Weight Loss Made Easy

Fiber makes you feel full, so try to find ways to eat the 30 recommended grams a day. Fiber doesn’t digest. So it goes through your system in it’s whole form. Since it doesn’t digest, it doesn’t have calories. Drink water with your high fiber diet. This will make you feel fuller longer.

Here are some high fiber foods that can add to your diet to help you lose weight.

- Whole Grain Bread 2-4g
- Baked Potato, small 3g
- Chickpeas, 1/2C 5g
- Raspberries, 1/2C 4g
- Pear, medium 4g
- Fiber One cereal, 1/2C 5g
- Dried Figs, 2 medium 3.5g
- Apple, medium with skin 4.5g
- Spaghetti, whole-wheat, 1C 6.3g
- Bran Flakes, 3/4C 5g
- Oatmeal, 1C 4g
- Lentils, 1C 15.6g
- Black Beans, 1C 15g
- Lima Beans, 1C 13.2g
- Baked Beans, canned, 1C 10.4g
- Peas, 1C 8.8g
- Brussel Sprouts, 1C 6.4g
- Popcorn, 3C 3.6g

Around 3pm I get hungry and need to have a snack to hold me over until dinner. I don’t want to add on a lot more calories though. Here are some low calorie ways you can still have that 3pm snack, Each of these snacks has less than 150 calories.

1. Need a Chocolate Fix? - This is me! Try CocoaVia. It’s only 100 calories per snack pack.

2. Really Hungry? - Air popped popcorn will fill you up. With only 60 calories for every 2 cups, this is the perfect snack for when you’re famished.

3. Need Something Crunchy? - Have some raw veggies. Carrots, celery and broccoli are good for this. Eat them with two tablespoons of hummas and you still only have an 80 calorie snack.

4. Want Something Healthy? - Try an apple. Add to that an ounce of low fat cheese and you have a small 130 calorie, satisfying snack.

Get your body started in the morning by giving it the energy that it deserves. Eat a high protein, high fiber diet and you’ll be ready to take over the day. Here are three health, low calorie ways to start your day.

1. Cereal - Not just any cereal though. Your cereal need to be high protein, this means about 6 or more ounces of protein per serving, but not more than 200 calories. I recommend either Kashi Go Lean or Kashi GO Lean Crunch with half a cup of fat free milk.

2. Egg Sandwich - One scrambled egg and half a slice of melted American cheese on a toasted whole wheat English muffin.

3. Yogurt Parfait - Take some fat free yogurt and add half a cup of berries and an ounce of almonds to it, yum.

If you want to lose weight, make sure you eat breakfast every day. Studies have shown that people who thin eat breakfast and are less likely to gain weight. This is mainly because eating breakfast ensures that you’re not starving come lunch time. If you’re starving at lunch then you’re more likely to overeat or binge.

If you eat about 200 - 300 calories for breakfast, it’s likely that you’ll eat about 100 calories less during the day. Skipping breakfast is not an excuse for eating a lot the rest of the day. No longer will you need to use that excuse either. You’ll feel more in control of your diet if you don’t allow yourself to become famished.

Protein helps keep you full longer, so make sure you add protein to every meal and every snack. This will help you lose weight faster because you won’t feel starved all the time. You need to get at least 25% of your daily calories from lean protein. If you’re on a 1400 calorie diet then you need to have about 90g of protein in your diet daily.

Here are some easy ways to add protein to your diet.

- 3oz chicken breast 26g
- 3oz lean beef sirloin 22g
- 4.4oz 1% cottage cheese 15g
- 1/2C kidney beans 7g
- 1oz cheddar cheese 7g
- 22 almonds 6g
- 1 hard boiled egg 6g
- 6oz Dannon Light & Fit Yogurt 5g

Cheese may seem like a necessity on your sandwich, but it’s really  not. It’s just something extra you add to your sandwich that you don’t really need to have there. The cheese you add to your sandwich adds on an extra 100 calories or so. Leave it out and save 100 calories a day.

The same goes for that mayonnaise you add.  Mayonnaise adds about 100 calories per tablespoon to your sandwich. You probably add more than that. Instead use mustard. It adds flavor without the calories.

Then add some lettuce and a slice of tomato to the top of your sandwich. You won’t regret it. Adding lettuce and tomato really adds another layer of taste without the calories.

