I Need to Lose Weight by Eating Organic-How Can I Afford it

My DSP followers and blog readers keep me motivated. I want to pay it forward by answering your common nutrition questions. Here’s a great one: I need to lose weight by eating organic. How do I accomplish this without ending up in the poor house?

First, let me just reassure you that your ability to lose weight is not dependent on whether youeat organic foods or not. If you follow the right eating plan, you can achieve successful weight loss results without going organic. However, if you want to invest in your long-term health, an organic diet is definitely worth considering.

If you’re a regular reader, you know that I’m a huge advocate of organic foods. I know what kind of garbage farmers and manufacturers use in conventional foods, that’s why I don’t buy them. I’m not going to sit here and pretend that organic foods aren’t pricy, because they are. However, there are ways to add organic foods to your diet without going broke.

Get Rid of the Junk and Eat Sensibly

Processed junk like cereal bars, granola bars, protein shakes and low-fat cookies can put the squeeze on your wallet. Once you rid your grocery list of junk, you’ll be surprised how much moola it will free up. Put the leftover money to good use and buy a few organic food items.

How many of us eat way more than we should? Think about it. The more food you eat, the more you’ll have to buy, and the costlier your organic diet will be. If you learn to manage your portion sizes and stop eating once you’re full, you’ll not only lose weight, you’ll save money too.

Buy Selectively and Bargain Shop

I’m a pretty thrifty gal. If I get wind of a good sale, I’m there. When you find great sales on organic meat or poultry, rack up. You can pop the extras in the freezer and use them later on down the line. If you can never seem to catch natural poultry or meat on sale, buy whatever gets you the most mileage out of your dollar.

Pick and choose the kind of produce you buy organic. Produce with thick skins such as bananas, broccoli, cauliflower, lemons, asparagus and melons tend to resist pesticide penetration. So if push comes to shove, you can buy the conventional versions of these foods.

Thin-skinned and leafy produce like spinach, apples, nectarines, bell peppers, strawberries, lettuce and grapes absorb pesticides like sponges; so buy these types of fruits and veggies organic whenever possible.

Garden and Buy From Local Farmers

Have you seen the price of tomatoes lately? Whoa. You knoworganic tomatoes are super easy to grow and you don’t even need a yard to do it. You can get a decent size pot and grow enough tomatoes to last all summer long.

Tomatoes aren’t the only things you can put in your garden. Radishes, cucumbers, spinach, onions and herbs practically grow themselves. If you’re serious about going organic without going broke, don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty.

If you want fresh, affordable produce, visit your local farmers’ market. The local farmers who sell at these markets usually limit or eliminate the use of pesticides on their fruits and vegetables. The produce goes straight from the farm to the market, so there are no added expenses for shipping or packaging.

There’s no need to dive into an organic lifestyle head first. It took me three years to completely transition. I started slow and inched my way up until I got where I wanted to be. You can do the same thing. Simply start by replacing a few of the foods you consume regularly and then take it from there.

By thedietsolutionprogram.com

I Need to Lose Weight and Fast: Which Diet Plan Should I Use?

If I had a dollar for every time someone came up to me and said, “I need to lose weight and fast,” I’d be stretched out on the sandy beaches of Hawaii without a care in the world. Low carb, high protein, liquid and cabbage soup – with all the diet plans on the market, how on earth do you choose?

Most of these diets are just a bunch of hype; so personally, I wouldn’t touch any of them with a 50-foot stick. Sorry to break it to you (I always gotta be the bad guy), there are no shortcuts to weight loss. The most effective way to lose those stubborn pounds is by using a common sense approach that favors nutritious eating over dieting.

The Lure of the Fad Diet

When people want to lose weight, they want to do it quick, fast and in a hurry. Fad diet marketers take advantage of this desperation and use the promise of lightning speed results to reel you in.

Quick does not always equal better. In fact, when it comes to permanent weight loss, slow and steady always wins out in the end. Here are two of the main reasons faddy-type diets don’t work:

• They don’t deliver long-term results. Most fad diets require you to drastically reduce your caloric intake. This causes your metabolism to respond by slowing down. Once you revert back to your regular eating habits, you’ll gain the weight back just as fast as you lost it.

• They mangle your health. Fad diet plans deprive you of some of the key nutrients you need for good health. This can result in malnutrition, zapped energy, damaged organs, hair loss, and loss of lean muscle tissue. Sounds like a fun way to drop a few, huh.

4 Simple Rules of Eating to Lose Weight

Losing weight is certainly not the easiest thing to do, but if you remember these four simple rules, you’ll never have to hop on the fad diet bandwagon. You can lose weight gradually (remember slow and steady) and keep it off for good.

