Sunday 2 June 2013

13 Healthy Tips for eating to lose weight

Over my years of training people and helping them to lose countless kilos of excess body fat, I have come to the conclusion that most strict diets do not work long-term.

For a diet plan to be maintained over a long period it must be simple, realistic, manageable and flexible. No-one wants to be counting calories, weighing out portions, avoiding all fats or eating like a rabbit every day for the rest of their lives. This is why most people slip back into their old eating habits within 12 weeks of beginning a diet.

Instead, think about introducing longterm changes that will benefit your health and keep that extra body fat off for good.

Here are a few basic diet guidelines that will help shed extra body fat, keep it off and improve your overall health.

1. Eat protein with most meals and snacks. Add protein to lower the GI of foods, e.g. add nuts and seeds to cereal or add cottage cheese to just about anything.



2. Replace grains with greens. Try using lettuce or red cabbage as the bread of sandwiches and burgers. Substitute crackers with slices of cucumbers with your favorite toppings. Place poached eggs on spinach instead of toast.
 
 
 

 
3. Drink plenty of water. Water can and does affect weight loss. Drinking plenty of water is essential to ensure good kidney function. Without enough water the kidneys dump part of their workload on the liver. The liver is the body’s main fat-processing plant; if it is doing some of the kidney’s work it will metabolise less fat and weight loss will stall.

Water is also needed to flush out the toxic waste released from fat stores.
 
Use fruits to enjoy more drinking water. Always carry water on your person.



4. Plan ahead with food and snacks. This is the best defence against making poor food choices. Plan ahead for the week’s meals and take good quality snacks with you from home like raw nuts and seeds, boiled eggs, fruit or carrot sticks with hummus.


5. Do 90% of your shopping in the outside isles of the supermarket. Supermarkets are set out so most of the natural and whole foods are around the outside and the processed foods are in the middle isles. Do most of your shopping around the outside as processed foods should be avoided. It is also a good idea to try to eat in technicolor, by which I mean eating a variety of different coloured fruits and vegetables in order to get a wide range of nutrients.

 
 

6. Eat most of your food earlier in the day. Eat the majority of your food in the morning and early afternoon. Food is our fuel; therefore it makes sense to have it before we do activity. Eating a huge meal in the evening is a waste of energy as most people simply relax or watch television, then go to bed. Consider eating less in the evening and adding it throughout the morning.







7. Be good 90% of the time. Eat natural whole foods 90% of the time. Allow the other 10% for meals out or having pizza or other processed foods. If you allow the 10% indulgence you will not feel trapped in a healthy food plan and are much more likely to continue eating well in the long term.


8. Don’t go hungry! Consider 4-6 smaller meals. A good option is to eat 4-6 smaller meals throughout the day. This may seem like a real inconvenience but it is worth it, and with a little planning becomes easy.

Over the years the human race has gone through cycles of famine and plenty. Because of this the body has a storage system similar to water retention. If you miss a meal or go for a prolonged period without eating the body moves swiftly into ‘survival storage mode’. This means that the next thing you eat will be stored as fat for later use and is due to the huge amount of insulin released. Eating at regular intervals will keep this survival mechanism in check.

9. Good fats are friends. Good fats are found in natural substances such as fish (Omega-3) especially salmon and sardines. These good fats are found in most varieties of nuts and seeds (almonds, flax seeds, peanuts, cashews, walnuts, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds etc) plus avocado and olive oil. These fats are essential for our good health and actually help you lose weight but remember they are also very high in calories so eat in moderation.


10. Eliminate starch totally from 3-4 dinners per week. This means no pasta, rice, breads or potatoes. Consuming the high amount of sugars in these foods at night is a bad move. At night we generally do very little activity, which means those carbohydrates will have to be stored as body fat.

11. Cut down on starchy and high GI food. A good way to do this is to avoid anything made from flour like muffins, baked goods and bread. Go for lower GI options such as brown rice instead of white and buy bread that is dense, with soy and linseed. Replace crackers with cucumber and avoid sweet drinks, especially energy drinks. Remember that it is important to keep your blood sugar levels constant and stable.


