Warning: Avoid These 3 Foods When Eating Out At Restaurants

Eating out at restaurants frequently is one of the biggest reasons why so many people put on weight. Until now, you may have found it difficult to lose weight if you eat out a lot. 

But now you can follow a couple simple tricks to make every restaurant meal healthier, reduce calories, and not lose control.

The 3 most important foods to avoid at restaurants are as follows:

• deep-fried foods
• refined starchy foods
• sodas, juices, or other sugary foods (except whole fruits, which are great)

This eliminates the major food sources that do the worst damage in our food supply – trans fats, the inflammatory refined vegetable oils, refined starches, and processed sugars.

This means to skip the table bread, skipping the french fries (that come with every single sandwich on every menu known to man), and reducing or eliminating all of the heaping portions of rice and pasta that are often loaded on the plates as well. And oh yeah – forget about the cola, diet cola, lemonade, and sweetened iced tea.

How to do it healthier, but still satisfying . . . 

Click HERE to discover what foods to substitute for a meal like this:

• Sandwich or burger (starchy food - the bun)
• fries or chips (trans fats)
• soda or other sweetened drink (sugar/high fructose corn syrup)

valmillsy

P.S.

Another warning - If you order a drink at a restaurant, be sure to insist that you do NOT get the lemon/lime fruity wedge. Turns out they have a whole lot of yucky bad bacteria associated with them.

Excessive Sugar Consumption Puts The "Un" In Unhealthy

Sugar is all over the news. By now, everyone except the food industry understands that excessive sugar consumption makes people fat and makes it impossible to lose weight (the food industry can't afford to buy into this fact).

And the same excessive sugar consumption puts the “un” in unhealthy.

Also, sugar is connected with diabetes and heart disease (and many other diseases).

So the question is, “Do you stil crave sugar or have you done away with the addiction?

Yes I have eliminated sugar addiction

If the answer to this question is yes, Congratulations – you have made a giant step toward getting healthy and achieving your weight loss goals.

No I still eat and/or drink sweet foots and drinks

On the other hand, if you are still addicted to sugar, you have one and only one choice – end the addiction. Cold turkey. Otherwise you will always crave sugar.

Like the cigarette smoker who is addicted to nicotine, the only way to stop is to stop cold turkey. Note that the former smoker who smokes “just one” gets re-addicted to nicotine during the first puff of the “just one.”

Ask any former alcoholic if they can have “just one drink?”

Similarly, the former sugarholic who has “just one chocolate” or “just one piece of candy” ends up becoming re-addicted to candy.

Need help ending sugar addiction? Afraid of withdrawal symptoms? Buy Dr. Mark Hyman’s book The 10-Day Detox Diet and end sugar addiction forever.

Here’s to stopping sugar cravings forever!

Lose 20 lbs In 1 Month 

on a safe, healthy, cost-free eating plan . . .  

Get my FREE ebook by clicking HERE 

This Weight Loss Plan Works . . The Doc Said To STOP Losing Weight

My doctor told me to STOP losing weight on my weight loss plan. Funny thing, I wasn't even trying - I was simply following the plan. I wasn't sure I knew how to stop dropping pounds!

Here's the short story of how I found my eating plan:

I was amazed at the variety of different diets presented in the US News and World Report magazine rating them. There were 8 different categories including best overall, healthiest, and easiest to follow.

After trying several of what are considered the best diets (as mentioned in the magazine) AND consulting with a naturopath, it is clear that common sense rules when picking a plan.

The naturopath emphasized cutting back on certain food categories because that's what affects weight, BP, glucose levels, and cholesterol. 

Based on her recommendation, I came up with my own eating plan that satisfies the following criteria:

• It doesn't cost me money to attend meetings, pay for special food, or get advice I don't need.
• I will not take meds or supplements for weight loss.
• The eating plan helps decrease the risk of heart disease and type II diabetes.
• The eating plan is a forever plan (I have to be able to stay on it forever).

Interestingly, this eating plan has also helped people lose a lot of weight; specifically, you can lose at least 20 pounds in 1 month.

