthstyle for your whole family. You can't live on meal replacements or cabbage soup. Your body and mind will never be satisfied with a shake in place of a filling, chewy, delicious, aromatic meal. Meal replacements can never be long-term solutions. They simply put your body into a sort of starvation mode, which is why you simply gain the weight again when the diet is 'over'. You need a diet and nutrition plan you can maintain for life.

Frankly, we have been made to enjoy good food. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact, we can and should even feel free to 'cheat' from time to time and enjoy a treat, without losing the weight battle. Try not to make food an issue. Teach your kids to prepare food in a healthy low-fat way, and they will never have reason to deprive and punish themselves with starvation diets. We need the aroma, the textures, the beautiful colors and the pleasure of good, healthy food. Make that part of your New Year diet recipe.

Step 4. Take Out A Calculator And Learn To Do The Math

Perhaps we should stop thinking in terms of a New Year's diet altogether. If you need to drop 10 or 30 or even 100 pounds, you can do this by simply making a few sums and changing some habits. You will not even feel deprived. Did you know that you could save 22,000 calories and lose around 6 pounds of fat in a year by simply switching from whole milk to skim milk? Or that by reducing your daily mayonnaise habit by one tablespoon daily, you could make another 9 pounds of flab and fat disappear over 12 months? This without taking any other steps.

Do some research and find other examples that can easily be incorporated into your new family healthstyle. Get the kids involved and they will soon discover that they only need to make smarter food choices. What can be easier than this? You can even give a prize to the family member who comes up with the most useful New Year diet suggestion.

Step 5. Make Family Activity A Fun Part Of Every Day

If you want to change the size of your butt, you have to drop the 'but' and start exercising. There simply is no other choice - you move, and the fat will start to move. Excuses and inactivity won't get you into that skin-tight pair of jeans. Don't have the cash for a gym membership? No problem. There are many affordable fitness equipment tools for home use. Put on some of the best workout music, and get an exercise ball workout going. Or set the kid in you free with an urban rebounder exercise routine.

Frankly, you don't even need to buy any special equipment. How about a brisk walk or a family bike ride daily? Twenty to thirty minutes of activity 5 days a week, will make a huge difference. Your metabolism will be revved up, enabling you to burn fat faster, even while you sleep. Used to saying 'I just have to look at a piece of pie to gain 5 pounds'? When your metabolism starts to work efficiently, this problem will disappear. You will find that extra pounds begin to look for another host. You can also add workouts with free weights. The extra muscle mass will become like a furnace when it comes to burning calories. Doesn't this sound like a new year diet recipe for success?

Aren't these 5 common sense steps all doable and affordable? If you need more guidance when it comes to nutrition and a weight loss cardio workout, you can tap into the knowledge of experts who know exactly what you need to do to burn the fat, while you feed the muscle.

Isn't it time to forget about yet another apple cider vinegar diet? Isn't it time to take the first steps in the direction of a new healthstyle, while putting together your family's New Year's diet?

Published At: www.Isnare.com
Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=211181&ca=Wellness%2C+Fitness+and+Diet

6 Burn Fat Fast Secrets For A Firm, Well-Toned, Celebrity-Style Beach Body

How to burn fat fast seems to be one of the most frequently asked questions these days. Do you struggle with food and weight loss from the moment you open your eyes in the morning? Do you constantly scan advertisements for new diet books, weight loss pills and potions? From celebrities to ordinary Joe's are jostling to get their hands on the latest fad. Somehow, each new product sounds just a tad more enticing and promising than the previous one, leading to a new stampede by a crowd of hopefuls. Do any of these burn fat fast fads work in the long run, or are they just lining the pockets of creative and innovative marketers? What are the six secrets that are really effective in the fat loss and muscle building race?

Secret 1: There Is No Quick Fat Fix

Sorry, folks. There really is no magical pound-melting potion on this earth. Not if you want a health body anyway, and most definitely not if you want a long-term solution. If you desire lasting good looks, or want to look after your man's health, it will take some work and planning. There simply is no quick fix. Burn fat fast solutions don't come in pill form.

Secret 2: Learning To Change Your Mind

The mistake many people make is to take on the weight loss challenge only on a physical level. Burning fat fast has as much to do with your psychological make-up as your physical weight. If you can harness the astounding powers of your mind, you will experience the fat loss success you crave. Step number one may be to find out if there is a behind-the-scenes reason why you hang onto your overweight image. There may be some kind of psychological pay-off. The extra weight may be a sort of safety buffer between you and the world out there.

