Diet is the most important aspect of weight loss. What you eat shows up all over your body. Those who tell you that you can take a magic pill and eat all the junk that you want and still lose weight are lying to you in order to sell pills, which are usually dangerous.

If you’re serious about losing weight, there are certain foods that you can eat, and certain foods that you should not eat. This does not mean that you have to eat nothing but rabbit food, but it does mean that you have to pass up on that Big Mac with fries.

This entire book could be comprised of foods that you should not eat when you are on a diet. There are many foods out there that are delicious but are not good for you as they are high in fat or sugar. I am going to concentrate on foods that you will most likely eat in order to give you some diet dos and don’ts.

Foods To Avoid

The following are foods that you should avoid when you are seeking to lose 10 pounds in 10 days, or any time you are watching your weight. In fact, these foods are good to avoid…period:

- Fast foods
- Fried foods
- Products marked low fat or diet
- Cookies
- Candy
- Cakes and other sweets
- Frozen foods

Notice that this list does not include words like “carbs” or “trans fats” This is because dieting to lose weight is not a complicated plan. You do not have to cut out all of the foods that you eat or eat just protein, although you should increase your protein intake. You just have to avoid foods that are diet saboteurs.

Fast Foods

Fast foods are usually fried, greasy, high in fat, high in sugar, processed with chemicals or high in sodium. The first thing that you want to avoid when you are seeking a way to lose weight are any fast foods. That means any of them. Many of them are disguising themselves as “healthy foods.” They’re not. In order for fast food giants like McDonald’s to offer salads, they have to be able to buy the ingredients so that they can be stored and distributed all over the country. Those “diet salads” often have more calories in them than some of the sandwiches, especially if you add the dressing, which is usually high in fat and sugar.

Take your lunch. Even if you take a peanut butter sandwich from home, you are still getting less calories than you would if you ate at fast food restaurants. Actually, peanut butter, although fatty, is very good for you as it is a good source of protein. You just do not want to overdo it.

One of the first things that you need to do if you are going to lose 10 pounds in 10 days is to give up the idea of eating out. Skip the muffin that you get in the morning and the lunch that you eat at a fast food joint in the afternoon. Take your lunch for 10 days and you will see a difference in your weight.
When I wanted to take off weight in the past, the first thing I did was eliminate McDonald’s from my diet. I used to like McDonald’s, but knew that a Big Mac, an order of fries and a Coke were more calorie content than my body needed for one meal (that typical menu is 1300 calories). I was never big on calorie counting and prefer to do things simple, but I knew that the calories that I consumed for fast foods were more than those consumed from foods that I brought from home and didn’t really fill me up. Make eating fast foods the first thing that you eliminate if you are trying to lose weight.

Do not be fooled by Subway ads that say you can lose weight by eating their foods. They consist of processed meats and cheeses that are not good for you, either. In order for fast foods to be mass produced as they are, they have to be treated with chemicals. If you want a vegetable sandwich, make it at home and bring it to work.

Fried Foods

Fried foods are delicious. Even bugs would taste good if they were deep fried. But foods that are deep fried are high in fat, usually unsaturated fat. While many restaurants are getting rid of trans fats in their foods, due to demands by the FDA and other legal authorities, fried foods are high in fat and are not good for any diet. They are also high in calories. Eat foods that are broiled or barbequed if you want to lose weight and stay away from anything fried.

Many people eat fried foods because they are inexpensive and filling. But fried foods are one of the main reasons why people put on weight in the first place. They do not offer you the nutritional value that you need for your body and what little value they do have is diminished by the fact that they are fried. When you cook, use a George Foreman Grill to make meats and even grill vegetables. If you have to use any oils so foods will not stick, use Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Products Marked Low Fat Or Diet

So many people think that they can eat so-called “diet” foods when they are on a diet. The stores are filled with these foods that are usually loaded with chemicals and often are no better for you than the regular foods. For example, Cheezits – one of my all-time favorite snacks. There is a low-fat variety of Cheezits that I actually prefer over the regular Cheezits. However, if you look at the fat and calorie content, you will see that there is not much difference.

Snackwells are the same. These are low fat cookies and cakes. What people do not realize is that they usually end up eating more of these foods because they feel that they are “diet” foods. Foods that are sweet and marked for being a diet food contain a sugar substitute (one of the many latest to come around) that is worse for you than actual sugar.

People tend to overindulge in the low fat or diet snacks and foods that are out there, thinking that they are getting away with something. While you can replace your regular foods with low fat, you have to be aware of the chemicals that the foods may contain as well as the fact that they are not that much lower in calories. If you have a hankering for Cheezits, have only a small portion of the low fat type, but do not feel that because they are low fat, you can eat the entire box.

