Tag Archives: health

7 Calorie Burning Tips

These are just a few habits you can embrace to start revving your metabolism right away. You may have heard stories about people who have lost dozens of pounds simply switching to diet soda or walking a few minutes each day. These are all small habits that contribute to a big difference and increase your metabolism over time. You will make weight loss quicker and easier by increasing your metabolic rate and burning more calories.

7 Calorie Burning Tips

1) Move More

Sedentary people burn about one-third less calories per day. By simply taking every opportunity to move can make quite a dramatic difference to the amount of calories you burn in one day. 7 Calorie Burning TipsSmall movements will add up over time to lots of calories. The trick is to keep moving throughout your day. Write the word ‘move’ on post-it notes and put them in places you’ll notice them when you’re sitting still. Then, take every opportunity to move – here’s some ideas for burning extra calories:

Tap your feet
Swing your legs
Stand up and stretch
Move your head from side to side
Change position
Wriggle and fidget
Pace up and down
Use the restroom upstairs
Park in the furthest corner of the parking lot
Stand up when you’re on the phone and step from side to side
Clench and release your muscles

2) Eat Little and Often

Evidence suggests that eating small meals every 2-4 hours will keep your metabolism burning faster than larger, less frequent meals. When you eat small amounts often your body is constantly working to digest and absorb food which requires energy.

3) Eat Fat

If you want feel good and keep the fat off you need to first put it in. Fat not only tastes good our bodies need it to work efficiently. By consuming several servings of ‘healthy’ fats every day you will actually increase your calorie burning potential. Try incorporating fats like Flaxseed oil, hempseed oil, olive oil, avocados, salmon, albacore tuna, nuts and seeds into your diet daily.

4) Drink Cold Water

Evidence shows that your body might expend more calories trying to raise cold water to the temperature of your body then hot beverages. And overall being well hydrated will help your body’s metabolic processes burn quicker.

5) Exercise With Weights

Training with weights boosts your metabolism in a number of ways. By lifting weights you will build muscle tissue. And muscle tissue is metabolically active, so it requires calories even when at rest and so it helps to increase fat-burning enzymes in your body.
6) Spice up

Eating hot spices might speed up your metabolism. Just half a teaspoon of cinnamon per day can help boost metabolism and keep blood sugar levels in check. Can’t stand the thought of cinnamon in your morning cup of coffee? Spice up with cayenne, crushed red pepper or wasabi.

7) Eat More Protein

Protein requires a more complex chemical breakdown by your body in order to be digested and used as fuel. For example, 100 calories of protein may take up to 30 calories to process. Protein also takes longer to digest and helps to stabilize blood sugar for longer periods of time and this can help you to not overeat later in the day. Eat a portion of protein at every meal and as part of your snacks and you will increase the total number of calories you burn each day.

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You Can Have Washboard Abdominals And Look Great On The Beach

Hints and tip picked up in over thirty years around the gym

Can you imagine walking along the beach in you swimsuit with everyone looking at your rippling six pack. All eyes jealously admiring your suntanned, muscular physique.

Ok here’s the truth, “there are no easy ways to build washboard abs”!

Washboard abdominals

washboard abdominalsBut there are some ways that will give you fantastic results (and some that will waste your time).

It seems as if there is a new “Super Fast Power Abdominals” gadget on the market every week. Most of them are totally useless and may do more harm than good. The only thing that will get a workout is your wallet.

Some of them may work for a while but when the novelty wears off, it’s packed in the back of a cupboard, never to be seen again.

They are all limited in what they can do. They only allow you to do a limited number of movements. And then you get the next gadget out! You would need to exercise in a warehouse to get everything in. And that’s just for the abs!

I have even seen for sale, on eBay, with bids, a sun mask to place on your abs so that you will get sun tan where the muscle separation would be. I can imagine all the couch potatoes queuing up for this one.

If you do regular “Sit Up’s” for millions of reps you are very unlikely to build rippling muscles but you will have great endurance. If you do “straight leg sit ups” it is possible that you may damage your lower back due to the strain placed upon it. It may be better to avoid sit ups at all costs. The same with “lying straight leg lifts”.

One of the best exercises for abs is crunches. Lay on your back with your feet on a chair or bench. Curl up your upper body towards your knees. At the top position, hold for a few seconds, while flexing your abs. You will only get a short range of motion with this exercise but it will work wonders.

