Eating a Healthy Diet

One of the important things you can do for your overall health is to eat a healthy diet. Your diet affects your weight and increases your risks of health diseases. Deciding a healthy diet is easier to say than to do because it is tempting to eat less healthy foods. Different people decide different healthy diet because you might eat this kind of diet while others just cannot stand the food you eat and find its alternative. That’s what health experts are here for, to let us know which food are healthier than others.

What are the principles of healthy eating?

Know What Healthy Food Is and How You Should Eat

When pursuing a healthy eating plan, you should remember the following: 

1. Try and Eat a Variety of Different Colored Food - You should remember that different foods have different nutritional values. Food can be rich in antioxidants or Vitamin C. So, when you go to do your regular weekly shop, try and see what different colored foods you can pick up.
Down the fruit and vegetable aisle you should see greens, yellows, oranges and reds. You should have as much of a color variety in your trolley as you can. For example, when picking out fruit pick up strawberries, oranges, pineapple, apples, blueberries and bananas and you will notice what a large color selection you actually have. The same goes for vegetables. Basically, more color means that it is better and healthier for you.


2. Eat Foods from All Food Groups - The problem with many diets these days is the fact that they tell you to cut certain foods from certain food groups, out of the diet altogether. This means that you lose important nutrition and don’t eat as healthy as you could be. So, the answer to a healthy diet is to eat a variety of different foods.

Generally, fruit and vegetables should make up the main portion of your diet but you still need carbohydrates such as potatoes, meat or fish and a little bit of fatty foods like flaxseed oil which many experts recommend as part of a good fat diet. Overall, a diverse mixture of all food groups is needed for a healthy diet!

3. When You Need to Eat Snack, Do It on Healthy Foods – It doesn’t mean that just because you want to lose weight, you’ll have to skip your snack. In fact, snacking can actually be quite good for you just as long as you are eating the right foods.

Generally, when we want to eat snack, we reach for a biscuit or a packet of crisps. However, if you want to eat a healthy snack, then you will have to swap those for nuts, seeds or fruit and vegetables. That way you will get energy, you will also be full until your next meal time and it will be completely healthy.

Since you know what foods you like and what you don’t, you really have to decide for your own healthy eating plan. However, the said tips above can help you to choose the best healthy eating plan for you.

Practicing a sensible weight loss is not just taking a diet pill - you should live for a long-lasting healthy lifestyle.

7 Surefire Ways To Shed 7 Pounds In 14 Days

The search for ways to speed up your weight loss is over. With these seven tips, you can be seven pounds lighter in the next two weeks. Be ready to make some changes, but your thinner self will thank you.

Make water your best friend

While it should come as no surprise that water is your best weapon in weight loss, some still haven’t caught on. By increasing your water consumption to six to eight glasses a day, you will help you body flush out toxins that are impeding the weight that you want to lose.

Water helps to speed digestion as well as many other processes in your body. And if your body is running more smoothly, then you can burn more calories along the way.

A new appetizer

If you’re looking to cut back on the foods that you’re eating, here’s a trick that works for anyone. Start your lunches and dinners off with a small cup of soup. Of course, the soup shouldn’t be cream based; a broth will work very well.

The warm soup will help to make your stomach feel fuller so that you eat less at the meal that follows. This is also a good trick if you are going out to eat. Have that bowl of soup before you go to curb your temptation for larger portions.

Take away the salt

A lot of the extra weight people carry is due to a large intake of salt. Salt can be found in many of the things that we consider healthy—frozen lunches, canned soups, and condiments.

Take some time over the next two weeks to look at the labels of the things that you eat to see how much salt (as sodium) are in the foods that you have been eating. Avoiding prepackaged foods is the best way to remove the salt from your diet.

Take away the sugars

While we don’t want to admit it, sugar is keeping us overweight and unhappy. And sugar isn’t just a candy bar or a milkshake, it’s also in the white breads and pastas that we love.

But if you want to lose weight, it’s time to find better ways of eating. This can include switching to brown rice and whole wheat bread. And of course, limiting your sugary snacks to once in a great while.

