Weight Loss Diet Solutions

With the Holiday season starting now, I thought getting some eating and exercise tips to survive the holiday season would help everyone

The time between Thanksgiving and New Years is one in which we all indulge ourselves in over-abundance. Especially when it comes to food. Food has become a central part of our get together and parties around the holidays, so it is important that we remember to make smart food choices.

And this is something that is almost always easier said than done when you see some of the decadent food choices made available, made with love, by your friends and family.

In most cases, the majority of the party-going people, won’t be concerned with watching their, so they are less inclined to bring healthier versions of their best recipes. Then it becomes our own burden to stick with our diets or to watch what we eat as the food choices are always so tempting.

The following 15 holiday eating and exercise tips are here to help you when going to holiday parties to better watch yours by giving you some great ideas.

15 Eating and Exercise Tips To Survive The Holiday Season

Stop Eating When You Feel Full. This is something most people won’t, or don’t, do. Especially those that are in the ‘clean plate’ club and don’t like to leave extra or left over food on their plates. Honestly, there is absolutely no shame in leaving that extra portion of food on your plate.

When your tummy feels full, just push yourself away from the table and say “No More For Me Thanks”.

Take A Few Extra or Longer Walks. Walking is a terrific form of exercise, and can be a great cardiovascular workout in colder temperatures. Especially when there is a nice layer of snow on the ground.

Next time you go to let your dog out to do their bathroom ‘business’, why not slip on your coat and shoes, grab their leash and take them for a walk around the block, or down a few blocks. Fido will love you for it and you will be making yourself a healthier ‘you’ by doing it as well.

Don’t Count Calories Incessantly. This is unnecessary and will drive your loved ones crazy, and yourself too. Let’s face it, there are enough stressors around the Holidays to worry about. Gaining an extra few pounds should be the least of your troubles.

The best thing you can do if you are already dieting is to watch not what you eat, but how much of it you are eating instead of trying to keep track of your caloric intake. Unless of course you are on a strict diet and need to avoid things that contain higher carbohydrates, sugars, etc. In this case, you would obviously want to avoid eating things like potatoes, bread, cookies, candies, cakes, etc.

Use Reduced Fat, Sugar Substitutes, or Fat Free Ingredients in Your Recipes. Lots of people complain that fat-free or reduced fat ingredients change the flavor of their favorite recipes, and not in a good way. But, in all reality, there is barely a hint of difference in flavor.

In fact, if one did not have the knowledge that normal ingredients such as sour cream had been replaced with a fat-free or reduced fat substitute, you would never hear a peep about the taste. When replacing sugar such as pure cane sugar with a substitute such as Splenda, Equal, or the like, you may notice a taste difference. So, in this case, if you have picky family members, simply make two versions of the same dessert or snacks and let your family opt for their own choice.

Eat One Big Meal Instead Of Continuous Snacking Or Smaller Meals. Opinions will vary on this one, but whether you’re eating a bigger meal once, or several smaller meals throughout the day, the amount of food you are taking in is just about the same at any rate.

The difference in eating a big meal once is that you will be completely full, or have the full ‘feeling’ so you won’t be hungry as much. And DO NOT think you can have your 3 square meals a day and then add a couple of more to the mix. That will most definitely pack on the unwanted pounds. Remember to always eat in moderation and keep in mind the full feeling. When you are getting full, STOP EATING.

Know Your Eating Boundaries And Don’t Cross Them. This tip is especially important if you are already dieting or trying to lose weight. You know better than Aunt Betty what you can eat. Even though her home-made pound cake might taste wonderful, you may want to not opt for seconds if you are on a strict diet.

Many people like to splurge around the holiday season, but it’s all a matter of willpower really. If you just can’t help yourself and must have some of Uncle Fred’s ambrosia salad, then take a smaller than normal portion of it.

Go For The Healthy Food Choices. Almost every family unit has at least one ‘health nut’ within its midst. If there are healthy food choices available, then eat more of the plain fruits and vegetables instead of the pies cakes and cookies in the holiday ‘spread’.

Remember too that extra dips can help pack on the pounds. Don’t be afraid to ask what the dips are made from so you can make a more informed judgment on whether or not you can enjoy them. Also, you can always bring healthier food dips for fruits and veggies with you such as yogurt or reduced calorie veggie dips that are sold at most major grocery stores before the big get-together.

Eat In Moderation With Smaller Portions. As discussed earlier, take smaller portions of all those calorie packed goodies. This way, you can still partake of all the wonderful eats without packing on all the extra pounds that go along with all those goodies.

And remember too to balance out the bad foods, or those that are packed with sugars and carbohydrates, with good foods such as plain fruits and vegetables.

