Tag: Fitness

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Weight Loss Exercise

10 Portion Control Tips for Fast Weight Loss

Portions are some of the hardest things to control. It is fairly simple to think, no cookies but when it comes to 2 cookies, what is 1 more cookie? Looking to use leftovers but do not want to eat them all? Here are some tips to control your portions and help you lose weight.

Portion Control Tips

1. Break down all leftovers into single serving meals and store them that way. This way when you pick them out of the refrigerator you are not tempted to eat more than one serving.

2. Salad, just the lettuce and vegetables, are very low in calories and very high in proteins and fibers. This will fill you up and limit the amount of other food you eat. Feel free to eat as much as you want, but use as little topping as possible.

3. Break up the snacks into individual sized bags and keep them out of reach. You are less likely to get up and eat multiple bags of chips than you are to clean out a single large bag that is right next to you.

4. Eat small snacks and meals throughout the day. To do this, break the food up into portions while making it and then eat one portion every few hours, as opposed to eating one large meal and being hungry later.

5. Do not place the food in front of you while you are eating. Instead, serve the food in a different room than you are eating. Eat in the living room but dish out the food in the kitchen. Out of sight, out of mind.

6. Use a vegetable as a main course and meat as a side dish. This will limit how much meat you eat and increase your intake in healthy vegetables. This is good for decreasing fat and calorie intakes.

7. When eating out, designate half of the food as take home before you even start to eat. This way it is off your plate and away from your fork. This will also limit the size of dinner, making it a great way to limit calories.

8. If possible, order off the senior or the kids menu. These foods are smaller in size and they are often cheaper. If that is not possible, consider ordering a half or lunch sized meal.

9. Indulge in a small amount of forbidden foods every now and again. This does not mean eat a whole box of girl scout cookies (my diet un-doer) but rather have just the serving size and hide the box after that.

10. Drink plenty of water with your meal or snack. Often times the water is what your body is really craving, but since thirst is ignored and hunger is satisfied, the body says it is hungry instead of thirsty. In addition, the water will make you feel more full.

Enjoy these little hints to help you maintain a healthy portion controlled diet. Remember, even if you do not follow a diet, simply by eating less you can lose weight. These hints can help you do just that.

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Weight Loss Exercise

Avoiding Dangerous Raw Foods

Avoiding Dangerous Raw Foods

Avoiding dangerous raw foods is not difficult if you are careful. A raw foods diet is probably one of the healthiest diets that a person can follow, but like all restrictive diets, it has its dangers. In this article we will consider some of those dangers and how to avoid them.

Avoiding Dangerous Raw Foods

Salmonella And Other Bacterial Diseases

It is unfortunately true that raw food is more likely to carry bacteria such as salmonella, that can cause serious food poisoning. Salmonella is most often found in raw meats, eggs and dairy products. Cooking destroys it, as does pasteurization – a process which involves heating to high temperatures, which is done on most commercially sold dairy products and fruit juices, among other foods.

Avoiding dangerous raw foods and some of these bacteria are more dangerous for unborn infants in the womb than for adults. Therefore, you might want to reconsider following a raw foods diet if you are pregnant or planning a pregnancy.

You can avoid most risk of food poisoning on a raw foods diet by following the raw vegan version which avoids all of these foods. However, that has its own challenges – see the section on vitamin B12 below.

There have been cases of salmonella traced to other raw foods such as lettuce. Thorough washing can help, but in any case, this is a risk that applies to virtually everybody, so don’t let the cooked food fans scare you with this one. There are very few people who eat no raw food at all.

Nutritional Deficiencies and Vitamin B12

It is important to make sure that you are getting the full range of vitamins and minerals on a raw foods diet. You need to consider whether you are getting enough calcium, iron (especially for women of childbearing age), zinc, and omega-3 fatty acids. Although this is not really avoiding dangerous raw foods it is critical that you are not dificient in these essential nutrients as well.

There are raw foods that can supply these nutrients and you will need to ensure that they are included in your diet. Having a wide variety of nuts and seeds will help to ensure that you get enough minerals, for example. Ground flax seeds can provide essential fatty acids.

The need for vitamin B12 is something that anybody following a raw vegan diet needs to be aware of. It is not an issue for those on a diet that includes raw meat or dairy products.

B12 is an important nutrient: without it, we will eventually suffer brain damage as well as other serious health problems. The human body does produce B12 but not in a way that allows us to use our own. For example, it is found in breast milk and other human secretions. But unless we happen to be consuming quantities of these, we need to get B12 from another source, and there is no vegetable source.

This means either consuming animal products or taking a supplement. Animal products are not vegan, and supplements are not raw. So B12 can be an issue for people who want to follow a 100% raw vegan diet.

However, the body does store B12. So some people, who have eaten plenty of animal products up to now and are not considering being vegan for more than a year or two, hope that they may have enough B12 to see them through. If you decide to take this risk, you should at least be tested for B12 levels before you start a vegan raw foods diet, and then annually.

Avoiding Dangerous Raw Foods
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So when thinking about Avoiding dangerous raw foods there are really tow things to think about Bacteria, or the preseence of bad bacteria and vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

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Weight Loss Exercise

How To Change Your Eating to Lose Weight

How To Change Your Eating to Lose Weight

Change Your Eating to Lose Weight

The way you eat can have just as much to do with your weight gain or weight loss as what you eat. By changing a few things regarding how you eat, you can actually save calories and feel fuller. These techniques are easy to follow and will not draw a lot of attention to your weight loss process.

1. Chew your food slower. Many times you eat fast and hurriedly. This can cause you to eat more calories than you actually think you are eating. My chewing your food slower and taking smaller bites, you can make yourself feel fuller and lose more weight.

2. Eat off a dark colored plate. Yep, even the color of your plate can make you hungrier or fuller. Use a cool or dark colored plate to cause your mind to relax and enjoy the food better, hence causing you to eat less and slower.

3. Relax and de-stress before you eat. Many people are emotional eaters and stress will cause them to eat more. Relaxing will allow you to eat less and enjoy your food more.

4. Have some water with your meal. Feel free to drink water between bites and before your meal. This will make you feel fuller and be better hydrated.

5. Leave the room that you are eating in after eating. This way you can feel completely done eating. Dishes and leftovers can wait for a few minutes while you relax and begin to digest your food.

6. Focus on one thing at a time. Yes, it can be tempting to read the paper or watch television while eating, but this can distract you from your portion control and can even create a habit. This can cause you to want to eat every time you watch television, rather than watch television while you eat, causing you to eat more calories.

7. Designate areas of the house in which food is allowed. Not only will this keep the house cleaner, but it will also teach you to only want to eat while in those designated area. This can help to keep cravings and temptations at bay.

8. Buy salad plates and use these instead of dinner plates. These are smaller and will make whatever you put on them look bigger. This will trick your mind into thinking that you have eaten more and therefore are not hungry for more.

These little changes are simple and easy to implement but are also very effective for controlling your appetite. Such simple techniques can help you to retrain your brain and body, causing further weight loss. With such simple techniques, there is no reason not to be able to stick to your diet plan, provided it is balanced and reasonable.

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