Lose Weight FAST: 9 MAGIC Steps to Lose Weight and Keep It Off FOREVER!

Dec 16 by Joanna

There is so much contradicting information about weight loss out there, that it is sometimes hard to find out what’s true and what is just marketing hype. If you have been spending a fortune on recommended supplements and “super foods” (like I once did), but didn’t feel healthy and felt disillusioned, keep reading to discover what’s the healthiest and the fastest way to lose weight and keep it off forever!

But first, let’s get something straight here.

Conventional diets and fad diets do not work for most people. Calorie-counting diets, the detox diets, B-12 Shots, hCG diet, the low-carb high protein diets, diet pills, protein shakes and powders, Sensa system – in my opinion these all will fail you and, even worse, most of them are tedious, pointless and even dangerous to your health.

Sure, you may lose a few pounds in the process, however, in the long run, the majority of people are not able to stick with these dietary regimens and gain the weight back on quite quickly, often putting on even more than they lost in the first place.

A “diet” should not be about starving yourself, or depriving yourself of vital nutrients, but instead, a new lifestyle with plenty of healthy food choices that make sticking to it long term so much easier.

Instead of “quick-and-easy” weight loss that doesn’t work, you want a steady approach. Less time efficient, but better off in the long run. Commit to a lifestyle change, eat well and healthy (grazing like animals do throughout the day), sleep for as close to 8 hours as your schedule permits, and exercise regularly. I know the results aren’t instant, but it’s so much healthier.

If it took you years to get to where you are, you can’t expect immediate results!

Steps To Take If You Want to Lose Weight (Fat) Naturally and Keep It Off Forever

1. Consume at least 60% or more of your daily calories in the form of RAW FRUITS and VEGETABLES.

If you really want to lose weight fast, 70%, 80% or 90% is even better; 100% is best but few people can stay 100% raw diet successfully long term.

The average American diet is roughly 7% fruits and vegetables, even less than that in raw state. We are told to eat 5 or more portions a day, but to get real impact on your weight or health, you need to RADICALLY and DRAMATICALLY increase daily intake, and put a special focus on green vegetables like spinach, broccoli and salad.

High levels of fresh fruits fruits, vegetables, and greens help you lose weight because they are low in calories, high in volume and high in critically important nutrients. There is also a growing body of evidence that shows that plant-based foods help to control food cravings and overeating. They are nutrient dense, which simply means they are packed with all sorts of good things for you, which is something most of us know.

The power of raw foods is not only one of the most well-known “rejuvenation” secrets of celebrities and Hollywood stars (such as Demi Moore, Pierce Brosnan, Sting, Edward Norton, Carol Alt, and many others) it is also a concept that has the potential of giving you what you’re looking for: incredible health, increased energy, and a youthful and slim body.

(Keep in mind, that not all raw-based diets are created equal, some, for example, recommend you limit consumption of fruits, having you consume excessive amounts of fatty foods instead, which is NOT what I’m advocating here).

This can certainly seem daunting at first, so to make it easier for yourself, each time you go grocery shopping, start by filling up your basket in the produce section.

2. Drink GREEN SMOOTHIES every day.

Green smoothies are rich in fiber but low in calories so they will you up quickly. They are also DELICIOUS tasting – so they are excellent to combat cravings for unhealthy stuff!

They are easier to make than juices, and take much less time to prepare and to consume than salads. Think about all the chopping and chewing you will need to do in order to eat a big bowl of greens and veggies – if you blend them with some water and drink, it only takes two minutes for the whole process! The blender will do all the chewing for you!

It’s important to become creative with blending. Experiment with various greens, fruits and vegetables, trying as many combinations as possible. The possibilities are endless. I discovered so many good combos just by asking, “I wonder how this and that taste together in a smoothie?” I encourage you to do the same.

For example, try apple-celery-spinach, apple-celery-spinach-banana, blueberry-pear-celery-spinach, lettuce-honeydew, Romaine lettuce-strawberries-banana, pears-kale-mint, kiwi-celery-banana, strawberry-apple-spinach, or more savory tomato-celery-onion-pepper-avocado, or other combination.

Try adding various types of greens: lettuces, kale, parsley, spinach, and other. Add some water, blend and drink!

The best blenders to use to make green smoothies are Blendtec blenders and Vitamix. No other brand will produce such smooth results, especially if you add such tough greens as kale, celery, or collard greens. Unfortunately, both of them are quite expensive – although well worth the price if you consider them a long-term investment in your family’s health.

However, if you have a blender already, you may just as well start with what you have.

3. Include RAW VEGETABLE SALADS in your diet.

Even if you are drinking your smoothies, you can still enjoy your salads.

