Thursday, February 14, 2008

Weight Loss Diets

Vegetarian Sloppy JoeIf your New Year's resolution was to lose weight, there are countless books and Internet websites that you can go to. You'll find popular diets, and diets you've probably never heard of. The simple fact remains that if you stick to almost any diet that is healthy and cuts down your caloric intake, you are going to lose weight. However, the following advice can be applied with any healthy diet, and your changes of success are far greater.

1.Don't ever go shopping on an empty stomach. You'll want to buy everything you see, and you'll probably snack on junk food while you're doing it. Eat something healthy like a carrot before you go shopping and you'll lose your craving for junk food.

2.Leave snack food on store shelves and not in your kitchen cabinets. If you have a craving for junk, and it's not in your house, the craving will pass.

3.When you have your meals, heat off a smaller plate. If you use a smaller plate, you're more likely to put less on it; therefore, you'll get less.

4.Try to understand what triggers your cravings. For example, if you eat junk when you are stressed, instead of going for a bag of chips, go for a walk.

Finally, stick to one plan, and give it time to work. Be true to the plan and avoid snacking at any cost. Snack food contains extra calories that you don't need. And above all, exercise, walk instead of ride, climb stairs instead of taking the elevator and count miles instead of calories.

Healthy Snacks For Weight Loss

Vegetarian Sloppy JoeOften times, snacking can ruin a perfectly healthy diet. That is why it is very imortant to pick healthy snacks that will keep you energized throughout the day. Below are some quick and healthy snacks for weight loss that will help you stick to your diet.

Tuna:
Tuna is a quick and easy snack that you can have at any time of the day. Simply pop open a can and you instantly have a healthy snack that is packed with protein. Just remember to buy tuna that is low in sodium.

Tuna is also an excellent source of tryptophan, selenium, protein, Vitamin B3, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B1, phorphorus, potassium, magnesium, and omega 3 fatty acids.

These excellent nutrients provide you with cardiovascular health, muscle growth, and protection against stroke and heart attack.

Turkey:
Turkey is a very lean meat that builds muscle and improves the immune system. It's also packed with protein, iron, creatine, zinc, Vitamin B6 and B12, phosphorus, and potassium.

Turkey is an excellent snack choice because it takes more energy for your body to digest protein than it does to digest carbohydrates or fats. That means, the more protein you eat, the more calories you burn.

Other sources of lean protein include veal steak, tuna, salmon, chicken, and fish.

Oatmeal
Oatmeal is often considered a breakfast food. However, this highly nutritious grain is good at any time of the day.

Oatmeal is low in calories and high in dietary fiber, which make you feel full over a longer period of time. These factors make oatmeal an excellent choice for anyone trying to lose weight.

These water-soluble fibers also help lower your blood cholesterol levels.
If you are looking for an excellent snack that doesn't sacrifice taste, oatmeal is an excellent choice. In fact, you can even spice up your oatmeal a bit by adding some bananas and a bit of honey.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Lose Weight With Pleasure

Vegetarian Sloppy JoeSooner or later almost everybody suffering from excess weight comes to a thought that these excess kilos/pounds make their life less comfortable, aesthetic and very often less healthy. Than this person makes firm decision – I must end with this excess weight problem! By the way to make such decision is a very vital step to succeed in weight loss.

Next stage is to choose right weight loss program. It is very important that it would suit exactly you. It must suit your state of health and your gastronomic affections cause the program will last not for a few days. To consult with your physician is compulsory! Together you can elaborate your diet plan. There is no need to include in it foodstuffs you do not like. Long consumption of disliked by you foodstuffs will lead to psychological discomfort and therefore to diet fail. If you do not like curd for example, then do not include it in your everyday diet plan. Substitute it with fruits, yoghurt, vegetable salad or peace of not fat meat.

There are plenty of variants. The main thing is not what you ate but how much.

Well, you have diet plan and firm, final decision to follow it. You think that now all things go easy. You follow diet and get good results.

In practice all goes much harder. What to do if breakfast is already gone but there is too much time till lunch? Thoughts about food don’t leave you. I think it is well known by you if you at least once tried to lose weight.

Charge You With Energy And Positive Emotions

Vegetarian Sloppy JoeWhat to do in this situation?
The answer is – have a snack. You must know that split nutrition with not big portions speed up considerably your metabolism and prevent discomfort hunger feelings.

