Nobody wants to hear the word ‘diet’. It brings to mind many unhappy feelings and emotions and memories. It is really hard to hear the word diet around the holiday season when it is so hard to do so.

But it’s not all horrible. There are numerous ways to lose pounds speedily without it being painful and it is a lot easier than one might think - if you know what you’re doing.

Here are the top nine tricks to staying slim in 2009.

1. Water Many people do not drink water at all, and yet it is the best way to naturally clean out your body and simultaneously shed pounds. Drinking enough water is so easy. Just drink a glass of water before every meal and snack and you will feel rehydrated and fuller so you will be less tempted to over-eat at mealtimes.

2. Fiber Fiber gives another opportunity to help you lose weight and make you feel full at the same time. By adding fiber to your diet, you can actually reduce and get rid of awful hunger pangs. Foods like fruit, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, legumes, and beans will increase your intake of fiber, making you feel full faster and lose weight faster too!

3. Snacks Just because you’re losing weight, that shouldn’t mean you go without food. Feel free to snack whenever you’re hungry. Your metabolism will actually speed up a little by eating more. Just be careful with the types of snacks you choose. It’s always fine to snack on nuts or fruit, but you can also add a snack-size tub of low-fat yogurt or baked rice crisps. Just be sensible about your snack choices.

4. Walk Use every chance you get to walk. Instead of taking the elevator, use the stairs. Park in the back of the store parking lot and walk. Go for a walk in your neighborhood or at a local park with your dog, or with a friend. Or if you want to stay home, turn on your stereo and walk around your house.

5. Grilled not Fried Switch to grilling food instead of frying. Grilling is not only easier and less time consuming, it’s healthier and contains far fewer calories.

6. Side Dishes We’ve been trained over the years to believe that meals aren’t complete without fries on the side. Replace fries with a simple salad or with some steamed vegetables.

7. Processed Foods Pre-packaged deli ham, chicken and turkey are quick and easy to have available in the fridge, but they have high levels of sodium. Sodium makes your body retain fluid and makes it harder for you to lose weight. Don’t buy pre-packaged processed foods whenever possible. Opt for fresh options.

8. Keep It Lean You can still eat red meat or poultry, just be sure to buy the leanest cuts you can find. Trim off any excess fat and remove the skin from chicken and then grill your meat to keep the goodness in and the fat levels down.

9. Meal Replacement Meal replacement diets are quick and easy, and can keep you slim. All you have to do is eat a pre-prepared meal in place of you breakfast, lunch or dinner. These meals are available through a variety of companies and take the guess work out of diet planning.

Keep up with these simple tips and you’ll be surprised how easy it is to lose weight quickly.

Tags: Weight Loss

I love coffee! So much so that I enjoy a cup of Starbucks almost every day. Is this bad for my health? Some people say so.

A friend recently told me to “watch out,” while at Starbucks the other day as I drank my coffee because her doctor told her that coffee can contribute to high blood pressure, or hypertention.

Watch out? My friend was telling me this quite literally, as she was exhaling cigarette smoke. Did her doctor mention that this behavior is far more than a contributor to high blood pressure.

Quite likely, my friend’s doctor stressed to her that her weight and smoking habits were contributing to her high blood pressure. Why then did he mention coffee?

To date, there is no definitive evidence that coffee leads to the development of high blood pressure.

What has been documented is that coffee can increase blood pressure, although, only slightly AND only temporarily.

These same studies also admit that when drinking coffee on a regular basis, this temporary increase in blood pressure disappates.

More recent studies have tried to focus on behaviors or habits associated with coffee - coffee and cigarettes and coffee and weight gain. People do tend to do both together. Does this mean coffee causes high blood pressure?

No. Rather, the studies have shown that people associate the negative lifestyle (cigarettes, over-eating) with drinking coffee. My same friend has foregone her cigarette break if she doesn’t have coffee, indicating that the cigarette, “Just doesn’t taste the same.”

