lose weight

Healthy Ways to Lose Weight - 4 Elements

When deciding an approach for losing weight, would be dieters usually consider what to eat and what exercises to engage in. A person usually makes up his or her mind whether to join a gym, and what foods he or she absolutely must have regardless of the diet plan. The variables are many in the beginning, middle and end of a diet program. In fact, if a person is truly serious about shedding unwanted pounds for good, there are things to think about on a day-to-day basis.
But there's another element people tend to skip over when looking for healthy ways to lose weight. In the world of weight loss the "mental game" is (by far!) the biggest factor determining your success, or failure.
You are going to win or lose your weight loss battle depending on healthy your mind is, and how healthy you can make it become. Healthy minds belong to productive people.
To succeed in weight loss you must adhere to these 4 elements:
Element #1 - Time. At this point in your weight loss journey you're either just getting started, or you've been at it for a while. In any case, the extra pounds did not arrive overnight, and you will likely need a little bit of time to lose them. Get used to spending time (and getting good) at your new craft - weight loss.
Element #2 - Patience. If toning and tightening your body was a race, it would be more akin to running marathon, not a short sprint. The minute you realize - no matter how hard you work or how desperately you might starve yourself this week - that it won't matter much in the long run, the better off you'll be emotionally. You need patience, as it may take you more 12 weeks or more to lose the kind of weight you have in mind.
Element #3 - Learning self-discipline. Healthy dieting success can never be declared without developing a large degree of self-discipline. You need enough self-discipline to follow through on your commitments in the gym, and at the dinner table. Without the ability to do what you're supposed to do (whether you feel like it or not) you will come up short in your weight loss efforts, time and again. Self-discipline is the master skill of all successful dieters.
Element #4 - Expectation adjustment. Tomorrow only matters as a day in your new, body toning process. Expect nothing from tomorrow except a good effort from yourself. The same goes for the next day, and the day after that. Put in the effort without an expectation of daily change. If you can do that, then you can reach your goals over the long term. If you obsess over the scale, then you might find yourself on the wrong side of diet failure until you can get this element right.
Healthy ways to lose weight are often thought of as physical actions, such as diet and exercise. But the only way to lose healthy weight and keep it off is by developing a new, healthier mindset. More consideration must be given to who you are and what you really want. If you want to be healthy and lose weight permanently, consider these 4 healthy, weight loss elements for your successful future.

How to effectively burn fat and calories

I have been a personal trainer for many years and over that time have met many people who find it very difficult to maintain their health and immune system due mainly to their hectic daily lives. Obesity and weight problems have been well publicised in the media over the last few years and thankfully people are really starting to take notice of this very serious issue and are looking for ways to effectively combat it.

Aside from individual medical conditions the main reasons that many people suffer from weight problems are poor diet and a distinct lack of exercise combined with a lack of knowledge regarding effectively burning fat and calories.

First things first: your diet

It is impossible to maintain a healthy weight without exercise but the first thing to do when trying to achieve this goal is to focus on your diet. When exercising your body needs fuel, this comes in the form of the food and drink that you consume but it has to be the right food; eating fatty foods like burgers, chips, pizza etc. will simply destroy all of the hard work you are doing during your exercise regime. Eating foods that burn fat quickly will not only give your body the vital nutrients that it needs to keep your immune system in good health but by definition will help you to lose weight and maintain a healthy body size.

One of the biggest enemies you could possibly have when it comes to healthy eating is processed food. The amount of garbage that big food companies put into these foodstuffs is quite literally astonishing and by eliminating these from your diet you will be going a long way to achieving your fat and calorie burning goals. Some of the most popular foods to cut down on are listed below…

Wheat breads.
Pastas.
Cereals.
Processed soy products (tofu, soy milk, soy meats and cheeses)
Low-fat products.

All of the above mentioned foodstuffs turn to sugar in your body one consumed and will help to prevent you from effectively burning fat and calories if regularly eaten.

To effectively burn fat and calories from your body you will need to regularly exercise and maintain the correct percentage of the vital nutrients like protein, carbohydrates and minerals in your body on a constant basis throughout the day.

Throughout the day you should…

Drink plenty of water with and in-between meals.
Eat lots of fresh vegetables.
Eat plenty of fresh fruit.
Eat small portions of food.
Eat these smaller portions of food 5-6 times a day.

Most of the above suggestions are fairly obvious when it comes to your daily intake of food when trying to lose weight and burn fat but many people do not realise that eating smaller portions of healthy food more often during the day is extremely beneficial for everybody.