Get moving

When you’re trying to lose weight, you need to start exercising. If you haven’t exercised before, you’re in luck. Studies have shown that you can walk just a few times a week and burn the calories that you want to burn.

Thirty minutes a day is the best way to lose seven pounds in two weeks, but if you don’t have that much time, try to split it up over the course of the day—say ten minutes three times a day, or just try to fit in three good thirty minute walks a week.

Slow down

One of the main things that trigger overeating is not taking time for your self. When you’re trying to lose weight, it’s essential that you set aside a little time each day for you and you alone. By giving yourself some quiet time, you’ll be able to slow down and remember that you’re worth the extra effort that you’re putting in to lose weight.

Just like mom said

And don’t forget about your fruits and veggies. Though fruits do contain sugar, they also contain fewer calories than your traditional sugary snacks.

If you really want to jump-start some weight loss, eat steamed vegetables at every meal. Not only do they have a slightly diuretic effect (makes you lose water weight), but they also energize your body to keep making great choices.

When you want to lose weight, you need help, but with these tips, you have everything you need.

Are You Ready To Lose Weight?

Losing weight can be compared in a lot of cases to somebody trying to give up smoking particularly for a person who has been overweight for a long time and who has had bad eating habits for much of their life.

Like smoking, over eating is a habit that is quite difficult to break for the majority of people.

When you are trying to lose weight, take a good look at your eating habits by keeping a food diary for a week before you start your new diet. This will show you where your problem areas lie. For example, are you prone to overeating while at work, in the evenings, or at friend's homes? 


It is for this reason why many people spend the majority of their life going from one weight-loss program to another in the search for the Magic answer that will get them in the shape that they desire.

To help you lose weight be sure to always pay attention to not only what you are eating, but how much of it you are eating. The main culprit of this type of eating is doing so while watching television or reading. It is possible to lose track of how much you are eating and fill yourself up past what you would have normally eaten. Either decide your portion ahead of time, or do not let yourself get distracted while snacking.

Once again by likening this to giving up smoking, a person who is trying to lose weight will have a considerably better chance of success if they have made up their mind completely that this is what they want.

Drink coffee while you lose weight. Studies have shown numerous health benefits afforded coffee drinkers. Some of those include decreased risk of diabetes, decreased blood lipids, and overall liver health. Next time you need a break from water, drink some black decaf coffee. In addition to the health benefits it will not negatively impact your weight loss efforts.

If you start a weight-loss program without the intention of following through to the ultimate outcome then the doubt that is always in the back of your mind will make it so much easier for you to fail.

A great way to help you lose weight is to incorporate protein powder into your diet. Protein is great for retaining muscle mass, and it's not likely to be stored as fat. Eating protein powder is a great way to make sure you're getting enough protein.

For many people it is more about what goes on in the mind than what they are putting into their stomach and you might have to deal with these issues first before you have any opportunity to lose weight and get in shape.

A good way to lose weight is to focus on losing weight through exercise. Though diet and exercise are both key to losing weight, dieting alone can be unhealthy and may not produce desired results. Losing weight through diet alone can dramatically slow down your metabolism. Instead, you should try to lose more weight through exercise.

Mind power is a very powerful thing that can work for or against you and by eliminating habits from your life you will be retraining your mind to accept the new lifestyle as your natural state whereby you will be able to maintain a good healthy body weight for the long-term.

A practice that will help one lose weight is to replace time spent watching television or movies with time doing physical activities. By exercising in some way as opposed to sitting in a couch or chair will translate into more calories being burned and more healthy activity during time that would have been spent sitting.

We do most things in life subconsciously including good and bad habits and by turning those bad habits into positive lifestyle changes your bodyweight won't be something that is constantly the focus of your life.

10 Real Life Diet Tips

Are you tired of diet tips handed out by someone with apparently unlimited income and time? For some of us, it may just not be practical to spend half of our Sunday preparing carefully portioned meals for the rest of the week, or financially feasible to buy all our meals prepackaged in just the right portions. And there are those of us who cringe at the thought of weighing food to achieve 'optimal portion sizes'. Here are ten real life diet tips for the rest of us.

