Trying Too Hard Sabotages Weight Loss

April 13th, 2010

Trying Too Hard Sabotages Weight Loss

Most weight loss attempts fail simply because people try too hard. They set up high expectations of themselves and then gorge on the wrong foods when they cannot stick to the diet. This just makes their obesity problem worse.

If you want to lose pounds for good you need to forget about fad diets and lose weight he natural way. This means applying the principles of natural eating to your life. For some that means eating a vegan diet and for others it means including some meat in the diet as a protein source. Every individual is different when it comes to deciding what their body requires to survive.

Eating better often involves big lifestyle changes. Big changes are not accomplished overnight. You also can’t get anywhere if you insist on counting each and every calorie. Forget any ideas you may have about this entailing sacrifice, deprivation or days and days of eating nothing but a bland diet. Trying too hard like this simply does not work.

The key is that if you are eating vegan there is no need to count calories. Your body naturally knows what to do to keep you at a healthy weight.

Furthermore you will NOT ignore your body’s cues to eat as is true of other dieting. Feeling hungry is a sign that is something wrong. Part of a healthy weight loss plan is listening to your body’s messages.

Don’t ever think for two seconds that staying hungry will keep you thin. In fact the exact opposite happens. Your body slows down the burning of your metabolism to a very slow rate. It is a defense mechanism against hunger.

You can also think of eating a vegan diet as a worry free way to eat because your body knows what to do with the substances that you are ingesting. This is because you are consuming nutrients and not chemical.
The reason your body is more efficient with these types of foods is because fruits, vegetables and grains are much less dense in energy than animal foods. They simply pack fewer calories per cupful or spoonful.

This is because fat has nine calories per gram while carbs and protein only have four calories per gram. In addition good carbs like fruits, vegetables and whole grains contain great amounts of fiber. Fiber makes you feel full and adds almost no calories to your meal.

In some studies, those who follow whole foods, low-fat, plant-based diet consumes fewer calories. It’s not because they’re starving themselves. In fact, they will likely spend more time eating and eat a larger volume of food than their meat-eating counterparts.

This means that every time you eat a healthy meal, you may reduce the calories that you consume, digest and absorb, even if you eat significantly more food at one sitting.

Food deprivation just does not work. The beautiful thing about a vegan diet is that you do not deny yourself food. This is because weight loss due to calorie restriction almost never leads to long-term weight loss.

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The Acidic Body and Weight Gain Connection

April 12th, 2010

The Acidic Body and Weight Gain Connection

When it comes to all the extra weight we are carrying around, we have to comprehend the cause before we can put the practical remedy into action. This is because the cure for obesity is not dieting – it is lifestyle change. Obesity needs to be treated just like any other illness. The goal is to treat the whole person and not just a symptom.

Any program that addresses only the obvious symptom of the problem (excess pounds) will never truly solve the problem. It’s like putting a band-aid on a heart that needs open heart surgery.

Dieting to lose weight is like pulling a weed without getting at the root .In fact if you think of this all like a garden then you might see that dieting is more like depriving the garden of rain or nutrients. You are still feeding the weeds that you never pulled up as the root causes of the obesity.

Low fat has been where it is at for a couple of decades now but unfortunately that are partly what has gotten us into so much trouble with our weight. Depriving ourselves of cholesterol, carbs or sugar has not worked well either.

To lose weight you have to stop counting calories, carbs and denying yourself foods and fats and instead focus on eating more alkaline foods.

Acidic foods are a real problem. Our bodies dispose of some of these acids through the bowels, skin and urinary tract but whatever is left must be buffered and neutralized. If these acids are not eliminated then they destroy your tissues and organs quite quickly.

Our bodies cannot fight the cascade of acidic substances that we consume every day. Too much acid in the body robs the blood of oxygen and without it the metabolism slows down. We digest our food more slowly and suffer from weight gain. Even worse the food stall in our system and clog up our colon making our livers, kidneys, skins and other organs of elimination toxic as well.

Yet another consequence of consuming too much acidic food is that it robs the body of oxygen and without oxygen food starts to oxidize, ferment and rot. The fermentation creates fungus, mold and yeast to thrive in the colon and throughout our body.

The end result of this is a very unhealthy individual who is usually too fat. That is why going on a very natural organic diet regiment is recommended to address your weight problems.