But, what is a salad, really? It’s any combination of fresh RAW VEGETABLES, such as tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, celery, okra, zucchini and other squashes, cabbage, peppers, eggplant, etc., etc., with possible addition of fresh fruits, and small quantities of nuts and seeds. Vegetables are great because they are lowest calorie foods. The absolute best vegetables to help speed up weight loss are green vegetables – Lettuce, Collard Greens, Spinach, Swiss Chard, Brussels Sprouts, Broccoli, Cabbage.

Adding cheese, beans, chicken, tuna, eggs, mayo, commercial dressings and other ingredients, turns a salad into a tossed meal. So if you are one of the people who live only on “salads,” and yet cannot lose weight, take an honest look at the ingredients – and proportions of ingredients – raw veggies versus everything else – of your tossed meals.

Instead of fat-laden commercial dressings, have some fun and experiment. Blend some lemon juice with avocado, or strawberries with parsley, or blend pineapple with tahini as the dressing. Other combinations you may try: pineapple-red pepper, grapefruit-tahini, strawberry-almond, oranges-bell pepper-Brazil nuts, orange-pistachio.

If you are worried that you will not consume enough fats, especially the beneficial omega 3 fats, you should know that everything we eat contains some amount of fat. In fact, a natural diet of fruits and vegetables, along with some seeds and nuts or avocado, provides the body all the essential fatty acids it needs!

4. Eat LOTS OF FRESH, RAW, RIPE FRUITS.

I said before in number 1, but I feel this needs more emphasis and explanation.

Fruit contains three keys to weight loss: fiber, vitamins and water. Fiber creates a feeling of satiety and helps clean the digestive tract. The vitamin content of fruit allows the body to crave less food because it satisfies nutrient requirements. If the body is depleted of nutrients, one becomes hungry to satisfy those deficiencies. Therefore, diets high in foods that contain these nutrients such as fruit keep hunger at bay. Fruits are also rich in water, which keeps the body hydrated.

Many people have misconceptions about sugar found in fruit. Refined sugar is very different from natural sugars. Refined sugars can cause a shock to the body, causing a spike in blood sugar levels that set the pancreas into overdrive. Thanks to the rich fiber content, sugars from fruits are slowly digested and burned at a steady rate. So, even though fruit is high in sugar, such natural sugar should not be avoided. If you compare a soda and a piece of fruit, although they may contain the same amount of sugar, the sugar in each can cause very different reactions in the body. Ditch soda to lose weight, but keep the strawberries.

The human body requires fuel to operate and you must get that fuel, via calories, from somewhere. Fruit is excellent fuel for humans. It is very easy to digest, provides fast energy and is alkaline-forming. Fruit is a way to obtain simple carbohydrates which match our physiological needs. We must stop eating mostly acid diet, and consume more alkaline foods, i.e. raw fruits and veggies.

Eating fruit as the basis of our diet is a new and revolutionary concept for most of us, and often people fail to realize how much fruit it takes to provide energy for an entire day. Forget the saying “an apple a day” – certainly one serving is not enough. Eat enough fruit to meet your calorie needs – which means eating a LOT of fruit by most people’s standards. Allowing lots of fruit in your diet makes succeeding in this weight loss plan easier than any other approach to eating.

To develop the healthiest and sanest relationship with food, and in order to stick with a dietary plan that will work for you for the rest of your life, have all the fruit you care for to eat for breakfast, lunch meals and snacks. Even your vegetable meals should begin with as much fruit as you like, until you are certain that you will not crave sweets at the end of the meal.

Strawberries, raspberries and blueberries are at the top of the list when it comes to helping speed up weight loss. You might be worried about the calories in strawberries but you need to realize there are only 74 per cup and those are the calories you want. There are even fewer calories in raspberries. They will give you energy, make you feel great and help burn off fat very quickly. They also help to fight cancer.

The only caveat is that you should not eat lots of fats when eating diet high in fruits. Fats make it difficult for the body to properly digest sugar, possibly leading to some increased blood sugar levels.

If the idea of eating such large quantities of raw fruits and vegetables seems daunting, and you cannot imagine yourself ever getting even close to 60%, let alone 80 or 90%, don’t worry. Start by replacing some of the foods with healthier alternatives.

5. Make water your primary drink

Throughout your day, focus on water instead of soda. Drink lots of it – it’s great for weight loss!

5. Make yourself FRESH, RAW VEGETABLE and FRUIT JUICES.

This is another tasty way to add more fresh fruits and vegetables to your diet. Raw juices, especially green juices, are vital. A juicer separates the juice from the fiber of the fruits and vegetables leaving you with only the pure organic water. This organic water that is extracted from plants contains all of the vitamins, minerals, and enzymes, that go straight to the cells to do their work, so your body will not waste energy on digestion. By juicing fruits an veggies we can consume much more of the organic water because the fiber doesn’t fill you up. Also, the juices (especially green juices) provide perfect cellular hydration and can take the place of drinking glasses of water.

