Changing Your Diet: Switching To The Glycemic Index Food List

Have your bad eating habits resulted in an ever expanding waistline? We all have bad health and bad eating habits that can be improved with the glycemic index food list.

Keep in mind, like any other lifestyle alteration, it can be done with sudden massive changes or with a slow and steady wins the day approach.

The hardest part of making the initial change and start eating foods that are low on the glycemic index food list… is actually making the decision to do it. It doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, as you see how quickly you start feeling better and start to see the pounds effortlessly falling off, you will want to make even MORE changes.

The difficulties in making the change are…

Simple fact, as humans, we are creatures of habits. It’s likely you’ve been eating the same (bad) way for a very long time. It’s an ingrained habit – no criticism of you or your lifestyle, it’s just the way it is.

When dieting, so many of us “fall off the wagon” because it can take some real effort and motivation to squelch our habits and make positive changes to our lives.

Depending on the sort of person you are…there are many ways to incorporate change in your diet. Some of us just want to make a drastic change and be done with it, others favor a more gradual adjustment. There’s no right or wrong…

So, you need to ask the question, “What type of change is right for me?” If you go with the sort of change that best fits your personality, you have a better chance of success.

The “cold turkey” change…

The most common technique for most of us is to go “cold turkey” from bad food options. It will show the fastest results and can be quite motivating. It’s harder, but with the right strategies, it can be done.

First, you need to get rid of the bad foods in the house. If you have the temptation available, you’ll succumb. Two ways to get rid of the food are: to not do any shopping until everything is all gone – or if you are rich and foolish, you could just throw it all out.

Make up your shopping list out of foods with a low glycemic number or just print out a copy of the glycemic index food list and when shopping day comes, head to the store. Stick to your list and stock up with nothing but foods that are good for your diet, and your health.

Stick with the list and you won’t have any “bad” foods in the house. If you have no temptations you’ll be forced to eat healthy!

Gradually changing to a healthier diet.

Gradually switching out our foods from unhealthy to better options would seem to be the easier route. Not always…if you have a bunch of unhealthy food options in the house, you will likely choose them first. Even so, For some of us, making gradual changes to our diet is the best option.

The tactic to employ for a gradual shift is to make it a point to always buy at least one item from the glycemic index food list each time you go to the store. Incorporate it into your diet and NEVER go back to the old choice. Eventually, you will have switched everything in your diet to it’s best options.

Seems like a lot of effort…why should we make the change?

Eating foods that have low ranking on the glycemic index food list is good for us in many ways. Not just in weight loss. Though it IS one of the best ways to lose weight, it is good for our general health as well. It helps diabetics control their blood sugar levels, it’s beneficial in preventing heart disease and other health benefits too numerous to mention here.

For a whole lot more information on the glycemic index food list and other safe diet programs, visit my web site. You can get a free copy of my “Fast weight Loss Tips!” mini-course.

3 Day Tuna Diet – Busted? Or Plausable?

Is your slinky black dress starting to look sorta lumpy? Has your stomach been blocking your view of your toes…maybe you have a big dance or a reunion coming. Whatever the reason, you want to dump ten or so pounds and you’ve discovered the 3 day tuna diet. It looks fast, easy and perfect for your needs!

Hold off! There are a few facts about the 3 day tuna diet that you will want to know before you decide to get started.

The 3 day tuna diet is one of the hottest ones out there. It rapidly soared to the tops of the popularity charts because people believe that there can’t be any health drawbacks because you are on the diet for a short amount of time.

Not true! This diet, like ALL crash diets has a bad affect on your metabolism. What that means in the end is that you will very quickly gain back ALL the weight you lost…and in most cases you will add an additional 10 or 15 pounds. Now your 10 pound challenge has become a 25 pound nightmare.

The route to success for ALL crash diets is through starvation. That includes the 3 day tuna diet. It works to lose a few pounds at first, but starvation is also the reason why it’s unhealthy. If you aren’t getting enough calories, your body will slip into starvation mode – within the first day.