1. Eating out? Restaurant portions tend to be enormous, and if it's on the plate, we tend to eat it. If it's possible, order from the kid’s menu, where portions are more reasonably sized.

2. Keep healthy snacks around and easily accessible. A bowl of fruit on the kitchen table, a container of celery or carrot sticks in the refrigerator, or a couple of pop-open cans of fruit salad in your desk at work will help you grab for something healthy when those first hunger pains begin. In other words, you'll be more likely to grab something low-calorie and good for you if it's easy to eat.

3. Substitute frozen vegetables for canned. Canned veggies tend to be high in sodium, which you don't need, and low in real nutrition, which you do. Buy economy size bags with zip closures to make it easy to pour out a single serving for a meal.

A good way to lose weight is to incorporate healthy fats into your diet. A lot of people are scared of the word fat, but what most people don't know is that there are good fats that are crucial to our health. An example of a good fat source is salmon.

4. Buy a vegetable steamer. Steaming is one of the healthiest ways to cook vegetables. The food retains nearly all of its natural nutrients instead of leaching it out into the cooking water. Even better, it makes your veggies taste great - which means you'll be more likely to eat them instead of filling up on fatty foods that pack on weight.

5. Never eat standing up. One of the easiest ways to sabotage your diet is to 'eat without thinking'. Treat eating with the respect that it deserves. Fix yourself a plate. Sit down and eat properly. You'll be less likely to just pop food into your mouth without paying attention.

6. Spread your meals out. When you eat three meals a day, your body tends to store whatever it doesn't need right that moment. By adopting a 'grazing' habit, you'll keep your metabolism working throughout the day. Have a small breakfast, a piece of fruit with crackers or toast at mid-morning, a light lunch and an 'after school snack' mid-afternoon. Just remember that you're breaking up the same amount of food into smaller meals, not ADDING more food into your daily diet.

When you are trying to lose weight, it helps to be knowledgeable about portion sizes so you are more aware of what you're eating. For example, a portion of meat is only the size of a deck of cards. Knowing portion sizes can make it easier to balance your diet to ensure optimal nutrition while reducing calories.

7. Grab a fruit juice or flavored water instead of soda. Soda is nothing but empty calories. No nutrients, lots of sugar. Instead, grab a bottle of 100% fruit juice, or water flavored with a spritz of fruit.

8. Drink water. Even the FDA recommends at least 8 full 8 ounce glasses of water a day to keep your body working right. When you're dieting, you should drink even more. It's not just that full feeling - water helps your body digest foods properly and cleans out your system.

9. Can't afford a gym membership? Make a pact with friends to exercise together. Make a date at least three times a week to play volleyball, take a walk or spend half an hour doing something active.

Losing weight requires sticking to a strict routine over time, and not deviating from what you have learned works well for your body. To do this, start a simple exercise and diet routine, change it up as you go along, and if you see results that you enjoy, stick with those elements. It stands to reason that you will continue to get good results.

10. Skip the potato chips. Fatty snacks fried in hydrogenated oil like potato chips contribute fat and calories and not much else. Instead, grab a handful of dried fruit or a cup of yogurt for the same amount of calories and a lot more nutritional benefit.

Are You Using The Weight Loss Secret That Personal Trainers Use all the time

Whether you like him or not, you have to respect Dr Phil just because of one thing.

He continually asks his guests one simple question: "How's it working for you?"

Success in anything comes from FINDING WHAT WORKS then DOING WHAT WORKS.

I am going to reveal to you the Secret Weight Loss Formula that Celebrity personal trainer don't want you to know about.

Before I reveal the secret, first I need to explain to you that there is process that your body goes through to burn body fat.

So how does your body burn fat?

It is a 2 steps process and in order you need to:
1.    Release the fat from the fat cells and only then
2.    You can burn the fat

That process is the same for every human being. I will outline the steps and then show you how you can easily apply some fundamental rules to allow your body to burn the maximum amount of fat with less effort and minimum time. Once you understand that simple process, you can easily see why you are not getting the results that you want. Even bigger, you will finally see that getting that dream body is getting so much closer to reality that you will be extremely motivated to get started as soon as you can.

How does your body release the fat from the cells?

