Lose Weight: 10 Easy Things to do

Forget diet plans - Atkins, South Beach Diet, Cabbage Soup diet - whilst they may help you successfully lose weight, none of them will lead to sustained weight loss and optimum health. Diets shouldn't be complicated, full of do's and don'ts. If you learn a few simple principles, you'll develop a guidance system that will help you easily select the good stuff and keep the bad stuff to a minimum. You'll feel better than you've ever felt - abundant energy; clear skin; clear mind.

Diet is just one element of a healthy life style, but it's a vitaly important component and most people will find it hard to challenge that 'we are what we eat.' Whilst obesity levels are rising at an alarming rate together with the resulting health issues such as diebetes, heart disease and cancer, here's some simple advice to help you take a few action to lose weight; keep it off and improve your overall health.

20 years ago, I weighed 210 lbs. I was overweight and unhealthy. It took me the best part of a decade to lost 50 lbs and keep those 50 lbs off. Now I'm going to share with you everything I've learnt and applied to my own body so that it doesn't take you 10 years to get healthy. I call it the 10- step plan, which. Follow my advice and I promise you, you'll never have to worry about gaining weight again! But be prepared, you may not like everything you read. You don't have to implement everything tomorrow, in fact I'd urge you not to do that. Instead, educate yourself and gradually replace the bad stuff with good things. If you are on medication, please consult your health practitioner before making any changes to your diet.

Tip of the week

How to lose weight sensibly

Ditch the crash diets: you'll only gain weight when you come off them. Your aim is consistency.

Eat breakfast within an hour of waking to kick-start your metabolism.

Eat little and often. Don't starve yourself with long, hunger-filled gaps between food.

Balance complex carbohydrates with protein, ideally at a ratio of 2:1

Cut down on caffeine. It boosts adenaline which overrides the body's need for food and confuses the digestive system.

Make weekends and Wednesdays your allocated drinking days. It's a relatively painless way of reducing alchohol intake - you're never more than two days away from a glass.

If you can't resist a pudding, share it, or take just a few spoonfalls.

What not to eat

Things to avoid if you can

Cooked food. People cook food for a variety of reasons: 1. prefer the taste; 2. it's inedible or not flavoured enough when in its natural state. However cooking has been show to cause major chemical changes in the food and then the food contains new and unrecognizable chemicals which your body doesn't recognize and treats as toxins. When your body has this assault on a daily basis over time it doesn't have the time or energy to do normal housecleaning and repair. It creates an immune response and produces many white blood cells to go and disarm the invaders. Eg apotato contains over 400 more chemicals when it's baked than when in its raw state. If you eat raw food, or at least 50% raw, your body doesn't act as if it has been poisoned. Lots of research has shown that microwaved food suffers severe molecular damage. The molecules are torn apart and deformed. In the process of repair they produce hydrogen peroxide and carbon monoxide rather than water and carbon dioxide. Can your immune system afford such as strain?

Cows' Milk Dairy Only milk made for human consumption is human breast milk. The formula is designed specifically to develop a human baby, and, as we know, everyone's breast milk is unique to their baby. So why push a baby calf aside and drink the milk designed by nature for baby cows? Once you are weaned and start eating grown up food, there is absolutely no need to resort to the baby food or another animal. Drink water, fresh juice, smoothies, coconut water or almond or another nut milk. Cow's milk is heavily promoted as the best source of dietary calcium. In truth, it's a poor source of calcium as first most milk is cooked (pasteurized), rendering the calcium unrecognizable by the body, and secondly the correct calcium/phosphorous ratio for bone building isn't right. The ideal ratio is 2 to 1 or higher. The ratio in cows' milk is only 1.3 to 1. Too much phosphorus leads to progressive bone loss because it blocks the assimilation of calcium. In addition, a lot of children have allergies to cow's milk and ovarian cancer rates can be compared to worldwide dairy eating patterns due to galactose, a simple sugar which is broken down from the milk sugar lactose. Yogurt, cheese and other fermented dairy products are the richest sources of galactose and should be avoided. Doctors experimenting with patients on non-dairy diets often report marked reduction in colds, flus and ear infections.

