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At times reducing the amount of calories we consume, and eating healthier can be easier than we think. Start by making small adjustments weekly. Each week focus on making one adjustment, then the following week gradually introduce another adjustment to your current diet and lifestyle.
This week’s challenge is to take a favourite recipe and ‘lighten it up’. Look at the table of ingredient substitutions below and see how they might work with your favourite recipe. Also look at the tips for cutting down on fat and calories during preparation. You might be surprised to find that you like the lighter version better.
Sometimes at the gym, you’ll see someone who is constantly on the treadmill, or the elliptical, or the bicycle, or the stair-stepper. They’ll do about an hour of non-stop cardio. And usually they are at the gym doing the same routine 3 to 4 times a week. The only problem with this, is that most of the time these people are not losing any weight. So what is happening there, when these poor people are exercising an hour for 4 times a week!!!!
Another example, is of people who jog for an hour, 5 times per week. And the same thing happens to these people – they are not well-built (in the sense that they do not have much muscle tone), but instead have rolls of fat around their waist-line.
Also, maybe you have noticed that postman or postwoman who is walking so much in a day, and yet is still overweight.
So what is going on here, when we are led to believe that for weight loss all you need is a regular aerobic routine. Why isn’t it working for these people?
Well, doing the proper kind of exercise will definitely lead to weight loss. However, the exercise has to be monitored and controlled, and there has to be a plan in place.
First of all the cardio has to be varied, so that the body doesn’t get used to the same routine. You need to ‘shock’ the body, so that the exercise will be effective. So, it’s good to vary the equipment, but also it is good to vary the intensity of your exercise. For example, you can choose a routine of interval training, where you are alternating running for say 30 minutes and jogging for 3 minutes, or jogging for 1 minute and walking for 3 minutes.
In addition, while doing your cardio routine, it is essential to work out at the correct intensity (this is calculated by taking into account the purpose of your aerobic exercise, and your heart rate range in which to exercise).
Apart from your cardio exercise, it is imperative to integrate resistance training (lifting weights). You don’t need to build a huge muscle mass, but at least you need to maintain your muscle mass so as not to lose lean muscle tissue while losing weight. Each pound of lean muscle tissue burns between 7 – 14 calories, while a pound of fat burns 2 calories. In addition, weight training significantly increases your average daily metabolic rate – which is the perfect foundation for losing that fat.
Hence, if you are determined to lose that fat or for just weight maintenance, I would recommend a combination of cardio exercise (which would be customized to your needs and properly monitored) together with resistance training. Now this doesn’t have to take up all your time. A carefully planned and effective routine (which includes aerobic exercise, resistance training, stretching and nutrition) will take about 1 hour, 3 times a week. It can be done at the gym, but also in the privacy of your home. In addition, with a carefully laid out customized plan, you are able to see dramatic results in just 12 weeks.
Imagine you are your stomach in conjunction with your metabolism. At 8am you get a fair amount of food, which you are able to convert into energy to be able to do activities in the morning. Then you get nothing for 6 hours, so your metabolism starts ‘shutting down’ because there is nothing for it to work on, and in addition now it thinks that the body is in starvation mode and starts ‘storing’ food in the form of fat so as to have from where to get energy when the body needs. Then at 2pm you get a large lunch – it is more than you can cope with, because you had slowed down part of the metabolism process, and there is too much food to handle it all. Then nothing again for another 6 hours, and another large dinner at 8pm.
So now you realize the havoc you put on your body, when you do not eat regularly. You should focus on eating about 5 times a day – consisting of small healthy meals, every 3 hours. This will actually help to increase your metabolism. In addition, it makes you feel ‘full’ all the time, so there is less risk of you eating everything that comes in sight, when you are hungry. Hence, in the long run, even though you seem to be eating more often, you are actually keeping your metabolism active and you are more likely to be consuming fewer calories.
Think of the last time you went grocery shopping without your shopping list. You started walking down the aisles aimlessly. You were looking at items and going
“I haven’t had that for a long time”, or
“I always read about this item. I’ll use it for dinner one day”, or
“This looks delicious. I’ll buy it to try it out”, or
“I haven’t bought a cake for ages”, or
“Did the cheese finish? Let me buy just in case”, or
“Look how handy this will come for those nights when we want a quick meal”, or
“I should try eating more vegetables. Let me see what I can buy from this section”,
… and on and on.
First of all, after this shopping spree you’ll realize that the bill comes much higher than normal. Secondly, some of the items are pushed back in the cupboards and freezers and forgotten.
Thirdly, all the extra items that you bought, you simply don’t need them. They are basically extra calories, and usually the extra items that you pick up from the grocery store are either empty calories or loaded with calories.
