8 tips for losing weight the healthy way

Almost 108 million Americans were overweight or obese in 1999. Until now, obesity continues to be a serious problem and has reached epidemic levels in 2020.

One way to prevent this scenario is to make people aware of the risks of being overweight or obese. 

Here are some diseases that you are putting yourself in risk of if you are carrying a lot of extra pounds: 

1. heart disease

2. stroke 

3. diabetes

4. cancer

5. arthritis

6. hypertension

A healthy weight helps to prevent and control these diseases. 

The quick weight loss methods which have spread like fire these days do not provide lasting results. More often than not, dieting methods which involve dietary drinks, foods and supplements (except for those that don't naturally occur in food but are necessary for your body's optimal function) or pills do not work. If they do, the results are just temporary. 

It is better to rely on a healthy weight loss option which will provide lifetime results. You have to set realistic goals and not expect to lose a lot of pounds in a short span of time.  

Here are some tips on how you can lose those unwanted pounds the healthy way:

1.   Do not starve yourself. 

The key to a healthier way of losing weight is: Do not diet. 

You may seem happy and feel that you are losing those unwanted flabs on your belly and thighs by skipping meals. But remember that this would not last long. Your body cannot tolerate having insufficient food to fuel the energy that you use up every day. 

If you get used to skipping one or two meals a day, your stored calories will be used up instead of the energy that should have been provided by your meals. So, if you just eat one huge sandwich in one day, it will end up straight to your problem area (i.e. highs, buttocks, hips). 

2.  Start your day right. 

Mothers always say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Have a healthy meal in the morning to jump-start your metabolism. 

Your food intake after you wake up will be used to burn fat all day long.

3.  Eat small, healthy meals frequently. 

Five small-serving snacks per day is better than three hearty meals. Eating more frequently, and in small servings, can prevent overeating. This will also increase your metabolism and make calories burn faster. 

4.  Decide on how much weight you want to lose. 

Keep your goals realistic. In the long run, it is virtually impossible for you to lose 40 pounds in 2 weeks. Have a mindset that you want to eat healthy to stay healthy for the rest of your life. 

Once you have decided on a weight loss plan or program, stick to it and make sure that you follow your own set of dieting rules.  

5.  Drink lots of water. 

Your body needs sufficient water to burn fat and keep your cells hydrated and healthy. 

6.  Avoid too much sugar. 

Plan your meals around lots of fruits and vegetables, some bread, rice or pasta for that carbo fix that you need, plus lean meat and protein rich foods. Sweets, sodas and pastries should be once-in-a-while indulgences only.

7.  Watch your fat intake. 

Fat is not the culprit to being overweight. You need this to keep your weight at the proper level. 

There is such a thing as healthy fats. Olive, avocado, peanuts and canola oil have them. Tuna, salmon and mackerel have omega-3 fats which is good for the heart.  

8.  Exercise. 

Leave your car if you are only going a few blocks from home, take the stairs instead of the elevator, jog, cycle or skate. Use these activities and other home chores if you are too lazy to go to the gym and take exercise classes. Make sure that you do this regularly and you will not even notice that you are already shedding pounds with these mundane activities. 

It does not matter how much weight you plan or need to lose. What is important is that you set realistic goals for yourself. 

Go slow. If you have already lost 5 or 6 pounds, give yourself a break then try to lose the next 5 pounds. 

Eat healthy, drink lots of water, have enough sleep and exercise. This will give you a higher chance of losing weight and improving your health, which would result in a new, healthier you.

Post-holiday bloat? 7 tips to reset and nourish your body

After an amazing Thanksgiving Day celebration, it's time to refocus on our nutrition and get back on track! 🎉🌱

 

Here are some tips to help you reset and nourish your body after enjoying those delicious holiday treats:

Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate

Start by hydrating your body with plenty of water. Proper hydration supports digestion, helps flush out toxins, and replenishes your system. Aim to drink enough water throughout the day to keep yourself refreshed and revitalized.

Fill Up on Fresh Fruits and Veggies

Load up your plate with an abundance of colorful fruits and vegetables. These nutrient-rich powerhouses will provide you with essential vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, while keeping your meals light and refreshing.

