Weight Loss Made Easy

It’s true that you can lose weight just by eating more fiber, 30 grams a day is the minimum. You’ll have more energy and be fuller, so you’ll eat less and exercise more, naturally. This is what you need to do.

Eat more fruit and veggies. Remember the old adage about the apple? Apples are a high fiber fruit, along with pears and raspberries. Make sure you get at least 2 servings of these high fiber fruits a day. Add to that 1 1/2 cups of green veggies a day such as spinach, broccoli or peppers.

Read the label on your cereal. Chances are, you’re not getting enough fiber there, even if you think your cereal is healthy. Go for the high fiber cereal, you’ll be happy you did. When you eat lunch try out a high fiber bread for your sandwich too.

You need water to lose weight, you’ll need it even more when you eat more fiber. The water plays two roles here. It will combine with the fiber to make you feel fuller so you eat less. More water will also make it easier for your body to digest the fiber you’ve eaten.

Every time you lose 5 pounds, go out and buy yourself something. Not something expensive, you don’t want to ruin the bank, just something cute or nice. If you’ve lost a lot of weight and your clothes is getting loose, you may want to reward yourself with a new pair of pants or a cute top.

Generally the reward should be something small though, and not food. You could go to the dollar section of your store and buy some small trinkets. Maybe some happy face stickers for your food journal. Or a magnet for your refrigerator.

Anyone else have ideas for weight loss rewards?

Tell yourself that you’re not going to eat sweets for 3 days, then reward yourself with something you really like. Then go 3 more days with no sweets and reward yourself again. If you eat sweets in between, then you need to start over.

The idea is that if you crave chocolate cupcakes and you eat 2 every day then you’re adding an extra 300 calories to your diet each day. If you skip them for 3 days, you just decreased your calories by 900 calories every 4 days. You’ll still get your sweets, but you’ll lose weight doing it.

When you get a craving. Replace it with fresh baby carrots, a salad with light dressing or fruit.

Many of us think that one serving of meat is about half the size of our plate. It’s just not true. One serving of meat is about the size of the palm of your hand.

A serving of cereal is not a whole bowl filled to the top, it’s about 1/2 cup to 1 cup. Read the label on your box, then measure it out to see how it looks in your bowl.

If you love your pasta, rice and potatoes then you need to know how much the appropriate serving size it for them too. A serving of pasta should not cover your whole plate. It’s only about 1/2 cup for pasta, rice and potatoes.

Fruit can be measured by size, or by measurement. If it’s a whole fruit, one serving is about the size of a baseball. A grapefruit or banana counts as two servings. If it’s berries or cut up fruit one serving would be about 1/2 cup.

It’s important to read the labels and get used to what one serving of your favorite foods really look like.

I’m not saying you can’t drink at all. What I am saying is that alcohol has a lot of calories in it. One good night out with friends can pack on hundreds, even thousands, of calories. Let’s say that you have five beers at approximately 100 calories each, that’s 500 calories right there. Then, because you’re intoxicated and out with friends, you decide to order the cheesy fries, heavy on the cheese. Now you’re up over 1000 calories.

Instead have a sparkling water with lemon or lime. You’ll feel like you’re still drinking with your friends and having fun, but you’ll get a whole lot less calories. Don’t go for drinks with fruit juice in them, they also have a lot of calories.

Maybe you like to have one glass of wine each night before bed. That’s around 700 extra calories a week. That’s 2-3 more hours extra that you need to exercise. Is it worth it? Destress by doing a workout, going for a walk or play a game with your family instead.

For the fourth week of the walking routine we are going to add 10 minutes a day to your walking routine for a total of 60 minutes a day. To increase your heart rate and your calorie burning ability you are going to add some bursts of either speed walking or jogging into the routine every couple minutes. Please check with your doctor before starting any exercise routine if you’re not used to exercising.

Three days this week you are going to do the following routine.

