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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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Should You Consult a Doctor for Weight Loss?

The first rule when you decide you want to lose weight is to go have a talk with your doctor. Let him or her decide if you need to lose weight, how much, what plan you should follow, what supplements – if any – you should take, and when you should come back for follow-up visits to make sure everything is proceeding as planned.

It will also be helpful if you bring a list of any medications you are taking, as well as any over-the-counter supplements, herbal products, Ayurvedic products, spices for health purposes, and a brief summary of your medical history. It will be important for your doctor to know if you have had any surgery, or if you have heart problems, diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension, etc. Your doctor will probably know all – or most – of this, but it won’t hurt to put everything done on one piece of paper. Remember to date it and keep a copy for yourself.

It’s especially important to list ALL medications you are taking because sometimes they can contribute to weight gain. Especially if your weight gain is recent, and coincides with the commencement of some new medications.

One test your doctor may want to take is a thyroid test to make sure your thyroid is functioning properly. Have you also become more tired than normal? Note anything in your life that may have changed about the time the weight gain started.

Emotional factors can be a big factor in weight gain. Have elements of your lifestyle changed drastically? Have you moved to a new city, changed jobs, got married, got divorced, and had a child? All of these factors can contribute to a change in your health and weight.

Weight gain does usually come down to “calories in versus calories out”, but sometimes there are other medically related factors that can cause you to put on extra weight.

Another important list to take with you is a list of any questions you may have for your doctor. You may want to ask the following things:

* What is my ideal weight for my bone structure and height?
* Do I really need to lose weight, or shift my weight from fat to muscle mass?
* Could my health problems be causing my weight gain?
* What other problems might I have due to my increased weight?
* Explain the different weight loss medication options to me?
* What about weight loss surgery?

Another good item to take with you is a food journal. Keep a food journal for the two weeks before your appointment, writing down everything you eat, when you eat it, if you were really hungry or succumbing to a craving, was it an emotional hunger or real hunger, did you eat sitting down at a table or cramming the food in your mouth straight from the refrigerator? Don’t worry about what you write, just be brutally honest because it’s for your health that you need to address these issues.

What are your cultural comfort foods? Do you eat at fast food restaurants often? Do you always feel that you have to “clean your plate because there are children starving in Africa”? What kind of programming and triggers lead to your eating?

If you already have a certain diet in mind, such as the Atkins Program, or the Mediterranean Diet, bring the details with you so you doctor can check it out. It’s amazing how many different diet programs there are and it’s even more amazing how uninformed a lot of doctors are about what’s available.

Good luck! Keep your goal in mind, work with your doctor, and remember to include some exercise each day.

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Weight Gain During Menopause

Weight Gain During Menopause

Weight Gain During Menopause

Weight Gain During Menopause is a real issue for most women after a certain age. You reach for that favorite pair of jeans, you try to slide them on but they wont button. You struggle from day to day to keep the weight gain off of your once fabulous body. But the rolls and layers of fat keep coming on that body of yours. You diet and exercise on a daily basis but those 10 to 30 pounds just wont come off. You join a gym or a woman’s work out class but you still jump on the scale and it still reads the same. You just want to scream or jump back in bed and hide under the covers. Is this you?

Weight Gain During Menopause

If you are coming on to that age of reaching that big 40 or you are gaining ground to the 50 age mark then you are more than likely in what is called the menopausal stage of life and this weight issue is one of the common symptoms of the menopausal stage. There are many other symptoms to the menopausal stage of life but in this article weight gain is what we are going to concentrate on. The reason for this article is that in today’s society our looks mean so much to woman. Weight gain during menopause, even if it is 10 or 20 pounds, can mean so much to a woman at this stage in life. Weight gain can bring on depression and anxiety which in turns can bring on the terrible hot flashes.

Weight Gain During Menopause – Why?

What causes weight gain during menopause in these bodies of ours? It can be one thing or a combination of many things. Toxins, stress, exercise, diet, emotions, anxiety, and hormones all can play a major role in weight gain. As the old saying goes, putting the weight on is easy and fun but taking it off is the hardest thing to do. Especially if you are in the stage of life called permenopause or menopause.

If you are in the stage of life of perimenopause or menopause more than likely your hormones are playing a huge factor in your weight. These hormonal imbalances are causing your body to store unwanted fat. The reason for this is that your body is feeling the affect that your hormones are hitting rock bottom and they are looking else where for a replacement of the hormones so the body turns to these fat cells. Studies have shown that woman tend to be insulin resistance do to their diet. When this happens the body converts every calorie it can to fat.

Stress and Menopausal weight gain

Stress plays a large role during this time in life of perimenopause or menopause. Stress hormones can block weight loss in a female. Even if you are dieting long term stress causes the body to go into what is called hoarding. Your body is putting on this fat and then you start to stress out about it and you start what is called yoyo dieting which in turns causes more fat to hoard in your body. It is a no win situation. Stress at this point can not only cause weight gain, but can cause depression, anxiety and make you feel unwanted and insecure about yourself.

You need to break this curse. You need to find yourself a support group and also have open dialogue with your partner at home. Also talk to a qualified physician about what you are going through. I mentioned qualified physician only because there are many physicians that do not understand what women are going through during perimenopause or menopause. Many physicians will say that these symptoms are all in your head and that you need a therapist instead of a medical doctor. Don’t fall for this, ask around and talk to your girl friends to find a positive qualified physician to hear your case. Don’t hold these feelings inside you, this will only cause your stress level to rise and cause other terrible symptoms to occur. Open communication is the key to good health and feeling better about yourself. Give it a try today, you will be glad you did.

Weight Gain During Menopause is an issue that many people deal with and I hope these tips help you out.

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