This combination of behaviors is where I’d like to see more research. I’ve read incredible stories about people who switched from coffee to green tea and see all sorts of positive changes, including lowered blood pressure. What wasn’t expounded upon was whether or not they gave up their cigarettes and pastries as a result.

What I can say is that if you know that coffee is your trigger to indulging in other, proven contributors to high blood pressure and you truly can’t do one without the other, then yes, perhaps you should consider switching to a beverage that you don’t associate with these bad behaviors.

If you are suffering from hypertension, I’d like to recommend my High Blood Pressure Program. This is a completely natural remedy and while simple, it has proven, amazing results.

If you suffer from being overweight as well, I would suggest my Weight Loss Breeze Program.

EL331001

Tags: Weight Loss

I am sure by now you have heard all about the antioxidants found in green tea. But, do you know what antioxidants are or how they work. The quality of a antioxidant can help prevent harmful diseases such as cancer and heart disease. I suppose your wandering why anything that is anti-oxygen can be good for your body.

Antioxidants don’t work against oxygen. They fight against a chemical reaction called oxidation, this is the same process that turns bananas black and rusts metal. Oxidation is the interaction between oxygen molecules and the substances they come in contact with. When that substance happens to be living tissue, damage and disease can occur.

The harm caused by oxidation, is result of free radicals, highly reactive, unstable molecules that travel around the body wreaking havoc. Although free radicals can be generated by exposure to UV rays, toxins, cigarette smoke, microbes and other sources, the most common source is the oxygen molecule itself.

Paired together, oxygen travels through out your body and each molecule has its own electron. Often what happens is this double molecule splits into two half’s which leaves one molecule with out and electron to go with it. Feeling of balanced, the single molecule races around your body trying to repair itself and find a new electron to pair up with.

The molecule does not just wait for a spare electron to pop up, but what it does is it steals one from another molecule. The problem keeps reoccurring over and over again. The process is what causes cells to be damaged, and the entire body system gets effected by it. This is believed to be the major cause of cancer, heart disease and aging.

Now, this is where having antioxidants come into play. What antioxidants do is donate an electron to the lonely free radicals so they no longer have to steel electrons to feel balanced. Your body does produce antioxidants on its own, but not early enough to aid all the free radicals. That’s where green tea can help you a lot,

Among others, these include beta-carotene, vitamins C and E, the mineral selenium, and various phytochemicals such as lycopene and quercetin. But the catechins, especially EGCg, are among the most powerful and effective antioxidants of all.

Tags: Weight Loss

For a lot of people attempting to lose weight the first thing that comes to their mind is eating less. Instead of eating smaller meals they usually eat less meals. If you want your body to become heavier and have a higher fat percentage this is the quickest way to achieve it.

Although, at first you’ll lose some weight when you start skipping meals the weight loss will be very short lived. What you lose at first is water weight and muscle mass. As you lose your muscle mass your metabolism starts to slow down even though you will still be losing some weight .

Breakfast is the first meal that most dieters give up first. They think that skipping breakfast after waking up hungry will cause their body to start burning fat. Your metabolic rate slows down when you skip your breakfast. Your body will then go into starvation mode to protect itself. Your body will start using your muscles as fuel, and start storing fat instead of burning it off.

The human body is very intelligent. It will eat away at your muscles because it knows these are burning off more calories than fat does. This is so your body won’t burn too many calories while you’re starving your body throughout the day. Fat storage is something else your body does while you’re not eating as many meals as you should be. Your body stores fat so it has something to feed on when your muscle have become to small, and are not burning up much energy.

When you eventually eat in the evening your body will sore all the calories from your meal as fat. Your body will learn that it’s not going to get any more food until the following evening so it will store as much as it can. It will also slow down the rate in which the meal is digested so you’ll be digesting while you sleep.

5 to 6 meals a day is what you should be looking at eating as part of a successful weight loss program. To speed up your metabolism you need to increase your muscle mass as muscle burn more calories than fat. Cardio is also needed as it can burn an extra 2000 to 4000 calories a week depending on your weight and the intensity in which you train.