1. Stay away from processed foods. These foods are full of high fructose corn syrup, salt and chemical additives that can cause weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and cancer. Yep. This includes those frozen diet meals that some weight loss programs encourage you to buy.
2. Leave the sugar alone. Sugar is riddled with calories. If you use it to sweeten foods and beverages everyday, you can easily rack up too many calories and hinder your weight loss efforts.
3. Eat enough food. If you’re hungry all the time, you are probably not eating enough food to fuel your body. If you don’t eat enough, your body will hold on to stored fat instead of burning it off. This is not what you want to happen when you’re trying to lose weight.
4. Stay hydrated. Water is important when you’re trying to slim down because it helps to metabolize fat and eliminate toxins and stored fat in the body. So drink up!

Where Does Exercise Fit In?

When you follow a healthy eating plan, you’ll likely lose weight, even if you don’t workout. However, unless you add exercise into the mix, your metabolism will eventually slow down and you won’t see the results you want.

Your exercise routine should consist of both cardio and weight training. Relax ladies. Training with weights won’t turn you into the Terminator; it will simply help you build muscle mass and sculpt a lean, fierce frame.

Getting in the habit of working out several days week can be tough, especially if you already have a lot on your plate. Choose exercises you enjoy. This way, you’re more likely to stick with a program.

I know what it’s like to want to lose weight fast. I’ve been there and I feel your pain. Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts to permanent weight loss (believe me, I’ve looked). The best way to achieve long-term weight loss without jeopardizing your health is with proper nutrition and exercise.

By thedietsolutionprogram.com

I’m Really Overweight-Help Me Lose Weight

I remember being overweight, and desperate to find a solution tohelp me lose weight. After a few failed attempts, I finally dropped the weight and I’ve managed to keep it off for years. So how did I do it? Since that darned magic pill didn’t work, I had to lose the weight the old fashioned way. I committed myself to the cause, ate healthy and got off my hump and exercised. If I can do it, so can you.

Whip Your Eating Habits into Shape

We live in a nation of processed foods. The result of this is a skyrocketing population of fluffy adults and children. When you’re overweight, you are at risk for diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and other illnesses that can reduce your quality of life and send you to an early grave.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it ten thousand times: processed foods are no good. Do yourself a favor and boot these items out of your diet. Replace them with healthier, natural foods like fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh fish, lean meats, poultry, beans, legumes, seeds and raw nuts.

Don’t delude yourself into thinking you can change your poor eating habits overnight. Keep in mind, bad eating habits are easy to develop, but they’re not as easy to change. It helps if you start small by making gradual tweaks to your diet.

For instance, you might make it a point to trade in your morning doughnut for a bowl of oatmeal, a piece of nitrate/nitrite free bacon and some fresh fruit. If you eat out everyday, scale back, and commit to preparing healthy, low-cal meals at home at least twice a week.

On the days you eat out, replace a few unhealthy foods with healthier menu choices. For instance, instead of ordering a bag of chips or a side of fries with you sandwich, opt for a smallsalad. Continue to make small dietary changes every couple of weeks until your poor eating habits are a thing of the past.

Get Up and Get Moving

When you’re trying to whittle your waistline, it’s all about the burn, baby. Once you remove all of the processed junk from your diet, you’ll automatically reduce your caloric intake and lose weight. However, if you don’t do something to set that metabolism on fire, it will slow down and you won’t see any additional weight loss results.

You don’t have to take the “whole hog” approach to exercising to see results. The most important thing is that you do something to get your body moving. Jump up and down for 10 minutes or take a stroll around the block – if it’s more physical activity than you normally get, you’re good.

Of course, as your fitness level improves, you’ll have to add to your exercise routine to keep those weight loss results coming.

Get Committed to Your Healthy Eating Plan

When we talk about losing weight, we always tackle the nutrition and exercise side of things. Let’s talk for a bit about the commitment dropping weight requires. Losing weight and keeping it off is hard work; it requires some serious lifestyle changes.

There are going to be times when you feel discouraged and disappointed, and days when you experience setbacks. If you’re committed – and I mean really committed, you’ll be able to pull yourself up, dust the cake crumbs off, and press on. If you’re not ready to dig your heels in and put in the work, you’ll be disheartened by the results.

by thedietsolutionprogram.com

Squeezing Healthy Meal Plans into a Hectic Life

Just like a lot of you guys, I’m super busy. There are things I just don’t have time to do. However, no matter how hectic my life gets, I always make time for healthy meal plans. Is it easy? Not always. But good health is something I value; so the extra time I put into planning and preparing wholesome meals is well worth it. No matter how rushed life gets, you too can find time for good nutrition.

Plan Your Menus Ahead of Time

Instead of playing mealtimes by ear, plan your menu a week in advance. Weekly menu planning only takes a few minutes, but it can make working healthy meals into your life a lot easier. You can create a simple menu template on your computer or you can take a blank sheet of paper, divide it into sections and write down your meals and snacks for the week.