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Dieting and Diabetes

April 10th, 2010

Dieting and Diabetes

Very few people realize the profound effect that weight has on diabetes. Even instances of gestational diabetes are much greater in patients that are overweight than in those that are not. Type 2, or adult onset diabetes is more commonly found in overweight people than those that are within their ‘ideal’ weight ranges. In fact, almost 90%PRCTG% of those with Type 2 diabetes are overweight. If you are suffering from Type 2 diabetes, the best gift you could possibly give yourself just might be the gift of getting your weight under control.

Among those that suffer from Type 2 diabetes almost 40%PRCTG% have high blood pressure, which is another condition that is believed to be exacerbated by excess weight. Being overweight might also lead to a condition known as insulin resistance in which the body no longer responds to the insulin that is needed to assist the body in using sugar and glucose as fuel on a cellular level.

There are some things you can do to help yourself out if you have been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes or labeled at risk for this devastating condition. First of all, take off the pounds. I know this is much easier said than done. Dieting is never easy and rarely fun for the average person. However, if you do not begin to take drastic steps toward procuring the best possible health for yourself you may not be able to enjoy the quality of life you had planned for your golden years. Let your condition be your motivation and make plans to enjoy watching your grandchildren and great grandchildren graduate college.

Fight it standing up. Don’t sit down and let Diabetes control you. Stand up and take control of your body back. This is a fight to the finish and if you let it, diabetes will be your end. If you fight it standing up, lose the weight, get out there and exercise, listen to the doctor’s orders and follow them. Find the strength within you to battle this disease head on. You’ll be amazed at what happens when you decide to stand up and fight for your health.

Get active. Find activities that you enjoy and get out there and do them. Don’t make those activities passive activities either. Even if it’s just going out to play shuffleboard everyday get out there and play. Enjoy your time in the sun. Pick flowers with the little ones. Take up golf. Do whatever it takes to get up and moving each and every day in order to remember why you want to live forever in the first place.

Watch what you eat. Garbage in, garbage out, right? You have strict dietary requirements once you’ve been diagnosed with diabetes. This means that you absolutely must follow your dietary restrictions. Learn to live within those limits in order to live and enjoy life to the fullest you can. The amazing thing is that there are all kinds of foods available that are friendly to those with diabetes that weren’t around just a few short years ago. It is quite possible to live and eat quite nicely with diabetes if you stick to your plan. The most important thing about dieting with diabetes is that you never lose sight of how crucial it is to do so.

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Ph Balance and The Fat Connection

April 10th, 2010

Ph Balance and The Fat Connection

In order to lose weight in a natural and healthy way you need to make sure that your body has a neutral pH balance or one that is leaning towards being a bit alkaline. People who are overweight tend to have an acid pH balance in their blood. Tissues that are acidic bond fat to the body and keep you obese.

If your body is too acidic you will not lose weight. Once you learn how to keep the acids out of your body in the first place then your body will start shedding excess fat.

If your food and drink are alkaline, then that acid binding fat will just melt away. There is no need for the body to hang on to it anymore.

To understand whether or not your body is acidic or alkaline you need to understand the term pH.

The term pH derives from German, with p standing for “potent” -power-and H being the symbol for hydrogen. Technically speaking, what pH measures is actually the concentration or activity of hydrogen ions in any given tissue or solution so this could also refer to the blood, fluids or tissues of the body.

An atom is made up of protons, neutrons and electrons. Protons have positive charge and electrons have a negative charge and neutrons have no charge. When a single atom posses an equal number of these proton and electrons the atom is neutral. If it is picks up or loses an electron it becomes positively or negatively charged. Once charged, the name for an atom is an icon.

Below a pH of 7 substances are considered to be aside because they are saturated with pro-tons – also known as hydrogen ions. Many slimming foods are saturated with electrons which are alkaline.

In essence, the more protons there are in an icon the more acidic it is. An increase in hydrogen ions (protons) means a drop in pH and a decrease in those ions means a rise in pH.

So to simplify all of this: all acidic foods have a positive charge and all alkaline things have a negative charge.

Your ideal physical state is to have a negatively charged alkaline body. The only way to do this is to eat more negatively charged foods.

Think of your body like a big battery. In order for it have energy you need to have more electrons than protons in your body. When you take in alkaline rich food and drinks you are in effect recharging your own fuel cells.

The key is to find that exactly negatively charged balance that stops your body from soaking up and storing protons in your fat cells. Instead of protons, you will be storing electrons, which will leave you, quite literally, full of energy and in a state where your body is constantly able to lose fat.