Grains. Grain is everywhere - in bread, crackers, cheap filler. However, be aware that grains, particularly wheat, are addictive because of the peptides called opiods which make your bodies produce exorphins which cause addiction in the form of food cravings. As soon as we stop eating grain products, we start to feel withdrawal symptoms caused by the exorphins. Replace wheat pasta with corn pasta, wheat bread with rye bread and muesli with non-wheat mueseil.

Meat Meat Most humans in the world are vegetarians. The massive non-meat eating populations of Asia to see to that. On average, vegetarians suffer less from diseases than meat eaters. Putting aside the distasteful and cruel raising and killing practices of animals for meat, meat, especially cooked meat, is full of pathogens and damaging chemicals. These pathogens are bacteria such as E.coli 0157:H7. The only natural way to eat meat is to put yourself in a situation where you can catch it youself. Could you kill an animal for meat? If you do want to eat meat, make sure it's very infrequently, only organic and you eat it with a big salad to buffer the harmful acid affects that it causes. Remember also that intensively reared animals are fed a dangerous cocktail or antibiotics, hormones, anti parasite drugs and other medicines on a daily basis, whether they are ill or not. These drugs are passed directly onto the consumers of their meat or dairy. Green leafy vegetables and fresh fruits contain plenty of protein and iron to keep the body healthy.

LEARN HOW TO EAT A HEALTHY RAW FOOD DIET:

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REPROGRAM YOUR MIND TO EAT MORE HEALTHILY

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Surviving the holiday season

Whilst I don't want to ruin your fun, many a diet comes crashing down during any holiday season undoing all of those great achievments throughout the last year. If you do get into bad habits, don't beat yourself up - you're having a learning experience - so just get back on track the next day. Here are a few guidelines to help you keep up your good habits:

Arrange in advance to go for a long walks whenever you can; go for a run - just keep moving!
Dance the night away - disco dancing will keep you moving and will burn up lots of calories
Drink plenty of water with your alchoholic drinks which will keep you sober for longer
Don't touch the high fat nibbles at parties - in other words nibble carrot sticks instead of crisps!
Say no to chocolate & sweets that are being handed around - a moment on the lips...
Make 'healthier' options of puddings using raw chocolate, agave syrup and spelt flour -great taste, but a fraction of the calories so you can have more!
Resist the temptation to overbuy food - with the exception of vegetables!
Above all - don't take a break from weight control. Remember you are trying to change you habits for eating which is very hard at first, but I promise you 1 year from now, you'll automatically be attracted to the healthier options.

