9 Economical Ways to Lose Weight

If you’ve resolved to lose weight or get healthier this year, you’re not alone. According to a 2013 Outlook Survey organized by TD Ameritrade, 42% of Americans made health-related resolutions this year.

If you’re asking yourself how you’re going to lose weight and still maintain your budget, our budget experts say if you’re careful, eating a healthy diet is no more expensive than picking up that value lunch at your local fast food joint.

Here are 9 of their tips for losing weight while still maintaining a fat wallet:

1. Make monthly resolutions
When a resolution is fresh in our minds, we tend to approach it with more vigor and commitment. So instead of thinking about the whole year, break it down by month and shake up your routine with creative ideas to keep you inspired ! For example, if your goal is saving money while losing weight, resolve to get into a habit of clipping coupons in January. In February, resolve to brown bag your lunch instead of eating out. Keep making those resolutions to form new habits throughout the year.

2. Ditch the gym.
You don’t need a pricey gym club membership or a personal trainer to get healthy, says Dan Giuglianotti, a physician and certified health fitness specialist at the American College of Sports Medicine. Try to get 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise at least five days per week while watching what you eat and your clothes will start fitting better. Use a cheaper portable equipment like FitBit to track your exercise activities and keep them in check.

Tips When Dining Out

Do you consistantly starve yourself until you get to the restaurant, and then order everything on the menu to fill the hunger gap? If you are serious about watching your weight there are things you can do to be a more ‘informed diner’ so you make the right decisions on what food to eat when you dine out.

Fitness expert Bob Green (yes, the same Bob Green from the Oprah show) gives us a few tips on what to consider at different types of restaurants.

Italian Restaurants
-Skip the bread basket. At the very least, don’t have it sitting in front of you for the whole meal.
-Split the pasta dishes. Portions are normally large enough for two.
-Choose soup for a meal, like Minestrone.
-Avoid anything called ‘parmagiana’ as it is usually fried and layered with cheese.

Chinese Restaurants
-Watch the oil and avoid anything deep-fried.
-Remember most of the calories are hidden in the sauces.

Exercise Tips To Lose Your Double Chin Fat

When your stomach gets flabby, you tone your abs. When your butt gets saggy, you work out your glutes. Yet, when you get a double chin, you pay for expensive creams and treatments instead of treating the real problem. Although a double chin can occur when your skin naturally weakens with age, it is also a symptom of obesity and poor diet. Target the root of your double chin by toning your mentalis and platysma, the supportive muscles below your chin that operate your jaw.

Sitting & Standing Exercises To Lose Your Double Chin

Step 1
Stand straight and tilt your face up toward the ceiling. Relax your facial muscles. Purse your lips into a kiss and try to kiss the ceiling. Feel the slight pull along your neck and on either side of your lips. Hold the kiss for five seconds. Relax and repeat in sets of five, suggests the Facial Exercises Guide.

Step 2
Keep your head tilted back. Open your mouth as wide as possible. Hold for five seconds and feel the stretch in the bottom of your jaw. Close your mouth and stretch the underside of your chin. Hold for five seconds. Repeat in sets of five.

Portion Control and Diet: 10 Easy Tips for Smaller Servings

Portion control is an important part of maintaining a healthy diet. Here are 10 easy ways to limit what you eat.  
When most of us sit down to eat, the last thing we want to think about is portion control. But for anyone on a diet or just looking to maintain their current figure, that’s exactly what they should be doing. 

Gone are the days of eating a bagel or muffin and feeling safe about its calories. In fact, researchers measured typical servings from takeout restaurants, fast food chains, and family-style eateries and found that bagels were 195 percent larger than the standard set by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), muffins were 333 percent bigger and cooked pasta exceeded the standard by 480 percent. Scariest of all were cookies, which were a whopping seven times the USDA recommended serving size. 

Portion Control and Diet: How It Works

The first step in successful portion control is learning the correct serving size — the amount of food recommended by government agencies, such as the Dietary Guidelines for Americans put out by the USDA and Department of Health and Human Services, and the USDA Food Guide Pyramid. The serving size can usually be found by reading nutritional labels. But the portion is the amount of food or drink a person chooses to consume. In many cases, the portion eaten is larger than the serving size simply because we don’t know any better. 

“Portion control is limiting what you eat,” says Mary M. Flynn, RD, PhD, chief research dietitian and assistant professor of medicine at the Miriam Hospital and Brown University in Providence, R.I. “It is being aware of how much food you are actually eating and what calories are in that serving.” 

Portion Control and Diet: 10 Easy Tips for Smaller Servings

The good news is that with a little practice, portion control is easy to do and can help people be successful in reaching and then maintaining a proper weight. 