Before you can turn your body into a fat burning machine, here what needs to happen: your body fat need to be released from the fat cells. You can accomplish this step successfully with your nutrition program. Here are some specific tips that you can apply right away to achieve that.

1.    Eat 4-6 small, frequent meals and never skip meals.
2.    Include small amounts of good fats.
3.    Eat natural foods; avoid processed & refined foods
4.    Eat lean proteins with each meal.
5.    Eat more complex carbs, fruits & vegetables.

The most misunderstood weight loss strategy. How to burn the *fat* instead of burning muscles.

Releasing fat from the fat cells is not the end of it; actually, it is just the beginning. Because the fat needs to be transported from the fat cells to your muscles so it can be burned there. This is done through your blood and the cardiovascular system is responsible for that. The more effective is that system, the more effective your body will become at burning fat. You can improve your cardio vascular system by doing so cardio training.  However, don't go out yet and spend 1 hour on the treadmill because you probably not going to be doing too much good like that.

The reason is excessive cardio combined with a restrictive diet burns fat but mostly muscle tissue. That is not a good thing at all, because muscle tissue is where you burn the fat and if you are burning away muscle tissue, you are burning your ability to burn more fat in the future (weight loss plateau). You just don't cut the hand that feed you. So cardio burns fat and it can also burn muscle tissue, this is a huge dilemma. Damn if you do, damn if you don't. But wait there is a solution to that…

You need to do some MODERATE cardio training. The key word here is moderate.
Doing too much cardio can be detrimental and I am sure you have seen those people that are doing cardio on a daily basis and still not getting anywhere. The result is a low metabolism. Low metabolism means, your body fat is not going anywhere, anytime
soon. Here is what you need to do:

1.    Do some moderate cardio training; the key word here is moderate
2.    Never diet but consume little fewer calories that you will burn (No starvation diets, Please...)

The world most efficient "fat burner" is FREE and You already have it.

Before I reveal to you how personal trainer get those celebrities in the best shape of their life in such short period there is one more thing that I want you to understand. Because it is very important.
Weight loss marketers always claim that they have the magic "fat burner" that will melt your fat away. The problem is that they have a new one coming out every year, so I wonder if the one from last year was so effective, why we need a new one. There is only one thing that actually burn body fat is you already have it. It does not come in a bottle or a special recipe. Body fat can only be burned inside of your muscle tissue. I repeat Body fat can only be burn in your muscle tissue. This is the most important concept for you to grasp.

Your muscle tissue is your best friend when it comes to burn body fat. You need to preserve muscle tissues in order to keep losing weight. Most people go on a starvation diet combined a lot of cardio to lose weight. At first it may seems like this is working because they are losing scale weight. Now think about, scale weight does not tell you if weight loss is from fat, water or muscle tissue. Scale weight by itself is not a good indicator of success.

Losing water is only temporary,
Losing muscle will simply lower your metabolism and put you in the Yo-Yo dieting bandwagon. This should be avoided at all cost.
Losing fat while maintaining muscle mass is what your main goal should be.

To maintain muscle tissues you need to:
1.    Do some resistance training. (This is not optional, it is mandatory)


The secret

Now that you understand the whole fat burning process, I am going to reveal to you how celebrity personal trainers do to get those amazing transformations. The strategy is to combine all the steps that I outlined so the body works as a unit.  First the trainer makes sure that his client is eating the proper food on a regular basis.

By that I mean eating so that fat WILL be released from the fat cells. Then and only then they exercise the body to burn the fat. The important idea to take from this is:

"The fat can ONLY be burned after it is released from the fat cells".

If you know anybody that has been exercising like a maniac and they don't seem to go anywhere, now you know why.

The reverse is also true, Do you know somebody that is eating properly but they are not including cardio AND resistance training. Now you know why their body  still look the same.

All you need to do is to combine a nutrition program, along with some MODERATE cardio program and maintain muscle mass with resistance training. Everything is combined with one goal in mind: Turning your body into an Automatic fat burning machine. It is that easy.

Don't like the results you have been getting?  Then CHANGE YOUR STRATEGY.

How do you change your strategy? How do you find one that works?

