November 14th, 2008 — exercise, moderation, snacking, wellness
Dieting can be very stressful in many ways. It's never easy to start depriving yourself of food, and you'll undoubtedly experience not only physical stress but some emotional stress too. While it's hard to completely avoid all stress in your life, there are ways that you can make your diet less stressful. By using these techniques, you can be assured that you're not setting yourself up for failure. By removing the stressors from your diet, you'll be able to stay on track and get healthy.
Tip 1 -
Don't pick a diet that is going to deprive you. While the word diet is synonymous with deprivation, it doesn't have to be. So many people set themselves up for failure by picking a diet that is simply to hard to maintain. The main key is reducing the overall amount of calories that you're putting in to your body and increasing the amount of exercise. If you're not getting the right kind of fuel, you won't be able to exercise. Instead of picking a severe diet at first, go with one that is going to be easier. You'll be able to ramp up your efforts once you start to see results.
Tip 2 -
Understand that sometimes snacking is necessary. If you work long hours, chances are you're going to get hungry between lunch and dinner. Too many people beat themselves up about snacking and get all stressed out. The key is not avoiding snacking, the key is finding the right kind of foods to snack on. Instead of that high calorie candy bar, pick a treat that has a lot of protein in it, such as low fat cottage cheese. Your body may be telling you it needs sugar to keep going, but what it really needs is some protein to create real fuel. There are times when you simply run out of fuel, but don't put just any kind of fuel in your tank. By filling up with the right fuels you'll be able to de-stress and keep going longer.
Tip 3 -
Pick an exercise program you can maintain. Beating yourself up because you can't keep to an hour a day of heavy aerobics is not only stressful, it's unhealthy. You're not going to be able to run a marathon overnight. Stick with a small amount of exercise at first, until you start to build up your energy. Instead of a full hour, try a half hour for the first few weeks. It may take a bit longer to see results, but you're building a firm foundation for success.
The key is finding ways to avoid beating yourself up on your diet. We are usually our harshest critics and it becomes all too easy to succumb to that little voice that tells us we can't do it. By circumventing that voice and starting small, you'll be able to get over your diet stress and start seeing real results. A healthy diet takes work, and changes won't happen overnight.
Photo Credits: 1
Related Articles
Related Stores
November 10th, 2008 — Weight Loss Journal, diet, food, goals, motivation
The diet industry is a multi-billion dollar machine that keeps churning out new diets, new hope and new hype every single year. If diets were so effective, there would be no need to keep coming up with new methods and new diet plans, but the sad truth is, the vast majority of diets fail. Why is this and what can you do to change this truth? Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why diets fail.
Lifestyle changes are not addressed. This is possibly the biggest issue for dieters. If you are not eating the right foods all the time, and making that commitment to change, chances are, as soon as you do see results from your diet, you’re going to fall back on old habits. It is not easy to completely overhaul your life, but in many cases, if you want to lose weight, and keep it off, that is exactly what you’re going to have to do.
The diet does not offer enough variety. Whether it’s the soup diet, the juice diet, or even some of the more popular diet plans, a lack of variety can be a major reason for failure. It’s simply too difficult for many people to eat the same things, day in and day out. Even if you go into a diet plan like this enjoying a certain kind of food, after two weeks of eating nothing but, chances are you won’t feel the same way. Variety is the spice of life, and that is very true with food.
The diet plan does not include any exercise. Plain and simple, if you want to burn fat more efficiently, you’re going to have to get up and move around. Thousands of books come out every year promoting new ways of eating, but many of them fail to add the important component of exercise.
The diet plan focuses solely on water weight. This is a very common issue that affects dieters. When you first start on these plans it seems like weight just magically falls off of you. Then, you go back to eating normally and whoosh – it comes right back. These diets are disheartening at best, and dangerous at worst.
