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Weight Loss Exercise

How to Keep A Food Journal


Though exercise and weight training are very important factors for increasing your fitness and losing weight, you absolutely cannot outwork a bad diet. Your body needs certain nutrients to thrive, and it needs them in the right quantities to create the physique you want. A food journal can help you to understand exactly what’s going into your body, leaving you better equipped to plan your workouts and calorie goals.

When you write down everything you’re eating each day, you automatically become a lot more mindful about food. It’s easy to snack away on junk all day without really thinking about it, but when it comes time to write down every single thing you’ve eaten you might be shocked! This alone is motivation enough for many people to lose weight.

What To Track In Your Food Journal

Food Journal

How to Track your eating in a Food Journal

If you’re trying to lose weight, it’s important that your food journal shows that you created a calorie deficit for the day – that is, that you ate fewer calories than those you burned off through exercise. If you’re trying to build muscle, on the other hand, you’ll need to eat extra calories. Although you might think you can track this mentally, a journal is far more effective.

If you’re into bodybuilding then you’ll also want to keep track of your macronutrients throughout the day. When working out your bodybuilding aims, you’ll know how many proteins, fats and carbohydrates you should eat each day. A journal will ensure you’re keeping on track. If you’ve made progress, or are suffering from a lack of progress, then you can even look back through your food journal to try and find out why.

So, on a most basic level you should include the name of the food, the size of the portion and the number of calories it contained. You can also include details of protein, carbs and fats, and you can make use of a digital kitchen scale or a smartphone app if you want to note down more detailed stats.

If you’re an emotional eater then you can also use the food journal as a place to note down how you feel when you eat certain foods. This will leave you more connected to your emotions and in a much better position to understand the triggers that cause you to eat more than you should.

Yes, a food journal does take effort. However, if you start a new weight loss or diet goal without keeping track of your progress, the chances are strong that you’ll just give up without really trying.


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100 Eating Tips


Sometimes we just do not eat very well and I ran across these 100 eating tips that would improve anyones diet very quickly in a very good direction, so gobble them up!

1. Add just one fruit or veggie serving daily. Get comfortable with that, then add an extra serving until you reach 8 to 10 a day.
2. Eat at least two servings of a fruit or veggie at every meal.
3. Resolve never to supersize your food portions–unless you want to supersize your clothes.
4. Make eating purposeful, not mindless. Whenever you put food in your mouth, peel it, unwrap it, plate it, and sit. Engage all of the senses in the pleasure of nourishing your body.
5. Start eating a big breakfast. It helps you eat fewer total calories throughout the day.
6. Make sure your plate is half veggies and/or fruit at both lunch and dinner.

Are there Any Easy Tricks to Help Me Cut Calories?

7. Eating out? Halve it, and bag the rest. A typical restaurant entree has 1,000 to 2,000 calories, not even counting the bread, appetizer, beverage, and dessert.
8. When dining out, make it automatic: Order one dessert to share.
9. Use a salad plate instead of a dinner plate.
10. See what you eat. Plate your food instead of eating out of the jar or bag.
11. Eat the low-cal items on your plate first, then graduate. Start with salads, veggies, and broth soups, and eat meats and starches last. By the time you get to them, you’ll be full enough to be content with smaller portions of the high-calorie choices.
12. Instead of whole milk, switch to 1 percent. If you drink one 8-oz glass a day, you’ll lose 5 lb in a year.
13. Juice has as many calories, ounce for ounce, as soda. Set a limit of one 8-oz glass of fruit juice a day.
14. Get calories from foods you chew, not beverages. Have fresh fruit instead of fruit juice.
15. Keep a food journal. It really works wonders.
16. Follow the Chinese saying: “Eat until you are eight-tenths full.”
17. Use mustard instead of mayo.
18. Eat more soup. The noncreamy ones are filling but low-cal.
19. Cut back on or cut out caloric drinks such as soda, sweet tea, lemonade, etc. People have lost weight by making just this one change. If you have a 20-oz bottle of Coca-Cola every day, switch to Diet Coke. You should lose 25 lb in a year.
20. Take your lunch to work.

