3 Smart Alternatives to Sugary Snacks

I would like to take a moment to introduce a very special and entertaining guest blogger today….. Welcome Josie Maurer!  Josie runs the hilarious, yet informative blog YumYucky.com

Sugary snacks will woo you, then lead to poundage on the scale. Dig into these three snack alternatives to achieve an energy boost or quiet a sweet craving without the crash and burn of a sugary snack fail.

ATD: I Need to Lose Weight, but Where do I Start?

Not sure of where to start!  I went to the doctor today and found out that my BMI is 33.55  at 227lbs and 5′9″.  I do lift weights and have always had a bigger build. I have done 1/2 marathons but have not done much cardio due to cold weather, ice and snow.  I don’t like the treadmill. However I want to lose the extra weight and know I need to increase exercise but I also know my eating habits need to change.  I have tried Atkins in the past but not sure I want to do that again.  I liked the results but it was a hard and possibly unhealthy diet.  What diets are recommended for a guy who has a bigger build – and wants to lose the extra weight and reduce bmi.  Thanks for your time! Steve

ATD: Help! My Family is Sabotaging My Diet Efforts.

Over the last year, I have lost close to 25 pounds following “You on a Diet” guidelines.  My question is this:  family and friends seem to want to reverse this positive trend by trying to trip me up at family parties.  I find my eating and dinner plates are closely monitored by a few family members (my in laws) and they comment on my selections in a nasty way–as in “what, only 1/2 a beef on roll sandwich?  That’s a lot of veggies–are you on a diet?”  But it draws angry and negative attention to me.  If I skip dessert, which I do, I get “Oh, someone doesn’t want to be as fat and round as the rest of us.”  They have even told me not to exercise as much–to not “over do it” when I was telling others that I had just run (to finish) my first 5 K.  I feel so angry back at them and hate to see them now and that will impact my marriage.  What do I say back to them?  How do I change this dynamic.  I feel so angry toward them all the time now and their angry comments circle around in my head.  Amy

Distinguishing Real Hunger from Emotional Hunger

When you have a sudden craving for a candy bar or a big bowl of fries smothered in ketchup, are you really hungry … or is it just emotional hunger?

It can be surprisingly hard sometimes to figure out exactly what we’re feeling! If you’re on a diet after quite a long period of being overweight, you may have to get back in touch with your body’s hunger signals – many of us fall into the trap of nibbling constantly, and not really having much appetite when it comes to meal-time.

ATD: How Many Calories and How Much Exercise to Lose Weight?

I am a 64 year old female, 4ft 11 in tall and weigh 176 pounds. How many calories a day should I eat to lose weight and how much walking would help?I have a bad back so walking is the only exercise I feel would be safe for me. thank you, cathy

Dear Cathy,

For Diet Success: Plan Ahead Before Jumping In!

I strongly believe the main reason  for the high failure rate on diets is the failure to plan ahead. People often do not look before they leap.  They let themselves get carried by the intense desire to lose lots of weight fast, jump on the bandwagon for the latest diet craze, and find out within a short period of time that it’s just not realistic to eat this way. Taking a day or so to research a diet and to ask some important questions can save you time, money, misery, and weeks of trying to stay on a diet only to fail again. It’s tiring and emotionally draining to set yourself up over and over, only to feel like a failure and like something is wrong with you! Get this…it’s not you that is failing, it is your plan. So get a pencil, find the answers to these questions, and find a new plan that will get you the results you want once and for all!

Diet 101: Your Diet Is For Life

When we think about “going on a diet”, we tend to imagine some temporary time of deprivation and struggle, with an expected future reward of coming “off” the diet and being slim. We focus on the weight loss part of the diet, and we rarely consider how we’ll maintain that weight loss once we reach our goal.

No wonder so many dieters don’t succeed – and many are trapped in a yo-yo cycle of working hard to lose weight, only to gain it all again. Going on a diet is not a quick fix: it’s a way to change your eating habits for life.

Diet 101: What is a Diet?

Most people consider diet to be a four-letter word; one that conjures up feelings too horrible to be spoken! It implies deprivation, hunger, and being forced to eat foods you don’t like. But actually the word itself is not evil. It is used to describe the food eaten habitually by a particular person or group. It can describe the way we eat as a population as in ”the typical diet of Americans”,  or the benefits of eating a certain way such as “The Mediterranean Diet can lower incidence of heart disease”. Some people need to limit certain elements for health reasons and may be following a “low sodium diet” or a “low cholesterol diet“.  It merely describes how we eat.

