Healthy Eating-Five Food Items That Help Lower Bad Cholesterol

Most of us are aware that eating less burgers, fries, pizzas and fried foods helps to improve our heart, and our overall health. However, eating more healthy food options can do more than just reduce cholesterol levels, or keep the heart healthy. Eating healthy foods also helps to improve skin tone, strengthen the immune system, sharpen the  eyesight, and lower the risks of getting a heart attack or stroke. The consumption of fruits and vegetables, especially vitamin-C rich fruits and green leafy veggies, has also been found to offer a protective effect against stroke and other coronary heart diseases. 

Kiwi Fruit And Avocado

Avocados are delicious and creamy, and they are also good at reducing LDL, or bad cholesterol, as well as regulate blood pressure. Avocados are also rich in plant steroids, soluble fiber, monounsaturated fats and minerals. The kiwi fruit is also a low-key but hardworking fruit that's good for the heart. Kiwi has a high potassium content, which helps in regulating blood pressure.  .

Leafy Greens Are Heart-Healthy Items

Leafy greens are good at enhancing your body's immune system. They're also good at keeping your heart in good shape. Leafy greens like kale, Swiss chard, spinach, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, collard greens, mustard greens other dark green veggies are good sources of calcium, vitamins and other antioxidants. They help reduce plaque build-up in the arteries, and also aid in reducing blood pressure levels. These greens are also good sources of Omega-3 fatty acids. Add fresh greens to your sandwich, taco or pizza, or sprinkle them in your soup and salads.    

Citrus Fruits

Citrus fruits like orange  lemons, grape fruit, lime and tangerine, are excellent sources of vitamin C, folic acid, soluble fiber, minerals and antioxidants. Many doctors  believe that eating at least one orange per day can help reduce the risks of stroke by as much as 25 percent. Citrus fruits are also help reduce blood pressure levels, bad cholesterol and triglyceride levels.

Tea Helps Protect The Arteries From Damage

Whether green, black, white or any type, tea can help protect your arteries from high blood pressure and other harmful elements. By drinking at least two cups of tea per day, you actually help reduce the risks of having a stroke or heart attack by 40%. drinking tea also helps you lose weight, and strengthen the teeth too. Choose unsweetened tea instead of the usual commercial ice tea brands.   

A colorful diet rich in fruits and vegetables, helps to keep the doctor away, and also    allows you to live a longer and more active life. Make sure that you serve between three to five servings of fruits and veggies each day, and slowly increase your consumption as you get comfortable with your healthy eating meal plan.

How Small Diet Changes Can Improve Your Health

According to a number of dietitians and nutritionists,making small changes to your diet, as well as your lifestyle, can do a great deal towards improving your weight and cholesterol levels, and also enhances you overall well-being. A healthy eating plan  generally involves making those small but significant changes to what you eat, and how you eat. Here's why how small diet changes can have positive effects on you health.  

Switch To Healthy Fats

A few decades back, whenever we were told to cut back on dietary fat, many of us sadly went extreme, and actually gave up on good nutrition as well. A healthy diet includes the consumption of healthy fats and oils, which are derived from fish, legumes and nuts. Low-fat diets can also help to increase the body's level of HLD, or good cholesterol. Good sources of healthy cholesterol include fatty fish, which is rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, and is good for the heart.

Lessen Your Serving Size

If you're the kind who loves super-sizing your food, since switching to up-sized drinks fries and burgers at the fast food joint only costs a few bucks, you may be loading your system with a lot of artery-clogging fats. Make sure that you check your food item's  health labels, because each extra calorie will add on to those pounds of unwanted fat that are stored in your body. A recent report by the American Journal of Public Health notes that obesity rates have soared up because serving portions and sizes have grown too. The best thing to do, is to decrease your usual serving portions of food by a quarter or a third. Instead of serving the usual hamburger-sized bun, give yourself sandwiches on dinner rolls, and make it a habit to order child-size portions each time.  

Increase Your Intake Of Fruits and Veggies

In 1990, the US National Cancer Institute, in tandem with the Produce For Better Health Foundation, began a five-day program to encourage people to eat five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables each day, to reduce the risks of developing certain cancers. Today, more public and private health programs advocate increased vegetable and fruit consumption among the public. Five to nine servings of vegetables and fruits per day, according to the NCI, helps reduce a person's  risk of developing certain cancers, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and even macular degeneration. Serve yourself at least one serving f fruits and veggies every breakfast, lunch and dinner. Also stock up on dried o canned light fruits, and buy fruits in bulk, whenever they're in season.      

If you slowly educate yourself the basics of good nutrition, and you also start making healthy lifestyle and food choices, you'll certainly be able to see positive changes in your body, as well as in your general outlook. You'll feel better about yourself, and you'll  have a better attitude towards family, friends and work. You'll also have a lot of energy left at the end of the day to do the things you want. 

