The world of weight loss seems to be full of confusion. The basic concept we are taught about dieting is that a low calorie diet is the key to losing weight. This notion is being challenged more and more these days.

Most people think that simply limiting the amount of food they eat will make them lose weight fast. For many people however, this does not work.

The vital piece of the puzzle that most people are missing is that how they eat is just as important as what they eat. Common eating patterns for the majority of people include eating three large meals every day until they are full. This method of eating can be detrimental to weight loss.

What is Grazing?Grazing is a way of eating that spreads outr your food intake into smaller chunks. So, rather than just eating 3 large meals each day, you have a smaller breakfast, lunch and dinner and then eat small snacks in between. Some people already graze without knowing it, but do it in a very unhealthy way. This means that in between meals they snack on things like chocolate bars and packets of crisps. When grazing is done right and you snack on healthy foods rather than crisps and chocolate, it can be very effectively for helping you to lose weight fast.

Benefits of Grazing
There are several health benefits that you gain from grazing healthily:

• It keeps your metabolism moving fast
• It prevents hunger and overindulgent eating
• Stabilizes your blood sugar
• Reduces cravings for comfort foods
• Fills you with energy all day long
• Speeds up weight loss

How Grazing Makes You Lose Weight

Grazing has a completely different effect on your body than if you were to eat large meals. Usually when people eat large meals, they eat until they are full and can’t eat any more.

Doing this is almost like expanding your stomach. At every meal time, you need larger amount of food to compensate for what you haven’t eaten since your last meal. Being as your stomach expects lots of food every time you eat, it needs more room to store it all. Thus, you put on weight.

Grazing has a different effect. Eating smaller amounts of foods more frequently makes it easier for your body to digest and it puts your metabolism into constant action. This is necessary if you want to lose weight.

Every time you eat a meal, it is important not to eat so much food that you feel full. If you eat until you are full it is like putting a speed bump in front of your metabolism. To keep your metabolism moving fast, you need to keep your meals small.

What to Eat

Your between-meal snacks should contain as many natural foods as possible.When food is eaten it gets converted into glucose (blood sugar) so the body can use it as energy. Natural unprocessed foods release energy slowly, while unhealthy foods like crisps and chips release energy quickly.

When foods get converted into glucose quickly, the body reacts and releases a lot of insulin. Insulin converts sugars into fat and thus prevents the body from burning it.

Eating natural foods helps to maintain your blood sugar levels and gives you stable insulin levels. This means your body won’t burn fat so quickly and you will be able to lose weight fast.

Grazing Tips

Ideally, your between-meal snacks will contain lots of vegetables. Vegetables contain an abundance of vitamins, minerals and nutrients that your body needs to stay healthy. If you have the chance, you can prepare various salads to snack on throughout the day.

You could prepare a different fresh salad each day and carry it in a lunch box when you go to work. You can make things fun and create a new original salad every day.

If you are really not used to eating vegetables you should try to bring them into your diet gradually. For instance, start by eating just two or three new salads a week, and then start eating more. Chances are you will gradually begin to enjoy various kinds of vegetables.

You could also carry a snack pack with you to work including quick and easy healthy snacks to eat if you don’t much time at hand.

If you really don’t want to eat veggies all day then stick to natural healthy alternatives. Always choose healthy pieces of fruit, cereal bars, dried fruit or nuts over things like chocolate bars and crisps.

A Balanced Diet

While you will receive an abundance of goodness from vegetables, your diet also needs other good food sources to provide a healthy balance of protein, fat and carbohydrates. Include things like salmon, chicken breast, lean pork, tofu and boiled eggs in your diet for a good source of protein.

Complex carbohydrates are contained in foods like brown pasta, brown rice, rice crackers and wholemeal bread. Carbs can help supply your body with sustained energy.

Allow yourself to have your favourite treats every now and then. Treats shouldn’t be eliminated from you diet all together because you may lose the will power to stick to your eating plan. Consider treats as a reward for the times when you have stuck to your diet well.

Also, be sure to drink lots of water and exercise regularly. Water flushes toxins out of the body and keeps energy levels high, while exercise can provide that extra boost you need to lose weight faster.

Grazing is being recognised more and more these days as a vital component to successful weight loss. For many people, learning the proper way to eat throughout a day is the missing piece of the puzzle they were looking for. Whilst eating healthy meals is obviously very important for losing weight, the frequency and size of your meals is just as vital. One of clear winners when it comes to grazing diets is the Lunch Box Diet which has been called ‘the best diet ever’ 5/5 by Elle Magazine. Even Cameron Diaz is said to be a fan of this healthy plan that becomes a ‘way of life’. Click here to find out more.

All the best

Daryl

In Better Shape: How To Find The Best Diet For You?

In Better Shape: How To Find The Best Diet For You?: With all the different kinds of diets out there promising to be the better than the last, finding the best diet to suit you seems like an o...

How To Find The Best Diet For You?

With all the different kinds of diets out there promising to be the better than the last, finding the best diet to suit you seems like an overwhelming task.