Alternatively you may simply have conditioned yourself into believing that this is who you are. You may have been conditioned into making unhealthy food choices. Why not see the change as a new adventure? Why not make it fun to discover for yourself why one option is better than another? In the process you will also be teaching your kids not to stuff their faces mindlessly. Change your thinking and you will change your body.

Secret 3: Exercise Your Emotions

If your aim is to burn fat fast, it is vital to identify the times when you usually hit the fridge for emotional reasons. This can happen when you are bored, lonely, sad, happy, or excited. Don't try to white-knuckle it. If you can manage to get an alternative plan of action into place ahead of time, you will be more likely to succeed. It is much better to replace an established habit with a new action when that craving hits, such as brushing your teeth, going for a walk, dancing to upbeat music, perhaps drinking a glass of water or vegetable juice, or calling a friend. If you can just get through those few minutes, the feeling is very likely to pass. Once you have done this a few times, it will become easier and you will begin to feel more in control and that much better about yourself. This in itself will help to lessen the cravings.

Secret 4: Motivation To Move Muscles

No one is talking about becoming a female body builder here. You probably don't crave bulging muscles. The whole idea is to aim for extra weight you can put down when you're done! Of course, a lean and toned look is always attractive and will probably help to improve your self-image. The main thing is to get your metabolism revved up in the right way. Working with weights is one part of it, but you also need a cardio component to get the burn-fat-fast effect.

One possibility is to use a treadmill or elliptical trainer to move into your target training zone in as short a period as possible. Then downgrade to a lower intensity and try to keep this up for around 20 minutes or so. Before you know it, this form of fat burning exercise will have your body showing amazing changes. Not only will you be developing a lean look while dropping pounds, but you will be less likely to pick up weight so easily.

Secret 5: Get A Lifestyle-Lift

Burn fat fast solutions have much more to do with the choices you make, than with a particular diet. You need to adopt a healthy lifestyle that is sustainable. What good is it to go on this or that diet for a month, or to drink a weight loss pill for a few weeks? What happens on the first day of the next month? You probably head straight back to all your old habits. Before you know it, the weight you have lost, plus a few extra pounds reappear like old friends.

Why not learn to make smarter food choices instead? Doing just a few things differently may give you the boost you need. If you do the math, small changes such as switching to low fat cooking and eating, or decreasing your sugar intake slightly all add up. With a bit of planning, you can be right on schedule to drop a 100 pounds in a year, without a strict diet. Why not do some internet research to find out where you can make changes that will not leave you feeling deprived?

Secret 6: Clean Your Cupboards

Yes, Dr. Phil has been saying it all along. If it ain't there, it can't attach itself to your hips. Burning fat fast requires cleaning up your environment. How about initiating a kitchen spring clean? It will probably break your heart to throw out all the 'good' stuff you have in the house, but just imagine it all packing onto your thighs in the form of ugly lumps of fat... Better chuck it out, than chugging it around on you.

The thing is, there are going to come times when you will be vulnerable to eating just for the sake of eating. It takes a while to replace old habits with new tactics. Doesn't it make sense to make sure that the stuff that usually trips you up simply isn't in the house in the first place? At the same time you will be teaching your kids to make healthier food choices.

To burn fat fast is often more of a challenge for women. Remember that every woman's body composition is unique. If you can manage to love yourself and love your body, and stop being so fixated on diets, your life will take on a completely different color. Isn't developing a healthy body image a great gift you can give your kids? You probably don't even need scales and a body fat calculator to know if you need to firm up and drop some pounds. The way your clothes fit will tell you this quite clearly.

With a bit of homework and a handful of common sense you will find it easy to burn fat fast permanently and safely.

Published At: www.Isnare.com
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7 Surefire Ways To Shed 7 Pounds In 14 Days

The search for ways to speed up your weight loss is over. With these seven tips, you can be seven pounds lighter in the next two weeks. Be ready to make some changes, but your thinner self will thank you.

Make water your best friend

While it should come as no surprise that water is your best weapon in weight loss, some still haven’t caught on. By increasing your water consumption to six to eight glasses a day, you will help you body flush out toxins that are impeding the weight that you want to lose.

Water helps to speed digestion as well as many other processes in your body. And if your body is running more smoothly, then you can burn more calories along the way.

A new appetizer

If you’re looking to cut back on the foods that you’re eating, here’s a trick that works for anyone. Start your lunches and dinners off with a small cup of soup. Of course, the soup shouldn’t be cream based; a broth will work very well.

The warm soup will help to make your stomach feel fuller so that you eat less at the meal that follows. This is also a good trick if you are going out to eat. Have that bowl of soup before you go to curb your temptation for larger portions.

Take away the salt

A lot of the extra weight people carry is due to a large intake of salt. Salt can be found in many of the things that we consider healthy—frozen lunches, canned soups, and condiments.