10 Top Tips to Lose Weight forever

Eat fruit every day. I snack on grapes every day and find that this really fills me up and cleanses my body at the same time. The calories are low and they are going to keep the lbs off far better than crips! Check out Fruit Pages for lots of ideas about different types of fruit that you can try.
Eat salad with every meal. Change your mindset from thinking that salad is boring! I'm not talking about a shriveled piece of lettice and a tomato. Salad can be wonderful - there are so many different types of leaves to experiment with. Experiment and try different things,with different colours. Dressings, too, should be kept to a minimum! Make home-made dressings with vinegar and extra virgin oil.A useful site which has lots of salad recipes is Salad Recipes
Mad about nuts. Despire the myth, the body needs fats. The key thing is the type of fat. Keep away from hydrogenised fats and stick to eating a limited number brazil nuts (5 a day shoudld be enough) and a few cashew nuts to ensure you have healthy cells.
Keep drinking. Your body is made up on 70% water, so your diet should match this. If you eat plenty of water-based foods, it won't be difficult to keep this balance. I also find drinking a glass of fruity water first thing in the morning sets me up for the day. I prepare it the night before, just a glass of water with lemon or orange juice squeezed into, or perhaps some pineapple juice, it really doesn't matter. This will flush the body of any toxins that have been built up during the night.
Nothing but fruit. Your digestive system needs time to build up, so I'd recommend eating only fruit for breakfast and nothing heavy until lunch-time when you digestive system and metabalism is working at its best. .
Forget red meat. We all know that some things are just not good for you, no matter how much you may have come accustomed to eating them. Read meat, in my view, is one of those foods. My advice here is to gradually reduce the amount of red meat you eat and replace it with something lighter like fish. I beleive the research that links the consumption of red meat with bowl and other forms of cancer.
Avoid bright packaging. Another type of food to start to reduce are processed foods, the types that are advertised heavily by big food and drink companies. These foods are typically packed with salt and sugar, and will do your health no good in the long.term The fact that they are packed with fats and sugars make them taste pleasant and, like cigarettes, your body would have become addicted to them. ALl I can say here is be strong and cut them out - give yourself the chance to be the best you possibly can be!
Change your mindset. This is starting to sound like a list of don'ts, rather than dos - but fried foods are not going to do you much good. The point here is more about mindset. You need to change the way you perceive foods. I used to love fried foods, sugary drinks and pizza - when I discoverd how terrible they were for me, I started to perceive them as poison and gradually that perception became an automatic thought which affected my food choices. Simple really!
Healthy foods are delicious. Whilst you're cutting all of this bad stuff out and changing your thoughts about them, you can start replacing these things with things that will make your body sing: delicious, fresh fruits and vegetables; raw nuts and seeds; steamed foods; quinoa instead of wheat; almond milk instead of dairy; agave syrup instead of table sugar. In time, it will become so natural for you to eat like this that you won't have to think about weight gain.
Time to eat?. Your body weight is not only affected by what you eat, but it's also affected by when you eat. As a rule of thumb, I always eat fruit in the morning when the digestive system is waking up; the heaviest in the middle of the day when the digestive system is strongest and a light meal in the evening and perhaps a drink before bed-time when your metabalism is slowing dowwn. Don't eat after 70pm. The digestive system slows down.
Water instead of beer. I've gone through periods of my life where I have consumed vast, and I mean vast, quantities of alchohol and paid the price. I was addicted to alchohol for a while and now I don't drink more than one or two glasses of wine a month. It's enough for me and I feel lighter and fitter and have a clearer mind than ever before.
Keep track.Note down everything you eat or drink and calculate the calories you consume each day. You can use Fitday.com to do this. It's a great tool which you can use to set your goal and monitor the amount of calories your take in and burn.
Exercise. The word many of us hate! You need to keep your body moving. Exercise doesn't have to mean doing things you hate! A nice walk by the river or in the country or just round the block will do for starts. Set goals that motivate you to do things; find a buddy that you can work with together - it's amazing how much easier it is when there are two people going forward together. Above all, get some movement every day, but select something you're going to stick with!

Stick with it - the benefits of losing weight

One thing that is guaranteed is that at first changing your diet to get the benefits of losing weight will be difficult. Your body will fool you to think that it wants more sweet or fatty foods. This is perfectly normal. What's happening is a slow process of getting over an addiction. The good news is if you can stick with it - it gets easier. Try to focus on the benefits that you'll get:

After just one month..

Your body weight, body fat percentage, blood pressure and heart rate will be lower
You'll find your breathing much easier during exercise because more aleveoli (the tiny air sacs in your lungs) become more active making your diaphragm more efficient

After just two to three months..
Your risk of heart disease would have reduced
Your life expectancy would have gone up
Your general quality of life will be much better

After six months...
Your body shape and size will be different. You will have:
1. Lost weight
2. Have a lower Body Mass Index (BMI)
3. Have a smaller waist
4. Improved fitness levels
5. Have a lower resting heart rate and blood pressure
6. Have a much more efficient cardivascular system
7. Improved lung efficiency
8. A much faster recovery from exercise, with less fatigue
9. A much improved metabolic fitness - ie your muscles will be able to burn fat more efficiently
10. Have blood glucose, cholesterol, LDL, HDL and triglycerides - all within a normal range

Food Selector

What to eat

One of the most common questions I get asked is, 'well, what can you actually eat?'. A good question. We all lead busy lives and most people do not have lots of time to shop and prepare meals. However, it is possible to eat a diet of fresh, natural foods and still have plenty of time to live life. I've pulled together a 'food selector' below to make it easier for you to pick and choose different products so that you can eat within the guiding principles outlined before. Eating this kind of way does not need to be boring and there are lots of delicious recipes available for you to combine the ingredients in all kinds of ways. The three most nutritional foods on the planet are spirulina (grows in fresh water); Sprouts (grows on land); sea weed (grows in the sea). Rather than fizzy drinks, try purified water, freshly made juices & coconut milk.

