Eating Habits & Weight Loss

Ever find yourself thinking thoughts like these?

It sure would be nice if I had the time to cook decent low fat and low calorie meals. I know I would lose weight then. I am so tired when I get home from work that I just pop anything I can find into the microwave and eat in front of the TV. The kids take up so much of my time that I just can never get anything prepared that seems to be a healthy meal.

All these thoughts gang up on people when they are trying to figure out how exactly they are going to lose the weight that they want to. And it’s not like these concerns aren’t valid, you have a life to live and other people are in your life. It’s not like you just can go of by yourself and live in cave eating brown rice for every meal. This is the real world and you need some help losing weight that works in the real world.

First step. This is your life. You are the one who feels bad about being overweight. And it is your right to be able to take care of yourself in a way that makes you feel good. In a way that makes you feel healthy and in a way that tells other people you are just as important in your life as they are.

That is a fact. It is not like they are going to do the exercising for you. They are not going to look at you and ask if you need some help figuring out a healthy eating plan.

You will have to tell them. And this is what stops a lot of people cold when it comes time to make that big attitude change. They make up the worst things in their minds and imagine the other people telling those things to them. True enough, sometimes, your spouse is going to whine. Sometimes the kids are going to want pocket pizzas every night just like they used to eat.

But most times, people will just say, OK, what can I do to help.

The easy way to figure out how to make your life work so that you can lose weight is to do some advance planning. But you can really only do this if you decide it is important enough to spend some time on. Meals that are prepared ahead of when you need to eat them are almost always much more nutritious in a healthy way than meals you eat on the go.

Deciding on a menu and making a week’s meals ahead of time winds up being a lot easier way to eat than almost any other way. You get the chance to figure out ahead of time what you need to buy to make the meals and you buy those things. You wind up buying surprisingly few additional high calorie snacks.

It is kind of funny. People have this whole mindset against planning out their week’s worth of eating, but once they start and keep going long enough to see some results, they become ecstatic with their progress.

Fair warning though, it’s hard to plan out a year’s worth of meals.

Atkins for Dieting

Most people around the world by now have heard of the Atkins diet. It has been one of the most highly touted and highly controversial diets of our time. Those who love it have nothing but great things to say about it but those who are critical are not shy about their opposition either. The largest criticism when it comes to the Atkins, or low carb diet would be the near absence of whole grains, which are considered the cornerstone to a healthy diet by many.

Dieting with the Atkins diet involved eliminating a large degree of carbohydrates from your diet. In the past there hasn't been as much of an emphasis on fitness and exercise with the Atkins diet as there seems to be currently. This is good news however as an active fitness regime is as essential to successful weight loss as cutting calories and in this case cutting carbohydrates.

You should take great caution that you are getting accurate information when it comes to Atkins dieting if this is something you are considering in order to meet your fitness and weight loss needs. There is a great deal of misleading and incorrect information that is floating around out there when it comes to the Atkins diet and weight loss plan. First of all, weight loss is the direct result of burning more calories than you consume. It doesn't matter how many or how few carbs you enjoy or deny yourself during the day if at the end of the day you've consumed a few thousand calories too many.

The notion that you can eat anything you want during the day as long as there are no carbs is simply incorrect. Calories still put on the pounds whether you are using the Atkins plan for weight loss or not. That being said there are some interesting insights in this diet and a good man of the foods that are eliminated are those that have the most complex sugars for the body to dispose of. For this reason there are many who have followed the honest to goodness plan to tremendous results.

If you are considering dieting with the Atkins plan you should realize that this is a lifelong commitment in order to achieve the maximum benefit of the plan. There will be lesser restrictions as you reach the maintenance phases of the plans but you are making a conscious decision to pretty much sacrifice a good deal of the carbohydrates that many of us have enjoyed throughout our lives. This is a concept that is much easier said than done over an extended period of time and especially in a society when most of us cannot commit to a mate for that long.

At any rate, dieting with the Atkins plan has produced results for a good deal of people around the world. The news of these results has made it one of the most talked about, tested, and tried systems for dieting on the planet and many people have mixed reviews. Those who love it and feel that it is effective are enthusiastic in its support though those that are honest will admit that you do feel as though you are sacrificing a good deal for the sake of your dietary needs. Those who hate it hate it, and there is nothing that is going to change their opinion. The only way to know for sure is to try for yourself.CLICK HERE for more information.

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.

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.

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.

Weight Watchers Dieting

When it comes to dieting there are very few organizations that have achieved the lasting success of Weight Watchers. They have been around quite a while and show no signs of stopping. More importantly, their success stories speak volumes for those who join and stick with the program. So what makes this program so successful when many others come and go?

Community

Believe it or not, one of the most important things about Weight Watchers secret to success, so to speak, is the sense of community that is forged between the men and women who are trying to lose weight. There is something humbling and exciting about standing in front of the scale week after week and sharing not only your personal successes and failures but also the failures and successes of others.