Drink In Moderation. No, this is not an advertisement for drinking and driving, even though you should always have a designated driver if you plan on drinking more than the legal limit, of course, or anything at all due to cold, icy, roads.

Rather, many holiday drinks during Thanksgiving or at Christmas parties, are packed with extra sugar, so watch how much of the good old egg nog you drink. This goes for either alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. Water is always a great choice, or non-sweetened tea or coffee. There too, is also diet soda pop if you are a soda drinker.

Substitute Whole Grains In Lieu of Higher Carbohydrate Filled Grains. Try to steer clear of white bread, sugary cakes, potatoes, cookies, or anything else that you believe to have a high carbohydrate count. These can put a lot of on you quickly and is why many diets try to steer clear of these carb-laden monoliths.

Go for the whole wheat, multi-grain, sugar substitute holiday food choices. Sure, it’s not the same as loading up on all the ‘bad-for-you’ foods, but you’ll be glad you did when January rolls around.

No Eating After 7 p.m. This can be extremely difficult to do. Especially when most holiday get togethers happen after 7 o’clock. If this is the case, then you should eat before you go to the holiday bash. Most foods are not properly burned off if eaten after 7 o’clock p.m.

So, it’s best if you eat long before this time rolls around. However, you can eat something healthy such as fruits or vegetables minus the fatty dips if you really need to snack on something.

Drink More Liquids Than Eating. Drinking more liquids will fool your body into believing it is full. Therefore, you can drink lots of water, unsweetened tea or coffee, diet sodas, low-calorie fruit smoothies or soft drinks(non-carbonated), etc. without feeling the guilt of over eating.

Stay away from higher sweetened drinks as this will defeat the purpose of watching your weight.

Eat Something Before You Go Grocery Shopping. Actually, you should eat something before you do any shopping out of the house, or in-house for that matter, doing exercise that will burn calories.

But, the main reason for going grocery shopping on a full stomach is that you will be less inclined to purchase all those fattening junk foods because you are not hungry so you aren’t tempted by those types of food choices. You will be able to stay on track and only purchase those things you need from the grocery store instead of packing your cart with packing foods.

Plan An Out-Door Activity. Depending on the region you live it, whether the weather is warmer or colder, plan on doing something outdoors. This can be something you do by yourself, with family, or friends that doesn’t involve any eating.

Things like cutting down your own Christmas Tree, shopping for gifts, either last minute or not, walking through the park(you may want to do this with someone or a group of someones for safety reasons), going sledding, skiing, skating, playing some backyard football, collecting pine cones and creating some simple bird feeders with bird seed and peanut butter, and any other activities you can think up. Try to do one thing each week to replace a day of exercise or work out that you would normally do to keep things interesting and everyone in the holiday spirit.

No Healthy Food Choices? Bring Some Cutting up vegetables or fruits to create a holiday health tray can be a nice ‘change of pace’ for your friends or family. Why not try bringing some healthy holiday cheer at your next get together.

Chances are, someone else in your extended friends or family network are trying to watch their wastes too and would appreciate having a healthier-than-normal food choice. Even if that isn’t the case, you are still saving yourself tons of work out time later once all those extra caloric fatty foods are attaching themselves to your waistline.

Of course, there are always more things you can do to watch your year round. Try incorporating some of those things during the holidays as well since we all tend to eat a bit more and make less than savory choices to keep ourselves healthy, fit, and trim.

Take the ideas in the tips above and fit them into your lifestyle by changing them up a bit. Remember being healthy is a lifestyle in and of itself and should be practiced year round. It’s especially important not to slack off around the holiday season when most of the unhealthy food choices are abundant.

I do hope the eating and exercise tips listed above have helped you realize that you can watch your and still have a wonderful time at holiday gatherings between Thanksgiving, through Christmas, and New Years Eve without making a ‘Santa’s Helper’ out of yourself.

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Some people are not satisfied with just basic weight loss; what they also want is to get great six pack abs like their favorite celebrities.

You will be happy to know that it is quite easy to do, and doesn’t involve working out rigorously for endless hours either. You have to remember though that you need to lose weight, and that weight will come off your whole body not just your midsection.

In this article I will tell you about two simple loss strategies which will not only help you achieve quick loss but also the six pack abs you desire so much.

Six Pack Ab Weight Loss Strategies

1. Do the correct workouts: The days of long bring cardios are over. Truth to be told, cardios can hardly help you with fast loss, let alone acquiring six pack abs. Instead of cardios, you should focus on intense workouts which not only help you burn fat fast but also build strong lean muscles for you. With the help of lean muscles, you will be able to burn fat even at rest.

