How to lose weight and still eat restaurant food!

It's a fact of life that if you're trying to lose weight (even if you're not) you will now and then get bored with the everyday meals you are preparing for yourself, and hanker after a nice meal out.

But then, your doctor has probably advised you not to eat restaurant foods as they will lead to excessive weight gain. Well, like all things connected with dieting and losing weight there is an answer, you just have to go about it the right way.

As a very rough, general guide to start with. If a food tastes really good, chances are it has been prepared richly and probably fried (we love fried foods don't we?). Unsurprisingly, raw fruits and vegetables, which usually don't have the same apeal for most of us, are some of the best foods for fast weight loss.

Here are a few tips to help you out:

1) Try to visit vegetarian restaurants for a change. This will help you avoid the foods that are really going to pile the pounds on. Doesn't mean that non-vegetarian places are necessarily bad for you, it's just more difficult to avoid high fat/calorie foods in those places.

2) The chicken served in most restaurants contains large amounts of fat, which makes it tasty to be sure, but is not good for losing weight. Lean chicken is an excellent diet food, and you are more likely to get this in salad bars.

3) Talking of salad bars, yes great choice for those of us wishing to lose those extra pounds. BUT, beware of the salad dressing. Better leave it altogether. Most of them are high fat, high calorie, completely negating the effect of eating salad in the first place. Tell your server no dressing.

4) Buffets, oh yes, marvellous, but the enemy of all dieters. Many of the foods available at buffets are high in fats and calories, often fried in oil. Avoid buffets at all costs, especially the all-you-can-eat kind. Do I really have to explain that one? If you really must go to a buffet place choose the healthier alternatives and salads.

5) Check and control your portion sizes. If you think the amount provided is in excess of your portion requirement then just eat your portion and take your leftovers home for the following day. Most places are happy to pack your leftovers for you. Another good tip is to order the childs meal.

It's really all about common sense and discretion. So go ahead, have that meal out. Just apply these tips and you won't put on weight or feel guilty.

The how to lose weight fast guide to telling good fats from bad fats.

Dietary guidelines…do they confuse you? How much protein should we eat? What about carbohydrates? Should we eat them at all? If your blood type is O, do you eat differently to your partner whose blood type is AB?

If there’s a more confusing and contradictory issue than human nutrition, I have yet to find it. Well maybe the psychology behind male and female relations comes close – anyone who’s single & online dating will know all about that!

But scientific literature on the subject of diet and nutrition is so conflicting that you start to question the value of anything you read. You take time to study, say, four articles on diet and you get four totally different opinions written by authors with lots of impressive initials after their names.

Let’s look at fats. What a maligned character is that of poor fat. The no-fat diet was huge in the 1970s (There are those who think that this could be a direct contributor to the huge surge in brain disorders like Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s that we see today).

This diet is making a pretty reasonable comeback in Generation Now. People avoid fat like a Scandinavian backpacker in a shopping mall collecting money for Greenpeace.

But this avoidance of a substance we need in fairly reasonable amounts (20-30 per cent of our daily caloric intake) in our diet is not only unhealthy but also pointless, as the liver converts carbohydrate to fat very simply and quickly.

A close relative of fat, cholesterol, is even more despised. But did you know that human breast milk has a higher proportion of cholesterol than any other food? It’s also 50 per cent fat, most of which is saturated. Hmmm.

Ok, so what is saturated fat good for? It:

- makes up 50 per cent of all cell membranes, so is essential for the health of all cells.

- protects the liver from alcohol and other toxins.

- has an immune function.

- is antimicrobial in the digestive tract.

- enhances essential fatty acid utilisation.

And what about cholesterol? It is:

- essential for sex hormone production and corticosteroids that help the body deal with stress and protect against heart disease and cancer.

- essential for Vitamin D production which in turn supports bone and nervous system health, growth, metabolism, muscle tone, insulin production,reproduction, immunity, digestion, and serotonin production.

To add to this, fat (good fat that is) in general is an anti-inflammatory and makes up the myelin sheath that covers your brain, spinal cord and nervous system.

So what’s the dietary take home message? We must increase our intake of good fats, ie coconut oil, olive oil, flaxseed oil, fish oils, etc. As long as the oil is pure, extra virgin and cold pressed it will be nutritionally beneficial.

Remember the only oil you can cook with is coconut oil or butter. All other oils are destroyed by heat. Eggs (organic) are a wonder food and should be eaten with confidence. The same goes for organic butter. Trans-fats should be banned for human consumption (animal consumption too for that matter).

But what if your doctor says you should cut out saturated fats and cholesterol from your diet? Is that right? Are they sure? Before you believe them, just take a closer look at your doctor…

So, the next time you’re dating someone & the conversion turns to diets, start talking about good fat if you need to cover a few of your own pounds hanging over your belt!