Step 1: Walk at a normal, slow speed for 5 minutes. This helps to warm up the muscles.
Step 2: Walk at a slightly faster pace then in step one for 5 minutes.
Step 3: Speed walk or jog for 30 seconds.
Step 4: Step 2: Walk at a slightly faster pace then in step one for 5 minutes.
Step 5: Speed walk or jog for 45 seconds.
Step 6: Walk at a slightly faster pace then in step one for 4 minutes.
Step 7: Speed walk or jog for 45 seconds.
Step 6: Walk at a slightly faster pace then in step one for 4 minutes.
Step 7: Speed walk or jog for 60 seconds.
Step 6: Walk at a slightly faster pace then in step one for 5 minutes.
Step 7: Speed walk or jog for 60 seconds.
Step 6: Walk at a slightly faster pace then in step one for 5 minutes.
Step 7: Speed walk or jog for 60 seconds.
Step 8: Step 2: Walk at a slightly faster pace then in step one for 5 minutes.
Step 9: Speed walk or jog for 45 seconds.
Step 10: Walk at a slightly faster pace then in step one for 5 minutes.
Step 11: Speed walk or jog for 45 seconds.
Step 12: Walk at a slightly faster pace then in step one for 5 minutes.
Step 13: Speed walk or jog for 30 seconds.
Step 14: Walk at a normal, slow speed for the last 5 minutes. This will help you to cool down after your workout.

What did you used to like doing when you where thin or when you were younger? Do you remember, I’ll give you a minute to think about it.

That’s enough time. Now it’s time to do something about it. Did you used to play on the softball team? Maybe you played an instrument? Did you ride your bike to the store and back?

Whatever it was you used to like to do, it’s time to start doing it again. Thin people are active, not to lose weight, but to have fun. They enjoy life more because they haven’t let go of the things they used to like doing.

Go out and join an adult softball team. Get a bike and some bike gear and get moving. Buy and instrument and start playing again. The more you enjoy your life the more likely you’ll be to stick to a healthier, thin person, lifestyle.

Did you know that one of the best ways to work those abs is to suck in your tummy. Try to hold in your tummy all day long. To make sure you’re doing this wear a string or sash around your waist and try not to let your tummy touch it. Think about pulling your belly button back toward your spine.

As you walk use your tummy muscles to do the walking for you, rely more on them then on your legs to move you across the room. When you sit, pull in your tummy muscles and sit up straight. It’s easier to hold in your tummy when your sitting back straight.

It’s also better for your back muscles. The stronger your abs are the less your back has to work to hold you up, hence less back pain. Give it a try.

As you lose weight your metabolism tends to slow down. This is because your body isn’t used to running on a smaller amount of calories and slows down to compensate. To make sure your metabolism doesn’t slow down too much make sure you eat small snacks every three to four hours.

Making sure you eat every three to four hours accomplishes two things. It keeps you from getting too hungry and it keeps your metabolism going. Your body burns calories when it digests food, this keeps your metabolism from slowing down.

Of course the best way to get your metabolism running in fast motion is to exercise. Exercise keeps the calories burning for hours after you’ve stopped. So get moving.

Sex is more enjoyable when you feel sexy. After you lose a mere 13% of your weight you’ll start feeling sexier and sex will start to become more enjoyable. Remember, you deserve to feel sexy no matter what your weight.

If you lose more than 40 pounds you may have trouble with lubrication. This is because of the loss of estrogen in your system. Don’t worry, it’s not permanent. After about three to six months your estrogen levels will level out and you’ll be back to normal. In the meantime, use a store bought lubricant.

Don’t worry about how you look to your partner. If you’re concerned, turn out the light. Men are more interested in the physical act then how you look once the clothes come off.

After you lose weight your life will change. I’m going to tell you this right now so you won’t be surprised and you’ll be ready to face the world in your new body.

Comments, looks and flirting will all become a part of your daily life. You’re going to have to endure comments and looks from other people. When you’re heavy people try not to look at your or make comments that you can hear. When you’re thin they do. Some are good, some are bad.

