Losing weight doesn’t have to be boring when you focus on bright, colourful meals. What does this mean? Simply by making sure your plate reflects a range of colours, you’ll naturally create more balanced and healthful menus. Not everyone has the rime or the patience to count calories, but assessing the colours on your plate is something anyone can do – and it only takes an instant! Why Colour Is Important Many fatty and caloric foods, such as dairy products and startchy carbs, are beige or brown. When there are too many of these drab colours on your plate, weight gain is almost certain. That’s because these beige foods often are high in calories and can leave you feeling hungry later. A cup of beige or brown beans can be over 200 calories….but a cup of red or green vegetables is under a hundred! Add fresh greens, deep purple-reds and bright yellow-orange to a meal, and water the nutrient content go up, while calories go down! Plus, you’ll get more enjoyment from eating when there’s a variety of colours and flavours on your plate. Although these ideas may sound whimsical, they’re grounded in scientific fact. Dr David Heber, renowned nutritional expert from UCLA’s Centre for Human Nutrition established the role of colour in his book, “What Color is Your Diet?” So, next time you visit the refrigerator, think colourfully. And remember to mix, not match!
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One of the most daunting things about starting a slimming programme is planning what you’re going to eat. It doesn’t have to be as hard as it seems though. Most meals are simple to make, especially if they are using healthy, fresh ingredients. Forget boiling your vegetables to death and eat them raw, or lightly steam them if you want them to be hot. Don’t peel fruit that doesn’t need peeling, it saves time, and allows you to get the full benefit of the fibre content. There are lots of ways to plan your meals that will help you to achieve your slimming goals. 1) Eat fish Fish is good for you, particularly oily fish like salmon and mackerel. The other bonus is that fish is quick to cook. You can buy it ready-prepared from the supermarket or the fishmongers and most fish will grill in just a few minutes. It’s also easy to bake in foil, and you can even add some vegetables such as leeks, peppers or tomatoes into the foil so that it all cooks at the same time. Even poaching fish in a little seasoned water doesn’t take long. Plan to eat fish at least twice a week and you have an easy, healthy meal that requires little preparation and little cooking time. 2) Get used to salads Provided you have the ingredients, you can make a wide range of salads in a short amount of time. Green salads made with romaine lettuce, cucumber, celery and avocado are healthy and can be prepared in 10 minutes. Carrots, dried fruit and lemon juice with sesame or sunflower seeds makes a quick and easy salad to serve with chicken or fish. 3) Steam, don’t boil Boiling vegetables like broccoli and cabbage reduces the effectiveness of their nutrients and makes them less appetising. Steam broccoli and other vegetables for just a couple of minutes for vibrant, crunchy vegetables and sautй cabbage in some lemon juice. Although you have to change your eating habits when you are slimming, you don’t have to plan your meals a week in advance to make sure you’re eating properly. As long as you’re buying the right foods, cooking them well and not over-eating, you should find your weight loss plan is easy and fun.
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The first thing that people, who wish to lose weight, think about is reducing their belly fat. It does not matter if you need to lose those extra 15 pounds or a whole lot more. And it is exactly where they all go wrong. This article will explain what the biggest mistake of flat belly seekers is, how to avoid it, and achieve your desirable flat belly. Belly muscles are designed to give balance and coordination for the body’s movements. Constant movement keeps it in shape. People used to walk and move a lot just a few centuries ago. These days most of the people sit all day long at the office and as a result their muscles weaken. At this point they can’t support the internal oranges, allowing the abdomen to bulge. The swelling causes people to seek some drastic action, in order to regain that nice flat belly they start to exercise. This is where people make the biggest mistake in flatting their stomach: they start to workout very hard on their belly muscles and develop nice firm muscles but no one can see them. They are all sunken under a layer of fat. People are walking around with nice strong belly muscles that are actually invisible. These people can not stop complaining about how hard they work, every day shaping their muscles but no visible results are shown. This is their mistake, their muscles are just fine. The problem is the layer of fat which covers them. The solution is working on both things at the same time: on one hand work on your belly muscles, in addition you must reduce your fat percentage, Lowering your fat percentage will eventually give you the affect you were looking for the “six-pack” look. It is very important to realize that lowering only belly fat is impossible. You must burn fat with by working and developing a higher muscles mass which will burn more calories even when you rest. Another important aspect is to reduce fattening food consumption. There is an argument regarding how much and how often should one work on his belly muscles. It depends on you, your time, and how quickly do you want to start shaping your belly. It is recommended to work once in two days for 15 minutes, work real hard the n rest the next day. It is possible to work every day on the belly muscles, contrary to other muscles, but its best to start in this moderate manner and move from there. This is it the big secret do not expect to find specific exercises, it is not the most important thing the key to win your fight for a flat belly is in the combination of low fat diet and exercises which will end up in a flat belly.