You are better off having real foods in your home than those that are marked low fat or diet as you will not be tempted to over indulge in eating that will sabotage your diet.

Cookies, Candy, Cakes and Other Sweets

Stay away from sugar if you want to lose 10 pounds in 10 days. Sugar is one of the main reasons why people gain weight. Many people have a sweet tooth and cannot help but indulge in these foods. Sugar is processed through the system very quickly. It is hard on the digestive organs and causes them to work extra hard to process the foods for elimination. Sugar stays in the blood stream and turns to fat. While it can be difficult for anyone with a sweet tooth to give up sweets, it is essential that you do this if you want to lose weight.

Sweets do not offer you any nutritional value whatsoever. They do nothing to help your body and are considered empty calories. You are eating them for nothing and they are showing up as fat on your body. Some diets tell you to avoid all foods that contain simple carbohydrates, such as bread. But while breads have nutritional value and are at least filling, sweets offer you nothing. Nothing but calories that will pile up on your body.

Frozen Foods

Lean Cuisine? Do not bother. Stay away from all frozen foods. They are loaded with sodium. They have to be loaded with sodium in order to keep. Sodium will also make you retain water and will hamper your ability to lose weight. If you think that those diet foods that you see in the frozen food aisle are your answer when it comes to losing weight, think again. Not only do they have excessively small portions, but the sodium content negates the low calories in these meals.

By cooking at home and eating real foods, you can end up not only losing the weight that you want to lose, but also eating healthier Avoid fast foods, fried foods, sweets, diet foods and frozen foods if you want to lose weight.

Foods To Eat

When you are looking for foods to eat on your diet, look towards natural foods. Also be careful how you cook them. You should also increase your protein intake so that your body will burn more calories.
One important meal that you do not want to miss is breakfast. You should eat protein for breakfast when you want to lose weight fast as this will boost your metabolism and cause you to start burning fat early in the day. Foods to eat for breakfast should be high in protein, but not contain sugar. Stay away from so-called protein bars.

Hard boiled eggs, broiled meats and whole grains are a good choice for breakfast. A soft boiled or poached egg is also a good choice when it comes to early morning food because eggs are a good source of protein. Eggs have a bad rap as being high in cholesterol, although this is not true. Egg whites are a good source of protein and as long a they are not fried, they make a good breakfast choice.

Salads are good for lunch. You can try a low fat dressing, although you can easily make your own salad dressing. Use Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar and add herbs like Oregano and Basil to the dressing and it will be low in fat and will not contain preservatives. Grilled vegetables are also a good choice for lunch meals.

You want to add protein to your diet, but not a lot of fat. Chicken breast is a good source of protein and if you broil it, you will be getting the benefits of the protein without the fat. Fish is also an excellent source of protein as is red meat. A hamburger without a bun, for example, that has been barbequed, will give you protein that you need for the day.

If you have a sweet tooth, eat fruit. While fruits have sugar, unlike sweets they do supply your body with the nutrients that you need. Vegetables are also essential to a healthy diet. You can eat vegetables like celery and carrots all day long – they have minimal calories and you actually expend more calories to chew these vegetables than they contain.

In most cases, the foods to eat when you are trying to lose weight are common sense. If you know which foods to stay away from, you should know which foods to eat. Cooking the foods is very important. You should cook at home instead of eating out and watch the oils and seasonings that you use. Simple substitutions, like hamburger that you make at home or chicken breast, for lunch instead of a fast food sandwich, can make a tremendous impact when it comes to weight loss. Substituting fruit instead of eating cakes will also make a difference.

Eat three meals a day and do not eat in the evening. You can snack between meals on raw vegetables. You will find that by following this diet plan, you not only lose weight successfully, but also feel better as well.

One thing that you have to remember is to eat only until you are not hungry any longer. Instead of stuffing yourself until you cannot eat any more, eat until you no longer have a hungry feeling. When you do have a feeling of hunger, eat something that is not one of the foods to avoid and then wait 20 minutes before you snack again. Often, it takes some time for the signal that we are no longer hungry to travel to the brain. You do not need to starve yourself to lose weight. You can do so and even be healthier at the same time if you follow this type of diet.

Today, approximately 15% of children between the ages of 6 and 19 are either overweight or obese (which is a 10% increase since 1970). In fact, there are now more than 9 million youngsters who are at risk from suffering some impaired life due to high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels or Type 2 Diabetes, as well as having a negative self image of themselves, which will continue as they grow into adulthood.