Get a copy of the plan by clicking here (no charge, the report is free).

Turn OFF Your Fat Switch For Weight Loss Success

Today,  I'm stuck in the house watching the snow come down at an alarming rate and totally avoiding shoveling out of the current major storm! 

So I'm gonna write about how hibernating bears helped a scientist discover the "fat switch." 

I found a book called The Fat Switch by Dr. Richard Johnson. 

He writes that fructose (sugar) makes your body store fat by turning on your fat switch. Sounds like we ARE like hibernating bears!

I checked Dr. Mercola's (mercola.com) take on Dr. Johnson's work because he stays on top of this type of research. Here's a summary of his comments:

According to Dr. Johnson, based on his decades of research: 

“Those of us who are obese eat more because of a faulty 'switch' and exercise less because of a low energy state. If you can learn how to control the specific 'switch' located in the powerhouse of each of your cells – the mitochondria – you hold the key to fighting obesity.”

There are 5 truths that Dr. Johnson explains in detail in his book that overturn current concepts: 

1. Large portions of food and too little exercise are NOT solely responsible for why you are gaining weight. 
2. Metabolic Syndrome is A NORMAL CONDITION that animals undergo to store fat.
3. Uric acid is increased by specific foods and CAUSALLY CONTRIBUTES to obesity and insulin resistance.
4. Fructose-containing sugars cause obesity not by calories but by turning on the fat switch.
5. Effective treatment of obesity requires turning off your fat switch and improving the function of your cells’ mitochondria.

Turning OFF the Fat Switch

Here's how to turn OFF your Fat Switch. 

It's all spelled out in my FREE ebook.

Click HERE to get your free copy of 
How To Lose 20 Pounds In 1 Month.

The Key To Staying On Your Weight Loss Diet Is To Continuously Yourself Ask This Question . . .

Yogi (I took this pic)

I may be dating myself because this post is based on a yogiism (Yogi Berra, the NY Yankees catcher in the sixties):

"Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical."

The point - Staying on a diet is 90 percent mental. 

The remaining 10% is simple execution. 


The Temptations
How do you maintain the motivation to stay on your eating plan when temptations are everywhere? You're hungry or tired of eating veggies?

Let's take the example of the eating plan recommended in my free ebook How To Lose 20 Pounds In One Month.

This ebook explains how to use a low sugar/low carb eating plan without spending a cent. How to eliminate belly fat. How to get healthy by combating diabesity.

But even on this safe eating plan where you can lose 20 pounds in 1 month, you may get the sugars (that urge to consume an entire pkg of skittles or a half gallon of ice cream).

Who said you can't have an occasional sugar treat? In moderation.

The Key Question

If you run into an area of temptation, ask yourself this question:

"What Will I Gain When I Lose?" (from the Kellogg's breakfast cereal commercial)

Answering the question will keep you grounded in the present and remind you of the benefits of the eating plan. 

After all, you wants the gains, the bennies. It's up to you.

This Simple Carb Is A Major Health Hazard (But We Still Consume It In Excess Every Day)

One food we all eat every day constitutes a major health risk.
Unfortunately, it's built into most processed foods.

It is responsible for the following:

• Losing appetite control (so that we overeat).
• Creating an environment for major disease.
• Putting on unwanted pounds, especially around the waist.
• Feeding cancer cells.

Obesity is the result of consuming food laced with this ingredient and not because people overeat and don't exercise.

Yet we keep eating and drinking it in large quantities. 

Why? It tastes good. We are used to it. We need it like a drug addict needs heroin or a smoker craves nicotine. It's a bad habit that's difficult to break.

This is a problem created a hundred years ago when food manufactures discovered that this ingredient sells food. Consumers eat processed food. They lose control of their appetite and don't realize they are overeating. 

What popular commercial boasts that ":You can't eat just one?" When's the last time you mindlessly munched through a box of cookies or crackers or a oversized bowl of ice cream.

We eat 19 times the daily amount of sugar that our ancestors consumed. 