Prioritize Lean Proteins

Enjoy some of that leftover turkey with some spring greens. Protein is essential for muscle repair and satiety, helping you feel satisfied and preventing overeating.

Embrace Whole Grains

Opt for whole grains like quinoa, brown rice, or whole wheat bread instead of refined carbohydrates. Whole grains are packed with fiber, providing sustained energy and promoting better digestion.

Mindful Portion Control

Pay attention to portion sizes and listen to your body's hunger and fullness cues. Enjoy your meals slowly, savoring each bite, and stop eating when you feel comfortably satisfied.

Plan and Prep

Set yourself up for success by planning and prepping your meals ahead of time. Having nutritious options readily available makes it easier to make healthy choices and avoids relying on unhealthy convenience foods.

Get Moving

Engage in physical activity that you enjoy, whether it's a brisk walk, a workout session, or a dance class. Exercise boosts your metabolism, improves mood, and helps you feel energized.

 

Remember, it's all about balance and consistency. Don't be too hard on yourself for indulging during the festivities. By adopting these healthy habits, you'll get back on track and continue your journey towards optimal health.

 

For a nutritional reset any time of year, try a 3-day reset or a 21-day reset, guaranteed to nourish your body for optimal function.

 

Cheers to a refreshing post-holiday reset! Let's nourish our bodies, embrace wellness, and keep striving for our health goals. 💪🥗🌟

6 Tips to Eating The Right Way

When you think about achieving a healthy weight, what do you think of first? Which aspects of getting to a healthy weight are important, which are essential, and which ones can you take or leave? You be the judge. 

Once you begin to move beyond the basic “eat well, move more” concept, you begin to realize that there's more to getting to a healthy weight than you may have first thought.  

It probably comes to you as naturally as breathing—the art of eating.  However, you might never have been taught to eat well.  This is critically important because, unless you learn to eat well, you may never master the art of living a healthy lifestyle.  In our society, certain inappropriate eating habits have become routine.  By attacking these habits, you can increase the likelihood that you will actually achieve a healthy weight.

To begin with, it is important that you learn to eat slowly.  At first, this might be quite a challenge.  We have been conditioned to live in a fast-food world.  We rush meals in order to have time to run to soccer practice, to a piano recital, or to school and work.  We think that rushing saves us time—but such a routine can easily backfire, leaving us with unwanted pounds.  Studies have shown that at least 10 minutes is required before the brain receives the message that the stomach is full.  This means that you could be eating long after you are actually satiated.  Your meal—whether it’s in the morning, afternoon, or evening—should last at least ten minutes.  Train yourself to lengthen your meal by engaging in conversation, resting your fork between courses, chewing slowly, and drinking plenty of water between courses.  You should also wait at least ten minutes after your main meal before deciding if you need dessert.  Within that period of time, you may discover that you weren’t really hungry after all.

Another trick is to place serving dishes on the counter and leave them there.  As a result, you’ll actually have to get up out of your seat in order to get more food.  You may decide that it’s not worth the bother.  Or you may find that you discover that you need no more food between courses.  Also, do not eat directly from an ice cream carton, tortilla chip bag, or cracker box.  Otherwise, you could find yourself easily overeating.

You should always eat at the table.  This prevents you from trying to engage in multitasking, such as surfing the ‘Net, watching television, or flipping through magazines while you eat.  At the table, you’ll be forced to concentrate on how much food you are putting into your mouth.  If you eat anywhere else, you may lose track of how much food you’re consuming.

Abandon the idea that you must clean your plate.  It is simply not true.  Research has shown that more than half of adults insist on cleaning their plates, even when they are already full.  This means that you are overeating simply out of politeness.  Such a habit only serves to add unwanted pounds.  Instead of cleaning your plate, try eating only that portion of food that makes you feel full.  You’ll be healthier and happier that way.

Do not keep food in plain view during the day.  If the cookie jar is open or the pretzel bag is out on the table, you’ll have a tremendous urge to eat, even if you are not hungry.  After a meal, put your food away in the refrigerator, inside your cupboard, or in the Lazy Susan.  This way, you’ll actually have to do some work to get at food before you consume it.