Some of you might find it more convenient to use a dry erase board for menu planning. There’s no right or wrong way to create a menu. It’s all about what works best for you. The only stipulation is that the meals you plan must be nutritious (no processed foods allowed). Once you finish making your menu, stick it on the refrigerator or somewhere else that’s visible.

Get Your Grocery Shopping Done in One Swoop

Preparing for Healthy Meal Plans. Plan a Menu, and Impulse Buys Will Be Thwarted.

You’re more likely to stick with a nutritious meal plan if you don’t have to make a mad dash to the grocery store everyday. Use your preplanned menu to make a list of all the foods you need to prepare your meals. Designate one day a week for grocery shopping so you can get it over with.

Take your list with you to the store so you won’t forget anything. No more running back and forth to the market because you forgot important ingredients. Using a list also helps you stay on track and reduces the temptation to fill your buggy with cookies, chips and other junk.

Prepare Extra Food and Keep Meals Simple

Prepare more food than you need for one meal so you can have leftovers for the next day. For instance, instead of preparing half of a chicken for dinner, go ahead and pop the whole thing into the oven. When you get ready to eat the leftovers, simply heat them up. Cooking enough for more than one meal reduces your time in the kitchen and makes mealtimes less taxing (take it from the queen of leftovers).

Gourmet meals are nice (and yummy), but they’re overrated. Unless you’re throwing a fancy dinner party, the meals you prepare don’t have to bear any resemblance to a gourmet meal. If you enjoy cooking this way, it’s perfectly fine. But if you’re short on time, quick dishes like salads topped with boiled eggs or salmon work for any meal.

When you live life at record speed, sticking to a nutritious meal plan can be tough. However, if you want to lose weight and improve your health, squeezing time out of your busy day to plan and prepare wholesome meals is important. Give the tips above a try – they just might work for you.

By thedietsolutionprogram.com

Diet Plans to Lose Weight Need Not Be Complicated

With all of the conflicting information about nutrition, it’s no wonder people give up on their diet plans to lose weight after only a few days. Dropping weight can feel like an uphill climb, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Don’t let others make the process more complicated than it actually is.

Don’t get me wrong, losing flab certainly has it challenges (trust me, I’ve been there). I’m simply saying if you’re armed with the right information, slimming down is not as hard as it seems. If you boot all the processed foods out of your diet and replace them with nutrient-dense, natural foods, you’ll lose weight and feel healthier before you know it.

Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

Adding a variety of fresh fruits and veggies to your daily diet can help you get the vitamins and minerals you need to support important functions of the body. For instance, calcium helps support bone health. Vitamin C helps the immune system thrive. B vitamins work to ease stress, and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. And vitamin A supports healthy vision and skin.

Fruits and vegetables are rich sources of complex carbohydrates and fiber. Carbs are important because they provide fuel for the body. Fiber regulates the bowels and expands in your stomach to help you stay full longer. The longer you stay full, the less you eat, and the more likely you are to drop body fat.

I have always been a supporter of free roaming chicken, grass fed meets, and whole organic eggs. It just makes sense.

Poultry and Beans

When you make beans and poultry a part of your regular diet, you are giving your body the protein it needs to maintain good health. Protein is referred to as the building block of the body for a reason. This nutrient is found almost everywhere in the body. Without it, you’ll face problems like fatigue, skin ulcers, sleeping difficulties, weakness and organ damage.

Skimping on the protein can also cause crankiness, depression, anxiety and other mental issues. Also, when you add this compound to your diet, you are less likely to overeat because it makes meals more satiating and helps control your appetite.

Lean Meats, Fish and Raw Nuts

Adding lean meats to your diet will ensure you get the iron you need to build hemoglobin and transport oxygen to the cells in your body. When you don’t get enough iron in your diet, your chances of suffering with iron deficient anemia increases. Symptoms of anemia can include fatigue, problems regulating the body temperature, headaches, dizziness and weakness.

The importance of fat in the diet is underrated. When you avoid eating healthy fats, you do your body a huge disservice. Healthy fats build the brain, provide the body with energy, help produce hormones, and provide cushion for your internal organs.

Fats also enable the body use vitamins more efficiently. Make fish and raw nuts staples in your diet so you can get some of the fats you need for good health.

If you rid your diet of processed junk and replace them with the foods listed above, you can shed unwanted pounds without frustration. The weight isn’t going to come off overnight, but it will eventually come off. Oh, and remember. No diet plan is complete or 100 percent successful without exercise.

By thedietsolutionprogram.com

Try a Wheat-Free Diet for Better Health

The gluten contained in wheat products can cause or contribute to digestive disorders and joint problems. If you suffer with these conditions, a wheat-free diet may be just what you need to relieve your uncomfortable symptoms. Need another reason to consider going wheatless? Kicking this food out of your eating plan can also help you drop those unwanted pounds (I thought that might get your attention).