There are many variations of the crunch. Try doing them with a twist to work the side oblique muscles. Lying on the floor, try doing Jacknife crunches, raising your legs as you crunch, and try to reach past your toes with your hands.

For best results you need to do between 8-15 reps to build abs that will be admired be everyone. And take all sets to total failure and some more.

Some trainers say that in a set of 10 reps the first nine are the warm up and the tenth produces the muscle. I think this can be improved if you think that the one that produces the results is actually number 11!

If you are carrying a layer of extra body fat you will never be able to display a set of washboard abs. Losing that extra few pounds can make all the difference.

Counting every calorie that you eat is not my idea of fun. I like to eat a high protein diet and find it works for me. I enjoy lots of chicken, turkey, beef, milk, and cheese etc, eaten with plenty of healthy salads.

Avoid all processed food and cut down on the carbonated drinks, even the “low cal” ones. You do not need the artificial sweeteners and chemicals.

If you have a sweet tooth and are sometimes tempted to have chocolate it may be better to have a small bar occasionally instead of obsessing about it and then pigging out with dozens of candy bars. Buy fresh fruit and each time you have cravings eat some fruit.

As with any new program it is recommended that you start slowly and build up gradually as you gain experience. Even Arnold had to start with low weights and learn from more experienced bodybuilders.

This article is provided as entertainment and no responsibility can be taken for loss or injuries incurred during physical exercise. If you have not undertaken any form of exercise for a while, please consult your doctor before starting any new exercise program.

Above all, Have fun and be safe.

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Quit Drinking Soda? Water, Diet Sodas And Weight Loss

Copyright 2006 Donovan Baldwin

What on earth does water have to do with weight loss? Actually, a lot more than you previously imagined.

Quit drinking soda?

quit drinking sodaAre you aware that some studies have shown that your brain cannot distinguish between hunger and thirst? But should you quit drinking soda? Sometimes when your body is telling you that you are thirsty, your brain may be hearing that you are hungry. So what do you do? You put food in your mouth when a glass of water might have been sufficient. Most food has calories, most water doesn’t. Simple equation. ‘Nuff said on that topic.

By the way, ever wake up in the middle of the night and crave a snack? Nine times out of ten, a glass of water will do the trick. I know, I didn’t believe it either until I tried it. It really works!

Tissue, muscle, cells, even blood are all comprised to a large per cent of water. When your brain starts getting signals that water is needed…well, remember the confusion factor mentioned above? We eat something instead of giving our body what it really craves and needs! Your entire body works much better, by the way, when the fluid levels are kept up where they need to be.

BUT I DRINK LOTS OF LIQUID AND STILL GAIN WEIGHT!

Sure you do, but what KIND of liquid. I won’t even talk about sodas, coffee, or tea sweetened with sugar. I’m going to assume that you already know that sugar is not the way to go if you want to lose weight, but what about the artificially sweetened drinks? Should you quit drinking soda?

Did you know…

ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS CAN CAUSE YOU TO GAIN WEIGHT?

Some studies have shown that using artificial sweeteners can contribute to weight gain in at least two ways. Maybe a good reason to quit drinking soda.

First, there is the confusion factor. When you use artificial sweeteners, you, and your brain, become confused about the calorie content of the food you eat. You may actually find yourself eating more in an effort to satisfy an internal urge or interpretation, and this urge may be related to the assumed “fact” that the sweet soda you just drank didn’t have that many calories, so neither does this cinnamon roll. Actually, before artificial sweeteners, our bodies and brains were pretty good at relating calorie content to food based on the sweetness.

A WORD FOR PARENTS!

Our bodies’ understanding of “sweetness” and the development of the internal calorie estimating apparatus mentioned above apparently occurs in childhood. Maybe they should quit drinking soda. Early use of artificial sweeteners could cause the grown-up years later to ingest more of sweet foods than they should.

The second way in which artificial sweeteners may contribute to weight gain is what could be called…

THE SUGAR TRAP!

Your body is a complicated device which has developed a huge number of inter-related, synergistic, stimulus sensing and automatic response mechanisms. It has learned to begin things happening inside when something sweet is detected. The digestive system is prepared to receive a certain type of fuel…which it welcomes! When you ingest food or drink which has been artificially sweetened, all your little hormones, glands, cells, and systems begin asking, “What’s going on?” Like prisoners in an old movie, they start rattling their tin cups and yelling out, “FEED ME!” Oh yeah, that was the plant in “Little Shop Of Horrors”, wasn’t it?