If you happen to overeat, don’t spend a great deal of time sulking.  Accept your mistake and move on.  If you’ve veered off course, take corrective action and forget about it.  Otherwise, you could find yourself eating out of frustration, or going off your plan entirely.  It’s better to sabotage a single meal than a lifetime’s worth of meals.  

You may be self-conscious at first as you attempt to change your eating habits.  Realize that your bad habits did not start overnight, so it will take some time to correct them.  While it may seem an arduous task initially, it is well worth the effort.  You’ll quickly find that your new eating habits have helped you to lose unwanted weight.  Granted, such techniques as hiding your food and eating more slowly will not in themselves cause you to achieve a healthy weight, but they will help you to curb your overeating over the long run.  And you’ll be a better person for it.  

Take time to consider the points presented above. What you learn may help you overcome your hesitation to take action.

2 Tips to Eating Out Wisely

Many people I know love eating out at different cafes and restaurants. They love trying out new places almost as much as they love returning to their old favorite spots. They love trying new menu items and discovering new ways to eat the foods they enjoy the most. Eating out can be both a wonderful and very dangerous thing.

In America we are blessed to have restaurants dotting the streets of many towns and cities of all sizes. We are rarely at a loss for places to eat out. One of the greatest things about eating out is that it saves time that many busy people do not have to waste. After spending long hours at our workplaces, few people have the time or energy to return home and cook a gourmet meal. Eating out seems to be a great solution at the end of a long, tiring day.

Eating out can also be great because we can try a wide variety of foods and drinks that we don't have the ability to make ourselves. No one loves eating the same basic foods over and over again, so eating out can be a good way to give our taste buds something new.

However, if we are not careful, eating out can also be dangerous for a couple of big reasons.

First, we must use caution in eating out for the sake of our health. Most restaurants and cafes offer huge portions of items that are unhealthy to eat and drink. Eating out often means filling up on appetizers, a main course, a few high calorie beverages, and a dessert to finish off the evening. Think about how many calories you can consume during a meal like this. I am not, of course, saying that we should never enjoy eating out. I am, however, saying that we need to be careful, for our health's sake, about eating out too frequently. We must be careful to watch our choices when we are eating out. Choose healthier items or commit to only eating half of the meal you choose. There are ways of eating out healthily, it just takes conscious effort.

Another huge reason to be careful about eating out too often is your pocketbook and budget. It is no secret that eating out costs more, on average, than cooking meals in your own home. It is easy to accumulate large bills, especially at nicer places. So be careful that you stick to a budget when you make plans for eating out.

Beware. Eating out can be one of the greatest pleasures or one of the most dangerous things. Enjoy it, but do it with caution.

How To Eat Your Greens Everyday

Eating a lot of greens can have many health benefits to you. You may not know all the good things that greens can do for you, so read on.

A substance that is found in all plants is Chlorophyll. What it does is it acts as a blood detoxifier, which helps increase circulation to all your organs. It does this by dilating blood vessels and it is also a natural deodorant because it helps reduce offensive body orders. Wow, that’s multi-tasking I can stand behind! 

Super green foods come from young cereal grasses like wheat, barley, rye, alfalfa, oats, kelp, chlorella and many others as well. These have a whole lot of nutrients in them; they even have more nutrients than spinach, eggs, broccoli, chicken in calcium, iron, protein and all of the other categories as well. So, it would be better for you to opt for super greens.

Did you know that super green foods are the only vegetables that can help animals maintain their weight, strength and good health even if it is consumed alone? Super greens can help boost your immune system. They are powerful antioxidants that can help you grow and have many other health benefits as well. Bottom line is super greens are one of the greatest things you can do to your body. They do so much for our bodies, so we don’t have to worry much about being healthy. 

Also, another good thing is that there is no harm in eating super green foods, they give us so many nutrients and are the most natural way of getting everything your body needs to function and be healthy. So, go out there and start eating more greens, after all you want to be healthy right? Don’t forget to tell everyone you know about the benefits of greens as well so they can make that same decision as well. For a simple way to get all your super greens each day, start here!