There are many juicers on the market today, but the Breville juicer is probably the easiest to use when you are juicing lots of greens. Look for a juicer that extracts the pulp, as it will allow you to make more juice without having to stop to empty it. This is important, since you need to be juicing a lot of greens.

I used to do quite a lot of juicing, however, since I bought my Vitamix and started blending green smoothies, I noticed that I have been juicing less and less. Green smoothies have numerous benefits for human health AND are easy to prepare (especially the cleanup is much faster).

6. Other Foods to Eat

Add beans, whole grains, and nuts to your diet in moderation.
Limit the amount of animal protein in your diet. Eliminate all processed foods from your diet.

However – this is very important – don’t deny yourself any foods that you crave.

Just tell yourself that you can have them as soon as you are finished with your smoothie, salad or other healthy snack. You may find that you don’t crave it any more, or if you still do, have a really small portion.

Treat high-calorie foods as jewels in the crown. For example, take a spoonful of ice cream the jewel and a bowl of fruit the crown.

7. Be active and exercise.

Walk for 45 minutes a day. Walking is great and the reason I’m suggesting 45 minutes instead of the typical 30 is that some studies 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.

In addition to walking, if you are up to it, try running, weight lifting, yoga, jumping rope, boxing, or any other exercise program that you like. You don’t need any special equipment or even gym membership to do that. If you don’t want to spend any money, start with walking 20-30 minutes a day. It’s also important to some weight bearing exercises. There are many exercises that you can do that use your own body weight – squats, lunges, presses. Eventually, though, you should add some weights to your routine. If you never worked out with free weights, think you are too old, too young, too fat to start, or whatever, read “No fat chicks” “Old broads: the golden years of pumping iron,” and other articles on the www.stumptous.com blog.

To add variety to your workouts – and make them more fun, you may want to invest in some basic exercise equipment. Get a mini trampoline to keep you moving when watching tv. Get a bike – ride it every day. (If the weather is bad, you might get yourself a bike trainer, such as one of the fancy Kurt Kinetic bike trainers or Minoura bike trainers, or just a cheap, second-hand stationary bike that you may find on craiglist). The important part is to start moving. If you need some motivation, get yourself a Bodybugg or Gowear Fit armband. The point is to start moving. It will get easier with time – I promise.

8. Listen to your body.

Whenever possible, eat with other people as much as you can and don’t eat if your are not hungry. Have a piece of fruit, a small raw vegetable salad, a glass of raw juice or a glass of water.

However, don’t put up with hunger pains either. Far too many people place their meal times around the clock. It is much healthier to place your meals around your hunger in the same way that children do, and pay less heed to the clock. Also, don’t feel like you have to finish eating everything on your plate, even after your hunger has been fully satisfied.

8. Keep a Food Diary

Carry a small notebook everywhere you go for one week. Write down every single morsel that enters your lips. Studies have found that people who maintain food diaries wind up eating about 15 percent less food than those who don’t.

Questions? Comments? Weight Loss Tips?

Why not add to the conversation in the comment section below! Are you trying to lose weight? What type of diet are you following? What are you struggling with?

Want to share some weight loss tips with other readers? I’ll be looking forward to hearing from you!

Thanks!

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Keeping Food Journal Doubles Weight Loss

Nov 30 by GuestPoster

If you are on a diet, keep a food journal of what you eat during the week and especially on the weekends. Statistics show you are more likely to fall off the wagon on the weekends. By keeping a physical record of what you are consuming on Saturday and Sunday, you are reminded of the goal you are trying to accomplish. 

However, just keeping a diary is not enough. Also, search for some quick weight loss tips that fit your lifestyle and schedule, including healthy eating tips, exercise tips, such as these muffin top workout tips. Consider joining a weight loss support group to help you along your weight loss journey. This will surround you with people who want to help you with your goals, and give you someone to fall back on when you are tempted to break your diet. You might even make some new friends!

Printable Food and Fitness Journal

Studies show (and successful losers have proven) that keeping track of what you eat and your activity level is
one of the most powerful tools to help you shed unwanted pounds and keep them off for good.

“In a recent study by the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, participants who kept food journals lost almost double the weight of their nonjournaling counterparts.

And at a time when Americans spend $35 billion a year on weight-loss products — a figure larger than the gross domestic product of most developing countries — the finding could be good news for those searching for an inexpensive route to a healthier weight.

The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, focused on the efficacy of various behavioral weight-loss interventions in more than 1,500 overweight and obese adults. Participants were schooled on lifestyle interventions, which included weekly group sessions, regular exercise, a heart-healthy diet, reduced alcohol consumption and the use of food diaries.

After five months, participants lost an average of almost 13 pounds — a significant amount, according to physicians. However, those who used a food diary more than five days a week lost almost twice as much weight as those who didn’t. And perhaps more impressively, they kept the weight off.