Take some time over the next two weeks to look at the labels of the things that you eat to see how much salt (as sodium) are in the foods that you have been eating. Avoiding prepackaged foods is the best way to remove the salt from your diet.

Take away the sugars

While we don’t want to admit it, sugar is keeping us overweight and unhappy. And sugar isn’t just a candy bar or a milkshake, it’s also in the white breads and pastas that we love.

But if you want to lose weight, it’s time to find better ways of eating. This can include switching to brown rice and whole wheat bread. And of course, limiting your sugary snacks to once in a great while.

Get moving

When you’re trying to lose weight, you need to start exercising. If you haven’t exercised before, you’re in luck. Studies have shown that you can walk just a few times a week and burn the calories that you want to burn.

Thirty minutes a day is the best way to lose seven pounds in two weeks, but if you don’t have that much time, try to split it up over the course of the day—say ten minutes three times a day, or just try to fit in three good thirty minute walks a week.

Slow down

One of the main things that trigger overeating is not taking time for your self. When you’re trying to lose weight, it’s essential that you set aside a little time each day for you and you alone. By giving yourself some quiet time, you’ll be able to slow down and remember that you’re worth the extra effort that you’re putting in to lose weight.

Just like mom said

And don’t forget about your fruits and veggies. Though fruits do contain sugar, they also contain fewer calories than your traditional sugary snacks.

If you really want to jumpstart some weight loss, eat steamed vegetables at every meal. Not only do they have a slightly diuretic effect (makes you lose water weight), but they also energize your body to keep making great choices.

When you want to lose weight, you need help, but with these tips, you have everything you need.

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Is The Zone Diet Weight Loss Program Healthy?

Most of us have heard of Atkin's diet which calls for almost a complete carbohydrate cut from our diet for the first 2 weeks (induction phase)and then to add carbohydrate to our meals progressively thereafter. Whilst there are many success stories for this weight loss diet, there are also many criticisms claiming that Atkin's diet weight loss program is very unhealthy.

Well, to me, most weight loss diets are unhealthy. Anyway, I find Doctor Barry Sear's zone diet as one of the better or healthier weight loss diet. Please do note that I am not advocating dieting alone as a weight loss plan and strategy. I believe to lose weight and to keep the extra weight off permanently, we must combine healthy eating habits with regular exercise.

So what is the Zone Diet weight loss program?

The Zone Diet plan advocates protein-carb-fat balance in our meals. Very much like eating balanced meals.

Protein In Zone Diet

Our body needs a constant supply of protein as proteins are our body's building blocks. This is the reason why zone diet meals start with low-fat protein. Proteins stimulate glucagon production, a hormone that helps our body to release stored carbohydrates (glycogen) from our liver to maintain blood sugar levels for the brain. However, we should not consume protein in an amount bigger than the size and thickness of the palm of your hand, said Dr Barry Sears.

The protein serving should occupy one third of our dining plate because our body cannot use more protein than that (for ordinary folks who are not into building muscles).

Do choose the leanest protein as there are likely fats in your meal and saturated fat in any weight loss diet program should be kept low.

Carbohydrates In Zone Diet

The protein portion of a zone diet meal must be balanced and on par with the carbohydrates. Do note that not all carbs are equal. Fruits and vegetables are good carbs with a low capacity to stimulate insulin production, while other vegetables (such as carrots and potatos etc) and grain-based or refined flour products (white bread, pasta, white rice, cakes etc.) are bad carbohydrates as they are high glycemic carbs. Since the Zone diet's goal is insulin control, we must make sure that most of the carbohydrates are of the low glycemic types.

So one third of our meal should come from protein source and two thirds from good carbohydrate source like green leafy vegetables.

Fats In Zone Diet

A Zone diet meal requires fat. Good fats come in two forms: monounsaturated fats and long-chain omega-3 fats. Monounsaturated fats come from olive oil, some type of nuts aznd avocados etc. Long-chain omega-3 fats can come from fish oil.

Limit bad fats like saturated fat and trans fat. Saturated fat comes from animal meat and high-fat dairy products. Trans fats are artificial fats created by the food industry, commonly listed as partially hydrogenated oil.

Then there is a type of omega-6 fatty acid known as arachidonic acid, found mainly in fatty red meats, egg yolks and organ meats. We do need some arachidonic acid in our diet, but too of this acid much can be damaging to our health just like any other fat.

Conclusion Of The Zone Diet Weight Loss Program

Sounds like common sense balanced meals isn't it? Would you include The Zone Diet plan into your weight loss program? What do you think about The Zone Diet?

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