Anyway, your internal messengers are now not very happy, nor will they be until you send down some calories for them to munch on. See the trap? It reminds me of when I managed a restaurant when people would order a salad and diet drink and then smother the salad in high-calorie, high-fat dressing and have ice cream for dessert. Get the picture. Thinking that you might want to quit drinking soda?

WAIT! IT MIGHT EVEN BE WORSE!

Artificial sweeteners are much sweeter than ordinary sugar, and that’s why you can sweeten a cup of coffee with one little white pill. However, there are some studies which indicate that artificial sweeteners become somewhat addictive. If that isn’t bad enough, this brings us to one of the most popular drugs in America…

CAFFEINE

Even though a lot of people who want to lose weight are drinking artificially sweetened drinks, a lot of these drinks – coffee, tea, sodas – contain caffeine. Could be another reason to quit drinking soda. Caffeine is a diuretic. It dehydrates you, causing your body to lose water. Remember, water = good. When you are dehydrated, low on internal liquid, your metabolism slows down. This means your body gets by on fewer calories and stores the rest as fat. Think it through: You get dehydrated, you get thirsty. You just drank a cup of tea, coffee, or soda, so you can’t be thirsty, can you? Since your brain can’t really tell the difference between hunger and thirst signals, it tells you to eat something when all that’s really going on is that you need a drink of water.

SO WHAT CAN YOU DO? Quit drinking soda?

1. Substitute water for most of the other stuff you’re drinking.

2. “Buy” your artificially sweetened drinks. My wife came up with this idea, but I have seen it used in other contexts as well. If you drink an artificially sweetened drink and/or one with caffeine, buy it back with at least an equivalent sized drink of water. Eight ounces of coffee? Follow it with eight ounces of water.

3. Is water boring for you? Then try flavoring your water with lemon or something else. Use herbal teas that have their own flavor and might not even need to be sweetened.

4. Include soups and juices in your diet. These are high liquid content. Just be aware that while nutritionally better for you than diet drinks or drinks with caffeine, they DO contain calories.

5. Can’t do without sweetened drinks? Try stevia. This is a natural food additive available online and at most health food stores. While it has a sweetening effect, the FDA does not allow it to be called or marketed as a sweetener. Due to its chemical makeup, it does not seem to produce the cravings for more food as do other non-sugar sweeteners. I read that in a book, but I tried Stevia and that’s how it worked for me. I was drinking four to eight cups of coffee sweetened with artificial sweeteners a day, and munching tons of snacks as I drank the coffee! I started using stevia, and the desire for constant snacking went away. I will warn you, while technically VERY sweet, it does have an acquired taste. I figure if I could get used to it, anybody could. It’s the only sweetener in our house now.

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What Every Woman Needs to Know to Stay Healthy

What Every Woman Needs to Know to Stay HealthyThere are hundreds and thousands of articles, books, media sources and materials available in the world that tell us how to stay healthy. Many are on what every woman needs to know to stay healthy. How many of us have time to research, read and scour this multitude of information? Further, how do we trust all the information available out there? This article has done all the work for you. Of course, not every tip or piece of worldly advice can be put on these few pages but the most important information is here. Keep a copy and hand this out to all the women you know, it is for every female person ages 1-100.

What every woman needs to know to stay healthy

From ages 1-10

Staying healthy and starting healthy habits begins the minute we are born. What every woman needs to know to stay healthy starts early. What can we do for those at these young and tender ages? Mothers can begin by breast-feeding. They can introduce healthy items at meal times when babies are ready for solid food. Required immunizations need to be kept up to date. From birth through young childhood, the intake of a chewable tablet vitamin supplement must become part of their daily routine. Be sure to watch what ingredients are in those children’s multi vitamins you purchase. Your pediatrician or family physician can advise you of the proper vitamin supplement needed for your child’s specific body type and physical condition. Starting with healthy eating and lifestyle habits in young childhood sets the stage for your child’s good health into middle childhood and the adolescent years.

Ages 11-20

Good health is critical for young women. It’s important to remember a few key things about this age group. The young girl/woman will be experiencing a growth spurt, which may be accompanied by what is known as “growing pains”. Healthy habits will assure her full attention span and enough energy to participate in school activities and classroom learning. Her body is also preparing for the beginning of menstruation. Puberty begins and the brain starts its process of sending messages to the hormonal system and the reproductive organs begin to develop. Good nutrition along with a vitamin supplement will also ready her body for excellent reproductive health and potential child bearing. What every woman needs to know to stay healthy is critical at this age. Most importantly, by the age of 20 if she has developed these few health habits, the young woman is likely to carry those into her adult years. Especially when learning what every woman needs to know to stay healthy.