But having a snack you must follow these rules:
Food for a snack must contain not more than 100 calories

Use those foodstuffs that charge you with energy and positive emotions.

Let’s see now what we can have for a snack not breaking diet plan. Choose foodstuffs that suit you best and have a snack!

1. It may be any fruits. Prefer fruits with about 50 calories for 100g (3.5oz) of foodstuff. That can be apples, pears, oranges, grapes, kiwi. But some fruits can provoke your appetite and some can muffle it. For example apples do not muffle my appetite absolutely. Quite the contrary my stomach begins to rumble demanding more food after apples. So conclusion is – as a snack apples are not for me. What to do? I substitute apples with more carb fruit. It can be banana. I eat banana but hold the quantity of it less. Remember the main rule – snack must have not more than 100 calories.

2. It can be sandwich with vegetables. Take cereal bread. Then put a half of tomato, small piece of cheese and cut greens on it. Your snack is ready! You have plenty of variants. The point is – your snack must be with only one sandwich!

3. Dried fruits are very good for a snack. They have plenty of calories but it is not a problem. You will not eat many of them. 5-6 dried apricots, prunes will be OK. Drink water or any fruit tea but without sugar.

4. Nuts have also plenty of calories but are very health-giving at the same time. If your had no time for a low-calorie snack take nuts without doubts but not more than 40gr (a bit less than 2oz) a day.

5. Do not put aside yogurts and other sour milk foodstuffs. Remember - the fresher the most health-giving.

6. Berries also are very good for a snack. Blend them with curd or yogurt – your hunger will vanish without trace.

7. Piece of cereal bread with yogurt muffles hunger easily. Take only one piece of bread but no tough limits for yogurt. Big glass is no problem.

8. Two-three small pieces of chocolate can be a snack but not the whole bar.

As you see there are plenty of foodstuffs for a snack. Take them but follow 100 calories/snack rule. Turn out hunger feeling and discomfort!

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Eating Simple To Lose The Pounds

Vegetarian Sloppy JoeLosing weight is hard,at first. So here is a simple plan to do it. I went through this diet myself for 2 months and lost 35 pounds safely. My starting weight was 200 pounds even. I got down to 165 pounds in roughly 2 months. Here is how! Breakfast

1 bowl of irish cut oatmeal with applesauce
orange juice/water/coffee

Mid morning snack
power bar or granola bar
protein shake

Lunch
tuna or chicken wrap
water

Mid afternoon snack
a piece of fruit

Dinner
grilled chicken or fish
rice
some sort of vegtable
water

Before bed
protein shake

Heres the good part only stick to this diet for 6 days a week. On the 7th day eat what ever you want!

The 7th day eating is to fool your metabolism. Try doing some sort of cardio a day. At leat 20 minutes.

After 2 weeks or less you will definatley see a difference.You might want take a multivitamin once a day with dinner. With any diet there must be some sort of physical excercise. I myself prefer running. Very good cardio workout. Biking is another very good cardio exercise. Especially if its a nice day. At least it gets you out of the house for some fresh air. Or go for a nice brisk walk in the evening with your dog. Anything to get the heart pumping. Later on throw in a little lite weight lifting. Just to tone up.

Nothing major. Don't forget about roller blading too. Well good luck in the battle of the bulge!

When Dieting Choose The Right Bread

Vegetarian Sloppy JoeAside from it being a processed food and full of carbs, 1 slice of bread is roughly 100 calories, and doesn't fill you up very well. when bread is a staple in your diet, you tend to snack on it, as well, since there are so many slices in a loaf.

I usually find that people who eat bread will eat about 4 slices a day, 2 being on a sandwhich and the other 2 being snacks (as a snack before bed). That's 400 calories

However, not all breads are created equal. If dieting, sprouted grain type breads are excellent. Sprouted grains are good for a number of reasons, the main one being it is a "live food." Sprouted a grains' germ will convert a good portion of the seeds' starch into simpler sugars that the yeast can actually use. This process naturally helps sweeten the bread. But the key is it make the grains nutrients more available. You will still enjoy the same great taste as normal bread, but enjoy some healthy benefits as well.

If you are unwilling to cut bread out of your diet, you should try to cut back on how much you are eating on a daily basis; or at the very least switch to a full grain, or even multi grain breads.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Light And Healthy Zone Diet Snacks

Vegetarian Sloppy JoeYou are either in the zone or you aren't. You might hate the perfect balance of carbohydrates, proteins and fats in the beginning. After all, we hate doing things right. Don't we?