Why Do People Diet?

There are so many reasons why people go on diet. They have different answers depending on what they believe motivates them. You can ask your friends or your colleagues if they are on a specific diet. Most of them may have started on diet long ago or have just started. Then you can ask why they go through this process. Chances are, you will hear a lot of reasons and unique ways to have successful dieting.

For most people who have been dieting, one major reason is to look better. Probably, they want to look good because it is being required by their job. Some actors and actresses are paid to act on screen and they are required to look their best. Models on runways are expected to be thinner.

Getting thinner; however, is difficult and poses a challenge to some because it involves changing the lifestyle and food habits. Some people go through with difficult ways and means to get thin. Some people also go for healthy options like exercise and eat more vegetables to achieve better built. For others, they just want to satisfy themselves and they experience fulfillment when they get the weight they want. 

What is The Road to Health and Fitness?

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Walking towards health and fitness is not really the hard arduous job that everybody seem to think it is. When you really think about it, the hard part is often the start. Afterwards, everything else will be easier once you really get the hang of it. All it takes is discipline and commitment.

Below are some tips on how to get a head start on your road to health and fitness. Read each one and you’ll realize that it is actually easier to undertake. You just need to take the first few steps.

1. Start small If your favorite dish is something that your doctor asked you to avoid, there is no sense in skipping it altogether and then binging on the dish when you can’t take the abstinence anymore. Take moderate steps towards the goal. If you eat the dish everyday, try to cut down on your consumption and make it just three times a week. IF you have managed that, cut down further and make it once a week. That way, you are able to still enjoy the food and not increase your craving for it.

2. Plan modestly Set goals for yourself but that does not mean that you have to kill yourself to get it and when you don’t you’ll also kill yourself. Setting too high goals will often only lead to disappointment and frustration. When you plan, make sure that you can do it. How will you know? Be realistic. You know what you are capable of. It is better to set goals for yourself that you know you can do. Accomplishing them will give you a sense of achievement that will make you more confident and more willing to continue with your task.

3. Have a buddy Sharing the aches and pains as well as the joys of accomplishment with a buddy will help make the process easier and more bearable. In fact, people with a buddy when doing a self-improvement project are better able to stick with their plans than those who are doing the projects alone. This is because when you have a buddy with you, he or she acts as a support system that will help keep you on track and prevent you from giving up. Besides having a friend with you experiencing the same things makes the process more fun and more enjoyable.

4. Have discipline This is one of the few things that will make or break your plans to finally live a healthy lifestyle. In order to really stick to the plan, you need to develop self-discipline especially when it involves things that you really want to do or things that you are used to doing. Temptations along the way will be many and you need to be prepared to face all that!

5. Do it for yourself A lot of people start to live a life of health and fitness when they are trying to get a new guy to notice them or when they want to impress a lover. Although these are valid reasons, sometimes, they are not enough to see you through the entire process. It is better that you do it for yourself because you want a healthier and better you than do it for other people’s approval. After all, the only approval that you will ever need is your own.

11 Easy Weight Loss Tips

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TIP #1: Fruit juice isn't as healthy as most people think either. Juice actually has a lot of sugar in it as well. If you are craving a glass of juice, drink fresh fruit juice instead of juice that has artificial flavors and coloring. It is even better if you can make your own fruit juice. Just be sure not to add too much sugar which adds to the calories. Instead of drink fruit juice, eat more fruit. Fruit provides your body with much needed fiber as well as vitamins.

TIP #2: If you must have your tea and coffee, try to drink it black. Black tea or coffee actually has health benefits to it as long as you counteract the caffeine in your body with a nice big glass of water. Caffeine is also not good for you because it affects functions in your body, like your metabolism.Another type of tea that you can drink freely is green tea. Green tea has been used as a medicine in China for over 4,000 years. It aids the digestive system and can help ease an overly full stomach and it has been linked to a reduction in cancer risk.

TIP #3: Avoid drinking excessive amounts of coffee, as it desensitizes your body to the natural fat burning effects that caffeine has. One or two cups (if the day's really slow to get started) max.

TIP #4: Eat fresh fruit and vegetables that have high water content. These are foods like tomatoes, watermelons, cantaloupe, kiwi, grapes – you get the idea. All of those fresh and flavorful juicy fruits and veggies are good for you. These items contain about 90 to 95% water, so you can eat a lot of these and they will fill you up without adding on the pounds.

TIP #5: Eat fresh fruit instead of processed fruit. Anything that is processed as more sugar. Processed and canned fruits also do not have as much fiber as fresh fruits.

TIP #6: Increase your fiber intake as much as you can. This usually means eating more fruits and veggies.

