Hi, I'm Jane and started this blog on my journey to lose weight and help me so far to stay on track since it's not always easy. Blogging about my ramblings will keep me on focus and I hope my writing will work the same way for you. I Definitely love hearing back from my visitors on my various weight loss tips.Best Times To Eat For Weight Loss
Have you ever been in the situation where you are sitting in front of the TV and eating a pizza at one in the morning and question if you should really be eating it at that time? If you are questioning it, then probably you should not be!
Picking the times to eat is as important as picking what to eat. Some people say just eat whenever your hungry because that is how your body functions. But if you are overweight and want to lose weight then timing is necessary.
Morning
Lets start in the morning first thing that you should put into your body is water. The body may be lacking nutrients but it may also be low on fluids. People say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. And guess what? They are right! Try to eat some proteins like cottage cheese or egg whites and some carbohydrates like a slice of whole wheat bread or a small bowl of oat meal. Make sure you never skip breakfast.
Afternoon
It is also important to have a snack every 3 hours, something healthy that kills those mid day hunger pains. A handful of nuts or some chopped vegetables will do. Try to keep your lunch light, maybe a small sandwich and a salad, without the dressing. Always stay away from salad dressings, a light drizzle of olive oil and some vinegar will do.
So its late afternoon and your getting a craving for some fries, don’t!! Eat some fresh fruit.
Evening
Dinner is a meal that almost everyone eats, but don’t eat in front of your TV. Try to get into the habit of eating a fairly light meal at dinner. The best is to fraction out your plate with half vegetables, a quarter proteins like grilled chicken breast, and a quarter carbohydrates such as brown rice. Try to go walk your dog or do some kind of light activity so that you can burn through those calories faster after your meal.
And now we come to the ever popular late night snack be very careful with it! Eat something that is very low in calories seeing that you are most likely not gonna do much physical activity after this meal. Some celery sticks or some other fresh vegetables are a great choices.
So there you have the best times to eat for effective weight loss. It may be difficult to get used to eating more often yet smaller and healthier meals, but it will pay off on your long road to weight loss.
Low Calorie Diet
For anyone that is looking to lose weight and seeking information on ‘how to do a low calorie diet’, one of the most essential things to do is to eat less. No matter what type of diet you may be on, it will be necessary for you to pay attention to the foods that you are eating and the quantities of them.
Use Margarine Instead Off Butter
When following recipes when preparing a meal, there are many recipes that now list a choice between using butter as an ingredient or margarine. By using margarine in the recipe instead of butter the caloric content lowers significantly. It is very hard to tell the difference between margarine and butter that is used in cooked foods and since margarine is lower in calories it is a great substitute.
Splenda as Opposed to Sugar
Another great way in which to save on the caloric intake is to use Splenda in recipes as opposed to sugar. Splenda consists of sucralose, which was approved for sale on the market in the late 1990s. This ingredient is low in calories and it is great tasting as well. Splenda is also a wonderful ingredient to use in baked foods as it is heat stable and there is no real loss of the substance during cooking.
Consider Fiber And Protein
One of the best ways for you to get that full feeling without filling up on lots of food is to consume foods that are rich in good fiber and lean proteins. Now, you’ve heard all about low carb diets and those are anything but the best choice for you. The fact is that you can’t just cut them out. If you do, you’ll end up having to restrict yourself for the rest of your life. Instead, consider a low calorie diet solution.
When you eat foods that are refined carbs you are packing on carbs that don’t do much for you at all. Instead, consider eating brown rice and whole grain wheat pasta. You probably won’t notice the difference but they will provide you with another benefit too, they will fill you up. They provide a nutritional benefit that your body needs and they keep you full longer and faster. The end result is that they are the perfect choice for the low calorie diet.
Also consider the protein that you need. You can’t cut out the proteins altogether, but you can control the ones that you consume. If you eat more lean proteins, such as fish and lean cuts of chicken, you will gain the protein that your body needs that is no full of saturated fats that your body shouldn’t have. In fact, lean proteins also provide a full sensation that will last, allowing you to eat less and lose weight.
My 3 Most Important Weight Loss Tips
I gathered a pretty small list with the most important weight loss tips I could find and I stick to these 3 ones all the time. Every week there’s a new super great diet and they all basically come down to these 3 golden rules. Whatever people tell you, these 3 tips are the most important ones when you’re serious about losing weight:
1. Exercise Is Essential With of Any Weight Loss Diet
Please don’t be one of those people who simply think they can change their eating habits and watch the weight fall off. While you can lose weight by simply changing your eating habits it is usually not a lasting decision. Exercise and dieting go hand in hand to create by far one of the best ways to lose weight.
