Author: Elizabeth

Are You Really Hungry?

Our bodies have a small set of needs. Those associated with weight loss are rest, hunger and thirst. Now, at first glance, it may seem that those could never be confused.

Who would admit that they can easily confuse the need for rest with hunger? Well, it is completely possible, especially when you are under a lot of stress or tired. Our bodies actually crave sugar and caffeine when we need rest, but we are pushing ourselves to keep going. So, we can easily mistake those signals from our body demanding rest for the need for a cup of coffee or a sugary treat.

In addition, we confuse hunger and thirst. If you feel hungry when you stomach is not growling, try drinking a glass of water first. The result may surprise you because you may have simply been thirsty and your thirst being met, you may find the hunger you believed was there to be gone as well!

Plan to Succeed

It is easy to say we want to weigh a certain number and to be healthy. Many people set New Year’s Resolutions and then, they have the same one for the next year, having failed at reaching those goals. I have experienced this first hand. However, at the end of 2009, a lot of things changed for me.

One of the things that helped lead me to success in weight loss was goal setting. Sure, a resolution should be enough. We set a goal and resolve to reach it, but 99% of the time, we never reach that goal because we don’t have a plan or a path, if you will, to follow.

I started setting small goals in everything for everyday. How much water I would drink, how could I keep a positive attitude, how many veggies and other foods I would eat, how much and what type of exercise would I do and where would I go for support.

I want you to be successful too, so I have created a simple to use goal worksheet to help you out. Don’t worry, you won’t feel like you are back in school. The form is simple.

For example, under the water section, you will find the headers Start, Stop and Continue. Under Start, you may want to put something like drink at least 64 oz. of water each day. While you may need to Stop drinking so many sugary drinks, and  you might want to Continue drinking water during meals.

Make the goals small and achievable. If you never drink water, you may simply want to start with 8 oz a day. However, if you already drink 64 oz you may want to increase it to half of your body weight in ounces. As you make progress, your goals will evolve as your body changes.

This is especially true in terms of what/how much you eat and how much/what kind of exercise you can do. In fact, when I started, I could only walk about half of a mile before I was exhausted and out of breath. Now, I am working to run more and for longer distances. I can easily walk 5 miles or more and I only have to stop because I run out of time, not energy!

The point is, by keeping your plan simple, but changing, you can reach goals you never knew you had! Download the Set for Success Sheet from our Resources page and share your goals with us! We’ll be here to cheer you on!

Prepare Your Mind And Get The Right Attitude

Some great information!!!  Taken from loseweightcafe.com

Weight loss is simple: burn more calories than you consume. But if it’s so simple, why is it so difficult to implement? The answer is all in our minds.

Successful weight loss does not start with a diet or an exercise regime – it starts with your mind. The mind is a very powerful thing – depending on your mindset, you will either succeed or fail. So before you decide on the details of what to eat and when to exercise, you need to decide to have the right mindset and the right attitude.

First of all, you need to commit to being healthy and leading a healthy lifestyle. However, commitment doesn’t just mean writing down your goals and telling your friends you want to lose weight. Commitment means you wake up every day and decide to be healthy. It’s a decision you make every time you have a choice between being unhealthy, and being healthy.

Here are some things you can do to stay committed ~

Motivate yourself:

Don’t forget your goals. Remind yourself throughout the day about what you would like to achieve. Have a friend call and remind you or set alarms.

Remember your goals:

It’s easy to forget the big picture among all the details. Remember your long-term goals, and remind yourself that the details do add up!

Plan and Prepare:

Weight loss can be a big lifestyle change, one that you’re not used to. Try to make things easier for yourself. For instance, plan your workout the night before and lay out exercise clothes. Decide what you’ll eat the next week and buy groceries accordingly. Pack your lunch the night before.

Be Accountable:

When you achieve your goals, reward yourself. When you skip that workout, or indulge in unhealthy foods, have consequences ready to deter yourself – miss your favourite TV show, for instance.

In addition to being committed, you need to be disciplined.

There’s a saying, “Plan your work and work your plan” – this does hold true for weight loss. Do the things you’ve planned – whether it’s exercising or eating healthy. Here are some tips for being disciplined in your approach to weight loss:

Make it a habit to exercise:

Don’t think about whether to exercise or not. Have a set plan and stick to it. For instance, decide that you’ll go for a run every morning, or you’ll attend the daily aerobics classes at the gym. If you make it a habit, you won’t have the chance to think about it, and decide to maybe not exercise today.