Losing weight and keeping it off is not an over night process, and anything that loses you weight overnight will be very short lived. You need to do it safely, and not starve your body of the calories it needs to function properly.

Tags: Weight Loss

People who need to lose those extra pounds commonly think about reducing the amount of food they eat. This may like a good solution, but not exactly the best best way to lose weight. The bottom line is, depending on the amount of food you stop eating, it may even be dangerous to your health. So how does one lose weight effectively and safely? Here are some points that you need to consider when trying to burn fat:

Don’t miss your breakfast. When you first arise in the morning, your body has just gone through an 8 hour fast. After enduring such a time span with no nutrients, your body enters a catabolic (muscle wasting) state and starts breaking down protein. This is an important time to eat some much needed nutrition ASAP! A healthy breakfast is critical to any successful fat-loss diet.

Consume a meal every 2 to 3 hours. This means that you will be consuming a meal 5 to 6 times a day. Not only does this type of meal regime stimulate muscle maintenance and fat loss, it is also an essential technique for dominating food cravings. You see, when dieters skip a meal, or haven’t eaten in a while, their blood sugar drops too much, and their will power becomes weak. In other words, people who go too long without eating are much more likely to cheat on their diet. So in saying this, eating every two to three hours will help remove those cravings that may be the main reason that you have failed all attempts to lose weight in the past.

Develop your lean muscle mass. A single pound of muscle requires three to five times more energy to sustain itself compared with a pound of fat. This means with more muscle, you’ll burn more calories, even when you’re resting. Plus having more muscle just strengthens your body. And as your body gets stronger your muscles increase in size, and then you naturally burn more fat.

Raise your training rate. As your strength and stamina improves, your body becomes a better performer, meaning you expend less energy when you train than when you first started. So you’ve got to shake things up a bit. Change the intensity of what you’re doing, and if it’s possible, change your routine. If you keep training at the same intensity your strength and stamina will stop improving. You will also stop losing weight because to get to the next level you will need to increase the amount of energy you use in your workouts. Your muscles will also stop getting bigger and getting stronger. This will then prevent your metabolic rate improving.

Tags: Weight Loss

Many muscle building programs are found by weight lifters performing experiments, which the program may have worked for that person.

However, in some cases these muscle building programs don’t work. Why?

Here are 4 downfalls in many muscle building programs.

#1: Work as Much as You Can at One Time

To build muscle, it is true you need to work on building the muscle you want to grow. This will only get you so far in your training and won’t get you the results you want. You need to be working every muscle around the major muscle, which will in turn give you the most build up. Only working the muscle you want to build is like using a machine to train with. It limits your stability and all around strength. This will turn into having “fake” muscles, the ones with all show and no go. Using free weights will give you stability and the all around muscle building you need. Exercises including squats and deadlifts are the best for any muscle building.

#2: The Program is Not Efficient for the Every Day Person’s Time Constraints

A program developed by the usual gym rat you would see at the gym working out every time you went there would not be a good fit for someone only having an hour to workout. Your workout does not need to be long and strenuous; rather it should be short and sweet. Using fewer reps and sets with a larger amount of weight can give you the best benefits in a short amount of time.

#3: You are Not Incorporating Enough Intensity

Like mentioned before, you need to be using heavy enough weights to work out with. This is the reason why many of the work outs out there don’t work, because they are using 50% of your “1 Rep Max” (1RM). You should be using about 80-85% of your 1RM. Anything below and you are never going to see improvements as your body will eventually become use to the work out and somewhat immune to it. This also calls for adding weight every work out in order to keep improving when you are performing your muscle building programs.

#4: More Recuperation During and After Workouts

Your workout should give you a short time between exercises to refresh and cool yourself down. It should not be going rapidly from one exercise to the next, and it also should not be too long, more than 5 minutes.

