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What is a Healthy Diet? A Guide to Weight Loss
Staying Motivated With Your Diet Diets, like exercising, can be hard to maintain. Many of the diets advertised that require you to dramatically change your eating habits by cutting out one food group completely, or restricting it to very specific amounts can be difficult. However, diets which focus on eating healthy with well-balanced meals versus cutting out foods altogether may be harder to follow. Whichever diet you choose, staying on the diet is the goal. To stay motivated, it is often important to have a friend or your significant other or partner try the diet with you--that way you have someone to talk to about the diet, whether that means discussing which foods you can and can’t eat or how one chocolate candy bar may affect the rest of your diet. Your friend or partner can also help you from falling off the diet by providing encouragement, and vice versa. 
Another motivation technique is to set some specific goals. Changing one’s eating habits can be harder than settling into a gym routine. Thus, you should try to set small goals that help change your diet over time. As with all things, patience is key. If you have been eating very unhealthy foods on a regular basis, then you should try changing three of those meals into healthy ones, where you can ensure a more balanced meal. Three times a week does not seem like a lot, and indeed, it is not. Or you can try changing the foods you buy to healthier ones. If you eat lots of white bread, stop buying it altogether and buy wheat bread instead. Any changes in your weight can also be a great motivational factor. Maybe the scale still says the same number, but if your clothes fit a little better, then you can rest assured the diet is working. This can really motivate you to continue your diet and even increase it from smaller amounts, like three meals a week, to a meal a day that is more balanced or follows your diet. Moreover, changing to a healthier, well-balanced diet will give you more energy. You will find that you are more awake and more active and may even want to go to the gym, all of which often leads to being happier. Diets have an effect not only on your waistline but on every part of your life, from healthy hearts and minds to happier attitudes, and sticking to your diet will help you improve all of those aspects of your life. Healthy Diet - A Guide to Weight Loss Make sure that the right discipline is still practiced to promote consistency on the diet plan. This will lead eventually to a healthy life-style and a more fruitful living without the extra fat and extra pounds on the side. Here are some weight loss diet tips that can be followed anywhere, everyday: 1. Make a delicious low fat mayonnaise by combining one teaspoon of Dijon mustard or satay sauce with a low fat yogurt. 2. Do not skip meals. Skipping meals slicks the body into slowing down the metabolism, attempting to conserve calories during a period where limited fats and fuel are available. Remember that eating increases the metabolism. 3. Stuff vegetables like capsicum and zucchini with flavored fillings or minced chicken, white meat or fish. These are healthy and contain low fat. 4. Take pita bread roll ups or wraps with salad fillings. 5. Eight hours after waking up, our metabolism slows down that is why 30 minutes of exercise before dinner will increase the metabolism for about two to three hours. This produces an increase in burned fat even hours after the work out is over. 6. Add alfalfa or mung beans to salad to get extra iron. 7. Good cooking and healthy eating begins with learning about nutrition and how to prepare healthy recipes. 8. Learn how to make the family favorite recipes and make sure that fats, salt, and sugar are cut out. Substitute non-fat yogurt for cream, stir-fry without oil and use herbs and spices instead of salt to taste. 9. Consult the doctor before beginning an exercise or weight loss program. 10. Slowly eat and chew each bite during meals as this would decrease one's appetite. 11. Complete three small meals and two snacks everyday instead of one or two huge meals. 12. Use chicken stock when stir-frying. This will cut down on hidden fat. 13. Buy non-toasted muesli instead of the toasted ones. A plate of toasted muesli contains more fat than a plate of bacon and eggs. 14. As much as possible do not remove the skins of fruits and vegetables since most of the nutrients are concentrated under the skin. 15. Warm water with just a squeeze of lemon juice before breakfast get the metabolism going for the day, this also help preventing constipation and is excellent for the skin. 16. One of the best sources of vegetable protein is from soya beans or tofu. All legumes provide some protein, so include lentils, lima beans etc into casseroles and soups. 17. Look for a weight loss "buddy," club, or support mates. This will motivate you to stay and enjoy your weight loss program. 18. Though it's hard at first, try not eating 3 hours or more before bedtime. 19. Make pasta a fast food choice - preparing a pasta meal or salad will only take 10-12 minutes. 20. Chilli helps to speed up metabolism - even the milder varieties. 21. Try making omelettes without adding the yolks! A dramatic decrease in fat. 22. Substitute baking soda, baking powder, MSG and soya sauce in cooking. 23. Remove fat by dropping ice cubes into the baking tray. Fat will stick to the ice cubes. 24. Drinking hot water instead of cold water in the morning can increase the speed of your metabolism and burn more calories. 