Easy Weight Loss

Think Your Way Thin

Dee Power — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:20:58 +0000

Can you really lose weight just by thinking about it? Well studies have shown that athletes can improve their game through the technique of visualizing the correct sequence of muscle movements. During the process of visualization it seems that even though the muscles don’t move, the brain sends electrical impulses that mimic the impulses sent when the action is physically carried through. Practicing by thinking about it.

People who want to lose weight are often their own worst enemy. Looking in the mirror they chide themselves for their flabby thighs or stomach over hanging the belt. They don’t see that they’ve lost weight, they just see how much more weight they should lose. This mind set just re-enforces their poor self image. Then when a cookie beckons, they figure why not, they’re fat and flabby anyway.

Want to know a better thought process? Think of your body the way you want it to be. If you have a picture of your former thinner self, use it as a guideline. That’s the real you. Whenever you’re tempted by a double chocolate brownie think of the thin you.

You can use your mind to control your eating habits. If you’re tempted to eat, just delay gratification for 15 minutes. In most cases when the time has passed, so has the craving.

Visualization can be used as a substitute for eating. Think of a place where you feel safe and happy. Perhaps it’s the beach with the waves rhythmically pounding the shore, the sand underfoot, and the sun glistening off the water. Smell the salt air and feel the cool breeze ruffling your hair. When you feel an eating binge coming on, close your eyes and picture your safe place. You are turning your attention away from the momentary satisfaction of eating to the longer term satisfaction of losing weight by focusing on a pleasant memory.

Remind yourself you are in control of your food, not the other way around. Give yourself permission to have whatever you want. Deprivation as a diet doesn’t work. It’s like when someone says DON’T think of a pink elephant, the first thing you think of is – the pink elephant. If you tell yourself: I can’t have pizza, I can’t have pizza, I can’t have pizza, the more you’ll want the pizza. Give yourself permission to have the pizza, but just a small taste. Thank about what you like best about the pizza. Savor the crispy crust, the tang of the tomato sauce and the flavor of the cheese, then stop eating. You’ve had the taste of pizza, you don’t have to eat the entire portion.

4 Easy Changes to Make to Lose Weight.

Dee Power — Fri, 30 May 2008 02:45:58 +0000

If you want something to snack on, drink a glass of water. Sometimes the urge to put something in our mouths isn’t hunger but boredom. Another alternative is to

Exchange your potato chips, corn chips and other fried snacks for pretzels. The fat content in pretzels is far lower than the other snacks. And you still get the crunch. If you have to have your corn chips, bake a batch yourself. Cut corn tortillas in strips or wedges, season with fresh lime juice, cayenne pepper and a bit of salt. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray and spread the tortillas out. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes until crispy.

Don’t drink fruit juice, eat the whole fruit instead. Fruit juice is easily digestible and the fructose (fruit sugar) is almost immediately absorbed and sent straight to the blood stream spiking your blood sugar. If you eat the whole fruit, the fiber causes the digestive system to slow down and the blood sugar spike isn’t as severe.

Exchange one fatty item in your diet for a nonfat item. For example instead of whole milk use skim milk. Instead of regular mayonnaise use nonfat, instead of full fat cream cheese use nonfat. This one change can knock 200 calories off your diet each day. That could mean a weight loss of 21 pounds over a year’s time.

Only Eat Half

Dee Power — Thu, 22 May 2008 18:56:31 +0000

When you eat out, eat half of what’s on your plate: half of the appetizer, half of the salad, half of the entrée, half of desert. Odds are you’ll be just as satisfied and you’ll have cut the calories, fat and sodium in half. If you eat out once a day like most people do, you can drop a couple of pounds a week with just this one change.

Have the bread and butter removed from the table immediately so you won’t be tempted.

When in a restaurant order broiled, grilled, baked or roasted instead of fried or sautéed. Have chicken, seafood or fish, instead of beef or pork. Order something you really like but that’s too time consuming, complicated or expensive to make at home.

Have sauces and salad dressings served on the side rather than on the food. Dip your fork tines in the sauce or dressing and then spear your food. The taste of the sauce will still be there but you won’t consume as many calories.

In fine dining establishments the entrée and even sometimes the vegetables are given a slathering of butter sauce to enhance the flavor (who doesn’t like butter) and the appearance of the food. This can add up to 200 calories and a lot of extra fat. Ask the waiter to tell the chef not to add butter.

4 Tips to Lose More Weight

Dee Power — Tue, 20 May 2008 06:28:23 +0000

Make lunch your big meal and dinner a light supper. You need energy to get you through the busiest part of the day. Food eaten in the evening just sits in your tummy and makes you feel heavy. Make it a rule not to eat after 8 PM every evening.