When you are done with your workout, make some time to rest and take a nap. You just put your body through hard work and now it needs time to cool down and rebuild. At night, make sure you are achieving 8+ hours of sleep, if possible. Relax anytime during the day and make sure to keep a low stress environment, which is best for fast muscle growth.

If you want to hear more tips to having a good muscle building program, check out: DoubleYourGains’ 3-5 Beginners Strength Program.

Tags: Weight Loss

I was surprised to learn that the words mental obesity had been ascribed as the intellectual laziness and disinterest resulting when children’s minds are addicted to junk information at the time that I was coming up with a name for my article. This could include such things as video games, chat rooms and text messages. I use the term mental obesity to refer to something else entirely; a very common phenomenon that I myself have experienced.

Many people who have lost a lot of weight continue to think of themselves as obese. They may have lost fifteen, thirty, forty pounds or even more. It doesnt matter. A once overweight or obese woman who wears a size six dress is often, in her mind, still obese. This is the phenomenon that I call mental obesity.

It is a feeling and a conviction that is hard to shake and extremely difficult to get rid of. People who suffer from a poor self-image related to their weight are often unable to own up to this, or to discuss it with others. On one level, the now slim person is perfectly aware that she or he is no longer obese. Scales and clothing sizes will certify this evidence. This is confirmed daily by higher energy levels and a new physical prowess. However on a whole other, illogical, level the mentally obese individual in certain that he or she continues to be obese and fat.

If you are mentally obese you understand that you have physically lost the weight, however you still feel as though you’re obese. In addition you realize quickly that you can’t express this feeling. More than likely when the people around you are overweight and you aren’t. You know you are being ridiculous. You realize others will think you are fishing for compliments. You might make the same accusation if the roles were reversed. It is important to hold your tongue. However, in your mind your obesity is still there.

Nowhere to turn, mentally obese persons have. Despite buying new clothes, they tend to continue to dress as they did before losing the weight. In the closet is where the skimpy new clothes stay. Mentally obese people have trouble getting up to dance in a crowded room. A side view is still preferable for photographs. They are still terrified of looking at photos or home videos of themselves.

Maybe the most difficult part of being mentally obese is the loneliness that accompanies it. Oh yes, you can be just as lonely if your obesity is in your mind as you were when you used to gasp for air on your way up one flight of stairs, trying not to show your malaise to others running past you up the steps. Mental obese can have some more problems than a non obese fellow.

Losing a considerable amount of weight necessitates a period of adjustment and the adoption of a new life style is not a simple matter. However, if you feel that you just can’t see yourself as a non obese person and you know you are no longer overweight, don’t try to live with your secret mental obesity. Find the correct person to speak with about your problem, for example your family doctor.

Tags: Weight Loss

Factually speaking, as we age, our bodies change. As the change to our bodies become more apparent, we now have to worry about places of stored fat that we didn’t have to worry about before.

When your metabolic rate slows, your digestive system doesn’t work as efficiently as it used to.

If you eat too much of the wrong food, drink too much alcohol and don’t exercise on a regular basis, you will gain weight and that will always be true. Although hormonal changes in the body can also affect the shape you’re in but good diet and exercise are the keys to maintaining good health and a reasonable weight.

Being overweight and using your age as an excuse is unacceptable. Particularly when you consider the large number of elderly people who remain slim, fit and healthy - it should become crystal clear that age is not a reasonable excuse.

We abuse our bodies with the poor lifestyle choices we make. As we age, the poor lifestyle choices multiply and the end results are; overweight and other related health problem brought on by poor nutrition.

You can and should expect to keep your fat percentage at an optimum level throughout your life. The health benefits from doing so will pay dividends with a better quality of life and reduced dependence on medication and other health related expenditures as you age.

Anyone at any age can benefit from improved nutrition and exercise.

A longer and happier life can be expected by using anything that will reduce the excess levels in your body fat.