21. Sit when you eat.
22. Dilute juice with water.
23. Have mostly veggies for lunch.
24. Eat at home.
25. Limit alcohol, even on weekends.
26. Have a V8 or tomato juice instead of a Diet Coke at 3 pm.
27. Doctor your veggies to make them delicious: Dribble maple syrup over carrots, and sprinkle chopped nuts on green beans.
28. Mix three different cans of beans and some diet Italian dressing. Eat this three-bean salad all week.
29. Don’t forget that vegetable soup counts as a vegetable.
30. Rediscover the sweet potato.
31. Use prebagged baby spinach everywhere: as “lettuce” in sandwiches, heated in soups, wilted in hot pasta, and added to salads.
32. Spend the extra few dollars to buy vegetables that are already washed and cut up.
33. Really hate veggies? Relax. If you love fruits, eat plenty of them; they are just as healthy (especially colorful ones such as oranges, mangoes, and melons).
34. Keep seven bags of your favorite frozen vegetables on hand. Mix any combination, microwave, and top with your favorite low-fat dressing. Enjoy 3 to 4 cups a day. Makes a great quick dinner.

Self Talk to stick to your diet

35. “The best portion of high-calorie foods is the smallest one. The best portion of vegetables is the largest one. Period.”
36. “I’ll ride the wave. My cravings will disappear after 10 minutes if I turn my attention elsewhere.”
37. “I want to be around to see my grandchildren, so I can forgo a cookie now.”
38. “I am a work in progress.”
39. “It’s more stressful to continue being fat than to stop overeating.”

I Eat Healthy, but I’m Overweight, Why?

40. Skipping meals. Many healthy eaters “diet by day and binge by night.”
41. Don’t “graze” yourself fat. You can easily munch 600 calories of pretzels or cereal without realizing it.
42. Eating pasta like crazy. A serving of pasta is 1 cup, but some people routinely eat 4 cups.
43. Eating supersize bagels of 400 to 500 calories for snacks.
44. Ignoring “Serving Size” on the Nutrition Facts panel.
45. Snacking on bowls of nuts. Nuts are healthy but dense with calories. Put those bowls away, and use nuts as a garnish instead of a snack.
46. Thinking all energy bars and fruit smoothies are low-cal.

What Can I Eat for a Healthy Low-Cal Dinner if I Don’t Want to Cook?

47. A smoothie made with fat-free milk, frozen fruit, and wheat germ.
48. The smallest fast-food burger (with mustard and ketchup, not mayo) and a no-cal beverage. Then at home, have an apple or baby carrots.
49. A peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat bread with a glass of 1 percent milk and an apple.
50. Precooked chicken strips and microwaved frozen broccoli topped with Parmesan cheese.
51. A healthy frozen entree with a salad and a glass of 1 percent milk.
52. Scramble eggs in a nonstick skillet. Pop some asparagus in the microwave, and add whole wheat toast. If your cholesterol levels are normal, you can have seven eggs a week!
53. A bag of frozen vegetables heated in the microwave, topped with 2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese and 2 tablespoons of chopped nuts.
54. Prebagged salad topped with canned tuna, grape tomatoes, shredded reduced-fat cheese, and low-cal Italian dressing.
55. Keep lean sandwich fixings on hand: whole wheat bread, sliced turkey, reduced-fat cheese, tomatoes, mustard with horseradish.
56. Heat up a can of good soup.
57. Cereal, fruit, and fat-free milk makes a good meal anytime.
58. Try a veggie sandwich from Subway.
59. Precut fruit for a salad and add yogurt.

How to keep from putting on weight during the holidays?