There have been studies carried out that indicate a child who is obese at the age of 6, will have a 50% chance of becoming obese as an adult. Also, if one or both of the child’s parents are overweight, then the chances increase to 80%. These are very sobering and scary statistics for a parent whose child is overweight.

However, there is good news that, with help from the adults in their lives, these children can be helped. They can be taught healthier behaviors, which relate to both their eating habits and improving the physical activity they do, and this will help them to lose the weight.

By helping them become more selective with the types of food that they consume, and increasing the amount of physical activity that they accomplish, it will only produce positive results.

However, it should be stressed that formal dieting, and especially giving your child a severely restricted diet, should only be attempted with medical approval and the appropriate nutritional supervision. Many pediatricians believe the best course is to try and hold an overweight child’s weight at a steady level, and avoid losing large amounts of weight at a time, until such a time as their height is at a healthier proportion to their weight.

The following 4 steps will not only help to facilitate healthier eating habits, but will also increase the amount of physical activity that they do.

1. Assessing the Health of Your Child and whether they are overweight

Before you make any personal or environmental changes in your teen’s life, take a few minutes to survey what your home life is like. Do you allow them to lead a sedentary life, and are they given plenty of chances to over eat at any time? If you do, then it is important that you bring any changes in to these areas of their life gradually.

First, look at just how many hours your teen spends either watching TV, or sitting at their computer. A teen can spend up to 24 hours a week watching TV. Log any time that they spend doing either, watching TV or on the computer, and try to reduce this by half.

When you have meals, does your family gather around a table, or do you eat most of your meals sitting in front of the TV or computer? If you do, then try and make it a family rule that, in the future, all food (including snacks) will be eaten in the kitchen or in the dining room at a table. Such a small change has been shown to significantly reduce the amount of over eating that takes place in the home.

Next, you will need to take a close look at your fridge and food cupboards. Which foods do you have that you are most likely to eat when hunger hits you? If the foods are high in fat, sweetened or low in nutritional value, then why not try to find healthier alternatives instead, such as fresh fruit and vegetables?

2. Do Not Shame your Child into Losing Weight

Neither adults nor children can be shamed into losing weight, and an overweight teen will know that they weigh too much. But what a teen does not know, is how they can achieve a normal weight, as well as increase their self esteem. Teens like to know that their parents love them unconditionally, whether they are fat, thin or normal.

For any parent, mastering the fine art of loving our children just the way they are, while helping them to achieve a healthier body can be difficult. Any parent must learn to “give time” and believe that the lessons we teach them will one day come to fruition.

This means that we can teach our youngsters to visualize that healthy plate (one which is half salad or vegetables, a quarter of starches and the remainder are made up of protein such as fish, meat, poultry or soy). But you also know that at some point, they will sneak either sweets or cookies into the home, and upset the balance that you have achieved.

A parent can persist in teaching their teens to see their plate before any food is put on it. This is helpful, as it creates a sense of portion control that is helpful when the parent is not around to monitor what food they are actually having. This portion control can also be practiced not just at home, but when visiting a restaurant as well.

The recommended amount of physical activity to be done by an adult is 30 minutes, and 60 minutes for children, which should be done several times a week. However, if you are looking to lose weight, then more physical activity may be necessary.

A great way of breaking the pattern of the lives that many families lead is to arrange activities that involve plenty of movement for the whole family together. Not only do these types of activities burn calories, they can also serve as a setting for parent and child communication. It is especially important in a child’s teen years, when such opportunities for a parent to interact with their teen are at a premium.

Also, there is little or no financial cost involved in going for a walk or having a bike ride, and many communities now have either indoor or outdoor swimming pools which do not cost to much to use. Just taking the family dog for a walk in the evening not only makes the dog happy, but will help to increase the family’s metabolism.

4. How to encourage the right sort of behavior in your teen

The best way to help an overweight or obese teen is through your own behavior. Too often, teens will do as an adult does, rather than what we tell them.

No parent can ask their child to turn off the TV when we are actually watching it in another room, or to stop using the computer when they are spending hours themselves surfing the net. Nor should they restrict the portions of food they eat, when they, themselves, do not watch what they are eating. Why would any child want to drink water or munch on fruit or vegetables, when they see the adults around them drinking sugar laden soda or having a bag of potato chips?

When looking to lead a healthier kind of life style, it should be done one day at a time, and the end result will be well worth the effort.

What To Do If I Can t Lose Weight

You’ve dieted, you’ve exercised, and you feel like no matter what you do you can t lose weight. Many people say that no matter what they’ve tried they can’t seem to drop any of their unwanted pounds. Though the problem is the same, the reasons for having so much difficulty losing weight usually vary from person to person. Just like the same way of eating might not work as well for some people as it does for others, the problems associated with weight loss are bound to be different for many different people, too.