Good ones are when your friends come up to you and mention how good you look, “Have you lost weight”. It’s nice to hear this after you’ve worked so hard to get where you are. On the other hand you’ll have to learn to handle men that stare and try to talk to you.

This is especially hard if you’ve never had this happen to you before and are caught off guard. Be prepared. You may feel overwhelmed. Think about how you’re going to handle people when this happens to you.

This one works. I did NutriSystem last summer and lost 20 pounds in one month. Diets usually don’t work for me, but this was so easy to do, it was easy to follow and stick with.

If you want to give NutriSystem a try to their website and place an order for their food. That’s the only cost to the diet is food. There’s no sign up fee or monthly charge, just food. There is a charge for shipping though.

Choose the breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks you want them to send to you. The food is shipped right away so you get in within a few days. It’s all vacuum sealed or dried so you don’t even have to find room in the refrigerator for it.

Read the directions for the diet when it comes and start right away. Just choose one breakfast, lunch dinner and snack to eat each day. Combine that with fruits and veggies and you have yourself a new way of eating that is perfectly portion controlled for you. No thinking or calorie counting, just eating.

For the third week of the walking routine we are going to add 10 minutes a day to your walking routing for a total of 40 minutes a day. To increase your heart rate and your calorie burning ability you are going to add some bursts of either speed walking or jogging into the routine every couple minutes. Please check with your doctor before starting any exercise routine if you’re not used to exercising.

Three days this week you are going to do the following routine.

Step 1: Walk at a normal, slow speed for 5 minutes. This helps to warm up the muscles.
Step 2: Walk at a slightly faster pace then in step one for 5 minutes.
Step 3: Speed walk or jog for 30 seconds.
Step 4: Step 2: Walk at a slightly faster pace then in step one for 4 minutes.
Step 5: Speed walk or jog for 45 seconds.
Step 6: Walk at a slightly faster pace then in step one for 4 minutes.
Step 7: Speed walk or jog for 45 seconds.
Step 8: Step 2: Walk at a slightly faster pace then in step one for 4 minutes.
Step 9: Speed walk or jog for 45 seconds.
Step 10: Walk at a slightly faster pace then in step one for 4 minutes.
Step 11: Speed walk or jog for 45 seconds.
Step 12: Walk at a slightly faster pace then in step one for 5 minutes.
Step 13: Speed walk or jog for 30 seconds.
Step 14: Walk at a normal, slow speed for the last 5 minutes. This will help you to cool down after your workout.

Let’s face it, eating out is a lot of fun. Someone else does the cooking for you and someone else cleans up after you. The downside is that eating out can involve a lot of food and that means a lot of calories. You’re also more likely to eat foods higher in fat when you eat out.

Next time you eat out I want you to give this a try. Ask for a box. Before you even start eating your meal ask for a take home box. Put half your meal into the box right away to take home. Enjoy the other half. Now you’ll only eat half as many calories as you otherwise would have and you’ll still be quite satisfied.

Do you eat when you’re sad, mad, happy? Sometimes when you’re feeling an extreme emotion, it makes you want to eat. It’s what you do with that emotion that makes a difference in your weight. If you go and start stuffing your face with all the high fat foods you can find then you’re going to gain weight. Here are some other options to help you keep your weight under control, even under the most stressful situations.

Try stuffing your face with fruits and veggies. Grab a bag of baby carrots or cut up a tomato or a pepper and eat that instead. You’ll still get lots of flavor and some crispness without all the fat.

Find something else to do besides eat. If you just received some news, call someone and talk to them about it. Read a book or engage in a hobby that will keep your hands busy. Go for a walk or bike ride. Do something that will keep your hands busy or keep you away from the kitchen.

Here’s the skinny on McDonalds . I for one love McDonalds, but you can’t eat there everyday, or can you. Let’s look at some of the lower calorie options you can get when you eat out at McDonalds.

A Big Mac is a whopping 540 calories and the Quarter Pounder with cheese is 510 calories. If you only want a McDonalds hamburger you’re still going to get 250 calories. That’s half as many calories as the bigger alternatives, but it still tastes good and is a much better option. Add cheese to that hamburger for another 50 calories. If you get the hamburger with an order of small fries then you’re going to add another 250 calories.

