How to Eat Healthy and Lose Excess Weight

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How to Eat Healthy and Lose Excess Weight

In our fastfood and massive portion sized culture, maintaining a healthy weight can be quite difficult- and losing weight, even tougher. Adding to this difficulty is the abundance of fad diets and quick fix plans that doesn’t really do any good, at least not in the long term. If you are one of those people who have tried and failed to lose weight in the past, don’t lose hope. There are plenty of small changes that you can make to your daily diet to achieve lasting weight loss. Let me share to you some of them.

1. Instead of eating three big meals a day, split it into six smaller meals and smaller portion sizes of course.

2. Avoid eating refined carbs such as white flour, rice, pasta and bread. Eat only whole grain carbs such as brown rice and whole wheat pasta.

3. Never skip breakfast. Those who think skipping breakfast is a great way to cut calories usually end up eating more throughout the day. Eating early in the day keeps us from “starvation eating” later on. Apart from that, eating breakfast also jumpstarts your metabolism, making you burn more calories throughout the day.

4. Get rid of junk food and stock up on healthy ready to eat snacks instead. Salt free nuts, whole grain granola and vegetable sticks are yummy and healthy snacks that can help you feel more satisfied.

5. Learn to read a nutrition label. Avoid buying food with ingredients you can’t easily pronounce. Chances are, these are loaded with preservatives and additives. Again, if you can’t say it, don’t eat it.

6. Reward yourself occasionally. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Treat yourself to your favorite ice cream or a big fat juicy hamburger once a week. The more you deprive yourself, the higher the chance you end up overeating.

7. Try to learn how to cook healthy food. This way you can eat healthy food anytime at the comforts of your own home.

8. Reduce your sodium and sugar intake. Excess sugar and sodium intake both carry their own sets of problems. Eating too much sugar can increase weight, blood glucose levels and your risk for heart disease. On the other hand, too much salt in your diet can cause bloating and water retention which can cause weight gain and heart strain.

9. Use a smaller plate when eating. This creates the illusion that the plate has a lot of food in it.

10. Avoid emotional eating. Bingeing can only make you feel worse about yourself in the long run.

By Mich Ching

Posted in Healthy

Get Active and Eat Healthy If You Want to Prevent Diabetes

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Get Active and Eat Healthy If You Want to Prevent Diabetes

The experts have recognized the link between diabetes and obesity.

In today’s day and age, obesity is becoming more and more common. With this rise in obesity, we have seen a rise in diabetes. This link is causing the life span of those who are obese and diabetic to be decreased by 10 or 20 years depending on the severity. The worst part of this is that many of those who are obese and diabetic are children and those in their teen years.

However, this type of situation can be prevented. Many times obesity is caused by overeating and inactivity. Preventing this type of situation can be handled rather simply. Watch what you and your children eat and get active. Watching what you eat does not mean that you can’t eat what you want. It just means that you must eat in moderation. Don’t overload your plate because you think you are starving. The key is to start out small and stop when you no longer feel hungry. Eat small meals so that your body has a chance to digest everything properly. This will help to avoid overloading your body on sugars and fat.

Being active doesn’t mean that you should be out there working out every day and running 5 miles every morning. All you need to do is get up and move around. Go for a walk, do some extra cleaning, take a bike ride, and so on. These little things can add up quite easily and before you know it you are feeling better, losing weight, becoming fit and healthy. A little activity goes a long way. Including the whole family or a buddy to do things with can help bring the support you need and make it more fun. Diabetes and obesity are related but they don’t have to be related to you.

Take the time to learn about obesity and diabetes as you are already doing. Do some research and teach your children what it means to be healthy. Show them that your and their life is worth living. A few small lifestyle changes can make a huge difference in obesity and diabetes. Lowering the risk of diabetes in the obese means lowering obesity as a whole. Obesity doesn’t have to be a problem of the future. It can be something you overcame and conquered. Get out there and get active and eat healthy. Take it one step at a time.

By Girdhar Gopal Sharma

Posted in Healthy

You Will Eat What Is In Front of You

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You Will Eat What Is In Front of You

I was on vacation recently and I realized that many people are fighting a losing battle every day. I knew this was happening already. When I talk to my client companies about their employee concerns and my health coaching participants their personal struggles, I see it. When I was in an airport, I saw it clearly enough to make me think again.

As I thought about it again, my realization was: If it is in front of you, you will eat it. I’ve known this for some time, but I have new appreciation for just how difficult eating healthy can be. I know firsthand how difficult it is to choose healthy foods. I also know firsthand how difficult it is to avoid unhealthy foods.

Sometimes it is a combination of the two that leads to a struggle, but often the struggle and ultimate defeat actually take place before we even leave the house.