If you’ve been following a diet plan and still can t lose weight, you need to look very carefully at the diet and see if it’s really one that can work. You’ll need to look at things like how many calories you eat a day on the plan, and whether your diet seems to be heavier in things like fat or dairy products, or whether it leans the other way and focuses mostly on fruits and vegetables.

If the amount of calories you’re eating every day seems reasonable—enough to keep you healthy but low enough to let you burn fat—yet you can t lose weight while eating this way, it’s likely that the type of diet just doesn’t suit your metabolism. If the diet is calorie-focused and allows things like white bread, flour, potatoes, pasta and sugar, trying cutting down on those items. Maybe the diet is too high in carbohydrates for you and that’s sabotaging your efforts. Experiment to see if you start losing weight.

If the diet is already low carb and you can t lose weight on it, then maybe it’s gone too far in the other direction. Are you eating lots of red meat, fried foods, oil and other fats like butter? Some low-carb diets claim you can eat these foods in almost unlimited amounts, but that’s simply not true. All that fat adds up to hundreds of calories, and no matter how few carbs you eat, a calorie is still a calorie. It can be very easy to eat too many calories per day if you’re eating fatty meats, nuts or if you have lots of oil in your diet.

If your diet really seems healthy, with lean meats, lots of vitamin-rich fruits and vegetables, some diary and little sugar or flour and you still can t lose weight, then you could be eating too few calories and causing your metabolism to slow. Or you’re eating much more food than you think you are. Look at all the little snacks you have throughout the day, no matter how healthy they are.

Try keeping a journal and writing down everything you eat each day, including anything you drink that has calories in it like soda or coffee with cream. If you can t lose weight because you’re eating more than you think, a week or so of logging the details of your diet should start to show you where those extra calories are sneaking in.

Why wait until the New Year – Lose weight now.

Why wait until the New Year for a new you?
Ask any woman what their New Year resolution is and they will instantly tell you that it is to ‘lose weight’. But why wait until the New Year to begin your ambitions of reaching your ideal weight?
Lose weight NOW!

Despite many misconceptions that everyone puts on weight during Christmas – making diet plans useless – there is no actual rule stating that you have to wait until the holiday season is over before you put your weight management programme into action.
You can even begin today.

Weight Loss Tips

Diet and exercise will always be the safest and most efficient way to lose weight.
Providing your body with a healthy and nutritional diet will ensure your metabolism has got the energy stores it needs to keep your body functioning.

However, introduce a combination of weight training, cardio and aerobics into your diet plan and you can confidently experience natural, quick weight loss.

• Make sure you eat a balanced diet. Many dieticians may tell you to follow high protein low fat diets, but recent research has found eating a balanced diet of 40% carbohydrates, 30% proteins and 30% fats (good fats) can help you to burn fats and maintain a strong nutrient intake.

• Drink 6-8 glasses of water. Our bodies are made of 70% water so it is essential that you keep your body hydrated. Drink too little and your body will naturally create a reserve of water which can contribute to water weight gain.

• Go for a walk. If you find it hard to make time for the gym try going for a walk during your lunch break and build up your stamina. By steadily increasing your walks from 30 minutes to 45 minutes a day you can increase your calorie burn by 60 calories a day.

• Workout your entire body. The biggest mistake we make when it comes to exercise is only exercising a specific part of our bodies. Instead by creating a balance of 30 minutes weight training (3 times a week) and 45 minutes of cardio/aerobics you can improve your stomach toning and muscle definition as well as lose weight.

If however you find that despite your best efforts you still struggle to lose body fat, weight loss aids such as slimming pills can offer your body the jump start it needs to begin shifting those excess lbs and losing weight quickly.

There are a number of different weight loss pills you can choose from and all can offer you a variety of different benefits:
• Appetite suppressants – designed to manipulate the production of hormones within your body, appetite suppressants work by making your brain believe you are full when you are not
• Fat burners – clinically proven to help speed up your metabolic processes: the faster your metabolism, the faster your calorie burn
• Carbohydrate blockers – believed to stop the digestive enzyme Alpha Amylase from breaking down starch into glucose, carbohydrate blockers work by preventing a build up of fat stores and ensuring all glucose is efficiently used
• Fat blockers – clinically proven to make up to 28% of your dietary fat intake indigestible, fat blockers bind with fat molecules to form a viscous solution in your stomach which is too thick to be absorbed into your body.