Other lower calorie options at McDonalds are:

- 4 piece Chicken McNuggets 170 calories, 6 piece 250 calories
- Ranch Snack Wrap (Grilled) 270 calories
- Honey Mustard Snack Wrap (Grilled) 260 calories
- Chipotle BBQ Snack Wrap (Grilled) 260 calories
- Premium Southwest Salad (without chicken) 140 calories, with grilled chicken 320 calories
- Premium Asian Salad (without chicken) 150 calories, with grilled chicken 300 calories
- Premium Bacon Ranch Salad (without chicken) 140 calories, with grilled chicken 260 calories
- Premium Caesar Salad (without chicken) 90 calories, with grilled chicken 220 calories
- Side Salad 20 calories
* calories for salads are without dressing

Remember when we talked about MUFAs last week? Nuts and seeds are MUFAs. This means you can add a handful of them to a meal to help you lose weight. You can also use them as a snack in between meals to help you make it through until the next meal.

Nuts and seeds provide you with protein and fiber, which means they’ll help keep you full longer. They’re also a good source of monounsaturated fat, that’s the healthy kind. They also have vitamins and minerals that help to keep you healthy.

The downside to eating nuts and seeds is that they’re high in calories. Eat them in moderation and they’re a good part of a weight loss diet.

Protein is an important part of weight loss. Women need about 46 grams of protein a day and men need about 56 grams of protein a day. Some of us eat so much bread and pasta that we forget about getting enough protein. Your body needs protein and if you don’t get enough protein in your diet, your body starts to digest your muscles to get the protein it needs.

Another important reason to include protein in your diet is, it fills you up. Protein takes longer for your body to digest so you feel full longer. This is really important if you’re like me and hungry all the time. Just make sure your eat some protein and you’ll feel better.

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Atkin’s really does work, that is if you can stand to eat nothing but protein based foods and skip the carbs. For the first part of the diet you are required to eat next to nothing in carbs. That limits the foods you can eat a lot.

There are many cookbooks about how to eat a low carb diet and the recipes are really good. If you want to give this diet a try, I suggest you purchase one of these books. Once you’re off carbs for a few days you’ll probably already notice a loss in weight. Most people lose weight quickly on this diet.

The second part of the diet lets you have some carbs, but only a certain kind and a very limited amount. You’ll continue to lose weight on this part of the diet too. The third part of the diet allows more carbs but you may never eat bread again. This part of the diet is for maintaining your weight.

For the second week of the walking routine we are going to add 10 minutes a day to your walking routing for a total of 30 minutes a day. To increase your heart rate and your calorie burning ability you are going to add some bursts of either speed walking or jogging into the routine every couple minutes. Please check with your doctor before starting any exercise routine if you’re not used to exercising.

Three days this week you are going to do the following routine.

Step 1: Walk at a normal, slow speed for 5 minutes. This helps to warm up the muscles.
Step 2: Walk at a slightly faster pace then in step one for 3 minutes.
Step 3: Speed walk or jog for 45 seconds.
Step 4: Step 2: Walk at a slightly faster pace then in step one for 4 minutes.
Step 5: Speed walk or jog for 30 seconds.
Step 6: Walk at a slightly faster pace then in step one for 3 minutes.
Step 7: Speed walk or jog for 30 seconds.
Step 8: Step 2: Walk at a slightly faster pace then in step one for 4 minutes.
Step 9: Speed walk or jog for 30 seconds.
Step 10: Walk at a slightly faster pace then in step one for 3 minutes.
Step 11: Speed walk or jog for 45 seconds.
Step 12: Walk at a normal, slow speed for the last 5 minutes. This will help you to cool down after your workout.

Here’s the diet that I follow when I need to lose weight. Very little calorie counting involved.