When your body defaults to starvation mode – whether from the 3 day tuna diet or any other – it’s usually pretty easy to tell. Symptoms may include feeling sluggish and unable to generate enough energy to perform normal daily tasks…constantly feeling cold…dreaming about food (both day dreams and night dreams), and others. These symptoms mean that your body – in an effort to protect you – has slipped into starvation mode.

The 3 day tuna diet has so few calories, that it is very near to being a VLCD or “very low calorie diet”. Any diet that is under 1200 calories per day is considered a “low calorie diet”. Below 800 calories per day is considered “very low calorie.”

For adults, a “VLCD” is dangerous and should NEVER be attempted without direct supervision of a doctor. Children should never go on a “VLCD” no matter how obese.

The name: 3 day tuna diet, is misleading. It makes you think that you are on the diet for only 3 days. That’s actually not the case…you are on and off for a full month. It’s not a balanced diet and you have no hope of keeping off the weight long term.

A large portion of the diet consists of refined carbohydrates. They are considered as “empty calories” and have little if any nutritional value. Refined carbs also create spikes in our production of insulin. Spikes and drop offs of insulin can create HUGE medical problems as well as energy peaks and valleys and food cravings.

During the four days a week you are NOT on the 3 day tuna diet, most of us gorge and overeat. the food cravings we generate are just too much for us. Studies conducted as far back as the 1970′s show that the average dieter gains an ADDITIONAL 8 pounds on top of his beginning weight in the weeks following the diet.

There ARE diets that will work to lose weight and KEEP IT OFF. They focus on eliminating unhealthy foods and habits and replacing them with better ones. You will NEVER be hungry during a properly formulated and executed diet.

Visit my website right now and you can get a copy of my “Fast Weight Loss Tips!” mini-course while it is still free. For your own health, stay away from crash diets like the 3 day tuna diet. There ARE diets that work…even for you.

Speeding Up Metabolism – Eating Right Isn’t the Only Factor in Being Skinny

Speeding up metabolism can at times seem to be an impossible, mysterious task. Unfortunately, we have all likely been in this situation. Imagine, you have the friend, or the group of friends, that can chow down on anything they want without gaining weight. Meanwhile, you’ve tried seemingly dozens of diets and can’t get your weight in check despite eating healthy. Sometimes life isn’t fair after all.

It all comes down to our metabolism, and it’s different for each person. Lots of factors play a role in setting our metabolism, from genetics to age, gender, our body composition and how we active are on a day to day level. This is only a sampling of the many factors involved.

It’s no wonder why it’s such a confusing subject. But once you understand your metabolism, it’s fairly easy to control and you can lose weight at will. Speeding up metabolism isn’t that hard to do.

Muscle is a huge determinant in our metabolic rate. Muscles burn far more calories than fat, even when we are resting. This is one area where men tend to be luckier than women. Due to higher testosterone levels, men are generally able to develop muscle more easily than women.

Another hurdle women have to jump over, is that during menopause their metabolic rates plummet. To maintain a high metabolic rate, women MUST exercise. Anything you can do to increase your levels of muscle will aid in speeding up metabolism and overcome a lot of the other metabolic problems that come along. Plus, exercise has other health benefits as well.

Your goal for losing weight has to be kept within reason however, anything more than one or two pounds a week is unhealthy. It’s also unrealistic over the long term. To achieve your healthy weight loss, you should be exercising four or five times a week. That sounds like a lot, but once you reach your goal, you can cut back to just two or three times per week.

The good news is that exercise doesn’t have to be running on a treadmill for hours at a time. You can be active in any way that you desire, from participating in sports to dancing or even doing chores around your home and garden. The goal is to stay active and stay moving as much as possible, and anything is better than nothing at all. They will all be beneficial in speeding up metabolism.

If you learn how to take control over your metabolism, you’ll realize that losing weight is easier than it ever could have been otherwise. Now you’ll be the lucky one with the great body.

To learn everything you need to know about speeding up metabolism, visit my website. You can also get a FREE, “Fast Weight Loss Tips!” mini-course.

I Just Want Know How To Speed Up My Metabolism…

Here’s some good news! If what you want to do is lose weight, you’ve stumbled onto the right article. If what you’ve been trying to find out is, “how to speed up my metabolism” you are in for a treat. For weight loss the metabolism is where it’s at, and speeding it up is pretty simple.

