Healthy Eating Magazine

My ‘Accidental’ Weight Loss Success

A few years ago, I was eating a pretty healthy vegetarian diet with plenty of wholegrains, wholemeal bread, lentils and pulses, nuts, lots of fruit and vegetables, whole milk, eggs and a little cheese and other dairy products.

And I was FAT, and had love handles and man breasts. I was not disastrously obese, but still more than 20lbs overweight … making an effort for weight loss … but not losing any. And I was baffled. The doctor could find nothing wrong with my diet. The health-and-fitness instructor at the local gym said it was fine.

I stepped up the exercise every day, but it made me feel so much hungrier halfway through the morning that I’d binge on toast and peanut butter or wholemeal cookies.

Then I got a new job working in another country in Europe – Germany, to be specific. I was pretty nervous about many things but one of the things I was really worried about was what would happen to my weight with all that heavy German food.

I moved, started my new job, started eating the local food and what do you know? The weight started coming off. Slowly but surely I lost pound after pound until I’d lost more than fifteen of the 20lbs of my overweight. And that was without restricting my food intake!

Recently I spoke to a nutritionist and my ‘accidental weight loss success’ came up in the conversation. She got interested and took some details and then a few days later gave me an informal analysis.

While I was in Germany I ate mostly heavy rye bread (pumpernickel), not my usual ‘fluffy’ wholemeal bread. The nutritionist diagnosed that apart from the fact that pumpernickel is more satisfying, I might be sensitive to the yeast in ordinary bread and switching to unleavened bread could be helping me digest food better which helps with weight loss.

I breakfasted on a brand of German yogurt which was very creamy and tasty. This was an organic yogurt but more importantly it contained several lactobacillus cultures. At the time I just thought this would help ‘keep me regular’ but it turns out that having a healthy community of lactobacillus in the intestine can help with weight loss too.

In Germany I didn’t get so hungry for cookies and sugar. The nutritionist asked if I’d been eating anything with a lot of minerals or vitamin C in it. The answer was that it was summer when I went out there and I’d been eating a lot more fresh fruit – raspberries, strawberries, blackcurrants – and a lot of the local potatoes (which are delicious!) The nutritionist pointed out that locally-produced fruit and veg have more of their vitamins and minerals intact, and fruit and potatoes supply extra vitamin C, which can help reduce sugar cravings.

Now that I’m not in Germany any more I still make sure I’m eating ‘my kind of’ yogurt, unleavened bread and a much wider variety of fruit and vegetables. I take a few vitamin and mineral supplements now and then but mostly rely on an acai-berry capsule to provide some exotic added value to my diet.

Sometimes the first step in weight loss is just about swapping your food around and boosting a few nutrients and your body settles into a happier pattern. My experience proved for me that we all have different dietary needs and sensitivities, and you should experiment a little to find out what suits your body best.

mixeyblob
http://www.articlesbase.com/men’s-health-articles/my-accidental-weight-loss-success-1101378.html

Best Bets for Weight Loss in 2009

Weight loss seems to be on everyone’s mind during those post-holiday weeks in early January, and who can blame us all for worrying? It seems like the entire month of December is spent on one nonstop smorgasboard of fattening, sugary, salty foods.

Sure, they taste good, but we end up paying in pounds (on our body, not the British currency) later on, and we all know that especially the older we get, those pounds go on easy, but become much harder to take off.

However, even if you think you have the most stubborn body fat, and you feel like losing weight takes more time than you’d like to waste on eating salads with no dressing and lean meats, rest assured that there are diets out there that anyone can lose weight on.

It just depends on what is the least painless for you personally. Do you hate carbs? Go on a low carb diet or carb conscious diet like the Zone or the South Beach Diet.

If you don’t care for meats and proteins, you may want to opt for a vegetarian based diet, or even a vegan diet for that matter. These types of diets tend to rely mostly on whole grains, nuts and other sources of fiber and substance that don’t involve any type of animal meat of animal byproducts.

