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Healthy Food Choices to Lose Weight

Healthy food choices are the critical part to lose weight. Many people think that if you want to lose weight all you have to do is reduce the amount of food you eat. While this may be true to some extent, it’s more important to remember that the types of foods you eat can make a huge difference in your weight loss program. You have to eat healthy to lose weight. In other words, you must learn how to make healthy food choices to get the right nutrition in the right amounts.

The truth about weight loss is this: you can lose weight only if you burn more calories than you consume. You can do this by eating less, exercising more, or doing both. Health experts recommend a combination of a healthy diet and exercise to lose weight. A good weight loss plan allows you to eat healthy to lose weight.

Make a Lifestyle Change

Many people become overweight as a result of making the wrong food choices. Sad to say, this is because our way of life makes it easier to snack on doughnuts and cookies instead of fresh fruits. The refined carbohydrates in cakes, white bread, cookies, candies and biscuits quickly add pounds to the waistline and belly. The taste buds of the typical American are attuned to fried foods, chips, and junk food. Clearly, a conscious effort must be exerted to get people on the right track when it comes to making healthier food choices.

Healthy Food Choices to Lose Weight

Health Food Choices

People who want to lose weight often go on all sorts of diets, hoping that they will eventually find one that will help them shed fat and keep the extra pounds off permanently. It’s time people realize that fad diets do not work for long-term weight loss. You have to make a lifestyle change and learn to eat healthy if you want to lose extra weight and keep it from coming back.

Healthy Food Choices for Weight Loss

People have to eat but making the wrong food choices can lead to obesity or weight problems and illness. If you want to lose weight, eat the following healthy foods:

  • Fruits
  • Vegetables
  • Lean meats
  • Fish
  • Whole grain cereals
  • Nuts and seeds
  • Milk products
  • Eggs

A healthy diet for weight loss should also include plenty of water.

How to Eat Healthy to Lose Weight

The smartest way to lose weight is to choose healthy foods that you already have in your normal daily diet. Make this the starting point for your new and healthy eating habits. Eating familiar foods helps dispel the idea that you are on a diet. This is very important if you are trying to lose weight because being on a diet implies that it will end some day. When you stop your diet, you may gain back the weight you lost.

By changing your eating habits and learning to eat healthy, you’ll be able to lose weight and keep it off for good. Reduce your consumption of refined carbohydrates and watch what you add to your food. Avoid creamy sauces, high-calorie salad dressings, and deep fried foods. Keep in mind that it’s possible to make healthy food choices even at a fast food restaurant.


Healthy Food Choices to Lose Weight

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Dear April

My last entry accidentally got deleted. This has happened maybe twice since I started blogging four years ago and I think it happened when the server updated and it got lost. So I apologize for that, it wasn’t intentional, especially since it took me forever to write and now I have no interest in writing it again.

It’s April! I have so many plans and goals for this month that I’m very excited about. But first, I have some updates:

No Sugar. It’s been three months without sugar. I loosely say no sugar. I eat sugar in other forms such as fruit, natural sugars (I’ve added honey back in), and I will add sugar to a Vietnamese or Thai dish if it calls for it. It has been hard…some days harder than others. Right now I have cake and cookies in my house. I plan to give them away. It’s nice to not have them haunt me. I have sugar in the house, and I still bake. My treats are in the form of my glucosamine “candies”, Izze drinks, all natural fruit jam on toast/oatmeal/yogurt, and fruit smoothies. I’ve been hesitant to tell people I’m not eating sugar, in fact, if you don’t read this blog you probably don’t know.

I don’t want to be watched and I don’t want “sugar-free” to be confused with carb-free or have people think “oh she says no to ice cream, but yes to pizza! bah!” indeed so. This sugar-free thing is for cakes, cookies, ice cream…obvious sugar. It’s not a dietary guideline, it’s just me trying to get rid of something I have a hard time not overeating. I like rules.

No TV. I have to admit I’ve gone almost five weeks without my regular rotation of TV watching and will confess I’ve been watching Mad Men on DVD this past week (season four just came out). Not a ton, and not like before when I get obsessed and watch five in one sitting. But, considerably less. I’ve noticed that I don’t miss TV in the mindless sort of way of passing time or procrastinating- I can always find ways to fill my time with work. However- I’ve come to realize that watching an episode of a good show with Josh is a treat for a days worth of work. We both work from home and it’s a nice way to turn off from work and relax together.

Strength Training. Can I just say that I love strength training? I’ve been doing it off and on for almost five years now and it’s very rewarding. We picked it back up in January and I’m lifting weights that are 10-30 pounds heavier than I was then. We make notes during each session- can we increase the weight or stay the same. On February 3rd I could only do 80lbs. on the pull down machine (for arms, back and shoulders) and said I couldn’t do more.

Today I was able to pull down 120 lbs. That’s a 40 lb. increase in strength, meaning that I’m gaining muscle. This is the same for almost all of the machines I do. Did you know that for every pound of muscle you gain, your body burns 50 extra resting calories? Gaining 10 lbs. of muscle is 500 extra calories burned a day! I love that and I can tell that it is one reason that I’ve not gained any weight since January.

Insanity. This week marks the 12th week of Insanity! I’ve lost 12-15lbs (it’s goes up and down) so far. I just can’t believe we’ve stuck with it for so long. We are already in our second rotation. I will admit that the past couple of weeks have been harder, we’ve done at least three workouts a week instead of our usual six. So we are getting back on track with six workouts this week.

April plans and goals:

The next two months (and most of summer) are going to be pretty hectic. I really need to step up my organization and will need continued exercise and eating well if I’m going to stay on top of everything. Spring marks the beginning of  of jewelry shows and my freelance design business is growing so I can use all the energy I can get.

I’m stepping up my game this month. I’m dedicated to counting calories and keeping a food journal. My goal it to lose 10-12 pounds this month with continued exercise and food tracking. I have no interest (as usual) in doing this by eating “diet” food, my method is to eat less, control portions, eat from home as much as possible and enjoy the food I’m eating.

Continuing with 5 days of the Insanity Workout with one day of strength. We may add yoga and running back in if the spirits moves us. And speaking of us… Josh is wearing all of his jeans now. All of the jeans that just a month ago would too tight. I am still steadily wearing a size 24/22. I’d love to be in a 20/18 by mid to late summer.

What are your April goals?

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