TIP #7: Veggies are your friends when it comes to shedding pounds. There are tons of options here and you may even want to try some you haven't had in the past. The leafy green varieties are the best and you always want to work in a salad when you can. Salads are packed with nutrients as long as you don't pour too much dressing on and load them with too much cheese. The leafy greens also have a lot of natural water.

TIP #8: Watch everything you consume from the food itself to what you top it with. Garnishments and condiments can sabotage a healthy meal because they are typically high in fat.

TIP #9: Set meal times and stick to them. Try to have your meals at specific times and eat them at that time. An eating pattern will help you to control what you eat and when you eat it. Also, it really is better to have 5 small meals a day rather than just one or two huge meals. Just eating once a day makes your body feel as though it is starving, which packs on fat instead of using it as fuel. Also, don't wait until your starving to eat. This only makes you overeat until you're stuffed.

TIP #10: Veggies make great snacks. They can get you through the hunger pangs if you are having them. Carrots are great because they satisfy hunger and they are packed with nutrients.

TIP #11: Work off the extra calories by the end of the week. If you feel you have splurged too much this week, be sure to get to the gym or go walking a little longer to work off those extra calories you have consumed

Healthy Eating Myths That You Should Break

Regular exercise, checking your serving portions and eating right. Healthy eating requires a lot of will power and commitment. However, there are a number of myths that continue to deceive dieters and healthy eating advocates. The key to eating healthy lies in how you check out the food items you buy, as well as on how dedicated are you in making sure  that you watch what you eat every day. Here are some food myths that you need to watch out for. 

All Low-Fat Foods Are Healthy

When you go to the grocery store, and you see food items labeled as “low fat” or fat-free”, beware of them. Just because they have the “fat-free” sign posted on them doesn’t mean that they’re truly healthy. The truth is that some of these food items actually have the same number of calories as the regular versions, and sometimes sugar is added to replace the flavor lost when fat is removed. By having more sugar, these food items will have empty calories, which may lead to you gaining weight instead. Fats come in different forms, and some of them actually are good for you. The fats that you need to steer clear from are trans fats and saturated fats. Monounsaturated fats and the fat found in olive oil or nuts are good for the heart.   

All Fruits Are Created Equal

Not all fruits are created equal. Some of them actually contain lots of calories, which may help to add more weight to you. The healthiest fruits are those that have low sugar and high fiber content. Apples, bananas and grape fruit are one of the nice fruits, because they contain high fiber and are low in fat and calories. 

Chocolate Is Bad For Your Health

While some so-called fitness advocates frown on eating chocolate, because they think these make you fat, the truth is that chocolates are good for you. However, you must also know that not all chocolates are created equal. High-quality dark chocolate is one of healthy variants, because it contains high levels of flavonols and antioxidants. Commercial chocolate bars however, such as milk chocolate and white chocolate contain high amounts of fat, sugar, wax and artificial chemicals. To eat healthy chocolates, try making your own unsweetened cocoa with sugar and skim milk instead.  

Salads Help You Lose Weight

A large bowl of leafy greens is actually very good for your health. However, the problem starts once you pour in the dressings and other toppings. Some salad offerings include stuff like fried chicken, bacon bits, and thick creamy dressings, which are jam-packed with calories and fats. But if you fill up on the leafy greens alone, the salad mix can be very healthy. A truly healthy salad mix includes a variety of vegetables, mixed greens, beans, almonds, and a light vinegar dressing. 

To ensure that you’re eating healthy, and losing or maintaining weight at the same time, eat high-fiber veggies, fruits and grains, but never skip breakfast. Instead, you need to stop drinking energy bars and drinks, sodas and alcohol, as well as lessen your intake of fatty junk foods and snacks. 

What Does Calorie Counting Have to do With Weight Loss?

All calories are not the same.

Many people believe just counting calories is the best way to lose weight. With Eating less calories the body will have to burn more calories thus losing the weight. The problem with this is the quality of food calories you will restrict. If you eating fruits and vegetables or lean protein then you are getting many important vitamins and minerals but if you are instead drinking sodas instead of the fruits and vegetables, you are doing your body more harm than good. Instead you have wasted your calorie intake because soda has empty calories.Also another draw back of empty calories you will feel more hungry and thus eat more. This defeats the purpose of losing the weight. With eating fruits and vegetables or a lean protein meat you will not crave the nutrients and you will not feel as hunger. So if you are counting calories look to the quality of the food instead of the total calorie intake.This is an important secret to weight loss.

Not all exercise is the same.

Another important option is exercise plus calorie counting. If you want to lose the weight a life style management change is in order. Once you attain your ideal weight the best way to maintain it is through exercise otherwise you might gain it all back.There are two types of exercise, cardio and resistance. For example jogging is cardio and push-ups and sit ups are resistance. When starting an exercise program constant your doctor first for health reasons. With cardio your heart will beat faster and you will burn the calories faster. With exercise you will build your stamina and feel much better. So in closing count your calories wisely and do get out there and exercise.