If only online dating guidelines could be broken down so easily…that’s impossibly more complex than dieting.

Diet Versus Lifestyle

Why is it that merely saying the "D" word, you know "diet" brings immediate thoughts of failure to the minds of many men and women around the world? Could it be that we have all learned through trial and error that diets simply do not work?

I know many of you are sitting back with jaws dropped at the moment. After all, this is an article about dieting, right? It is and it isn't. Dieting is the kiss of death for many while a new phase in your life or lifestyle adjustment may be just the thing that will mean success for you and your fitness and health goals.

Eating for some is an addiction. Unfortunately, you can't exactly give up eating all together as a smoker can give up cigarettes. I'm not suggesting by any means that giving up cigarettes is easy but how much more difficult would it be if you were forced to have three a day?

At that point you may as well enjoy them every time the urge hits right? The same holds true for food. You must eat in order to survive. You cannot live without eating. This means that if food is a problem in your life, you must find a healthier way of viewing food.

Isn't this where diets generally come in handy? The short answer is no. This is where diets often fail. Diets do very little to change how we view food. In fact, most diets only serve to tell us which foods are good, which foods are bad, and which foods (typically most of the foods we enjoy most) are strictly taboo. Diets begin by forcing people to feel deprived or punished. And no one likes to feel either of these things.

Even worse however, is that we punish ourselves further when we slip along the straight and very narrow pathways upon which our diets place us. This means that we are going to wallow in guilt over every little misstep we make until we give up all together and decide to over indulge once again and ignore the guilt all together.

In order to have real success you must make a lifestyle change. This is the only way that you will be able to shed those unwanted pounds without experiencing the horrible guilt that so many dieters go through each and every step of the way with their diets.

Set goals for yourself. Keep them aggressive but realistic for fitness, dropping pounds, and eating new healthy foods. Even if your goal is as simple as eating  5 vegetable servings a day it is a great place to start.

Change your way of eating. Then change your way of seeing food and you will experience amazing changes in your attitudes toward your health, your body, and even your fitness level. As the first pounds begin to drop you will begin to experience more energy and less pain when exercising. This should help keep you motivated to do even more as time goes by.

Do not think that long term weight loss goals will be as easy to achieve as the first five or ten pounds. Consistency is vitally important when making these lifestyle changes. Take each day as it comes and begin again the very next day.

This means that even if you fall completely "off the wagon" today, you can start over tomorrow. The trick is in staying the course more days than not and learning moderation and balance when it comes to straying from the straight and narrow.

There are many ways to fail when it comes to dieting and I know people who have failed in almost every one I can possibly imagine. There is no way to fail, however, when you are making positive changes in your life that are getting positive results.

It may take weeks, months, or even years to reach your goal. As long as you are making steady and continuous efforts and progress, you are doing many great things for your health and well being.

Dieting isn't a punishment!

So many people view dieting as some sort of cosmic punishment for not having the perfect body. They believe that enjoying food is somehow bad for them, which couldn't be further from the truth. If you want to be completely honest with yourself, when it comes to dieting, it isn't about giving up food or flavor; it's about discovering new foods and flavors. At least that is what it is for those who truly love food as well as adventure.

There are many spices out there that can make even the blandest of foods a little exciting. Fish and chicken are popular diet foods because they are lean meats. However, adding a little blackening seasoning is a great way to put a little punch in your meal that will make it taste great without packing on the calories of dressing marinades or soaking in butter before broiling. You don't have to stop there. Italian seasoning can also add a little flavor to your kitchen without adding the extra calories that you are working so hard to avoid.

There are all kinds of seasonings that will work well in this instance. Many great seasonings for chicken also make great additions to chicken that will be included in salads for healthier lunches or salad wraps. Grains are good for you when you concentrate on whole grains. They are quite often the primary source of fiber in a diet and you need fiber almost as much as you need water. At any rate, simple things that spice up the same old lunch can have a huge impact on your enjoyment of food.

You can even enjoy the occasional treat when dieting as long as you do so sparingly. The key when dieting is to learn about proper portions and moderate indulgence. You can find all kinds of low sugar or low carb desserts on the market that you can enjoy sparingly. You can even find sugar free or low calorie candy in some cases though you should keep in mind that calories, particularly when it comes to candy you eat unconsciously add up quickly and you must pay close attention to those things you put into your mouth.

My point in all this though is that you do not have to sacrifice flavor in order to diet. You can live without butter; there are many substitutions on the market that are quite remarkable. But seasonings are a great way to add a lot of flavor for a tiny bit of effort on your part. Desserts are also great and you can find many dips and sauces that can be made with fat free or low fat mayonnaise or sour cream in order to cut a few more calories during your dieting process.

