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Summer of Weight Loss

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There are two things that you need to consider if you want to look good this summer. Your diet and your exercise. Only by paying attention to both you can make this summer a great summer.

Your diet needs to be lighter. Cut out all that meat, especially the really fatty one. Instead go light, have more vegetables. You want to BBQ then learn how to BBQ vegetables and fruit. Make sure you have some tropical fruits around for the sunny and warm days. Nothing cools your body down like some tropical fruit. So, keep your eating light overall. Have fruit and some whole grains for breakfast. For lunch and dinner have grains and vegetables, sometimes a little oil but whenever you eat, eat light. Eating too much does not feel good when the sun shines down on you. The best way to eat light is by having five to six smaller meals a day instead of three large ones. Feel the summer by using some colorful fruits and vegetables.

As to exercise make sure you get in early. Do not wait for the summer to be as hot as it can be. Start early by finding a group you want to go hiking with, or find some friends to go biking together. Another great sport for the summer is swimming. Get a membership to a local pool and start using it. Make sure all your equipment is ready to go. Maybe you still got to clean you in-line skates or polish your bike down. Pump some air in those tires. A great summer exercise is to join a local sports team. Often times they have local softball teams or basketball. Find out now so that you can start right when the first training begins. One thing you have to do for certain. Set yourself a goal. This can be walking for a certain amount of minutes or steps a day or it can be to really get into a certain sport this summer. Whatever it is, be committed to it and let everyone know. Exercise is only half the fun when you're doing it by yourself.

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Source by Alexa Cooper

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Do You Eat the Perfect Diet?

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The question ‘Do I Need to Take Vitamins?’ is often asked by people who consider that they eat a healthy diet and who are not sick. The conventional wisdom on the matter is that if we eat what is considered a healthy diet then we should be able to get all the nutrients that we need from the food that we are eating. In an ideal world I agree that this should be the case – unless we have some idiosyncratic nutritional requirement.

However, what is a healthy diet and how can we be sure that we are getting the nutrition that our body needs? Do you know what you should be eating? There is a great deal of confusion about what is needed in a healthy diet – every health professional and ‘expert’ has a different opinion – should we eat the Mediterranean diet, a low GI diet, the Atkins diet, the caveman diet. Added to this are issues about eating refined and processed foods, wheat and cereals, animal protein and dairy products.

It is my experience that many people say they eat a healthy diet and have plenty of vegetables, yet in practice this may not be the case. They may only eat two or three vegetables at the evening meal. They almost certainly have none for breakfast and generally only a small amount at lunchtime and often very little fruit as well. I read a story about one patient. The only vegetable she ate – at every meal, was a serving of frozen peas. She was told that she needed to ‘eat more vegetables’. On her next visit she proudly claimed that she was now eating sixteen different vegetables each day. However, it was discovered that she made a vegetable stew from the sixteen vegetables. She then froze the mixture and served up a single spoonful of this for her dinner each evening!

Unfortunately there is too much consumption of animal protein, fast foods, convenience foods and restaurant meals. These make a diet that is too rich in fat, sugar, salt and calories. At the same time we are eating fewer fruit and vegetables, beans and whole grains. There is also a consumption of more overall calories. The increase in the portion size of common foods is one of the main contributors to overeating and obesity. This trend that we see in all Western nations makes America one of the “most overfed and undernourished” nations (Piscatella and Franklin, 2003).

Piscatella and Franklin provide the following list of what is eaten on a typical day in the Unites States.

  • 13 pizzas the size of the Roman Coliseum
  • 47 million hot dogs
  • 3 million gallons of ice cream
  • 1.2 million gallons of hard liquor
  • 6 million pounds of chocolate

Dr Kicklas, Director of Dietary Studies, for the Bogalusa Study recorded the dietary intake of a 17 year old boy over a 24 hr period.

“For breakfast, he had a fast-food egg-and-bacon sandwich and orange juice on the bus to school. Many of his friends left the school campus for lunch at a fast food place, but he ate lunch at school: chicken nuggets, baked potato with butter and cheese, two rolls, a canned pear and whole milk. His other choices were pepperoni pizza or a cheeseburger with fries. His afternoon snack took place at a deli: a chicken sandwich globbed with mayonnaise, and a bag of potato chips. Dinner at home was two fried pork chops, another potato and two slices of bread.”

The fact that he didn’t eat any green vegetables and little fruit in the day isn’t surprising. Unfortunately this is more the rule than the exception. It is estimated that 25% of adults do not consume even one serving of vegetables per day and for those who do eat vegetables, French fries contributed 1/4 of all vegetables eaten. No wonder so many people have heart disease and diabetes. The boy in the example above is not getting the vitamins and minerals that his body needs. If he continues to eat the same way he will most definitely, over time, develop problems with his health.

Do you know what a healthy diet is? Are you are eating a health diet? If you answered no to these questions and you are currently living in modern society and eating a Western diet you will benefit from vitamin and mineral supplements.

Reference

Pistcatella, J.C. and Frankin, B.A. 2003, Take a Load off Your Heart. Workman.

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Source by Dr Jenny Tylee

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The Microbiotic Diet – What Do I Need to Know?

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In this article we are going to take a closer look at the Microbiotic diet, it's origins, ending popularity and what exactly it entails on a day by day, and menu by menu basis .. 🙂 Read On!

The Microbiotic Diet is based on the Macrobiotic movement that started by Sagen Ishizuka who taught that most foods have either a yin or yang property. A proper balance of each energy is needed for the body to become and remain healthy. This teaching expressed that food quality affects our daily lives and that even our happiness is affected by what we eat. Natural foods are less processed and better for us because these foods are pure. Cooking in traditional methods means we are eating food that has been prepared with love and care and Promotes yin and yang as well. Of course mass produced food does not only provide good nutrition, it is unnatural and contains no care in the process.

The macrobiotic diet became popular in the US in the sixties through Michio Kushi. Kushi taught the way to eat was to consume more natural types of foods as whole grains, beans, fruit, seaweed, soy and vegetables. However Kushi felt that whole grains should be the center of the meal and diet as a whole. Of course eating rice and other whole grains can be boring so it is important for most dieters to add variety to the meals you prepare with this diet. Dressings on salads can add a ton of flavor to any meal on this diet such as lemon, lime, ginger juice, orange peels and fresh dill. Also to keep the heaviness that most feel when they eat too many grains is to use quinoa, bulghur wheat or whole wheat couscous which are lighter grains and cook faster as well.

It has been proposed to adjust your meals according to the seasons. During summer you may want to reduce the percentage of grain and increase the amount of vegetables and fruit. Leafy greens and salads can provide a cooling effect to the body. Be sure not to eat too many fruits because it can affect your blood sugar level. It is still important to eat a lot of whole grains in summer as well – but to keep your eating habits different and relate your diet to the weather, you can eat your grains chilled instead of heated as you would in the winter. You can just cook the grains in the morning and eat them for dinner after they have been refrigerated all day. Hatto mugi, buckwheat noodles and quinoa are great for salads and offer a cooling effect to the body on hot days.

Extra liquid can be obtained in the body when lightly cooked or even raw vegetables are added to a meal. Carrots, celery and cucumbers are best for keeping you hydrated. So eating vegetables not only give your body the minerals and vitamins it needs, vegetables also gives your body the extra water it needs as well. Any water you drink actually just flushes away those minerals and vitamins. An interesting approach and some unique theories as well, but as you know – the microbiotic diet remains a popular and evergreen choice for many. No pun intended .. 🙂

My number 1 recommendation for those of US who STRUGGLE to lose weight? Read on below!

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Source by Tina Bardo