What about those diets for people who don’t like to cook, and need to have portion control and calorie control? Well, in this day and age of everything you could possibly want at the click of a button or movement of a computer mouse, you can even get healthy, reduced calorie, and portion controlled meals sent right to your door.

Although these options may not be something that some people consider cost effective, if you really stick to the menu of foods that are shipped to you, and don’t veer off the menu and start spending money on fast food or restaurant foods, then you actually should find that you’re spending about the same amount as you would have on the groceries and restaurant meals that you normally would be eating anyways.

For those that are a little more adventurous and not averse to the more “extreme” diets, there are fasting diets that some swear by not only to jump start their weight loss, but also to give them an internal “cleansing” of sorts.

Although these types of diets are criticized for their extremism, and some even decry them as harmful to the health of anyone who does them, there are devotees that believe these types of deprivation diets give them their health back, and more importantly, take the focus off food in their life for a while, allowing them to channel their creative efforts everywhere else.

There are always those good old stand by diets that I think everyone and their brother has tried at some point, like the cabbage soup diet, which is famed for it’s use as a medical weight loss tool for those that are going to undergo some sort of surgical or medical procedure in the next few weeks.

It is known for it’s quick results, but a lot of people complain that it not only gives them zero variety since that’s all they can eat all day, but also that it gives them excess gas (which is of course embarrassing and not a desirable side effect of any diet).

My personal recommendation is that no matter what the type of diet you decide to try in 2009 to help you attain and maintain your ideal weight and gain your health back, you may want to buy a good set of self hypnosis CD’s for weight loss.

These can not only help you to get the internal willpower you need to lose weight and keep on losing weight, but they also work on such a subliminal level that you don’t even notice that you’re exercising the correct behavior that allows you to lose weight, keep on losing, and maintain your ideal weight.

Danna Schneider
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/best-bets-for-weight-loss-in-2009-714159.html

South Beach Diet Program for Weight Loss

Diet plays a key role in weight loss but you should be conscious about choosing the right type of diet plan for you. Here you will find information on south beach diet plan.

South Beach Diet

The South Beach Diet runs in three phases.

Phase 1:

Normal quantities of meats, olive oil, lots of vegetables, cheese, nuts, etc
No carbohydrates for the first 15 days – this means no bread, pasta, rice or wheat, sugar, sweets, cookies, pastries, alcohol, and fruit!
The diet claims that one can lose about 4 to 6 kg in that time.

• Most of the supplement might be required to make that the body does not get deficient.
• A sudden decrease in carbohydrates, particularly sugar, alcohol and other high calorie foods, which are much a part of the Western diet, can, to some extent, explain weight loss.
• Piling on animal proteins and fats will only increase the risks of heart disease, cancer, etc.
• This can become monotonous if followed regularly.

Phase 1 comes with a vegetarian option as well – meats replaced with pulses, soya foods.

Phase 2:

Reintroduce carbohydrate foods but rather slow to prevent weight gain. Bread, pasta, rice, cereal, chocolate wine and fruit are brought into this phase. This phase lasts till the target weight is reached, which could be a long time. Weight loss expected is up to 1 kg a week, which sounds reasonable. However, if one gets stuck at a particular weight one needs to go back to phase 1 again!

Phase 2 might be more nutritionally balanced and requires patience to reach the target weight.

Phase 3

Normal foods are allowed in normal quantities for maintenance of the lost weight. Yet, some foods that are higher on the glycerin index are not allowed in this phase also, and this is not based on fact. Changes have also been announced recently. Tomatoes, carrots and onions which were earlier restricted in the first two phases, are now allowed more freely.

Disclaimer: This article is not meant to provide health advice and is for general information only. Always seek the insights of a qualified health professional before embarking on any health program.

Copyright © Nick Mutt, All Rights Reserved. If you want to use this article on your website or in your ezine, make all the urls (links) active.

Check out the most popular diet program – Strip That Fat Diet Review. Know How to Get a Flat Stomach Fast with scientifically designed weight loss system. Looking for Fat Loss Supplements to lose weight?