A regular size bagel that you get from your local bagel shop has around 350 calories in it. Add some cream cheese to that you you’re packing on some major calories. Cream cheese having about 100 calories per ounce, and you adding about 2 ounces to your bagel, you’re adding another 200 calories to that bagel for a total of 550 calories for just your bagel.

Eat half. If you only eat half the bagel you’ll still be getting a good snack, without that overstuffed feeling. By only eating half the bagel you’ll be saving yourself 225 calories per day. Save the other half for tomorrow or for another snack later.

If you want to save even more calories, find something besides cream cheese or butter to add to your bagel. Maybe a low calorie jam, or a low fat spread instead.

Replace your high calorie coffee with a lower calorie alternative and save about 150 calories per cup. If you regularly have a large coffee with cream and syrup in it for flavor, you’re coffee is probably around 240 calories per cup, or more. If you have 2 cups a day that’s almost 500 calories just in coffee.

If you replace that high calorie coffee with a skinny mocha that’s around 90 calories per cup you’re saving about 150 calories per cup, or 300 calories a day. If you just drink a regular coffee with some half and half and a Splenda your coffee will only be about 20 calories. That’s a savings of about 250 calories per cup or 500 calories per day.

Just think about how much weight you could lose by just making this small change in your daily diet.

If you stuff your mouth full of food, you’re not tasting it all. Take smaller bites and chew slowly. This is a funny phrase for me because I always told my kids when they were eating to “take small bites and chew good”. I told them that so they wouldn’t choke, but it works for weight loss too.

If you can’t taste every bite, then you can’t enjoy your food. If you’re not enjoying your food then your body will think it didn’t have enough and will want more. Then you eat more because your body no longer knows when it’s full.

Another good reason to eat slowly is that your body doesn’t know it’s full for up to 20 minutes after you’ve started eating. The slower you eat, the less you’ll eat by the time your body tells you it’s had enough.

There’s also the saliva factor. You need saliva in your mouth to break the food down. It takes a couple minutes for the saliva to start working. If you take your time getting started with eating and eat slower, more of your food will be digested easier.

“the French report that only about 11% of people there are obese” ~The French diet connection

Have you ever noticed that French people are thin? They believe that it’s not what they eat so much as it’s how they eat. “French women eat with all five senses”, says  Mireille Guiliano. She describes the way the French eat as very slow and extremely enjoyable.

Let’s give this a try, then everyone post here to let us know how it works for you. Let me know if you’ve lost weight of size in those weeks.

For the next couple weeks try to eat really slow. Before you even take a bite of your food, look at it, smell it, imagine eating it. Then take a small bite and let it sit on your tongue for a second before starting to chew. Chew slowly tasting every nuance of the flavor. Put your food or fork down between bites and just concentrate on the food you’re eating.

Here’s a little trick to make your body think that it’s had a big dessert when it hasn’t. If you’re like me you eat a piece of cake and then you want another. So instead of having two pieces you just cut one big one. When you’re finished your body still wants another piece. Here’s what you can do instead.

Cut yourself a small piece of cake. Eat is slowly, one bite at a time. Savor every morsel. Then when your body is ready for that second piece, cut another small piece. Your body still thinks it’s  had two pieces and is satisfied. It doesn’t know how big the pieces are.

By doing this you can still indulge in your favorite dessert once in a while, but you’ll be satisfies with less calories. Just don’t make a habit of eating high calorie desserts. One a week should be your maximum. Other nights you should have something low calorie, like fruit.

Yogurt has carbs, protein and fat, the three building blocks of food, all in one little package. It also has calcium which, some studies have shown, helps burn fat. If you eat fat free yogurt your cutting out the fat and calories cut you’re still keeping the protein and calcium, which you need to help you lose fat and burn calories faster.

A study published in the April 2005 International Journal of Obesity took two groups of people and put them on a diet. Both diets had everyone cut 500 calories a day from their diets. One group had to eat one yogurt a day, the other group had to eat three yogurts a day. The three a day group lost 22% more weight, 61% more body fat, and 81% more stomach fat than the other group.

If that doesn’t convince you that yogurt is good for weight loss than nothing will. Give it a try, have at least one yogurt a day as a snack. If nothing else, it makes you feel full longer and that’s a good thing too.

