Wednesday, December 24, 2008

South Beach Diet Meal Planning: Make It Easy

South Beach Diet Meal Planning: Make It Easy

The South Beach Diet is known to be the latest fad in the series of diets today. Numerous resources have cited that the South Beach Diet plan is consists mainly of three different phases. So given such fact about this latest diet fad and since we are dealing particularly dealing here with the South Beach Diet meal plans, it is therefore necessary to know that the South Beach Diet meal plans are generally divided into three different unique phases just as the South Beach Diet itself.

Essentially, it is considered that the South Beach Diet meal plans are divided into three distinct phases for the reason that such method for South Beach diet meal planning is made easier. From that alone, the dieters will be given a clear and comprehensive South Beach Diet meal plan for them to follow. The result for an easy procedures and tips for the South Beach Diet meal planning is much intensified with the advent of the internet which open up to the emergence of many notable online tools that help the dieters in their South Beach Diet meal plans in accordance to the diet program.

For those who are interested in making their own South Beach Diet meal plans, you should bear in mind that today, there are approved and restricted foods for each of the South Beach Diet phases. So it is therefore necessary to watch out for these restricted foods before making the South Beach Diet meal plans. Also, it is necessary to know that such restricted foods also restrict the South Beach Diet meal planning itself.

Since it is already considered that the South Beach Diet meal plans are divided into three distinct phases, it is therefore very interesting to know that according to numerous resources for the South Beach Diet meal plans, the South Beach Diet meals for the first phase of the diet generally consist of the normal-size helpings of chicken, meat, turkey, fish, and shellfish. In this South Beach Diet meal plan, plenty of vegetable, eggs, cheese, and nuts are as well included. Aside from such contents of the South Beach Diet meal plan in this phase, there is also salads, all adding up to three balanced South Beach Diet meals per day. Plus, the dieters are allowed to drink more water is they wish.

In the second phase of the South Beach Diet, since the second phase of the diet involves the reintroduction of what were eliminated during the first phase back to the South Beach Diet meals, it is then understandable that the South Beach Diet meals under this phase consist of the carbohydrates that were restricted before. Many resources noted that there is now more flexibility in the meal plan of the South Beach Diet, since there is now the possibility to have bread, pasta, rice, cereal, potatoes, and fruits on the South Beach Diet meals. Chocolates? Of course you can eat that too!

For the third phase of the diet, it is noted that this last a lifetime and the South Beach Diet meals reflect that. The diet program then changes to few fundamental rules of the diet and the dieters are then eating normal foods, in normal-size portions. The dieting is then becomes a way of life, so as the South Beach Diet meals.

Find insightful and useful information about cancer or cold and flu at WebContent.com.

By: Maryann Floretta

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Monday, December 22, 2008

South Beach Diet Info

South Beach Diet Info
By David Millers

South Beach is a low-carb diet that consists of three phases of dieting. During the first phase you are not allowed to eat fruits, grains, starches, or alcohol for two weeks. During this first phase you must concentrate on eating certain meats and poultries such as chicken, turkey, fish, beef, and shellfish. You will have to eat lots vegetables, certain dairy products such as cheese, eggs, and cottage cheese. You will also eat nuts and seeds which are tasty when added into a salad. You will eat beans and legumes and you will also eat certain fats and oils, such as salad dressings.

During the first week of Phase 2 you will continue to eat the foods for Phase 1, but you add in one serving of a carbohydrate of either a fruit or a low glycemic starch into your menu. The idea is to pick a carbohydrate that will not produce cravings. During the second week of Phase 2, you add in a second serving of carbohydrate. Now you should be eating one serving of a starchy food high in fiber and a fruit. During week 3 of Phase 2, you add another serving of a carbohydrate into your diet, such as bread. If you start to gain weight or start having cravings, cut back on the carbohydrate or switch to a different carbohydrate. For weeks 4, 5, and 6 of Phase 2 you continue to add one additional serving of carbohydrates each week. If you don't think you can manage to eat that many carbs or if you begin to gain weight you can cut back on your carbohydrate intake and instead substitute non starchy vegetables into your diet.

Phase 3 of the South Beach Diet will begin when you have hit your goal weight. During Phase 3 you will continue to eat the same foods that you've been eating during Phases 1 and 2. You will continue to eat this way for the rest of your life. If you notice weight gain, cut back on your amount of carbohydrate intake a little and instead substitute in different vegetables or a less starchy carbohydrate such as brown rice.

Keep in mind that although South Beach is a diet, it doesn't have to feel like one. It is possible to take the allowed foods and turn them into delicious meals. There are resources for South Beach Diet recipes all over the internet as well as in books. It is also OK to snack between meals, so long as you stick to the allowed foods and don't overeat. There are so many different types of delicious recipes for South Beach Diet meals that you will never get tired of eating the same things over and over again. Not to mention how good this diet is for your overall health, not just your weight issue. The South Beach Diet will also improve your cardiovascular system, improving your chances to live a full, healthy life and ensuring your chances for heart disease, strokes, and heart attacks are much slimmer.

One of the best foods to include in the South Beach Diet is the Hoodia plant. Deep in the African desert the Hoodia plant grows wild and natives have enjoyed it for centuries. Hoodia is well known for its anti-oxidant properties and its ability to rapidly increase the metabolic rate and suppress the appetite suppressant. Even if you don't directly put Hoodia in your food you can take it in supplement form at Hoodia Diet plan. The supplements can directly help the body in meeting its dietary needs.

David Millers reviews the South Beach Diet and how it should be used with Hoodia supplements at hoodiadietplan.org

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Mille
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The South Beach Diet in a Nutshell

The South Beach Diet in a Nutshell
By Laurent Mikhail

For many of us, loosing weight is a continuous battle. We have tried everything to lose weight and even if sometimes we loose a few pounds, they are recovered again after a few weeks later.

If you look for a diet to follow, you probably will find thousands, but which one deserves your efforts? Well, most of the time we follow the diet that we know that it worked with someone we know.

One diet that has stood among the crowd because has been very successful to thousands of individuals is the South Beach Diet. This diet is a combination of scientific research, nutritional facts and the human element to make you enjoy what you eat.

Concept of the SouthBeach diet

The main concept of the South Beach Diet is to develop a lifestyle oriented to better eating.

This is achieved by learning how to compensate the food in your diet and how to substitute the proper food according with the philosophy of the diet, looking to eat healthier and giving you more options on the way you can eat.

The South Beach Diet consists of three phases.

Phase One.
It lasts two weeks and starts with the foods you are already eating and with the foods that you are familiar with, trying to avoid high or moderately highly-glycemic index.

Phase Two.
You start adding new recipes based off of the content of the South Beach Diet.

Phase Three.
It is the maintaining stage and it integrates new ways of eating into your lifestyle.

The ultimate purpose is to teach you to eat healthier while getting the weight you are looking for while improving your health.