Here are some recommended resources.
Hope you enjoy the holyday and reach your weight loss goals!

All About Fat – Good and bad.

With the low carbohydrate craze, many people have turned their attention to fats. They eat more of it and think its fine. Depending on what kind of fat you are consuming and how much of it you take in, fats can be beneficial or detrimental to your health.

There are three main types of fat. They are saturated, unsaturated and trans fats. Saturated fats come mainly from animal sources such as meat and dairy. At room temperature, saturated fats are solid. Unsaturated fats come mainly from plant sources such as olives and nuts and contain no cholesterol. They are liquid (oil) at room temperature. Unsaturated fats are broken down further in monounsaturated (one double bond) and polyunsaturated (more than one double bond).

You might be asking yourself what a fat is saturated or unsaturated with. A fat molecule (without getting into too much chemistry) is made up of carbon atoms that have hydrogen atoms attached to them.

In saturated fats, all carbon atoms have a single bond to another carbon atom and are also bonded to hydrogen atoms. In unsaturated fats, not all carbons are saturated with hydrogens so double bonds form between carbons. Depending on what carbon the double bond is formed determines the fat’s properties.

Trans fat is man made fat. It is made by taking an unsaturated fat and putting hydrogen through it in a process called hydrogenation. Trans fat is very bad for your health. Whole saturated fat increases LDL (bad) cholesterol and very slightly increases HDL (good) cholesterol, trans fat increases LDL cholesterol and decreases HDL cholesterol.

As you get older, your metabolism starts to slow down. This is why people who are older often complain that they have a harder time trying to lose weight than younger people.

Older people have to accept the fact that they are not going to have the body that they did when they were 20. They will probably be a little softer when it comes to their weight. But that does not give them carte blanche to blow up like a balloon.

In order to learn what your ideal weight is, you need to figure in your age as well as your height and bone structure. You can look on any chart at the doctor’s office to see that your age correlates to your ideal weight, as does your sex.

As you get older, because your metabolism is slowing down, you will need less food. One mistake that people make when they age is that they continue to consume the same amount of calories that they did when they were younger. You need to have more exercise and less food when you get older in order to stay in shape.

If you have children, it can be more difficult to keep the weight off the older you are when you give birth. It is much harder for a woman of 35 to lose weight than a woman of 25. You have to work extra hard because the metabolism does tend to slow down as we age.

The methods used in this book to lose 10 pounds in 10 days are made for someone who is over the age of 40. Those who are younger and have a higher metabolism, may lose more than 10 pounds in 10 days by following the tips of this book. If you are reading this and thinking that you cannot lose the weight because you are older – think again. If I can do it, you can too. I know plenty of people who have tried this type of lifestyle change (I do not like to call it a diet) and have lost weight. Whether you have 10 pounds to lose or need to lose a lot more weight, this diet will work well for you, regardless of your age.

What Is Your Ideal Weight?

Do you know what your ideal weight is? You can find out how much you should weigh for your height, age and sex based on a chart. There are charts online that you can use to determine your ideal weight.

It is important for anyone who is trying to lose weight to determine their ideal weight because people often have a distorted view of what they should weigh. If your clothes are tight and want to drop 10 pounds, then you can do so easily in 10 days using the tips in this book. If you are overweight and need to know how much you need to lose to get to your ideal weight, then you can figure out how much weight you need to lose to get to your goal.

If you join programs such as Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers, you have to keep in mind that their goal is to make money. Both of these organizations provide counseling and Jenny Craig provides food that you eat. But both of them are businesses. They will tell you that you should lose 2 pounds a week. This keeps you coming back to them for longer than you need.

The information that is in this book combines the basic concept of Weight Watchers (a very good diet plan that makes sense) with diet recommendations as well as eating and exercise tips. The goal of this book is to help you lose 10 pounds in 10 days, but you can continue to follow the tips to lose more weight if you need to do so.

If you set a goal aside for yourself every week and weigh yourself once a week, you will reach your ultimate goal. One of the biggest mistakes a dieter makes is getting discouraged and giving up on the whole concept of losing weight. This often happens when someone reaches a plateau and cannot lose any more weight. What you need to do then is to change around your diet and try something new in order to lose weight. You should not get discouraged as you will be able to lose the weight that you want and keep it off if you simply follow the instructions in this book.

Understanding your ideal weight for you will help you feel more confident in your weight loss goals. If you have a lot of weight to lose, this book will help you jump start your diet and also give you the directions that you need to take off the rest of the weight. You should not get discouraged if you cheat on your diet or gain a pound. Simply push that into the past where it belongs and forge ahead when trying to achieve your ideal weight.