Exercise before you eat. Exercise boosts your metabolism and decreases your appetite. You don’t have to go to the gym. A brisk 20 minute walk will do it. You can exercise inside as well. Try going up and down the stairs, running in place, doing 15 minutes of Pilates or your favorite exercise regime. Take your break at work and use it to stretch.

Eat every four hours. That means three meals and two snacks for most of us. Keep the snacks low calorie. The idea is to keep your blood sugar on an even level. You won’t be starving and give in to the candy machine.

Decrease the level of stress in your life. Stress causes an increase in the hormone cortisol, which is linked to fat storage. When you feel stressed take a time out to meditate, practice deep breathing or just think about a happy memory.

Dee Power

Think Your Way Thin

Dee Power — Sat, 17 May 2008 23:26:29 +0000

You can use your mind to control your eating habits. If you’re tempted to eat, just delay gratification for 15 minutes. In most cases when the time has passed, so has the craving.

Dee Power

Drink ice water and lose weight

Dee Power — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:51:09 +0000

We all know that drinking water is good for you, but can it also help you take off the pounds? Yes if it’s ice water. If you drink an eight ounce glass of ice cold water, your body burns up 25 calories to get its temperature back to normal. If you drink only 4 glasses of ice water a day, you’ll lose 12 pounds in a year.

Of course it doesn’t have to be ice water, it could be any ice cold liquid that doesn’t have any calories. It’s best to stay away from beverages with caffeine and sodium as well. If you have a tendency towards bloating limit the amount of carbonated beverages you consume.

Eight ounces is one cup. One quart is equal to four cups or servings. Two easy ways to make sure you drink your allotment is to fill a quart size pitcher to the brim with ice and then fill with water. By the time all the ice melts you’ll have consumed the four glasses. Another way is to buy 12 ounce water bottles and keep them in the refrigerator. Finish three of these bottles and you’ve made your goal. If you work in an office, invest in a thermos or insulated pitcher, you can fill with ice and water and keep on your desk.

An extra advantage of drinking water is that it flushes toxins from your system.

Dee Power

The cookie Diet?

Dee Power — Tue, 06 May 2008 14:51:35 +0000

Losing weight can be a challenge for anyone. As a business person your schedule is packed. You may not have the time to attend meetings, prepare special meals, or the budget to buy into one of the prepackaged meal programs.

There are a few ways to painlessly lose a pound or two a week. One is to increase your exercise, but that doesn’t have to mean hours in the gym. It can be as simple as parking your car at the far end of the lot at your place of work, taking the stairs instead of the elevator and going for a walk at lunch.

Drinking at least 8 glasses of water flushes toxins from your system. If those glasses are ice water so much the better. Your body will burn about 25 calories per glass of ice water to bring your body temperature back up to normal. That’s 200 calories a day just for drinking ice water.

A diet program that seems attractive is the Cookie diet. No you don’t have to subsist only on chocolate chip cookies. That could get tiring after awhile. The Cookie diet program
includes a medical checkup and the unique smart cookie. You eat the cookies as a replacement for breakfast and lunch and then have a low fat dinner, such as chicken and vegetables or fish and salad.

And speaking vegetables and salad, most of us don’t get nearly enough in our daily diet. Instead of potatoes or rice, have another serving of vegetables. Instead of bread for a sandwich use a lettuce leaf to wrap up your sandwich filling.

Exercise in the Morning Not at Night

Dee Power — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:51:17 +0000

There is evidence that exercise raises your metabolism about 10% for 4 to 6 hours afterwards. You don’t have to exercise for hours, just a 20 or 30 minute session of brisk exercise will do it. If you exercise at night, a portion of the time your metabolism increases is when you’re sleeping. That’s when you burn the least amount of energy. Change your exercise to the morning and that 10% increase will burn off more calories.

You would be surprised how you can fit in extra exercise during even the busiest days. Pack your lunch and walk to the park while you munch on your sandwich. Then take a nice stroll around the park. Use the stairs instead of an elevator or escalator. Park at the edges of the parking lot the farthest away from your building. If you take public transportation get off a stop early and walk the rest of the way. Or the reverse: walk to the next stop down the route rather than the one closest to you.

Take an exercise break mid morning and mid afternoon. You don’t have to break a sweat. Get up and walk the length of your office. Do a few knee bends. Keep a pair of light weight dumb bells (no not one of your co-workers) under your desk and do a few curls. Grasp a weight in each hand. Let your arms lay straight down your sides then bend your arms at the elbows and bring the weights up to your forearms up to your waist and perpendicular to your body. Lower and repeat.