Picking the Right Foods

As the main purpose of the diet is to make you consume the proper foods, there are specific foods that have to be changed, avoided or even added from your regular diet. In general the Diet will look to avoid what is called Bad Carbohydrates, which are the ones that are rapidly absorb by the body and bad fats, which are the trans fat and the saturated fat, both of them known because increase the danger of heart diseases.

These two substances are substituted for foods with good fats, good carbohydrates, fiber and vitamins. As you can notice, the idea is to pick the right food instead of give up what you love to eat and finding healthier alternatives for the foods with bad carbohydrates and bad fats.

By doing this, you will eventually be able to change how you eat and what you eat, while becoming more aware of what works and what doesn't work with your lifestyle.

Changing Your Lifestyle

As it was mentioned before, while the south beach diet, it is a diet, and during its process some foods are replaced by others, most of the time is not a restrictive approach to loose weight which makes it very comfortable to follow.

At the end, you should have developed a lifestyle which should take you to eat healthier and at the same time to loose the excessive weight you have. Because its healthy-lifestyle nature, it can be followed not only by people with excess of weight, but for any people who wants to have a healthier system and who wants to avoid some of the worst diseases that millions of people get because bad eating habits, like diabetes and heart conditions.

About the Author

Laurent Mikhail, PhD. is the author of the resource site South Beach Diet where you can get a healthier lifestyle while getting the weight you want. Learn about the South Beach Diet find out if it fits you. Visit http://www.sbeachdiet.com for more information.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Laurent_Mikhail

Monday, December 15, 2008

Low Carb Diet Menu

Low Carb Diet Menu

There are some who go on a low carb diet in order to lose a few pounds. After they have done that, they generally go back to the way they ate before, and then don’t think about the diet much after that.

There are others however, how have medical issues like diabetes and insulin resistance who take on a low carb lifestyle for medical reasons, and also to lose weight. These are the folks that would benefit the most from a low carb diet menu in order to have enough variety to stick with the diet for the rest of their lives.

The problem many have on any diet is that they get bored with the food selections. Some stop doing Atkins early because they feel restricted, but they don’t realize that if they were to stick with it, they would be adding back most of the foods they love when the follow a low carb diet menu.

Though there are some foods that may never be eaten on such a plan, most find they are satisfied once they have gone through the weight loss portion of the program. They do this by knowing they will soon be adding more to their low carb diet menu, and they have patience with themselves and the plan.

Low carb does not have to be boring, but you do have to learn to love your vegetables, and you have to make them an important part of your low carb diet menu.

There are many great recipes out there, and they are rather easy to find. You can find a low carb diet cookbook that will give you more ideas than you know what to do with and you may never have time to try them all. There are many great ones out there, so you can get a few to keep you going.

Some may start out with a low carb diet menu that starts out with eggs, bacon, salads during the day, and broccoli and steaks for dinner. This is okay for the first part of the diet, but after a while more foods are added and people find this is a great relief.

No matter how much you love those things, you can’t live on those alone. The human taste buds demand variety, and the more variety you put into your low carb diet menu, the better success you are going to have in the long run.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

The Acai Berry Diet


The Acai Berry Diet

The Acai Berry Diet isn't solely acknowledged to be beneficial with aiding you to lose weight, but it also known as one of the world's most powerful super foods because of the therapeutic power and antioxidant benefits that come along with the acai berry.

The acai berry is similar to a grape that comes from the acai palm tree in the rainforests of South America. It's one of the richest fruits on dry land with antioxidants.

The acai berry has several powers to be beneficial to your health. Researchers and scientists have establish that the acai berry can do wonders for the human body. It helps to maintain good cholesterol, fight heart disease, improve your vision and increase your energy level.

Acai berries also boost your immune system, improve your vision, assist in digestion, and fight weight gain. A new study from one scientist said that the Acai Berry Diet may actually help to kill carcinogens and cancerous cells which are associated to many different forms of cancer.

The Acai Berry Diet is a great way to go if you would like to lose weight. This diet should be the first step you make toward attaining your winning diet regime.

Helping with weight loss and weight loss retention, the Acai Berry Diet when combined with proper nutrition and exercise will be a big help toward accomplishing your weight loss goals.

These magical berries posses so many benefits to your health while at the same time helping you to lose weight they can only prove to be beneficial to you.

Whether you drink the acai berry juice or opt for an acai berry supplement the benefits are equal and could provide you with an easy way to shed all of those unwanted pounds while providing many extra positive benefits to your overall health.

By: Mike Herring
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Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Diabetes Diet Plan - Control Your Diabetes

Diabetes Diet Plan - Control Your Diabetes

Diabetes is a serious medical condition in which the body is unable to breakdown food into glucose (blood sugar). Insulin assists in the breakdown process but diabetics have a difficult time producing or responding to insulin and thus require insulin treatment.

To control and reverse your diabetes you need to plan, measure and act. By plan I mean plan a diabetic diet control what you eat, measure your food intake and act through exercise. Sounds simple does it not, create a diabetic diet plan, exercise and manage your weight.

As we all know, any effective diabetes diet plan has to include eating small, low glycemic foods several times per day to both control blood sugar and eliminate rapid blood sugar changes throughout the day. To do this, I have previously tried the SouthBeach and Atkins diets. However, both left me feeling deprived, irritable, jittery, and also left me with significant mental fog.

Help control your diabetes by producing a diet plan it does not have to be full of foods you don’t like, foods that are boring and dull there are thousands of foods out their, recipes for diabetics that will suite you. You just need to read the information, buy the guides the eBooks and then you can eat well and remain healthy.

A diabetic diet plan is one of the best proven ways to combat diabetes; this can help to improve your blood sugar control, reduce and eliminate your need for insulin shots.

The diabetic food plan takes recommended foods for diabetics and creates a plan to suite both your tastes and your needs, by creating the diabetic diet plan you can improve your health and help fight diabetes.

A balanced diet consists of carbohydrates, fat and protein and required total calorie is 1200. In a 1200-calorie diabetes diet plan, 600 calories comes from carbohydrates and that means 1 gram of carbohydrate equals 4 calories. Now you can exchange the percentage of carbohydrate in your food with either meat or fat group. This is all right until the total calories remain 1200.

Being a diabetic your diet is very important. It varies slightly depending in regards to the type of diabetes, body weight and style, personal needs, other diseases, age, sex and the physical activity of the said person. One must try to obtain and maintain an ideal body weight to help keep their diabetes in check.

One of the most important factors in the effective management of diabetes is diet control. A diabetic diet must achieve the right balance between nutrients and calorie count. On the one hand, it must be rich enough to provide all the vital nutrients in the right proportions. On the other, a diabetic diet must exercise strict calorie control so that the diabetic patient is at no risk of putting on extra weight.

The whole point of following a diabetic diet is to ensure that the insulin levels in the body and sugar levels are kept constant. This is often misunderstood by diabetics that they can no longer enjoy all the types of food. The fact is that you just need to follow the doctor’s advice and watch your diet closely but by no means restrict yourself from eating what you enjoy.