How Do We Break This Bad Eating Habit?
First, many people need an incentive to change their eating habits. It may not be enough to say that sugar is a major health hazard (smokers still smoke even though they are committing suicide with each cigarette they light up). Listing all the problems that will likely show up at a future date will not incent some people.

If we supply a substitute every time we identify a trigger for sugar eating, that's a good start. That means we have to plan to make sugar substitutes (or foods with lower sugar content) easily available.

Sugar addiction will not disappear on its own. Gradual sugar reduction may be the answer to turn appetite control back on. Essentially, you wean yourself off sugar. We cannot be so strict that we bypass the occasional treat (especially if it's been prepared with less sugar than usual).

An example might help.
If you drink coffee or tea or lemonade with sugar, start cutting down the amount of sugar you use. I used to drink coffee with sugar. After a few weeks of eliminating sugar gradually, I got used to sugarless coffee. And a caution - do not substitute artificial sweeteners. Healthwise, that's even worse than using the real thing.

The First Step 
Keep a food diary. 

Jot down every food and drink you consume (except for water), the amount you eat, and its sugar content. This is easy for processed foods because the amounts are spelled out on package contents. It's somewhat trickier for meals that include several ingredients. You will guesstimate the sugar content. You can look up the sugar content of most individual items online.

The benefit of a food diary is that you will be aware of your daily sugar consumption. You will be surprised at the amount you do it and will start looking for substitutes. You will automatically cut back on sugar.

Double Your Weight Loss

Click HERE to view a video entitled Double Your Weight Loss with a Food Journal.

In the video, Barbara Ficarra, RN, explains how keeping a food journal can make a huge difference and help you reach your goals.

Why Losing Weight Ain't Easy (Sugar Is The Enemy)

I have researched different eating and exercise programs for over 5 years. I haven't read about a comparison between sugar and tobacco until just recently. A well-respected holistic health doctor wrote an article comparing the negative health effects of sugar to those of tobacco. Wow! Interesting . . . 

Sugar As An Addiction

We all know that smoking causes diseases ranging from lung and throat cancer to heart disease. The nicotine in tobacco is highly addictive. If you've ever tried to stop smoking using sheer willpower, you know all about the craving for nicotine.

Sugar addiction is equally hard to conquer. And lately, it's clear that sugar, a major contributor to diabetes and obesity, ranks near tobacco as a major cause of death. 

Note that there are no warnings on the six-packs of cola that tell you the near 40 grams of sugar in one can is more than twice the daily amount recommended for good health.

We are so used to an excessive amount of sugar in our diet that we don't even think about it. Yet it is sugar that is the major cause of obesity.

Look around you at the next major gathering of people that you attend. I was in a sports arena recently. I was amazed at the number of people having problems fitting in the seats because they were too fat to fit easily.

What were these people consuming during the game? Food and drink full of sugar. One of the most popular food booths sold sno cones (shaved ice covered with flavored sugar water).

The First Step

Awareness is the first step to addressing the sugar epidemic. This is not one of the health field's false alarms or misrepresentation of the facts. 

This is a real, live, everyday problem.

Our health education must include information about the dangers of daily consumption of large amounts of sugar. A brief look at the sugar content of most processed foods turns out to be an education in itself.

Sugar Restriction

Restrict sugar in the average person's diet and the weight melts off magically. 

In fact, I wrote a free ebook showing you How To Lose 20 Pounds In One Month using sugar/carb restriction. Click HERE to get this ebook free of charge.

But some people have a sugar addiction (unfortunately, that includes me), so when they restrict sugar, they become like smokers craving nicotine. 

Just one more piece of candy, slice of cake, or a cookie. Only you cannot eat just one piece. If one cigarette creates the craving for another, one dose of sugar creates the need for another and another.

This addiction, along with the loss of appetite control that's also caused by too much sugar in your diet, leads directly to obesity. 

Sugar is the enemy.

Fortunately, there is a way to address sugar cravings with a simple change in your eating habits. Click HERE to eliminate sugar cravings and gain back appetite control. The bottom line is losing weight fast and safely.