Millet is commonly used as a wheat substitute for both gluten free and wheat free diets, as well as quinoa, brown rice, and sprouted grains.

A wheat-free diet is often confused with a gluten-free diet. Although wheat products contain gluten, these two types of diets are not the same thing. When you’re on a wheat-free diet, you simply eliminate all foods that contain wheat. When you follow a gluten-free diet, you not only give up wheat, you also eliminate barley and rye.

Digestive Problems and Wheat

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) can cause abdominal pain, bloating, gas, changes in bowel movements and cramping. People with IBS may be constipated one minute and have diarrhea the next. The urge to have a bowel movement can get so intense sometimes that it’s hard to control. Can you imagine being stuck in traffic feeling like this?

The symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome vary from person to person, and they can come and go. Gluten intolerance has been shown to produce or pronounce IBS symptoms. Since gluten is found in wheat, eliminating it from your diet can help reduce the symptoms.

You don’t have to have irritable bowel syndrome for wheat to cause digestive problems. When you eat wheat, it can clog up the intestines and make digestion difficult. A wheat-free diet can promote a healthy digestive tract by allowing food to flow through easier.

Go Wheatless and Drop a Few Pounds

Wheat is found in bread, pasta, baked goods, cereal, ice cream, gravies and other processed foods. These types of foods have no nutritional value and they make it hard for you to lose weight. On top of the empty calories you get when you load up on processed wheat products, you ingest all kinds of unhealthy chemical additives.

When you boot wheat out of your diet, there’s nothing left to eat but lean meats, fish, poultry, fruits, beans, nuts, legumes and vegetables. These foods are nutrient-dense and lower in calories than processed foods. When you opt for healthier foods, you automatically reduce your caloric intake, so you have an easier time slimming down.

Lose the Wheat to Reduce Joint Pain

Gluten can hinder your body’s natural defenses against joint pain caused by osteoporosis or osteoarthritis. If you have either of these conditions, a wheat-free diet may help reduce discomfort. Also, when you suffer from joint conditions, being overweight will amplify the pain. The weight loss you experience from a wheat-free diet will take some of the pressure off of your joints and help ease pain.

When you’ve been eating wheat all of your life, the thought of eliminating it from your diet can be scary. If going wheat-free is difficult for you, take small steps. Start off by cutting your intake by half. After you do this for a while, continue to reduce the amount of wheat you eat. Before you know it, you’ll be wheat-free and on the path to better health.

By thedietsolutionprogram.com

How I Use Exercise to Help Me Lose Weight

When I finally got fed up with being rotund, the first thing I did was clean up my diet. However, this wasn’t enough to help me lose weight consistently. With the amount of fat I needed to lose, nutrition alone just wasn’t going to cut it; so I started an exercise program to keep those fat burning results coming. Here’s how to use exercise to send unwanted body fat packing.

Do Plenty of Cardio

In order to lose one pound of fat you have to burn 3500 calories. It’s almost impossible to achieve this without doing cardiovascular exercises. Aim to get cardio (with an emphasis on high intensity interval training) five days a week. If you’re super busy (like most of us) and find it hard to squeeze cardio into your day, break your workouts up into chunks.

Here’s an example of how you can break your cardio workouts into manageable pieces:

• Run on a treadmill for 15 minutes when you wake up.
• Take a brisk 15 minute walk around the parking lot during your lunch break.
• Pop in a workout video and exercise for 15 to 30 minutes before dinner.

Don’t feel like your only options for good cardio workouts are treadmills and exercise bikes. There’s nothing wrong with these machines, they work great. But if you do them all the time, they can get sort of humdrum. There are plenty of other ways to get your heart jumping. Some examples include kick boxing, mowing the lawn, gardening, jumping rope and swimming.

Pump a Little Iron

Many women avoid weights like the plague. They fear pumping iron will make them look bulky and masculine. This is absolutely not true. Unless you use some sort of performance-enhancing drug when you lift weights, the possibility of looking like the Hulk is slim.

When you build lean muscle tissue by lifting weights, it kicks your metabolism into high gear and helps you slim down. Keep in mind, the more lean muscle mass you have, the more calories your body will burn—even when you’re stretched out on the couch doing nothing (nice!).

Also, lean muscle mass is compact so it takes up less space than fat. Any lean muscle tissue you build lifting weights will tone your body and give you a streamlined physique. Ladies, if you really want to get in shape, put your fears of huskiness to rest and pump weights three times a week.

Sample Workout Plan to Get You Started

In one of my past newsletters, I talked about building a foundation by focusing on mastering the basics—lunges, squats, pushing, twisting and pulling. Do the below exercise back to back. After you do the entire circuit, repeat all five exercises two more times.