By: Hutch Peter

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Thursday, November 20, 2008

How Eating Affects Your Diet

How Eating Affects Your Diet

Weight gain is often the result of certain bad lifestyle habits that you have developed over the years. Following a strict diet plan or exercising rigorously is of no use unless you get rid of these bad lifestyle habits. Once you do away with these bad lifestyle habits, you will be able to get rid of fat easily and quickly.

It is good to address these bad habits when they are still at the budding stage. If these bad habits become part of your routine, you will find it hard to eradicate them. Once bad habits become part of our life, we fail to realize that these are indeed bad habits. Over time, these bad habits affect our health severely and inflict us with several lifestyle related diseases. Obesity is one such disease.

Here are the two bad lifestyle habits that you need to address in order to lose weight successfully:

1. Overeating: Why do you overeat? What is the reason behind overeating. You may or may not believe it, but most people don't overeat because they are way too hungry; rather they overeat because of certain food triggers. Checking and getting rid of these food triggers should be your number one priority.

One such food trigger is emotional eating. If you eat simply because you are depressed, tired or worried about something, you need to realize that food is not the solution to your problems. Food can never rid you of your worries, depression or fatigue. You need to address these individual problems one by one rather than trying to get relief from food.

2. The types of foods you eat: When you suffer from emotional problems, more often than not you will eat foods that give you pleasure and comfort. And funny enough, these foods often turn out to be junk foods such as burgers, soda, ice cream, etc. If these foods are at the top of your food list, you need to strike them out.

Try to derive pleasure from healthy foods. Remember that it was your bad lifestyle habits that brought you here and developing good eating habits is a first great step to losing weight. When you do that, you will get 'relief' from your emotional problems, while at the same time not putting on any additional pounds.

Don't try to make drastic changes in your lifestyle at one go! Don't try to get rid of all the bad habits at once. This is simply not feasible. If you try to eradicate the bad habits one by one, you will find it easier to do! Also, by getting rid of one bad habit, you will often get rid of another one that was thriving on your previous bad habit. When you clean your life of these villains, you will be able to live a positive and healthy life!

By: Bill Nad

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Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Diet Plans to Lose Weight

Diet Plans to Lose Weight
By John Mowat

If you are at all serious about losing some weight you will need a suitable diet plan to help you reach your goal.

You can't continue to eat everything you feel like or as much of it as you want. Your weight depends on the number of calories you consume in your food and the number of calories you burn off in your daily life. If you consume a lot more calories than you burn off your weight will rise.

A person who whose job entails hard manual labor will burn off a lot more calories than an office worker who sits all day at a desk job. So it is obvious that the office worker will have to consume fewer calories than the manual laborer with the correct diet to lose weight.

Now having said that,all of us know individuals who eat as much of everything he/she wants to and never seem to put on any weight. What is the reason for this? Why do the majority of people have to struggle with a diet plan to lose weight?

To some extent it seems to be a matter of having the right genes in our genetic makeup. If you have a certain genetic profile your weight may remain steady even if you do consume a lot of food of the "wrong" kind.

Unfortunately there is no way to change your genes. You inherited your genetic makeup from your parents and you can't change that. The only thing that is possible is to find a desirable weight level by getting on a good diet plan to lose weight accompanied by an enjoyable exercise regime.

If you are like most people and want to attain a reasonable weight,and stay at that weight,you need to eat the right foods in the correct amounts. If you eat more than you need your weight will increase. You also need a daily exercise plan to help burn off calories and keep you fit. Exercise can be very enjoyable when done in the right way and is not a chore.

There are numerous diet plans available which all profess to be the best ever diet. If you are overweight and find weightloss difficult you will probably have tried several diets to lose weight.

The problem most people have with diet plans to lose weight is that they are not something you can stay with for a long time. You may stay on a lose weight fast diet for a few weeks or even months but inevitably you will slip off the fast fat loss diet and return to your old ways of eating.

It's the same when you exercise. You strain daily to perform exercises which you do not enjoy. Sooner or later you drop it for a day. The day becomes a week and very quickly you have returned to your former lifestyle once more.

Lose weight fast diets are very easy to find. There is a multitude of them in magazines and on the internet. From every direction someone is throwing a how to lose weight fast diet at you it would seem. You should pay little attention to the majority of them. They are simply something which does not work as a permanent weightloss diet.

If what I have been writing above sounds like it applies to you,please take my advice and rightaway get on one of the new diet plans which are based on sound research.

You can pick the foods you want to eat. Not a lot of stuff you don't like but foods you select. You can exercise using methods which are simple and enjoyable. In short it is a lifestyle you will enjoy.

Of all the plans on the market at present there are three which are of this type,are easy to follow and will lead to permanent weightloss in the fastest and easiest way possible.

source : http://ezinearticles.com/?Diet-Plans-to-Lose-Weight&id=1603199

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Diet With the Seasons

Diet With the Seasons
By Denny Phillips

Now there is a crisp nip in the air and the leaves on the trees are beautiful with their changing colors. With autumn comes the time to settle back and snuggle up warm and cozy in your humble abode. And with autumn comes a different way to eat. Gone are the warm summer breezes and the lazy days where you can sit outside in the sun and enjoy the scrumptious backyard barbeques. Now is the time for the satisfying comfort foods to come out.

Each changing season offers new ideas for your diet menus and various fresh options for fruits and vegetables for you to choose from to help you lose weight. Each new season also offers you a different way to cook.

When you are on a diet, it is easy to become bored with eating the same foods over and over again. What you should do is to try take advantage of the benefits of the changing seasons.
When spring arrives, many new fresh vegetables and fruits become available. Your diet menus should change to reflect the natural goodness of this fresh produce.

You should include the newly growing plants that are available during that season. You should also take the opportunity to try new taste experiences that you may not have tried before.

For example, have you tried fiddleheads (which are available fresh only during the early spring)? Including a new produce like fiddleheads to your diet can increase your diet menu potential, helping you to lose weight and not become bored with eating the same foods time and again. It can give you new incentive to continue successfully on your diet path.

Of course, there are other options that you can add to your diet menus in spring, like asparagus (which is one of the first produce items that are freshly available), or strawberries (which are ripest and sweetest at this time of the year). You will not feel like you are dieting when you taste the goodness of these items at their freshest point. Also, including spring items in your diet plan can give you the option of picking your own produce, like scouring the countryside for wild asparagus, which can help you with your exercise program.

Summer always offers a multitude of fresh vegetables and fruits, and even helps you to change the way some of your traditional diet meals are cooked. Consider barbeque-ing your foods as a better fat reduced way of cooking your meats. You can grill the fresh available fruits and vegetables over a charcoal pit. Summer cooking offers a fun way to prepare low calorie diet meals.