60. Don’t tell yourself, “It’s okay, it’s the holidays.” That opens the door to 6 weeks of splurging.
61. Remember, EAT before you meet. Have this small meal before you go to any parties: a hardboiled Egg, Apple, and a Thirst quencher (water, seltzer, diet soda, tea).
62. As obvious as it sounds, don’t stand near the food at parties. Make the effort, and you’ll find you eat less.
63. At a buffet? Eating a little of everything guarantees high calories. Decide on three or four things, only one of which is high in calories. Save that for last so there’s less chance of overeating.
64. For the duration of the holidays, wear your snuggest clothes that don’t allow much room for expansion. Wearing sweats is out until January.
65. Give it away! After company leaves, give away leftover food to neighbors, doormen, or delivery people, or take it to work the next day.
66. Walk around the mall three times before you start shopping.
67. Make exercise a nonnegotiable priority.
68. Dance to music with your family in your home. One dietitian reported that when she asks her patients to do this, initially they just smile, but once they’ve done it, they say it is one of the easiest ways to involve the whole family in exercise.

How to stop eating sweets?

69. Once in a while, have a lean, mean salad for lunch or dinner, and save the meal’s calories for a full dessert.
70. Are you the kind of person who does better if you make up your mind to do without sweets and just not have them around? Or are you going to do better if you have a limited amount of sweets every day? One RD reported that most of her clients pick the latter and find they can avoid binging after a few days.
71. If your family thinks they need a very sweet treat every night, try to strike a balance between offering healthy choices but allowing them some “free will.” Compromise with low-fat ice cream and fruit, or sometimes just fruit with a dollop of whipped cream.
72. Try 2 weeks without sweets. It’s amazing how your cravings vanish.
73. Eat more fruit. A person who gets enough fruit in his diet doesn’t have a raging sweet tooth.
74. Eat your sweets, just eat them smart! Carve out about 150 calories per day for your favorite sweet. That amounts to about an ounce of chocolate, half a modest slice of cake, or 1/2 cup of regular ice cream.
75. Try these smart little sweets: sugar-free hot cocoa, frozen red grapes, fudgsicles, sugar-free gum, Nutri-Grain chocolate fudge twists, Tootsie Rolls, and hard candy.

No more midnight snacks

76. Eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The large majority of people who struggle with night eating are those who skip meals or don’t eat balanced meals during the day. This is a major setup for overeating at night.
77. Eat your evening meal in the kitchen or dining room, sitting down at the table.
78. Drink cold unsweetened raspberry tea. It tastes great and keeps your mouth busy.
79. Change your nighttime schedule. It will take effort, but it will pay off. You need something that will occupy your mind and hands.
80. If you’re eating at night due to emotions, you need to focus on getting in touch with what’s going on and taking care of yourself in a way that really works. Find a nonfood method of coping with your stress.
81. Put a sign on the kitchen and refrigerator doors: “Closed after Dinner.”
82. Brush your teeth right after dinner to remind you: No more food.
83. Eat without engaging in any other simultaneous activity. No reading, watching TV, or sitting at the computer.
84. Eating late at night won’t itself cause weight gain. It’s how many calories–not when you eat them–that counts.

Are there any side effects to being healthy?