• Bodyweight squats – 10 to 20 repetitions
• Bodyweight lunges – 8 on each leg
• Modified pushups on your knees 10 to 15 repetitions
• Assisted pull ups – 10 repetitions
• Medicine ball or dumbbell woodchop – 10 repetitions per side

As your fitness level increases, you can build on these exercises to make them more challenging by increasing resistance and making them more complex.

by www.thedietsolutionprogram.com

I Need to Lose Weight – How Resistance Training Can Help

Years ago, I took a long hard look at myself and thought: I need to lose weight because this pudgy body of mine is not going to work for me anymore. It took me a few tries to nail the nutrition side of things. But I knew that if I wanted to see steady weight loss results I needed to couple my healthy eating habits with exercise.

I do my fair share of cardio, but I also add resistance training to the mix because it helps me burn calories and keeps my body strong and svelte.

Benefits of Resistance Training

If you’re on a mission to lose weight, resistance training is vital because it increases the amount of lean muscle mass in the body. Why does this matter? Every pound of muscle you have accelerates the rate your body burns fat.

You can get resistance training from using dumbbells, weight machines, water bottles, soup cans and resistance bands. You can also use your own body weight as resistance by doing pushups, pull ups, squats, lunges and the like.

When you do only cardio exercises, your metabolism slows down as soon as your workout is over. When you add resistance training into the equation, your metabolism stays revved up long after your workout is over—even when you’re sitting on the couch like a hairball.

If you’re still not convinced that resistance training is important for weight loss, think about this. If two women are the same height and weight, and one of them has a body that’s mostly lean muscle while the other woman’s body is flabby, the woman with the lean muscle will look smaller. Why? Because muscle is compact and takes up less space in the body than fat.

I Don’t Want to Get Bulky

Some women shun the idea of resistance training because they have unrealistic fears of getting bulky. Most of the people who get husky either train specifically to gain bulk (professional bodybuilders for example) or they take performance-enhancing drugs.

General strength training is not, I repeat, is not going to make you bulky. The only thing it will do is make you stronger, leaner and shapelier. Isn’t this what you want?

Tips for Effective Resistance Training

• Do resistance training three times a week. Don’t overdo it. When you strength train, your muscles need time to recover. Ideally, you should rest one day between each resistance training session.

• Don’t lift too heavy or too light. Lifting weights that are too heavy can cause you to get injured, and weights that are too light won’t challenge your body.

• Use slow, controlled movements as opposed to rapid movements when you are doing resistance training exercises. If you lift weights too fast you will use momentum instead of strength to get through your repetitions, which can sabotage your efforts.

• When you lift the same amount of weights and do the same number of reps for weeks on end, your muscles get bored and progression slows down. Revamp your resistance training program every few weeks so that you continually see results.

If you really want to see those pounds melt away, combine a quality resistance training program with a sensible diet and plenty of cardiovascular exercise.

By www.thedietsolutionprogram.com

How to Lose Belly Fat in 4 Simple Steps

Embarrassment is not the worst part of having a flabby midsection. That spare tire around you tummy can increase your risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes (yikes!). Thankfully, you don’t need a complicated diet plan to learn how to lose belly fat. Stomach flab may be stubborn, but it’s no match for proper nutrition, hydration, exercise, and a can-do attitude.

Believe in Yourself

The way you feel about your ability to lose weight will play a major role in your success. If you’re plagued with self-doubt and negativity, you won’t see the point of sticking it out when things get tough. In order to achieve your weight loss goal, you must truly believe you have what it takes.

Losing weight is not just about vanity; it’s also about living healthy and feeling your best everyday. One thing that will help keep you in the right frame of mind is to think of your fat burning journey as a lifestyle change rather than a diet. If you focus on healthy living instead of dieting, you’ll maintain momentum and it will be easier to shut down those negative feelings.

Eat Nutritiously

Eating a healthy diet will keep your metabolism operating properly so you burn stomach fat more effectively. If your eating plan lacks essential carbohydrates, protein, healthy fat, vitamins and minerals, it’s not nutritious. To ensure you get adequate amounts of all of these nutrients, incorporate a variety of healthy, whole foods like vegetables, fruits, poultry, lean meats, raw nuts, legumes, beans, seeds and whole eggs into your diet.

As for counting calories to lose weight, I don’t do it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very conscious about what I put into my body. However, I refuse to spend my life keeping tabs on every crumb I swallow. When I get hungry, I’m going to eat—and trust me, I won’t be thinking about calories while I’m doing it.

I’m living proof that if you eat the right foods, and stick to reasonable portion sizes, you can lose belly fat without counting a single calorie.

Drink Plenty of Water

Water is often overlooked in nutrition plans. But this element is crucial for burning fat and maintaining proper health. Water helps metabolize stored fat and rids the body of excess fat and toxins. Water also prevent bloating and constipation, and helps curb your appetite.

