Diet & Healty Life

Maintain or improve your health.

admin — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:26:00 GMT

If you don’t take care of your body, it won’t take care of you. So, as a first step, make sure that your diet supplies adequate amounts of vitamins and minerals, that you’re drinking plenty of water and getting enough sleep and fresh air, and aren’t under too much unhealthy stress. Everything that you do to improve your overall health will help make weight loss more likely to occur.

The Most Important Facts about Successful Weight Loss

admin — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:26:00 GMT

Weight loss depends on (calorie) energy balance.
Your energy intake must be less than your energy expenditure. This will always be true. The only approach that works is eating less and/or exercising more.
Permanent weight loss requires Mind change.
Don’t assume that you can spend six weeks on a diet and then return to your old eating habits. Short term diets only produce short term results. The only successful way to keep the weight off is to make small but permanent changes in your lifestyle. Coincidentally, this is also the best way to improve your health.

Reduce your total Caloric intake.

admin — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:23:00 GMT

To lose weight, you have to change your energy balance. There are just two ways to do this – either consume less energy (Calories) or expend more energy (via exercise). The easiest way to reduce your consumption is simply to cut back on the size of your meals and/or the amount of high-Calorie foods that you consume. This doesn’t mean that you have to give up any particular food. In fact, completely avoiding a food can lead to strong cravings that derail your diet. A smarter approach is to just eat less of those high-Calorie foods.

To get a good perspective of how many Calories that you consume, it’s important that you keep a food diary. You don’t have to keep your diary going forever, but do track your daily intake for at least one week. The Running Total function of ND’s Pantry make this Calorie counting exercise especially easy to do, and also provides you with totals of all other nutrients as well.

Also beware of foods containing "hidden" Calories. For example:

Watch what you drink.

What you drink during the day can have a major impact on the number of Calories that you consume. There is very little difference between the satiating effects of different drinks, so this is one of the easiest places to improve your diet. Water is almost always your best choice, but coffee, tea, and diet drinks can also help cut Calories.

Be smart about condiments and toppings.

Butter, mayonnaise, and a lot of the "special sauces" used by restaurants are very concentrated sources of Calories. If you want to add flavor to your food, try using lemon juice, soy sauce, salsa or different spices instead.

Maintain or increase your metabolism

admin — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:22:00 GMT

One of the most common mistakes that dieters make is to get excited or impatient with their diet, and reduce their Caloric intake too far. If you do that, your body will respond by lowering your metabolism and slowing your weight loss. To prevent this downward adjustment of your metabolism, make smaller changes to your eating habits. Your patience will pay off in terms of more consistent weight loss, more energy, and fewer cravings.

For the best results, add exercise to your plan. Regular exercise not only expends energy as you’re doing it, but can also lead to increases in your basal metabolic rate, so you’ll burn more Calories even at rest. High-intensity exercises burn the most Calories, but don’t select exercises solely on their fat-burning potential. Instead, pick exercises (i.e. sports activities) that you enjoy, and want to incorporate into your daily routine.

Exercises for Weight Loss

admin — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:21:00 GMT

Your body will burn extra Calories while you are exercising;
If the exercise is high enough in intensity (i.e. significantly increases your heart rate and respiration), your body will continue to burn Calories at an elevated rate for an extended period after your exercise session has ended; and
If the exercise places a high enough load on your muscles, they will increase in size, and burn more Calories even when your body is at rest.

This last item (i.e. muscular adaptation to exercise) is an important factor for weight loss, because it enables your body to burn more Calories at all times. Muscle tissue is more "metabolically active" than body fat. With more muscle and less fat, your metabolic rate is naturally higher.

Muscular adaptation occurs most readily when the load placed on a muscle exceeds about 60% of its maximum contractile strength. This makes weight training one of your best exercise choices, and the most direct path to a sleeker, shapelier body.

Good and Bad Eating Habits

admin — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:21:00 GMT

Mixing food and entertainment.

It’s easy to mindlessly eat a tub of popcorn, a whole bag of chips, or a carton of ice cream while you’re watching TV. Make eating a separate activity, and you’ll consume less.

Eating to relieve stress.

There’s nothing wrong with taking pleasure from eating, but try not to use food as your primary stress reliever. Find other ways to dissipate stress (such as exercising, listening to music, or meditating) before eating.

Eating on the run.

With the abundant availability of convenience foods, it’s easy to grab something from a vending machine and eat your meals in your car. But try not to make this a regular daily habit. Plan your schedule to include enough time to prepare and eat your meals in a quiet place, without the rush.No one eats perfectly. However, if you continuously have trouble controlling what you eat, realize that correction of your eating problems may be beyond your own abilities. Please consult a psychologist or weight loss professional for additional help.