Get help:

It’s much easier to make a lifestyle change if you have some help. Ideally, you should have an accountability partner. Even if you don’t have someone to buddy up with during your weight loss journey, try to get support from your friends. For instance, try to become friends with someone at the gym, and plan to workout together – you’ll place more importance on going to the gym if you know there’s someone waiting for you.

Just do a bit:

If you don’t feel like exercising, make a deal with yourself that you’ll just do a bit. For example, if your regular run is 30 minutes decide to go for 10 minutes. Most of the time, you’ll find that the first step is the hardest – once you’ve taken it, you’ll want to keep going.

Put things off:

If you feel like dessert or an extra, unhealthy snack, put it off for a bit. Tell yourself that you’ll have that chocolate after an hour or so – often an hour later you’ll find that you don’t want that chocolate.

If you’re serious about losing weight, you’ll find that preparing your mind and having the right attitude will make it much easier for you to stick to your weight-loss plans.

Sodium – what you should know

Sodium is important to your diet, but not in excess. The USDA’s 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans suggests that adults under 50 years old limit their daily intake to 2,300 mg or less and if you are over 50 to consume 1,500 mg or less.  A high intake of sodium can result in many health problems.  We are going to discuss a few of those.

Excess sodium can increase your blood pressure

Your Blood pressure is the force or exertion rate of circulating blood flowing through the walls of your blood vessels. The more pressure, or force, required by your heart to move blood through the vessels, the higher your blood pressure. Excess sodium in your body increases water retention, which increases your blood volume. A higher blood volume forces your heart to pump harder to get blood to your major organs resulting in a rise of blood pressure.

Kidney Complications

Your kidneys are vital for eliminating excess sodium from your body so you do not retain fluid that can increase blood volume. This process is impaired when your kidneys are already injured from past stone formation or when your healthy kidneys are made weak due to damage when too much sodium remains in your body. According to the USDA Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, excess sodium intake paired with inadequate potassium intake increases your risk of kidney stone formation. Excess sodium is linked to kidney stone formation because dietary salt increases urinary calcium, the main constituent in kidney stones. A low sodium diet reduces your risk of kidney stone formation or further kidney damage from past injury.

Bone Health
Excess sodium in your body causes fluid retention in your cells. When your kidneys cannot keep up with eliminating excess sodium this impacts how calcium is absorbed by your body. Instead of dispersing calcium to your tissues, the excess sodium triggers your kidneys to excrete too much calcium through the urine. The loss of calcium reduces the strength of your bones and raises your risk of bone fragility or diseases like osteoporosis.

So, what are some ways to eliminate this excess sodium from our bodies?

WATER INTAKE –

According to theUniversityofMaine, you excrete 90 to 95 percent of the sodium in your body through your kidneys by urination. If you increase your water intake, you’ll also increase your urine output–and the amount of excess sodium you flush out of your body.

SPICY FOODS –

You also lose a small amount of sodium when you perspire, according to the Universityof Maine. Eating spicy foods as a way to stay cooler in the summer precisely because they make you sweat. Spicy foods will make you want to drink more water, which not only keeps you well hydrated in hot weather but also boosts urine production and thus sodium excretion.
APennState bulletin recommends spicy foods for boosting your metabolism. It states that very hot foods can increase the metabolic rate by 20 percent for about a half hour after consumption. This will be of interest if you’re trying to keep your weight down, but it’s also relevant in terms of speeding up all your bodily cycles, including fluid and sodium excretion.

HIGH POTASSIUM FOODS –

According to Harvard Health Publications, you can reduce the sodium in your body by increasing your potassium intake. If you’re not getting enough potassium, your body will try to conserve it, with the side effect that it will also retain sodium and water. Eat plenty of foods that are high in potassium, such as bananas, avocados and baked potatoes in their skins, to reverse this effect. The recommended amount of potassium for most adults is 4,700mg.

LOW SODIUM FOODS –

None of these strategies will be enough in the long term if you continue eating foods high in sodium. According to Harvard Health Publications, water follows sodium; too much sodium in your body means less water in your urine to carry sodium away. CBS MoneyWatch adds that excess sodium winds up under your skin, where it attracts water. Lowering your sodium intake reduces water retention. As that water leaves your body, it takes excess sodium with it. And of course a low sodium diet means your body has less excess sodium it needs to flush out in the first place.
Try to eat less processed foods. The salt content is very high in canned, boxed and frozen foods. Even in our so called “healthy” microwave entrees, they are packed full of sodium.  Instead, try to prepare more meals at home using fresh fruit, meats, vegetables and grains. Take the salt shaker off your table and substitute seasonings in place of salt, such as garlic, black pepper, basil, rosemary and dill.