Fall dieting meals can bring you back indoors to include warm, comfort foods in your diet meal plans. Here fresh pumpkins, squash, rutabagas, crisp apples and freshly available nuts can play a bigger part in your diet foods. Include hot soups (always a calorie reduced meal option) as a diet food that is filling and warmly satisfying. Make stews to include all the harvest vegetables, while your diet menus stay low calorie and hearty as the same time.

As the snow flies and winter sets in, again the warm aspect of cooking indoors is in play. Think of the foods of the season that you get to include in your diet menus. Turkey for Thanksgiving is a calorie-friendly meal option. Think of the canned vegetables you have stored in your fruit cellar to include in your diet meals. During the winter season your cooking habits can include roasting vegetables and stove-top cooking. You can also use your oven broiler or stove-top grill to add variety to your diet meals.

Changing your diet plans to suit the seasons is an option that can help you to avoid the trap of being bored with your diet menus. You can make the foods you are allowed to eat tasty and fun if you vary your cooking methods to suit the seasons as well. This can also aid you in helping you to stick to your diet to help you lose weight.

source : http://ezinearticles.com/?Diet-With-the-Seasons&id=1596041

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Low Carb Fast Food

Low Carb Fast Food

When you are doing a low carb eating plan, it is important to cook for yourself to be sure you know exactly what is in what you are eating.

However, there are times when this is just not possible, and you may have a hard time deciding what you can eat when you are away from home.

Though finding low carb fast food might not be the optimal choice, it is better than eating something full of carbs just because you can’t find anything else.

You can find something at almost any fast food establishment that will help you stay on your eating plan, even it if is not your first choice.


When you look for low carb fast food, you have to think about taking the carbs off of things. Some places cater to those who are on this type of eating plan, but sometimes you are on your own.

One of the best things you can do is get a burger and take off the bun. Have cheese on it if your plan allows, and remember to add lettuce and tomato.

You should avoid ketchup as it always has sugar, but mustard is okay for low carb fast food if you like it.

Most places have a great salad you can have for low carb fast food. Just be sure you don’t have the carrots if you are not that far along on the plan, and also make sure you watch the carbs in the salad dressing they try to give you.

Most of the salad dressing you find in a fast food place has more sugar than the kind you are probably using at home.

It is hard to carry around your own salad dressing, but there may be times when you need to do this.

The ranch you use at home might have 2 carbs per serving, but the stuff you get at a fast food place might have nine or ten.

If you want to get a grilled chicken type of salad for low carb fast food, you have to ask them if they have marinated the chicken in anything that might have contained sugar, or if the sauce they may have added contains sugar.

This is very common. You may not be able to have the chicken if that is the case. Though low carb fast food might not be your first choice, it can be a life saver when you have no other choice.

Traveling and doing a low carb plan is not always easy, but you can do better if you know what to look out for and what to avoid completely.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

All about Diet and Exercise

All about Diet and Exercise
by: Mary Watson

Diet and exercise are the perfect combination for consistent weight loss.

If you have ever tried to lose weight and couldn’t understand why it was so difficult, you may have been neglecting to combine diet with exercise. No matter how little you eat, there is no substitute for exercise. If you wish to achieve consistent weight loss, you have to understand how weight loss and exercise tie in together

Losing Weight without Exercise

Some of the fad diets in existence today promise that you can lose weight without exercise, and though you may experience some small amount of loss, it will not be consistent nor have any great impact. Any weight you may lose will be short-lived if you are not exercising in order to build lean muscle mass and boost the rate at which your body burns calories

The Impact of Exercise on Weight Loss

In spite of what some diet programs may tell you, there is a definite connection between weight loss and exercise. In order to lose weight, you must burn more calories than you consume. Although normal daily activities such as walking, cleaning house, and even sleeping burn some calories, these activities do not burn enough to make any impact on weight loss.

It is necessary to perform aerobic exercise such as walking, bicycling, swimming, and skiing in order to boost the rate your metabolism burns calories in order to experience faster and more consistent weight loss. The addition of resistance exercises such as weight lifting will build lean muscle mass which burns calories at a faster rate. Thus, the perfect exercise routine for weight loss is a combination of both types of exercise.

Choosing the Right Foods

In addition to exercise, you must choose foods that will stimulate weight loss. In order to do this it’s necessary to consume low fat proteins and minimize the simple carbohydrates you eat. Simple carbohydrates include almost everything in the starchy category and not just sweets.

That doesn’t mean you cannot eat carbohydrates at all because you need the energy. Contrary to what we were taught during instruction in food groups, there is no difference between eating a candy bar or a piece of white bread—both will turn to sugar when consumed. The difference lies in eating whole grains such as wheat bread, wheat flour, brown rice, and whole grain cereals such as oats, barley, and wheat.

Not only are whole grain starches in the low-glycemic index category, they provide the fibre that is necessary for a healthy colon. By consuming lean meats such as poultry, veal and fish instead of beef and pork, we limit the amount of fats that are entering our bodies. This not only helps with weight loss but also has a positive impact on the heart as well. By concentrating on eating healthy foods and snacks we give our body the opportunity to undo any damage we have done with our poor eating and lack of exercise

Lifestyle Changes

Although diets are intended as a means to lose weight, the best diets incorporate weight loss into lifestyle changes. No matter how well you do on your weight loss program, if you don’t change the way you eat and live, your weight loss will not be permanent.

You must learn how to eat healthy and exercise all the time and not just when you are attempting to lose weight. You also need to substitute soft drinks and sugary fruit juices for water and natural fruit juices containing no additional sugar. That doesn’t mean you cannot have some of those sweets, but you must learn how to limit them in order to prevent gaining all the weight back that you lost.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Why Is The South Beach Diet So Popular

Why Is The South Beach Diet So Popular
by Joshua Poyoh

The South Beach Diet is popular with people who want to lose weight.

It is not a low fat, low carbohydrate, high protein diet.

You do not have to count carbohydrates, fat grams.

It teaches dieters to eat only healthy carbohydrates, fats and saturated fats that can lead to heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and general poor health.

This diet is an alternative to these sometimes detrimental means of losing weight.

The South Beach Diet allows you to eat and not completely cut out all your favorite food, which in the long run makes it almost impossible to stick to.

The South Beach Diet is easier to stay on because it teaches how to eat in a healthy manner and improve your lifestyle.

It eliminates cravings for all those bad carbohydrates and fats in food that we all love. After being on the diet for a while, you will probably not crave any of those foods anymore.

This diet focuses on good carbohydrates and fats.

The South Beach Diet works by changing the way you eat by including more healthy choices that will make you feel good and add to your energy levels.

The South Beach Diet is has three phases.

The first phase is change your diet to one that is filled with eating healthy lean types of meat, such as beef, lamb, pork, veal, chicken, fish, and seafood.

All meat should be broiled or baked and should not be fried.

They should not be coated with breading or crumbs.

Vegetables, nuts, eggs, and low-fat or fat-free cheeses are also allowed in the diet.

Vegetables should be steamed and plain with no sauces or butter.

