Lose Weight the Healthy Way
Marlene Mathis

It’s definitely no fun to lose weight — put it back on, lose weight, put it back on, and so on. Just as you learn the rules of a new diet, you find yourself trying to get around them. What if all you had to do to lose weight was to eat less?

You may think it can’t be done. However, experts say it can. Of course it sounds simpler than it is, but it’s no more difficult to commit to healthy eating habits than it is to follow the diets most of us have tried.

In the end, it will actually be easier because you will feel less restricted as you begin to learn how to eat right instead of how to follow the rules of the newest popular diet. Here are a few tips to help you started:

• Eat smaller portions, including items with protein, fat, and fiber in each meal. This combination is the one that researchers have found effective in helping to keep hunger pangs away.

• Drink two full glasses of water with each meal. It will help you feel full and keep your body hydrated.

• Eat breakfast. This critical meal jump-starts your metabolism for the day. But avoid empty calories like those found in doughnuts, many cereals, and sugar-laden pastries. They will only leave you feeling tired and hungry by mid- morning. For best results, eat items with plenty of protein and fiber.

• Don’t count calories or weigh food. Simply use the palm of your hand as a portion control guide. Most of us are fully aware of what a ‘too large’ portion looks like. We also know how it makes us feel. You should never feel bloated or stuffed-eat only until you are not hungry. You really aren’t giving up anything if you save the rest for later. If it helps, think of it as taking a break when you set food aside for another time.

• Give up something. It might be your nightly glass of wine, chocolate bars, or regular soft drinks. Then, commit to doing without the item for one full year. You’ll find that you’ll feel better without the sugar, caffeine, or alcohol. You certainly won’t miss the calories as your waistline begins to shrink.

• Identify your comfort food. What is it that you reach for in times of stress? Pizza, fried chicken, or a burger with fries all seem to top the list of foods people reach for when feeling down, anxious, and tired. Instead of reaching for food to comfort you, engage in a favorite activity. Go golfing, take a walk through your neighborhood, or hop on your bicycle for a quick spin.

• Be aware that food is often used as substitute for other types of satisfaction. Take a look at your job, your family life, and your spiritual connections. Work to improve areas that are causing you discomfort and you will see the desire for unhealthy food fade away. Maybe it’s time to start looking for a new job, go back to college, or find a church.

Taking control of your weight is more about taking control of your life than anything else. Don’t allow yourself to make decisions based on food. Why be chained to someone else’s diet rules when you know yourself better than anyone else. Put that knowledge to work, and watch your weight disappear.

If you want to make weight disappear faster, and to help keep those pounds off, be sure to exercise regularly. Walking 30 minutes daily is something most people can achieve and keep it up right into the senior years.

Marlene Mathis is webmaster at Ana Health, the comprehensive health information resource. Subscribe to her ezine Health Vista at http://www.anahealth.com.

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It’s truly amazing there is anything anybody can agree on when it comes to what we eat. It seems as though we are bombarded with new scientific findings and new diet plans on a daily basis. To make matters worse, it often seems as though this information is contradictory. What’s a person to do? Well, you can rest easy, because there are some basic principles of eating that haven’t changed, and aren’t likely to change.

Let’s start with calories. A lot of fad diets do what they can to confuse the issue. They talk of “negative calorie” foods, or how special foods can burn fat. However, it all comes down to this: calories are energy. Therefore, if you want to lose weight, then you have to take in fewer calories than you burn.

If you want to gain weight, then you do the opposite. Also, if you restrict your caloric intake too much, your body will go into starvation mode, and will burn off calories much more slowly, making it harder to lose weight (if that’s your goal). So, that means you shouldn’t go too low in how much you eat, but rather take a sensible approach to your diet.

The other important aspect of calories is that all of them should count. That doesn’t mean you should count your calories and become obsessed with them. What it does mean, however, is that all of the calories you take in should have some nutritional value, or that they should count for something. That means getting rid of any empty calories. One of the biggest culprits here are sweetened soft drinks. these often are loaded with sugar and have zero nutritional value.

Now let’s turn to the fat in our diets. It wasn’t all that long ago that food manufacturers decided to roll out low-fat versions of many different products. This was in the hopes of capturing a share of the health-conscious market. While it is a fact that fat has 9 calories per gram (protein and carbohydrates only have 4), not all fats are the same.

For example, it is widely accepted that there is no healthy amount of trans fats; therefore you should do your best to completely eliminate them from your diet. Saturated fats are the next worst, but you can have some in your diet without too much worry, though you should limit them. Then there are the two categories of healthy fats: monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. You can’t necessarily eat as many of these as you want, but if you are going to be eating fats (and you should get some), then these are the better choices.