By consuming smaller portions of food 5-6 times a day instead of the “normal” 3 large square meals a day you will be giving your body a chance to effectively process the fuel rather than having to deal with much larger intakes at less frequent intervals. This form of healthy eating is not always easy for some people due to their busy daily lives but if you are serious about healthy living, with a little bit of preparation and motivation, you will find a way to make this work.

It is worth mentioning that anybody considering embarking on an exercise regime and diet of any kind should first consult a medical professional or a Personal Trainer before doing so.

Lisa Cunningham is an Australian born female personal trainer / fitness model currently living in North London.

Fighters Guide to Eating Healthy: 9 Top Tips

Eating healthy is imperative for everyone, but especially for fighters. Whether you are an amateur boxer training in your local gym, or a pro fighter in the ring, the food that you eat is important because it can make or break your workout.

Certain foods give you the energy levels that you need to train 2-3 times a week, to the best of your ability. When eaten correctly, they can even prevent you from getting an injury.

Do you want to gain muscle, lose weight, or simply retain your fitness? Your nutritional plan will play a huge role in determining this.
How can you eat healthily?

Here are 9 expert tips to staying eating the right foods.

You’ve probably heard before about eating your five a day of fruit and vegetables, but this is really true. Eat lots of bananas, blueberries and pineapple as part of your daily food plan, incorporating them into your breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch and tea.
You can always try eating it with some low fat yoghurt! If you are peckish, try eating a handful of almonds instead of reaching for a chocolate bar.
Swap the big fry ups for a healthy bowl of cereal with skimmed meal.
Bread is fine to eat but try to use low fat spread on whole meal bread. Ideal sandwich fillings are chicken, or tuna.
You can give yourself a little treat on the seventh day of the week but don’t go overboard. It will only leave you feeling bloated afterwards. Try to avoid the temptation of sweets, crisps and alcohol.
You can still eat a hearty meal at tea time that is rich in fibre and protein. Grilled chicken breasts with sweet potato and mixed greens are great, as well as baked potatoes, salads, basmati rice and grilled fish/turkey. Try to choose white fish and brown rice to cut down on the amount of starch you eat.
If you love having a steak, lean ground beef can be eaten but only once every 10 days as advised by MMA legend Jeff ‘The Inferno’ Joslin.
Swap tea and coffee for plenty of water. Around 3-5 litres will ensure you remain hydrated throughout your work outs. If you do like the odd cuppa, make it skimmed milk instead.
Adding spices to your meals is fine, but try not to add too much salt.

Eating healthy doesn’t have to be an arduous task and the results will pay off when you find that your cardiovascular endurance has improved, and that you don’t get out of breath as easy. You’ll soon be knocking those punch bags right out of the park!

This article was written by Lauren Grice on behalf of Fightshop.com, the leading specialists in MMA fight gear. For high quality sports clothing and equipment, visit the site today.

Breakfast Health Drinks

Nothing beats the convenience of grabbing a health drink from the fridge on your way to work. Breakfasts are the most important meal of the day, but with busy schedules it’s usually the first thing to go out the door when we are getting late. Hence, the sheer convenience of health drinks is that you don’t have to spend time thinking about what to cook or time in preparation—nutrition is just at the tip of your fingers. I’m not so big on commercial energy drinks or health drinks, I much prefer to make a concoction of my own the night before and keep it in the fridge overnight. That way it stays fairly fresh and is nice and cool first thing in the morning.

There are a couple recipes that I find work well for me, but if you’re not a big fan of leafy greens and gourds, then you might want to alter the recipes just a bit. These recipes work pretty well and require little to no preparation. I’ve not come up with all of them on my own, some were born from the advice of friends, others by Google research, and yet others by personal experimentation, and I can ensure that these recipes are really helpful. This is a good and simple place to start, though, and later you can figure out what works best for you. The ingredients that I feel most comfortable about using are the ones that contain natural anti-oxidant qualities. It’s the perfect way to start your day!

Quick Apple and Celery Drink

2 apples with the skin

1 cucumber

1 stalk of celery

Put all these into the blender or juicer. Blend till it becomes a juice form, and then pour it into a cup and drink. Health drinks such as this one are best drunk in the morning so that their healing effects can cleanse your entire system. This particular recipe has a dual use. Aside from helping to fight cancer and reduce cholesterol it also helps to improve headaches and stomach pains.