To begin, here’s a brief definition of what I mean by metabolism. When you eat, your body must do something with the food…and that’s your metabolism. You could rephrase the question “How to speed up my metabolism?”, as “How can my body better use my food?”

In other words, you take in calories whatever you eat something. Your body has to deal with these calories in some way so, if you need some energy they get burned off. However, if you don’t need any energy at that time, they get stored away as fat. This is your body’s way of saving up for a “rainy day”.

It’s a scientific given, if you burn more calories than you eat, you will lose weight. You must. The terrific part is, anyone can lose weight. Just burn more calories than you eat, that way you are taking away from your stored up fat rather than adding to it.

That’s what is meant by metabolism. It’s a bit like that fairytale, “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” -you have three options. If you eat too much, you will gain weight. (We think of that as a slow metabolism.) If you eat too little, you will lose weight. (We think of that as a fast metabolism.) But, if you eat just right, you will stay the same and not gain or lose any weight.

Burning off more calories, is the answer to the question, “How to speed up my metabolism?”. Not too difficult. The two basic ways are; exercise more, and eat less. In the eat less category, it is possible to eat just as much (or more) but not add any calories.

Logically, it would seem that eating less would be all that is necessary. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. This is not the way to “speed up my metabolism” If you start eating too few calories, all that will do is trigger your metabolism to slow down even further. Your body thinks that you’re in a starvation situation and it does what it can to help you out by slowing everything down.

Here is a way you can trick your body. It’s a way to cut back on your calories, while still making your body think you are getting enough. This will ramp everything up into high gear, and kick start your metabolism.

My all time favorite way to accomplish this miracle, is to make sure that I eat a lot of negative calorie foods.

When you eat, you take in a certain number of calories. But you also use a certain number of calories in digestion. When the number of calories used in digestion is larger than the number of calories you get by eating, that is a negative calorie food. Here’s an example, 100 g of broccoli is about 25 calories. However, digesting it uses about 80 calories. So, every time you eat broccoli you have a net loss of 55 calories! Plus, your body is tricked into thinking you’re getting enough calories so it doesn’t slow down your metabolism. Pretty cool, eh?

In the world of fruits and vegetables, there are quite a few negative calorie options. Work them into your diet – at the same time, pay attention to your portion sizes on your other foods, and start a basic exercise program. And you won’t be able to avoid losing weight.

On my website, there are a lot of interesting articles and more information on negative calorie foods. Check it out, you’ll be glad you did.

Veggies – One Of The Foods That Speed Up Metabolism!

Picture this…

You know that vegetables are good for you and that they are one of the foods that speed up metabolism (We notice this as extra energy.)

You’ve been trying to eat better and have more foods that speed up metabolism, so you have been eating lots of vegetables with your meals. Even so, you still barely have the energy to drag yourself through the day.

After a hard day at work, all you want to do is plant yourself in front of the television and relax until bedtime rolls around.

Then, when the alarm goes off in the morning, you still don’t feel rested and you have to literally drag yourself out of bed. The coffee pot is ALWAYS your first destination.

You could be dragging because you aren’t getting the proper nutrition. You can stop blaming your bed! It could be your veggies. Foods that speed up metabolism and provide the right balance of vitamins and minerals will give you tons of energy- if eaten correctly. Here’s a possible culprit – vitamins are water soluble.

We fix our meals, happily cooking our vegetables – usually in boiling water! This means we’re dissolving the nutrients and literally pouring them out! By the time we’re finished, our meal has virtually no nutritional value left!

Guess what? Most vegetables can be eaten raw. Plus, they usually taste better that way! When given the opportunity, always opt for raw.

There are a lot of benefits to eating them raw…

First off, you’ll stop wasting all those nutrients. Possibly for the first time EVER, your body will start getting the vitamins and minerals it needs. You will feel better in general and will notice a bump in your energy levels almost immediately.

Second, raw vegetables just plain taste better.

Third, you don’t have to wash your cooking pots and pans if you don’t use them.