Nick Mutt
http://www.articlesbase.com/diseases-and-conditions-articles/south-beach-diet-program-for-weight-loss-707947.html

questions about fruitarian diet and weight loss…?

ok so i’m already a vegetarian and i eat pretty healthy usually but i’m still trying to lose like 15-20 more pounds and i want to try a fruitarian style diet for 2-3 weeks to help jump start weight loss. anyways, for the last two days, i’ve had nothing but fruit and some 100% fruit juice, but i’m starting to get bad headaches. like i can feel the blood rushing and pounding on the crown of my head whenever i move. is this normal? am i maybe not eating enough? is it ok if i eat fresh fruit, frozen fruit, fruit leather, and freeze dried fruit? or should i stick only with fresh fruit? how long should i stick to this? should i exercise as well during this? has anybody done this? any other tips? thanks

a devoted fruitarian will tell you this is completely normal, and you should lose wait until you reach your "healthy weight". if you feel your life is in danger, stop immediately. if you’re just worried, see a doctor or a nutritionist. don’t die.

Vegetarian weight loss?

Hi, i am 13 years old and a vegetarian of about 3 years. I have been trying to lose weight for some time now, but nothing seems to work. Does anyone know any workout and diet plans for a vegetarian? thank much! <3

Any workout can work with a vegetarian or vegan diet, you just have to know what to eat and the results you want.You just have to get some basic knowledge of what food supplies what.

Also, just cutting out meat won’t cause you to lose weight. You’re still going to a) watch what you eat and b) exercise. I would definitely keep a journal of what I eat, the amount of calories it contains and set a daily limit. You’d be surprised how many preservatives and empty carbs make their way into alleged healthful food.

A Weight Loss Diet Plan That Works

I was astonished when I came across the weight loss diet plan and stopped to read about the diet with a guarantee! I wondered how that could be possible. Diets, of course, are geared toward helping people conquer the fat cravings, but also they expect to be paid for doing so.

I could not believe this wonderful eDiets weight loss guarantee! There was a lot to know about this diet plan. It is not just one plan. No one size fits all. There were over twenty plans to choose from. I filled out a questionnaire, absolutely free they said. (I know they all say that). This time, it was really free. Your information is secure and the diets are all healthy.

Low carb was the only one I did not agree with. Years ago I did a low carb plan where even sweet peas were limited. It may have worked for a while, but left me feeling totally exhausted. Eventually, that plan failed me.

The twenty plans include specialized menus, excellent recipes and fast food restaurant choices. You customize your own personal plan to fit your goals. I tried the GI diet first, and then switched to the vegetarian diet when my appetite diminished.

You might have the problem of hyperglycemia. The eDiet folks have a plan for that. You may be lactose intolerant. They have a diet plan for that. Of course, consult your doctor about these conditions before starting to diet. That is the smart thing to do.

I could not believe everything this plan provided to promote my success. I could ask any questions I had and a fitness trainer would answer them. You know, no diet works without being accompanied by exercise. I asked. The eDiet people answered. I lost 47 pounds of ugly fat and it was easier than any diet I had ever been on.

Now I meet with my online diet buddies who also used eDiet successfully. They gave us an online support forum. It is fun to chat with other dieters AND it keeps me in line to keep the weight off. We all are very grateful we stumbled across the weight loss diet plan.

Weight Loss advice.?

i would like to try a whole new look for next school year. so with that i would like to loose some weight. no less then 10 and no more then about 17 lbs. and i would like to get started now. so that since summer is comming up i will be more confident in shorts and stuff of that sort. im not like overweight or anything but toneing up would be nice. so what im asking is that if anyone had any good weight loss excersices, diets, or tricks please tell me. i would aslo like to begin to start loosing with in the next month so that when i go to a wedding in june i will be more toned and all. thank you.i would appreciate any advice.

ps. im going for this whole healthy thing. and im a vegetarian, the diets must be strickly vegetarian.

thanks =) so much. =)

It’s really very simple.