DO NOT continue doing something just because "THEY" say it's the way things should be done. Allow yourself to choose the solution that will work for you, regardless of what it may be. The only way for you to know who is right is to measure your progress and ACTUALLY track your results.

CHANGE IS HARD, but it's also worth it. Not getting results makes change EXTREMELY HARD.

10 Top Healthy Foods To Keep You Fit

Healthy eating and physical fitness go together, but there are no magic foods that cause you to be one hundred percent healthy by just eating the one food. No, you need a variety of foods from each of these food groups each day. It's also important to watch the portion size so as not to overeat. Make your mealtimes pleasant and relaxed occasions and your healthy foods will work effectively with your healthy emotions to give you a healthy body.

Berries

You may like all types of berries or just one or two favorites, but you can never go wrong by adding a few fresh berries as a quick energy snack or frozen berries made into a luscious smoothie in place of calorie laden desserts. Berries are high in vitamin C across the board, but some are high in other nutrients as well. Choose ripe blueberries for vitamin C and heaps of anti-oxidants for the health of your circulatory system. Gogi berries are less well-known but are wonderfully rich in many of the nutrients your body needs to be nutritionally and physically fit.


Citrus

The foods of the citrus family are widely recognized as a valuable source of vitamin C. Choose fully ripe citrus fruits for the best nutritional value and choose citrus as near to the tree as possible. Tree ripened fruits picked at the peak of perfection and consumed with hours of picking give you the top nutritional rating. Try grapefruit for breakfast. Add a dash of fresh squeezed lime to your salad as a dressing and enjoy slices of orange with coconut in a light honey dressing for dessert.

Vegetables

The variety of vegetables is amazing. For people who are vegetarian or vegan, choosing vegetables to be part of a nutritionally sound diet is a way of life. Your vegetable group provides many of the minerals required in a good diet. For example, you may realize that potassium is necessary for healthy nutrition. Many people claim the benefits of potassium found in a single banana. But did you know, you can also get adequate potassium in your diet by eating a stalk of broccoli? Try a salad of fresh young spinach topped with pine nuts and stirred with lightly cooked penne'. Feta cheese and a light vinaigrette dressing to create the perfect light luncheon meal.

Whole Grains

Like many other of the best foods, choosing only one type of whole grain for your meals doesn't provide all the variety you need to be nutritionally sound. Often, mixing two or more whole grains together will give you complete proteins. For example, brown rice and wheat kernels with a spicy seasoning are a popular dish in many countries.

Salmon

Salmon is lean fish and nutritionally one of the best fish choices. It is rich in Omega-3 oils that are noted as helping improve the functioning of the brain. Salmon baked whole with just lemon or lime as a seasoning makes a fantastic main dish or a hearty luncheon featured menu item. Salmon is also commonly found in chilled seafood dishes.

Legumes

A legume is the name for a variety of fruits with a single dry seed. Legumes are sometimes called pods. Examples of edible legumes are soybeans, peas, dried beans and peanuts, among others. Legumes are rich in iron and high in fiber, making them excellent nutritional choices. Peanuts are a type of legume that have been used to make hundreds of different products some edible and others with various types of helpful uses.

Nuts and seeds

Nature has packed a lot of goodness into small packages. Most everyone has heard of walnuts and pecans which are very good nutritional products, but did you realize that flax seeds are brain food--containing critical non-meat sources of the Omega-3 oil.

Lean proteins

The keyword here is lean. Americans eat far too much protein compared to the rest of the world. Cut down of portion sizes--three ounces will provide all the needed protein needed for your day.  Also, trim all visible fat from your protein source. Alternatively, use non meat substitutes such as the complete proteins found in vegetable dishes like beans and brown rice.

Tea

Depending on the type of tea you prefer, you can get an energy boost from a cup of green tea, or the calming effect of chamomile tea. Get going with mint teas or start your day with Earl Grey Breakfast Tea. Herbal teas are soothing, tasty and good for you. Non herbal teas will help you to stay alert when you need help to function.

Olive oil

Olive oil is probably the healthiest substance you can use to keep fat in your diet. You can use it on your salad, mix it with a little vinegar to create your own, or fry other foods in the hot oil.  Just make sure that the temperature is not too hot so that the oil is broken down.

