Is Your Diet Helping You Lose Weight?

The way you diet can do wonders for your body-image and health in the long run
or it can forever ruin your hopes for looking gorgeous and feeling great.
Everybody is into dieting today, regardless of whether they're doing it
knowingly or not. We all believe that we should eat more broccoli and a lot more
raw fruits and vegetables and less fat and so on.
And for the most part of our lives we do try to stay on the right side of
healthy, but it's not always easy. Add to that the fact that there are so many
conflicting stories on what's hot and what's not when it comes to healthy foods
and you can easily find yourself in a dieters' hell.
So what can you do to be sure your diet is both helping you to lose weight and
stay healthy in the long run?
The most important thing when it comes to diets is to use common sense. Common
sense wouldn't let you starve to death with plenty of food around you and it
would most likely make you feel you've had too much when you give way to your
eating cravings! So yes, common sense is your best ally when it comes to healthy
diet choices.
The next very important thing is to understand that your body needs proteins,
fats, sugars, fibers, vitamins and minerals at all meals if it is to feel
satisfied with what you've been eating. Ideally, every time you eat, your plate
should have some protein, a little fat and a little fibrous mass to ensure that
you feel full and satisfied.
This takes some planning and for some of us planning can be hard because we are
so much into the "mindlessly munching on pretzels" habit. You have to admit it,
it's a lot easier to reach out for a bag of whatever junk food is available than
to plan a balanced meal.
It also means that if you plan to replace potato chips with a fruit snack, you
won't feel good about it and it won't make you feel full. An apple followed by,
say, some plain yogurt, will do more to keep you filled than two apples. Have a
bit of everything at every meal!
Another thing we hear all the time is that raw food is better - as in healthier
- than cooked food. It follows that you have to eat as much raw food as
possible. But you are not told that eggplants and beans sometimes harbor toxic
compounds that can wreak havoc on your digestive tract if you eat them raw. Many
starch containing plants cannot be eaten raw because our bodies do not process
that particular type of starch unless transformed by high temperature processing
- cooking, that is.
Other veggies, like carrots, contain fragile nutrients that can be destroyed in
a frying pan. But cooked carrots still contain tons of great nutrients and
vitamins. And no, there is no evidence that sushi is any better for you than
grilled salmon. What to do then? Eat a mixture of raw and cooked fruits and
veggies, and use common sense. If it's normally eaten raw, go for it. If it's
usually cooked into a culinary delight, don't eat it raw.
Diet choices should be made according to your own body's needs and way of life.
It is really of no use to starve yourself or eat disgusting foods just because
others said it's healthy.

Free Diet Plans Can Work for You

Dieting web sites and dieting plans are so successful that it's almost a given
that anybody can find the perfect free dieting scheme on the internet. Free diet
plans are, well, free - you don't pay anything upfront. But many people don’t
trust them having a good reason. The famed "cabbage soup diet" or the "3 days
diet" are just two random examples of diet plans that will never work and can
even be downright dangerous.
So how can you find a sound free diet plan? Is there any such a thing?
The keyword when you're looking for a diet plan is common sense. Use your
knowledge and your intuition to pick between the various diets, it's not that
hard. For example it would be a good thing to find out right from the start what
the right amount of calories you need based on your current weight and daily
activity. It's worth noting that even if you are 100 lbs and a complete couch
potato, you still need about 1300 calories per day just to stay alive and well.
For most of us, a good dieting plan would do nothing more than give some
guidelines on what to eat to stay within the daily limits for calories. And any
plan that attempts to tell you that 500 calories per day is good for you won't
help you at all.
After decades of dieting, many people have become more knowledgeable and it's
easier to say when we are eating something we shouldn't. Any scheme, be it a
free diet plan or one especially made for you by a dietician, will take into
account that you will be faced with having to eat some no-so-healthy food sooner
or later. You never know what will be on the menu at your cousin's wedding party
or at that very important dinner meeting with out of town customers.
The next very important thing is to find a diet that can accommodate your
favorite foods, even if they are pork chops and fries. You won't be able to diet
and feel happy about it if you have to give up everything you like.
Incorporating foods you like is beneficial in the long run and it will
drastically decrease the danger of binge eating.
And another tricky part you have to take into account when you try a free diet
plan is during the day you are most likely to eat. I am yet to find a person who
likes to eat very early in the morning and needs to diet. Hey, maybe I'm on to
something here!
A good diet plan will make the transition from a dedicated evening eater to a
healthy morning eater seem easy and enjoyable. And the whole purpose of a diet
plan is to make life and food enjoyable even when it's served in small, healthy
bites. Dieting is supposed to be fun, to make you feel happier, healthier and
ready to try even more nice new things in your life!