Almonds. The least acid of all nuts.Use them to make milk or light bread - delicious!

Apples. Eat the whole fruit - including the seeds which have plenty of vitamin B17.

Apricot seeds contain B17 which destroys cancer cells. They have been banned in the USA and Australia as they reportedly contain small amounts of cyanide.

Barley Grass juice, improves stamina, sexual energy, clarity of thought, and reduces addiction to things that are bad for you - just a few reasons why should drink a glass every day. It's a lot milder and far less sweet than wheatgrass juice.

Bee Pollen. Sprinkle it on your cereal and you'll help boost your energy & stamina levels; increases muscle growth & definition and build your immune system. If you need more convincing, it also has antioxidant activity; enhances sexuality and smoothes wrinkles

Blueberries. These contain massive antioxidant properties which help to reverse mental decline and improves short-term memory.

Brazil Nuts contain 100cmg each of the antioxidant mineral selenium; 200mcg per day of selenium has been shown to slash deaths from cancer by 50%. So, eat 5 brazil nuts a day if you can.

Broccoli. Believe it or not, broccoli contains enormous amounts of protein - approximately 48% in fact. Try a plate full of steam broccoli with a deicious home-masde Thai Sauce, preferably one without added table sugar.

Carrots, great little snacks. I cut up a whole punch and keep them in the fridgerator so there easily on hand when the munchies strike. A nice replacement for crisps!

Cherry Vitamin C Powder. Try one teaspoon everyday and you'll help to reduce the risk of cancer and live an extra 6 years.

Chick peas - bleind it up with Tahini to make a delcious hummos, far healthier than anything you can get in the supermarket!

Coconut Oil stimulates the thyroid to keep you slim, healthy & athletic.

Dried fruit Dried is very concentrated, so eat in moderation. Look out for fruits that haven't got vegetable oil on them. Best to eat fresh food whenever possible.

Flax seeds These plant based seed contain omega 3 fats. It's a complete protein that helps soothing soluble fibre. Significant benefits include: increases energy levels enhances brain performance; greater resistance to common illnesses such as flu; helps avoid premature births in pregnancy.

Fruit Fruit provides energy. On a high fruit diet, you'll need fewer calories as your body isn't using up massive amounts of energy to digest the food. You also get more nutrients as the fruit is raw. Fruits can juiced, eaten as smoothies. Try wherever possible to eat organic fruit which tends to be stronger, tastier, juicier, sweeter and has less chemicals on it.

Goji berries. This little red berry from Brazil has really grown in popularity over the last year or so due to its massive antioxidant properties; high amino acids. Goji berries stimulate secretion of human growth hormone that declines as we age. Mix it in muesli or add to cakes.

Green leafy vegetables. The body is designed for green leaves (spinach, stinging nettles, kale, celery, wheat grass) which are frequently referred to as nature's medicine. Greens are very potent and life-enhancing, containing amino acids, chlorophyll (can halt tooth decay), enzymes, fibre, essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. A high green diet causes your body to be stronger, cleaner, have more alkaline, be more flexible, expel toxins, increases the body's ability to process oxygen, have a higher immunity and feel more alert. Even if you just eat a green leafy salad before each meal, you will make a massive improvement to your health. Juicing greens make them more easily palatable than the leaves themselves.

Green Tea gives your body a massive antioxidant boost. It's proven to protect against cancers and lowers rate of death from all causes

Hemp seeds is an excellent source of complete protein. It's high in minerals and has all the healthy fats in perfect ratio for humans. Make hemp milk for your muesli.

Herbs & spices including Basil, bayleaf, cinnamon, cloves, cumin, dill, garlic, lemon grass, mace, paprika, onions, rosemary, sage & thyme. There are ountless more that differ from country to country. Use them flavour and add spice to your dishes rather than table salt and pepper.

Kelp Super is food High in iodine. Sprinkle onto smoothies.

Legumes Vegetables have a lot of starch and protein in them and do not digest well. A peanut is a legume and can harbour a powerful toxic mould called aflatoxin. Carob is another legumes which can be used as a substitute for chocolate.