The diet is unsafe. There are many fad diets out there that are simply too extreme to stick to. Whether you’re fasting, or drastically cutting back calories, this results in a lack of energy, and you may simply just feel awful. We all need a certain amount of calories every day for our bodies to function properly. If you’re not getting enough, you will end up feeling lousy and you may even throw off your metabolism.
If you don’t want your diet to fail, remember that lifestyle changes are necessary and exercise should not be avoided. Simply eating better food and moving around more will help you lose weight – and keep it off – and you’ll find that it is much easier to keep going, even though the results may be a little slower.
Photo Credit: 1
Related Articles
Related Stores
November 10th, 2008 — activities, exercise, goals
If you're trying to turn your life around and start getting more exercise, that first step you take will be the hardest. It's always hard to make a change and stop taking the easy way out, but you're going to have to stay committed if you want to achieve your goals. Whether you're trying to lose weight or you just want to get a healthier lifestyle, exercise is the most important thing you can do. Here's how to take that first step.
1. Make it easier.
We already know how hard it can be to change yourself from a coach potato overnight. However, there are some methods that you can use that will keep you motivated and make it easier to get active. Here are a few tips. Start off by finding an exercise that you actually like. If you enjoy shopping, go to the mall and walk around. You can window shop while you get some exercise. If you like to play basketball, get some friends together for a quick game. By making it fun, you're making it easier and you'll be less likely to get discouraged.
2. Keep your eye on the prize.
You need to set yourself up to win by setting goals that are at first easy to attain. Once you've transitioned into that active lifestyle you can set more difficult ones, but you need to get over that first hump before you can do that. Set some easy goals, like being able to walk for ten minutes without getting winded. Once you achieve that, you'll have a greater sense of satisfaction and you'll be motivated to keep going. If you get derailed, don't quit! Just go back and start again. It's only failure if you refuse to try again.
3. Enlist the help of a friend.
It's all too easy to make excuses when it's just us. However, if you get a friend to help you, it's a lot harder to back out. Just make sure that you're not picking a friend that is an enabler. You want someone who's going to challenge you to keep going. If this doesn't sound like any of your friends, you may need to seek the help of a personal trainer. They can help keep you motivated and on track to achieve your goals.
4. Set up a plan that's easy to follow.
If you work a lot, chances are by the end of the day you're pretty wiped out and exercising is the farthest thing from your mind. In this case, try to get your workout done in the morning or at lunch time when you still have energy. Instead of wiping you out for the rest of the day, you'll actually find that you're more energized.
These are just a few tips that can help you achieve an active lifestyle with a lot less stress. Never forget why you want to get healthy. It will help keep you on track towards your goals and make it easier.
Photo Credits: 1
Related Articles
Related Stores
October 13th, 2008 — Meals, diet, healthy eating, motivation, nutrition, snacking
Have you ever fallen off the diet wagon and then said, well, I may as well enjoy myself today, since I’ve already messed up. I’ll get back on my diet tomorrow. If this sounds familiar, you’re dealing with one of the biggest reasons that diets fail. Cheat days are fine, within reason, but if you’re letting them get out of control, you are dooming yourself to failure in more ways than one.
Let’s say that you simply cannot ignore that piece of chocolate cake that is looking at you and pleading with you to partake. It’s easy enough – we’ve all fallen victim to the cake monster a time or two. But, after that piece of cake, you start to beat yourself up. You did it *again*. By this point, you’ve already mentally defeated yourself for that day, so why bother eating healthy? Most of us then turn around and scarf down a pizza for dinner, since we’ve already derailed our diet for the day anyway.
This is exactly what you do not want to do. One piece of cake made have added 500 extra calories, but how about the rest of the day? It’s time to break free of that cycle and banish your cheat “days” for good. We’re not saying that you have to avoid cheating all together. We’re human, it happens. You fall down, it’s natural. The key is to get back up immediately, and not roll around in a banana cream pie for the rest of the day.