Here are 10 simple ways to keep your portions a healthy size: 

1. Measure accurately. For foods and beverages, use gadgets like a measuring cup, tablespoon, teaspoon, or food scale. 

How To Beat Comfort Eating

Tips to Beat Comfort Eating !

The most important thing to be aware of is the time of day when you use food for emotional comfort.

Trigger Zones
Stress experts tell us there are certain ‘trigger’ zones in a day such as running late for a meeting or work, or as soon as you come in from a tough day. Feeling lonely at night is another common one. If you identify with these patterns, spend 3-5 minutes, yes literally a few minutes, before the trigger zone to break the habit. This can mean a walk around the block, a quick trip to the loo to re-touch make up (and therefore feel better) or going for a shower. Chances are once you’ve taken that breather you are less likely to want the food.

Bling Up!
Another trick I often work with is that I ask clients to buy themselves a visible piece of jewellery, be it a ring or a bracelet, that they put on and wear with the intention to remind themselves during busy days what their purpose or goal is. If you feel the need to eat, take a look at your new bracelet to remind yourself of your goal. You'll effectively think twice about reaching for the chocolate. It sounds silly but it can work – and is a good excuse for some bling!

Reward Yourself
Figure out how you can give yourself a non-food reward. What can take the place of the snack? If you are at home, try painting your nails, or taking a bath when you abstain from your snack. This will be extremely helpful in breaking the trigger zone habit, as above, but also reinforcing the positive feeling of not snacking. Figure out what will work for you.
Check out more tips from Amanda Hamilton

10 ways to add fruit and vegies to your day

Here are 10 easy ways to work more fruits and vegetables into your diet.

Research shows that those of us who eat five or more servings of fruit and vegetables a day can reduce our risk of some cancers, hypertension and heart disease. The time is ripe: Give your diet the power of produce!

Research suggests that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables might help you fight chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer by keeping your cells healthy. It may also help reduce your risk of high blood pressure and artery-clogging cholesterol, as well as upping your energy level. Here are 10 easy ways to work more fruits and vegetables into your diet.

1. Make a plan
To get more fruits and vegetables in your meals, they need to make it into your shopping trolley. A good way to do that is to do your homework: take 15 minutes to make a list of produce that will complement your planned meals for the week.


2. Experiment with exotic options
Bok choy, papayas, mangoes, passionfruit, kiwifruit, artichokes, broccoli rabe, turnips — anything that looks different. For the best flavor, variety and quality, get picky in the produce section by buying in season.


3. Start early
As a general rule, the earlier in the day you start chipping away at your fruits-and-vegetable quota, the easier it is to get five or more servings in. Begin your day with an orange and a glass of vegetable juice, for example, and you've started on your servings before leaving the house!


4. Keep healthy snacks handy
That way, you're ready when hunger strikes at work. Fruits and vegetables good for commuting include raisins, containers of fresh juice and fruits that don't bruise easily, such as apples or oranges. Just don't forget about them, as they can quickly go off.


5. Sneak in vegetables with every meal
Give fruits and vegetables a starring role in the foods you already eat. Top off your morning cereal or yoghurt with bananas, berries or peaches. Layer sandwiches with extra tomato, onion and dark leafy greens such as spinach and watercress. Make a wrap with bean sprouts, shredded cabbage and slices of green or red capsicum. Heap salsa onto low-fat tortilla chips. Smuggle zucchini and carrots into pasta sauce, soup, stew and chilli. You get the idea!


6. Reorganise your fridge
What we choose to eat is often the first thing we see when we look in the fridge for a snack. Move your sealed bags of baby carrots, precut red and green capsicum strips and broccoli florets to the front of the top shelf instead of hiding them away in the crisper.


7. Enjoy a fruity dessert
End your meals with the sweet taste of fresh fruit. It's a bountiful supply of vitamins and minerals. Fruit—at any time—is a great way to get more heart-disease-fighting fibre.


8. Stock up with the good stuff
Make sure your pantry, fridge and freezer are always full of dried, canned, fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables. And keep in mind that legumes such as dried peas and beans are vegetables, too.

9. Build up your salad
Use the supermarket's salad bar to buy cut-up fruit and vegetables on days when you don't have time to chop. Also, if you're eating on the run, opt for the deli salad bar. But make sure you choose one that has a quick turnaround; you'll be more likely to get fresher, more nutritious produce. Many feature vegetable options such as beets, cherry tomatoes, three-bean salad and chickpeas. Just watch out for the oily, already-prepared vegetable salads.


10. Flavour up favourites with fresh herbs
Research shows that garlic and chives contain substances called allyl sulfides that help fight cancer. Rosemary and parsley are also believed to have anti-cancer properties. Those little extras can add to your healthy diet but not your ProPoints® allowance.