10 Ways To Get More Antioxidants Into Your Diet

It’s no secret that antioxidants are incredibly beneficial to good health. It’s believed the antioxidants in food can help prevent cancer, reverse or slow aging, enhance your immune system, increase your energy and improve heart and other organ health.

Given all we know about antioxidants and their beneficial properties, it’s amazing more people don’t get enough fruits and vegetables, the primary sources of antioxidants. Experts recommend a minimum of 5 servings of fruits and vegetables daily, but say getting 7-10 servings is best.

There are 10 steps to getting more antioxidants into your diet.

1.Breakfast

Breakfast doesn’t have to be a hurried toaster tart on the way out the door. Throw some strawberries, 100% juice and yogurt into a blender; pour your delicious mixture into a cup and head out the door. You’ve just added one to three servings of fruits to your daily intake. Or throw some berries onto your cold or hot cereal.

Say you truly have no time in the morning and usually grab something on the run. Even the Golden Arches can be some help here. Order a fruit and yogurt parfait and some apple slices. For about $2, you have a breakfast providing one to two servings of fruit.

2.Snacks

Here’s an easy way to get more antioxidants in your diet. How about a handful of raisins for a snack, or some fresh red grapes? Dip some strawberries in yogurt. You’ll feel decadent, but the berries provide the color you’re looking for. Need crunch? How about some baby carrots dipped in hummus? Consider a handful of pecans for crunch and a nice antioxidant boost.

3.Lunch and dinner

It might sound trite, but adding a salad to each of your main daily meals can add loads to your overall health and well-being. They don’t have to be boring, and they don’t have to be just salad greens. If you’re going classic, add some red pepper slices to your green salad, some tomatoes to the Greek salad, or tart cranberries to your field greens. Whip up a broccoli salad for lunch, or be adventurous and mix up a rice salad with a mélange of fresh vegetables like string beans, tomatoes, peppers and red onions.

4.Dessert

Berries, with or without whipped cream or chocolate are a wonderful way to end your day of healthy, antioxidant-rich eating.

5.Beverages

Replace your soda with tea or coffee, both of which boast antioxidant compounds. Have a glass of wine with dinner, or for a real change of pace, pour a glass of chai tea.

6.Think outside the box

We know we can get our antioxidant fix from berries, salads and the like, but researchers say powerful antioxidants can also be found in a variety of unexpected foods, like russet potatoes, artichokes, and small red beans. The beans, in fact, may have more antioxidant power than blueberries, experts say. So to your rice salad full of vegetables, add some beans for even more antioxidants.

7.Cook lightly

You think you’re being good, preparing vegetables each night for your family’s dinner. But if you’re overcooking the vegetables, you’re cooking out a lot of the beneficial properties of the antioxidants. Steam (don’t boil) vegetables, and stop cooking them when they will have all of their bright color and most of their bite.

8.Plant a garden

Experts believe that people who plant and harvest vegetables from their own yards are far more likely to eat more vegetables and fruits than people who buy their produce from the store. So plant a garden, watch it grow and eat the fruits (literally) of your labor.

9.Take your healthy diet on vacation

Too many of us consider going on vacation an opportunity to take a vacation from everything, including healthy eating. Think of vacation as a way to be introduced to new foods. Order an interesting vegetable dish in a restaurant and then pay attention to how the chef prepared the dish.

10.Learn to cook

If you’re cooking, you’re not opening bags and boxes. Cooking involves scrubbing and peeling vegetables, preparing whole foods and paying attention to how things are cooked. If you’re ordering out every night, you’re far less likely to be eating the whole foods and natural fruits and vegetables that provide the base for our antioxidant intake.

To have a balanced diet we need to eat from all of the food groups because we gain all of our nutrients and vitamins from each of these four groups.

The Four Basic Food Groups:

- Grains, whole grains, cereals, breads, pasta
- Vegetables and Fruits
- Dairy , milk, cheese, yoghurt
- Meat, protein, poultry, fish, eggs

Breads, cereals and grains gives you sustained energy throughout the day as well as giving you bulk to help properly clean out your bowels protecting you against bowel cancer. In fact by just adding
35 grams of fiber per day can reduce rectal cancer by 67%.
Eating grains also protects against the risk of diabetes and insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease and lowers cholesterol levels.

In a study of 70,000 women over a 12 year period it was found that women who consumed grains as part of their daily diet weighed less than the women who consumed less grains.

Dairy, cheese and yoghurt helps strengthen bones and protect against future osteoporosis.