Counting Calories is Important in a Good Healthy Diet!

Before we can begin today, we need to grasp an understanding of an important
problem of weight loss.

Two out of three Americans are overweight. The primary cause
is that we eat more and exercise less. There is no doubt that the more
advances we make that enhance our lifestyle the heavier we become.
Wait a minute! What about all those low-fat foods that we eat
now? How come I reduced fat in my diet but I’m still gaining weight?
It’s a simple answer. A few years ago we all became aware of
the detrimental effects of fat in our diet. What did we do? We began
to concentrate on lowering cholesterol and taking fat out of our diets.

This is a good thing. However, The National Center for Health
Statistics studied eating habits of 8,260 adult American between 1988
and 1991. Their research showed that Americans had significantly
reduced their fat intake but still packed on the pounds.
How can this happen? There is no mystery. In the process of
counting fat grams, we stopped counting calories! Many of us bought
in to the theory that if it is “low-fat” it won’t make us fat.

WRONG!
You can’t forget about counting calories. If you eat more
calories than you need the body will store them as fat. It doesn’t
matter whether the calories are from fat or carbohydrates
that eating small amounts of fat.

One school of thought believes that eating small amounts of fat
can actually keep you from over indulging on total calories. The
theory is that dietary fat causes our bodies to produce a hormone that
tells the intestines to slow down the emptying process. You feel full
and therefore are less likely to overeat.
Adding a little peanut butter to your rice cake may satisfy your
hunger for a longer period of time, thus preventing you from eating
more than you need.

Again counting calories, eating small amounts of fat and with steady exercise will help
you lose the weight.

Fighting the Weight- 7 Good Foods to Eat

Here are some of the best foods to eat to fight the weight.

1. Eggs- no longer considered bad for your heart they actually help you lose the weight.

2. Leafy greens include kale, spinach, collards, and swiss chard are good because  they are low in both calories and carbohydrates, but loaded with fiber. They are also low energy density which make people eat fewer calories overall.

3. Salmon which is a oily fish is rich in iodine which helps regulate the thyroid which also controls your metabolism running optimally. Mackerel, trout, sardines, herring and other types of oily fish are also excellent.

4. Broccoli,cauliflower, cabbage and brussels sprouts are high in fiber and protein. They will also fill you up so that you will tend to eat less. These vegetables contain cancer fighting substances also.

5. Lean Beef and Chicken Breast are good for weight loss because of the protein. Try to eat unprocessed meat as processed meat is unhealthy. Protein is also more filling and eating a high protein diet can make you burn up to 80 more calories per day. Studies show increasing your protein intake to 25-30% of calories can cut cravings by 60%.

6. Boiled Potatoes,sweet potatoes, turnips and other root vegetables are also excellent for weight loss. White potatoes have just about every mineral in them and despite the bad rap they are good for us.

7. Tuna is another low-calorie, high protein food.

These foods are excellent candidates to help you lose the weight.

How To Stick To Your Healthy Eating Plan

Starting a healthy eating plan of sorts may look easy at the start, but wait till you drop by the grocery or pass through the local fast food joint. Once the temptation to binge sets in, you could be in for a tough mental battle. However, once you get in the swing of things, and conveniently settle in your healthy meal plan, things will certainly get much easier. Here’s how to faithfully adhere to your healthy eating plan. 

Write Your Plan In Paper

Start by writing your healthy eating plan on a piece of paper. However, writing it down on paper is so different from having lots of tasty but fattening food in front of you. To formalize your eating plan, grab a meal planning guide from your dietitian, or get a free meal planning guide from health and wellness sites online. 

A Healthy Eating Plan Isn’t Hard, Provided You Don’t Fall Into A Trap

Finding healthy foods, and crafting a healthy eating plan with the help of your dietitian or doctor can be done, as long as you steer clear of the many traps that most people get into. The key to sticking to your healthy eating routine lies in ensuring that you eat foods that are good for you, until it becomes a habit, and is ingrained into your system. To ensure your success, let your friends and family or your co-workers know about your plan, and ask them to check in with you once in a while. It helps if you constantly get positive encouragement from your loved ones, as well a sin knowing that they will truly hold you accountable if you fail.  

Try New Recipes

To make your healthy eating experience an enjoyable and interesting one, try a new vegetable recipe, salad or fruit juice mix, that you’ve never had before. However, don’t just discard the old favorites yet, because if you can’t live without having your fill of bacon and French fries, then don’t ease them out of your menu yet. Enjoy the usual stuff for like once a week or once every two weeks, and make a constant effort to eat healthy food for the rest of the day. The main idea here is that you don’t have to live without your favorite food items, but you need not eat them all the time.