I recommend a mixture of both strength and interval cardio training. This is the best way to burn calories and drop pounds like crazy. I have a ton of fitness programs available, which will help you burn through those calories. If you lead a busy life and say you are too busy to exercise, I have a list of 20 minute workouts that are excuse busters. Who doesn’t have 20 minutes?
2. Getting Your Weight Under Control Is a Lifestyle Change
So what’s the difference between a lifestyle and a diet? Well you guessed it, a lifestyle is for life and a diet is just around until you either quit or meet your goal. This does sound like an unimportant point but it is in fact a very important one. When you are considering a diet, if it is something you won’t be able to sustain, look for another one. Really, like if you are planning on eating cabbage soup to lose weight, what do you think will happen when you are done and eating real food again?
Your diet plan should not have an end date, just a date where you will be happy with your weight and are now planning on maintaining these kind of healthy eating habits.
3. Eat Good Fats Will Really Help Allot
There are actually good fats out there, and you know what? they will actually help you lose weight. That’s right, they will help you burn the bad fat from your belly. This is for sure one of the best diet tips and I have an article dedicated to good fats vs bad fats. The main point here is your diet should consist of a good portion of these healthy fats. Stuff like olive oil, avocado, almonds and a ton of others will not make you fat. Eat them up! Eating fish oil is one of the best diet tips. Sometimes it’s hard to get all this in your normal diet and supplements are great for this.
How to Keep the Family Eating Healthy
That is the question, right?
You’ve started on this new journey of eating healthy and losing weight and it’s going great for you. You’re losing weight. Feeling great. And so you naturally start looking at the one’s closest to you and wanting the same great thing for them.
So… I ask… How do you get your family to eat healthy?
I’m afraid I’m going to have to stop you right there. Is there really a sure-fire way to get your family to eat healthy? Oh, sure, there are plenty of tricks you can do to include healthy foods hidden inside the unhealthy-looking food. Like putting cauliflower in the blender and adding it to chili or spaghetti. This works for the little ones. They won’t be able to tell that there’s something healthy in there.
But what about the one’s who are old enough to know that you’re tricking them. The one’s who will SWEAR they can taste a difference between chili made with turkey and chili made with lean ground beef. Sure, you can buy healthy snacks for them to choose from, but you can’t force them to eat them. You can set “healthy traps” for them with the hopes that they’ll get caught in them.
But what’s the answer?
How do you get your grown children or your spouse to start eating healthy?
Well, I’ll tell you, I don’t have the answer for that. I wish I did. I wish it was as easy as appealing to their senses and kindly telling them that you love them and you want to see them live a long and healthy life, but let’s face it, that’s a conversation that’ll almost never go as you think it will.
You can sit and think up all the right things to say and all of the kind words to use and all of the loving supportive things to encourage them along, but when it comes right down to it, the only way you’re going to get your (older) family to eat healthy is if it’s their idea. Just like it had to be YOUR idea for YOU to start losing weight, right?
I can’t tell you how many times my husband had that conversation with me. He said he would love me no matter what size I was. And I know for a fact that he TRULY meant that. But he wanted me to be a healthy weight for my sake, not for his. And I can’t tell you how many times I told him that I didn’t want to lose weight. I was happy the way I was. I didn’t need to lose weight. I was healthy as a horse. No high blood pressure, no high blood sugar, no high cholesterol. And I had plenty of energy to do whatever I wanted.
But the fact was, I was almost 300 lbs. And even though I felt completely healthy, I was not. But no one was going to be able to convince me of that, until it became my idea. Were you like that too?
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t try to encourage your family to eat healthy and lose the weight they really need to, I’m just saying that if you can’t succeed in getting them to “see the light” don’t be discouraged, just think back to the way you used to be. And know that it WILL dawn on them, JUST like it dawned on you. Be patient with them and be encouraging, and know that pushing them isn’t always the most helpful.
And when they’re ready, they know they can come to you because you’ve already gone down the road that’s ahead of them. Just wait patiently for that day. It will come. I know it will.
Is anyone going through something this right now? Or in the past? How did you handle it?