85. Fat-free isn’t always your best bet. Research has found that none of the lycopene or alpha- or beta-carotene that fight cancer and heart disease is absorbed from salads with fat-free dressing. Only slightly more is absorbed with reduced-fat dressing; the most is absorbed with full-fat dressing. But remember, use your dressing in moderate amounts.
86. Skipping breakfast will leave you tired and craving naughty foods by midmorning. To fill up healthfully and tastefully, try this sweet, fruity breakfast full of antioxidants. In a blender, process 1 c nonfat plain or vanilla yogurt, 1 1/3 c frozen strawberries (no added sugar), 1 peeled kiwi, and 1 peeled banana. Pulse until mixture is milkshake consistency. Makes one 2-cup serving; 348 calories and 1.5 fat grams.
87. If you’re famished by 4 p.m. and have no alternative but an office vending machine, reach for the nuts–. The same goes if your only choices are what’s available in the hotel minibar.
88. Next time you’re feeling wiped out in late afternoon, forgo that cup of coffee and reach for a cup of yogurt instead. The combination of protein, carbohydrate, and fat in an 8-ounce serving of low-fat yogurt will give you a sense of fullness and well-being that coffee can’t match, as well as some vital nutrients. If you haven’t eaten in 3 to 4 hours, your blood glucose levels are probably dropping, so eating a small amount of nutrient-rich food will give your brain and your body a boost.
89. Making just a few changes to your pantry shelves can get you a lot closer to your weight loss goals. Here’s what to do: If you use corn and peanut oil, replace it with olive oil. Same goes for breads–go for whole wheat. Trade in those fatty cold cuts like salami and bologna and replace them canned tuna, sliced turkey breast, and lean roast beef. Change from drinking whole milk to fat-free milk or low-fat soy milk. This is hard for a lot of people so try transitioning down to 2 percent and then 1 percent before you go fat-free.
90. Nothing’s less appetizing than a crisper drawer full of mushy vegetables. Frozen vegetables store much better, plus they may have greater nutritional value than fresh. Food suppliers typically freeze veggies just a few hours after harvest, locking in the nutrients. Fresh veggies, on the other hand, often spend days in the back of a truck before they reach your supermarket.
91. Worried about the trans-fat content in your peanut butter? Good news: In a test done on Skippy, JIF, Peter Pan, and a supermarket brand, the levels of trans fats per 2-tablespoon serving were far lower than 0.5 gram–low enough that under proposed laws, the brands can legally claim zero trans fats on the label. They also contained only 1 gram more sugar than natural brands–not a significant difference.

Give me some exercise tips!

92. Overeating is not the result of exercise. Vigorous exercise won’t stimulate you to overeat. It’s just the opposite. Exercise at any level helps curb your appetite immediately following the workout.
93. When you’re exercising, you shouldn’t wait for thirst to strike before you take a drink. By the time you feel thirsty, you’re already dehydrated. Try this: Drink at least 16 ounces of water, sports drinks, or juices two hours before you exercise. Then drink 8 ounces an hour before and another 4 to 8 ounces every 15 to 20 minutes during your workout. Finish with at least 16 ounces after you’re done exercising.
94. Tune in to an audio book while you walk. It’ll keep you going longer and looking forward to the next walk–and the next chapter! Check your local library for a great selection. Look for a whodunit; you might walk so far you’ll need to take a cab home!
95. Think yoga’s too serene to burn calories? Think again. You can burn 250 to 350 calories during an hour-long class (that’s as much as you’d burn from an hour of walking)! Plus, you’ll improve muscle strength, flexibility, and endurance.
96. Drinking too few can hamper your weight loss efforts. That’s because dehydration can slow your metabolism by 3 percent, or about 45 fewer calories burned a day, which in a year could mean weighing 5 pounds more. The key to water isn’t how much you drink, it’s how frequently you drink it. Small amounts sipped often work better than 8 ounces gulped down at once.

How do I stop eating when I am sad?

97. A registered dietitian can help you find healthy ways to manage your weight with food. To find one in your area who consults with private clients call.
98. The best place to drop pounds may be your own house of worship. Researchers set up healthy eating and exercise programs in 16 Baltimore churches. More than 500 women participated and after a year the most successful lost an average of 20 lb. Weight loss programs based on faith are so successful because there’s a built-in community component that people can feel comfortable with.
99. Here’s another reason to keep level-headed all the time: Pennsylvania State University research has found that women less able to cope with stress–shown by blood pressure and heart rate elevations–ate twice as many fatty snacks as stress-resistant women did, even after the stress stopped (in this case, 25 minutes of periodic jackhammer-level noise and an unsolvable maze).
100. Sitting at a computer may help you slim down. When researchers at Brown University School of Medicine put 92 people on online weight loss programs for a year, those who received weekly e-mail counseling shed 5 1/2 more pounds than those who got none. Counselors provided weekly feedback on diet and exercise logs, answered questions, and cheered them on. Most major online diet programs offer many of these features.