Phase one of the South Beach Diet does not allow you to have breads or baked goods of any kind, rice, pastas, potatoes, fruit, candy, ice cream, sugar, or alcohol.

This part of the diet only lasts two weeks and is designed to get your body used to only having good carbohydrates to jump start your weight loss.

In phase two, sweet potatoes, wild or brown rice, whole grain breads and cereals, fresh fruits, and red or white wines are slowly added back in.

Vegetables such as carrots, beets, white potatoes, and corn are avoided because of their high sugar content. So are fruits like bananas, pineapples, raisins, and watermelon.

Some other types of foods that will slow down your efforts to lose weight include cookies, cakes, sweet rolls, and ice cream.

You will need to stay at phase two until you reach your target weight, then phase three will begin.

Then you will practice the good eating habits you have learned and maintain your weight.

The South Beach Diet is heart healthy and is designed to educate people how to lose weight effectively.

The South Beach Diet is a new way to thinking about food, how to shop for food, meal planning.

It distinguishes the difference between good and bad carbohydrates.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Weight Loss -The South Beach Diet

Weight Loss - The South Beach Diet

One of the latest diet crazes is the South Beach Diet. Dr. Agatston, a leading cardiologist, created the South Beach Diet.

His aim was to improve his patients' heart health, but he discovered that as a "side affect" his patients were losing a lot of weight.

He claims that it isn't a low-carb or a low-fat diet, but a diet that focuses on eating the "right" carbs and the "right" fats. The South Beach Diet is based on the glycemic index.

The diet restricts carbs in the first two weeks and then gradually re-introduces those carbs with a low glycemic index.

He also recommends trading saturated fats with unsaturated fats.

The South Beach Diet generally follows the same idea as other glycemic index diets.

First a little background; when we have eaten, the carbs are then broken down into sugar, thus raising the sugar in our blood.

In response to the higher glucose level, the hormone insulin is released from the pancreas to remove the sugar from the blood.

If we eat foods that are rich in carbs, we get a rapid increase in blood sugar, then our pancreas releases a large amount of insulin to counter it.

This in turn causes the blood sugar to drop rapidly and you feel a lack of energy, and then you crave more carbs and the viscous cycle continues.

If it keeps up then you are likely to gain weight as a result. In addition, your body becomes resistant to the action of insulin.

When your body reaches this point then your body becomes more effective in storing the fat.

So in phase one of this diet, most of the carbs are restricted, this gives you body a rest from the cycle.

This is supposed to resolve the insulin resistance.

The banned foods would be bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, fruit, milk, sweets, sugar and alcohol.

The focus on the phase one part is to eat lean meat, chicken, fish and eggs.

In this phase it is said that you can lose up to 14 pounds.

In the phase two part of the diet low GI carbs are gradually reintroduced.

This would be most fruits, whole grain bread, cereals, pasta and skim milk.

You are supposed to stay in this phase until you reach your target weight.

In phase three, you can reintroduce a wide variety of foods.

In this phase you are supposed to keep your weight steady.

This phase is designed to be life long.

In all of the phases there is no limit for portions, just eat enough to satisfy your needs.

Actually snacking is advised, as long as you snack on the appropriate food in your phase.

The extreme carb restriction in the first phase requires some serious will power. You may feel weak.

Also you won't be getting your daily requirement of fruits and veggies so you may be missing out on vitamins and minerals.

Also when you restrict all the carbs in this phase you are getting rid of a lot of good sources of fiber, vitamins and minerals.

However nutrition experts are generally in favor of diets based on the glycemic index.

Overall this diet generally follows the basic principle of healthy eating.

The result should provide plenty of the nutrients one would need to stay healthy

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Cabbage Soup Diet - For Fastest Possible Weight Loss

Cabbage Soup Diet - For Fastest Possible Weight Loss
by Sacha Tarkovsky

The hardest part of starting a diet is we all want to see results quickly and this is where the cabbage soup diet is ideal, it only lasts a week and it knocks weight off fast!

Once you have done it, you can then move to another diet and lose weight at a slower pace.Whenever you need to lose weight quickly go back to the cabbage soup diet.

There is no better way to achieve quick weight loss than the cabbage soup diet. If you don’t like cabbage don’t worry many health shops sell it in pill form as well, so it’s suitable for everyone.

Low Calories

The cabbage soup diet doesn’t offer many calories, but allows people to lose weight as they tend not to be tempted to overeat. The soup acts as filler, making sure that the dieter does not get hunger pangs or the feeling of starvation.

Due to the low amount of calories that the body is consuming, a dieter following the cabbage soup diet may experience a few side effects.

This can range from a feeling of weak or lightheaded but generally most people wont feel to bad and its easy to stick with because you know it’s only for a week.

The cabbage soup diet should only be followed for a week - it is not meant to be adapted as a continuous diet and there should be breaks between using it, but as fast weight loss program it’s unrivalled.

Here is a recipe for the cabbage soup diet, if you elect not to take it in pill form:

Cabbage Soup Diet Recipe

Ingredients:

6 Large Green Onions

2 Green Peppers

1-2 Cans Diced Tomatoes

1 Bunch of Celery

1 Package Lipton Onion Soup Mix

1-2 Cubes of Bouillon (if desired)

1 Cabbage Head

Making the soup

1) Cut the vegetables place in the pot and cover with water, you can also use V-8 juice.

2) Boil the ingredients fast for 10 minutes.

3) Simmer and cook the cabbage soup until all of the vegetables are tender.

4) Season the cabbage soup with salt, pepper, garlic powder, parsley, or whatever spice you wish. When following the cabbage soup diet, you should be aware of some of the details.

The diet needs to be followed exactly!

The cabbage soup diet will only work if it is followed exactly how it is set down, means no deviation from the format

Day 1

Eat all of the fruit you want, except for bananas. You can eat only the cabbage soup and the fruit for the first day. You can drink unsweetened teas, cranberry juice and water.

Day 2

You can eat all of the fresh, raw or cooked vegetables that you want.

Keep in mind that leafy green vegetables are preferable and that you should avoid dry beans, peas and corn. Fruit is not allowed.

Day 3

You can eat all the soup you want, as well as fruits and vegetables.

Day 4

You should eat as many as eight bananas, as well as drink as many glasses of skim milk. You should also keep eating the cabbage soup.

This day is meant to suppress your desire for sweets.

Day 5

Eat 10-20 ounces of beef and up to six fresh tomatoes.

You should also drink at least 6 to 8 glasses of water in order to flush out the uric acid within your body.

You should have at least one bowl of cabbage soup. If you don’t like beef, you can exchange it for skinless, baked chicken.

Day 6

Incorporates just beef and vegetables. You can eat all of the beef and vegetables you want, as well as at least one bowl of the cabbage soup.