There are 2 categories of workouts and you only need to focus on one of those for weight loss. They are:

1. Resistance training – weight lifting, sit-ups, push-ups, etc.

2. Cardiovascular Training – brisk walking/running, swimming, biking, jumping jacks, jumping rope, dancing to the oldies, etc.

You need only to focus on #2 for weight loss. #1 is good for muscle tone but does little for weight loss.

Cardiovascular exercises are simple and you don’t need any fancy equipment. For successful weight loss, all you need to do is any body movements that get your heart rate higher than normal. That’s what cardiovascular workouts are all about. They simply get your heart rate up and burn off fat.

You will need to keep your heart rate up for longer than 20 minutes per session in order to achieve a successful burn. The body takes that much time to warm up and begin the burn. Any huffy-puffy activity will work such as walking, running, going up and down stairs, vigorous dancing, jumping rope, just anything that makes you huff and puff. That’s the key – huff and puff for over 20 minutes a session. This is how your body burns off fat.

CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR FOR ADVICE ON THE SAFEST WORKOUT FOR YOU.

Don’t get discouraged!

Contrary to popular TV, there is no such thing as "targeting" an area of your body for weight loss. The reality is that you will see the fattest part of your body lose weight last! You will notice it first in your face. The thickest fat is the last to go so don’t lose heart if you don’t see your “targeted area” going anywhere at first.

Simply create a huffy-puffy workout for yourself that lasts over 20 minutes per session and stick to a daily routine for best results.

Another tip is don’t rely on what the scales say everyday. That will discourage you. The better way to monitor your progress is to observe your clothes getting looser. The scales can be misleading because as you lose weight, typically you are also building muscle mass. This dual change may look like you are not losing fat when you actually are.

Checking your heart rate. Take your fingers of your left hand and place them about an inch to the right of the center of your right hand wrist as it faces palm up. This should be at your right-hand wrist below your thumb. You should feel a pulse there. Now count the number of beats in a 6 second period. Multiply that number by 10 and that’s your heart rate. A reasonably safe and effective heart rate during an exercise burn is about 120 for most people 30–50 years old.

A bland diet will speed the weight loss up for sure. But if you’re like me, starting a daily exercise program plus starting a bland diet is just too emotionally stressful (wink, wink). So, I say, for those of us who want some type of reward for working out everyday, continue enjoying your favorite foods – just cut your portions down. Train yourself to learn when you are satisfied as you eat a meal and stop eating at that point rather than eating until you feel full. You’ll be surprised at how early in the meal you are satisfied. So, just stop eating at that point. Make a habit of it.

I am a 52 year old male and I am using a programmed treadmill which uses a combination walk/ 5 mph. run workout for 30 minutes a day. I am losing 2-3 pounds a week just doing that and cutting my favorite food portions back the way I mentioned before. My peak heart rate during this routine is 140. (Just telling you this in hopes that it will give you some idea of what 30 minutes a day will do for you so you can adjust your workout to suit your targeted weight loss time frame.)

Good luck! I hope this helps.

Weight loss and diet slap in the face?

On October 16th I read the book Skinny B*tch. It was a mind and ultimately life altering read. I immediately went vegetarian and everything was going great. I went from 150 lbs to 143 lbs in 3 weeks! But somehow I fell of the horse and I’m trying to get back on. I now weigh 145. I still will never touch meat, but I keep on going for sweets and I feel so guilty. Can somebody give me some advice or take me out of this sweet food trance?

I am 15 years old and I have done a mass amount of research about health and teen health. I know that I am overweight and I just need some encouragement, but give me tough advice and be truthful.
I am 5′ 5" and I weigh 145.

Small Steps!! It takes nearly a month to form a habit. So start small and work up.

For me it’s soda so this 21 days (I’m on day 7) I’m adding in water. Then my next 21 days I’m cutting out soda. Adding water first so when I cut soda I’ll already have the habit of something else.