Fourth, you can exact revenge on all those skinny members of your family! There is nothing more funny than LOUDLY biting into and chewing a fresh carrot or a crisp stalk of celery. Done properly you can disrupt conversations – ruin trains of thought – and generally drive your family nuts! (Hey, I may be an old dude but I never really grew up!)

Fifth, they provide a lot of good roughage and fiber.

Don’t forget, they taste better too!

What’s our goal? Eat a minimum of one raw veggie at each meal.

Always be sure to wash your vegetables thoroughly. When you get them from the store, they DO have chemical and pesticide residues on them. If you want a healthier alternative, go organic.

The average diet doesn’t provide all the nutrients we need, so if you don’t take a daily vitamin supplement, it would probably be a good idea to start.

Don’t skip your vitamins, but as you start to eat healthier foods that speed up metabolism and start getting the nutrients you need in your food, you won’t so desperately need daily vitamins.

Just make it a point to eat your veggies raw and soon you could be one of those irritating people who are full of energy and leap out of bed in the morning.

What Is The Best Way To Lose Weight?

No matter how hard we try to avoid it, all the best ways to lose weight require some sort of exercise. But, just because that’s true, doesn’t make it any more fun. Most of us dread our daily workout and skipping it is a leading cause of failure in most weight loss plans. Have heart, here are some pointers that could actually help out…

Especially in the beginning, virtually everyone hates to exercise. But, before you realize what’s happened, it sneaks up on you and all of a sudden you realize it isn’t so bad! In fact, you start to look forward to the daily session. (Now that you’ve had a good laugh…it’s true! It could even happen to you!)

Like anything else, the challenge is in the beginning. We understand we have to do it, so we plow through our daily regimen. At least we do for a little while, most end up quitting in frustration after about a month. They never realize how close they were to a – learning to love exercise – breakthrough. Once you learn to look forward to your daily exercise routine, weight loss is not much of an issue. It will usually just go away with only minor dieting effort.

If your snooze alarm gets more of a workout than you do, simply because you can’t face another day of mindless sit-ups, leg lifts or endless miles around the track, hang in there! Have hope!

Strengthening your core may be important, but crunches aren’t the only way. There are aerobic exercises that are as good as or better than jogging too. Have you considered swimming? It’s much better and is easy on the joints too. Get some cd’s and dance the day away in the privacy of your living room. Get a bike and go cycling! The message here is that for every form of exercise that you can’t stand the thought of doing – there is a more fun and often better replacement! Face it, if you enjoy your workout, you are likely to stick with it. That’s when you’ve found the path to the best way to lose weight and more importantly, keeping it off.

Clearly some of the replacements are not as ideal as their more boring alternatives. But, if you are more likely to stick with it, you’re ahead. Actually DOING an exercise that is pretty good, is far better than NOT DOING an exercise that is perfect. As you get more and more into shape and your body starts to crave the daily workout, you can slowly start adding in the more ideal exercises. You will find they aren’t so bad anymore.

You can even use your workout as a home beautification project! Park the power mower and buy a push mower. Make it a personal challenge to mow the lawn faster every week. Vigorously rake the grass and all those leaves – dump the blower. Try to work in some heavy lifting gardening.

Do you live where it gets cold? Why suffer another jog when sledding and ice skating with friends is such a good workout – and fun too! (Beware of the dreaded after skating hot chocolate.) The new Wii games can give you an aerobic tennis or dance workout. You could even entice the kids to get off the couch and join in! Just be sure they think it’s a game and not that you’ve gotten them to turn off the tv and exercise.

It can help quite a bit if you get a workout partner. All of us have off days and need a little motivational push. Your workout buddy can get you past the rough patches. And, you will do the same for them. As you both get in better shape, you’ll be able to go from playing tennis on your Wii, to chasing balls all over a real court. As far as your workout is concerned, being a bad player would be a bonus! You can each set personal goals and make it a competition.

If you go to a gym, a trainer can help you design a program that will be safe. Plus they are there to help keep you motivated and make it more fun and interesting. Boredom, injury and feeling overwhelmed are the biggest drawbacks to working out at a gym. Your trainer is an expert at helping you get past those hurdles.