Breakfast: 1 serving of high fiber, high protein cereal with a cup of tea. 1 serving of fruit or dried fruit.
Snack: 1 low calorie yogurt with a cup of tea
Lunch: Meal that includes 1 serving of protein with 1 serving of starch (total under 300 cal). 1 once of cheese. Add a salad to that with low calorie dressing and you’re full. Also a diet Pepsi.
Snack: 1 serving of dried fruit or real fruit, 1 low calorie yogurt and a cup of tea.
Dinner: Meal that includes 1 serving of protein with 1 serving of starch (total under 300 cal), can add a little butter with that, a little. 2 veggies. Low calorie fruit juice.
Dessert: Something sweet (under 150 cal) with a cup of tea.

You hear a lot about fiber when you read the health news, but what does it mean to someone like you who is trying to lose weight? The answer is, a lot.

First of all, since your body is not able to digest fiber, it just moves through your system without adding any calories. As it moves through your system it grabs onto some cholesterol and takes that along with it. You get the minerals from the fiber, but not the calories.

When you eat high fiber bread or cereal you’ll probably notice that you stay full longer. This is great when you’re trying to lost weight because that means you’re not hungry all the time. If you need a snack between lunch and dinner, make it a high fiber snack.

BMI tells you how much of your body is fat. There are general guidelines for BMI. If your BMI is over 25 you are considered to be overweight. If it’s over 30 you are considered to be obese and if it’s over 40 you are “morbidly obese”. On the flip side, if your BMI is under 18.5 then you’re underweight. Here’s an easy way to calculate your body mass index. This is not 100% accurate but it does give you an idea of where your BMI lays.

Step 1: Take your current weight in pounds and multiply it by 703.
Step 2: Divide your answer by your height in inches.
Step 3: Now divide that number by your height in inches again.

Don’t take all the fat out of your diet, you need some. Without fat in your body, your body can’t function. Fat is what holds your body together and helps you absorb nutrients from the food you eat. Fat also makes some of the hormones that you need to function. Fat keeps your body padded so you don’t become injured just from bumping into something. It also helps your brain to work.

As you lose weight, keep in mind that there are weight standard to help you know how much weight you need to lose, but they’re also to make sure you don’t lose too much. Losing too much weight is just as unhealthy as gaining too much weight.

Writing down everything you eat in a food diary can really help you know what you’re eating. Once you become aware of everything you eat, you’ll start eating less, and eventually lose weight. You may be thinking that you already know what you eat. Do you really? Did you forget about the half a cookie you snagged after dinner? Or the icing you liked off the beaters?

Everything you eat has calories, even crumbs. I’ve seen the joke about crumbs not having calories, but they do. Write down everything that goes into your mouth in your food diary.

Also write about how you feel. If you can, write how you feel before and after you eat a meal in your food diary. If you had a headache one day, write that down too. Feeling fatigued one day, write it down.

Eventually you’ll start to see a pattern. Some foods give you more energy and others make you tired, or have a headache, or feel bloated. The more you write in your food diary, the more you’ll learn about your eating habits.

Also known as monounsaturated fatty acid. This is the good kind of fat that you should make it a point to eat. Eating a MUFA at every meal is recommended and healthy. MUFA’s have also been known to help people loose that hard to shed belly fat.

The 5 types of MUFAs are oils (canola, safflower, sesame, soybean, walnut, flaxseed, sunflower, olive and peanut), olives, nuts and seeds, avocados and, believe it or not, dark chocolate. Add them to your shopping list right now and make sure to pick up some of these yummy foods next time you go shopping.

MUFAs also are known to protect your heart, keep you from getting type 2 diabetes, lower your risk of getting breast cancer and keep your brain healthy, among other things. It’s time to start getting some MUFA in your diet.

For your first week in a walking routine start by walking for a total of 20 minutes. Eventually we are going to work our way up to 60 minutes but we are going to do it by adding just 10 minutes a week to the routing. To increase your heart rate and your calorie burning ability you are going to add some bursts of either speed walking or jogging into the routine every couple minutes. Please check with your doctor before starting any exercise routine if you’re not used to exercising.