25. Eat before you go food shopping and always prepare a shopping list. Only buy food which relates to your weekly menu plan and don't be tempted to buy goodies. Make sure that the right discipline is still practiced to promote consistency on the diet plan. This will lead eventually to a healthy life-style and a more fruitful living without the extra fat and extra pounds on the side. Dining Out on a Diet There’s no arguing about it—dining out when you’re on a strict diet can be hard, especially for people who love food. While this may appear a sort of punishment (and not a mild one, believe me), the right approach to eating is centered on eating normally, not splurging constantly, even in a restaurant. There is no need to give up dining out. Remember that a diet is meant to boost your health not spoil it. When you go out to eat and the fancy restaurant's menu is threatening you with its fattening foods, be relaxed and eat enough of your favorite salad or soup before turning to the entree. Be careful, though! Seemingly health-friendly items like soups generally tend to quell hunger and salads like Caesar salads may be overly rich in calories. Try to enhance your appetite with a broth-based vegetable soup. Choose a salad with a dressing on the side so you don’t have to eat it all—restaurants most often provide you with more than a single serving. Most people have guilty pleasure foods that they tend to eat when at a restaurant. This is where most dieting plans see their demise. Thankfully, many restaurants tend to people's dieting needs, but it can still be difficult to say no to tempting orders. Modify your meal to make it healthier. For example, order a side salad instead of the fries that usually come with your meal. If burgers are hard to avoid, order one with low fat or no cheese. Sauces are a huge source of fat that you usually don’t even notice. A good rule of thumb is to remember that creamy sauces are worse for your diet. Meat and chicken sauces, light salad dressings, and on-the-side cream sauces will keep your fat intake in reasonable limits. Keep everything to a minimum—you don’t have to use every single spoonful that the waiter brings! Quantity control is very important, and restaurants bring you bigger portions in most cases. Eat less of the meal and dining out becomes as safe as your home dining table. The best way is to share part of your meal with a friend. You can also ask for a doggie bag and take the rest of your meal home with you for the next day. Dining out doesn’t have to wreck your diet. Simply keep cool about the situation and understand the foods on the restaurant’s menu that are healthier for your diet. I Want Chocolate! Dealing with Cravings New diets are often difficult to begin because they cut out a lot of the yummy junk foods, like sugary sweets and fatty fried foods. After just a day or two of eating healthy foods, you might have cravings for chocolate, potato chips, and soda. Controlling food cravings when you are on a strict diet can be difficult, but there are a few tricks that you should learn so that your days are easier, at least when it comes to food. First, shop and cook wisely. If there are certain things that you know you are likely to crave, keep them out of your house altogether. When you’re shopping, resist the urge to buy these unhealthy foods and instead purchase healthy and delicious snacks like fresh fruit and granola bars. Try to match up your new snack foods with what you would normally crave. For example, if you love eating potato chips, try a healthier alternative, such as popcorn. Also, use the foods you buy to cook in a better way. Many recipes using fresh vegetables and lean meat can be very tasty when prepared in certain ways. Learn to crave these healthy things instead of fatty foods like pizza. Cravings also come from not only wanting unhealthy food, but also wanting more food. To prevent this, be sure that you are consuming correct portion sizes at every meal. Don’t skip meals or starve yourself to loose weight—you’ll be more likely to binge eat if you do that. Binge eating is harmful to your body and will actually cause you to put on even more weight or can lead to illnesses such as bulimia. If you find that your cravings are unbearable, try to include your favorite foods in healthy ways. For example, if you feel like you simply cannot live without chocolate, try buying a healthy snack like trail mix and adding a few chocolate chips to the batch. You can also look for the healthiest alternatives to your favorites and keep them in your house to be consumed in small amounts. Often one or two chips will give you the power to put the rest of them away for another day. Lastly, join a group like Weight Watchers, or diet with a friend so that you can keep one another motivated. Keep a log of your progress and use your success in order to stop your cravings. A member of your dieting group or a dieting partner is a great person to call when you are craving unhealthy foods. Distraction is key. You can also take a walk to get out of the house or drink some water to keep your mind off of the foods you crave. Cravings might be tough, but they don’t have to ruin your diet. A review of the most popular Diet Plans and what makes for good nutrition for healthy weight loss. Good nutrition coupled with exercise is the key to a healthy diet plan. Good nutrition is the key ingredient to improving your chances for weight loss. But we’re not talking crash diets here, or plain old starving yourself. We are talking about eating healthy and making sure your portions match the number of calories you need on a daily basis. It is believed that if you can create a 500-calorie deficiency every day between exercise and nutrition, you can lose up to a pound a week.
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