Losing Weight and Feeling Great

Archive for the ‘Diet Plans’ Category

If you want to know how to lose weight and keep it off, you’ll need to realize one thing — and that these are two different goals!  And as such, they have different approaches.  Here’s what I mean.

Losing Weight Fast – Not!

When you finally decide you’re going to lose weight, you want it gone — fast!  But here’s the problem.  When you lose weight fast, you’re not changing your eating pattern, except temporarily.

By losing weight more slowly, you are giving new habits (hopefully healthier habits) to form.  And it’s these new habits that can help you keep the weight off.

I do want to mention one thing, though — when you start a new diet, you may indeed lose weight fast for a short while, then level out to a slower rate.  This is normal.  The “fast” I am talking about is continually keeping your body on an accelerated weight loss.

And just to give you a number, anything above 2 pounds a week continually is too fast.

Keeping It Off

This is usually harder than losing the weight in the first place — keeping it off.

On a weight loss plan (a.k.a. diet), you know what you should and shouldn’t eat.  But once you reach your goal and go off that diet — whoa!  The whole world is your oyster, so to speak.

Here’s where the “keep it off” part of how to lose weight and keep it off comes into play.  If you’ve given your body and mind a chance to form new, healthy eating habits, you’ll find it much easier to stay at your goal.

But if you’ve been on a “diet” mentality, you’re going to find it much easier to fall back into the old bad habits that got you into trouble in the first place!

Here’s a tip.  Keep on weighing yourself once a week and if you move up by 5 pounds, time to go back on that weight loss diet.  Catching it at 5 pounds is much easier to handle than waiting until that 5 pounds moves to 15…or 50!

How to Lose Weight and Keep it Off

So how to lose weight and keep it off once you’ve reached your goal isn’t as tough if you’ve found a healthy weight loss plan that lets you lose weight slowly and creates good new habits.

But you will need to monitor your weight for the rest of your life, in case those bad habits start creeping back.  And losing 5 pounds, which can usually be done in a few weeks, is much easier than if you wait until that 5 pounds is a lot more!

Wouldn’t you agree that cooking light is healthier for us?  Now, would you care to define what light cooking is?  I didn’t think so.  It’s hard, because to some people, it’s using fewer fats and oils.  To others, it’s about cutting calories.  And I guess they kind of do go hand-in-hand.

But don’t you also think that cooking light is also about more natural foods?  More fresh veggies, fewer canned foods?  At least, that’s kind of how I see it.

Today I have Gregory Spence as the guest author.  Greg will tell us something we’d probably all like to know; easy ways to start cooking healthier meals, without tummy rumbles in protest!

Three Easy Ways to Start Cooking Light

Healthier cooking is all about how cooking light can improve your health without producing boring or unattractive food. Today, more emphasis is being put on reducing our calorie intake and eating foods that are better for us. In order to achieve this we need to look at ways to do this that aren’t difficult.

Suggestion 1:  Oils and Fats

To start cooking lighter, why not substitute your regular high calorie or fatty ingredients with their lighter alternatives? There are many alternatives, and you’ll want to try reading labels (it can be an eye-opener). Choose those ingredients that have no trans fats and are lower in calories.

Dressings are particularly high in all the wrong things!  How about try a low fat mayonnaise or fat free ranch dressing in your sandwiches. Avoid using foods coated in oil;p anyone remember how all tuna used to be packed in oil?  it’s not just tuna that’s come a long way — many types of tinned fish are now packed in water rather than oils, and this significantly reduces your calorie intake.

The oil you use for cooking is also an important part of your lighter cooking style. Extra virgin olive oil is ideal but can be expensive.  A cheaper alternative is canola, which has lots of health benefits when compared to vegetable oils.  Still, if you can afford the extra-virgin olive oil for your cooking light, it’s worth it.

Tip 2:  What’s Your Fiber Like?

If you eat a lot of refined white bread then you will not be getting the fiber you need and your fat intake will be high. When choosing bread go for the oat-based alternative or the 100% whole grain variety.

Just because bread is brown does not mean it is healthier for you. Carmel colorings can do that without a drop of whole wheat.  By taking a true whole grain alternative your body will get an increased intake of fiber and lower amounts of fat. 

Idea 3:  Time to Bake

If you are into baking, try using Splenda instead of regular table sugar.  Splenda is a no calorie sweetener; you might also try stevia, which is all-natural.  If you’ve never tried it, unsweetened apple sauce instead of vegetable oil really does taste pretty good in most recipes.