Healthy eating can be summed up to say that you eat only the foods that contribute to good health. Eliminate the foods that contain empty calories, as well as the food items that contain lots of chemicals, food additives, monosodium glutamate (MSG) and preservatives. Remember to only eat foods that have natural and wholesome ingredients, which include fresh fruits and vegetables.

How To Have a Budget-Friendly Healthy Eating Plan

With food prices soaring these days, is there way for you to eat healthy, without poring more holes in your pocket? There’s a actually a way for you to eat healthy and within your budget. Before you head off to the supermarket, sit down and write out a list first, and remember to stick to it. Shop just once a week, cut out the sale coupons from the newspaper, but disregard the coupons for processed foods. Here are other helpful tips for eating healthy on a budget.

Money-Saving Basics For The Healthy Eater

Before you make the dash for the grocery, make sure you don’t go shopping on an empty stomach. Eat a light snack or meal, so that you’ll be able to resist the temptation. Once you’re in the grocery, look for sales or discount promos on fruits and vegetables, as most groceries get a bargain on these items, which they pass-on as savings to their customers. Buy a large bag of fruit instead of single, large fruit items which are priced per pound. Also go for generic brand, which are labeled as the store brands, but are relatively priced less.  

Get More Healthy Food Items From The Money You Spend

To make the most out of your budget, remember to get more healthy food items, as well as make significant changes in your food options. Here are some helpful tips for buying healthy food on a budget.

- Buy in bulk an din season. Seasonal produce will offer more nutritional value, and are priced less too. Also make a food list that’s based on sale or discounted items.  

- Eat more beans. Beans are relatively affordable sources of fiber and protein, particularly the dry beans. 

- Cut down on your purchase of alcohol and other carbonated beverages, because these offer no nutritional benefits, and also cost a lot too.

- Use meat alternative such as beans and tofu for your stir-fry, spaghetti and chili recipes, as well as use ground turkey meat in place of ground beef.

With the recession hurting our pockets, more and more people are constantly looking for ways to get more out of their money when they go to the grocery. However, health professionals worry that as the economy gets tighter, more people will be making poor food choices, and will also turn to eating unhealthy fast food fare. But eating unhealthy food should not be the case, since there’s a way for you to eat healthy without busting your budgets. All you need to do is buy smart, make more budget-friendly decisions, and change some of your shopping and food-preparation habits.

Fad Diets: Why Are They Bad?

It is not surprising that many people wonder why fad diets are bad when they seem to get results. You will find many sites on the internet claiming significant weight loss in just a few days. That type of weight loss is always temporary. It is usually 90% water which will be put straight back on as soon as your body rehydrates, which it must do if you are not going to suffer severe health problems or die.

Other fad diets are not so obviously crash diets with outrageous claims but they are over hyped diet plans that tend to be fashionable for a while and usually make a lot of money for the inventor in associated product sales. In the best cases these are good nutrition plans which will help you lose weight, but which you could probably have gotten for free from your doctor. In the worst cases they will prove so difficult to follow that you will give up after a week.

The bad of fad diets

1. Diets that promise quick and easy weight loss are usually based on eating more of one food type and none of another. These do not give the benefits that you would get from a balanced diet. They may suggest you take supplements but many supplements are not absorbed by the body unless they are taken along with the foods that the diet has banned. After a few weeks, if you stick to it that long, you may begin to develop nutritional deficiencies.

2. Fad diets are often boring and over restrictive. After the novelty of the first day or two, you will not enjoy your meals. You will then start to crave food constantly and will break the diet. You may even feel guilty, thinking it is your fault that you did not lose weight.

3. Most fad diets do not follow recommendations of the American Heart Association and similar bodies for fat levels in the diet. Often the diet will recommend high fat foods and low carbs which if taken long term, could result in heart disease. The promoters may tell you that the diet is only intended to be followed for a short time. But you probably will not reach your goal weight in that time, and then what? You either continue with a plan that is not good for your health, or stop and probably gain back what you lost.

4. Many fad diets do not help you to incorporate enough servings of fruits and vegetables in your weight loss program, or give you the variety of foods that your body needs.

5. Quick weight loss diets are just a temporary solution and do not help you to make permanent changes to your eating habits. Permanent changes are the only way to remain at your target weight once you reach it. Fad diets encourage yo-yo diet-binge cycles of fast weight loss and equally fast weight gain. This is worse for your health and your self esteem than if you had stayed overweight all the time.

Whatever the publicity materials may say, these diets will not help you in the long term. The best way to sustain weight loss is to eat a varied and healthy diet, do not overeat, exercise regularly and avoid fad diets.

Weight Loss Tips to Consider When Eating Out

During these stressful, fast-paced times, more and more people are turning to fast foods and restaurants for convenient and pleasurable dining. However, dining out can be a pain on your wallet, and your waistline. While eating out need not be too costly or fattening, you certainly need to be aware of what you’re putting in your mouth. Here are a few tips for healthy eating in a restaurant.
   