Let’s take the airport scenario for example:

Situation: sitting in an airport waiting for a delayed flight

Challenge: hungry

Options: go to fast food place, newsstand or vending machine

Result: eating a processed, fatty, sugary meal that doesn’t provide much nutrition

I not only watched dozens of people stuck in this situation, but I also heard people openly complaining about it. I already heard this complaint from friends, family and clients, but to hear it while seeing such a no-win situation unfolding for these people was truly an eye-opening for me.

The Perceived Problem:

There are no healthy options at the airport so I am forced to eat junk.

The Real Problem:

You didn’t plan ahead, so you are eating junk because you are too hungry to wait for something else

The Perceived Solution:

There is no solution to this problem other than eating it and vocalizing my complaints about it

The Real Solution:

This is actually a long answer, because there are so many options. That’s right, you have options. You have more options than most people realize. When it comes to eating on the run and eating while traveling, there is more than what’s right in front of you. Often, what is in front of you can be made healthier just by consciously making a choice.

Solution #1 – Eat it, but less of it. That’s right, you can eat fast food, but if you eat less of it, you are taking in fewer calories and putting less junk into your body.

Solution #2 – Bring something with you. Bringing a healthy snack with you can keep the cravings at bay as well as give you an alternative to the fast food or vending options that are in front of you while you wait.

Solution #3 – Choose wisely. There are obvious choices at most fast food restaurants that can make a bad situation better. Grilled vs. Fried is one option. Skipping on fries or substituting something in their place can help too. Even your beverage can save you hundreds of calories each meal.

There are many more solutions that can help you get through a travel day. The airport is not always the best place to be when trying to eat healthy, but that doesn’t mean that you have to suffer. Use one of these solutions or find another that works for you and you can successfully eat healthy anywhere.

The airport is an easy place to pinpoint unhealthy eating habits. The home is another. It may not be quite as easy, but you may be putting more pressure on yourself at home than you need to. Just like you can make choices at the airport, you can make choices at home too.

Problem: I have healthy items at home, but I keep eating the junk

Solution #1 – Don’t buy it. It’s that simple. If you don’t buy something you can’t eat it. If you don’t bring something into your home, you won’t eat it. The solution is really at the store. Making a smart purchase makes eating the smart food much easier.

Solution #2 – Plan your meals and have healthy items ready. If you don’t have the food ready, you won’t eat it. If you don’t plan and prepare a meal, you won’t eat the food. There is no way around it. You can’t eat a salad without tossing, mixing or at least pouring. You can’t eat veggies without chopping. If you make healthy choices easier to eat, you will at them.

Everyone has their own vices. We all have certain foods that we like and we all have certain foods that we can’t resist. If you are sitting at a table with your favorite food on it (good or bad) you will eat it. If you get hungry anywhere, you will eat what is available. That is why the solutions listed above have to become your strategies if you want to eat healthy.

You can want to eat healthy and you can think about it all you want, but the fact remains, convenience is king. Easy options are going to win every time. Make healthy choices easy and you will win. You can’t win in a no-win situation. Don’t put yourself in a no-win situation and you will…well, you will win. It all comes back to the original statement: If it is in front of you, you will eat it.

By Joseph R. Byrd

Posted in Health

Healthy Eating: It’s NOT About Willpower Alone!

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Healthy Eating: It’s NOT About Willpower Alone!

We have often heard it, “Just do it – just eat healthy!” Some people think that healthy eating is simply a matter of willpower. They seem to think that, if you want to eat healthy, all you have to do is commit to it and follow through!

But, for most people, that approach just doesn’t work. Studies show that the average American adult starts at least 3 diets per year, and that means that they fail at least 2 times each year! Clearly, willpower alone isn’t the answer.

There are simply too many temptations “calling at” people to break their healthy eating commitments! This isn’t only true of healthy eating; it’s a fact of life in most things. If a person is constantly bombarded by “opportunities” to engage in the behaviors they want to avoid, their willpower will eventually break down.

So, how can you eat healthy? What do you need beyond your own willpower? You need to create an environment where your opportunity to succeed is high. This is an environment where temptations are minimized and healthy eating is rewarded. Here are 5 tips for creating an environment for success:

Stock your kitchen with healthy options. Eating healthy is going to be difficult for anyone if their pantry includes lots of chips, candy, and cookies. To make healthy eating easier, eliminate the less healthy options from your kitchen and stock it with healthy alternatives. Stock fresh fruit and vegetables in your refrigerator. Keep granola bars, dried fruit, and nuts in your pantry. Make it easy to eat healthy and hard to find junk food.

Plate your food in the kitchen, not at the table. Often, we take food directly from the oven or stove to the table and dish it up there. This makes “seconds” easy to get. Instead, plate your food in the kitchen and then serve it. If family members want more, they can always get up, go to the kitchen and get it. But that requires effort. You’ll find that by not having additional servings right on the table, you’ll eat less and you’ll stop when you get full.