By saying, “Ok, I had that piece of cake. I shouldn’t, but I’m not going to let it ruin my diet,” you’re allowing yourself to breath, to make that mistake and get back up. You may need to do a little retraining at first, but you’ll get there. It is vital to stop beating yourself up mentally. After all, it is only a piece of cake. By kicking yourself repeatedly, you’re only going to want to eat more. If you have an issue with eating for comfort, this could spiral out of control.
Cheat days can really wear on a diet, and if you banish the concept of a cheat “day” you can do a lot better. Instead, have a cheat “lunch” or a cheat “snack.” You won’t be completely demolishing your diet and you won’t fall off track. Avoid the “Well, I’ll just do X amount of sit-ups” routine as well. Chances are you won’t, and you’re giving yourself just another reason to beat yourself up again. Realize that every now and again you’re going to make mistakes.
No one is perfect, and sometimes, that cake gets the best of us. You may lose that battle, but you don’t have to lose the war. Get the right mindset and become your best ally instead of your worst enemy. This will help you stay on your diet, and more importantly, you’ll be building up your own self-esteem as you go, and that will pay off for the rest of your life.
Photo Credits: 1
Related Articles
Related Stores
October 1st, 2008 — Weight Loss Journal, body image, exercise, goals, motivation, weight loss, wellness
We all know that the mind is our most powerful muscle, but what do you do if your mind is working against your diet plan? Few of us realize just how much we beat ourselves up mentally, setting ourselves up for failure before we even try. If you’re ready to get healthy and lose weight, the first thing you need to kick into shape is your brain and the rest will follow.
So, how about some brain exercises?
These won’t require any physical effort, but they may be emotionally draining. If you stick with it however, you will feel liberated and chances are, you’ll finally be able to lose the weight and get back to being healthy. In fact, you may even end up happy as a result.
The first exercise:
You are capable of losing weight! Remove the word can’t from your vocabulary. It’s time to train your brain into thinking you can lose weight and that it will be easy. Every morning, do twelve repetitions of saying to yourself: “I CAN and WILL lose weight.”
The second exercise:
Your happiness does not revolve around a number! Stop saying to yourself that you’ll be happy when you reach X amount of pounds. If it takes too long to get there, your brain will step in and tell you that you’ll never make it, so why bother. Every afternoon, do twelve repetitions of saying to yourself: “I am happy RIGHT NOW and I am choosing to lose weight to improve my health.”
The third exercise:
You can put that piece of cake down! The time between dinner and bed is the hardest for many people. You get hungry, your blood sugar dips and that piece of cake starts to have a diabolical conversation with your brain. Short circuit that conversation and take your brain off of that track. Every night, do twelve repetitions of saying to yourself: “I do NOT need that piece of cake. I will live until I get to bed even if I do not have a snack.”
These three exercises will begin to help you whip your brain back into shape. You’ll be able to start thinking thin and as a result, you’ll be able to get there. Now, you can’t rely on this totally to lose weight, you will need to actually cut calories and start exercising, but it can have an enormous impact on your success rate.
If your brain is keeping you from losing weight, it is time to say enough is enough and take control. Once you do this, you’ll find that everything will start to improve, including your self confidence. Many of us, after years of being overweight, have developed a mindset that we are unattractive, unworthy people. If you stop that cycle, you will open up an entirely new world, virtually devoid of self recrimination. And when you can do that, you’ll be on the road to mentally healthy and physically healthy future.
Photo Credits: 1
Related Articles
Related Stores
August 7th, 2008 — diet, goals, healthy eating
When we need to lose weight, it's really common to get swept up into the mindset that we need to make radical changes. While this may be true, it may not be healthy to make such a drastic change in the way you eat. In fact, you may be increasing your odds of failure by picking a diet that is simply too hard to maintain. While we all want to lose weight as fast as we can, it's best to stick with 2 pounds a week, and never more than 4. (Doctor supervision not withstanding.)