It’s easier to lose weight when you have someone to do it with. Look around, do you have a friend who also wants to lose weight and works with you or lives nearby? I bet you do. Ask them if they want to be your diet buddy.

You and your diet buddy will write down what your goals are and how you’re going to accomplish them. Maybe you can go for a walk together every day after lunch, or early in the morning. Maybe you’ll even have lunch together and help each other choose what you should eat.

If you work together you can take turns bringing in healthy snacks each day or each week for each of you to share. If you live near each other you can plan a walk or a workout each day and then take turns making breakfast or lunch for each other.

The idea is that having someone to work out with or diet with will help keep you on track. You keep them on track and in turn they keep you on track. Get it!

With the help of the people at 43 Things you can find the dieting support that you need. 43 Things is a social networking site that lets you choose 43 things you want to work on in your life. Then you join up with other people on 43 Things who want to accomplish the same goals.

Start by signing up with 43 Things. Then look up terms like “lose weight” or “get in shape”. Once you’ve added something you want to do, go into the page for your new goal. You can read posts from other people who are trying to accomplish the same goal you are. If you have something to add, you can post too.

Read other people’s profiles to see what they’ve been up to and how they’re coming along with their goals. Make some friends, maybe even find a diet buddy or two to help you along.

Find all the information you need about the foods you like to eat on this extensive list of foods. There are over 1000 different foods listed on Mike’s Calorie And Fat Gram Chart with nutritional information on each one of them.

Get your food chart listed alphabetically or have your foods sorted for you. You can have them sorted by fat content, protein, carbs or cholesterol. Calories are listed for every food to help you keep track of you caloric intake.

This is a very full list. There are not too many things you won’t find here. If you don’t see your favorite foods listed here, send Mike a note and let him know what the numbers are for that food. Maybe he’ll add it to the list.

Some weight loss bars or diet drinks are low in calories but also low in everything else. Then you’re hungry again in an hour, what good is that? When choosing weight loss bars, drinks or meals look for something with substance. Read the label.

Does that weight loss product have fiber in it? How about protein? Fiber and protein are two things that help you feel full longer. You don’t want a weight loss product that has a lot of carbs but nothing else.

If you’re going to use the weight loss product to replace a meal then it’s even more important that it have fiber and protein in it. Look for meal replacement products to have a minimum of 10g of protein and 3g of fiber, more if possible. Otherwise you’ll just be hungry again and want to eat more.

Do you like to dance? If you like dancing then try this for your workout. Just turn on some of your favorite music and dance. You don’t have to be good at it, you just have to do it. Send your husband and kids outside to play and lock the doors. Then dance.

If you like doing your workouts with your friends or with a group of other women you have a couple options. Join a gym. Some gyms have dance classes and you can dance there with other people who also like to dance. Or, find a dance studio. The kind of place where you would take a child for ballet or jazz lessons. Some of them offer adult classes and you can learn something while you work out.

The dance studio where my son goes offers a variety of adult dance classes. You can take hip hop, tap dance, ballet and a couple others.

Exercise does not have to be a long grueling task, but it does need to be done. Even thin people need to exercise to keep physically fit. Remember, you’re not just trying to lose weight, you need to lose fat. You also need to keep your heart and lungs in good working shape so you’ll live longer and be healthier.

Even thin people can have a high body fat percentage if they don’t exercise. To find out how much body fat you have you can get a body fat composition test done by your doctor or at your gym. You can also use a special scale created just for measuring body fat. To get rid of the body fat you need to do an aerobic exercises three days a week and strength training two days a week.

If you take just 10 minutes out of your day and use it to build a little muscle, to take place of the flab that’s there now, you’ll burn more calories. The calories you burn will be all day, every day. When you do an aerobic type workout you burn calories during the workout and for a couple hours after the workout. When you build new muscle you burn more calories all the time.

This is because muscle cells need more calories to maintain themselves than fat cells do. The more muscle you have the more calories you’ll burn. They burn more all the time because they’re there all the time.

You don’t have to lift weights until you’re big and bulky. Just ten minutes a day of strength training is all it takes. You don’t even have to use weights if you don’t want to. Do some crunches, push ups, leg lifts, squats, or any other exercise that works your muscles.

There’s a new exercise program in town. It’s called the Wii Fit and it’s made for the Nintendo Wii. I don’t have a Wii, yet, but some of my friends do, and they love it. The Wii keeps track of your weight and also your age based on your fitness level. You start out by taking a Wii Fit fitness test and then the Wii tells you how old it thinks you are.