For instance, some diets will say you should eat more protein or carbs, while another equally well renowned diet will suggest that you should eat less of them. With all the seemingly contradicting information, how do you know which is the best diet to follow?



There are lots of fad diets out there these days promising quick success. These diets that promise instant results are usually unsustainable.

Often the severely restrict your food intake, prohibit your favourite foods, require you to make lots of time consuming meals, and will have you marching around in the supermarkets trying to find bizarre ingredients.

That’s the problem with many faddy diet programs. While they promise you quick results, they are very difficult to stick to as they do not match your own lifestyle.

It has been said on countless occasions that the best diet plan a person can follow is one that they know they can stick to. If you follow a diet plan that doesn’t agree with you, it makes the whole process of trying to eat healthily a big stress.

The result? You feel bored, stressed and miserable. And then we know what happens, you resort back to your old unhealthy eating patterns.

It is much better to avoid miracle diets and stick to one that you know you can stick to for a long time. Beware of diets that promise instant results and seek a more long-lasting diet plan that promises sustainability.

A good healthy option is The Lunch Box Diet which is regarded as one of the best and most sustainable diets around.

Imagine how much easier it would be to be healthy and lose weight if you follow a diet plan that is perfect for your personality and lifestyle, doesn’t have a strict set of rules and allows you to eat your favourite foods every now and then.

Here are some of the key characteristics shared by the best diet plans:

• Focus on taking in a variety of different nutrients
• Allow you to eat snacks between your meals
• Have a scientific basis
• Advise you to drink lots of water
• Advise you to introduce changes gradually
• Are sustainable and promote long term weight loss

So when looking at diet plans, evaluate them to see how closely they match-up with the factors outlined above. If they do, there’s a much higher chance that you’re going to be able to stick to the diet plan for a long time to come.

If the diet plan contains all these elements, you may be on to a winner. There is then a few more things to take into account before you decide whether or not the diet you are looking into seems like the best diet plan you you:

• Your Eating StyleIf a diet doesn’t fit well with you style of eating, then it probably won’t work for you. The best diets plans for you will be able to fit in with your eating routine, the way you like to cook food, and your eating-out and travelling patterns. Ask yourself if you would be able to stick to the timing and amount of meals that the plan advises.

• Your Favourite FoodsA diet that bans you from ever eating your favourite foods could make life very boring for you. Many plans include a huge list of forbidden foods. Most people find that the best diets for them allow them to treat themselves every now and then and don’t tell them to lay off their favourite foods all together.

• Your Exercise PatternsExercise is approached differently in dieting programs. Some encourage you to exercise X amount of times a week, while some simply ask you to take frequent walks or gentle jogs. Your best diet plan will involve exercise practices that seem very doable to you, or at least allow to progress slowly to more rigorous exercising.

• Your Habits
  A diet plan that can help you eradicate bad habits can be very effective. If you have unhealthy habits like drinking too much coffee or wine, or lounging of the sofa for hours, look for a diet that may address the issues and advise you how to break these patterns.

• Money
  Yes dieting can sometimes cost your money. Some plans will have you buying and cooking specific quantities of food every week. Something to consider if you have a strict budget.

You now are aware of the things you should look for in a diet plan, and what things in your own life you should consider before settling on a new dieting routine.

If you are adapting a new diet specifically to lose weight, the main consideration when choosing a new plan is to adapt an eating routine that will help to reduce your calorie intake.

If trying to lose weight, it can be very helpful to see a nutritionist who will be able to help you find out how many calories you consume daily.

This process will usually require you to record everything you eat and drink for a week or two. Even if you are not adapting the new diet purely for weight loss purposes, doing this can be very insightful as it will show what negative aspects of your diet you could work on gradually changing.

One final thing to say is that you’ll never find the best diet plan for you without experimentation. It could takes several months to finally settle on a diet plan that is ideal for you.

 Test out different routines if you need to. Usually your body experience new effects every time you start a new diet, so it may take time to get accustomed a new eating pattern.

Keep at it and continue experimenting. With enough persistence, you’ll have no problem discovering the best diet plan that you will be able to stick to for a long time to come.

All the best

Daryl

How To Combat Stress Through Healthy Eating

Stress can be one of your biggest challenges if you are trying to lose weight. Unfortunately, stress is virtually unavoidable in this day and age. When you’re feeling stressed out, the effort involved in sticking to a responsible eating plan can feel like something of a nuisance.

The big problem is that if stress leads to unhealthy eating, then the unhealthy eating will lead to more stress. And in reverse, healthy eating will result in a reduction of stress. I know it seems hard at times, but the times you when you feel most stressed are the times when eating healthily is most important.
Often, pressures in the workplace can lead to unhealthy eating.



Sometimes it’s just a lot easier to pop into the nearest fast food restaurant when you don’t have much time to eat. The harsh truth though is that this is simply being irresponsible if you are trying to lose weight.

There are plenty of healthy foods that you can buy that can be prepared quickly. A sandwich shop can easily whip you up a healthy sandwich with wholemeal bread and a piece of fruit just as quickly as McDonalds can crank out a greasy cheeseburger. Alternatively, make a healthy lunch at home and take it to work with you.