Studies have confirmed that a diet rich in calcium, magnesium and potassium which are nutrients found in dairy foods actually lowers blood pressure while reducing the risk of hypertension. It is also an important component for proper muscle and nerve function.

Fruits and Vegetables contain antioxidants which fight against free radicals that age the body. Like grains they also provide bulk for the bowel and therefore reduce the risk of contracting bowel and rectal cancer. Eating oranges and tomatoes also increases the ability to absorb iron from meat. Fruits and vegetables also contain carotenoids which reduces the risk of heart disease and stroke. Fruits and vegetables have been linked with memory improvement and slow mental decline with age.

Meats gives a natural source of Vitamin B12 that cannot be sourced from non meat products. The body can metabolise and absorb Vitamin B12 fives more from meat compared to its pill form. It is a rich source of iron which is needed to carry precious oxygen the organs and muscles and for proper neural function.

You can consume enough from your diet naturally that you shouldn’t have the need for vitamin supplements.

Dark green leafy vegetables are a great source for iron but compared with meat, weight for weight 100 grams of liver contains around 6,000 micrograms of iron compared to 325 micrograms in 100 grams of spinach. So as you can see protein is a great pure source of iron and many other vitamins and you can stay healthy by consuming around 75 grams 3 times per week.

The Recommended Daily Servings For A Balanced Diet

Grains: the recommended daily dietary amount is around 6 ounces per day

The reason why we don’t combine your fruit and vegetable intake is because you need to eat a specific amount from each.

Vegetables: 2 ½ cups per day

Fruits: 2 cups per day

Dairy: 3 cups per day

Meat and Beans: 5 ½ ounces per day

Know what you are putting into your body. I love knowing that there are 3,500 calories in a pound of fat. Some people can consume that amount each day which is not surprising why some people gain 30 pounds in a year without knowing how.

It’s very easy to do. Think about it, a hamburger, fries and soda (1,200 calories) and there’s most of your daily calorie allocation blown right there, to top if off it won’t keep you full for long either. Eat that every day for a year without much exercise and that adds up to some serous weight gain.

The reason why I love knowing that there are 3,500 calories in a pound is because it puts it all into perspective. I know that to burn that off, I will need to do more than 60 minutes on the cross trainer each day plus a 30 minute walk. So it makes me wiser in my food choices. The place where you wish you never had that extra donut or chocolate shake is right in the middle of your intense work out where you pay in sweat to work it off. Don’t worry if you’re coming to terms with this, the important thing is now you are aware of it you will start to see food in a different light and gain a healthier respect for it and the effect it has on your body.

These days all foods display the amount of calories on their packaging. This way you can know roughly how many calories you will consume and if it meets your daily requirements. This is also a great indicator of foods to avoid especially if they are loaded with empty calories.

Use your knowledge when determining the number of calories a meal has, be a calorie detective by making it a priority to know what’s going into your body.

Once you get good at it, figuring out how many calories a particular food has will become a breeze.

The Food We Eat

Calories aside the actual food we eat plays an important role in how we lose weight.

For example 100 grams of hard boiled candy will have a lot more fat than say 100 grams of lettuce. Even though foods may be of equal weight doesn’t mean that they will be equal in calories. So be aware of any extra fats or calories hidden in foods. Always check your labels.

You don’t have to be a food Nazi and restrict yourself to the point where you’re not enjoying what you eat. It’s important that you have the occasional treat so that you are not feeling deprived. Remember we’re aiming for permanent lifelong change by altering our lifestyle eating choices. You have to treat yourself now and then to avoid any derailing binges that come from feelings of deprivation.

Good Fat vs. Bad Fat

We touched upon this earlier in terms of the types of fats to avoid and the kinds that we should be incorporating more into our daily diet.

Foods High In Fat – What To Watch For

Here are some common fats that are high in saturated fat content:

- Animal fats such as dripping
- Bacon grease
- Crisco
- Margarine
- Coconut oil
- Palm oil
- Hydrogenated Oils
- Partially hydrogenated oils
Both Hydrogenated oils and partially hydrogenated oils are liquid oils that have been solidified by having hydrogen forced into them at high pressures. The process of hydrogenation is to preserve the oil for longer in its solid form but because this process change its form it also alters its chemical properties turning it from healthy unsaturated fat to Trans fat, the dangerous kind.

This is the type of fat that causes arteriosclerosis and blocks the arteries in your heart. Keep these fats to a minimum in your diet. In fact, if you want to lose weight on an ongoing basis you need to limit the amount of fat you consume to a total of 20 grams or less per day.

