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:
If there is a program out there that you think is worth us taking a look at, leave your comments below.
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.
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.
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
Dear Sharon,
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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?
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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
Last week we introduced the different types of carbohydrates found in foods. They include sugars, starches, and fiber. This week, a look at what happens after we eat those carb-containing foods.
Remember that what all carbohydrates have in common is they contain sugar molecules. Even the starches are made of long chains of glucose, the simplest sugar. In your body these sugars are used as fuel for our cells. When any food containing sugar is eaten (and remember, that includes milk, fruit, table sugar or starchy foods) the body breaks the chains down to yield individual glucose molecules. If fructose (fruit sugar) is eaten the liver converts it to glucose for use. Glucose is the preferred source of energy for our cells. The cells take in the glucose with the aid of the hormone, insulin. The molecules go through a series of biochemical reactions and we get energy!
I am a 34 year old woman with two children. I am 5 feet 3 inches tall and weigh 180 pounds. I like eating non stop. I’m always hungry always at night and I like chocolate, cakes, and chips, pasta, rice, and bread. I can’t drink more than 2 or 3 glasses of water a day and I can’t go to the gym because I have to watch my kids. Are there any good fat burning pills you can suggest? Sumru K.
Dear Sumru,
Do you put on weight every single winter? Many of us find that our weight creeps up over November and December, with Thanksgiving and Christmas merging the early winter into a holiday from our diet … and then those January resolutions last all of a week.
Here’s how to get through the winter without gaining weight, despite the twin dangers of cold weather and Christmas.
(Apologies to those of you in the southern hemisphere: hopefully the Christmas tips will help, and you can use the cold weather ones in six months’ time…)
I weigh 180pounds and I’m interesting in trying to lose a good deal of weight. I would like to know if any pills are the real deal and what side effects I should to look out for. Sherma
Dear Sherma,
Right now there are two FDA approved weight loss medications, Meridia and Orlistat, and one FDA approved over-the-counter diet aid, Alli (which is actually the same medication as Orlistat but in a lower dose). Any other diet aids are not the “real deal” as you so nicely put it, and have unsubstantiated claims to burn fat, melt off the weight, reduce your cravings or suppress your appetite.
With all the talk about good carb, bad carb, low carb, no carb, hardly anyone even knows what “carb” means anymore. So let’s take a step back and follow along for the next few weeks in Carb Class. Carbohydrate 101 brings you the basics on carbohydrates so you can better understand what they are, what they do, and the roles they play in your diet and in your body. Today we’ll go over what a carbohydrate is and the different types.
I am just wondering, I am 18 years old ,5ft 5in and weigh 8stn. Iwant to lose more weight so decided to take zotrim slimming tablets….is this harmful? I just want to drop half a stone. Joanne M.
Dear Joanne,
For those of us in the US I calculated your weight to be 112 pounds and hear that you would like to lose 4 more pounds. Actually the lowest ideal weight for someone your age and height is 113 pounds, so you are already as much on the slim side as is healthy.
Meanwhile, there are certainly a wealth of other diets you can safely enjoy as a vegetarian without compromising your lifestyle. I would first suggest you explore the food guide pyramid recommendations for a balanced and healthy way of eating without meat. Here is a link to their site http://www.mypyramid.gov/tips_resources/vegetarian_diets_print.html
Perhaps you’re a seasoned and successful dieter … or even someone who hasn’t ever needed to diet. Even if you’re not currently on a diet yourself, the chances are, you know someone who’s is: here in the UK, 37% of women claim to be on a diet “most of the time”.
If you have a friend, relative or colleague who’s dieting, how can you help them?
(Psst – if you are dieting yourself, how about emailing this article to your friends and family? You might start getting the support that you need…)
So many of us look forward to the Thanksgiving celebration in anticipation of a buffet of scrumptious food… and afterwards spend days regretting overeating. This year, plan ahead to eat reasonably. Enjoy the array of holiday foods but don’t overdo it. Here are some tips to get you through the day:
Fill up on the veggie platter. Most people have appetizers out for snacking until dinner is prepared. This often includes a tray of cut vegetables. Help yourself to carrots, cauliflower, celery, radishes and other raw vegetables. Just go light on the dip. The fiber and water in the crudites will help fill you up so you aren’t starving by the time dinner is served.
When you go on a diet, you might see it as an intensely personal matter: your weight – and your weight loss – is your business, not anyone else’s. While this is true, it’s also true that other people can have a significant effect on whether or not your diet is likely to succeed.
These are three key ways in which your friends, family and even strangers might be affecting your diet…
Is the EODD healthy and is it maintainable in the longer term? Does it work as well as it’s advertised (I can’t seem to find much customer feedback)? Martin L.
Dear Martin,
I have seen some diet reviews, but haven’t read the actual program myself. We do have a review posted here for you to read. That said, based on what I’ve found, the diet does work. It basically limits your calorie intake to a level lower than you need for weight maintenance. Eat less and lose weight! The program also encourages exercise, and includes a discussion of how important your frame of mind is when dealing with what you eat and how much.