Drink More Water

You probably often hear that you need to drink more water.  But do you know why?  And did you know that it may affect your eating habits and weight-loss efforts?

Every cell in your body contains water and it is the most abundant component of your body.  It performs many purposes, including carrying nutrients from the food you consume to the cells of your body; carrying waste products from your cells to your kidneys; acting as a lubricant for your joints; regulating your body temperature from sweating.  When you consider water’s many purposes, you begin to realize just how important it is to get enough.

You can get water from two sources:  food and fluids.  While all beverages contribute to your total fluid intake, some may actually dehydrate you, such as caffeinated-beverages and alcohol.  Water-filled fruits and vegetables, such as melon or celery, also help to increase your fluid intake.

Despite water’s many sources, most of us don’t get enough.  (And if you exercise or work in a physically-demanding job, you need even more water than the average person to replenish the fluid your body loses when you sweat.)

Being dehydrated can affect you in many ways.  Side effects of dehydration include headaches, poor concentration and fatigue.  Staying well hydrated can bring many positive effects such as increased energy and stamina, improved digestion and decreased water weight (and resulting bloating).  Staying hydrated may also help keep you from overeating — we often tend to reach for food when we’re actually thirsty (we think we are hungry).

Waiting until you feel thirsty to drink something isn’t the best way to prevent dehydration. In fact, you could be dehydrated right now and not even realize it.  The best way to begin the habit of staying better hydrated is to do just that — create habits.  For instance, I began feeling much better throughout my mornings when I started drinking a full glass of water upon waking.

Here are some ways to work more water into you day:

  • Drink a glass before every meal.
  • Alternate other beverages with one glass of water.
  • Ask for a glass of water alongside soda, coffee or tea at restaurants.
  • Keep a bottle of water at your desk.
  • Drink water in the afternoon when your energy level dips (and before you hit the vending machine!).
  • Drink a full glass of water both before and after exercising.
  • If you start feeling a little off (slightly nauseated) or a headache coming on (a sign of dehydration), drink a glass of water.
  • Switch to 12-oz. water glasses at home instead of 8-oz. ones.
  • Keep a bottle of water in your car when the weather is mild.

What are some ways you ensure to get your water in every day?  Please share with us!

 

Article taken from: http://weightloss.about.com/od/eatsmart/qt/ttdrinkwater.htm

Attitude Adjustment!

For so long I could relate the following scenario.  What about you?  Do you need an attitude adjustment?

“I have got to start a diet but its Thursday. Too many opportunities for food I want to eat this weekend. I will start on Monday.”

Then, on Sunday you think, “Wow. Monday’s are really tough. I better hold off on starting my diet until Tuesday.”

On Tuesday you reflect back on the bad day you had on Monday. “I am just not  up for this. I will put off my diet until next week.”

Finally on the following Monday you start your diet. You make it through lunch and then. “I’m just not into this. I’ll try again next week.”

Does any of what you just read sound like you…or am I the only one who has  suffered from “diet procrastination?” Welcome to the Diet of Good  Intentions.

You want to lose weight. You need to lose weight. And you have every  intention of doing it but you just have to be in the right frame of mind. How do  you get from the “want to” stage to the “commitment” stage? Before you get to  the calorie and fat grams counting (or whatever kind of diet you choose) you  must deal with your attitude first.

Following are 5 attitude adjustment tips that will help you get psyched up,  fired up, and committed to not only start your diet…but to reach your  goal.

1) See yourself as you will be– Document how your life will be different. How will you clothing choices change?  What kind of new activities  will you take on? Write down how you will feel when people compliment you on how good you look.

I recommend starting a journal and in the back of the book make a declaration  of the person you WILL become. Tell your story as you see yourself in the near  future…looking younger, feeling better, having more fun with friends, wearing  clothing styles that turns heads, having more energy, and even doing better in  your career.

Then, take a few minutes every day to express your feelings, victories, and  frustrations. Frequently refer to what you wrote in the back of the journal. See  yourself in that light and even modify those prophetic words as your vision of  your future self becomes clearer.

2) Make a contract with yourself– In this contractual  agreement establish the date you will start your diet, your ultimate goal, and  the reward that you will give yourself for accomplishing that goal.

Let’s say that your goal is to lose 50 pounds. Make certain that you set  realistic expectations for your deadline. 50 pounds in 30 days, for example, is  completely unrealistic. Base your deadline for reaching your goal on your past  experiences with dieting. Obviously, the more you have to lose the longer it  will take.