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The Hypothalamus and Weight Gain Connection

April 9th, 2010

The Hypothalamus and Weight Gain Connection

The hypothalamus is the body’s master gland that controls many of the body’s essential systems. It regulates metabolism and the physiological trigger of hunger. In fat people this gland does not operate normally. It is too toxic. That is why people who are often overweight feel like they are starving.

The gland must be reset and normalized in order to eliminate constant and intense physical hunger. The only way to do this is to eat an organic, natural diet that is good for you.

People are often very puzzled by the functions of the hypothalamus and how exactly it can control us and especially how it can control our urges to eat.

There are many reasons that this important master gland might be operating abnormally in the first place and these include -

* Candida yeast overgrowth
* Lack of digestive enzymes
* Nutritional deficiencies
* Stress
* High fructose corn syrup
* Artificial sweeteners
* Microwaved food
* Heavy metal toxicity
* Insufficient oxygen
* Environmental allergies
* Food allergies
* Parasites
* Yo yo dieting
* Air conditioning
* Lack of sleep
* EMS
* Lack of fiber
* A clogged liver

There are also many other factors as well that can cause intense constant hunger including two very unusual influences that you may never have suspected could be a factor.

The first unusual factor is the lack of taste. The hypothalamus thrives on being able to experience the basic tastes that are present in most foods. This includes saltiness, sourness, sweetness, bitterness and savories. When you are on a diet the mouth is deprived of these tastes and the hypothalamus triggers you to crave foods even though the reality is that you are not hungry.

The hypothalamus also needs to experience a variety of experiences including a change of temperatures, textures and smells. It also needs to experience astringency, numbness, spiciness, blandness and coolness.

When the body is not constantly stimulated with all of these tastes then the hypothalamus starts being tricked into believing that your body is lacking food. This sensory deprivation also lowers your metabolism and increases hunger.

Therefore, in an ideal world, your hypthothalamus would be kept the most healthy if it had all of these tastes and scents at its disposal always. Who knew that deprivation of a variety of foods could actually slow down your metabolism? This is why diets based on food deprivation just do not work. Perhaps eating as many different foods every day is the answer to accelerating your weight loss because eating this way keeps the hypothalamus happy too.

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Dieting for Health

April 8th, 2010

Dieting for Health

There is no greater reason to diet than for your personal health and well being. Those of us who are overweight know better than most the risks and possible consequences that may result because of our weight. Much like smokers however, the risks do not always seem quite so cut and dry until we reach our very own turning point. Whether your eating habits are born of an addiction to certain foods, an emotional need, or years of learned behavior and conditioning things will not change until you completely adjust your eating habits and your lifestyle choices.

Dieting for many has become a lifestyle in and of itself with people rapidly flip-flopping or yo-yoing from one diet to another with little success and growing despair over a sheer lack of results. The truth is that until you decide to forgive yourself for your failures and get right back on the wagon, so to speak, after falling off no diet is going to be successful. A simple diet isn’t going to magically make the pounds disappear and constantly depriving yourself of those things you enjoy most may have a more detrimental effect than a positive effect.

The number one thing most people need to learn is that dieting isn’t always a good thing. What most people who are overweight need more than anything else is to incorporate positive lifestyle changes into their daily routines. People scoff at the notion of taking the stairs or parking farther away and yet those are perfectly plausible methods of working a little more physical activity into your day. If those do not work for you how about learning to dance? Seriously, there are beginner dance classes in most communities that will welcome and invite dances of all ages, sizes, and fitness levels if you are willing to make the effort. What a great way to get fit, learn something new, and have fun without filling deprived.

Another great thing about an activity such as a dance class (consider ballroom dancing with your significant other) is that you are not eating or tempted to eat during the time that you are dancing in most cases. Another great thing is that you are burning those calories you didn’t eat. If dancing isn’t you thing, try joining a walking club or finding another hobby. Anything that gets you on your feet and away from the temptation of your refrigerator is a good thing when it comes to dieting and weight loss. You cannot lose a significant amount of weight by dieting alone. You must incorporate physical fitness into your daily routine in order to achieve those immediate and visually stunning results that many dieters are hoping to achieve.

Another pitfall when it comes to dieting is that people give up far too quickly. Just as the results are beginning and progressing people get tired of the process or frustrated that they aren’t accomplishing enough dramatic weight loss as quickly as they had hoped and give up all together marking off yet another failure when they could have achieved greater success than ever before if they had stuck with their original diet plan a little longer.