Most people underestimate how much water they need, so they don’t stay properly hydrated. For optimum health, drink half of your body weight in ounces of water daily. For example, if you weigh 200 pounds, you should drink at least 100 ounces of water per day.

Get Up and Exercise

When you start your healthy eating plan, you’ll automatically reduce your caloric intake and start to shed some weight. However, unless you add exercise into the mix, your metabolism will eventually slow down and ultimately reduce your ability to burn stomach fat.

There’s no way to target specific areas for fat loss. Crunches, sit-ups and other ab-specific exercises only work to tone the muscles. The only way to get the svelte tummy of your dreams is to burn the fat off. If you don’t, any muscle tone you achieve via abdominal exercises will be buried under the flab.

If you combine 30 to 60 minutes of moderate to intense cardiovascular activity with proper nutrition, the fat around your belly will melt like butter. If you’re out of shape, doing a 30 to 60 minute workout may be too much at first. It’s okay if you start off exercising for 5 or 10 minutes. Simply work your way up as your fitness level improves.

Don’t try to change your lifestyle overnight; Start by making small tweaks. In the beginning, you might try drinking more water, increasing your fresh vegetable intake and exercising three days a week. Once you get used to these adjustments, gradually build on them. Remember, small steps can lead to big results.

by www.thedietsolutionprogram.com

Have You Ever Considered a Starvation Diet Plan for Weight Loss?

The less food you eat, the more weight you’ll lose, right? Sorry, but it just doesn’t work this way. If your idea of the perfect diet plan for weight loss is popping crackers and diuretics, you’re headed for disaster. Besides being downright miserable, a starvation diet can thwart your weight loss effortsand do some serious damage to your health.

Starving Slows the Fat Burning Process

Your body relies on the nutrients in food (real food, not saltines) for fuel. When you starve yourself, it senses the downward shift in your caloric intake and kicks into starvation mode. When this happens, your metabolism will slow down and your body will hold on to stored fat in order to conserve energy.

Lean muscle mass needs more energy to function than fat. Basically, the more lean muscle you have, the more calories you’ll burn. If you continue to starve yourself, your body will feed on your lean muscle tissue and make it even harder for you to lose weight.

Obviously, if you starve yourself long enough, you’ll have no choice but to lose weight. But the weight loss won’t be healthy, and it will show in your appearance. You’ll become emaciated and your body will start to look like an old bag of bones (not joking).

Starvation Diet Results Are Short-Lived

The weight lost from starvation diets almost always comes back. Starvation slows your metabolism down. And it can take months for it to return to normal. As soon as you start eating again, you’ll likely gain all of the weight you lost back, plus a few extra pounds. In the end, you’ll wind up bigger than you were before you started starving.

Starving Can Damage Your Health

When you go without food, you don’t get any of the essential nutrients needed for good health. This can result in fatigue, kidney failure, heart failure, gallstones, ulcers, hair loss, muscle weakness and osteoporosis. This is just a short list of the physical problems a starvation diet can cause. We haven’t even touched on the mental stuff yet.

It’s not uncommon for extremely calorie-restrictive dieters to struggle with depression, anger, indifference, memory loss, poor concentration, hallucinations and mood swings. Starvation can also increase your chances of suffering with eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia.

In essence, your health will be a mess if you try to lose weight by starving. The worst part about it is that some of the health issues that arise from starvation diets can cause irreversible damage to your body and require long-term hospitalization or lifelong medical care.

I’m not trying to scare you, but if you plan to turn starvation into a lifestyle, you’ll end up in a body bag way before your time. No amount of skinny is worth your life.

Don’t let the desperation to lose weight push you to go on a starvation diet. This type of diet can destroy your health and make weight loss harder to achieve. The healthiest way to drop unwanted pounds is to eat right, manage portion sizes and exercise.

By http://www.thedietsolutionprogram.com

I Need to Lose Weight and Fast – Should I Join a Gym?

Anytime a person comes to me and says, “Isabel, I need to lose weight and fast. Will joining a gym help me achieve my goals?” I simply tell them that no two people are alike. It’s all about what works for you. There are a lot of good reasons to join a gym, but there are also some drawbacks.

Reasons You May Want to Join a Gym

• Motivation. Everyone at the gym is there for one reason—to exercise. Being around people who share the same objective can motivate you to dig your heels in and get your workouts done. If going to the gym will encourage you to exercise regularly, then I say go for it!

• No Distractions at Home. There is always something to do or someone who needs you at home. These distractions can easily take priority (in your mind) over exercising. When you do most of your workouts at the gym, the dishes, dinner, phone calls, laundry and anything else you “need” to do will just have to wait.