You don’t have to do this by yourself. Take an exercise class at your gym! Most gyms offer them free with your membership or if not free, they don’t cost much. You may meet someone that turns into your best friend – who knows? The classes keep you learning new exercises, they motivate you and push you a little. Most community centers have free or low cost classes if cash is a little lean right now. Look into it tomorrow!

The bottom line is – don’t give up! Stick with your program, find a way to make it fun and enjoyable. Before long, it won’t seem like a chore. Working out will be the high point of your day. Then, you will be the master of your body and will have found one of the best ways of losing weight.

Weight Loss Workout Plan – For Beginners

If you were to examine any random sampling of diseases, one common denominator would immediately jump out at you…lack of proper diet and exercise are in some way associated with the cause. And, establishing a good weight loss workout plan is part of the cure. We just can’t avoid it, proper diet and exercise are not only good for you, they are vital. We all need to get started with an effective weight loss workout plan right away.

Fortunately, devising and following an effective weight loss workout plan does not have to be difficult. In fact, just the opposite. It is not only a great stress reducer, but it’s fun and easy to do. To get started, here is the best weight loss workout plan I’ve discovered.

Get off the couch, and go for a walk. That may seem a little too simple, but for a beginning weight loss workout plan…it’s the best. Why? It’s free, easy and anyone can do it anywhere, anytime.

No excuses, there just isn’t any reason not to do it. Even if your goal is not to lose weight, you will want to walk around 30 minutes per day, more is better. The best part is, it’s scalable. You can work up to that level. Bad weather outside? Either bundle up and get out there, or just walk around the house or apartment.

Unless you’re in terrific shape, running and other more strenuous exercises can create damage, joint pain and soreness. Walking as a weight loss workout plan is good because it’s low impact, safe, and anyone that can walk, can do it regardless of their age.

If you can handle them, running and other vigorous exercises are good for you. But studies have shown that walking is every bit as good. You just have to do it longer. For general conditioning and a nice way to relieve the daily stresses, 30 minutes a day is good. If you are walking as a weight loss workout plan, you should go for 60 minutes. In this case, more is better. Plus – walking too much isn’t going to hurt you.

Most of the better weight loss companies are starting to realize the benefits of walking. If you are going with a formalized weight loss workout plan, I would recommend one of these.

In addition to improving your health, there are many social benefits too! Virtually every community offers hiking and walking clubs and it can be a good way to make new friends and form new relationships.

Considering all the benefits…with almost no drawbacks, you clearly can’t go wrong with walking as a weight loss workout plan. The fact that it takes some time is walkings only drawback. However, when you consider the value of your health it’s time well spent don’t you think?

For tons of fascinating articles and interesting facts check out my website.

Excercise To Lose Weight – Warm Up To Warming Up!

We all know we have to excercise to lose weight. But, knowing it, doesn’t make it any more fun! In fact, most of us dislike working out. Add in the challenges posed by our jobs and family obligations and our workout sessions quickly become a chore that we try to get through as quickly as possible.

So far, so good. We all feel that way at times. (Btw- working out becomes more enjoyable with time.) So in our rush to “get it over with” we are tempted to skip or at least gloss over our warm up routine.

Warning – don’t do it! Skipping your warm-up is a disaster just waiting to happen! It puts your body at serious risk for injury. But, you knew that. “It can’t happen to me” or “I’ll skip it just this once” are rationalizations that we all have no trouble with using.

Evidence of this sort of rationalization is all around us. There’s been a health risk warning printed on every pack of cigarettes for over 30 years, yet look how many smokers there are! Everyone knows that drug abuse is illegal, addictive, dangerous, will destroy your life, and eventually kill you…yet illegal drug sales is one of – if not THE biggest industry in the world!

So the thought – that you can “get away with it” and can save a little time by skipping your warm up – WILL occur to you. Fight it. When you excercise to lose weight, allow a couple extra minutes to warm up and cool down afterwards. It’s worth it.

Here’s a little good news – by properly warming up, the rest of your workout will actually be a little easier and will be more effective! So skipping the warm up routine doesn’t really save you anything. To get the most benefit and avoid injury, make it a practice to warm up every time you excercise to lose weight.