These dips and sauces can often make a great substitution, when paired with vegetables, for those chips and dips we love so much and often miss when dieting. Cucumbers, green, red, and yellow peppers, broccoli, and carrot sticks all have a nice little crunch to them that when combined with a good low fat dip can help cure the crave beast for greasy chips that often rears its head when dieting.

If you watch your calories carefully during meals you should be delighted to know that there are many little snack treats that are prepackaged in 100 calorie packs for your enjoyment. This means that you can indulge on occasion in those treats that you love most without sacrificing all your dieting efforts in the process. These snack packs have become one of the best marketing ploys since the invention of diet colas.

We all want the benefits of losing weight and will readily admit that if it were a simple process we'd all be thin. However, having something like these hundred calorie snack packs to carry you through the worst of your cravings can mean the difference between dieting success and failure. They are definitely the difference in the old way of dieting and the new way of dieting without sacrificing flavor.

Recommended Weight Loss Advice – Key Things You Should be Aware of.

Many οf υѕ carrying excess baggage want tο shed thе extra pounds. Wе want tο lose weight ѕο thаt ουr bodies don’t ѕlοw down аnd gеt sick аll thе time. Wе want tο experience whаt іt’s lіkе tο feel pretty again аnd nοt hаνе tο wear oversized clothes аll thе time. Wе want tο lose weight bесаυѕе wе don’t want tο die early bυt rаthеr hаνе more time іn thіѕ world tο bе аblе tο spend wіth family аnd friends.

If уου really want tο gеt back tο health, thеѕе powerful ways thаt wе hаνе outlined іn thе sections thаt follow wіll сеrtаіnlу bе οf hеlр. Sοmе οf thеѕе mау hаνе bееn discussed before, bυt аll thеѕе tips аrе іmрοrtаnt іn helping уου bеgіn уουr weight loss journey аt thе rіght foot. Thеѕе tips mау аlѕο even bе used bу those whο simply want tο maintain thе weight thеу hаνе now.

Thе first powerful tip tο losing weight іѕ eating rіght. A lot οf people thіnk thаt conscious dieting іѕ nοt really nесеѕѕаrу whеn thеу exercise regularly. Thіѕ іѕ аn inaccurate perception. Without a nutritious аnd well-balanced food intake, іt’s difficult tο lose weight. Fruits, vegetables аnd whole grains іn thеіr mοѕt natural states аrе ideal compared tο thе same food thаt hаνе bееn prepared wіth additional ingredients thаt οnlу serve tο fatten those whο eat thеm. Processed sugary аnd salty items ѕhουld bе removed frοm уουr grocery list аѕ well.

A diet thаt’s comprised mainly οf plant-based food іѕ a diet rich іn fiber, a wеll-knοwn fаt blocker. Fiber basically absorbs thе fаt аnd sugars уου eat аnd releases thеm tο уουr system slowly. In many cases, thеу don’t even release ѕοmе οf thе οthеr fats іt hаѕ absorbed bυt gets simply passed out οf уουr system. Tο hеlр уου lose weight, strive tο eat аbουt 50 grams οf fiber per day.

Another powerful weight loss tip аѕ far аѕ food іѕ concerned іѕ something thаt mіght bе cumbersome tο dο. Hοwеνеr, іt сrеаtеѕ a sense οf accountability οn уουr раrt аnd hаνе bееn proven time аnd again tο hеlр those whο аrе still starting thеіr weight loss regimen tο stay οn track. Thіѕ іѕ tο record thе food уου eat-еνеrу single morsel.

Keeping a food diary allows уου tο see everything уου′ve eaten аnd allows уου tο see thе moments whеn уου hаνе nοt bееn аblе tο stay trυе tο уουr healthy food habits. Knowing whаt led уου tο overeat аt a particular period empowers уου tο avoid thе same situation again thе next time іt happens.

Tο gеt a complete view οf things, уου саn аlѕο keep аn exercise diary whеrе уου write thе workouts уου′ve accomplished. Lіkе уουr food log, аn exercise record keeps уου accountable аѕ well. Hοwеνеr, аn exercise diary іѕ more οf a record οf уουr progress аnd a means tο fuel уουr motivation fοr doing something very gοοd fοr уουr body.

Aѕ a final word, cardio exercises аrе nοt enough tο hеlр уου lose weight. High intensity interval training ѕhουld bе incorporated іntο уουr workouts whenever possible. Strength training fοr аt lеаѕt 30 minutes two times a week аlѕο fаѕt tracks уουr weight loss аnd tones уουr muscles.