Line your baking pans with no fat cooking spray instead of butter or shortening; better yet, use baker’s parchment paper for your oil-free baking.  That’s really cooking light!

Use semi-sweet or preferably dark chocolate in place of milk chocolate or (even worse) white chocolate.  Dark chocolate has antioxidants good for your body; just don’t over-indulge.

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Thanks, Greg, for those tips on cooking light.  It’s not always easy these days to get out the fresh veggies and chopping board.  I’ll agree, there are many days where fast food is tempting because I’l so tired.  But fast food is fat food (as I’ve mentioned in several recent posts like this one) so it’s a meal of last resort.

So, guess it’s time to clean out the cabinets again, of some of non-cooking-light foods.  So what will you do?  Are your going to make a more cencerted effort towards cooking light?

Are you struggling with how to lose weight successfully?  Do you try to be good each day, only to turn to snacks at night…and the diet goes out the window?  Or even more frustrating…you do everything you’re supposed to and the weight stays the same on the scales?

Lose Weight Successfully (Keep it Off)

Losing weight is partly in the mind — you have to be committed to your new eating plan.  And by the way, “diet” should perhaps be banned from the vocabulary.  Why?

Because when you finish losing the weight, you “go off the diet”.  But unless you’ve changed your eating habits in the meanwhile, you’ll likely go back to bad habits.  I’ll bet you’re familiar with what happens next — you gain the weight back and then some!

But if you’ve exchanged your old bad habits for nwe good ones, you are far more likely to keep the weight off.  And incidentally, that’s one reason for a slow weight loss — it gives you the time to develop new habits.

Supplements or Pills?

How to lose weight successfully — can it include supplements?  It’s a mixed answer.

Some supplementation is probably appropriate if you’re taking it for health benefits more than weight loss (even if it has somewhat of a weight loss component).  An example is a green tea extract; good for its antioxidant properties, and with a mild thermogenic effect.

On the other hand, other weight loss supplements…the answer isn’t conclusive.  Some people are helped by the supplements, others aren’t.  However one thing is universally true — no supplement will work all by itself, without following a sensible eating program.  (And exercise as well.)

A Healthy Diet to Lose Weight

Yes, you can lose weight with a fad diet.  But the question of the day is…will you keep that weight off?  Or will you need the latest fad again in a few weeks or months?

A healthy diet to lose weight is one that you can follow for life.  One that has the amounts of proteins, fats and carbohydrates for your body metabolism.

How to lose weight successfully — how to keep the weight off — depends on your commitment to change.  If you keep following your old habits, the weight will just come back.

You see the commercials all the time for NutriSystem food, and you find yourself wondering about it.  Does NutriSystem work?  What’s the food like?  How much does it cost?

NutriSystem Food:  The Good and the Bad

OK, first things first:  how does the food taste?  Is it great or is it terrible?

Well, how about it’s a little of both.  Some of the foods seem to be universally loved, like the pizza, hamburger, tacos and such.  Others seem to have few fans, like the beef stew and blueberry muffins.

All in all, the food is good, although some are a little on the bland side (especially the dinners).  Why?  Because the foods are produced to meet the needs of as many people as possible, they are bland-ish.  But that doesn’t mean they can’t be dressed up some!

For example, I think the tacos are yummy with an added tablespoon of salsa and a little low-fat cheese.  The pizza gets two thumbs up with some turkey pepperoni on top.  The hamburger seems to be great no matter what you do to it!

And the desserts — I don’t think there’s one that I don’t like!

Try It Before You Buy It

Now I’m not going to lie — NutriSystem is a little on the expensive side (although if you already eat out a lot, it might actually be a savings).  Figure on about $300 a month.

There is an option of trying some food, however, before you sign up for the full program.  Kind of a "try it before you buy it".

Strange as it may sound, ebay has a lot of NutriSystem listings!  You can buy a few day’s worth of food to try out and see how you like them.

If you decide to go this route, stay away from listings that include the tuna casserole dinner, blueberry muffins or microwave chocolate cake.  The muffins and cake are actually pretty decent once you know how to prepare them, but the tuna…well, better not touch that one!  (Yes, I speak from experience.)

So, If so, check out the box below; click on an image to see the listing and bid amount.