Article by weightwatchers.com.au

Food Journal – The Secret to Weight Loss Success

According to the National Weight Control Registry, out of 3000 dieters whom successfully lost 30lbs or more of weight and kept it off for longer than a year, food journalling was the number one behavior they had in common.

It sounds like a tedious task, and almost everyone groans at the thought of it but if correctly adopted the food journaling habit will undoubtedly bridge the gap between who you are now and who you wish to be.

It is a positive behavior that replaces a negative one (mindless munching) and not only is it good for weight loss management, but a food journal can help to identify allergies or digestive issues you may have that you were not aware of.

My tips for keeping a successful journal are:

• Be sure to use a notebook that can easily fit in your purse or jacket pocket so that you have it with you every where you go, or store the information on your mobile device or blog.
• Ensure that you log all food that goes into your mouth before you eat it. Don’t wait till the end of the day. This is a very important technique which develops the habit of becoming mindful about food. When we are mindful, the temptation to binge or indulge in foods is greatly reduced.
• Record the food you eat, but also record the feelings when you ate it, the people you were with, the place you were and how you felt afterwards.
• Don’t get hung up on the calories! If you have to research every single calorie count of the food you are eating daily chances are you’ll give up! Instead of calories, make a note of the portion sizes and the macronutrients.
• Review your journal weekly, make notes of what you did well and where you could do better.
• Begin each week with a goal you would like to achieve daily for that week. For instance, No Soda, or No Sugar and mark your progress daily, at the end of the week reward yourself with something special (non-food related)!
• Put random positive affirmations and quotes throughout your journal on the first day you get it, so that along your journey you will come across messages to keep you motivated.

Keep them, it will be nice to look back on in the years to come.

Almost everyone in their adult life has struggled at one time or another to shed pounds and keep those pounds off. Fad diets, pills and surgeries don’t get to the root of the problem that caused the weight gain in the first place.

5 Goals to Losing Weight

To lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you eat. Every good weight-loss plan has the same two parts: food and physical activity. Wise food choices can help you eat fewer calories and daily (or almost daily) physical activity helps you burn off some of the calories you consume. You lose weight more easily and you're more likely to keep it off, too.

1. Keep portions smaller than your fist. It’s easy to overeat when you have too much food on your plate. Smaller portions help prevent overeating. Overeating can make health problems worse, especially if you have diabetes. One way to control overeating is to reduce portion sizes when you eat. For most foods, a reasonable portion is ½ to 1 cup – about the size of a woman’s fist. Even if your fist is larger than that, it is still a handy measuring tool that goes everywhere you go. Just keep your portions smaller than your fist.

The two most common exceptions are:

• Meat, chicken and fish. For these foods, keep portions the size of a deck of cards (about half the size of your fist.)
• Plain vegetables, including salads without dressing. You can have as much as you want because these foods are filling and low in calories.

2. Control your hunger with filling foods that are low in calories. Foods such as soup, salad, fruits and vegetables can help fill you up without adding a lot of calories. These foods will satisfy hunger and help you lose weight. Research shows that people feel less hungry when they eat a certain volume (amount) of food. High-fiber foods, such as fruits and vegetables, can provide a feeling of fullness and also digest slowly. That helps you feel satisfied longer so you eat less.
3. Keep track of what you eat. When you keep track of what you eat, you're more likely to meet your food goals. Studies show that keeping a food log or diary helps people lose weight and keep it off.
4. Make trade-offs to reduce how much fat and sugar you eat. Foods high in fat and sugar are usually high in calories, too. But that doesn't mean you have to give up your favorite foods. Learn to make trade-offs instead. If you want to indulge in your favorite dessert, eat a lower-calorie meal.
5. Enjoy more physical activity. As you already know, regular physical activity is important for keeping your heart healthy. Increasing physical activity may help you lose weight and strengthen your heart at the same time.

Instead of ...	Try ...
Counting every calorie and fat gram	Keeping a food diary. Once you know what you are eating you may be able to reduce the amount without having to count every calorie. Try eating ½ portions.
Eating dessert after dinner	If you feel like you have to eat dessert, try eating dessert only after lunch, and choose a low-calorie dessert like fruit. The earlier in the day you eat high-calorie foods, the more time you have during the day to burn off those extra calories. (That doesn’t mean eat dessert after breakfast.) Refer to the “make trade-offs” section above.
Skipping meals to lose weight	Eating 4-5 smaller meals during the day. Eating every 3-4 hours helps control hunger. Just make sure that your smaller meals do not exceed your daily total calorie goals.
Starving between meals	Planing ahead and bringing healthy snacks with you wherever you go so you won’t be tempted to pick up something unhealthy on your way. Drink a tall glass of water to get you through a craving.
Tasting food while you cook	Resisting eating the food you are making until you are sitting at the table with a plate and proper portion sizes in front of you.
Stopping at the grocery store on the way home	Shopping after you eat. Never go to the store hungry or you’re asking for trouble. If you must go to the store before eating a meal make sure you have a healthy snack (see above) to eat before you get there to curb your appetite and reduce the likelihood of binge-buying.
Weighing yourself every day	Weighing yourself once a week. We recommend choosing the schedule that works best for you. If you have heart failure, you must check your weight every day to look for sudden changes.