So if it’s sweets, instead of cutting sweets, go for something healthy first. Sort of like, I have to have one baby carrot before eating sugary stuff. Sugary stuff isn’t banned, but after that carrot (or whatever other healthy thing you choose) is done, maybe you wont want the sweets anymore. Then when you do cut sweets all together, you’ll already have the habit of the healthy stuff and be less likely to fall off the wagon.

Remember, you didn’t gain the weight in a day and taking time to loose it is so much more healthy. Small steps is more healthy AND more able to stick to.

Dieting & Weight Loss Tips

Everyone is in competition nowadays to look good and live healthy.

So to look good usually they go for dieting with the aim of losing weight as personality with overweight is not pleasing.

People diet for many reasons. Some are at an unhealthy weight and need to pay closer attention to their eating and exercise habits. Some play sports and want to be in top physical condition. Others may think they would look and feel better if they lost a few pounds.

Lots of people feel pressured to lose weight and try different types of diets. But if you really need to lose weight, improving your eating habits and exercising will help you more than any diet.

Dieting could be a solution if done in a right manner.

Unhealthy Dieting, especially extreme food-intake reduction and rapid weight loss, can have the following side effects:

• Fatigue
• Depression
• Prolonged hunger
• Sinus
• Muscle loss
• Blood shot eyes
• Gall bladder diseases
• Acidosis
• Rashes
• Irritability
• Fainting

The best way to diet is to eat a wide variety of enough food to meet your body’s needs. Aim to eat more fruits and veggies, cut back on meats high in fat (like burgers and hot dogs), greasy fried foods, and sweets, and drink more water instead of sugary drinks like sports drinks or sodas.

Great Dieting Tips to loose weight safely:

• Eat less. More often.
• Don’t eat right before going to bed.
• Kick the sugar habit.
• Shop with calories in mind.
• Reduce the amount of breads, chips, crackers, and salty snacks you eat.
• Exercise daily.
• Drink milk, including fat-free or low-fat milk.
• Drink plenty of water (at least four to six 8-ounce glasses a day).
• Eat lean, high-protein foods, like lean meat, chicken, fish, or beans.
• Eat whole grains (like whole-wheat bread or pasta), which provide fiber, B vitamins, and iron.
• Eat breakfast.
• Choose smaller portions at fast-food restaurants.
• Stay away from fad diets — you might lose a few pounds temporarily, but if you don’t focus on changing your habits, you’ll probably just gain it back when you go back to your usual way of eating.
• Don’t take diet pills.
• Avoid seeing foods as "good" or "bad" or eliminating entire groups of foods, like dairy. If you eliminate entire food groups, you may miss out on important nutrients, like calcium
• If you choose to become a vegetarian, talk to your doctor or dietitian about how to make nutritious vegetarian choices.

Jyoti
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/dieting-weight-loss-tips-107159.html

I need a vegetarian diet, or a healthy overall diet, any suggestions?

I have no wieght issues just some health problems dr/nurse said I need to eat healthier any ideas, please remember the objective isnt weight loss.

Here is one example of how to prepare a healthy, balanced menu for an entire day.
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: 10 to 30 minutes per meal.
Here’s How:
Breakfast: one cup strawberries, one-half cup low fat cottage cheese with one tablespoon of sunflower seeds. One slice of whole grain toast.
Midmorning: one small apple, eight walnuts, two ounces lean sliced chicken breast.
Lunch: three cups salad consisting of dark green lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and tomatoes with two teaspoons of walnut oil, two ounce organic beef patty served on a whole grain roll.
Mid afternoon: six ounces of tofu, one and one-half cups carrot sticks, one tablespoon of pumpkin seeds.
Dinner: one-half cup whole wheat spaghetti with one-forth cup organic marinara sauce and two ounces ground turkey. Two cups cooked green vegetables such as asparagus, spinach or broccoli drizzled with two teaspoons flax oil.
Evening Snack: six whole grain crackers with one ounce sliced cheese and one small apple.
Tips:
Drink at least six to eight glasses of water per day.
Choose whole grain breads and cereals.