Living Right - Losing Weight

As you all must already know, working out is an essential part of any diet.
The problem with working out is that most people find it hard to make a routine out of it.
Of course it’s different for every person but I found out that most people don’t like working out and treat it as a burden.
So I gathered 5 tips that helped me loving it a lot more:
Tip #1 – Music, get yourself an MP3 player or something like that and make a playlist of workout songs, don’t take any song you love and put on this list, try to make a list of energizing songs and preferably songs you won’t pay much attention to.
This will make you workout time a lot more enjoyable.
Tip #2 – Your space, I personally prefer working out at home, in front of my TV, where there are no distractions and no other people.
The advantages of working at home are plenty: you don’t have to dress up you don’t need to get out, you do not depend on weather and on other people.
But not everyone likes working out at home and it’s really a matter of personality.
In any case, you need to select a place where you can work out in the perfect conditions for you.
If you like exercising around other people, go to the gym, if you like nature go run in the park, but you need to think of these things so you won’t find yourself annoyed by the place you are working out in or by the people around you.
Tip #3 – Time, the same as the two above, this one also depends on your personality.
Some people find it hard to keep a schedule and work out every morning and they prefer going through the day and finding an hour for it as they go along.
But it’s very important to define what is right for you.
A lot of times you will just wait for the right time and it won’t show up, so you’ll find yourself not working out for a week and that’s not good. So if you are one of those people, try getting your workout out of your way as early in the day as you can, this way you won’t miss it and you won’t have to think about it all day.
Tip #4 – People 1, “do not depend on other people”, while it can seem a lot easier working out with a friend it is very unreliable.
Not everyone has the same expectations and goals regarding their diet, and depending on another person just makes more room for missing workouts.
Tip #5 – People 2, “Let other people motivate you”, while depending on others is bad, letting others help you is very rewarding.
Tell your friend that you are dieting and trying to keep a workout schedule and hopefully they will give you a healthy push in this direction and also be more understanding when you cancel on them or having trouble finding time because of your workout schedule.
I hope I helped you get more motivated and start or maybe return to a healthy workout routine
Good Luck,

David

Water is definitely the simplest nutrient we have in our body, it is by far the most vital to our functioning.
But in our diet, we sometimes underestimate its value.
The most basic function of water is cleaning the body.
When you drink enough water your body allows itself to circulate the water in it a lot quicker.
Drinking water can even cure you when you’re sick, just by helping the body cleanse it self and letting the immune system do its job.
When trying to lose weight, water can help us feel full.
It doesn’t mean you don’t need to eat, but when you know you are not really hungry and just feel like grabbing a quick bite, a glass of water will do the job.
I also suggest you drink one glass of water before every meal.
It will fill your stomach and you will need smaller meals to feel full.
But this is not the real issue,
The real issue is what you drink when you don’t drink water.
People might have convinced you that diet sodas and other soft drinks are doing a great job substituting water.
Well, it is a wrong and dangerous assumption.
Aside of the aspartame which is a chemical sweetener known to be very harmful at times,
You have a lot of other chemicals that your body doesn’t know how to deal with.
And to that, in most cases, you can add caffeine which is known to decelerate fat loss.
Those are your diet drinks, and you probably know what’s wrong with the not-so-diet ones,
You guessed it: calories!
“But what can I do?” You ask,
“I’ve been drinking this stuff since forever” you say.
Well, stop!
This is just another example of the simple things you refuse to do for no apparent reason.
You change your meal plans, exercise like crazy and doing everything you can to lose another pound each week.
You are working so hard, why not do this simple thing and stop shooting yourself in the foot?
There is a very simple solution to your problem, start moderating your drinking.
I know it can be hard to just lose the soft drinks,
But you want to lose weight and it is just an obstacle in your way.
Start by buying one less bottle a week, and drink a lot of water.
Soon enough you’ll see that it isn’t that hard,
Believe me, I did it, you can too.
As you may have already understood, I’m a believer of simple things,
This simple thing can & will show you results.
So do it, start appreciating your water and use it wisely.
Good luck,