Apple and Ginger Drink

4 carrots

1 apple

1 /4 inch of ginger

A handful of parsley

Put all these into the blender or juicer. Blend till it becomes a juice form, and then pour it into a cup and drink. If you’re someone who is a diehard health freak then adding a clove of garlic into the brew is enormously healthy as well. It was in the original recipe, but personally, considering the before office hours I’ve never been brave enough to try it! But if you do, let me know what it tastes like. The garlic and parsley in this drink provide you with loads of antioxidants.

Leafy Green Spinach Drink

2 celery stalks

1 /2 a spinach bunch

2 carrots

Put all these into the blender or juicer. Blend till it becomes a juice form, and then pour it into a cup and drink. A dash of sweetener can also be included to make the drink more palatable, or you could try adding an orange or 1 /4 of an apple to be more nutritious. I know the blended spinach part sounds intense, but trust me, spinach is filled with antioxidants that help to keep your cholesterol at healthy levels. And besides, it really doesn’t taste as bad as it looks.

Cooling Watermelon Drink

1 medium-sized broccoli floret

1 small bunch of kale

2 slices of watermelon cut into pieces

Put all these into the blender or juicer. Blend till it becomes a juice form, then pour it into a cup and drink. Each of these ingredients, again, is high in antioxidant content and damages free radicals.

Okay, I bet by now you are slightly disgusted with all this “healthy” drink talk. But, really, it doesn’t taste so bad if you are brave enough to try it. The nutritional benefits far outweigh the unpleasantries and I’m sure it won’t be long before you’ve found a vital supplement to morning coffee! Breakfasts are not worth skipping altogether, because doing so can land you with a heap of health problems. I find that personally health drinks are the way to go as far as breakfast is concerned. Another health drink that is fairly nutritional is this brand called Ensure. Ensure drinks are pretty rich in vitamins and protein. However, I would only recommend them as breakfast drinks for those trying to maintain orlose weight, and as snack drinks for those trying to gain weight.

Become an Expert in Weight Management

Losing weight can be a daunting task – and as they say, the first step is always the hardest. With so many diets and exercise programs on the market, it is hard to know where to turn or how to get started. In a bid to increase the service that your pharmacy offers, why not think about becoming an expert in weight management training. Let customers know that you are available and willing to offer dietary advice and support for anyone who wishes to lose weight.

It is essential that pharmacists and pharmacy technicians keep up-to-date through learning and have the very best advice on hand to give to their customers. Offering weight management education and training programs would be hugely beneficial to obese and overweight patients. It is essential that anyone who is hoping to lose weight understands that there are no overnight solutions or miracle cures.

Long term weight lose can only be achieved by participating in regular exercise and cutting out the bad fats in your diet. Make it known that crash diets do not work on a long term basis and is not the answer, because it can affect other areas of your patient’s health. Fasting and cutting out important elements to a diet can damage the heart and other vital organs, if followed on a long term basis.

Tackling obesity is hugely important and many patients might not realize that their weight issues could be affecting the other health problems they have been suffering from. Being overweight and eating a diet that is high in saturated fat can decrease life expectancy, increase the chances of developing type-2 diabetes and increase the risk of heart disease. Obesity can also trigger some types of cancer, gallstones and osteoarthritis.

As part of the weight management education service, it is important to understand how to calculate the body mass index, which measures the percentage of fat on someone’s body. This is a good indicator as to how much weight that person should be aiming to lose.

Community pharmacists have an important role to play in weight management. Changing a routine and deciding to lose weight can be frightening for some people . Knowing there is support and professional advice at the local pharmacist is invaluable to the patient and works well alongside the NHS treatment the patient might be undergoing. Over crowded GP surgeries can make it difficult for patients to get appointments, which is why support provided from a pharmacist can be invaluable.

Top 3 healthy Diets for Losing Weight

Losing weight is one of the single most wanted things in many people’s lives. Women in general are some of the biggest customers in the weight loss industry, and billions are spent every year on quick fix diets and health fads. But at the end of the day we all know, that deep down, these diets fads are called fads for a reason – none of them truly work, are sustainable or the least bit good for our health in anyway. Weight loss is the product of consistent healthy eating, smaller portions, moderate exercise and good lifestyle habits. Here are the top 3 healthy diet plans to follow for weight loss.

High Protein and Low Carb
Carbs have long been touted the enemy of any healthy diet plan, slapped with a banner for being responsible for making people fat. In fact, carbohydrates are a necessary and integral part of any sustainable eating plan as long as they are in an unprocessed form and promote low GI energy levels throughout the day.
Lean protein like fish, lean meat and pulses are excellent for building muscle and keeping you fuller throughout the day, without spiking blood sugar levels like processed carbs do. It is very important to eat both carbs and lean protein at every meal, especially breakfast. Eggs are a great source of low fat protein to start the day with and if you are going to have toast, stay away from white bread and pick rather wholegrain, rye or health bread.