After you know how old you really are you can start on your path to bringing that number down. The Wii is like having your own personal trainer right in your own home. There’s yoga, strength training, balance, and aerobic exercises. There’s even a part where you can do some virtual skiing.

The more Wii fit you become the more exercises that open up for you. This is the Wii’s way of making you want to work out more, and that’s not a bad thing.

Sometimes if you’re biking, running or on an elliptical trainer your toes may become numb or tingly. Don’t worry, this is normal. Normal doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do something about it to keep it from happening though. All it means is that you don’t need to go to the doctor and there’s nothing physically wrong with you.

The numbness or tingling in your toes is caused by pressure on the nerves and blood vessels that aren’t normally there. There is a way to lessen this discomfort.

Make sure to always stretch your calf muscles before any workout. This is good for more than lessening the discomfort in your feet. It also helps to keep you from pulling muscles while you work out.

The other thing you should make sure to do while on an elliptical trainer is to make sure you press down using the balls of your feet. This will cause less pressure on the outsides of your feet and thus less numbness and tingling.

For the sixth week of the walking routine, and every week thereafter, we are going to see if you can do your walk a little bit faster, and eventually turn this into a jog or even running. How fast were you able to do your walking routine last week?

This week you are going to try to decrease the amount of time it takes you to do your walk even further. Go the same distance that you’ve been doing, but this time try to do it faster. Eventually you’ll be able to do this in less than half an hour. At that point you’ll want to start adding in distance again.

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 go for a walk and you are going to walk faster (or jog) than before. Every few minutes try to walk even faster or jog (or maybe even try running) for one minute. Then walk (or jog) 3-5 more minutes. Then walk fast or jog for another minute. Do this for the whole walk.

Don’t forget to do your 5 minute warm up and 5 minute cool down before starting to walk faster. It’s important to get your body ready to exercise and just as important to cool down before stopping.

See how fast you can do your walk this week. Please, post your results here! I’d love to see how you’re doing.

Housework can be an aerobic activity and a good part of your exercise routine. Here are four types of housework that you can do to burn some calories and work your muscles. To add an extra workout to your house cleaning routing, run up and down the steps once every few minutes while cleaning.

Mopping - Anyone with a big kitchen can tell you that mopping is a major workout. When you’re finished you’re exhausted and sore. Let me tell you the good part though. Mopping burns 112 calories in just 30 minutes. It also works your shoulder muscles and your biceps.

Gardening - Time to make the outside of your house beautiful as well as the inside. Get planting that garden. Whether it be flowers or something you can eat you’re going to burn 256 calories and hour while you’re out there working away. You’re also going to come back with stronger arms, legs and back.

Painting - Let’s gussy up the room by changing the color, and getting a workout at the same time. While you’re decorating and making your room into a new room your also working your core muscles and your arms at the same time. On top of that, you’re also burning 288 calories an hour.

Cleaning Gutters - Not a dream job for sure, but out of the four house cleaning jobs listed here, this one burns the most calories with a whopping 320 calories an hour. Wow! I think I need to clean the gutters out more often. You’ll also get a great workout by working your shoulders, arms, legs and upper back muscles.

If you make a pizza yourself you can make it a healthy part of your diet. Any pizza has three basic ingredients: crust, sauce and cheese. We’re going to modify it a little to make it healthier.

First start with a pizza crust, you can buy them at the store pre-baked or you can just get some pizza dough. Pizza sauce is pretty low in calories, it’s basically just tomato, so we can stay with that. For the cheese you’re going to want to make sure to get low fat or fat free mozzarella. To add some flavor you can mix the mozzarella with another low fat or fat free cheese and sprinkle some Parmesan over the top.

Now for the fun part. Time to add some toppings. What do you like? Skip the pepperoni, we’re trying to be healthy here. Use anything that’s a veggie or a fruit: mushrooms, tomatoes, broccoli, mushrooms, onions, olives, spinach, mandarin oranges. Nuts are a good choice too and add some extra protein. Add some herbs and spices on top and you have yourself a healthy, delicious pizza.

They say that if you want to loose weight, you should eat salad. It’s true, to a point. Lettuce, any kind, is extremely low in calories, almost non-existent. Some say that green veggies like lettuce have negative calories, that means that your body used more calories to burn it then it actually has. That sounds good, right?