David

Oh the wonderful snack, the little piece of heaven that we all crave so much.
The tiny yet oh-so-glorious minute of joy.
Yes, you and I both know it, snacks are a diet killer, no questions asked.
Snacks are like a bullet proof system to break your diet.
Let me tell you exactly why and how it happens…
First of all, the old calorie is a main attribute of the snack.
Snacks pack a huge amount of calories with the highest weight to calorie ratio.
This makes us eat a lot of it and still feel hungry.
Just think of how much you can eat to feel full. Now try to apply it to snacks.
You will realize that it is easy enough to eat a huge amount of calories - without even noticing.
Second, these calories are not only many but are also bad.
By bad I mean, light, cheap, simple calories, that do not supply the body with any valuable nutrients.
So it’s not only a lot of calories that you are eating but it’s the worst kind of calories!
The last thing about snacks is their high energy aspect.
When you eat a chocolate bar, you get a temporary energy boost,
This is due to a sudden rise in blood sugar which translates to energy.
These energy boosts are very dangerous because they it is easy to get addicted to them.
Before you know it you eat some candy whenever you’re a bit tired.
So whenever you eat a snack, the probability you’ll have another one soon goes up.
By now it must be pretty clear: you should avoid eating snacks at all costs.
The biggest problem with snacks is very simple: Availability.
When you open your kitchen cupboard and you see a candy bar looking back at you,
It is very hard not to smile back and have it.
What you should do is just eliminate those candy bars and snacks.
Obviously, you already know its bad for you and you will not damage you own diet consciously.
All you need to do is just remove the temptations so you won’t slip.
Of course it is not an easy thing to do,
This is why we have snack substitutes which can satisfy our cravings with a much lower “cost”.
One of these substitutes is fruits,
Fruits can provide the quick energy boost that chocolate provides because they are also sweet and sugary.
On the other hand fruits do supply additional nutrients to the body and have a contributing part in our metabolism process.
And of course fruits do not contain as many calories as candy.
If you are not a fruit person, you can find low fat energy bars and similar low fat snacks to satisfy your cravings without interrupting your weight loss efforts.
I hope you will take this information in consideration,
Good Luck,

It took me some time to understand the importance of fruits in my diet.
We tend to let simple day-to-day things go unnoticed when we plan a big mission like a new diet.
This tendency of us humans is the simplest reason to why we don’t use fruits to enrich our diet.
However, there are other reasons:
• We confuse fruits with other sweets we should avoid
• We are not used to integrate fruits in our daily routine
• We just do not know what exactly is in there
So let’s get started with what’s in there,
Fruits contain 75% - 95% water, just like the human body.
Fruits contain a lot of good minerals and lots of fiber.
Fruits have zero bad cholesterol.
In addition, eating enough fruits (and vegetables for that matter) really helps your digestion process.
In other words, fruits cannot harm you but can improve your weight loss efforts miraculously.
There are many ways to utilize fruits in your diet.
The first thing should be buying fruit and have them available to you throughout the day.
Try having fruit in a bowl on your kitchen table,
In your bag when you are at work or anywhere you plan to be for more than a few hours.
I would also suggest starting the day with any kind of fruit with your breakfast.
Fruits have a very energizing effect,
You should take advantage of it and eat an apple when you feel a bit tired during the day.
Fruits can also be of great use when hunger starts creeping in.
If you know you are not going to eat soon and you start feeling hungry,
Just eat a peach or a banana and it will satisfy you for a while.
You can also solve your snack problem with fruit,
Switch all of your candy bars and snacks with fruit and you will see results very quickly.
But we are not here only to lose weight, are we?
In addition to being “thinner” then candy bars and other foods,
Fruits are also very healthy.
If you think about it, fruits are the most natural food supplements.
Of course in our days they are sprayed and being grown in not all natural conditions but still, fruits are a lot more natural than virtually everything else we eat.
Fruits strengthen your immune system, help your digestion and generally make you feel good.
The last thing I want to say is this: It’s easier then you think to include fruits in your diet.
I am a big fan of simplicity. This is just one little change to make and results will be apparent.
So now you don’t have any excuse, just buy some fruit and get used to it,
It will help you achieve one more thing in your diet with very little effort.
Good Luck,

We all love bread (in its various forms), it is simple, cheap, always available and mostly tasty.

Bread fits in on virtually any time of the day.

But what do you actually know of this simple food?

Did you know that white bread is probably the one worst way to provide your body with carbohydrates?

Did you know that white bread is so light in weight that it takes almost a third of a loaf to make a grown person feel full?

You didn’t?

It’s ok, most people don’t know that.

One of the big misconceptions regarding diets is that only sweets and fat cheese can make you fat.

I’m telling you right now, white bread makes you fatter.

If you are on a diet and you are eating white bread – you need to know that you’re disrupting your own efforts.

Let’s get serious for a moment,

100 grams of white bread contains 270 calories that’s approximately 3 slices.

100 grams of Whole wheat bread contains 210 calories but will make you feel a lot fuller.

See, that’s the main reason why you should not eat white bread.

Aside of that, white brad contains simple carbohydrates,

This means it has the same effect as plain table sugar (carbs wise).

What does it mean?

It means the carbs in the bread are digested quickly,

They provide a boost in your blood sugar level,

That makes the body release large amounts of insulin.

I don’t want to get into the biological details but in general,

Insulin is used to level your blood sugar level,

When insulin levels are high the body does not want to burn fat.

In other words, the insulin tells the body to not use the fat but to keep it.

To sum up, when you eat while bread you tell your body to stop burning fat for a while.

Why oh why would you do such thing?

The answer is simple - you are used to it.