Ages 20-39

If a female person is developmentally on course and is dedicated to maintaining optimum health, she should remain healthy into her later years. These years of 20-39 are when women become busy with careers and/or having children or starting a family. Many experts agree that this is also a time when women will postpone or neglect their own health in order to provide care for others. Remember, you are not going to be able to provide much help, care or assistance for others if you yourself are ill, exhausted or nutritionally deficient. Let’s discuss how women can avoid this trap and insure their own good health.

• Eat healthy foods. Avoiding unhealthy fats and consuming raw fruits and vegetables go a long way in staying nutritionally stable.
• Watch your dieting habits. While there are many diet plans out there, the simplest is almost always more effective. Watching portion size and the ingredients (fat, calories and sugar) in foods will often net the best weight loss results. It’s wise to note that losing or maintaining your desired weight means one thing, there needs to be more calories burned than what has been consumed. This can be accomplished with:
• Exercise. Whether you are a regular attendee at the local gym or you workout at home, there are certain types of exercise that will benefit you the most. One exercise routine must raise your heart rate (cardiovascular health). Another should include free-weights or weight lifting in some form (bone health and strengthening). Additionally, walking, dancing and swimming can tone the body. Weight loss in pounds alone will make you happy when you step on the scales but most women want that loose skin (abdomen, underarms, and thighs) to tighten up as well. If you just can’t find the time to exercise, try these activities:
• Park in the last open parking space far away from the storefront and walk.
• At home, grab some large juice bottles that have the indented areas for carrying or milk jugs and do some curls.
• Take the stairs instead of elevators in public places
• Take a stroll through your neighborhood every night after dinner
• Visit your gynecologist every year for a PAP test (more often if your doctor suggests or your last one came back with an abnormal result). PAP tests are essential towards maintaining a healthy reproductive system. They are used to detect cervical cancer and infections among other things.
• Perform your own self-breast exams.
• Make an appointment at age 39 for your first mammogram.
• For a woman interested in what every woman needs to know to stay healthy, take regular multi vitamins every day. Add other supplements including calcium, Fish Oil and Vitamin C. Do some research on the types and amounts of vitamins and/or supplements you could be taking. I found vitanetonline.com to be very helpful for this kind of information. Also, it has been found that women in these childbearing years are lacking in the amount of folic acid they need. Insufficient amounts of folic acid have been linked to birth defects of the brain in newborns. These birth defects can be avoided if a woman takes sufficient amounts of folic acid before she conceives and during the early, first trimester of pregnancy.
• Not least of all, are these tips to good health that most informational sources rarely mention.
• Find a spiritual path or connection. These are highly personal so I won’t offer any suggestions. Women have chosen a religion, nature, prayer, rituals, a quiet room and many others to find that place within self where they can be at peace.
• Keep your mental health a priority. Talk to a professional therapist if you need some guidance or direction.
• Avoid unhealthy relationships. If you are being abused in any manner by anyone, seek help

While all these “tips” for the age 20-39 group will keep a woman in optimum health, most of these need to be implemented and continued into the later years as well.

Ages 40-100

These are the years that many women claim that they become wiser. Some even claim that it is the best time of life they ever experienced. The tips for the 20-39 age groups hold true for women beyond 40; some exceptions would include the advice on folic acid intake, the amount of weight carried in the free-weight exercise routines, the limitations of exercise that may create falls, accidents or injuries and the PAP tests. Regular PAP test examinations usually ceases around 80 years of age but ask your doctor first.

From ages 40-50 a woman who is interested in learning what every woman needs to know to stay healthy, can expect pre-menopausal symptoms. Again, the changes that occur in any woman’s life can never be set at a certain age. There are women that may never have any disrupting symptoms of menopause. Other women may begin menopause at age 40 others might be near 50. Some women may become post-menopausal at age 45 and others at age 52-55. No matter what the age of onset or completion, menopause happens. Be sure to talk to your doctor about remedies for the symptoms of menopause. There are hormone replacement therapies (HRT) as well as some natural supplements to ease menopause. Taking soy isoflavones, in capsule form, have recently been regarded by some women as helpful in decreasing their hot flashes.