Weight Watchers

Welcome to the weight loss version of the Alcoholics Anonymous. Weight Watchers
is not so much a diet as a combination of low fat nutrition, exercising and
group counseling for those who lack the motivation to lose weight on their own.
The main feature of the program is, of course, the weekly meetings where members
gather to discuss their dieting experience and to swap war stories, or something
like it. People who can’t stick to a diet on their own and find this kind of
peer support reassuring. It’s always better to know that others are going
through the same thing and to talk to people who understand you.
The eating plan is based on points. Food items are given a number of points on
the Weight Watchers system and each dieter is told to restrict his food to a
certain amount of points every day. This means that dieters are allowed to eat
foods that are not usually recommended, but only very small portions of those.
Healthy foods get the lowest amount of points and so can be had in greater
quantities. The eating plan also comes with good advice on healthy eating and
changes in the long-term lifestyle designed to keep the extra pounds away.
Another good point is that Weight Watchers do not try to sell you any kind of
special food or secret formulas that cost an arm and a leg and which turn out to
be of little use to many people. On the negative side, dieters may run into
troubles when trying to determine the number of points for foods which are not
listed on the Weight Watchers eating plan. Also, the program costs some $45-60
per month, which may be a little too high for the cost conscious crowd and for
those who can’t really afford this kind of monthly expenses.
While the Weight Watchers program is and has been a good one, it seems that the
tough competition from the weight loss market is beginning to take its toll on
it. The latest version of the points system is the same as the one before, but
with a lot more marketing and slogans attached. The company is also more
aggressive in its tactics and is trying to attract overweight people with the
promise of losing weight while still eating the foods they like. This is not the
best approach for people who have to change their eating habits in order to lose
any kind of weight.

Weight Loss Remedy - Overcoming Weight Loss Excuses

We often make excuses when it comes to losing weight. Because of this, we stop
ourselves from doing our diet routine, gain more weight and get disappointed in
the end. How do you stop making those weight loss excuses?
You make many weight loss excuses and it automatically comes in without
realizing it. Losing weight is not that easy but you have to discipline
yourself. Next time, ask yourself why you make excuses every time you commit it.
Some of the most common excuses include:
• No time to do any exercise.
• No time to prepare healthy meals.
• Too old to exercise.
• No enough support
• Not feeling well.
• Bored with exercising.
The excuses mentioned above are just a few. You might have noticed that some are
just lame excuses. So how do you stop making those weight loss excuses?
Find out why you are making excuses. Are they acceptable? Or you are just
thinking of another better way? If not, then why are you not taking some action?
There are some who didn’t like being overweight yet they’re doing nothing about
it because they are afraid that they might fail and end up still overweight.
Don’t be afraid of change…
The way you think will affect how you succeed with your weight loss routine. The
more negative you think, the more excuses you’ll commit and fail. Don’t let your
low self-esteem win over you. Strive harder for something that is important to
you.
Lack of time with exercises is the one of the most common used excuses because
we are too occupied with other things. Lack of time is not a valid excuse
because if we think that losing weight is really important for us, we need to
find time to for it no matter how busy we are. Do as much as you can each day
and you’ll feel more energetic.
In order overcome weight loss excuses, know you need to understand the reason
why you’re making an excuse and think its importance to you. Discipline
yourself; strive for a happy and healthy you.
If you’re having difficulties in losing weight alone, join support groups where
you can meet people who can make your weight loss routine successful. Clinically
proven products are also available to help you in your weight loss problems,
such as Proactol™, a new clinically proven fat binder. It is made of non-soluble
and soluble fibers, immediately attaches to fats found floating on the surface
of the stomach. This creates a fat-fiber complex that is too large to be
absorbed in the small intestine, allowing the fat to pass naturally through the
body.