One more thing you should remember when it comes to dieting is that the scale can be your best friend or your worst enemy when dieting. If you are weighing yourself every day in hopes of watching the scale tick off yet another pound you are dooming yourself to failure. You will never achieve the results you are hoping for you if you are going into depressive bouts of Rocky Road or Chunky Monkey every night because you didn’t lose 10 pounds overnight.

When it comes to dieting there are very few diets that work. There are however, many lifestyle changes that when practiced consistently and aggressively will work. The thing to remember is that you are the one who must work because it is quite unlikely that any diet will.

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Weight Loss Pills and Natural Weight Loss

April 6th, 2010

Weight Loss Pills and Natural Weight Loss

The bottom line is that weight loss pills have nothing to do with losing weight naturally. Many of these pills do cause weight loss but a lot of the rapid loss of pounds can be attributed to loss of water from the body.

Most weight loss products are diuretics and have the side effect of dehydration. It is also quite common for weight loss pills, like ephedrine and caffeine, to rev you up so much you forget to eat and drink. The same thing goes for food supplement known as hoodia. Although hoodia is an herbal remedy it is still a powerful diuretic that causes you to lose water instead of pounds.

The problem is that even remedies that are considered to be natural are not really that healthy for you. Lots of herbs have very dangerous side effects including dehydration, feelings of disassociation, diarrhea and constipation.

If you do decide to go the diuretic herbal weight loss route be sure to take water before, during and after all exercise and especially if you are planning strenuous exercising. Ten to fourteen ounces a day are the recommended fluid doses before you do any kind of athletic activity. This is important to evade any post work-out fatigue as well.

When taking weight loss pills you need to drink a lot of water. You are well advised try to take in half of your body weight in water in ounces a day. So if you weigh 180 pounds you should drink at least 90 ounces of water daily. This is roughly the same as drinking eight to ten bottles a day. This helps the weight loss pills break down fat cells and flush toxins out of your body. It can also help mitigate the side effects of any pills that are not natural.

Even if you do not feel thirsty you should force yourself to drink because some of these supplements put you in a disassociated state that causes you to simply forget to do what is good for you. You just won’t notice your dry mouth or you will feel so zippy you will feel like you are superhuman and like you don’t need food or water.

If you must drink a sports drink or diluted fruit juice to get enough water inside you than do it. Do whatever you can to encourage your body to take in enough water to discourage the dehydration caused by a lack of fluids.

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Candida Yeast and Food Cravings

April 5th, 2010

Candida Yeast and Food Cravings

Most people who suffer from being overweight are vulnerable to food cravings. This keeps them overweight simply because they overeat. The real cause might be yeast that is lurking in their intestines. This yeast is called Candida. Normally your intestine is loaded with good and bad bacteria. However we eat things and take medicines every day that kill off these bacteria we suffer from a condition called Candida overgrowth.

Antibiotics are a major cause of yeast overgrowth in the colon. They kill off all the good bacteria in your gut that is necessary for proper digestion so that your body can absorb nutrients from the foods you eat.

Candida burrows into the intestinal wall and then spreads, like a fungus, throughout the entire body. Candida has an appetite of its own and feeds on simple carbohydrates such as yeast, flour, sugar, pasta and all refined foods like cake and ice cream. It creates little pockets in the intestinal wall where food is trapped and eventually ferments.

The reason you gain weight when you have this type of yeast infection is that Candida creates cravings for the foods that are the worst for you. The toxic food particles trapped in the intestines also succumb to the type of bloating that can make a belly look really fat. In fact Candida yeast is also the main cause of gas, constipation and a rounded stomach or waist. Mentally this yeast causes depression, a lack of concentration and fatigue. This alone can cause people who are overweight to eat too much.

Candida is not only an organism onto itself but also an environment in which other organisms like to live. When you have Candida yeast you are not just hosting one bug – you are hosting several and they all contribute to weight gain and food cravings.

The secondary cause of food cravings in people with Candida is parasites. These parasites leech on the body causing nutritional deficiencies that in turn cause uncontrollable cravings for certain types of foods. These parasites also excrete toxins and serve to help clog up the liver and colon.

One of your natural approaches to weight loss may be to take an herbal formula that helps destroy these parasites so that your intestine can function normally again. There are also medications that can be prescribed by your doctor to clear up yeast problems as well so you are not completely at the mercy of this rampant organism that can play such havoc with your weight.

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Dieting with a Busy Schedule

April 4th, 2010

Dieting with a Busy Schedule

When it comes to dieting many of us find that the number one hindrance to our success is the lack of time to prepare the proper meals and snacks for our dietary needs. It is often much more convenient to throw one thing in the crock pot for the family or resort to the fast food last resort rather than preparing the healthy and nutritious meal that we should be eating.