Brown Rice Sushi



12. Do not eat anything sweet after dinner. When high sugar foods are eaten close to bed-time, insulin levels shoot up and you will gain fat during sleep. Also, do not eat anything three hours before going to bed.

13. Eat plenty of fibre. Fibre is essential in weight loss through its cleansing effects and bowel function properties. Good sources of fibre are found in fruit (kiwifruit), green salad and vegetables, All Bran cereal, and of course fibre supplements like psyllium husk (you can add psyllium husk to a lot of recipes). A great idea is to have a glass of warm water with a squeeze of lemon first thing in the morning to get the bowels moving.


Gluten Free Polenta Bread with Psyllium Husks and Yoghurt
Gluten-free flour/Psyllium Husks tortillas
Eating to lose weight and be healthy does not have to rule your life. If you make these easy changes you will see great improvements in your health and your waistline. Eat natural and whole unprocessed foods most of the time, exercise most days and you will be amazed at what you can achieve. Remember that true outer beauty is a reflection of inner health.


38 comments:

  1. I love this blog great info.

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  2. You spelled "lose" wrong in the top header. One "o". Cool ideas! Thanks for sharing!

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    Replies
    1. Even i know that 'to lose' isn't spelled right with two "o's" and english isn't my mother tongue! ^^

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  3. Where's the Recipes?

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  4. What about the use of the word 'isles' I highly doubt there are islands in a supermarket. Let's try using the proper word 'aisles'.

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  5. Thank you for this! So glad I found it right before going grocery shopping ��

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  6. Very good tips, thanks for sharing. You should share a few recipes too ;)
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  7. uh ..... recipes please!!!

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  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  9. Do you know it is rude to correct someone's spelling, especially if English is not their native language. Undoubtedly, you could understand what was being said, why do you have to be rude and correct something that everyone who reads it knows what it says.

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    Replies
    1. No kidding! I agree....rude.

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    2. Agree with you..really rude ..and the misspelled words were clear to everyone..let me those same people who are very good English speakers and writers if they do speak any other language and they can spell correctly every single word in that foreign language they maybe learned after their 30th.

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    3. Agree with you..really rude ..and the misspelled words were clear to everyone..let me those same people who are very good English speakers and writers if they do speak any other language and they can spell correctly every single word in that foreign language they maybe learned after their 30th.

      Delete
  10. Thank you so much ! Love your tips.

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  11. Great page, I really like all the tasty creative ideas! Thank you!

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  12. Wow, awesome foods, looks very delicious and very healthy too.

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  13. Ty,awesome I will continue to follow.

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  14. Thank you, such great, sound advice! I certainly am going to follow this advice and will let you know how I do.

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  15. Really great site! Love the ideas for making sandwiches using cucumbers as the bread. I could easily do this and ENJOY it!! Thank you!!

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  16. Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love learning more on this topic. If possible, as you gain expertise, would you mind updating your blog with extra information? It is extremely helpful for me. Counselling Calgary

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  17. I was always overweight, so I was trying so many diets, and they were all hopeless. A few months ago I found a great ebook ( found it here: https://www.parental-love.com/weight-loss/ ) by Samuel Valle "Simple weight loss system," and after reading it, I knew that this system would change my life. And it did, without exercise! This system is entirely different than all diets on the internet. It does not tell you what to eat to lose weight, you can eat almost everything you want, but it's about the way you eat. You have to count calories, but it is not as restrictive as in other diets. This book changed my life

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know what you mean by a simple weight loss system because a few months ago it saved me from being overweight. First, my dad decided to try it, and when he made such progress with weight loss, I joined him, and I was also successful

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    2. WOW! I thought that nothing else I could find about losing weight and I was wrong. Great approach and excellent book. Thank you for sharing the source

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    3. Good one! It's been almost a month since I started the simple weight loss system and I'm happy with the results :) Sometimes it's worth to trust what people say, thank you so much for your story!

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