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This article is about weight loss and how to live a more healthy life, I hope you find it interesting to read and beneficial. I have had a lot of problems with my weight over the years and by the age of twenty-two had had enough of being obese. In the article I write about how I eventually lost my excess pounds. I have always struggled to keep my weight under control. Being over-weight affected my whole life, I was unable to wear the clothes I wanted to and I often felt guilty after eating certain foods. I was adamant that if only I could lose a couple of stones my confidence would increase and that I would ultimately be a lot happier. I read many books and attempted to follow a range of diets. For whatever reason this did not seem to help me, mainly because I could not stick to their weight loss programs due to my love of fatty foods. One day I was talking to a neighbour who was not only very nice but also quite thin. She looked very fit and healthy and I enquired as to how she kept so trim. This neighbour who is called Gillian seemed quite taken aback and even flattered by my question and went quite coy. She stated that at one point in her life, she had also had a weight problem and had not been happy about it. What she was about to say was quite a shock to me, however would eventually change my life. She went on to say that wherever she went to at this stage of her life, she would travel to by car. Gillian had realised that in an average week, she did very little exercise and at times did none at all. She then went out and bought a dog and would take this pet for a walk at least twice a day. This was not a choir for Gillian and over the next few years even resulted in her meeting a number of new friends. Previously, Gillian had seen exercise as a hassle and very time consuming but on various days she would take her dog on four walks, she enjoyed it that much. Gillian quickly noticed that not only was she losing weight but that she also felt a lot healthier. It was not long before she was at a weight she was happy with. After listening to Gillian’s story I decided to follow her weight loss program. Yes I went and bought a dog and am happy to report that it has also worked for me.
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There are many people who attempting to lose weight, some will succeed and others will fail, however the biggest battle for people who are able to reduce their weight, is often to keep to their ideal weight. Many people will find that they have soon returned to the weight that they were before they went on their diet or even that they are actually fatter. This can of course be very depressive and can result in them losing a lot of their self-esteem. What is needed is for a permanent solution to their weight problems. There are some obvious routes to take in the battle to lose weight. They would include increasing the amount in which we exercise and reducing the amount we eat. It is this eating issue that can be the hardest to control and to reduce as our temptations often get the better of us. In my opinion what we need to do is to make our house a fat free zone. If we become hungry and start looking through the cupboards and notice for example a packet of crisps, it can often be very difficult not to eat them. Our desire for instant food can become too great and our inner demons try and convince us that one packet will not hurt. If that packet of crisps had not been in the cupboard we would have not been put into that position of temptation and would of course not have been able to eat them. A number of years ago, when I went about losing my own excess weight, I decided to remove all of the foods from all of the cupboards which I was aware that I needed to stop eating. I also removed certain drinks such as alcoholic drinks which were also something which contributed to my weight problems. I put into the dustbin all of the takeaway menus that I had and basically attempted to make it as hard as possible for me to eat or drink anything that I shouldn’t have been. When out and about I had to be determined to keep to my diet and to not be tempted to buy any of these items from the shops etc. This was not easy to do as I am somebody who loves all of these fatty type foods. In my weekly food shop I bought far more fruit and vegetables and was surprised at how quickly my taste buds started to change. I soon looked forward to eating an apple as an example and the weight slowly but surely started to reduce. After a number of months I reached a weight that I was happy with. My wife stated that I was now able to start eating items such as dry roasted peanuts, this was a particular favourite of mine. This was possibly true but could easily result in a return to my old bad habits and of course weight problems. I decided to stick with the fruit and my cupboards are still free of those foods which I love to eat but which are not good for my weight.
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Before many Australians recently, a devastating story unfolded on a popular current affairs program. We watched with compassion as the fattest man in Australia told of his most recent, serious attempt to lose weight. Approximately 12 months earlier and weighing close to 300 kilos, he under went life threatening surgery to lose weight. I doubt there would have been one person watching not moved by this man’s depression and plight. Despite undergoing the surgery, today he could barely get through each day, both physically and mentally. He shared with us his sense of hopelessness and wanting to end it all. It was not only his size that was causing his depression. He had to deal with a heart broken by disappointment. You see, the surgery had been a success. He soon lost well over 50 kilos post operation and he and his family rejoiced. But then the unthinkable happened. The weight came back. Today he weighs well over 300 kilos – more than before the surgery. This is an extreme case, but nonetheless raises a question that so many people continue to battle with. After a diet, why does the weight come back so quickly? To answer this we need to understand how much energy a body requires. For each pound you weigh, each day you need 12 calories to maintain your body weight. If you weigh 120 pounds you will need 120 x 12 calories, that is, 1440 calories per day to maintain that body weight. If you eat or drink more calories than your body requires, the excess energy is stored as fat. It takes 3,600 excess calories to make one pound of fat. In this example, if your typical daily calorific intake is 2000 calories, in around 30 days you would put on between 4-5 pounds of fat! Let’s say, you then decide to go on a restrictive diet and halve your calorific consumption to 1,000 calories per day. You stay on this diet for around a month and lose 10 pounds and now weigh 110 pounds. You feel fantastic about losing the weight but can’t keep up such a restrictive regime because you are irritable and have no energy. So you go off your diet and go back to your usual routine of 2,000 calories a day. Remember you are lighter now and your body requires less energy to maintain its new weight. You would now require 110 x 12, that is, 1320 calories per day. In this instance, by consuming 2000 calories daily, because you are lighter than before, you would put the weight back on in just 24-25 days! If you want to keep the weight off you must develop a consistent change in eating habits to ensure you do not consume more than your body requires. You cannot continue to eat the same quantities and/or combinations of foods that caused you to be overweight in the first place. This will require developing an understanding of the nutritional content of food and raising your body’s metabolism through increased muscle mass and exercise. (c) 2003 Kim Beardsmore