Three days this week you are going to do the following routine.

Step 1: Walk at a normal, slow speed for 5 minutes. This helps to warm up the muscles.
Step 2: Speed walk or jog for 30 seconds.
Step 3: Walk at a slightly faster pace then in step one for 3 minutes.
Step 4: Speed walk or jog for 30 seconds.
Step 5: Walk at a slightly faster pace then in step one for 3 minutes.
Step 6: Speed walk or jog for 30 seconds.
Step 7: Walk at a slightly faster pace then in step one for 3 minutes.
Step 8: Speed walk or jog for 30 seconds.
Step 9: Walk at a normal, slow speed for the last 4 minutes. This will help you to cool down after your workout.

Don’t cut calories too fast or you’re setting yourself up for failure. When you cut a lot of calories out of your diet all at once your body goes crazy. First of all, you’ll be hungry all the time, and no one wants that. Secondly, your body will go into shut down mode because it’ll think you’re starving and don’t have enough food to eat. Then your calorie burning power will be cut, drastically.

Cut your calories slowly. First you need to find out how many calories you eat. Keep track of everything you eat for 2 weeks. Then start cutting certain things from your diet, slowly. The first week cut 100 calories from your diet. Then 100 more.

You can cut your diet by foods instead of calories if that’s easier. Cut out the cupcake you have after lunch each day for the first week. Next week cut out the bag of chips you eat with dinner. One item at a time you’ll start to eat less and less calories.

You may eat less fruit than you think you do. Time to step it up. You need to average at least four servings of fruit a day for your health. Fruit has vitamins and fiber in it that your body needs to function properly. It’s good for your skin, your hair, your eyes and many other things. It’s important so make it a priority.

There are many ways you can get the recommended four servings of fruit a day. If you can’t eat an orange where you are during the day, because they’re too messy, try an apple instead. If that’s out too, try dried fruit. Dried fruit is an easy snack because you can put it in a baggy in your pocket or purse and snack on it without anyone else knowing about it. Drink fruit juice, just make sure it’s real fruit juice, not the sugary stuff. Go with low calorie juice to keep the calories down if you can.

Fruit is good for weight loss for many reasons. Most importantly, it’s a low calorie snack. One orange only has about 60 calories in it. Have two and you’ve had a filling snack. Fruit’s sweet taste makes it great to eat when you really need something sweet to eat, pretend that it’s your favorite candy and go for it.

Strength training, I don’t mean using barbells and big weights, just toning and strengthening your muscles, is the best way to make sure your metabolism goes up and stays there all day long. You don’t need big muscles, just tones muscles to do the job. When you do some basic strength training you build muscle. Muscle needs more calories to live, therefore you constantly burn more calories, even when you’re doing nothing at all.

You don’t need big weights and barbells to do strength training. Just you. Some examples of strength training are crunches, leg lifts, squats and push ups. Walking up steps is good for strength training, builds up your leg muscles and can be done slow to tone more of the muscle, or fast to get some aerobic benefit out of it too.

If you want to boost your strength training a little you can get some wearable weights and put them on your arms and legs when you do your strength training routine. More muscle means more calories burning all the time.

I know what you’re thinking. Peanut butter is full of fat and has tons of calories. But listen, this really works. Peanut butter has been proven to help people lose weight. Because of the fat and the protein in the peanut butter this little snack will stay with you for hours, if you eat it right. I’m not saying you should gobble down a jar of peanut butter in one sitting. A little goes a long way.

This is what you should do when your starving but still have a while until meal time. Take a teaspoon and dip it into the peanut butter jar. Scoop up the peanut butter making a round ball with it. Now instead of putting the whole thing in your mouth and not being able to open your mouth again for the rest of the day, you’re going to eat is slowly. The spoon should never enter your mouth at any time.

Pretend that it’s and ice cream cone and lick it. The more you enjoy the flavor and the texture the better. Savor the peanut butter until it’s all gone. Now you won’t be hungry again for at least an hour, maybe longer.