You can turn back your body clock by beginning an exercise program coupled with an improvement in your nutritional intake. The most important part is getting started and the sooner you start the better.

Tags: Weight Loss

If you’re struggling to get a flat stomach then this article will help you achieve your goal. So many people trying to flatten their stomach are working under a lot of misconceptions. Trying to achieve a flat stomach while using this misinformation can actually send your progress backwards. Your going to be given the truth, and not some sales pitch for a wonder pill, supplement or ab machine.

One of the first pieces of misinformation most people fall for is only exercising their abs. Ab exercises only tone the muscle under the fat on your stomach. Flattening the stomach with this method of training is impossible. Working out the whole body is how you get a flat stomach, and not just concentrating on your stomach muscles.

It is not advisable to work out on your abs alone if your stomach is not the only place that has fat. It is useless and waste of your precious time. As many muscles in your body need to be exercised in order to shed the fat from your stomach and make it flat. Twenty minutes a day using a routine that exercises your whole body will give you the flat stomach you’ve longed for.

Fat burning pills are a million dollar industry that are simply milking everyone for their hard earned cash. These pills are completely ineffective, and do nothing to raise your metabolism. Even when combined with regular exercise or a good diet, they still don’t give you the desired result. There is no reason to waste your money on these pills, people were burning fat from there body long before these pills came onto the market.

Crash diets are another useless way people use to get a flat stomach. The reason for this is people think that less calories means a leaner physique. This is not what happens when you start eating less than your body needs.

When you eat less, do you know what happens? Your metabolic rate will slow down so your body goes into starvation mode and starts storing fat. This only puts more fat on your stomach. So reducing your calorie intake will only make your stomach fatter instead of leaner.

A good exercise program along with a balanced diet will get you the flat stomach you desire. You don’t need any magic pills, ab machines or fad diets.

Tags: Weight Loss

Are you having difficulty maintaining regular bowel movements?

If your answer is no to the first question and yes to the second one, then you are suffering from constipation. Regularity and ease of bowel movements are signs of good digestive health. More than 95% of health problems start in the digestive system and in many cases these are directly attributed to constipation.

Frequency in bowel movements should be determined by the number of meals eaten. If you take three meals in a day, you should also have the same number of bowel movements within that time period, otherwise you are constipated. According to statistics, over 65% of Americans are constipated.

Traditional Medicine and Holistic Medicine have different theories regarding constipation.

It is defined by Traditional Medicine as the passage of small amounts of hard dry stool and states no rule regarding frequency of elimination. Traditional Medicine believes that frequency is determined by an individual’s level of metabolism and therefore varies from individual to individual.

In contrast, Holistic Medicine says that frequency of elimination is determined by the number of meals taken. A healthy digestive system efficiently absorbs food and nutrients during intake and expels the toxic matter 12 - 18 hours later. Food that stays in the body for longer than 18 hours rots and develops toxins that are absorbed in the bloodstream which then leads to different sorts of health problems.

If you are constipated, the following tips will help you normalize elimination.

1) Drink lots of water to rehydrate your digestive system. Your daily intake of water should be one ounce for every pound of your body weight.

2) Engage in a regular exercise regimen. This need not be extremely strenuous but challenging enough to get your blood pumping. This increased blood flow will help facilitate elimination.

3) Take a good daily fiber supplement that consists of ground flax.

4) Include Essential Fatty Acids like Flax, Borage and Fish Oils to your daily supplements to lubricate your digestive system. A smooth digestive passage will make elimination easier.

Constipation is something to be concerned about. When waste matter clogs the digestive system, the resulting toxins are absorbed by the body. The organs that function to get rid of these poisons such as the liver, lungs, lymphatic system, blood, skin, colon, and kidneys are forced to work harder to flush these out.

When faced with a health condition such as constipation, it would be wise to consult with a naturopathic medical practitioner who can give you sound advice on supplements and healthy alternatives; even share reading materials that would be useful in helping you deal with problems caused by poor digestive health.

Tags: Weight Loss