Far too often we those who are dieting simply do not have an adequate support system at home. The bonding that is done during the Weight Watchers meeting is a strong bond of men and women who may come from different backgrounds and walks of life but who share a common goal for their futures-weight loss and better health. That is not a bond to be taken lightly particularly when they laugh and cry together. They are in their own way going through the trenches together and the success of this type of program for motivating and encouraging is nothing short of phenomenal.

Evolution

Weight Watchers has a pattern for success but they are not beyond evolving with the needs of the time. While they will be the first to state that the most successful participants typically attend the meetings, Weight Watchers also offers alternatives for those with busy schedules and even those that are simply too afraid to go to the meetings. For these people there is the anonymity of online forums, message boards, and support groups.

Weight Watchers hasn't limited its evolutionary process to this alone, they've also in recent years added a points system that allows dieters participating in their program to more easily gauge how well they are doing by their dietary standards and requirements without needing to count every single calorie or weighing their food. We live in a world of busy people and it is often more hassle than many dieters find to be worth the effort to count every single calorie (particularly when dining out).

The Weight Watchers website is another example of their commitment to evolve and accommodate the diverse needs of the men and women participating in their program. If you haven't checked it out in a while you really should take a look and see what amazing insights and information they have to offer.

Commitment to Fitness

Weight Watchers knows that it isn't just diet that gets results. When you combine diet with exercise the results are much more immediate and more profound. The fact that Weight Watchers stresses the importance of exercise and physical fitness in addition to proper nutrition and changing your way of thinking when it comes to food is yet another reason for their widely known success.

Weight Watchers is just one of many different weight loss and dieting programs in the market today. The fact that they have made a name for themselves and stand out above the rest in many ways is nothing to take lightly. It seems that there is a new weight loss program cropping up every other month or so and yet Weight Watchers continues to achieve visible and sustainable results in those who really work the program. Very few programs can make that claim for as long as Weight Watchers has been able to.

When you combine all of the things mentioned above with the pre packaged foods that are offered by Weight Watchers, the extensive recipes that are available for Weight Watcher's participants, and a solid track record for success you would be robbing yourself of the potential for lasting success if you didn't at least see what the plan has to offer you.CLICK HERE for more information

Dieting and Fitness

When it comes to living a long and healthy life, there are two necessary ingredients: diet and fitness. While some believe that they are one thing all together, nothing could be further from the truth. It is quite possible to have a perfectly healthy diet with deplorable fitness habits. It is equally possible to be very physically fit with less than savory eating habits.

There's a clever little line in the Jimmy Buffet song "Fruitcakes" when his 'lady' is lamenting:
"I treat my body like a temple
 You treat yours like a tent"

I can't help but think of this line whenever I think about all the people around the world who are going on these garbage in, garbage out diet plans hoping to achieve the weight loss success of those who are endorsing these products.

To be completely honest, it is possible to shed pounds through diet alone. It is difficult but possible. It is also possible to be physically fit and have a few extra pounds hanging around. To a large degree we are what we eat. If we consume a high fat low substance diet our bodies are going to lack the fuel required to burn the fat. At the same time if we aren't providing our bodies with the tools it needs to build muscle it doesn't matter how many weights we lift.

When it comes to diet and fitness, the best results are achieved when they work together rather than separately. Use your fitness routine to burn excess calories and use your diet in order to properly provide your body the nutrients and fuel it needs to build muscle. I've heard many times in my life that a pound of muscle weighs less than a pound of fat. While this is not true at all, a pound is a pound regardless; a pound of muscle occupies less space on the body than a pound of fat. Pound for pound, I would much rather mine be composed of muscle than fat. Dieting alone does not build muscle and that is something you will do well to remember in your efforts.

You should also realize that as you are building muscle you may be shedding inches while not showing a great deal of progress on the scale. It is very important that you keep this in mind throughout the weight loss process. Do not measure your progress by the scales alone or you will achieve misleading results. The problem is that far too many people do just this and get frustrated and give up when they are actually making progress. Do not allow yourself to be a victim of the scales. Look in the mirror, try on your tight pants, and measure your waistline. Measure your success by how you feel after climbing a flight of stairs not by how many pounds fell of the scale this week.

By incorporating fitness into your diet routine you are also enabling your body to burn off any extra calories you may have consumed during the day. This means that if you want to have a small 'cheat' during your day, you can make up for it by burning a few more calories than normal in the evening. This isn't something that should happen often but an occasional occurrence isn't going to make or break your diet.

You should also look at dieting and fitness as a ball and glove type of relationship. While you can play ball without the glove, it seems to work so much better if you have both. Diet and fitness when combined can create fantastic weight loss results for those who take them both seriously. The thing to remember is that neither works as well alone and neither will work unless you are willing to do the work. You must make this a priority in your life in order to achieve the best possible results.

