Posts

The no-diet approach to weight control

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By adopting sensible eating habits and practicing portion control, you can eat nutritious foods so that you take in as many calories as you need to maintain your health and well-being at your ideal weight. Often, weight loss occurs on its own simply when you start making better food choices, such as avoiding processed foods, sugar-laden foods, white bread and pasta (substitute whole-grain varieties instead), foods with a high percentage of calories from fat, alcoholic drinks. While nothing is absolutely forbidden, when you do succumb to temptation, keep the portion size small and add a bit more exercise to your daily workout. By replacing some unwise food choices with healthy ones, you'll be cutting back on calories. If you add some moderate physical activity by simply walking more you have the perfect weight-loss plan without the need for special or inconvenient (and often expensive) diet plans. A 45-year-old woman complains that she has gradually put on 12 pounds over

Planning Meals Will Help You Lose Weight

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We talk about cutting back on food consumption in a previous post but we haven’t said how. So today I have some ideas. I plan my meals the day before. Actually I started planning to save money. I was planning a week at a time so I knew what to buy. Then I found that planning not only saved me money, but I had less food in the house and I ate less. Not really by design, kinda by accident. It might sound like a crazy idea. If you try it you’ll get it. I wasn’t going out as much. I ate at home more because I knew what was for dinner. The problem with going out to eat is you end up eat whatever your craving. Before I started planning I’d stop and eat on the way home. It was easier and I didn’t have to clean up. But I’d just get home and turn on the TV and pull out the snacks. Now I go home, make dinner, I stick to the plan. Eat dinner and clean up. Take care of any phone calls I need to return, do my email and finish up any paper work I need to do. By that time it's usually after 8 a

Six Meals A Day To Lose Weight

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The Upside of More Than 3 Meals a Day While eating many meals may not rev up your metabolism or make you burn fat, experts say it could help you in other ways. The longer you wait between meals, the hungrier you get, and then you’re more likely to overeat. “After about 3 hours without food, blood sugar begins to fall. And after 4 hours, your body has already digested whatever you sent down earlier,” says Cleveland dietitian Amy Jamieson-Petonic, RD. “Once you’ve crossed the 5-hour mark, your blood sugar begins to plummet, and you grab whatever you can to refuel.” That’s why breakfast is so important. After 7-8 hours of sleep without food, you need energy to get moving, Jamieson-Petonic says. People who regularly eat breakfast tend to weigh less than those who skip their morning meal. They also get more nutrients like vitamins D, B12, and A. They may even be more likely to resist food cravings and make better food choices, especially when protein is part of the meal. If yo

Do You Keep A Food Log?

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If you really want to lose weight you have to keep a food log. This is probably the number one reason people don’t succeed in losing weight. And even after you lose, you want to continue to keep the log just to maintain your weight. It’s not that writing down all your calories makes you lose weight, but it’s the way to find the mistakes and correct them before they turn into a big problem. If your really serious about losing your body fat you don't want to start over. The idea is to just do this one time and don't look back. Don't ever return to your old self.  Because we can put APPS for anything we want on our smartphones, keeping a food log is easier than ever. I use MyFitnessPal or you could try UnderArmour. In fact there are dozens of APPS to help with weight loss and most are free. If you don’t have a smartphone you can download food logs on several different websites. But if you still are not into technology but are trying to lose weight, you can keep a log

Are We Responsible for Being Overweight?

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The following is part of an article I read in the WellBlog in the NY Times. It’s totally factual and is well worth reading. This will explain what people go through when trying to lose weight. Some people just can’t do it and some can. I say if you want it don’t give up. I have always felt perplexed about my inability to keep weight off. I know the medical benefits of weight loss, and I don’t drink sugary sodas or eat fast food. I exercise regularly — a few years ago, I even completed a marathon. Yet during the 23 years since graduating from college, I’ve lost 10 or 20 pounds at a time, maintained it for a little while and then gained it all back and more, to the point where I am now easily 60 pounds overweight. I wasn’t overweight as a child, but I can’t remember a time when my mother, whose weight probably fluctuated between 150 and 250 pounds, wasn’t either on a diet or, in her words, cheating on her diet. Sometimes we ate healthful, balanced meals; on other days dinner consiste

Why Do I Eat When I'm Not Hungry?

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These are some of the most common reasons and the solutions. The first one and I think the most common reason is  Boredom.  We often head for the frig when we have nothing to do. At work, you might head for the break room to see if anyone brought treats. It happens to me when I'm writing, I just need a break, so I head for the kitchen, or at work it's the break room to see if they filled the vending machines. Well try this instead, go talk to a co-worker, ask them if they want to get a cup of coffee or a cup of tea. If I'm home it's a little different, There's no one to talk to. So call someone if your bored. When your home along you don't have to punch a clock so just get up and walk around, take time to organize your thoughts. Turn on the TV for a while, Turn on CNN for a few minutes to see the headlines or the weather and then go back to work. The only reason you head for the kitchen or the break room is because that what your use to. That's the routine

Wheat Belly? Does Wheat Cause a Fat Belly?

Could giving up wheat help you to lose weight, feel better, and have more energy? What if a doctor told you it could? The term "Wheat Belly" comes from cardiologist William Davis, MD. In his best-selling diet book, Davis recalls seeing a picture of himself from a family vacation that made him realize he was carrying about 30 extra pounds around his middle. Today's wheat is not our grandmother's wheat. Today they process wheat. That's how manufacturers make light and fluffy breads and pastries. But in the process they are stripping all the nutrition out of the wheat and by making it fluffy, when you eat the bakery goods that processed wheat is transformed into a carb that your body isn't processing, so it's being stored in fat cells. At the same time, Davis noticed that he often felt sluggish after a breakfast of toast, waffles, or bagels, even after a great night’s sleep; but he felt energetic if he had eggs for breakfast. His blood work revealed high