But you have to understand that every Zone diet meal is broken down into 2 or three blocks per meal. One block amounts to a specific food group. So, in order to have the right balance, you need to keep it in pairs.

For example, if you are having an extra block of a particular group, you might just have to pair it up with the right amount of protein.

If these are the meals that we are talking about, then what about the zone diet snacks? These are extremely small one block meals. For example, ¼ cup of cottage cheese or 6 peanuts.

Start Your Weight Loss Program

Vegetarian Sloppy JoeLose Weight Faster: Cut A Few More Calories Each Day, And Jump Start Your Weight Loss Program
Most dieters find that everything goes well for the first few days or weeks of their diet. They are highly motivated to lose weight, so they stick to it. They probably lose a few pounds, and start feeling good.

But then, inevitably, you hit a plateau. Your body adjusts to your new calorie intake and exercise level, and your weight loss slows down or stops.You need a way to jump start your weight loss, and I have found a simple way to do that: Cut a few more calories.

Yes, I know, it seems simple, but it works. We all keep track of our calories, but at some point some calories start to creep back into diet that we may not even be aware of. It may be some extra dressing on our salad, or an extra snack during the day.

So to jump start your weight loss program, cut back on those extra calories.

Every morning when I got to work I would eat a healthy snack, either a piece of fruit, or a granola bar, or whatever. Now, I don't.I have a healthy breakfast, and I wait until the middle of the morning to have my healthy snack. Then lunch, one healthy snack in the afternoon (not two), a healthy dinner, and then one more healthy snack (a small bowl of cereal) in the evening.

Because I am spacing out my eating over the entire day, I don't each huge quantities of food at any one time, and I don't get hungry, so I can cut back a few calories, and jump start by weight loss.

Lose Weight Quickly – And For Good

Vegetarian Sloppy JoeWant a quick weight loss diet plan? Then don't do anything to radically change your lifestyle. Quick weight loss is wonderful, and a great motivator, but if you want to stay slim for your lifetime, then you need to choose a diet plan that fits your current lifestyle.

Yes, habits can be changed, and you are encouraged to change your habits that prevent you from being healthy. When you're trying to lose weight, it can be too tempting to make a drastic change to your eating and exercising. Quick weight loss diet plans are tempting, but can make you feel worse if you fail to stick with them.

Instead of looking for that next quick weight loss diet plan, you could start making small changes to your current situation. Write down everything you eat for a week, where you are when you eat it, how you feel when you're eating, and what time it is. Look for patterns, and you'll begin to see what's causing your weight gain in the first place.

If you're a constant snacker and try to deny yourself your midday snack, you may be setting yourself up for failure. It can be too tempting to reach for that candy bar when you've lost your willpower and didn't plan to eat anything. Schedule yourself a healthy snack, or a small snack of the foods you like. Stick with what you planned and you won't feel deprived.

Keeping a food journal is the easiest way to keep on track of your eating habits. Write out what you plan to eat and when the night before you go to bed, and you'll be set the next day.

Beware of unexpected changes to your day! The number one reason why dieters fail is the lack of a backup plan when the day doesn't go as normal. Keep non-perishable items available (such as meal replacement bars) for emergency snack situations, and keep a clear head when you find yourself unexpectedly eating at your favorite restaurant. It's a good idea to keep a list of approved food choices for all the restaurants you may end up eating at.

Friday, February 8, 2008

Ready To Eat - Zone Diet Snacks

Vegetarian Sloppy JoeIf you think that putting up such a small and effective snack is difficult, then zone diet has an answer to that as well.
  • It has created small ready to eat snack bars that have the right amount of nutrients as well. These are called Zone perfect bars and come in several different flavors.
  • They all are priced similarly and a bar may cost you $1 to $2 per piece. Fudge graham, chocolate almond Biscotti and Coconut crunch are some of the most popular flavors.
  • There are others as well like Strawberry Yogurt, Apple Cinnamon crunch etc.
If it sounds mouthwatering, then it tastes like that as well. While keeping stringent rules on the nutrients in the bar, equal attention is also given to the taste.

Stay in the zone
For keeping your weight loss to the optimum, it is crucial that you stay in the zone. It isn't mandatory that you opt for the ready to go meals. You can very well prepare your own meals and snacks as long as you are not tripping over the meter.