• Access to Exercise Equipment and Fitness Classes. You don’t need much exercise equipment to get a good workout. However, doing the same old exercise videos and running on the same old treadmill can bore you to pieces. When you opt to workout in a gym, you have access to tons of equipment and a variety of fitness classes, so you rarely get bored.

Reasons You May Not Want to Join a Gym

• You May Get Stuck in a Contract. Plenty of people join a gym and use their memberships religiously. Others start off with a boom and then fade away. If you are one of the faders and you sign a 12 month contract, you’ll be stuck paying for a year long membership that you never use. Basically, it will be a waste of money.

• Fees are Continuous. Most contracted gym membership fees are collected via automatic bank draft. If you lose your job or run into financial hardships, there is no way to stop the gym from pulling money out of your account until your contract expires. If your finances are really messed up, the money the gym takes out of your account can cause overdraft charges and other financial hardships.

• Overcrowding. Gyms are in the business of making money. The more members they have, the more money they make. These facilities can be pretty crowded during peak hours. If you hate crowds or are uncomfortable exercising around others, the gym atmosphere may not be for you.

• Germy Equipment. Sweaty bodies and dirty hands—it’s no secret that the exercise equipment and locker rooms at gyms are stomping grounds for germs. Anytime you come into contact with germy equipment, you become vulnerable to illnesses and infections. If you are a germaphobe or slack about hand washing, you may be better off exercising at home.

Some Ways to Combat Gym Drawbacks

While it’s not necessary to join a gym to lose weight, some people thrive in this type of setting. If you’re not sure if a gym is right for you, go to a nearby facility and ask for a free trial membership. This will give you a chance to use the facility for a couple of weeks to see if joining is something you really want to do.

If you feel like a gym membership is what you need to get off your hump and exercise, negotiate with the fitness club to save a little cash. Some gyms will waive their registration fees or offer as much as 30 percent off membership prices–all you gotta’ do is ask.

If you detest the idea of being trapped in a contract, ask for a month to month membership. Most gyms don’t advertise the month to month thing because it eats into their profits. With this type of membership, you simply pay as you go. When you get sick of going, you can quit without paying any additional fees.

Your dream of losing weight is only a reach away. Watch this video to find out how the Diet Solution Program has helped me when I need to lose weight and fast.

by http://www.thedietsolutionprogram.com

How Will Proper Nutrition Help Me Lose Weight?

If you’ve tried diet after diet and you’re still hollering, “Please!Help me lose weight!” It’s because diets don’t work (obviously). Sure, they may help you drop a few pounds in the beginning, but the results are often short lived. Most diets require you to restrict your caloric intake to the point where your body is literally starving.

Not getting enough calories slows your metabolism down, causes the loss of lean muscle tissue, deprives you of the fuel you need to perform, and causes your body to hold on to stored fat for energy. In addition, diets are miserable, depressing, frustrating and not sustainable over the long term. Seriously, how long do you think you can survive off of grapefruits and cabbage?

Take it from a gal who has tried almost every diet on the market. Proper nutrition will give you better weight loss results than simply going on a diet. Here are three good reasons why.

Healthy Foods Are Naturally Low in Calories

Unlike processed junk, healthy foods like vegetables, fruits, legumes, beans naturally raised meats, organic poultry, raw nuts, seeds and organic eggs are naturally low in calories. When you eat reasonable portions of these foods, you automatically reduce your caloric intake and lose weight without feeling hungry, deprived or bitter.

There is so much nonsense in processed foods. When you eat them, your body doesn’t have a clue what to do with the calories; so they just get stored as fat. When you eat nutritious foods instead of processed junk, your body actually benefits from the calories so they are less likely to get stored as blubber.

Proper Nutrition Helps Fuel Your Body

All nutritious (and I mean truly nutritious) eating plans will allow plenty of fresh vegetables, fruits and beans in the diet. These foods provide the healthy carbohydrates you need to fuel your body and keep your metabolism performing properly.

If you come across a diet that tells you not to eat healthy carbohydrates, run away from it as fast as you can. Your body absolutely has to have healthy carbohydrates (healthy being the operative word) to survive.

Eating Healthy to Burn Fat

Here’s some great news. Healthy diets that include protein can help you build lean muscle tissue, which can kick your metabolism into high gear. This is definitely a plus if you want to send that double chin packing.

When you eat protein rich foods, your body releases a hormone that helps you burn fat. Protein also helps make meals more satiating so you eat less (bring on the protein, baby). Some nutritious protein sources include naturally raised lean meats, organic poultry, beans, raw nuts and whole organic eggs.

Why put yourself through the drama of dieting just to be disappointed with the end results? Healthy eating is a much better option for dropping unwanted pounds. Remember though,nutritious eating is just one part of the weight loss puzzle. If you want to keep those results coming, get plenty of exercise and drink lots of water.