It is also important that you have your focus correct when you select your workouts.

The golden rule of loss is that our body typically starts burning fat from the upper and mid sections, that is, your chest, waist, back, etc. Therefore you should focus on workouts which help you burn fat in these areas.

If you think that doing continuous sit-ups and ab crunches would help you acquire six pack abs quickly, you could not be further from the truth. These will build the muscle, but behind the layer of fat.

2. Follow the correct nutrition plan: Eating right is as much important as doing the correct workouts, as one cannot exist without the other. No matter how hard you workout in your gym, they won’t help you if you come back home and start eating junk foods as usual. Since you need to reduce your food intake when trying to lose , you should be extremely selective about the types of foods you eat. You must make sure that your meals are providing your body with the necessary nutrition while at the same time helping you lose .

The Following Foods are Good For 6 Pack Ab Weight Loss

1. Complex carbs: Example: whole grain wheat

2. Protein: Examples: Lean chicken meat, egg, “low-fat” yogurt, etc.

3. Fiber: Examples: Natural fruits and vegetables, legumes, beans, etc.

4. Good Fats: Examples: Fishes such as salmon and tuna, olive oil, nuts, etc.

A healthy diet should include all the above foods.

The Following Foods are NOT Good For Weight Loss:

1. Sugary foods: Sweets, candies, chocolates, processed fruit juices, soda, soft drinks, etc.

2. Fatty foods: Basically, don’t make that trip to Mc Donalds(tm) or your local fast food restaurant anymore and you should be fine.

3. Calorie-rich beverages: Alcohol

4. Diuretics: Caffeine

You should strip those foods out of your diet plan.

Using the correct method of eating is as important as selecting the right foods for yourself. Just because I advised you to eat vegetables doesn’t mean that you should be eating a dozen apples per day.

Stop eating like a maniac and start eating like a normal person. In other words, you should eat five or six small meals per day instead of two or three large ones.

Eating small and frequently would keep your metabolic rate high and help you burn fat fast.

And of course, you would also be able to get those six pack abs using the above eating as well as making sure that you are doing the correct ab exercises such as planks, crunches, and leg raises everyday.

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Exercise may fight off depression and improve self-esteem in over children, researchers here said.

But according to one key measure, white children seemed to benefit more from exercise than black youngsters, a difference the scientists found intriguing but not easily accounted for.

In a randomized trial, heavy kids who exercised for 40 minutes a day saw decreases in depressive symptoms and improvements in self-esteem compared with those who remained sedentary, Karen Petty, M.D., of the Medical College of Georgia, and colleagues reported online in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology.

Effects of childhood obesity

Childhood obesity has been associated with many psychological problems, including low self-esteem and depression, but little is known about the effects of physical activity on feelings of self-worth.

So the researchers conducted a study of 207 over and sedentary children ages seven to 11 years.

They noted that the youngsters in the sample were not clinically depressed, with only 4% scoring above the cutoff for depression.

How much exercise do kids need?

The children were randomized to either 20 or 40 minutes of daily exercise, or told to continue their sedentary lifestyle. The exercises periods, which lasted for 13 weeks, included running, jump rope, basketball, and soccer.

The researchers found that the 40-minute exercise group sustained the greatest psychological benefit, with evidence of a dose-response relationship.

For depression, the 40-minute group had significantly lower scores than the control group. The 20-minute group also had lower depression scores than the control group, but the finding was not statistically significant.

The 40-minute group also had significantly better self-esteem scores than the control group. Once again, the 20-min group scored better than the controls, but not enough for statistical significance.

“The 40 min daily dose of aerobic exercise was clearly superior to the control condition for reducing depressive symptoms, increasing physical appearance self-worth,” the authors concluded.

Although the results suggest that 20 minutes of exercise might also help, further study is needed, the report said.

Race, Kids and self esteem

A multivariate analysis revealed that self-perception scores improved only for white children. Although exercise did not impact the general self-esteem of black children, it did improve their depressive symptom scores, the researchers said.

“The unexpected finding that exercise led to increased global self-worth only in whites calls for further study on the influence of race on psychosocial consequences of obesity and exercise,” they said.

Change kids now for their future

“However,” they said, “the effects of exercise on depressive symptoms may be important for prevention of clinical depression in later childhood and adolescence.”

The researchers said their findings may be limited by notions of self-worth that vary by culture. Also, because the 20-minute exercise period did not produce statistically significant results, they suggested further study to see if there’s an effective dose of exercise below 40 minutes.

Still, they concluded that the findings point to the need for exercise programs for all children in order to “reduce depressive symptoms and increase aspects of self-worth.”

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