So, the solution to this is easy. It all boils down to planning. Make sure to go through your cupboards, fridge and freezer prior to going shopping, and make a list of all the things that you need. Another option is to keep a notepad and a pencil in the kitchen, and when you realize that you are running out of something write it down on your shopping list. Then when you are at the supermarket just buy stuff from the list, and avoid being tempted into buying other items. Don’t linger in the aisles looking at stuff – just whisk through only picking up the items that you need.
The brain works in mysterious ways!!! Keeping track of what goes in your mouth, gives you control over your body, holds you accountable for your actions, and hence will give you a better chance of succeeding in your permanent healthy weight loss goals.
In a food journal, you would write in detail whatever you put into your mouth – including beverages. This would work in 2 ways. First off you would think twice before putting something into your mouth, and secondly, it will give you an opportunity to become aware of your eating habits.
Through analyzing the food journal, you would become aware of what kind of eater you are…. Are you a late-night eater? Do you binge in the afternoon? Do you skip breakfast? Do you eat small meals often throughout the day? Do you eat 2 big meals a day only? Do you drink too much soda? Do you have enough intake of water?
Once you become aware of your eating habits, you are more likely to plan an effective weight loss plan and you are more likely to stick with it.
In addition, to food and beverage intake, I also advise my clients to write their emotions too in their food journal. Focus on answering questions such as: Did you eat because you were hungry or because you felt like it?, Did you rush through your meal?, Did you sit at a table or where you standing or on the sofa?, After eating how did you feel – tired, guilty or full of energy?, Did you eat because you felt sad, or happy?. This added aspect makes a substantial difference towards achieving permanent weight loss.
So, start a journal from today. Make sure to write EVERYTHING down, including the time of eating, and your feelings and reactions after eating. Remember ‘what you bite, you write’, but also making sure that you include beverages.
Start with this, and then after sorting your eating habits, you can also include any form of activity that you do throughout the day, so you analyse your exercise habits.
Do you have a special occasion (a wedding, a vacation on the beach, …) coming up, and are intending to lose 15 pounds (6.8 kg) in 3 weeks!!!??? DON’T.
Crash diets can be very harmful for your health. Dieting can become a bad habit of trying to lose weight in a matter of a few weeks for a particular event. In the long term, dieting is very ineffective if you are after permanent weightloss and a healthy lifestyle.
In this article, I want to go over why crash dieting is so bad for your body, and what hope there is for the yo-yo dieter.
5 Ways In Which Dieting Is Bad For You
1. You lose muscle and not fat. When you starve your body of nutrients that it requires, with the intention of losing weight, you do lose weight on the scales. However, it is usually muscle which you lose and not fat. So, in the end you would have lost about 5 pounds (2 kg) – most of it would be muscle, and most of the fat would still be stored in your body.
2. Your metabolism suffers. Your body needs regular but small meals every few hours. Like this you will keep the body constantly working – including your metabolism. If you starve yourself, then the body copes by slowing your metabolism. In the long run this effects your long-term weightloss goals – as it becomes harder to lose weight as you continue different diets.
3. You gain all the weight back, if not even more. After 3 weeks you get fed up of dieting, and start eating ‘normal’ again. However, now your metabolism is slower and you have lost muscle mainly instead of fat. So when you start gaining weight again, first you gain it faster because your metabolism is not working properly, and second you end up gaining more fat because now your muscles have atrophied and are not working at top condition. And muscle mass is needed because in a way it helps us to lose weight, as for muscle to grow it takes energy from fat.
4. It’s not long-term. Trying every latest fad diet is not going to make you achieve your ideal goal. Fad diets come and go – every diet can be good or bad in its own rights. However, remember that it is you who makes a ‘diet’ work or not for you. In addition, diets which are too restricting e.g. eating just carbs or eating just liquids, are not long-term – you are never going to stick to such a restrictive diet, plus it’s not good for your body, as your body needs a bit of everything. So, don’t blame yourself it one diet does not work. There is no ‘miracle diet’ – for permanent weight loss, you have to change your life-style and attitude towards dieting.
5. You end up with stretch-marks and flabby skin. Yo-yo dieting, in the sense of losing weight and gaining it back again, then starting all over again and on and on, wrecks havoc on your body. You will end up with stretch marks and flabby skin – which looks worse than a person with a nice full-figure. Now when losing weight you might still end up with stretch-marks and loose skin, but it can be minimized by the way you chose to lose the weight.
What is the Answer to Losing Weight The Right Way?
There is still hope if you would like to lose weight permanently. You need to look at weight loss as a healthy lifestyle choice and as something long term. Aim for losing 1 pound a week, and controlling your portions and your meals. The body needs regular but small meals and healthy snacks every 3 hours.
There actually is a calculator which tells you what your life expectancy is, after you answer a few questions. The cool thing about this is – that you can take the test online and it is free, with instant feedback.