Restaurants Often Serve Sodium and Preservative-Laden Foods

We all agree that the typical restaurant food far tastes better than the food we cook at home. Why? Because restaurants and fast food outlets often use a lot of flavor enhancers, preservatives and sodium-filled sauces, to make their food taste great. The sad thing is that these preservatives and sodium-laden sauces bloat our body, and add more bad cholesterol to our system.
   
How To Have A Healthy Restaurant Eating Experience

According to some nutrition experts, the biggest mistake in restaurant dining usually happens during the first and last 10 minutes of the meal, where you usually get served with calorie-rich dressings, cream-based soups and sugar-coated desserts. Here are other healthy eating restaurant ideas.
• All-you-can-eat restaurants are truly tempting places, but family-run restaurants are much healthier. Since most buffet establishments don’t allow you to bring home nay leftovers, the temptation to overeat here is definitely very high.
  
• Typical restaurant servings are definitely larger than home-made meals. Before you clean-up your plate, and plan to take at least half the meal home. Eating half the meal later will benefit your waist. And save you money as well.

• If you plan to order soups, choose broth-based soups instead of cream-based ones. Vegetables soups are healthy choices. However, most restaurant soups are quite salty, because they’re sprinkled with MSG, a preservative that enhances flavor.

• Green salads make for healthier restaurant food choices. However, ask for oil and vinegar to be served on the side, instead of fatty dressings. Instead of using oil, squeeze lemon juice over your veggies, and sprinkle pepper to add more spice. If you were offered a choice between soup and salad, go for fresh green salads instead.

• Order plain food, instead of fried food items. A plain broiled or baked chicken, steak or fish provide better sources of protein, to help build muscles and generate energy. - To add extra flavor to your meals, used tomato-based marinara sauces and salsas instead.

 For side dishes, go for steamed vegetables or plain potato and rice. Vegetable side dishes offer a lot of healthy nutrients and low calories. Always remember to choose the meals that offer the freshest and high-quality ingredients. Choose plain steaks or chicken breasts instead of entrees filled with lots of creamy or oily sauces, or ask for potato or plain rice instead of hash browns or French Fries.

How To Stick To Your Healthy Eating Plan

Starting a healthy eating plan of sorts may look easy at the start, but wait till you drop by the grocery or pass through the local fast food joint. Once the temptation to binge sets in, you could be in for a tough mental battle. However, once you get in the swing of things, and conveniently settle in your healthy meal plan, things will certainly get much easier. Here’s how to faithfully adhere to your healthy eating plan. 

Write Your Plan In Paper

Start by writing your healthy eating plan on a piece of paper. However, writing it down on paper is so different from having lots of tasty but fattening food in front of you. To formalize your eating plan, grab a meal planning guide from your dietitian, or get a free meal planning guide from health and wellness sites online. 

A Healthy Eating Plan Isn’t Hard, Provided You Don’t Fall Into A Trap

Finding healthy foods, and crafting a healthy eating plan with the help of your dietitian or doctor can be done, as long as you steer clear of the many traps that most people get into. The key to sticking to your healthy eating routine lies in ensuring that you eat foods that are good for you, until it becomes a habit, and is ingrained into your system. To ensure your success, let your friends and family or your co-workers know about your plan, and ask them to check in with you once in a while. It helps if you constantly get positive encouragement from your loved ones, as well a sin knowing that they will truly hold you accountable if you fail.
 
Try New Recipes

To make your healthy eating experience an enjoyable and interesting one, try a new vegetable recipe, salad or fruit juice mix, that you’ve never had before. However, don’t just discard the old favorites yet, because if you can’t live without having your fill of bacon and French fries, then don’t ease them out of your menu yet. Enjoy the usual stuff for like once a week or once every two weeks, and make a constant effort to eat healthy food for the rest of the day. The main idea here is that you don’t have to live without your favorite food items, but you need not eat them all the time.

Healthy eating can be summed up to say that you eat only the foods that contribute to good health. Eliminate the foods that contain empty calories, as well as the food items that contain lots of chemicals, food additives, monosodium glutamate (MSG) and preservatives. Remember to only eat foods that have natural and wholesome ingredients, which include fresh fruits and vegetables.

Best Eating Tips To Keep In Mind

As the old adage goes, “you are what you eat”. If your regular diet consists of fat and cholesterol-rich foods, you may run the risk of developing dreadful diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and more. According to nutrition experts, healthy eating starts with learning the ability to “eat smart”. It’s not just what you eat, but how you eat. The food you choose to eat can help decrease your chances of developing illnesses like cancer, diabetes, heart disease and others. Learn how to plan your diet, and expand your range of healthy food choices too. Here are some helpful tips for planning a healthy diet.