Vegetarian
More and more people who are health conscious are moving towards eating less or no meat at all and meat free Mondays have become the rule rather than the exception. It is no secret that following a vegetarian or vegan diet, if balanced, can be very good for you and has many health benefits including weight loss.

Red meat is high in fat and animal fat is one of the biggest culprits of excess abdominal fat. Excess abdominal fat can be a direct link to casing many health problems such as diabetes. Low in fat and high in vegetable proteins, there are many anti-ageing properties and anti-oxidants packed into a vegetarian diet.

Cutting out all red meat and only eating lean protein such as fish and some chicken over a 28 day period will enable you to lose up to a kg a week if not more. Just make sure that you balance out your protein intake and don’t not eat enough out of all of the food groups and just feast on veggies alone.

Lentils, baked beans, feta, fish like tuna, hake and mackerel, eggs, tofu, peanut butter and nuts are all great sources of natural protein that will boost your weight loss program and provide your body with many of the good fats and minerals your body needs to function on a day to day basis.

The 80/20 Meal Plan
This is probably one of the easiest and most sustainable healthy eating plans to follow right through your weight loss program and maintenance program that you will follow for the rest of your life.

The 80/20 principle is following a balance, healthy, calorie careful eating plan 80% of the time and eating what you want 20% of the time. You will need to be extra careful in monitoring your portion sizes during the 80% time, as that is as important as counting calories.
And you will find over time, that when it comes to the 20% of the time, you won’t favor the high fat, processed carbs that you used to , and eating whatever you want will turn into frozen yogurt and walnuts instead of full fat ice cream smothered in chocolate sauce and fudge topping. Or perhaps a waffle topped with fresh fruit instead of cream and chocolate chips.
Maintaining this kind of eating plan is much more sustainable over time, you may lose the weight slower, but you will keep it off without denying yourself that glass of wine or chocolate bar now and again.

Author bio: Korah Morrison, writer on essay writing services that help students to write essays of any complexity. She writes about everything and all over the world.

Why Lack of Sleep Is Causing You to Gain Weight

Sleep is tied to everything. Your mental health and physical well-being are both dependent on getting enough good quality sleep every night. If you don’t sleep properly you are at risk of a range of short term problems and long term issues. One of the health problems that people who don’t sleep enough suffer from is obesity and weight gain. This happens for a number of reasons:

Bad Habits

A lack of sleep can lead to a number of bad habits that, over time, lead to weight gain. The first of these bad habits is snacking for energy during the day. When you are tired you have to run on energy from food and drinks. This means sugary drinks, sweets, chocolate and other ‘bad’ snack foods. Snacking for energy regularly will, almost certainly result in weight gain.

Another bad habit that develops as a result of not sleeping enough is late night snacking and binge eating. Studies have proven that people who stay up later are more likely to snack late at night, than those who go to sleep at a reasonable time. Eating late at night and just before you go to sleep causes weight gain. So not only will you be eating more, but you will be eating at the worst time of day.

In fact, it is strongly asserted that a lack of sleep drives a desire to consume more food in general, which certainly won’t do your waist band any favours.

Laziness

When you don’t sleep properly, you get tired. Of this there is no denying. When you are tired you won’t go on a jog, go to the gym or play sport of any kind. Laziness and a sedentary lifestyle is one of the main factors that contribute towards weight gain. Moreover, those who exercise regularly tend to sleep much better than those who don’t and are able to get to sleep at a sensible hour.

Fat Cells Receptivity to Insulin

Recent research has indicated that when you are sleep deprived, your fat cells are less receptive to insulin that when you get the optimum amount of sleep. Insulin controls blood sugar levels and when your fat cells are less receptive to it, you are prone to weight gain, obesity and even diabetes.

Sleep is Tied to Weight Loss

Not only is sleep tied to weight gain, but it is also related to loss. A recent study by Laval University found that obese people who slept more, as part of a wider weight loss program, lost more weight than those who slept less.

What Can You Do

The solution is straight forward; sleep more. The average adult requires between 7 to 9 hours every night. Any less than this will trigger some of the above issues. Any more and you risk oversleeping; this carries other risks and side-effects. The quality of the mattress that you sleep on is also a factor. A bad or cheap mattress can agitate other health problems and cause new ones. Many people skimp on buying a great mattress because of the cost. However there are plenty of top quality bargain mattresses out there. Obviously just getting more sleep won’t cause the pounds to drop off. A healthy diet and exercise is also vital.