This way you won’t even have to leave the office at lunch time.
Now I understand that fast food can be very addictive and tasty, but they do a lot of harm to your body, and can even weaken your immune system.

Not to mention they will make you fat. Eating greasy and fatty foods will not help your concentration levels at all, so if you want to perform well at work, you should eat something better.

Remember this, the more stressed you are, the more healthy you need to eat. Be sure to start your day off well with a nutritional breakfast. A simple bowl of cereal and a glass of fruit juice can be prepared in seconds if you don’t have much time.

There’s so many healthy options available for lunch meals that you really have no excuse to go to McDonalds. A healthy lunch could consist of rice noodles or pastas with fresh boiled vegetables. Sandwiches with granary bread filled with egg white, meat or vegetables are another easy lunch to make.

Try to go easy on adding butter and cheese to your sandwiches, as you want to keep your calories under control. In addition, a piece of fruit or two is a great snack to eat along side it.

Eating healthily and reducing stress involves eating healthy meals and eating at appropriate intervals. It’s a good idea to eat healthy snacks in between your meals. You could keep some canned fruit, cereal bars and whole wheat crackers in your store or office to keep you going throughout the day.

So remember, when you are stressed you have two cycles to chose from:
Stress > Unhealthy Eating > More stress > Health problems
or…
Stress > Healthy Eating > Reduced Stress Levels > Stronger Immune system

Which would you prefer? The Lunch Box Diet is a great option as a healthy diet plan because as well as helping you lose weight, it is also a great stress busting diet due to all of its health properties. Click here to find out more.

All the best
Daryl

6 Reasons Why Exercise Programs Fail

By Karen Sessions NSCA-CPT
MsFit

You are all psyched about your new fitness program to build, or at least maintain muscle, and shed body fat. Everything is written out to the letter of what you must do to accomplish your goals. All the numbers add up to ensure success and now the trick is to follow it.

As time passes, don't let other things become more important. Don't put your fitness endeavors on the back burner and only exercise when time permits. Do something everyday that supports your fitness lifestyle and avoid the pitfalls.

Common Mistakes Why Exercise Programs Fail

Reason #1 - Failure to set goals – Setting goals is one of the most important aspects in anything you attempt. What do you want to accomplish and in what time frame? If you don't have concrete goals, you don't have a plan.

You should set short-term goals, (daily and/or weekly) as well as long-term goals (monthly and/or yearly). Goals give you vision and depth. They allow you to work toward something, rather than floating around aimlessly with nothing to shoot for.

Reason #2 - Jumping in with both feet – Jumping into a fitness program with both feet is very common. Many times people get all ho hum with their goals and exercise program and have a do-or-die attitude. Granted, it's a good attitude to have, but it can also be a legacy.

Begin your program slowly by taking small successful steps each day, week, and month rather than just diving into the program and hitting rock bottom suddenly. You must have elbow room to ensure success. The body does respond to small amounts of exercise and those who begin by doing too much too quickly end up on the sidelines due to burnout.

Discover How to Avoid Weight-Loss Plateaus

Reason #3 - Carrying all your eggs in one basket – All too often, many people begin their fitness endeavors by cutting calories, adding endless hours of cardio, and popping weight loss supplements left and right. Your body adapts very quickly and if you use all your resources at one time, you won't have anything to fall back on when you hit a stalling point.

Begin lowering calories slowly and adding cardio slowly. Keep harmony and balance. After a few weeks you can incorporate the supplement of your choice to help give the body a boost.

Reason #4 - Not knowing where to begin – Not knowing where to begin is not uncommon. Many people don't have a starting point or know how to create one. Establishing a starting point is crucial and can be a significant factor in your success.

A quality starting point should include your current body status (weight and body fat percentage). This will allow you to determine your caloric base and macro nutrient intake. In addition to your stats, you need to make a fitness plan to include resistance training and cardio to build lean muscle and decrease body fat.

Reason #5 - Not following the fitness plan – Many create wonderful fitness programs, yet fail to follow it properly. This can be anything from not doing it at all or simply doing too much. Most of the time my focus is on those not following it, but in this case I want to tap on those who do follow it, but in excess.

If you create a plan of weight training four days a week for 45 to 60 minutes and cardio for four days a week for 30 minutes for the first week and cardio 40 minutes the second week, then do that. Don't overstate your cardio before it's time. More is not better. It's how you implement it.

You Deserve The Facts and You Deserve to Change

Reason #6 - Improper nutrition – You can exercise until you are blue in the face and you won't see desired results until your nutrition is in order. Many venturing onto a fitness program choose poor quality food rather than whole food that nourishes the body.

For continual success in your fitness endeavors, set short and long-term goals, pace yourself, create a fitness program and follow it as prescribed. Staying consistent on your program will ensure success.

Fitfully Yours,
Karen Sessions
MsFit

P.S. For ADVANCED weight loss or fitness information, please check out How to Lose Weight; FOREVER!

Thanks for that Karen.

All the best

Daryl