Imagine this though. You take your lettuce and your ready to turn it into a healthy salad. What are you going to do next?

You want it to taste good so you add grated cheese, bacon bits, croutons, chopped eggs and some nice rich Thousand Island dressing to top it off. Do you know what you just did? You created a meal, not a low calorie salad. Your salad now weighs in at about 300 calories. That’s not going to help you lose weight.

Let’s try again. How about adding some grated carrots, tomato, sunflower seeds, sliced onion, peppers, slivered almonds, celery, walnuts and top it with a low calorie dressing. Now you have a healthy, low calorie salad and you’ve saved yourself a couple hundred calories. You’ll be full and satisfied, believe me.

Remember doing jumping jacks in gym class? I do, lots of them. It turns out that there was a reason your gym teacher made you do them, they’re good for you. Jumping jacks are a really simple way to get the cardio workout that you need to keep your heart strong and get you in shape.

They also make your leg muscles stronger. I’m sure you can see how, you’re jumping on them, something’s going to happen. As you jump up and down you’re working your leg muscles and your heart. Both are getting stronger.

Think back even further to when you were a small child. Did you have a hula hoop? Did you love making it spin around and around? Did you play with it every chance you got? I did, and I loved it.

They’re back you know. You can find hula hoops in gyms now. Adult hula hoops are different from the kiddie ones though. They’re weighted. Some of them are 3-4 pounds. As you spin them around your belly you work your stomach muscles. Only do it for a minute the first time, or you’ll get bruised. Then work your way up. Using a weighted hula hoop also burns a lot of calories.

Don’t overdo it on the red meat. Studies have shown that people who eat more than 18 oz of red meat a week are at a higher risk for colon cancer. No one likes that. If you like your meat, eat in moderation. Red meat includes things like beef, pork and lamb, not to mention hot dogs, lunch meat and bacon.

Don’t think you’re safer if you eat a lot of tofu to replace the red meat in your diet. It’s recommended that you don’t eat more than one serving (6 oz of tofu) a day of soy products. Soy is very good for you and a great alternative to meat protein, but too much of anything can be bad.

Have you ever had a fruit smoothie? They’re super sweet and really good for you. They’re also really easy to make yourself, and probably healthier than buying one at the mall. You only need a few ingredients and a blender to make yourself the sweetest healthy desert ever.

The main thing you’re going to need to make yourself a fruit smoothie is… fruit. Frozen fruit that is. Just pick up a bag at the grocery store. Any kind you like. Strawberries, raspberries, peaches or something else. If you want you can even use a combination of fruits in your smoothie.

Then you’ll need something liquid or semi liquid. Orange juice, or another kind of fruit juice is good for that. Pour your fruit into the blender, then pour in a little juice. Press it down with a spatula, put the lid on and blend. You many need to press is down more or try the pulse button to get it started, or you may need a little more juice.

If you want to add some protein to your smoothie you can use low fat vanilla yogurt, peanut butter or soft tofu.

For the fifth week of the walking routine we are going to see if you can do your walk a little bit faster. How far were you able to walk in 60 minutes? This week you are going to start decreasing the amount of time it takes you to do your walk. Go the same distance that you did in your 60 minute routine, but this time try to do it faster.

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 go for a walk and you are going to walk faster than before. Every few minutes try to walk even faster or jog for one minute. Then walk 3-5 more minutes. Then walk fast or jog for another minute. Do this for the whole walk.

Don’t forget to do your 5 minute warm up and 5 minute cool down before starting to walk faster. It’s important to get your body ready to exercise and just as important to cool down before stopping.

See how fast you can do your walk this week. Please, post your results here! I’d love to see how you’re doing.

Natural, whole foods are the best for giving you energy. Foods high in vitamins and minerals are also high energy foods. Protein and fiber should be eaten with every meal to help give you constant energy throughout the day. Omega 3 fatty acids keep you healthy and make your brain work faster. Here are some foods that help to give you energy:

- Baked potato, with the skin
- Orange, instead of orange juice
- Fish and shellfish
- Eggs
- Poultry and lean beef or pork
- Low fat dairy
- Avocados, olive oil and canola oil
- Whole grain bread, rice, pasta and beans
- Fruits and veggies
- Nuts and seeds