In a 3 scoop serving of Haagen Dazs Mint Chip Dazzler with hot fudge sauce and whipped cream you would consume around 38 grams of saturated fat (1,300 calories!).

So watch for calories and fat. You can be fooled by small snacks that seem harmless enough like with the ice cream treat, but it’s not until you find out the fat content that you realize how easy it can be to put on weight.

Foods With High Fat Content
• French Fries
• Animal fats
• Fried bacon
• Potato chips
• Cake
• Cookies
• Candy
• Sausages
• Tartar sauce
• Pizza (you can make your own low fat alternative)
• Donuts
• Whole cream butter
• Cream Cheese
• Sour Cream
• Danishes
• Whole Mayonnaise
• Whole Cheddar cheese
• Nuts and olives
• Avocadoes
There are a couple on that list that probably standout such as the nut, olive and avocadoes. Some healthy foods contain fat but also hold high nutritional value and are beneficial to you. Avocado contains fat but is the kind that is actually good for your heart.
Carbohydrates Or “Carbs”

Foods High In Carbohydrates

We need carbohydrates in our diet. They are source of fuel the body uses for energy once broken down during the process of digestion.

During digestion, carbohydrates are broken down into sugars, providing the body with a steady source of energy. Carbohydrates come in two forms simple (monosaccharides meaning “one”) and complex (polysaccharides meaning “many”)

Once you understand the difference between both simple and complex carbohydrate you will know which offers the best quality fuel for your body.

Simple Carbohydrates

Come in the form of high energy, sugary snack foods which you would typically find in granola bars, candy, chocolate, cakes, cookies, donuts, soda also in fruits and dairy productsetc. These types of carbohydrates are broken down instantly and used for energy by the body. This is why some people experience intense sugar highs after consuming foods high in sugar.

The burst of energy is like a flash in the pan, it only lasts for a short time. Within an hour your energy levels have gone to an extreme high then plummets to a low. Your body then stimulates your appetite to consume more because it needs more energy.

Consuming diets high in refined sugar foods plays havoc with your insulin levels. Because there is such a rush of sugar in one huge amount, the body must accommodate this by releasing enough insulin to counteract it which is why you experience intense highs and lows.

Your body must get rid of that sugar from the blood immediately and any excess sugar that is not burned off as energy must be stored as fat. You have to understand that your body cannot allow any remaining sugar to be floating around in the blood as it effects your body’s normal functions. Once your body becomes unable to effectively remove all sugar from the blood, you become diabetic.

The scary fact is that most children under the age of 10 years are consuming around 70 teaspoons of sugar in a typical day. This is staggering; in fact it is believed that our children today will be among some of the first in their generation to die before their parents.

Examples of simple carbohydrates:
• Cookies
• Honey
• Soda drinks
• Chocolate
• Jam jellies
• Cake
• Oranges
• Plums
• Pears
• Blueberries
• Grapefruit
• Cherries
Complex Carbohydrates

Unlike simple carbohydrates these aren’t easily broken down and absorbed into the bloodstream as quickly.

Because they are complex in structure take longer to break down and are released gradually, not instantly into the bloodstream. This means that they provide a steady, stable source of energy and because they are slow releasing have a chance to be burned off rather than stored as fat.

Examples of complex carbohydrates:

• Vegetables (cellulose)
• Whole grain breads
• Wholegrain cereals
• Whole grain pasta
• Legumes
• Potatoes
• Sweet potatoes
• Brown rice
• Bagels
• Corn
• Beans
• Yams
• Peas
• Jasmine rice
• Lentils
You should incorporate more complex carbs into your diet but that’s not to say that you can’t have the occasional treat.

Just be aware of what you are eating and putting into your body and that any type of carb consumed, simple or complex, in the absence of any kind of exercise will lead to weight gain. Your body is efficient, if the energy you consume is not used it will be stored as fat.

It probably pays to eat to the conditions. What is that I hear you ask? Just like driving to the conditions if you know that it’s going to rain, you of course drive a little more cautiously, you drive to the conditions.

In the case of eating, you eat to the conditions. If you know that you are out to play an intense game of tennis for the evening then you consume extra carbs for energy. If on the other hand you’re going to be sitting in a movie theatre for 2 hours than you consume a little less as you won’t be undertaking any physical activity to burn it off.

Your diet should be higher in complex carbohydrates as it takes your body longer to break them down meaning a slow, steady release of energy. This is the best route to take for weight less as simple carbs tend to release energy too quickly into your bloodstream giving you massive highs and lows. Also the slow release means the less likely you are to contract Type II diabetes at some point in your life. However don’t forget that with any carbohydrate consumption must always be accompanied with exercise.