Selecting a Diet Plan

Selecting a Diet Plan

Diet and Weight Loss Tutorial

Are you ready to diet? Again? Diets entice us with promises of quick weight loss. But the people we know who eat well and look healthy aren't dieting at all. They have simply adopted good eating habits.

Diets can be so restrictive that they set you up for failure. Some are so low in caloric intake that you literally don't have the energy to continue with them. And while most diets produce quick weight loss at the outset, they often cause your metabolism to slow.

The result is that you have to eat less and less to keep losing weight. You quickly become discouraged, give up, and start eating like you used to. But now, with a slower metabolism, you regain all the weight you lost, and more.

Many Diet Plans Are Designed for Temporary Use and Lead to Temporary Weight Loss
You do not need to join a commercial diet program, purchase special foods or dietary supplements, or use diet pills to succeed at weight loss. In fact, the best thing that you could do would be to start eating healthy right now and continue to do so for the rest of your life.
Of course very few people could do such a thing, so think of a diet or the use of diet aids as tools to help you get started. A good diet plan can teach you how to eat well and give you a jump-start toward meeting your goals.
But whatever path you choose to follow now, your goal should be to make it on your own at some point down the road. Many diet plans are designed for temporary use during weight loss, but only sound knowledge put to practice will provide a permanent solution.

A good diet plan will be healthy from the start, and will be based on principles that you can follow for a lifetime. In fact, if you have found the right diet plan, it will be one that you will want to follow for a lifetime.

Most All Diet Plans Work
Follow almost any diet plan and you will lose weight. This is because whether you are counting calories, fat, or carbohydrates, or restricting certain types of food, you are ultimately restricting the number of calories you consume. The formula for losing weight is very simple: Consume fewer calories than you burn.

So, what should you eat? You would likely do well to eat mostly fruit, vegetables, whole grains, legumes (lentils, dry beans and peas), and limited amounts of lean animal protein (reduced-fat dairy, fish, chicken, and lean cuts of other meats). Also choose whole and natural foods over processed foods whenever possible. Foods with good nutritional value are not only healthy, they help you lose weight.

The above paragraph describes a commonly accepted, healthy way of eating that for most people will result in weight loss and improved health. But there are many diet plans to choose from.

Finding the Right Diet Plan
After learning the fundamentals of diet and weight loss you will be able to choose the diet plan, or simply a healthier way to eat, that is right for you. You will be able to steer clear of marketing gimmicks and promises of short term results, and find a solution based on sound, realistic and healthy principles.

While diet trends come and go, the most basic form of dieting, the low calorie diet, will always be popular. It is based on simply reducing the number of calories you consume. Recent diet trends include the low fat diet and, most recently, the low carb diet. Following this topic you will find:
The Low Calorie Diet
The Low Fat Diet
The Low Carb Diet
In addition, we recommend that you read the following book:
Eat To Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman: A vegetarian-optional diet plan based on eating highly nutritious, low calorie foods.
Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle by Tom Venuto: A diet and exercise plan that teaches you how to lose fat without losing muscle and causing your metabolism to slow and weight loss to stop.
Whether or not you choose to follow either of these two diet plans, we believe that reading them will have a positive, lifelong influence on your eating habits, weight, and health.

Take It Easy
Unless you are excited to be following a very specific diet and exercise plan, do not try and change too much too fast. If you have been eating poorly and not exercising, both your body and your mind will have a lot of adjusting to do.
All the sugar and fat were actually quite enjoyable, and sitting on the couch didn't feel too bad, either. If you try and change everything too quickly the odds are greater that you will feel bad, get discouraged, and give up. So be patient.

A time will come when a healthy snack will taste as good as the junk food you felt bad about eating, and you will look forward to your regular exercise. I promise

What to buy organic

Things to Buy Organic

Fruits and Vegetables:
With fruits and vegetables, many of them contain thin or edible skins than cab contain pesticide residue. In addition, some of them have to be heavily sprayed due to their high level of pests.
Check here for a list of fruits and vegetables ranks in order of most or least pesticide load: http://foodnews.org/

(Arranged in order of highest to lowest pesticide load) Fruits: Peaches, Apples, Nectarines, Strawberries, Cherries, Grapes, Pears, Raspberries, Plums, Oranges, Tangerine, Cantaloupe, Lemon, Honeydew, Grapefruit, Watermelon, Blueberries