A warm up routine doesn’t have to be a long and laborious process. A quick 5 minutes will do the job! Plus, there’s no need for it to be boring either. There are a number of great moves that will work, if you mix and match them, you won’t fall into a dull routine.

Be sure to do a complete warm up and get all of your muscles stretched and moving, even if you don’t plan on working on a particular set of muscles during any given session. For example, if you’re scheduled to do some weightlifting to increase your upper body strength, be sure to stretch and warm up your legs as well. Warming up is vital in any excercise to lose weight routine, whether you are working with weights or aerobic exercises.

Jumping Jacks, lunges, skipping rope and jogging are all very good options. The idea is to get the blood flowing, get moving and stretched. It doesn’t need to be hard.

Many people think of stretching as more of a cooling down move, but there are a lot of good reasons to include stretches as part of your warm up routine. Why not, it can’t hurt to do a little extra stretching. Who knows maybe it CAN hurt – literally – not to.

If you really resent spending the few minutes it takes to warm up, try warming up before you get to the gym. For example, when you can take the elevator or you have the option of using stairs, take the stairs. Or, why fight for a decent parking space? Park a few blocks away and easy jog or take a fast walk the rest of the way. You can be stretched and ready to go by the time you get inside.

Here’s a sad tale…I once saw around fifteen people waiting for an elevator to take them up to the gym! ONE floor – about twenty steps – AND they had to walk right past the stairs to get to the elevator. (I thought they were there to get a workout! BTW – half of them went straight from the elevator to the Stairmaster.)

Whether you want to lose hundreds or just a couple of pounds, any excercise to lose weight routine will start slow and rapidly build in intensity. Without a warm up, this can be risky. To remain safe and injury free, give it the couple minutes that’s required.

Here’s The Ideal Source of Foods That Speed Up Your Metabolism

Any diet that even comes close to being healthy, will tell you to eat plenty of vegetables. But what kind of vegetables should we be eating to get foods that speed up your metabolism?

To boost our metabolism, as part of a healthy, balanced dietmost any type of vegetable will do the job. But if you really want to see the weight start pouring off of you, you need to start considering calories.

Calories are easy to understand, if you think of them as energy.

Whenever you eat something, it doesn’t matter what it is, it will give your body calories. Whether it’s a stalk of celery or a candy bar, everything gives us calories. Our body has to do something with all these calories. It will burn them if it needs some energy. If no energy is needed, they get stored as fat.

We can’t cut back too much on calories since that would slow our metabolism. We’re looking for foods that speed up your metabolism, so we need to boost our calorie usage rather than cut back on intake. In other words, we need to find foods that speed up your metabolism but still don’t provide enough energy. That’s when we will see our fat beginning to disappear.

What if we could find a way to keep our metabolism chugging away – at full speed – and still not have enough energy? Then, our body would get the extra energy it needs from fat. (And we get skinny.)

Enter negative calorie foods.

Negative calorie foods are like an edible version of a jog around the park. You are still getting all the nutrients you need, your metabolism is still working at full speed and yet you still have a deficit of energy – which your body provides by burning fat calories.

Eating foods that speed up your metabolism – and make you lose weight at the same time – makes dieting a lot of fun. Wouldn’t you agree?

By now, you are probably wondering what negative calorie foods are?

All of our various bodily functions require energy. In other words you need a certain amount of calories just to digest food.

A negative calorie food is one that gives us a certain number of calories but burns more calories just in being digested. With negative calorie foods, in theory, you could eat all day and still lose weight.

Here’s an example. A typical piece of broccoli (that is about 100 grams) gives us about 25 calories when we eat it. However, it uses up about 80 calories just to digest. So you have a net loss of 55 calories every time you eat a piece of broccoli.

Good stuff, eh?

Here are a few vegetables that are negative calorie foods…

Garlic, asparagus, zucchini, green beans, Garden cress, beet root, turnip, lettuce, broccoli, spinach, onion, cabbage, radish, carrot, cucumber, cauliflower, celery, chicory, hot chili.

Plus, there’s a bunch more. Think about it, it would be scientifically and physically impossible not to lose weight if you were eating a negative calorie diet. To get a lot more information, check out my website.