Lose 5 Pounds Fast on Fad Diets

Dee Power — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:53:23 +0000

You’ve probably heard of the cabbage soup diet, or the ice cream diet, or even the raw foods diet, and wondered do they work? Can you lose weight by sticking to a fad diet even if at first you think it’s silly? The answer is yes.

The most famous fad food diet is probably Dr. Atkins’ low carb high protein diet. Carbohydrates, such as sugar, flour, most fruits, and quite a few vegetables are eliminated from the diet and replaced with protein, such as meat, cheese and eggs. The diet is also high in fat since it’s high in red meat. The diet does work and sparked an industry revolution. Even fast food restaurants were offering low carb “bunless” hamburgers. Dieters don’t become hungry because blood sugar is kept at an even keel, protein takes a while to digest, and the fat means a feeling of fullness. The challenge with any low carb diet is the restriction of many foods. Menu options are limited.

Currently popular is the raw foods diet, which as you might imagine is vegan. As much raw vegetables, fruits, seeds, and nuts, can be consumed as you like. Nothing processed or cooked is allowed. Proponents of the raw foods diet say it’s eating back to nature as humans were intended. The diet works because fats, other than through vegetables such as avocadoes, or seeds and nuts are virtually eliminated.

Pick up any woman’s lifestyle magazine these days and you’ll probably see another fad diet. There are several reasons fad diets work, even if only in the short term. When you become aware of what you’re eating the tendency is to restrict the amount as well as the kinds of foods. The tomato and cheese diet might allow all the tomatoes and cheese you can eat, but eventually, one or two tomatoes are quite enough thank you.

There is some scientific support that certain fad diets do work. For the longest time the grapefruit diet was credited for weight loss only because calories were severely limited to less than 1000 per day. It turns out however, that there is a fat burning enzyme in grapefruit that helps you lose weight faster. Scripps Clinic of San Diego put 100 obese patients on three diets: One third of the patients had a grapefruit before every meal. One third drank a glass of grapefruit juice before every meal, and one group was instructed not to eat or drink grapefruit or grapefruit juice. The two groups that consumed either the grapefruit or the juice lost more weight than the third group.

Some diets rely heavily on fruits and vegetables which are up to 90% water. Eating 1000 calories worth of apples means you have to eat at least 10 medium apples. Eating 1000 calories worth of a McDonald’s Big Mac means eating lunch. The fiber in the fruits in vegetables are filling, bulky and take quite a bit of time to digest.

One interesting website gives a personal review of the top fad diets . The owner has tried just about every free fad diet and given them her personal ranking. She explains what the diet consists of, why it works, how long she stayed on the diet and how much weight she lost.

With any diet program, whether a free fad diet, or a traditional regime, check with your doctor before starting. A fad diet might be an interesting and relatively painless way to shed 5 pounds or so before a big event or swimsuit season.

Dee Power

Which Diet Program Will Work For You: Low Carb

Dee Power — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 05:51:03 +0000

Low Carb

Several diet programs work on the premise that if you severely cut back carbohydrates from your diet, your body will be forced to use fat stores instead. Carbs, especially refined carbs like sugar and flour, spike the blood sugar. You don’t count calories just the carbohydrates in the food. This spike signals the body to produce a spike of insulin in return. Insulin transfers the sugar to the body as energy. If the body doesn’t need the energy at the moment it is stored as fat. Since the insulin has gotten rid of the sugar, the lack of sugar in the blood stream signals the brain it’s required and you’re hungry.

Protein, fats, and some natural carbohydrates found in vegetables don’t spike the blood sugar, so the vicious cycle isn’t started. Maintaining an even blood sugar level makes it easier to lose weight.

South Beach Diet and Atkins are two of the most well known of these low carb programs. The South Beach Diet is more lenient as far as the variety of foods allowed.

Both start off with a two week kick off period that consists of eating mostly proteins supplemented by no more than 20 grams of carbs a day. A banana has 26 carbs, a slice of white bread 15, chicken 0, fats and oils 0. Fruit, sweets, breads, and quite a few vegetables are not allowed on low carb programs.

After the initial kick off the dieter can slowly add back foods higher in carbs focusing on those that don’t spike your blood sugar. The program is life long and encourages you to limit carbs, especially sugar and flour for life.

The advantages of the low carb program is that there are few limits to the amount of low carb foods you can eat. Theoretically as much chicken, fish, beef, and cheese is allowed. Most people don’t get hungry on a low carb program because calories aren’t restricted.

One disadvantage is that variety of foods is restricted, so you may not get hungry but you might get bored. There may be a tendency for some people to increase their cholesterol levels while on the program if they consume too much fat or oils. Another disadvantage is the program must be followed strictly. If you do go off the program for a special occasion, it takes several days for your body to get back to the fat burning stage.