How to Take Regular Exercise (And Love It)

One of the keys to health is taking regular exercise (and if you doubt that, just check out this story of a 100 year old British woman taking keep fit classes!) But many of us find it difficult to stick with an exercise routine. Perhaps we’re too busy or too tired, or maybe we just don’t enjoy exercise that much.

Being active doesn’t have to feel like a chore or a punishment – it’s a great way to boost your mood, to keep your heart and bones healthy, and to burn calories and build muscle. Here’s how you can fit regular exercise into your life – and enjoy it!

Give up Calories, Not Nutrition

photo credit: selena marie

In the haste to give up calories in order to lose weight, many dieters lose sight of what they should be eating for the nutritional value. All too often people are quick to skip breakfast or deny themselves a piece of fruit in order to save a few calories. Later on, however, they manage to justify a glass of wine or some diet ice cream “just this once” and “since I’ve been so good today”! Here are a few points to help you manage your calorie level and your nutrition at the same time.

Our Haiti Releif Efforts

Update 2/1/2010: Although we weren’t able to raise a tremendous amount of money, I would like to thank everyone who participated in our program.  We will be dividing and donating $153.00.

With the devastation that struck Haiti on January 12th, we are doing everything we can to help.  From now until Jan. 31 (or longer if needed), we will be donating 100% of the commissions made from some of the reviews on our website.

We will make our donations to the following organizations:

New Reviews: January 2010

Hello everyone.  I hope you are enjoying 2010 and are starting to put your resolutions into action.  Here are some new reviews published for January:

1. Cheat Your Way Thin
2. Eat Stop Eat
3. The Diet Solution Program
4. Fit Yummy Mummy
5. LipoBind
6. Adios
7. Phen375
8. Appesat
9. Certified Acai
10. 7 Minute Muscle

If there is a program out there that you think is worth us taking a look at, leave your comments below.

Getting Honest About Your Eating Habits

Have you slipped into bad habits over Christmas and the New Year? It’s easy for bad eating patterns to creep up on us. With me, one of the signals of this is when chocolate goes from being an occasional treat to a two-or-three-times daily indulgence!

It’s all too easy to kid ourselves that we “usually” eat a healthy diet – because surely, birthdays, weekends, meals out with friends, and one-offs don’t count, right? The problem is, if you’re regularly putting away chips, candies, cake or ice-cream, your body doesn’t care where the calories come from. You’ll put on weight all the same.

Planning Ahead To Eat Right

One of the best habits you can develop to help improve the nutritional value of your diet is to plan ahead. Whether you want to lose weight, maintain your current healthy weight, or even just avoid a vitamin deficiency, you have to do a little work ahead of time to be sure everything falls into place by the end of an average day.  Otherwise, you may discover a few extra grams of fat or a few hundred extra calories have found their way into your system by the end of the day, and maybe not enough calcium or vitamin C.

ATD: Which Diet Plan is the Best?

Question:

I want to know the fastest, safest and best diet I can use to shed about 40 pounds.  I see you have reviewed lots of diets but I want to know the best diet out there.  I do not have any health problems. Thanks, Sharon

Answer:

Dear Sharon,

Setting Yourself Up for Dieting Success

It’s January – when hundreds of thousands of us will be going on a diet. You might be looking to lose those few extra pounds that you put on over Christmas. Or perhaps you’ve got a longer journey ahead, and you’re determined that 2010 will be the year when you finally succeed in getting down to a healthy weight.

My jeans are fitting a little too snugly at the moment, after gaining a few pounds through a combination of busyness, slipping out of my usual exercise routine, and enjoying a bit too much of my mum and grandma’s cooking over the holiday period! I’ve been preparing myself for success – and here’s how you can too, however much weight you need to lose.

Carbohydrates 101: What are “good” versus “bad” carbohydrates?

Depending on who you ask, you may get a different answer to the question, “What are good carbohydrates?” Likewise with the “bad” ones! So let’s take a look at some of the better features of some carbs and some of the not-so-good features of others.