Start Slow, And Gradually Change Your Eating Habits

The quest to achieving a healthy diet starts with a slow but calculated step. The way for planning and implementing a healthy diet begins with a number of small and manageable steps. Approach the diet changes gradually, and you’ll be able to achieve a healthy diet no sooner than you think.
However, instead of fussing over counting calories or measuring serving sizes, set your sights on finding the food you love, and go for easy recipes which incorporate fresh ingredients. Make small but significant steps, like adding salads or your daily diet, or use olive oil instead of butter. By making gradual changes, your diet will slowly become healthier and more savory too.
  
Ensure That You Regularly Serve Yourself Smaller Portions

These days, serving sizes have blown out of proportion, especially in restaurants. If you’re dining out, don’t immediately order an entrée, or go on a buffet binge. Instead, go slow, choose a starter, or split a dish with your buddy, and never super-size your orders. Your servings of poultry, meat and fish should only be equal to the size of a deck of cards, and the oil or salad dressing you use must only be as large as the size of a matchbook.
   
It’s How You eat, Not What You Eat

The key to healthy eating lies not in just what you eat, but in how you eat. Learning to develop healthy eating habits can easily be achieved, since eating is not just about gulping down large amounts of food, but in viewing food as a source of nourishment. Practice eating a wide array of fruits and vegetables everyday. Most nutritionists continually stress that the brighter and deeper colored the fruits and vegetables are, the higher their concentrations of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants will be. Go for green leafy veggies, sweet vegetables and a wide array of fruits.
In addition, make sure that you consume healthy amounts of healthy carbohydrates and fibers, particularly from whole grains. Apart from being tasty and satisfying, whole grains are also rich in antioxidants and phytochemicals, which strengthen the immune system, and protect against cardiovascular diseases. A number of studies have indicated that people who consume sizable portions of whole grains have healthier hearts. 

How Small Diet Changes Can Improve Your Health

According to a number of dietitians and nutritionists,making small changes to your diet, as well as your lifestyle, can do a great deal towards improving your weight and cholesterol levels, and also enhances you overall well-being. A healthy eating plan  generally involves making those small but significant changes to what you eat, and how you eat. Here's why how small diet changes can have positive effects on you health.
 
Switch To Healthy Fats

A few decades back, whenever we were told to cut back on dietary fat, many of us sadly went extreme, and actually gave up on good nutrition as well. A healthy diet includes the consumption of healthy fats and oils, which are derived from fish, legumes and nuts. Low-fat diets can also help to increase the body's level of HLD, or good cholesterol. Good sources of healthy cholesterol include fatty fish, which is rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, and is good for the heart.

Lessen Your Serving Size

If you're the kind who loves super-sizing your food, since switching to up-sized drinks fries and burgers at the fast food joint only costs a few bucks, you may be loading your system with a lot of artery-clogging fats. Make sure that you check your food item's  health labels, because each extra calorie will add on to those pounds of unwanted fat that are stored in your body. A recent report by the American Journal of Public Health notes that obesity rates have soared up because serving portions and sizes have grown too. The best thing to do, is to decrease your usual serving portions of food by a quarter or a third. Instead of serving the usual hamburger-sized bun, give yourself sandwiches on dinner rolls, and make it a habit to order child-size portions each time.
 
Increase Your Intake Of Fruits and Veggies

In 199, the US National Cancer Institute, in tandem with the Produce For Better Health Foundation, began a five-day program to encourage people to eat five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables each day, to reduce the risks of developing certain cancers. Today, more public and private health programs advocate increased vegetable and fruit consumption among the public. Five to nine servings of vegetables and fruits per day, according to the NCI, helps reduce a person's  risk of developing certain cancers, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and even macular degeneration. Serve yourself at least one serving f fruits and veggies every breakfast, lunch and dinner. Also stock up on dried o canned light fruits, and buy fruits in bulk, whenever they're in season.
     
If you slowly educate yourself the basics of good nutrition, and you also start making healthy lifestyle and food choices, you'll certainly be able to see positive changes in your body, as well as in your general outlook. You'll feel better about yourself, and you'll  have a better attitude towards family, friends and work. You'll also have a lot of energy left at the end of the day to do the things you want. 

15 Great Ways To Lose Weight Fast

Want to lose weight fast? It's easy to say goodbye to 10 pounds of unwanted fat with these easy diet tips. Just pay attention to what you eat and be sure to have good tasting, fresh and healthy food including snacks, fill up on vegetables and keep your taste buds happy with fruit.

No need to make sacrifices! Just follow these simple guidelines to lose your first 10 pounds, last 10 pounds or give your weight loss program a boost when it seems to have stuttered to a halt. This is a balanced and flexible plan that you can use for as long as you want.

