5 Things You Must Do Prior To Starting A Diet Program

Archive for January, 2009

5 Things You Must Do Prior To Starting A Diet Program

Saturday, January 31st, 2009

food-journal Many people who begin a diet and are totally unprepared and they do not know it. A diet will require a change in one’s eating and exercise habits and so preparation is necessary. It is very difficult for the majority of people to find a plan, get started right away and be successful. This is because there are things that each individual must do prior to starting a diet that they often do not. We will discuss those in this post.

1. Decide Why: Every person needs to decide why they want or need to go on a diet. Are they severely overweight? Do they have health problems? Do the want to look good for an upcoming date, job interview, or social event? Once a person decides why they want to lose weight, they will be able to better focus on actually doing it. This may help keep them motivated when it gets tempting to quit.

2. Keep a Food Journal: Every person who is going on a diet should keep a food journal for a few days prior to beginning a diet plan. This is because often times we assume that we are eating far less than what we are. Seeing on paper exactly what’s going into our mouths each day will give us some perspective and perhaps will answer the question why we are overweight in the first place or have been unable to lose weight. Often times, we will see that we consume many more calories than our bodies need.

3. Set Realistic Goals: Consider your body type and shape. Understand that it’s impossible for everyone to look like Hollywood starlets. Everyone’s genetics are different. Therefore, the goal should be to find a healthy weight and size for you and then do your best to pursue that.

4. Know Yourself: Understand your temperament and your tastes. This will help you decide on a diet plan that works for you. If you know that it’s very difficult for you to go without eating your favorite foods, you may want to find a diet that has a strong exercise component and more well-rounded food choices. This will allow you to perhaps have a few of your favorite foods even if they’re not the healthiest and still be able to lose weight.

5. Agree Ahead of Time To Not Get Down on Yourself: One of the biggest diet sabotagers is our attitude. If we cheat we often beat ourselves up about it for far too long. Typically, this only encourages us to eat foods that are bad for us. Therefore, determine ahead of time that no matter what happens, you will continue to love and forgive yourself and will do your best to restart the dieting efforts even if you have a few setbacks.

Tags: diet program, food journal, starting a diet
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Is There Such A Thing As Good Cholesterol?

Friday, January 30th, 2009

We hear about cholesterol in diets and how would should avoid it, or get it down, and its not all bad, but what does it all mean?

We should all appreciate that in a balanced diet it is important to know the role of cholesterol in relation our health – how we benefit from the “good” cholesterol, and how harmful is “bad” cholesterol.

Good or HDL cholesterol is easy to add to, you only have to exercise, eat foods such as olive oil and nuts, and avoid being overweight.

It reduces the risk of heart disease and those who are fortunate enough to naturally possess large quantities will probably live longer and healthier lives.

The good or HDL cholesterol is the best anti-thrombotic we have, which reduces thrombus formation so that if the entire population had a higher level of HDL there would be little heart disease.

A blood test will give us the amount present in our bodies (ideally we should have more than 60 mg / dL). If you are below those levels we need, among other things, a balanced diet and a little exercise.

The good cholesterol is responsible for preventing the bad cholesterol sticking to the walls of arteries and clogging them. Therefore, it reduces the risk of cardiovascular problems.

In this regard, excess fat in the diet leads to an increase in bad cholesterol.

Conversely, an increased consumption of fibre in fruits and vegetables (which also does not contain any fat), cereals, pasta and rice (best if they are integrated) and vegetables (3 times per week) may increase levels good cholesterol.

Including dietary monounsaturated fat in olive oil or nuts also helps increase levels of good cholesterol. Moreover, preference must be given to the consumption of fish (good source of good fat). While the polyunsaturated fats, for instance in oil from sunflower seeds tend to lower the bad cholesterol, but also contain the good variety.

Finally, it is found in coconut and palm oils (found in products like pastries, cakes, fried foods and pre-packed meals) and saturated fats: red meat, pork, lamb, pork and whole milk (cream, butter, fatty cheese …).