Eliminate distractions during meals. This can be a tough one, especially for Americans. We tend to eat in front of the TV – both meals and snacks. Studies show that when people don’t pay attention to what they’re eating, they tend to consume more. We recommend that you make family time the focus of meal time. Bring the family together for meals, turn off the TV and focus on each other and the food.

Have small indulgences available. It’s important to indulge from time-to-time. If you don’t, then you’ll likely feel deprived of the foods you love, and you’ll think about them more. This makes it hard to avoid them. For example, my wife and I love chocolate, but we don’t have a bag of “fun size” candy bars in the pantry. If we did, they would all be eaten! Instead, we have M&Ms in the freezer. Having them in the freezer means that we have to take them out, put what we want to eat in a small bowl, and then put the rest back. We decide how much we’re going to eat, rather than just snack from the bag. This makes them a treat and not an easy snack.

Make healthy choices when you can, but don’t go crazy. We often tell people to follow the 90/10 rule – eat healthy 90 percent of the time, and give yourself permission to indulge sometimes. For example, if you like pasta, then choose whole wheat pasta and marinara sauce with vegetables instead of calorie-dense Alfredo sauce. Enjoy a big salad too. Then, if you want, indulge with some grated cheese or a glass of wine. Eating should be enjoyable, and eating healthy 100 percent of the time can take the fun out of it.

So, to stick with a commitment to eat healthy, maximize your opportunity for success. Create a healthy environment where it’s easy to make healthy choices.

By Michael L McCauley

Posted in Healthy

Seven Reasons a Healthy Eating Plan Beats Dieting

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Seven Reasons a Healthy Eating Plan Beats Dieting

Why a healthy eating plan instead of the usual diet?

It might be another wedding or your latest high school reunion, there always seems to be a new reason for finding new weight loss ideas. Whether it’s the newest “grapefruit diet” or other fad foods for weight loss, there’s always an endless supply of new and supposedly easy ways to lose weight.

If you’ve grown tired of the seemingly never-ending stream of diets, it might be time to consider a radical change for many of us…..how about starting a healthy eating plan?

- What follows are 7 good reasons to start a healthy eating plans:

#1. No More Diets

Do all those diets really work? The south beach diet, Atkins diet, weight watchers and on and on and on? The simple answer is, yes, they all work great for thousands of people. But the real question should be: “How long do they work?” The problem is, that for most people at some point down the road, and for various reasons (depends on diet), they just don’t anymore.

Folks get tired of counting points or calories or carbs, or whatever and slowly go back to old habits.

Wouldn’t it be fantastic to always be at your healthiest and your most attractive weight without even thinking about ever dieting again? That’s a pretty darn good reason right there don’t you think?

#2. A Balanced Healthy Diet

The latest fad diets generally restrict what you eat, often eliminating certain foods entirely from your daily diet, which is never a good idea. A healthy eating plan ensures a balanced healthy diet of all the healthiest foods your body needs to look and feel it’s best.

It may take a little more time… at first. Once you’ve designed your first few healthy meal plans it’s just as easy, and so much better for all.

#3 Eat Smarter Not Harder

When we start a healthy eating plan we learn by default what types of foods are healthier and which ones we need to replace with healthier choices. Simple food choices, such as swapping a baked potato for a healthier sweet potato or eating organic alternatives when you can, they can make a big difference when incorporated into your daily lifestyle over time.

#4 Focus on What You Can Eat

Instead of always having to remember what you can’t eat on a particular diet, you can focus on all the great healthy foods you can eat. Studies have repeatedly shown, that when overweight and especially obese people focus more on healthy foods like fruits and vegetables, they lose 20-25% more weight than those just trying to avoid (not eat) the high fat foods of a given diet program.

I don’t know about you, but if I’m overweight and trying like you know what to lose a few pounds, there’s nothing more motivating than thinking about all the foods I can eat, rather than the usual restrictions of a diet. (what I can’t eat)

#5 Meet The Family Again

I know, it sounds a little corny, but starting a healthy eating plan for your family is a great way to get some quality time in. Preparing and eating meals at home with the family and not out in a restaurant or take-out every night, can be an excellent way to get to know your spouse and your kids better. In this fast-paced life it can be hard to find space in the daily grind for the important people who really matter.

#6. Your Health

Our bodies need the vitamins and other essential nutrients that healthy meal plans provide. Once you’ve decided to implement healthy eating plans into your life, your health as well as the health and well-being of your entire family is ensured.

Most all physical ailments are related to, or are made worse by being overweight or obese, which unfortunately includes most of us. A healthy eating plan doesn’t support obesity, no more diets that promise quick fixes that don’t exist long-term.

#7. It Can Last a Lifetime!

The key to losing weight is to do it slowly through a healthy eating plan. It may not be the quickest way to lose weight short-term, but it will be the long-lasting weight loss results, we’ve all been looking for.

A healthy eating plan, when done properly, can and should last for the rest of your life, as well as your family’s. And hopefully it will be passed on to the next generation!

By Art Cook

Posted in Healthy