While awareness of the importance of calcium and its consumption should be well established by age 15, many older women still don’t find it a concern. Osteoporosis (bone weakness) can begin to occur as early as age 35. By the time you get into this age group of 40+ and you haven’t been caring for your calcium needs, you might expect by age 60 to see the results in your body. We have all seen the women with humps below their neck at the spine. We have seen the stooped walks and heard of women in this age group having falls that break their hips and other bone structures. This is a result of weak bones. There are also hereditary factors that play into whether or not we get osteoporosis. Take your calcium ladies.

In summation, what every woman needs to know to stay healthy:

• Keep exercising but know your limitations
• Continue getting mammograms
• Keep eating healthy. If you like gardening, that’s light exercise and you can eat healthy too.
• Stay socially active

Women are living longer. We are living longer because the importance of diet, exercise, vitamin and supplement intakes and other information has become easily available. But living longer is not necessarily a good thing if the QUALITY of our lives is not taken into account. If you follow these tips and commit yourself to making healthy lifestyle choices then all your years can be filled with happiness, peace and good health.

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The Psychology Of Diet Preparation

We decide to lose weight because of any number of reasons: we don’t like the way we look, ourthe psychology of diet preparation clothes don’t fit, our health is in danger, our significant other is wandering, our job is at risk, or our kids are embarrassed. We tend to think of weight loss as something that involves only our body; surely no one ever decided to lose weight because of a fat brain or a bloated mind.

Yet “we decide” is a mental function. When and why we make such a decision depends on our mind, not our body. This is part of the psychology of diet preparation. We may make the decision when we are five pounds heavier than we would like, or after passing the two hundred pound mark and entering true medical obesity. The actual size of the body does not trigger the decision to lose weight, such a choice in made in the brain.

The psychology of diet preparation

Since the start (and the continuation) of a diet program is a mental process, it would seem to be worthwhile to explore what factors might trigger such a decision.

1. Self-Image.

Each of us has a dual image: the face we turn to the world and our internal idea of how we appear. Although we dress and groom ourselves in an effort to be seen as attractive by others, we are far less influenced by others than by our satisfaction, or dissatisfaction, with ourselves. Does this impact psychology of diet preparation?

Explore this concept by observing yourself and others over the course of the next week. You will notice that you often receive compliments on clothes you wear that, to you, don’t feel “quite right.” Wear a favorite outfit that fits perfectly, that you think looks outstanding, and that makes you feel especially dashing – and no one notices! The same phenomenon occurs with a hairstyle. One morning, rushed for time, you can’t get your hair to do anything so you angrily pull it back with clips and hope that no one important sees you looking so awful. Voila! Three people comment that they like what you’ve done with your hair.

There is the same disconnect when it comes to our weight. If we look good in our mind’s eye, we don’t feel fat, even if friends and coworkers are whispering about our steady weight gain. However, if we see ourselves as overweight, no amount of reassurance from those around us is going to make us feel less fat. Carried to the extreme, this mental picture of our body size can lead to the eating disorder anorexia nervosa in which painfully thin individuals continue to dangerously restrict their caloric intake because they consistently see themselves as too heavy.

We decide to go on a diet, therefore, in response to our internal self-image. Thinking more about the psychology of diet preparation, some of the benefits we envision that go along with being slim and fit do take others into account: I will be more attractive to the opposite sex; I’ll be noticed at work when it’s time for a promotion; my family and friends will be jealous and will have to re-evaluate me as a stronger person than they had thought. But the real payoff for getting in shape is what it does for us personally. It is the desire to feel great about ourselves that carries us through the pain and monotony of diet and exercise. It is the future vision of ourselves in our mind that spurs us toward our goal. Losing that vision, or concluding that we won’t feel that much better about ourselves, are the reasons we give up and fall back into the relative comfort of settling for just “okay.”

2. Body versus Mind dominance.

We all wage a lifelong internal battle between our body and our mind. Each is dominant at different stages of development. As infants, we are little more than a collection of sensations. We explore the exciting new world around us through touching everything within reach, tasting everything we can put into our mouths, watching the movements of everything around us, and listening to all the sounds we hear until we eventually learn to imitate them.

As we move into our early school years, we start to concentrate on our minds. We voraciously devour immense amounts of information. We learn to read and our world expands its boundaries by a thousand percent. We learn to use the Internet and a limitless universe is at our fingertips. This could be the start of our approach to the psychology of diet preparation.