This is frustrating - and it will take a little longer to see results. However, by making easy diet changes and gradually pumping up the pressure, you're going to be more apt to lose that weight and keep it off. There is no point in starting a diet, if you're simply going to undo all of your hard work in a few months. You need to commit to making a lifestyle change that will last you for many years to come.
That is really the key towards getting healthy and hitting your target weight. By understanding what parts of your lifestyle are making you unhealthy, you can begin to diet the natural way. Let's start out with something that is really easy to cut out of your diet - soda. This is the worst, empty calorie, horrible food that is responsible for many of us being overweight and we really don't even know it. A simple serving of soda can have as much as 150 calories. A bottle or can will have a lot more.
Completely cut this one thing from your diet for two weeks but don't change anything else. Try not to substitute with sugary drinks. If you need caffeine, go with black coffee or sweeten it with Splenda. In two weeks, you should lose significant weight, depending on how much soda you normally drink. See how easy that was? One little easy change and you're already losing a lot of weight.
Now, you'll need to step it up. Find another food that is bad for you, the food that you simply love. Cut this out from your diet completely and you'll notice the same thing happening. Once again, you may need to find a healthier alternative to keep from feeling deprived, but the general premise is the same.
By making these really easy and simple changes, you can get on the road to healthy weight loss and still see real results. You're getting rid of the foods that are making you unhealthy and you're making those lifestyle changes that will stay with you for the rest of your life. Try it for two weeks and see the difference you feel. You may feel a bit cranky for the first few days, but ride it out and stick with it. You will get results.
By gradually getting rid of the items in your diet that are not good, you're making a it a lot easier on yourself and you're losing weight at the same time.
Photo Credits: 1
Related Articles
Related Stores
May 30th, 2008 — Book Review, diet, exercise, healthy eating, nutrition
With summer coming, many of us are focusing on how we're going to look at the beach or the pool. There is a lot of money to be made off of spring diet books and every year, we are besieged with the latest plans that will help us get that bikini body we've always wanted. (Editor's Note: review written by Weight Ladder's wife 
) The main problem with many of these titles is that they don't focus on healthy weight loss and that weight does tend to creep back on once you stop the diet. This book promises results in just two weeks, and that set off our radar systems right away. While you can lose a lot of weight in just two weeks, the majority of it is going to be water weight and this can give a false sense of hope to dieters and work to actually derail them from the diet when that water weight comes back.
While there are some very good tips in the book, such as eating the right kind of fats and focusing on foods that contain the nutrition you need to get healthy, the one major failing is that it requires a huge commitment for exercise. For many dieters that are just getting started the two hour daily minimum commitment is going to be just to hard to reach. This can lead to feeling like a failure and instead of staying on track towards getting healthy and losing weight, many people may just give up.
More than 75 recipes are offered and most are delicious and well balanced. The exercise plan is actually quite reasonable, but the time commitment required is a major drawback. The exercises in and of themselves are not terribly difficult, but it's the sheer amount that may turn a lot of people off of the program. Some people just cannot do that level of activity, especially if they are just starting out.
Our main problem with this diet is the promise that you'll be ready in two weeks. It takes a lot longer than that to lose weight in a healthy fashion and unless you're only wanting to lose 5 to 10 pounds, this diet will be pretty discouraging. That and the fact that the two hour exercise requirement is really kind of glossed over, the whole book fell short of what it could have been.
Although it contains healthy recipes and some great advice on lifestyle changes, we just cannot recommend this book as a healthy way to lose weight. If you're in it for the long term and you have an extra two hours a day, this may be the perfect diet for you. But you'll need to go in with the right expectations and realize that Rome wasn't built in a day and if you want to look good in your bikini, it may take a little longer than 2 weeks. That said, there is some useful information and if you go in with the right mindset, this diet may actually work for you.
Related Articles
Related Stores
May 22nd, 2008 — healthy eating, motivation, trigger food
Starting a diet can be a momentous event and most of us going into it with the best intentions. We want to lose weight and we want to look and feel better, at least for the first few days. Three days in however, and you may be ready to completely chuck your diet so that you can go back to eating real food again.