Dieting for Children

It is difficult in the world we live in to watch as so many children are literally overburdening their bodies at such young ages by being overweight. These children simply cannot run, jump, and play with the other children because their bodies simply will not allow them to do so. For these children, dieting is almost a necessity despite our best efforts to insulate them from the self-esteem issues that often accompany obesity.

If you have a child that is well outside the normal weight range for his or her age you are the one who must make the efforts and take the necessary steps to insure they shed those pounds in order to live a life that is as close to normal as possible. The first thing you need to do however is consult with your child's doctor about the best possible course of action that will also safeguard the health of your child.

Put quite frankly however, if you do not take the efforts to assist your child in shedding those pounds you are placing the health of your child at risk. We do not let our children play in the street, we don't let them run with knives, why on earth would we allow them to commit suicide by Twinkie? If you have a child that is overweight, the following tips should help you and them with their dieting.

First of all, do not make food a punishment or a reward. Food is part of the problem with your children and you do not need to use it against them. Instead, introduce them to healthy alternatives. Do not keep the junk in the house and do not let them purchase lunch at school. Pack their lunches for school so that you know what they are eating. If you don't give them junk food they cannot have it when at home and you can work to insure that they can't get their hands on junk food when they leave the house.

Incorporate healthy snacks into your families eating plan rather than junk food. Fresh fruit, cut up vegetables, nuts, and frozen yogurt are good healthy snacks for your kids. When in doubt consult the food pyramid but watch calories in the process. You want your children to eat a well balanced diet while eliminating junk food and sweets for the best result.

Cut out the juices and pop. This may be a huge ordeal in your house but the greatest gift you can offer your child is a deep and abiding appreciation for water. Water works to make their bellies feel full and keeps them hydrated for the added activities you should be introducing into their routines.

Have them take dance, take up a sport, or simply get out and run around the yard. The worst thing you can do is to allow your children to become comatose television, computer, or video game zombies. Get them out and get them active. This helps in two ways. First of all, they aren't eating if they are outside playing and having a good time. Second, they are burning calories as they play which is a huge bonus in the dieting process for your children.

As your child begins to take off the weight you should begin to notice a very profound difference in not only the way he or she carries his or herself but also in his or her interactions with others. Your child will experience restored and renewed self-confidence as the pounds come off and the teasing at school stops.

If you are at a complete loss as to how to help your child take the weight off there are camps that are designed specifically to deal with weight issues and building self-esteem in children ages 7-19. One of these camps may be just the answer you are looking for. Another thing to consider is to lead by example. If you don't eat the junk food, if you are active, and if you do not engage in emotional overeating your child will not be learning those behaviors from you or having them reinforced by you.CLICK HERE for more information

Discove The 3 Hour Dieting

When it comes to the world of dieting you will find that there are many diet, weight loss, and fitness plans on the market. It takes years for some to become a contender and others remain a best-kept secret of sorts. One such 'best kept' secret would be the 3 Hour Diet that was designed by Jorge Cruise. I am sure that there are many reading along and chuckling under your breath that there is no way one can lose weight by eating every three hours however the science behind the theory is fairly common and Jorge Cruise is a mainstay in the fitness industry.

The long and short of this diet operates with the knowledge that if you do not feed your body accurately and regularly your body will go into what is called 'starvation mode'. In this mode your body holds onto the fat rather than burning it up and consuming it for use. This means that your body is burning muscle rather than fat to take the energy it needs in order to function.

With the 3 Hour Diet you will not feel hungry all the time, in fact, there are many who claim they are constantly setting alarms and reminding themselves to eat. You will also learn the proper foods to eat in order to achieve the best possible results. The key is in learning which foods are right for you when dieting with this plan. You can purchase the book The 3-Hour Diet by Jorge Cruise and you can sign up online for more information about the weight plan itself and how to incorporate it into your busy routine.

I do recommend purchasing the book if you are seriously considering this as your method of dieting as there are many wonderful hints, tips, and tricks that are mentioned in the book to help you keep things going no matter how busy and hectic your lifestyle may be. One thing you need to keep in mind is that dieting with a program such as this is no small commitment. You need to stick to the timetable as much as possible in order to achieve the results this plan is famous for. If you aren't willing to eat every three hours then this plan really may not be the plan for you.

Otherwise, if this is something you would be interested in, I highly recommend it. There are special considerations based on the amount you weight currently and the amount of weight you are hoping to lose. It is best if you are honest throughout the process in order to achieve the best possible and most immediate results. The claim is that you can lose as many as 10 pounds in the first two weeks and there are those that have claimed to do just that over and over again. This is a diet that even many celebrities endorse for quick and immediate results.

The good and the bad about 3 hour dieting is that it is effective but takes a very real commitment on the part of the one that is dieting. This diet is one that is taking the world by storm. If you haven't heard of it before now, please take the time to check it out and see if this is something you could incorporate into your life. The results that have been reported as a result of this diet as nothing short of phenomenal. If there were one diet I would recommend above others for those who hate feeling hungry, it would be this diet.