Then we move into puberty and, overnight, our appearance becomes the dominating factor in our everyday lives. We navigate the pitfalls and pleasures of adolescence where popularity and being cool are so much more vital than mere learning or mental development. We spend an inordinate amount of time on our bodies. We try new clothes, new hairstyles, and new makeup. We have body parts pierced and undergo the pain of a tattoo because it will make us stand out. We primp, and groom, and force ourselves into the styles our peers have judged as “in.”

As we mature, we seek to balance our mental and physical selves. While our bodies reign supreme in the attract-a-mate environment, we need to exercise our minds to advance our careers and to develop deep relationships that move far beyond mere physical attraction.

It is when we settle down, and start to build the good life we want, that our efforts and energies turn towards things outside ourselves: children, significant others, friends, family, and work pursuits. We have so much happening around us and so much to do that we lose touch with both our bodies and our minds. We slip into our own comfort zone where so many of our needs are fulfilled by food. It eases our anxiety, relieves our frequent frustrations, and makes periodic bouts of the blues bearable. It oils our social interactions. It becomes a vital cog in how we demonstrate affection for those we love. We continue to see ourselves as we have always been and ignore the love handles and pockets of fat that attach themselves to parts of our body we resolutely ignore. Our bodies, and our internal image of our bodies, become more and more discordant, impacting our psychology of diet preparation.

3. Our sense of self-efficacy.

Self-efficacy is a term used in psychology to describe an individual’s belief that any action they take will have an effect on the outcome. It is not self-confidence, nor a belief that one is competent to do something, although it may involve both. It reflects our inner expectation that what we do will effect the results we want.

If I lack this belief, then I fear that whatever I do will not bring about my desired goal. Bordering on helplessness, it leads to self-defeating thoughts, and psychology of diet preparation:

“No matter how carefully I diet, I don’t lose weight . . .” “I could work out every day but I’ll never get rid of these thunder thighs . . .” “I try to eat healthier foods but my hips just keep on spreading . . .” “No matter what techniques I try, nothing is going to keep the wrinkles away . . .”

If I have a strong sense of self-efficacy, my belief system and thought patterns will sound like:

“All I have to do is get motivated and I can whip my body into shape in a few weeks . . .” “I just need to pick a date to start my diet and I’ll be on my way . . .” “I may have neglected myself for a while but some hard work will bring me back . . .”

Whether or not we start a diet, decide to get in shape, or start taking better care of ourselves is, ultimately, a personal decision which may, or may not, be made as we have planned. The difference lies in the expectation of success and it is always easier to set out on a journey we anticipate will be successful than it is to drag ourselves toward a goal where failure is the most likely outcome.

How can we combine these concepts to work for us in our desire to become slim, fit, and attractive?

We begin by examining our self-image and how we appear to others. Merely asking others “Do you think I’m getting too heavy?” doesn’t work unless you have a brutally honest friend or you ask someone who dislikes you. Most of us are culturally trained to spare others’ feelings so responses to such a question are more likely to be polite than true.

Concentrating on specifics can produce better feedback. Tell everyone that you’re completing a survey for a class you’re taking. Hand out a brief one page questionnaire requiring that each friend or coworker list three adjectives to describe different aspects of your physical appearance. Complete one of the sheets yourself. Make sure that the answers are anonymous by requesting that no names be used and having someone else collect the completed sheets.

Once you have the responses back, compare them to your own answers and see where the descriptions diverge. You may find yourself becoming a little defensive: “My hips aren’t that big . . . my clothes do too make me look slim.” This isn’t an exercise to make you feel bad about yourself nor for you to gloat over the unexpected complimentary remarks you received. It is an organized effort to help you identify where your self-image and your image-in-the-world move apart. Those areas of divergence are a place to start in the effort to make the two images overlap. Is this how you think of the psychology of diet preparation?

Once the areas where work is needed have been identified, it is time to call on the immeasurable strength of our wonderful mind to start imposing the structure and organization we are going to need to effect the desired changes. Our mind can only get us where we want to go if it is supported by a belief in our ability to bring about a successful conclusion. Now is the time to dismiss any expectations of failure. There may have been many unsuccessful dieting and fitness attempts in the past. Leave them in the past. We are not somehow doomed to continue unproductive behaviors forever. We possess that jewel of evolution, the human mind, which is capable of just about anything. If we set our mind to any task, it will accomplish it, if our doubts and misgivings don’t get in its way.