(Arranged in order of highest to lowest pesticide load) Vegetables: Sweet Bell Peppers, Celery, Lettuce, Spinach, Potatoes, Carrots, Green Beans, Hot Peppers, Cucumbers, Cauliflower, Mushrooms, Winter Squash, Tomatoes, Sweet Potatoes

Other:
Fair Trade Certified Coffee Beans: Check out this site to find out where to buy them: http://www.transfairusa.org/content/WhereToBuy/

Milk: Check this site for a rated list of organic milk and other organic diary products. http://cornucopia.org/dairysurvey/index.html

Meat: Organic meat is free of antibiotics, added hormones, and human growth hormones (GMO). These animals are raised more ethically and humanely, meaning they are allowed to range freely and not confined to pens. In addition, the land that they eat from and live on uses no or less chemicals as well.

Search the web or take a look in your local paper to find a local farmers market or organic farm.

South Beach Diet Phase I

I have been getting some requests for a condensed version of popular diets so one doesn't have to read the whole book to get the guts of the program. We will start with South Beach.

South Beach Diet phase 1 is the strictest but most effective one. You can lose up to 13 lbs in two weeks. The objective here is to put the insulin level under control and thus lose weight and eliminate the unhealthy cravings (for sweets, baked goods and food containing starches).
During Phase 1 six meals a day are allowed: three main meals and three snacks, based on protein, good fats and the lowest-glycemic index carbs needed for satisfaction and blood sugar control. The quantity will be enough to satisfy hunger — normal size meals.

Allowed foods
meat and nuts — tenderloin, sirloin, boiled ham, peanuts and pistachios,
poultry — skinless chicken or turkey breasts, turkey bacon,
all types of fish, whole eggs,
fat-free cheeses,
green vegetables, legumes — salad, tomatoes, zucchini, snow peas, cucumbers, broccoli, and asparagus,
canola and olive oils,
lots of water.

Foods to avoid
meat beef rib steaks, honey-baked ham, breast of veal,
all dairy products except low fat cheeses — all yogurt, ice cream, milk including whole, low-fat, soy, and full fat cheeses,
carbohydrate-laden vegetables — beets, carrots, corn, potatoes,
fruits and fruit juices,
all alcohol,
all starchy foods such as bread, cereal, oatmeal, matzo, rice, pasta, pastries, baked goods, crackers, etc.
sweets or sugar — candy, cake, cookies, ice cream

These foods will be reintroduced into your diet again after phase 1 (two weeks). During these weeks you will lose some weight and your body will use insulin more efficiently so that when the carbs will be re-introduced your body will be able to deal with them better.

Beat the Bloat - Biggest Loser Trainer

Friday July 04
Welcome to Losing It with Jillian Michaels, the newsletter designed to help you shed pounds, increase energy, and finally get fit for life! Beat the Bloat You know sodium best as table salt, but salt and sodium are hidden in all kinds of products, including packaged foods, fast foods, frozen foods, canned foods, and condiments, to name a few.
When you eat sodium, the excess sodium is deposited just beneath the skin where it attracts water, which is retained in your cells. This makes you look puffy and feel bloated.
You don't have to make yourself crazy over this, because there is sodium in everything! But here are a few tips:
Read labels to check the sodium content of what you're eating.
Replace processed foods with fresh.
Avoid prepackaged and canned foods.
Be wary of salt-laden condiments and use very little soy sauce, mustard, and table salt.
Go easy on dairy, and avoid processed meat (hot dogs, jerky, bologna, corned beef), anything pickled (pickles, capers, sauerkraut), relish, ketchup, and butter. Here are some sodium-free substitutes you can use instead: garlic, lemon, olive oil, vinegar, pepper, basil, cayenne, chili powder, cilantro, cumin, curry, dill, garlic powder, ginger, lemon, lime, mint, onion powder, oregano, paprika, parsley, rosemary, sage, tarragon, and thyme.