There are a few keys that will help you avoid cheating on your diet. You can employ any number of them to assist, but remember, even if you do end up cheating a little, it's not the end of the world. Call it a day and start your diet again. It's only a problem if you give up and lose focus. Let's go over a few of these keys that will help you avoid cheating.
1. Don't start a deprivation diet.
Strict diets usually get fast results initially, but these are usually wiped out if you cave to intense cravings. If you know that you have a hard time giving up your favorite foods, don't doom yourself to failure by starting a deprivation diet. Instead, find ways to simply eat less of these foods. You won't end up feeling as though your cravings are controlling your life.
2. Allow yourself a little wiggle room.
You'll need to have pretty good discipline for this to work, but your diet will be much more successful if you allow yourself a little freedom here or there. If you simply must have ice cream, than allow yourself to have one small portion every few days. Just make sure you can keep it to that portion or you will have sabotaged yourself.
3. Set up rewards.
One of the best ways to avoid cheating on your diet is to set up a rewards system with your goals. Just make sure that the rewards are not food related. For example, once you reach your first five pounds lost, go get a manicure, or do something that you really enjoy. This helps keep you motivated, even when the going is tough. It gives you something else to focus on and makes it easier to stay focused.
4. Stop kicking yourself.
You can preprogram yourself to fail if you believe that you cannot do something. Instead of saying that you can never stick to a diet and always end up cheating, tell yourself that you can do this. When the going gets tough, keep repeating "I can do this." If you do it often enough, you'll start to believe it and you'll be able to make it a reality.
5. Avoid known problem areas.
If you have a hard time sticking to your diet when you go out with friends, it's time to evaluate your activities. Stay away from restaurants where you know it's going to be tough to stay on your diet. Give up going to the bar every week. You'll be able to see results in less time and you'll be able to avoid the traps that always derail you.
Photo Credits: 1
Related Articles
Related Stores
May 21st, 2008 — goals, healthy eating, motivation
One of the key components to eating right is getting motivated. While it's easy enough at first to have grand plans, if you don't have enough motivation to do the follow through, there's just no point. In order to make sure that you're successful with your diet, you're going to need to make sure that your priorities are in order and that you have the right kind of motivation.
Before you even start your diet, we recommend making a list of all of the things that you hope to accomplish. Divide these into three columns: Physical Appearance, Body Health, Activities. Now, you'll be able to see all of the things on one sheet of paper. This makes it a lot easier to keep your goals right in front of you. Once you have them all down, redo your list and prioritize the things that are the most important to you. For example, if lowering your blood pressure is a high priority, move that to the top of the health list.
Once you have all of your items prioritized in each column, make a master list that contains them in order of importance. You'll be referring back to this as you start to meet your goals. By putting it on paper, you're giving yourself that visualization that makes it a lot easier to see your goals and meet them. While it's fine to keep it in your head, most people prefer having a hard copy. When you start to check those items off as goals attained, it really is a great feeling.
So, now that you have your list done, you're ready to start on your diet. Make sure that you select one that will make it easy to keep your goals at first. Rome was not built in a day and a good diet takes time to work. Don't doom yourself to failure by going on an extreme diet that you have no hope of keeping. Start small and work your way up. You'll be a lot less likely to call it quits after a few days and you'll be able to keep motivated.
One great way to start small is simply by cutting out a few of the foods you eat or drink every day that contain empty calories. Soda is the best place to start since you'll usually see pretty quick results. Try cutting out one or two a day at first, and then increase the amount until you are no longer drinking it. The results you see will keep you motivated and you won't be depriving yourself of it all at once.
Whenever you feel as though you want to quit with your diet, pull out that list and re-read it. See what you've crossed out and remind yourself that these are important goals that will change your life. It is easy to quit and walk away, but you will be paying the price for it for the rest of your life.
Photo Credits: 1
Related Articles
Related Stores