My advice is to start getting used to better types of bread.

Almost any type of bread which is not made of white flour is better for your weight loss attempts.

I’m sure you understood why you should substitute your white bread but let me tell you one more thing.

It’s easy and doing easy things usually provides quick results.

While dieting, you have a lot of difficulties and a lot on your mind,

So why not help yourself with such an easy solution that really doesn’t require anything except buying different bread?

I see no reason and neither should you.

I hope I helped giving you push toward a healthier, thinner life.

Good luck,

David H. Mason

The carbohydrate, one of the most debated things in the world of weight loss,Some say it’s very important, some try to live without it. But what exactly is it?

Carbohydrates are in fact a type of sugar,

It is a vital component of the metabolism process.

The most important thing to know about carbohydrates (aka “carbs”) is the difference between simple and complex carbs.

Simple carbs are found in: white bread, chocolate, candy, cakes, table sugar, and so on.

Complex carbs are found in: oatmeal, whole wheat bread, potatoes, broccoli, tomatoes, and so on.

In your average weight loss diet, simple carbs are to be avoided while complex carbs are essential in the right dosage.

The difference in carbs is rooted in the digestion process,

Simple carbs are digested fast while complex carbs are digested slowly.

The reason you should eat only complex carbs (and not a lot of those either) is this:

When the body breaks down carbohydrates as part of the digestion process,

The level of blood sugar is rising,

When the blood sugar is high, the body releases insulin to level the blood sugar index.

When insulin is released, the body does not use fat as a source of energy,

Even worse, the body will store the energy in the form of new fat cells as long as it doesn’t have a better use for it (muscle, providing energy for a workout, etc).

For example, if you eat chocolate your blood sugar is rising,

Your body receives a quick boost of energy it has nothing to do with,

The energy is stored as fat.

On the other hand,

Complex carbs are digested much slower.

This means that the blood sugar will not rise quickly,

Instead, the body will receive energy gradually and will not produce a lot of insulin (aka “insulin spike”).

So, what you should do is eat a complex carb before you do your workout.

The timing is crucial, you do not want to give your body energy that you are not going to use soon.

Leftover energy, as you all know, is stored as fat.

However, do not cut all carbs off your diet,

some people do it thinking it will hasten their diet - but it is very dangerous.

It weakens your immune system and can damage your metabolism.

Carbohydrates are a major source of energy but it doesn’t mean you can just quit eating them.

You must be calculated and eat the right carbs at the right time.

If you really want to lose weight,

You should combine eating complex carbs before long aerobic activities.

This way the body knows it has a reliable energy source and so it allows it self to burn fat.

Hopefully you will take what you just read into your weight loss efforts and increase your diet’s productivity.

Good luck,

David H. Mason

As an overweight person, I often asked myself if I am a food addict.
Treating yourself as an addict has its pros and cons
But is food really an addiction we can’t get rid of?
Well, in some ways – it really is.
Not only does our body need food for sustenance,
But specific kind of food can cause different physiological effect - almost like drugs.
When what you eat or the actual act of eating gains an emotional value,
You can definitely call it an addiction.
But this kind of connections often happens with specific foods as I said before.
Chocolate, for example, contains low levels of serotonin and dopamine – chemicals that might alleviates our mood.
When first we ate chocolate our brain learned about its effects and remembered them.
This kind of learning is subconscious and has to do with neural connection in our brain.
That’s why we sometime feel an uncontrollable and unexplainable urge for chocolate – especially when we’re moody.
The same goes to many other kinds of foods: sweets, fast food, coffee etc…
These sorts of foods are sometimes referred to as “Emotional Food”.
The problem is that when we start eating emotional food when we feel bad – the wiring in our brain becomes even stronger (meaning that there are more neural connection).
We get emotionally attached to food.
When you are emotionally attached to food (or to anything else for that matter) – it’s much more difficult to stop eating it.
Think about a favorite toy or item from childhood.
No one wants to through these things out – even if they do clutter up the house.
Emotional attachments to food can be very specific and they can be very general. Are you connected with that big slice of apple pie because it was your favorite growing up food?
You may have an emotional attachment to the foods.
If you love your mashed potatoes loaded with gravy, sour cream and butter just because you love the taste, that’s a different story.
Emotional food is what our brain tells us to eat when we feel stressed or upset.
Our diet efforts and goals are not always as strong as those mental cries for relief; that’s when we break our diets – and that’s when the vicious circles of low self esteem can begin.
So what should you do?
Ideally, you should never use food to comfort yourself mentally.
It’s just like cigarettes, it becomes a bad habit of smokers to smoke when they are stressed out.
So if you ease your stress with food it becomes the equivalent of a cigarette.
In any case you need to do some damage control,
You should try to substitute the sweets with low fat snacks,
At least while you are working on getting rid of your addiction entirely.
Good luck
David H. Mason