Power Program

CLANCY ROSS' POWER PROGRAM
5 Days per week
1 hour per workout
20 sets per exercise
Rest 2 minutes between sets
Exercises:
Day #1 - Bench Press
Day #2 - Deadlift
Day #3 - Cheat Curl
Day # - Parallel Squat
Day #5 - Power Row (Bent Row)
Set:
1: 5 - reps at 0 - 70% of your one rep max
2: 3 - reps with 5 - 10 lbs more
3: 3 - reps with 5 - 10 lbs more
4: 3 - reps with 5 - 10 lbs more
5: 3 reps with 5 - 10 lbs more
6: 2 - 3 reps with 5 - 10 lbs more
7: 2 - 3 reps with 5 - 10 lbs more
8: 2 reps with 5 - 10 lbs more
9: 1 - 2 reps with 5 - 10 lbs more
10: 1 rep with 5 - 10 lbs more (this should be your
one reps max)
REST 5 MINUTES
Set
11: 1 rep with same weight as set 10
12: to failure with 10 lbs less
13: to failure with 10 lbs less
14 : to failure with 10 lbs less
15: to failure with 10 lbs less
16 : to failure with 10 lbs less
17: to failure with 10 lbs less
18: to failure with 10 lbs less
19: to failure with 50 lbs less
20: same as set 19

Goals to get lean

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1. Set the big goal and go for it. If your goal doesn’t excite you and scare you at the same time, your goal is too small. If you don’t feel fear or uncertainty, you’re inside your comfort zone. Puny goals aren’t motivating. Sometimes it takes a competition or a big challenge of some kind to get your blood boiling.
2. Align your values with your goals. I understood my values and made a decision to be congruent with who I really was and who I wanted to be. When you know your values, get your priorities straight and align your goals with your values, then doing what it takes is easy.
3. Do the math. Stop looking for magic. A lean body does not come from any particular type of exercise or foods per se, it’s the calories burned vs calories consumed that determines fat loss or fat gain. You might do better by decreasing the calories consumed, whereas I depended more on increasing the calories burned, but either way, it’s still a math equation. Deny it at your own risk.
4. Get social support. Support and encouragement from your friends can help get you through anything. Real time accountability to a training partner or trainer can make all the difference.
5. Be consistent. Nothing will ever work if you don’t work at it every day. Sporadic efforts don’t just produce sporadic results, sometimes they produce zero results.
6. Persist through difficulty and self doubt. If you think it’s going to be smooth sailing all the way with no ups and downs, you’re fooling yourself.. For every sunny day, there’s going to be a storm. If you can’t weather the storms, you’ll never reach new shores.
7. Redeem yourself. Non-achievers sit on the couch and wallow in past failures. Winners use past failures as motivational rocket fuel. It always feels good to achieve a goal, but nothing feels as good as achieving a goal with redemption.

Carnie Wilson's New improved Diet

On Her New Diet: "Breakfast is two egg whites and one whole egg, scrambled with seasonings, two to three pieces of turkey bacon, and then a half a cup of mixed berries. A snack would be 15 raw almonds or four celery sticks with three tablespoons of sugar-free hummus. Lunch would be a salad of chopped kale, romaine and spinach, cucumber, celery, bean sprouts, raw mushrooms, broccoli sprouts. Then I will make a balsamic dressing from scratch. I sauté a 3-ounce patty of chicken breast and eat that with the salad. If I feel like I want something sweet, I’ll have a quarter cup of blueberries or strawberries. Then dinner will be another round of veggies. I’ll steam cauliflower, zucchini and some spinach. I’ll do a piece of protein with that, like 4 ounces of Chilean sea bass ... I’m trying not to eat after 7:30 p.m."

On Her Success on the Diet: "I don’t wait till the last minute to eat. I measure my protein in 3-ounce patties and put them in the freezer and make them taste good without it being fattening. Also, I write down every single morsel of food that I put in my mouth. I used to give in and finish what my daughter had on her plate. If I had nervous energy, I would walk by and pick up anything I saw. Now if there’s pasta left on her plate, I just throw it out."
On Her Exercise Plan: "I started doing a power-yoga DVD, 40 to 50 minutes a day, three or four days a week. I’m more calm, and I have more energy. I also exercise twice a week for an hour with my trainer, Lanre Idewu. We’re doing fast-paced walking, elliptical, lunges, squats and band resistance for my arms."

On Her Next Goal: "I want to get pregnant again! I’ll be so healthy. I’m happy to feed the baby good food. I’m going to start trying in a few months. First, I’d like to take off another 20 or 30 pounds." See Photos From Wilson's Shoot With OK!