Day 7

You can eat as much brown rice, vegetables and unsweetened fruit juices as you want, as well as at least one bowl of the cabbages

There is no better way to jump start any weight loss program incorporate the cabbage soup diet in your weight loss program and watch the pounds melt away quickly

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

How to Customize a Diet Plan

How to Customize a Diet Plan

Fad diets come and go because no one diet fits every need. There are many factors that must be considered before you choose a personal diet.

Physical attributes such as age, height and body build affect how a diet works. How active you are or how much exercise you schedule into your day also affects a diet plan. Use the advice below when customizing your own personal diet plan.

Before You Begin The Diet Plan

Step 1:
Buy a notebook, weight scale and menu planning book or binder before planning your diet. Use the notebook for recording weight loss and keeping a food diary and use the menu planner for planning healthy meals in advance.

Step 2:
Begin writing down how many calories you take in on a daily basis in your food diary. For a dependable reference on your eating habits, and for how many calories you take in on average, record your food intake for a few days before you start dieting.

Step 3:
Pay attention to how much junk food and high calorie drinks you eat every day. Before you begin a new diet plan, rid your cabinets of junk food and food with no nutritional value.

Step 4:
Write down all the healthy foods you enjoy. Sticking to a new diet plan means you must include many foods you enjoy eating that are healthy for you. Having a list of these foods available when you grocery shop helps you avoid purchasing fatty, sugary foods.

Customize Your Diet Plan

Step 1:
Start a new diet plan by learning how many calories are in a pound and how to lessen the amount of calories you take in. A pound has 3500 calories, so burning 500 calories a day helps you lose approximately one pound a week.

Step 2:
Cut your calorie intake by 250 calories and perform an aerobic activity that burns 250 calories to help cut 500 calories a day. If exercise is too much right now, look at your food diary and see where you can cut calories. Replacing soda with water, low calorie fruit juice for sweet tea, plain popcorn for chips, ground turkey for beef and sugar free jello for sweet, sugary desserts are all effective ways of cutting calories.

Step 3:
Pick one day a week when you plan your menu. Choose meals that incorporate lots of herbs, which help flavor foods without adding lots of calories. Make sure you plan healthy snacks so you're not starving throughout the day.

Step 4:
Keep an exercise journal and write down a list of exercises you enjoy doing. These can include walking, jogging, bike riding, skating, swimming, dancing, workout videos and even house cleaning. Choose a different exercise each week and plan to do thirty minutes a few times a week.

Step 5:
Incorporate the different aspects of your custom diet plan as time goes on. Increase the amount you exercise or mix two of your favorite exercises throughout the week. Try new light recipes so your menu doesn't get stale and play around with different ways of flavoring food.

Step 6:
Stick with the menu and exercise plan you write for yourself. Follow your own food journal, exercise journal and menu as if you were following a popular diet fad book.

Step 7:
Set realistic goals for yourself that don't always revolve around weight. Set a goal to jog a half mile, swim two extra laps, drink more water, phase out your chocolate addiction or try a new vegetable or fruit. Creating your own diet plan means you have control of what you eat and the activities you partake in without feeling the need to meet unrealistic goals created by the latest fad diet

Monday, March 3, 2008

Satisfying Diet

Satisfying Diet by Hyder Khan


The Calorie Shifting Diet is an extremely satisfying diet. You never feel deprived of any types of foods. You are never left starving or feeling the least bit hungry. And this is not because your stomach is shrinking or your appetite is being diminished, as is the case with many other popular diet plans.

On the contrary, the Calorie Shifting Diet allows you to eat as much food as you desire at each meal until you are completely satisfied, although not until you are too full. Additionally, you are required to eat four full meals per day, with each meal being spaced out by at least 2.5 to 3 hours worth of gap in between. While on this diet, you are required to eat a variety of foods from all four of the major food groups.

If this all sounds too good to be true, or if this does not even sound like a diet plan to you, then you are in for a surprise: While on this diet you can expect to lose 9 pounds for every 11 days you are on this diet, which amounts to upwards of 20 pounds per month.

How can such a satisfying diet yield so much weight loss? If you are practically able to eat as much food as you want from all four of the major food groups, and that too, at four meals every day, then how is weight loss even possible?

The principle behind the Calorie Shifting Diet is that you can manipulate your body's metabolism at will, simply by shifting the types of calories you consume from meal to meal, from day to day, on a rotational basis. In doing so, your body's metabolism would react to the dietary shifting by tapping into your body's fat stores for energy, in order to compensate for this "simulated nutritional deficit" that you are inducing.


A true nutritional deficit of course comes from extended periods of time without consuming a healthy amount of all of the essential nutrients your body needs. By shifting calories around from meal to meal, you are simulating a nutritional deficit, except you are doing it on a much smaller scale, in short bursts of time.

By the time your body detects a nutritional deficit and begins to compensate by burning your body's fat stores, you reintroduce that nutrient back into your body. But then you immediately shift another type of calorie out of your diet, thus creating a nutritional deficit of this second type of calorie. So your body never truly "recovers" from the nutritional deficit, and thus your weight loss is sustained, even though, all the while, you are actually getting all of the nutrients that you need!

What makes Calorie Shifting such a satisfying diet is this simple fact that you can achieve rapid weight loss results without experiencing any type of starvation, leaving your cravings unfulfilled, or feeling deprived of any type or quantity of foods

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Mediterranean Diet - Pros And Cons Of The Mediterranean Lifestyle

Mediterranean Diet - Pros And Cons Of The Mediterranean Lifestyle Robert Palmer

What is the Mediterranean Diet all about and what are its benefits and drawbacks? The Mediterranean Diet can basically be attributed to the recent recognition that of those living in Europe, those in the Mediterranean live longest on average.

Why might this be, you ask? Well, researchers believe that the secret lies in their diet. While the Mediterranean Diet is not a concrete diet plan like South Beach or Atkins, and the diets of those countries within the region differ by certain degrees, there are still certain traits that have been found to be universal.

First off, in the Mediterranean, there is a large consumption of fruits, vegetables, potatoes, cereals, beans, seeds, nuts, and bread. Secondly, olive oil is commonly used for cooking and dressings. Thirdly, there is a moderate consumption of fish but little red meat. Fourth, there is a low to moderate amount of full fat cheeses and yogurt that is consumed. And contrary to popular belief, there is only a moderate consumption of wine that is usually only had during meals. Also, there is a strong reliance on seasonal produce. And lastly, those living in the Mediterranean live an active lifestyle which is vital for complete state of fitness

So, what are some of the benefits to this Mediterranean lifestyle? In a recent 4 year study, the diets of over 22,000 Greeks were studied and the closer they adhered to a traditional Greek diet, the less likely they were to die from either heart disease or cancer.

Overall, the traditionalists found themselves 25% less likely to die during the 4 year study period, which suggests that adherents of traditional diet die later rather then sooner. In comparison to Americans, Greeks are 20% less likely to die from coronary artery disease and are 33% less likely to develop cancer.