There are things you can do however that will reduce the temptation to hit the drive thru and keep you on course with your dieting needs. The first of these is a process known as once a week cooking. With this method you cook enough meals to last you a week on one day. This means that for every night of the week you have a diet friendly meal ready to go. If your entire family is dieting or eating healthier with you, this works for this situation as well. Dieting and incorporating healthier eating habits into the food for your entire family is a great way to set an example for your children will keeping you motivated and removing temptation.

With once a week cooking you freeze the food that won’t be immediately consumed and thaw it the morning you will be eating the food to cook when you arrive home after work or decide it is time for your evening meal. This is a process that works well no matter how many soccer games, dance practices, and band recitals you have on your calendar for the week. You can manage to stick to your diet while having a great meal for your family each and every night of the week.

You should also make sure to have a nice supply and cleaned and cut fruits, vegetables, and salad ingredients in your refrigerator in order to make these dishes readily assessable for quick lunches or snacks. Having these foods readily available will help you resist the temptation to snack on higher calorie prepackaged food while also helping to insure that you have a ready supply of fresh fruits and vegetables to help you get your 5 servings a day.

You should also keep some conveniently packaged yogurt on hand as a good quick and easy dairy product. Sugar free pudding cups are another decent snack for those who need something quick and easy to have on hand. Preparation and planning are essential to successfully meeting your weight loss goals. By preparing as much of the food as possible ahead of time you will never even miss the convenience of those high calorie pre packaged meals and snacks that so many of us survive on when not dieting.

Another time saver is to work your fitness opportunities into the course of your day. Rather than performing one lengthy workout each day, try to find methods of bringing a little fitness activity into the most mundane portions of your day (go stair climbing at lunch, park on the top level of the parking garage and walk down-then up when returning-the stairs), park far away from the door of the supermarket and see if your mall has a walking path that is clearly marked. You’ll be amazed at the hidden opportunities many of us have for exercising during our busy days. The trick is often in discovering the activities rather than the time.

When all is said and done, dieting doesn’t have to be as time consuming as you may think it is. There are all kinds of prepackaged plans for dieters however if that is the choice you feel is best for you. Whether you are going with Lean Cuisine meals, Weight Watchers frozen entrees, Jenny Craig, or the Slim Fast program there are all kinds of opportunities to work dieting and fitness into even the busiest of schedules. When planning your dieting practices be sure to consider the tips and advice mentioned above.

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Problem Fat Areas

April 3rd, 2010

Problem Fat Areas

Why is it that some people have more problems when it comes to eliminating fat deposits than others?

It has everything to do with the hypothalamus gland.

There are three basic ways that the body stores fat: as structural fat, in normal fat reserves and as problem fat reserves.

1. Structural Fat

Structural fat is part of the building blocks of the body. This type of fat surrounds the joints and the internal organs. This fat is like a soft cushion facilitates movement and prevents bone grinding on bone. This is not the fat you want to lose while you are on any diet as it is integral to the structure of your body and to accomplishing even the simplest of movements.

2. Normal Fat Reserves

These are the fat reserves that are everywhere in your body. This is a thin layer of subcutaneous fat that all of us have in our bodies. This fat keeps us warm, supple and keeps us from hurting ourselves when we fall.

3. Problem Fat Reserve Areas

Problem fat reserve areas are spread throughout your body. They are designed to be a modern survival mechanism. Once fat is stored in these areas the fat will not be released easily if ever. Most people discover how stubborn these problem fat reserve areas can be when they go on a diet and exercise program. They lose water, structural fat and muscle mass and still retain these pouches of fat no matter how much they diet or exercise to get rid of it!

When you go on a severe diet you just end up losing the fat where you absolutely can’t afford to – in the structural and subcutaneous areas of the body.

The only way to lose problem fat areas is to adjust the function of the hypothalamus through eating a healthy diet. It is the only way to prevent fat from being stored abnormally in these secure problem area fat reserves.

The only other time that the body will release these fat reserves is at the absolute point of starvation or during pregnancy.

The bottom line is that you are not fat or obese unless your metabolism is abnormally low. The issue is that when the hypothalamus gets put in an abnormal state it stores at in these secure abnormal fat reserves at a much higher rate than usual. Once you start eating an alkaline, plant based diet devoid of the refined sugars and flours and embark on a regular exercise program it is easy to lose excess fat – quickly, efficiently and forever!

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