Dieting for Success Making it Happen

Dieting is far too often approached from the mindset of impending failure. Too many people have tried and failed so many diets in their past that they try the next new diet with the absolute knowledge that they will fail in this attempt as well. Guess what? They will.

Henry Ford once said, "If you think you can or think you can't you will always be right." If you think you are going to fail at this diet you are dooming yourself to failure before you even deprive yourself of the first bite. Think about that before you begin because only a true masochist could find pleasure in perpetuating this vicious cycle without ever stopping to wonder why none of the other diets have worked for you. Henry Ford also said, "Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently". In case you were wondering I would say his words are quite profound. Seriously though, if you do not examine the reasons for your failures you are certainly dooming yourself to repeat them and if you are already planning to fail why on earth would you even try? 

You are the only person who can take control of your need to eat. You are the only one who can pay attention and notice when you are eating for emotional fulfillment and when you are eating from necessity. You and you alone can get yourself out of your chair and on your feet. You are the only one that can take the responsibility for the condition in which you find yourself. There are medical exceptions but even in these situations if you are trying diet after diet and failing over and over again then you must at some point in time realize that it is quite likely not the diets that aren't working.

Staying motivated is key to losing weight. It sounds simple, but it is absolutely imperative. Make sure to set realistic goals for yourself. Try not to make workout regimens and diet plans that will be difficult to convince yourself to adhere to. You might lose weight slower than you would like, but it should be much easier to keep the weight off.

We must all be accountable for our successes and failures in life. It is no different when it comes to dieting. There are few better feelings in the world than for someone to notice and compliment your efforts. If you are very obese unfortunately, it may take a little more time for people to actually notice the weight you've lost. Too many men and women give up simply because no one noticed and that is an incredible shame. Give your dieting practices an opportunity to work before you decide they are a failure and you just might surprise yourself with a roaring success.

The truth is far too few people hold themselves accountable to their dieting and weight loss goals. This means that far too many people are giving up without really ever bothering to give it an effort. If you have an issue holding yourself accountable to your dieting plans, perhaps you would do well to diet with a partner. This helps you not only set goals but also to meet and exceed challenges along the way. A partner can also benefit from the partnership as he or she will be challenged and feel the need to perform better than if he or she were dieting alone.

A great way to reach your weight loss goals is to add more fiber to your diet. Dietary fiber helps you to feel full faster. Also, high-fiber foods usually involve a lot of chewing and crunching, so you feel more satisfied when you eat them. This slows you down, so your brain has time to give you the signal that you are full.

You must hold yourself accountable to your stated dieting and weight loss goals in order to achieve any lasting results. If you have not had dieting success in the past, then perhaps it is time to bring some degree of accountability into the picture and make it happen.

Solid Advice For New Mom's Trying To Lose Weight

Getting fit and reducing your weight can be difficult, but achieving these goals can be very rewarding physically and mentally. Get some helpful tips and have patience, as you will be dealing with difficult times. Read on to learn valuable tips about weight loss.

For optimal weight loss, reconsider your preconceived notions about food and nutrition. For example, just because one item at the fast food place is healthier than another item doesn't make the fast food stop a good choice. Understanding the best ways to meet your nutritional needs will help you to best set up a diet that meets your desires and your body's needs.

A vital step in weight loss success is understanding portion sizes. Get in the habit of reading the nutrition label before you eat or drink anything. Although the carbs and calories may look fine at first glance, you will often be surprised to find that there are two, three or more servings in that one bag or bottle. 

Weight loss works best for people who figure out the best things for themselves and their body. For example, if you are someone who enjoys waking up early, set your alarm clock for one hour earlier and workout during this time. People who aren't morning people should work out in the evenings. If you don't like getting up, you probably won't want to get up super early.

The key to weight loss is taking everything in moderation. The goal is to stop excessive overindulgence. A small amount of saturated fat and carbohydrates is acceptable. Do not try to completely remove enjoyable foods from the diet. Instead, choose smaller portions and moderate the intake of unhealthy items that are not beneficial.