When I was younger there were several occasions when I took off 70+ pounds.  Both times it took me nearly 6 months. I had become so good at losing weight  that I could predict with accuracy how much I could expect to lose per month.  But there was something seriously wrong with this picture.

Notice that I said that I lost over 70 pounds twice. That means that my diets were failures. Any diet that results in gaining the weight back is a failure.  So…part of your contract must include a “forever” clause. Your contract with  yourself should involve losing the weight you need to lose and keeping it  off.

Don’t forget to sign and date your contract and then keep it with your  journal.

3) Make a list of all your excuses– What are your excuses  for being overweight? “It’s in my genes.” “Too much stress.” “God made me this  way.” “Dieting doesn’t work for me.” “Dieting it just too much hassle for this time and place in my life.” Just to name a few.

Take your time with this exercise because it will reveal what has been holding you back. Once you have exhausted every possible excuse…review what  you have written…and then strike through each one while declaring,  “Unacceptable!”

And then…tear up the list and throw it away. You no longer have any excuses to keep you from starting, staying, and victoriously completing your diet.

4) Compose a list of positive counter-thoughts for your negative  thoughts– Legendary motivational speaker Zig Ziglar calls negative  thoughts “stinkin’ thinkin’. Negative self-talk will talk you out of the success  you want.

So every time a negative thought enters your mind…compose a positive  thought in your journal to counter the negative thought.

For example: “After all this dieting I still gained a pound this week.”  Counter with: “But I have already lost 10 pounds, I am looking better, and I  will reach my goal. What a great day that will be.”

Don’t dwell on or regurgitate the negative. Accept only the positive  affirmations about yourself.

5) Adopt the mindset that you only fail when you quit– We all hit low points where we want to quit. We all have setbacks. The important  thing is don’t give up. Don’t quit.

Just because you broke your diet doesn’t mean you have failed. Even though  you gained a pound or 2 doesn’t mean it’s time to throw in the towel. Setbacks  are exactly what the name implies. Just setbacks. They are not the end…just a  stumbling block. Pick yourself up and keep on going.

Diets fail because our attitudes fail. Get your attitude right and you will be victorious!

http://ezinearticles.com/?5-Attitude-Adjustment-Tips-to-Lose-Weight&id=6245903

 

White Bread and Weight Loss

White bread is made of the flour of grains, mainly wheat, that are stripped out of their fiber and nutrients after removing the bran and the germ of the grain. The refined flour used to make white bread only contains the inside part of the grain, called the endosperm, which is mainly made of carbohydrates under the form of starches. If you want to lose weight, the refined carbs found in white bread could get in the way of your goal.

Refined Carbohydrates

Refined carbohydrates are found in many processed foods, including white bread, pizza crust, burger buns, bagels, muffins, crackers and pretzels. Because these foods are heavily processed and lack fiber, they are not as satiating as whole, nutritious foods. Fiber from whole foods, but not added fiber or fiber supplements, can help you feel fuller with fewer calories and can help you lose weight more easily. Fiber-rich vegetables, fruits and nuts are more satiating than white bread and will help you eat less.

Glycemic Index

White bread has a high glycemic index. The glycemic index classifies carbohydrate-containing foods according to how fast they are digested and absorbed into your blood on a scale ranging from zero to 100. The higher the glycemic index of a food, the quicker it is digested and absorbed. As a result, high-glycemic foods are not as satiating as low-glycemic foods and can lead to overeating and weight gain, according to the University of Sydney. The glycemic index of white bread averages 70, which is higher than the glycemic index of table sugar at 60.

Blood Sugar Levels

The high glycemic index of white bread can result in unstable blood sugar levels, which is associated with highly fluctuating energy levels. As your blood sugar levels quickly rise and then drop after eating white bread, it can make you feel tired, hungry and trigger cravings. Cravings can be difficult to resist, and if you want to lose weight without hunger, you should stay away from white bread and all foods made from refined flours and refined carbohydrates.

So What Are My Better Bread Options?

Switching to whole-grain bread can help you increase your intake of fiber, some B vitamins and a few minerals. However, if you want to lose weight, whole wheat bread is not necessarily the best alternative to white bread. Just like white bread, whole wheat bread has a similarly high glycemic index of 70. Sourdough bread and breads made from 100 percent stone-ground whole grain flour are better choices because they tend to have glycemic index values below 55, which is considered low. These low-glycemic breads can help you lose weight more easily by feeling more satisfied, regulating your energy levels and preventing cravings.

 

Information taken from livestrong.com