It also essential to limit excessive intake of sugar and calories: chocolate, biscuits, sauces and so on.

Other items to avoid include excess salt (in canned and precooked foods) and abuse of tea, coffee and soft drinks. In its place, drink water. And no alcohol, but if you are taking a glass of wine at lunch, you can continue to do so.

When speaking of good cholesterol and bad, in fact we do not refer to different lipids or fats, but the same molecule. The difference is the type of lipoprotein carrying either through blood.

There are three different types of lipoproteins:

LDL: low density lipoprotein.

Which carry the bad cholesterol. It was named because it is deposited in the arteries and clogs, which significantly increases the risk of cardiovascular problems.

VLDL: very low density lipoprotein.

Transporting triglycerides. When they make the very high LDL even more dense and easily deposited in the arteries, is more harmful. Triglycerides are part of the fat of animals.

HDL: high density lipoprotein.

Carry cholesterol and have a protective effect against the action of lipoprotein aggressor because they reduce the levels of bad cholesterol in the body, so is known as good cholesterol.

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Diets, All In the Mind?

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

We have all tried various kinds of diets from the highly respected to the plain bizarre. There are some people who have genuine problems with weight loss caused by medical conditions. A very slow metabolism can make losing a few pounds a serious chore.

Nature also has a few unpleasant tricks up her sleeve for example different parts of your tongue are receptive to different tastes. Some of the taste buds get excited over sugar; others get excited over sour tastes. In a cruel twist of fate the only taste that stimulates every taste bud on your tongue is fat.

Nature couldn’t have been kind and said that carrots and lettuce would cause most stimulation in your mouth no it had to opt for chocolate cake instead.

So there are a few physical reasons why some people may not be able to lose weight.

But the truth is simply cutting your food intake in half and walking 3 miles a day will mean that after two months you will not own one item of clothing that still fits.

It is that simple, and what’s more everyone knows that this is all that is required to get down to a healthier body and lifestyle.

So why don’t we do it? The reason is that we regard our being overweight and being unable to stick with a diet as the problem.

How can it be the problem? With one or two notable exceptions food is not addictive. There is no reason why we need to over-eat; there is no reason once we have taken in the amount of food we need to sustain as for the day why we should carry on eating.

So why do we continue to eat food if it is not addictive.

The trouble lies in the fact that we have psychological problems associated with food.

Being unable to diet is not the problem.

The problem is that eating gives us comfort and stimulates our brains to give us pleasure.

We have all heard of “comfort eating” and that is exactly what the name suggests. We eat to make ourselves feel comfortable. We eat to make ourselves feel relaxed; we eat to lower our stress levels.

We simply eat to give ourselves comfort, for many people their problems lie in foods from their childhood. Anything that they really enjoyed when they were children will give us a psychological comfort; take us back to the days before mortgages and the car needing a service.

Unfortunately the things we liked as a kid are generally not cabbage and fresh oranges. Childhood favourites tend to be candy bars, sugary fizzy drinks, a big burger and fries.

At times of stress, strain, depression or even when we are extremely happy we revert to our childhood needs we go back to what made us happy and content.

When we have had enough of the latest fad diet we fall off the wagon not because we are bored with the routine but because we psychologically crave the comfort that all this unhealthy food gives us.

To diet successfully we must appreciate why we struggle to not eat things that are bad for us.

We must understand that there are reasons why we crave all these bad foods. If we can understand why we fall off the diet wagon so easily perhaps then we may be able to adjust our mind-set in order to keep those cravings under control.

If you don’t appreciate why you can’t stick to a diet and think it is just because it is “boring” Or you just get “tired of it” you are wrong.

Think about it, and understand why dieting is hard for you and then you will understand how you can deal with the problem to diet successfully. It’s all in the mind!

Tags: All In the Mind?, comfort eating, diet psychology, diets
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Archive for January, 2009