From reading the last few sections on “Carbs 101″ you know that carbohydrates are present in sugars, grains, and starchy vegetables. You know they are all digested into glucose, the simplest sugar, and used for energy in all the body’s cells. And you know some of them provide essential nutrients. One factor that makes some carbs better than others is the nutrients they provide.

What’s Your Reason This Season?

If you are like many people across the world, you are planning a New Year’s resolution to begin in just a few days. And if you are like thousands of others, it probably has something to do with weight loss. And, if you’re like most of them, you’ve probably done this before, and at some point a few weeks into the year you’ve given up in hopeless frustration. Why is it so hard to stick with our plan to lose weight? One reason might, of course, be the plan itself. Another reason to consider–maybe it wasn’t so important for you to lose weight.

ATD: Nothing is Working – How Can I Lose Weight?

Question:

I am 54 years old and have always battled weight. I work 2nd shift and, and I’m genetically large boned.  Nothing has worked including doctor prescribed diet pills and anti-depressants.  I am tired of trying and spending money, what do you suggest.  Ruth

Answer:

Dear Ruth,

In order to lose weight you simply have to eat less and exercise more, consistently.  If you’ve been trying pills and programs you may have been looking for a quicker fix than is reasonable. Chances are, the eating habits you’ve had all your life including indulging in more calories than your body needs. Your exercise habits may lean towards inactivity. You have to come up with a way to eat healthier and get more activity into your day.

What Do You Need to Cut Out of Your Life?

Many of us spend the New Year period taking stock: often making resolutions to do better with our diets, to stick to our healthy eating, to take up exercise, and perhaps also to achieve particular goals in personal or career projects.

What we don’t always consider is what we might need to cut out of our lives. Somehow, we end up forgetting that we only have 24 hours in a day – and that we have a limited amount of energy and attention.

If you’re going to see real dieting success next year, what do you need to cut out of your life?

Your Gift This Season

photo credit: Axel Bührmann

During the holidays we are so busy running around to find those perfect gifts for the kids, our parents, our friends, and other loved ones. This season, stop for a moment and consider giving a gift to yourself, specifically to your body.

I encourage you to take some time this week to stop a few times during the day and think about what your body would ask for if it could. Perhaps some more sleep? A nice tall glass of cool, clear water? Maybe a little walk to stretch the muscles and get the heart beating a bit.  How about some fresh fruit for fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants!

Follow Us on Twitter and Get a Copy of the Every Other Day Diet

Happy Holidays everyone!

We are buying and giving away 10 copies of the ebook The Every Other Day Diet.  The EODD diet comes with the e-book which is valued at $39.95 and dozens of other bonus material.  The premise of the diet is calorie shifting and is designed to optimize the metabolism so the body burns calories more efficiently.  Want to know how you can participate?  keep reading!

• First, follow us on twitter between now and Dec. 31st.  Winners will be chosen randomly and announced on Jan. 1.  If you are already following us on twitter, simply re-tweet this post to be eligible.

Getting Into Great Dieting Habits

Much of what we do each day is habit … and that covers our eating and exercising as well as the rest of our lives. If you always skip breakfast, that’s a habit. If you always eat a donut at 11am, that’s a habit too. And if you end up getting take out most evenings – despite resolving to cook – guess what? Yup … it’s a habit.

The good news is, you’ve probably already got some good dieting habits – and you can build on these to create a simple set of habits which will lead you onwards to success. Sounds good? Here are the three steps you need.

Carbs 101: Why Are Carbohydrates Important in the Diet?

photo credit: net_efekt

Recommendations from the American Dietetic Association, the American Diabetes Association, and many government health agencies are for a diet composed of 40-60% carbohydrates. This means about half your calories should be coming from grains, starchy vegetables, fruits and dairy products. It sounds contrary to the advice of so many weight-loss diets that suggest you keep your carbohydrate intake to a minimum. But these reputable health agencies know carbohydrates serve many healthy purposes in the diet.

Is Your Job Making You Fat?

Have you piled on the pounds in recent years? Do you have a sedentary job which involves a tedious commute through traffic, and sitting at a desk for most of the day? Many of us do – and our jobs have a big influence on our health.

Here are four different aspects of your job which could be making you fat – and what to do about them.