When keeping food diaries, dieters write down, for better or worse, every calorie that passes through their lips each day.

But why do the diaries work? Experts agree that the ultimate value lies in the formation of a “foundation of personal accountability.” Almost everyone agrees that accountability is the most important ingredient behind any successful lifestyle change, including weight loss.

Dr. Patrick O’Neil, director of the Weight Management Center at the Medical University of South Carolina, agrees. “Most of us don’t really know how much we eat and drink; we have very charitable memories,” he says. Read more on ABCNews.

Use this printable Food & Fitness Journal or check out the personalized WebMD Food & Fitness Planner to
help keep you working toward your goals.

You can find a printable food and fitness journal here.

Beyond the Food Diary: A Few Tips For Quick Weight Loss

- A great way to help you lose weight is to try following a raw food diet. Eating nothing but raw foods such as fruits and vegetables, is a great way to insure you’re getting fresh, quality nutrition. By eating raw foods you’ll also be much healthier in general.

- If you want to help your children lose weight, make sure they get enough sleep. The body of a child grows mostly during his or her sleep and burns a lot of calories in the process. A growing child needs about eight hours of sleep every night. Explain to your children how their body grows and why they need sleep.

A great tip to lose weight is to invest in a shaker bottle. Shaker bottles are very useful because you can make your own protein shake on the fly. All you have to do is add protein powder and any liquid of your choice, and just shake it up a few times.

If you want to incorporate diet pills into your weight-loss routine exercise extreme caution. Research the pills you look at carefully. While some pills can provide effective assistance with your weight-loss, almost all of them have side effects. Some side-effects can be seriously harmful. Remember not to take manufacturers’ claims at face value; use a third-party source to research pills.

An easy weight loss tip is to buy red pepper flakes and use them in your breakfast or lunch. Research has shown that people that use red pepper early in the day eat less food later on. Spiced food is more enjoyable and satisfying than bland food also, so it helps your dining experience be pleasant.

Want to know how many athletes manage their weight? They eat lean proteins, plenty of vegetables and salads. This should be your watchword too if you are hardcore about getting in shape. You need lean proteins to help your body maintain and build muscle as you are getting rid of your fat. You also need the vegetables and salads for their high levels of nutrients and fiber. Carbs are there too, but they play a background role. By giving your body just the fuel it needs to build muscle and nourish itself, it can focus on becoming a fat-burning machine.

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post that does NOT necessarily represent the opinions of our editorial team.

Questions? Comments? Weight Loss Tips?

Why not add to the conversation in the comment section below! Are you trying to lose weight? What type of diet are you following? What are you struggling with? Have you tried green smoothies for weight loss?

Want to share some weight loss tips with fellow readers? I’ll be looking forward to hearing from you!

Thanks!

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Tips for Proper Weight Management

Nov 24 by GuestPoster

Many health experts would vouch for the contention that if you ensure proper weight management you can also successfully maintain and improve your optimal health. This is true because proper weight management has proper nutrition as an important prerequisite. To eat healthy foods is not the only basic aspect that one has to think about, regulating the meals that you take everyday is also equally important.

The thing about proper weight management (and this is something that many people may fail to realize) is that it’s not only applicable or recommended for those who have firm intentions to lose weight. It really applies to all of us who want to maintain good health.

Here are some of the tips for proper weight management.

o Eat fruits and vegetables. Vital nutrients can be found in vegetables and fruits that cannot be found in meat, poultry products and other whole grain products. So be sure to stock fruits and vegetables in the fridge.

o Know food products that are risky to your health or diet. This is a case-to-case basis as other people may not be recommended to eat a particular food too much – for instance, fatty foods and meat for people who have high cholesterol level or those who have heart disease.

o Familiarize yourself with the healthy food pyramid. The food guide pyramid is a standard model for a well balanced meal. A variety of nutrient-rich foods should be taken each from the prescribed food groups.

o Do not miss meals. Missing meals, especially breakfast, can hamper proper weight management.

Remember, a healthy weight is dependent on many factors – hereditary factors, height, weight, age, sex and even activity. From time to time, you have to make compromises on your eating habits.

Also, it’s important to note that the concept of diet is often understood to mean “losing weight” but in its literal and original definition as “food and drink regularly provided or consumed “, it applies to everyone.

So proper weight management doesn’t have to mean losing weight the right way (although at some point, this is one of its many delightful effects). What it really means is regulating your diet to ensure that you are getting the right amount of nutrients and vitamins each and every day.

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post that does NOT necessarily represent the opinions of our editorial team.

Questions? Comments? Weight Loss Tips?

Why not add to the conversation in the comment section below! Are you trying to lose weight? What type of diet are you following? What are you struggling with? Have you tried green smoothies for weight loss?

Want to share some weight loss tips with fellow readers? I’ll be looking forward to hearing from you!

Thanks!

read more