1. Keep a note of everything that you eat and drink. You do not need to estimate calories. Just write down what it was that you had and the approximate quantity. You will find that being more aware of what you are eating helps you to plan healthy meals and snacks.

2. Halve your intake of all pure or added fats. This means using half as much butter or spread on your bread, toast, muffins and potatoes; half the usual amount of mayonnaise or sauce on your salad; and half the oil in the fry pan every time.

3. Limit treats containing sugar to three times per week. This includes chocolate, ice cream, desserts, cake, pastries, cookies, etc.

4. Include a lower fat source of protein at most meals: chicken, fish, beans, cottage cheese, or low fat yogurt. Have eggs, nuts and red meat occasionally but not every day.

5. Plan at least one lunch and dinner every week without meat or cheese. Build those meals around whole grains, vegetables and beans to increase fiber and reduce fat.

6. Reduce the fat content in your milk products. If you are currently drinking whole milk, reduce to 2% fat. From 2% reduce to 1%. Choose lower fat cheese and yogurt. When you buy yogurt, also check that it does not contain sugar.

7. Have at least two servings of fruit every day. This can be for dessert or snacks. Choose fruit that is in season.

8. Drink water instead of sodas, juices, milky drinks or alcohol. Avoid diet soda - the sweet taste only encourages you to crave sugar. Hot water with a slice of lemon can be very refreshing in the morning.

9. Include at least two servings of vegetables at lunch and dinner. If you are getting hungry, have more.

10. Eat slowly. The body is slow to register when you are full and it is easy to eat too much if you are racing through your meals.

11. Grated carrot makes a great snack. You will find that a grated carrot is much more filling than a whole carrot. Strange but true.

12. Use whole grains wherever possible. The fiber will give you a fuller feeling and also help your digestion.

13. Choose food that you can chew. Again this will increase your fiber intake, and the act of chewing will make you feel more satisfied too. This means eating fruit instead of drinking juice. If you have soup, make sure it is chunky.

14. Plan your meals and snacks ahead of time. Plan your shopping too - make a list of what you need and stick to it. If you just grab something when you are feeling hungry, you will probably choose high calorie food.

15. Always switch off the TV when you eat. That includes snacks as well as meals. Studies have proved that we eat larger portions in front of the TV, probably because we are much less aware of what we are eating. When you eat, only eat if you want to lose weight fast.

3 Bad Diet Mistakes To Avoid

Even though there is so much information available about weight loss, the same diet mistakes are being made over and over every day. We are not talking here about little slip ups where you ate a slice of pie that was not on the plan, but big mistakes that lead to failure to lose the weight that you want to lose. Understanding these errors can help you develop the attitude that will lead to permanent weight loss for you.

1. The All Or Nothing Attitude

 

All or nothing dieters will often pick out a complicated diet that is almost impossible for them to maintain. Before beginning, they will search the kitchen for anything that does not fit the plan and throw it in the garbage. They are planning to be the perfect dieter, and so they will be, for one day, three days, seven days or even a couple of weeks. Then, inevitably, something happens that means they cannot keep to the diet one time. Immediately the whole thing is ruined in their eyes and the diet is over. They go to the store and buy all the things that went into the garbage last week and proceed to gain back all the weight that they lost, as fast as possible.

 

If you are this kind of dieter you need to ask yourself some tough questions. Do you really want to lose weight permanently, or just lose a few pounds so that you can enjoy putting them back on again? The way forward is to make small changes to what you eat so that you have a slow but steady weight loss.

2. The Attitude of Sacrifice

Another common mistake is to view your diet as a period of sacrifice. You do not allow yourself the foods that you enjoy most while you are on your way to your target weight. You may have a great diet plan and be very successful in losing weight, but what happens when you reach your goal? You have not learnt to eat 'bad foods' in moderation so as soon as you start, you are likely to go out of control. It is better to include a little of everything in your diet and learn to enjoy it in small quantities. Yes, even chocolate!

3. Goal Failure

Setting achievable goals is vital in any weight loss plan. Goals should be clear, realistic and set out in writing. While you probably do have an ideal weight in your mind, unless you are only very slightly overweight it is probably too distant to be useful. A more useful goal would be to lose two pounds per week for the first five weeks and then one pound per week after that. Some weeks you will lose more and some less, some weeks you may even gain, but if you track your progress on a graph you will see that ups and downs are natural and do not stop you progressing steadily toward your major goal.

If you have been making these mistakes, do not worry. The most important point in dieting as in so many other things is to move on. Learn from your failures as well as your success and do not use a mistake as an excuse for giving up. The only way to achieve your goal permanently is to make a commitment to become a healthier person. Remember that eating normally includes eating more some days and less others. Learn to enjoy food in moderation and you have every chance of avoiding these bad diet mistakes.

 

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