I was curious so I decided to try it out. It’s obvious in most questions why it is asked and the benefit of things such as:
Being surrounded by loved ones
Being positive
Reduce stress
Eat healthy
Exercise
However, I was so surprised with some easy life adjustments that can easily be done and literally add years to your life expectancy. The 5 life adjustments which I like were:
Adopt good Sleep Habits
Floss your Teeth Everyday
Always Wear a Seatbelt
Wear Sunscreen and Protective Clothing when spending time in the sun
DO NOT Barbecue your fish, meat and chicken
At the end of the test, you are given your Life Expectancy Age, then you can proceed to the feedback section were you will receive feedback on:
- how many years you can add by changing some of your behaviours, and
- advice and helpful links pertaining to each of your answers. (in this section, I found very interesting the advice on flossing habits and the harmful effects of barbecuing!!!)
Dr Thomas Perls created this test (Living To 100 Life Expectancy Calculator). There are 5 sections – personal, lifestyle, nutrition, medical and family. Most of the questions are health-related, hence you easily have control over adjusting your life habits, to extend your life by a few years for each adjustment …and living to be a healthy individual at 100.
VideoJug user LeeLefever presents a video describing, in simple terms and format, the power of RSS and the RSS Reader. Learn all you need to know about RSS and news feeds by watching this simple yet informative video.
Good questions. First, here’s why you should care.
Unlike getting website updates or ezines by email, RSS feeds give you absolute, 100% complete control over the situation.
You don’t have to reveal your email address. If you want to stop receiving content, you don’t have to request to be “taken off the list.”
One click, and poof… the subscription is gone.
Plus, since there’s no email address involved, there’s no way a publisher can sell, rent or give away the means to contact you.
That’s right… no more spam, viruses, phishing, or identity theft. And best of all, no reason to put yourself at the mercy of the publisher’s intentions.
You won’t need to suffer through the legalese in the privacy policy (if there is one) looking for loopholes that will send you deeper into inbox hell. No more setting up dummy Hotmail accounts “just in case.”
Again, if you don’t like the content, you can make it disappear as fast as you can change a TV channel. With just one click.
Pretty cool, huh?
That is cool! Umm… What the heck is RSS?
Alright! Now we’re ready to get to that part.
RSS is a simply an Internet technology standard that allows busy people to receive updates to web-based content of interest.
You might have figured that much out by now. But basically, that’s the essence of an RSS feed – you subscribe and then receive new content automatically in your feed reader.
What the heck is a feed reader?
You may already be using a form of feed reader, and not even realize it. If you use personalized home page services like My Yahoo or My MSN, you’ve got RSS capabilities built in. That’s how syndicated content like news, weather and stock quotes appears on your personal page. You can also add content from any blog or other site that uses RSS to provide updates.
Other web-based tools are primarily dedicated to feed reading only. One of the most popular web-based feed readers at this point is Bloglines, and it’s also free and easy to get started with.
If you use the Firefox browser, you can also receive RSS feeds from your tool bar by using the Live Bookmarks function. The next version of Internet Explorer will add this feature as well.
Finally, there are desktop-based feed readers. These function somewhat like an email program for feeds. Examples include Newsgator and Feed Demon.
If it sounds complicated, it’s really not. And things will get even easier when the next version of Outlook integrates feed-reading capabilities. So, you’ll have the same convenience that email subscriptions offered in the old days, without any of the terrible consequences of giving out your email address to potentially unscrupulous characters.
Sounds good. So how do I subscribe to a Feed?
First of all, look for the subscription or feed options (some bloggers make this difficult for some odd reason). You might see a variety of buttons (amusingly called chicklets).
If the site you want to subscribe to uses FeedBurner to aid in the subscription process (like Copyblogger and many other popular sites), you’ll likely see the standard RSS icon, which takes you to a page that will give you an array of the most popular feed readers so you can select yours, and you’ll go from there. This is the new standard RSS icon:
Sometimes there will be a chicklet for your particular reader right on the blog that will take you to the appropriate subscription page. You may see these (among others):
Finally, you may also see little orange buttons that say XML or RSS. Often these chicklets will take you to a page that looks like code gibberish. In this case, you simply cut and paste the page URL from your browser window and manually paste it into your feed reader subscription function.
Hopefully this last method will soon disappear, never to be seen again.
In summary: RSS solves BIG problems.
So there you have it… RSS is being adopted at a phenomenal rate, because it’s a good thing for everyone.
The benefit to readers is obvious. And it’s good for publishers too, because we want to make sure that people feel comfortable subscribing, and that our message is not nuked by an overzealous spam filter.
If there’s anything here that is confusing, or you have a question, please contact me and I’ll be happy to help!
Thanks to Copyblogger for a helping hand with this tutorial.