Maca is a super food that helps to build hormones; stimulates libido; increases your bodies' ability to use more oxygen

MSM is a major food Major detoxifier. It helps to make your tissues healthy

Blog links

Renegade Health: A useful blog on health issues
Health Ranger: An great website that aims to educate users on the right foods to eat.
Dieting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Dieting is the practice of ingesting food in a regulated fashion to achieve a particular objective. In many cases the goal is weight loss, but some athletes ...
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Healthy Dieting: Dieting the healthy way, with tips, rules and find out your BMI and what it means.
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Is Dieting OK for Kids?: What is dieting and should kids do it, too? Find out in this article for kids.
MedlinePlus: Weight Control: Diet: Keeping a Food Diary(American Academy of Family Physicians) ... Dieting and Gallstones From the National Institutes of Health ...
Dieting News - Topix: News on Dieting continually updated from thousands of sources around the net.
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Weight Control and Diet - Highlights: A report in the March 2006 Lancet linked the high-protein, low-carb Atkins diet to the death of one woman. The 40-year-old woman had a deadly build up of ...
Food Standards Agency - Eat well, be well - Healthy diet: A healthy diet contains lots of fruit and vegetables; is based on starchy foods such as wholegrain bread, pasta and rice; and is low in fat (especially ...
Healthy Living Through Exercise and Proper Diet - Home: Diet and exercise are an integral part of staying fit and healthy. Proper nutrition along with exercise will help keep you in shape and keep you healthy. ...
10 Ways to Lose Weight Without 'Dieting': And many experts say you can do that without going on a "diet." Instead, the key is making simple tweaks to your lifestyle. ...
The Sun Diet - public startpage: Take our free diet test and find out how healthy you ARE and how fantastic ... Check out the fab new Sun Diet Shop - sign up and get 20% off everything from ...
Diets, Dieting and Weight Loss Reviews: Reviews and diet comparisons for popular weight loss diets,free diets, free dieting articles.
WIN - Publication - Dieting and Gallstones: Weight-loss dieting increases the risk of developing gallstones. People who lose a large amount of weight quickly are at greater risk than those who lose ...
Scientists Say Dieting Does Not Work: US scientists conducting a comprehensive review of dieting research have concluded that dieting does not work.The study is published in the April edition of ...
CaloriesCount.com - Dieting and Healthy Weight Loss, Weight Loss ...: An online weight loss, dieting and healthy lifestyle program, featuring calorie calculators, meal plans, recipes, chat groups and information to help you ...
Prevention.com: Diet, Health, Weight Loss, Anti-Aging, and More!: Information about getting fit, losing weight, and living healthier lives from Prevention.com.
Tesco Diets || Dieting and healthy living: After joining our Gi Diet programme, Alex achieved an amazing loss of 5 stone. ... A flexible approach to dieting. Choose the foods you eat, and track your ...
NIH - Weight Loss/Dieting: Weight Loss/Dieting ... Cómo Alimentarse y Mantenerse Activo Durante Toda La Vida (Adultos) Spanish; Dieting and Gallstones · Dieting and Gallstones ...
kNOw Dieting: Risks and Reasons to Stop: Dieting rarely works. 95% of all dieters regain their lost weight and more within 1 ... Americans spend more than $40 billion dollars a year on dieting and ...

New Wikipedia

Category: File - :Feet on scale.jpg|thumb|Measuring body weight on a scale

Dieting is the practice of ingesting food in a regulated fashion to achieve or maintain a controlled weight. In most cases dieting is used in combination with physical exercise to lose weight in those who are overweight or obese. Some athletes however aspire to gain weight (usually in the form of muscle). Diets can also be used to maintain a stable body weight.

Diets to promote weight loss are generally divided into four categories: low-fat, low-carbohydrate, low-calorie, and very low calorie. A meta-analysis of six randomized controlled trials found no difference between the main diet types (low calorie, low carbohydrate, and low fat), with a 2?4 kilogram weight loss in all studies. At two years all calorie-reduced diet types cause equal weight loss irrespective of the macronutrients emphasized.

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