Source : American Heart Association http://www.heart.org

10 Ideas To Lose Weight The Easy Way

If you’re trying to drop a few pounds, don’t start off by trying to overhaul all your eating and exercise habits. You’re better off finding several simple things you can do on a daily basis — along with following the cardinal rules of eating more vegetables and less fat and getting more physical activity. Together, they should send the scale numbers in the right direction: down.

Here are 10 easy ideas to lose weight that works for me and they are adapted from the Readers Digest. 

1. Treat high-calorie foods as jewels in the crown. Make a spoonful of ice cream the jewel and a bowl of fruit the crown. Cut down on the chips by pairing each bite with lots of chunky, filling fresh salsa, suggests Jeff Novick, director of nutrition at the Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa in Florida. Balance a little cheese with a lot of salad.

2. After breakfast, make water your primary drink. At breakfast, go ahead and drink orange juice. But throughout the rest of the day, focus on water instead of juice or soda. The average American consumes an extra 245 calories a day from soft drinks. That’s nearly 90,000 calories a year — or 25 pounds! And research shows that despite the calories, sugary drinks don’t trigger a sense of fullness the way that food does.

3. Eat five or six small meals or snacks a day instead of three large meals. A 1999 South African study found that when men ate parts of their morning meal at intervals over five hours, they consumed almost 30 percent fewer calories at lunch than when they ate a single breakfast. Other studies show that even if you eat the same number of calories distributed this way, your body releases less insulin, which keeps blood sugar steady and helps control hunger.

4. Walk for 45 minutes a day. The reason we’re suggesting 45 minutes instead of the typical 30 is that a Duke University study found that while 30 minutes of daily walking is enough to prevent weight gain in most relatively sedentary people, exercise beyond 30 minutes results in weight and fat loss. Burning an additional 300 calories a day with three miles of brisk walking (45 minutes should do it) could help you lose 30 pounds in a year without even changing how much you’re eating.

5. Bring the color blue into your life more often. There’s a good reason you won’t see many fast-food restaurants decorated in blue: Believe it or not, the color blue functions as an appetite suppressant. So serve up dinner on blue plates, dress in blue while you eat, and cover your table with a blue tablecloth. Conversely, avoid red, yellow, and orange in your dining areas. Studies find they encourage eating.

6. Clean your closet of the “fat” clothes. Once you’ve reached your target weight, throw out or give away every piece of clothing that doesn’t fit. The idea of having to buy a whole new wardrobe if you gain the weight back will serve as a strong incentive to maintain your new figure.

7. Downsize your dinner plates. Studies find that the less food put in front of you, the less food you’ll eat. Conversely, the more food in front of you, the more you’ll eat — regardless of how hungry you are. So instead of using regular dinner plates that range these days from 10-14 inches (making them look forlornly empty if they’re not heaped with food), serve your main course on salad plates (about 7-9 inches wide). The same goes for liquids. Instead of 16-ounce glasses and oversized coffee mugs, return to the old days of 8-ounce glasses and 6-ounce coffee cups.

8. Clean your closet of the “fat” clothes. Once you’ve reached your target weight, throw out or give away every piece of clothing that doesn’t fit. The idea of having to buy a whole new wardrobe if you gain the weight back will serve as a strong incentive to maintain your new figure.

9. Avoid white foods. There is some scientific legitimacy to today’s lower-carb diets: Large amounts of simple carbohydrates from white flour and added sugar can wreak havoc on your blood sugar and lead to weight gain. But you shouldn’t toss out the baby with the bathwater. While avoiding sugar, white rice, and white flour, you should eat plenty of whole grain breads and brown rice. One Harvard study of 74,000 women found that those who ate more than two daily servings of whole grains were 49 percent less likely to be overweight than those who ate the white stuff.

10. Put out a vegetable platter. A body of research out of Pennsylvania State University finds that eating water-rich foods such as zucchini, tomatoes, and cucumbers during meals reduces your overall calorie consumption. Other water-rich foods include soups and salads. You won’t get the same benefits by just drinking your water, though. Because the body processes hunger and thirst through different mechanisms, it simply doesn’t register a sense of fullness with water (or soda, tea, coffee, or juice).