All eating really comes down to these two basic things: calories and fat. What diet plan you follow doesn’t matter as much as how you eat. So, when choosing an eating plan, be sure to look it over and that it also takes a sensible approach. When you do this, you will not only feel better about being on a healthy plan, you will also be much more likely to stick to it.

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If you are asking yourself, “How do I go about losing weight the right way?”, you are asking a very good question. Losing weight is a process that takes time and dedication. too may people think there is, or should be, a magic pill for losing weight and that they won’t have to work at it.

Some things you may already know about stress and gaining weight, stress makes the body produce a hormone called Cortisol. Cortisol increases fat stores around your mid-section putting you at risk for heart disease and diabetes.

Learn some techniques to decrease the stress in your life. Meditation is a good technique to use to decrease stress. Yoga is another good way. Actually, just getting some regular daily exercise will go a long way to decreasing your stress level.

Try to think more positively about your life and your weight loss. If you do then the extra pounds will disappear in no time.

Getting enough sleep at night is also a big part of losing weight the right way. If you are always tired and dragged out then try getting an extra hour or two of sleep at night. The human body needs 7-9 hours of sleep per night and when you do not get it your metabolism slows down to a not so steady crawl and your body does not work the way it should. Those of us who work the night shift really have screwed up metabolisms. Working nights is very stressful on the human body. We were all meant to sleep at night not during the day.

OK, so, you have done all the things listed above and find you still cannot lose the weight. Are you drinking enough water? If you think that you drink enough fluids every day then let me ask you, do you drink regular pop, diet pop or other sweetened drinks? If you do you need to stop. Regular pop, diet pop and other sweetened drinks are called empty calories because they have absolutely no nutritional value. The only thing they do is increase the amount of fat you have. Did you know that if you do nothing else but stop drinking pop you can lose 38 pounds in just a year? No, I am not kidding!

Hold on, back up, did you say diet pop? Yup, diet pop is ‘sweetened’ with artificial sweeteners and is basically considered poison by the medical community. Diet pop actually tricks your body into staying fat. When you drink diet pop the brain expects nutrition and when it realizes you were only joking, the brain signals the stomach that it is still hungry and you end up eating more to compensate the empty calories you just put in your body.

Stick with the water and maybe some green tea. The green tea gives you an added benefit of antioxidants that are so important for your health and it tastes great, too.

So try to decrease the stress in your life, divorce it if you have to, get more sleep at night, exercise and give up the pop. This should help you in losing weight the right way.

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When all is said and done there is still only one way to lose weight. You have to burn off more calories than you take in. Exercise is an important part of that equation, but we are going to take a look at some foods that can help you achieve your weight loss goals.

As a general rule weight loss foods are those that make you feel fuller without adding all kinds of empty calories. Adding these foods to your diet on a regular basis will help you to lose weight faster. Here are some of the top contenders.

Beans are at the top of list for several reasons. They come in many varieties, meaning they’re versatile and you don’t have to get bored eating them every day. They are low in fat, but very satisfying. They are packed with protein. And they contain plenty of fiber, which not only adds to how full you feel, but also reduces your risk for several diseases. The only thing you have to watch out for are re fried beans that have extra fat added, and canned beans that are too high in sodium. But you’ll be doing yourself a tasty favor by eating any variety of dried beans.

Whole grains. There’s one change you can make in your diet that’s very easy: stop eating refined grains. The “refining” process gets rid of most of the good stuff, making them so void of nutrition that they actually have to re-add nutrients to make the process complete. All of that so our bread and rice can be pure white. To be blunt, it’s ridiculous. Start eating whole grains to get the full nutrition nature put there in the first place.

Olive oil (or any other oil high in monounsaturated fat). Surprised? Yes, it still has many calories as any other kind of fat (9 calories per gram) but fat adds to the feeling of fullness. It also adds a nice flavor to many different foods. Besides olive oil is one of the healthiest fats that you can. So, while it may seem to be a lot of calories up front, the amount of calories you eat later will actually go down because it’s so satisfying.

Oatmeal is another one of the best weight loss foods out there. A few years ago it got some good press for being able to reduce cholesterol. It’s true, it is. But did you know that it has about the same amount of soluble and insoluble fiber? Again, it makes you feel fuller and is good for your overall health. Plus, it’s low in calories. Most people think of oatmeal as a breakfast food, but it has a flavor that works well with many different foods. Therefore, it can be incorporated into any number of dishes throughout the day.

There are many more weight loss foods, no question about it. But the four mentioned above will give you a great start on losing weight. Keep trying to reduce the bad foods, and increase the good ones and your waistline and health will be the better for it.

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