Is there a solid reasoning behind this increased protection from heart disease and cancer? Yes, and the reason lies in their consumption of olive oil and oily fish such as sardines, which contain, in the case of olive oil, monounsaturated fats while the fish contains polyunsaturated fats called omega-3 fatty acids. Both can help protect your heart.

Furthermore, the large consumption of fruits and vegetables like tomatoes will further reinforce your body against cancer and heart disease by providing plenty of valuable antioxidants. So, are there any downsides to this Mediterranean diet? All in all, no, but if you find yourself active, eat a good bit more protein throughout the day.

They recommend eating fish, eggs and poultry a few times a week. I’d have some good protein with every meal just to make sure all of the bases are covered. One of the only issues that people will be confronted with is it requires frequent cooking, and if you are too busy or lazy to do that then you will only be gleaning some of its benefits.

Also, this “diet” is hard to criticize since it is not as restrictive and regimented as Atkins and others are. To me, that only creates shortcomings which translates into nutritional imbalances. So, apply the protein-enhanced Mediterranean principle to the concept of eating 5 small meals a day and you’ll truly be living a life fit for a Greek.

Monday, February 11, 2008

The Importance Of A Proper Diet

The Importance Of A Proper Diet by Ward Tipton

Nearly everyone understands not only the difficulties of losing weight, but also the actual physical problems, which are associated with binge eating. No matter what the cause for eating improperly, the effects are devastating, long lasting and very difficult to overcome. What many people do not understand is one of the best methods for eating regularly, not going hungry and still being able to maintain or even lose weight

It is best to consult a physician or a qualified medical professional before beginning any new diet regimen. However, this is more an eating habit rather than an actual diet. It may take some time to grow accustomed to but it has been shown to have very beneficial side effects, including sustainable weight loss when combined with healthy foods and a regular program for exercise.

In many Western cultures, it is customary to eat three large meals on a daily basis. In between these meals, snacks and other foods are commonly eaten whether to satisfy a mere craving or actual hunger. In many of the Asian countries and historically, in some of the Nordic cultures as well, it is very common to eat more than three meals a day. So if these people are eating more, how could that possibly assist them in losing weight?

Rather than consuming three large meals a day with numerous snacks in between, it is much more common to have up to six actual meals a day. These are often full course meals including a main dish, side dishes, vegetables and other “real” foods. Rather than filling up on processed and preserved foods, they eat actual meals throughout the course of the day. This portion of the “diet” alone prevents them from having cravings for many of the fatty foods that many people constantly seek out whether consciously or not, for quick energy boosts. It also allows them to avoid hunger pangs, which are also commonly dealt with by consuming fatty and less-healthy foods in many other cultures

Because they are eating six times a day, hunger is less common. While there are many excuses for not complying with a diet like this, it is not nearly as difficult as it may seem either. Breakfast is by far, the most important meal of the day. A healthy and nutritious breakfast should help you get your day off to a good start and prepare you for what is to come. But what can you do while you are at work? How will this diet help people who have to work every day and do not always have time to prepare full meals?

Well, most people have short breaks in the morning and the afternoon when they are at work. Breakfast should have been taken care of when you were at home. Try cooking a little bit more than you normally would in the evenings. That way, you have an extra couple of small portions to take with you to work. Rather than eating large meals, the increased number of meals makes it possible to eat much less, especially when the meals are healthy and well balanced.

Granted, it may not be comfortable having to wolf down even a small meal in a fifteen-minute break, but isn’t that what you already do with the junk foods you eat during those same break times? When you get home from work, try having another small meal. In the evening, you will find that you are eating much less for dinner simply because of the new diet you are working with. You may find that even those people around you who are not trying to lose weight will come to enjoy the benefits of eating on this schedule as well.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

A Low Fat Diet Can Lead To A Healthier Lifestyle

A Low Fat Diet Can Lead To A Healthier Lifestyle

There are many different kinds of diet but one of the most successful, effective and healthiest is a low fat diet. There are many advantages to a diet of this type besides helping you to lose weight. Those individuals who suffer from high cholesterol can benefit from eating a diet that is low in fat as can those who are considered to be obese

You do not have to change your diet very much other than be aware of the foods that you are eating. To do this all that you need to do is check the labels on the foods that you buy in the supermarket. You should also be wary of foods that proclaim to be very low in fat and are aimed specifically at dieters. Some foods often have contents which are much higher than normal brands. High fat content can also be hidden in some processed foods with cookies and crackers being the worst and also the oil used when cooking foods.

When it comes to cutting down on the amount of fat and eating a low fat diet then you should consider taking care when choosing food. If you do not want to give up meat then go for the leaner cuts of beef for example. Cutting the skin off chicken and grilling it is another excellent example on how you can cut down on the amount of fat in your diet. Also increase the amount of fresh fruit and vegetables in your diet with the recommended being 5 portions at least per day and increase the amount of fish. You should also aim to include plenty of whole grains, beans and lentils in your diet. Grains and beans are known to be rich in complex carbohydrates and should become the main meal with a small amount of red meat included.

There are many ways that you can move over to a low fat diet without leaving out all the foods you enjoy. For example if you enjoy ice-cream then choose a sorbet or sherbet. Baking, broiling or roasting lean red meat and draining off the juices will allow you to enjoy red meat without adding too much fat to your diet and for a touch of flavour add lemon juice

If you like milk on your cereal and in tea and coffee then switch to 1% milk and then drop down to skimmed milk. After a while you will not notice the difference especially when in a hot drink. When it comes to shopping read the labels in the products before buying, you should avoid foods which contain pal, palm kernel and coconut oils. Also avoid buying products with egg-yolk solids, whole-milk solids or unidentified shortening.

A low fat diet is one of the easiest types of diet to get accustomed to and the transition can be made very slowly. As with any type of diet it is imperative that you make changes slowly over a period of time to allow your body to get used to them and so not miss them.


Thursday, January 10, 2008

3 Great Dinners to Diet For

3 Great Dinners to Diet For by Rosie Peters

What's the hardest part about a weight control diet? It's a trick question, cause you know as well as I do that the answer is basically everything; deciding to lose weight, making a plan and keeping to it, overcoming setbacks, keeping the weight off. Need I go on and on and on?

Yet another difficult thing about weight loss and diet control is wading through what you are going to eat and in many cases subject your family to in the name of healthy living.

I have noticed that very many diet cookbooks aim to attract their readers with fetching photos of scrumptious entrees and deserts as well as a huge variety of main courses. I have also noticed that weight loss magazines often endorse diets that involve you eating something different every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Have these people nothing else to do than slave in the kitchen? Do they expect you to whip up an intricate but low cal soup and an egg white soufflé each and every day? What do they think you are doing with your leftovers?

If you do not get into an easy to prepare and tasty eating pattern it's not weight you are likely to lose, but motivation.

Your time is important. Let's face it, one reason you need to drop a dress size or three (or shirt size guys) is that you can't find the time to plan your meals and to exercise every day. I want to make this easier for you.