4 Tips to Simplify Achieving a Healthy Weight

These four tips include suggestions in each of the four elements you need to work on in order to achieve your health, fitness, wellness and weight loss goals: (eating right, exercise, support and accountability).

1. Good Eating Tip

Next time you order pizza for yourself, or your kids ask for half the cheese. You’ll barely notice any taste loss. But what you will lose is tons of calories and a whole lot of grams of saturated fats. Pizza doesn't have to be left off the weekly menu anymore.

 

2. Making Exercise Safe and Fun

In order to lose weight, you have to become more active. Most people do anything to avoid moving their bodies. And society is an accomplice. You can pick up food, a prescription, your clothes and your kid without leaving your car. Aim to walk 30 minutes a day, even if you have to break it up into 10–15-minute chunks. Not only will you burn 200-300 calories, but you can also walk with your family and increase your quality time as well. Move family time away from the TV and onto the street.

 

3. Maintaining Your Support System

If you’re the type of person who feels guilty about things, great news. You can use that emotion to help you lose weight. Here’s how. Exercise with a partner. But before you start making a pact that you will not let the other person down and you will pick them up should they start losing interest. It’s much easier to let yourself down then another person. You won’t do it, because you’ll feel guilty if you do.

 

4. Accountability Tools

A food diary is a great way to keep track of what you are eating and when. Keep track of what you consume on an hourly basis throughout the day. If you do this for 2 weeks you will see exactly where those extra calories (and thereby those extra pounds) are coming from. Also, don’t forget to keep track of what you’re drinking.

For THE total solution to your overall wellness made simple, START HERE!

Losing Weight, Gain Health

Many people have thought about losing weight over the years, but often seem to fall short of an actual attempt to do it. The reason why so many people think about it so much is because deep down, they know that having that extra poundage is not at all good for them. The problem is, just knowing that being overweight is bad is not enough to really push many people to do something about it. Much like wanting to quit smoking, knowing it is bad for you doesn't induce people to quit doing it. However, if you were to find some really good reasons to quit smoking, like your doctor told you if you don’t quit, you will lose a lung next year, that might make you act and just do it.

Well, losing weight is just like quitting smoking, the better reasons you have to do it, the more likely you are to act on it and make it happen. If you have something driving your motivation aside from just knowing it is bad for you, you are also more likely to maintain your weight loss goal once you reach it.

First and foremost, losing weight means getting healthier. When you lose those extra pounds, you greatly reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes and joint stress, all conditions associated with being overweight. When you reduce these risks, it means you can have a much better chance of being around to see your children grow up and being around to enjoy your grandchildren. That alone is reason enough to get that weight down.

Another reason you might want to consider losing weight is that you will feel better. As you begin to lose some of those extra pounds, you will start to notice your energy levels increasing. Being overweight by 20 pounds is like putting a 20-pound sack of potatoes on your shoulders all day. Extra body fat is nothing more than an extra burden to carry around with you every day, so the extra weight drains your energy. For this reason, overweight people tend to be less active, and this promotes more fat to collect up on them. As this continues, they become even less active and so this becomes a vicious cycle leading to obesity. 

As a nice little side benefit, losing weight will make you look better, and who doesn’t want to look better? Each and every one of us has a vision of what we want to look like. Most people are not completely satisfied with the way they look. They will always find something they don’t like about themselves and wish they could change and for people who are overweight; this can be a great motivator to lose weight. A recent study concluded that as early as age 5, girls who had higher body weights had lower self-esteem than girls with normal body weight.

When a person loses weight, what are almost always the responses of other people who know that person? You hear things like; you look good; you’ve lost weight, haven’t you? And think about how you would feel when you’ve lost enough weight to be able to fit into that dress or that pair of pants you wore back in high school. Now keep in mind, looking better is a great reason to lose weight but it should not be the only one.

When you have at least a few good, valid reasons to want to lose weight, it will be a lot easier to motivate yourself to get started and stay with it. Let’s face it, your health, wellbeing and self-esteem are very good reasons to get rid of those extra pounds and keep them off for good.

For THE total solution to your healthy weight goals made simple, START HERE!