While on your weight loss journey, it is important to be patient. It's proven that those who were patient and took the weight off slowly are the ones who will keep it off in the long-run. Losing just one or two pounds a week may not sound like much, but if you want to keep it off, that is the way to go.

A great tip to help you lose weight is to familiarize yourself with restaurants' menus. Most fast food restaurants today have a spreadsheet with all of their nutritional information on display. By using this information as a guide, you can make healthier choices even at a fast food restaurant.

To lose weight without a lot of exercise or physical effort, focus on your diet. All that really needs to happen is taking in less calories then your body burns. This isn't to say that you should starve yourself, because that causes rebound pounds, but if you eat small consistent meals to maintain your blood sugar levels, you won't be as hungry from just three meals a day and then overcompensate.

Make sure you treat yourself occasionally. When you follow in the overall healthy eating plan, you can afford to enjoy a dessert or glass of wine from time to time. This doesn't mean that you've fallen off your diet. This just means you are sticking to your weight loss routine and meeting your goals. Make sure that you do not constantly reward yourself, as this can cause you to veer away from your plan. Ultimately, your new way of eating is supposed to last a lifetime, so something is wrong if you have to keep constantly rewarding yourself.

Do not become obsessed with weight loss as this can lead to burnout and failure to reach your goal. Just take your time and use the tips given here that will not be too difficult for you to follow.

Diet and Exercising for Weight Loss

Obesity is now being called an epidemic in the health community. In fact, it will soon be the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, even ahead of cigarette smoking. Obesity leads to type two diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease or stroke and even an increased risk of cancer.

With all of these health risks, as well as the general improvement in the quality of life that can occur, losing weight is one of the best things that you can do for yourself. No matter what we would like to believe, there simply isn't a magic solution to losing weight. The body will shed excess fat when it needs more calories to function through the demands you place on it in a given day than the amount of calories that you feed it. It's that simple.

So, in order to lose weight, you need to decrease the number of calories that you eat as well as increase the amount that you burn. There is a wide range of options to choose from when looking for a weight loss program. All of them often spend a lot of time explaining what to eat, in what amounts and even at what times or in what combinations.

But few of them emphasize the importance of exercise – not just for losing weight, but for your general health and wellbeing. Exercise is vital when trying to lose weight for several reasons:

• First, as you start to eat less, your metabolism will slow down somewhat. Exercising helps to elevate your metabolism back to an efficient level.
• Second, as mentioned, exercise burns more calories so that you can lose weight faster and stay motivated in your efforts.
• Third, exercise actually releases endorphins, chemicals that keep your mood elevated.

Exercise doesn't have to mean spending hours at the gym or straining through exhausting workouts. In fact, in order for you to stick with it on the long run, exercising should be something that you enjoy.

Start by increasing your activity level in an overall way. Take the stairs when you can. Park further from the mall door when you go shopping. Go for a walk in the park or through a neighborhood you love and bring a dog or a friend along for company. Take dance or martial arts lessons. Once you become more active in general, you'll find it easier and more natural to move into regular exercise. Which you'll need to do eventually in order to get regular, noticeable health benefits.

You need to raise your heart rate to a fat burning level and keep it there for at least 20 minutes, 3 times or more a week. However, if you don’t want to go to a gym, there are other options. Videos and DVDs are now available in all kinds of exercise types. That way you can change your routine whenever you want so that you don't get bored with what you're doing.

Try a range of aerobics, kickboxing, yoga, or pretty much any activity you want right in the comfort of your own home. If you have physical limitations that would keep you off from exercising, you can still find a way to increase your activity level.  

Water aerobics is a wonderful option for those who have joint problems or limited mobility because it relieves the pressure on your body that your weight provides. But you still get the resistance to challenge your muscles from the water. There are even classes and videos available that let you exercise in a seated position.

Whatever kind of exercise you choose, it's important to stay motivated and keep it fun. Try gathering a group together to make it a social event. Or get a pedometer, a device that tracks how far you walk, and see how many miles you can walk a week.

Make a competition amongst your friends or family members and treat the winner with something special (not food related!). Make the experience of exercising something that you look forward to, and it will soon become a regular part of your healthier lifestyle.