Recent Tags: 100 fitness tips, 100 eating tips, 100 exercise tips

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General Weight Loss Tips

29 Resolutions

stockfresh 346539 birthday cupcake sizeXS 29 Resolutions

 

Good Morning! I took the past couple of days off of blogging to sort of regroup before my 29th birthday. This year (to sound like my old hokey boss in nyc) is going to be transformative. I’ve created a list of goals and resolutions that I want to follow and remind myself of often over the next year.

1. Leave Obesity Behind. I’m determined that 29 is my last year of being an obese person. I’m fine with being chubby at 30, but not obese. These past few weeks have been really good for weight loss and I know what it looks like, I always have. I know what it takes. I don’t just want to be thin, I want to be strong and able-bodied. I want to be able to climb a rock wall, go kayaking, run, swim, and play sports. I want to find a new identity as a smaller person who leads a bigger life. I want to stop killing myself with food.

I’ve created a little more details and action lists as to how this goal will come to be, but for now this is my main goal this year. If I accomplish nothing else this year but this one goal, I will be satisfied. The main thing that I do is keep a food journal, this is number one and most helpful. The second thing is establishing and maintaining a regular exercise routine. The third thing will be creating time for daily meditation and inspiration for my goal.

I’m working on an inspiration scrapbook that I will work out of over the next year. I’m a visual person and I want this scrapbook to be a place where my goals are laid out. A book that I can turn to every day as a reminder of where I’m headed.

I will also spend the year sharing here, but also keeping a private daily journal.

I keep thinking how nice summers will be when I’m not sweltering in layers. How wonderful it would be to wear a tank top and Bermuda shorts and not feel self-conscious. How amazing it would be to wear a sleeveless dress and not have to wear a cardigan.

2. Lowered Expectations. My biggest struggle for as long as I can remember is having high expectations (if not unrealistic at times) of other people. I tend to wear my heart of my sleeve and find myself tore up over everything people do or don’t do (or say and don’t say). I can hear my mom saying “you need to develop thicker skin”, and I never knew what that looked like. This year I want to let that go. Instead of worrying about and wondering if and why other people don’t like me, I’m going to take that energy and put it back into liking myself.

I expect people to be better than I am, and give more than I can, and it’s just not fair. I expect kindness, generosity and thoughtfulness from those who are friends, but I don’t always get it. I expect those around me to care about what I’m doing, to be interested, to say something, anything to let me know that they care. And there are people who do and there are people who don’t and I have to stop waiting for people to get me, to validate me, especially when I haven’t let them in. So when I find myself going down the familiar path of wanting more from someone else I will simply whisper to myself “lower your expectations, it’s not about you” and move on. I realize that my high expectations keep me a victim of other people, they keep me negative and things begin to fester. The act of nothing from someone else, turns into something and I want to be better than that.

3. Embrace Humor. I love having a sense of humor and I like when mine comes out. I love laughing with other people and being silly. I have a pretty good (if not crass at times) sense of humor, and I want to embrace it and bring it out more. I want to be fearless in that regard and trust that I can laugh at life and be less serious. It’s in me and I want to bring it out more.

4. Work Harder, Be Focused. Here’s the thing. I keep myself busy, but for the most part it’s just me being busy. I’m actively trying to figure out who I want to be when I grow up. I want to figure out my life’s work. I waste a lot, a lot of time being overwhelmed and worrying. It’s not productive, it’s not moving forward, it’s not growing, it’s not anything at all, but wasted time. I get excited about ideas, I have more ideas to fill up a warehouse. And I don’t know what they mean. I wait until the last-minute to do things, and often I find that they are half-assed. I want to stop doing that to myself.