We build up our positive expectations by exploring our memories to pile up a long list of prior successes. There may be major benchmarks such as bringing about a promotion we wanted, orchestrating a fantastic event, or working ourselves into an intensely satisfying relationship. However, the small personal triumphs count the most but are usually quickly forgotten or discounted as unimportant.

Studying hard and obtaining a good grade in a difficult class clearly demonstrates your ability to bring about the results you want. Go for quantity: the day you smiled at someone across a smoky room and ended up with a brief but lovely affair; the report you brought in on time which no one expected; the night you mastered a spin on ice skates. Keep going: making the drill team, shooting a stolen basket, making your own prom dress, dying your hair a wonderful color in your own bathroom, catching a fly ball, figuring out new software on your computer, burning your first CD. The list can be endless and will be, as you keep remembering snippets of the past that you had long buried under more important things, rather than thinking about the psychology of diet preparation.

Keep this list close by and read it regularly. It is your personal self-efficacy pep squad.

You now know the areas you are going to work on and are developing a belief in the effectiveness of your own efforts. Now you need to identify the internal rewards that successful weight loss will bring. Feeling good about yourself, enjoying stepping on a scale, and easily zipping up your clothes are easy starters. Unselfconsciously walking to the pool in a brief suit is a reinforcement to dream about. Making a sales presentation with the confidence that you are looking your absolute best is an image to relish as you fall asleep. Seeing someone you love watch you admiringly, or seeing your competitive coworker jealous, underscores your resolve and keeps you going through the discomfort of dieting and the demands of boring exercise routines.

You know where you’re going, you know what it’s going to take, and you know you’re going to be successful. This can be your approach to the psychology of diet preparation. Your mind is fully prepared, simply awaiting your day of decision. You’ll make that decision whenever you choose because you are now in control.

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Why Do We Cheat On Our Diets?

Why do we cheat on our diets? If only we could solve this question, the world (for many) would be a better place! Well, the reality is that there are real answers to this question that will apply to many people. It will take a good dose of reality and a brave heart to stop denying what really happens. Read on to discover some answers that may change your life forever and give you the impetus to lose weight and keep it off!

Why do we cheat on our diets?

Justification?

why do we cheat on our dietsBeing overweight can be used as an excuse for being unhappy, especially when you do not do anything to help yourself. This is one of the main reasons why do we cheat on our diets. Subconsciously, over-eating is a comfort for many people and this then allows them to hide behind their weight problem and helps them to justify rejection and avoid being hurt. They can then shift the blame of rejection on their weight-problem, without addressing other aspects of their fears. Sometimes it seems easier to hide behind your “weight problem”, than address other matters where you may have a greater fear of failure.

Eating Without Thinking?

Why do we cheat on our diets? If you are concentrating on another activity while you are eating you are more likely to overeat because you are not fully aware of how full you are feeling. This factor can be difficult to change because it is not a conscious action. Try to only eat when you don’t have a lot of other distractions. Sit down, eat slowly and enjoy the food you are eating, and remember that it is not always necessary to go back for seconds. It takes 20 minutes for food to reach your stomach and for your brain to register that you are full.

Cravings?

The famous “Pavlov’s dogs” were conditioned to eat at the sound of a bell, and we human are much the same when it comes to habitual cravings. If you wonder why you always feel like a chocolate when you sit down to watch a movie, or you have to have a box of popcorn….think again. You are not necessarily craving these foods because you are hungry, but rather consider force of habit. Does this sound like why do we cheat on our diets? During the time when you have a craving, try to ask yourself whether you are really hungry or not. If you are hungry, reach for a low fat snack rather than a chocolate bar or bag of crisps.

Indulging?

Eating or thinking about food can be a distraction from your troubles and you may therefore be unnecessarily over-eating. Emotions and hormones can trigger certain cravings, for example, if you are feeling low, chocolate and carbohydrates assist the production of serotonin in your brain. Serotonin helps you feel happier. This is why we might crave sweet or starchy foods during times of sadness or stress.

If you identify with any of the above factors, you could be on your way towards discovering what is triggering you to overeat. And knowing more about why do we cheat on our diets.

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It is also important to have the right program for losing weight if you are serious. No one says it will be easy. But this program has worked for me: http://bit.ly/1DbURHr

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