You need to sort out what you need to eat and how much of it and stick to this like a chubby little limpet.

You don't need to eat entree. You don't need to create a low cal desert. What you need is to eat something filling and tasty and nutritious so that you can lose weight and keep it off as quickly and painlessly as possible.

Ok, I'd like to share 3 great recipes with you that are tasty, quick to prepare and either leave no leftovers or can be eaten in two distinctly separate sittings.

1. Chicken Fillet Parcels: Chicken fillets are an extremely good source of protein and should only be ignored by vegetarians. Grab a big fillet for each person, marinate it for 30 minutes or more (overnight if you like) in a mixture of ketjap manis or light soy sauce, minced garlic, chilli and ginger to taste (use the bottled variety, you have no time to waste). Oh, and use a plastic bag to marinate the meat in, so the marinade can get up close and personal with all of the surfaces of the chicken. When you have infused some flavour in the chook (some would say unkindly that flavorsome chicken is an oxymoron) wrap each fillet separately in a baking paper parcel and bake it for 20 minutes at 200°C/400° F. Serve it with some brown rice and steamed broccoli (ditch the rice if you are determined to lower your carbs at night).

2. Grilled Lamb Fillets: Again, one fillet per person. Coat your fillets with the spices of your dreams and grill to your desired doneness. Grab a premixed packet salad and tart it up somewhat with some tomato wedges, cucumber slices and a bit of low fat feta. Put some low cal salad dressing on the table if you must and if carbs are the love of your life, boil a few jacket potatoes without butter or cream or any other straight to the hips type extras. Low fat yogurt on potatoes is a great distraction for your taste buds and your body will still respect you in the morning.

3. Pork fillet (or Chicken or Lamb or Beef or Fish fillet or Tofu) Curry: Chop up enough meat/tofu for everyone. Slice an onion or two and grab a packet of frozen beans and a jar of yellow curry paste (or a curry you like better than this one). Dry fry the onion, add the meat (not the tofu) and dollop the paste on top. Fry this for a few minutes till the smell is making your stomach contract in anticipation and the meat is sealed, then add enough light coconut milk to drown the meat (it's a mercy killing). When this is bubbling again add the beans (and tofu if you are boycotting the meat) and go for a good old simmer for about 20 minutes.
In this time, you can be cooking the rice (if you use brown rice, you should start on it before the curry - brown rice must be good for you cause it takes so long to cook). Again if you are a brave and determined weight control dieter, just eat the curry without the carbs.

There you have it, 3 great meals that are tasty, nutritious and versatile.

What's for desert?
Have a go at seasonal fruit or berries in low fat yogurt. A little boy I know said to his new foster mum, "Fruit isn't desert!" to which she firmly responded "It is in this house". The wise little boy ate the fruit and decided to really love it.

It's all a matter of how you want to see it and whether you can make it suit your purpose.

Enjoy your dinner.

A Combination of Exercise and Diet

A Combination of Exercise and Diet by Cice Rivera

When it comes to eating and fitness, we need to pay more attention to ourselves. We all want to be fit and lose weight; you can only achieve that on your own terms. One of the questions most asked is 'how can I lose my stomach or get abs?' perhaps you should know that it cannot be accomplished on just working out, it also takes proper diet. If you don't like the word diet perhaps you can modify your calorie intake. (A good calorie low- carbohydrate diet) exercise and cardiovascular are essential. (So forget about having rice and beans).

To gain weight one would intake more calories, less calories to maintain mass, this makes perfect sense since you need to eat more to gain. (A round about figure estimated 10 calories per pound of lean weight.) That means if you weigh 213 pounds with 12% body fat, your diet would be based on a 2000 calorie diet. Getting cut up is not the healthiest way to maintain all year round or for long periods.

Even if you are eager to lose weight fast, (don't jump into a low calorie diet immediately) you should not let yourself go hungry or starve. Your body will feel threatened and your system will automatically start storing fat. What this means is that if you decide to cheat one day or consume an extra calorie while on maintenance it will be stored as body fat. Body fat severely increases.

Make changes gradually so that your body accepts and adapts to new ways, in the long run you'll be happy, Also carbohydrates increase sugar cravings, so avoid these cycles of yo- yo dieting, restrict your carbohydrates slowly, this will aid in your sugar intake.

Protein should be approximately 1 to 1.5 grams per pound of body weight, protein intake is always important. Protein is essential to a nitrogen balance, protein aids in any repairs or damaged caused by training and cardiovascular and it also avoids muscle from being burned. Fats should be increased to make up for the carbohydrate loss, fat can be used as the alternative for your fuel energy, fats form cholesterol needed to make testosterone and vitamin D. (eat celery) Vegetables contain 80% of water and plenty of fiber, so add these calories to your diet and consume less dense food calories. Don't avoid fats and drink at least 10 8ounce glasses of water per day or more. We are made of 60% water, the more water you drink the less body fat you maintain. So drink, drink and drink. (drink water instead of cafe latte).

When you increase your cardiovascular or exercise you burn more calories than you normally would, it is extremely important that you combine the two, for optimal results be sure to exercise and eat right

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

What Is Glycemic Index Dieting?

What Is Glycemic Index Dieting By: G. D. Holdon

Dieting based on glycemic index has been a hot topic for a while now. More commonly now the more complex glycemic load is used in dieting. Glycemic load is the number of grams received from the product of carbohydrates and the glycemic index, divided by one hundred.

Dr. Jennie Brand-Miller of Australia became famous after doing a 12-week study for young adults of excessive weights to measure the effects of four popular diets. What all four of these diets had in common was that fat was maintained at about 30% of total calories. The total calories were themselves measured out to about 1900 for the men and 1400 for the women.

One of the key elements studied was how dieting based on the glycemic index compared to diets rich in protein. Dr. Brand-Miller wanted to know how these different types of dieting would influence weight loss. She also measured the correlations between the diets and negative cardiovascular developments.

Below is a list of the daily specifications for each diet:
Diet One - Glycemic Load: 127 Grams
Carbohydrate = 55% of total calories
Fat = 30% of total calories
Protein = 15% of total calories

Diet Two - Glycemic Load: 75 Grams
Fat = 30% of total calories

Diet Three - Glycemic Load: 87 Grams
Carbohydrate = 45% of total calories
Fat = 30% of total calories
Protein = 25% of total calories; Beef

Diet Four - Glycemic Load: 54 Grams
Fat = 30% of total calories

The Results of the Dieting

Interestingly, all of the diets resulted in nearly the same amount of decrease in weight, around 5% on average. But diet one resulted in much less fat loss than diet four. Meanwhile, the unhealthy LDL cholesterol was lower in diet two and high in diet three.

Bottom Line For Dieting Based on the Glycemic Index

You don't necessarily have to cut back on food to begin to make positive changes in your weight composition. Simply eating foods higher in soluble fiber, such as whole grains and seeds instead of eating starchy foods and drinks can make a difference.