If you are serious about losing weight, watch this video to learn some of the things that help me lose weight and keep it off.

By http://www.thedietsolutionprogram.com

This is the Best Way to get toned legs, abs, and arms

I’m going to get right to the point today because I’ve got so much great information to share with you in this newsletter, I want to get right to it.

Almost daily I receive hundreds of emails from readers asking me,

“Isabel, I am following such and such workout. Here’s exactly what I do.”

That’s usually followed by every full detail of their current workout program. The exercise program given may each be different, but the ultimate question is always the same…

“Is this workout going to give me maximum fat burning results?” or better yet, in their own words

“Is this workout going to get rid of my fat?!”

The information I’m about to give you (and yes there is a ton of it) is going to be specifically targeted to the ladies. So fellas, if you’re reading this, please, please, pass this on to any woman in your life that is currently frustrated with their current workout program. Trust me, they will thank you!

Ladies, below I am going to give you an easy, step by step guide that you can follow to be sure you are getting the best results from your workout program.

I know, I know…there’s so much information out there. How do you decipher through it all? I promise the sequence below will help tremendously.

First and foremost, I have to say that the biggest mistake I see most women making in their exercise programming is jumping from one thing to another without any rhyme or reason to why they’re doing what they’re doing. The second biggest mistake is following a “bodybuilder” type program that will only make you big and bulky, not sexy and lean (NO big and bulky for me, thanks!)

Every woman’s starting point is not the same, so use the guide below to figure out exactly where you are and how you should be training at this point in time.

Most workout programs are broken down into Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. I particularly hate these classifications because they are very relative and what is advanced to one person, may be intermediate to someone else. I like to use the following stages instead.

Stage 1 – “Building the Foundation”

You are in the “Building the Foundation” stage if you are new to exercising. Where should you begin? Should you just pick up the weights and go for it? Definitely NOT! This will just lead to frustration and injury and will cause you to abandon your program before you can even experience results.

If you are new to the exercising game, especially weight training, here are the movements I want you to master:

Squat, Lunge, Pushing, Pulling and Twisting

Sound basic? Well that is the point…mastering the basics! A perfect example of a building the foundation exercise program would be…

Perform all exercises back to back with minimal rest. Rest 1-2 minutes after the entire circuit and then repeat 2 more times

1. Bodyweight Squats – 15-20 reps
2. Bodyweight Lunges – 8 each leg
3. Modified Pushups (on knees) – 10-15 reps
4. Assisted Pullups – 10 reps
5. Medicine ball or Dumbbell Woodchop – 10 reps each side (keep the weight light)

The workout above is absolutely perfect for building a strong foundation to work from and will ensure that you do not jump into a more complex workout that may cause you injury without being prepared.

Stage 2 – “Achieving Fitness”

This is where you build upon the basics and begin to perform more complex movements, using the same exercises in your Stage 1 plan, but now you are making modifications in reps, weight and complexity of the movements.

Here’s an example plan (follow the same instructions as your stage 1 program):

1. Dumbbell Squats – 15 reps
2. Walking Lunges – 10 each leg
3. Pushups on your toes – work up to 10 total
4. Assisted Pullups – 15-20 reps
5. Woodchop using a cable machine – 10 reps each side at a challenging weight

Although both programs look very similar, the intensity is significantly different and you will be able to achieve a greater level of fitness with the complexity and increased reps of the second program.

Stage 3 – “Getting Ripped”

I hate to say this, but most people, especially women, will never achieve this level. No, no I’m not trying to be mean or condescending here, but the reality is many people are just not willing to put in the work that it takes to see their six pack, see ripped lines in their legs and see cuts in their arms.

Is it possible? Yes, of course it is. Is it possible for you? Yes, most definitely! And I don’t ever want to hear anyone say it isn’t possible for them because I have seen obese people, mothers with several children and ex-couch potatoes get bodies they never dreamed were possible.

Exactly what does it take to get there?

It takes a real dedication to your workout program. It takes a commitment to exercise at least 4 or 5 times each week. And it takes a real WANTING to see that lean and toned body in the mirror.

What does a sample workout look like? Well, I am going to let my good friend Flavia DelMonte tell you exactly what it takes and how she achieved the incredible physique she has today. I have to say, Flavia has really got this figured out and if you want to get that head turning body that only very few women are able to achieve, Flavia has got the formula for that.

Formula for a head turning body

Flavia’s story is absolutely fantastic and the way she came up with this “no fail” approach is nothing less than incredible. She shares all of that with you plus and most importantly, how you can achieve the same results.

No Fail approach to toned abs, legs and arms

Stay tuned tomorrow for a detailed look into a sample workout that is definitely a “Stage 3 – Getting Ripped” workout.

By the http://www.thedietsolutionprogram.com/blog/!