I want to work harder in confident, focused ways. I’m not 100% what they even means, but I want to get closer to whatever that is. I want to  improve my writing, design, illustration and photography skills. I want to do more work that I’m proud of.

5. Have Blind Faith. I don’t put a lot of faith in the notion that things will just work out. I don’t trust the process. I don’t trust that things will just happen on their own, or naturally, or in “god’s will”. I have deep-rooted fear it not growing so much so that I become stagnant from the fear, how’s that for irony? I believe we have to make things happen, and actively seek out what makes our hearts sing, but… I want more blind faith this year.

As I write this I can feel my chest tighten and my breath shorten. I see flashes of all of those episodes of Oprah that I watched growing up where women got lost and they are crying on her stage at the age of forty or fifty because they stopped seeking out what they wanted long ago. They let kids, marriage, and careers take hold and forgot to seek their dreams and maybe those are/were their dreams, but an essence was lost in the day-to-day.

This year, I want to stop fearing my journey. I feel as though this worrying is mostly misguided and I want to trust my unplanned process this year. I want to believe more that just by doing, I will get where ever I need to go. I want to change my perspective.

6. Less TV. I’m setting a two hours a week rule for TV, unless I earn time as a reward for extra exercise or meeting a deadline.

7. Eat Less Factory Food. I’m not looking for perfection, just being more mindful and better about this.

8. Let Go of Perfection. Perfection is the root of my procrastination and I need for that to go away this year. Before starting  a project I get so wrapped up in wanting it to be perfect, that I never start. I need to just start, work hard, be focused and have blind faith that it will work out.

9. Let Go of Validation. I need to stop waiting on other people in my life to cheer me on, to get what I do, to support my goals. In all honesty, I don’t do this very well for others and I should stop expecting (those pesky expectations again!) for it in return. I want to stop waiting on others to define who I am.

10. Spent More Time Outside. Lets be honest here, nature is scary. There are bugs, spiders, snakes, bears, and poisonous plants all ready to jump out and get us! Living in Floyd leaves little room for admitting to such fears, but mine is alive and well. I want to spend more time in my garden, but what is a spider crawls on me? I want to sit on the porch at night, but what if somethings flies out and attacks me? I want to go camping, but what if a bear tries to eat our food and eats us instead? I want to go hiking, but what if I fall off of a rock? I could keep this up for days.

I’m taking baby steps in our own yard and deck. I bought a little bistro table for daily outside dining, I’m going to decorate the porch with potted plants (that I will have to go outside and water!) and twinkle lights. I want to walk around our (small, yet adequate) property. Walk up the steep hill, mow the lawn, get my hands dirty, pull the weeds, trim the hedges, have a picnic… you name it, I want more of that.

11. Take More Risks. I’ve toyed with a couple of moderately life changing ideas, like going back to school or getting a job outside of the house. And while I’m not convinced either of these are good ideas right now, one would bring more debt and the other would require significant car time. I want to be a little more open to these ideas. There is a part of me that believes I’m not qualified for either, and I want to get over that and get better either way.

12. If I Get Stuck, Seek Pen and Paper (or a blank word document). Write it out, let it go.

13. Create a Beautiful (uncluttered) Living Environment. 

14. Go on More Adventures.

15. Get Dressed Every Day.

16. Move More.

17. Limit Social Networking to 30 Minutes a Day.

18. Make My Health and Wellness a Top Priority.

19. Smile More Often.

20. Let People In.

21. Get Over Embarrassing Things From My Past.

22. Act With Love.

23. Challenge My Fears. 

24. Be More Spontaneous and Flexible.

25. Cook At Least Five Times a Week.

26. Make Everything From One Cookbook.

27. Visit a New State. 

28. Develop My Blogs. 

29. Have A Lot More Fun!

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