Staying Motivated to Become a Fit After 50 Female

A few days ago I published an article on Hubpages.com based on my experience losing weight and getting fit at age 60. It's called "Is This Your Year to Grab the Title "Fit After 50 Female"? It covers mental conditioning, nutrition/eating plans,strength conditioning and interval training.

Yesterday I picked up the current issue of Consumer Reports. As part of its review of exercise equipment and DVDs, it includes a sidebar - 5 ways to get motivated and get moving. It occurs to me that achieving the title of  Fit After 50 Female would require staying very motivated (because post-menopausal women do not lose weight or gain muscle mass easily).

So, here's my take on CS's 5 ways to get motivated:

"Make exercise a ritual."
This one could easily read "make exercise a habit on purpose." It takes 30 days to develop a habit which is why I recommend starting slowly by adding activities one at a time, a week or two at a time.

"Set mini goals."
Great idea that encourages success. A simple example - long-term (one year), I'm going to lose 50 pounds. Each week, I'm going to lose a pound. Losing a pound a week sounds a whole lot easier than losing 50 pounds in a year.

By the way, you can set goals based on these exercise components: posture, strength, endurance, balance, and flexibility. Your goal setting is based on the results of testing in each of these areas. See Age Defying Fitness: Making the Most of Your Body for the Rest of Your Life for testing details and exercise programs.

"Track your progress."
You won't know how you're doing unless you find out where you are (weight, inches, blood pressure, sugar levels), where you want to go, and where you are at points in time. You can measure all these items easily. Progress is encouraging. If you do not progress, no problem (in the short term). Do it again. My journey was not continuous progress, but spikes and plateaus, and occasionally a few steps backward.

"Accentuate the Positive."
Positive self-talk helps people stay motivated. Remember the Special K slogan "What Will You Gain When You Lose?" Make a list of the benefits you gain when you lose weight and get fit. Refer to that list every time you start negative self-talk.

"Keep It Entertaining."
Playing music while you walk, lift weights, or use exercise equipment. Watch TV while you're on the treadmill. Exercise with a partner, as long as your partner stays positive (a constantly complaining partner is not motivating).

Please use these suggestions from CS to stay motivated to get your title "Fit After 50 Female."

How To Get In Shape This Year Even If You're A Fat Baby Boomer Part II

OK - maybe you're NOT a fat baby boomer. Maybe you're a boomer who wants to know the magic formula for how to get in shape this year.

Wake UP!
There is no magic formula to get in shape.

It's Simple Math - exercise more, eat right.

If you think you don't have time to exercise or can't be bothered to figure out how to eat right,
then GUESS WHAT! You won't make time to exercise and you won't worry about eating better.

And then, at the end of this year, when you wonder how to get in shape in the next year, you'll be repeating these same excuses.

Take a breather and read about these two people and how one needs to get in shape and the other got in shape this year.

Two Things Happened This Year
#1  A relative (younger than myself) got one of those wake up calls - what appeared to be a heart attack, but turned out to be a case of prolonged high blood pressure causing congestive heart failure symptoms. A renal stent and meds was the immediate solution.

The long-term solution - lose weight, stop smoking, and pay attention to his health!

#2  On Christmas Day, I heard Anita's story - she lost 45 pounds this year AND stopped smoking. She had some interesting observations about how to get in shape - these guidelines worked for her:

1. Do aerobics AND resistance training. Aerobics helps you lose weight all over and strength training produces muscle to accelerate weight loss and shape your body.


2. Drink lots of water. Drink even more than the recommended 8 glasses. It flushes out all the toxins you've accumulated.


3. Keep a food diary for a month. You'll find out what you need to cut out of your diet - some people have no idea how much or little they eat every day.


4. Stay away from sugar, salt, and flour. Remember that you can't lose weight unless you take in less calories than you expend.

HELP To Get In Shape
I've complied a list of tips for getting in shape on this blog. Click Weight Loss Success for the free articles.

If you're just starting out, you could try the easy stuff:



AND



Start Today!
What have you got to lose but the fat around your waist?