Less stress helps weight loss

When life happens, sticking to healthy decisions about food and exercise gets much harder. “Treating” yourself with food could derail your healthy lifestyle and take a toll on your well-being. Altering your body’s need for exercise can also be detrimental.

Getting past the urge to give up means finding ways to fight back. You won’t always win the battle, but with practice and more awareness you can at least make some progress in getting past stressful times. Movetowards a less stressed you by asking yourself the following:

Less Stress Questions
What you are willing to sacrifice to change things for the better?
How can you handle certain situations differently?
What home or work environment activities support healthy habits?
What routines could you modify or eliminate to lessen negative habits?
After answering these crucial questions, create an action plan to tackle stress with a solution-based focus. Feelings of hopelessness and lack of control may contribute to bad eating decisions, but by knowing your plan of attack, you can divert your energy to making positive change rather than wallowing in negative emotions.

Prioritize Yourself
Jarring, unexpected events aren’t the only ones that cause stress that may throw you off. It’s daily stressors like work, money, or family conflicts that are the real enemy of maintaining healthy habits. You can’t control others’ lives, so taking steps to lessen their impact should be a top priority.

Use time you’d normally use on eating out, watching TV, or on social media by de-stressing. Start by reclaiming at least an hour every day of time for you. What you choose to do with this time has to be tied to answering or correcting the less stress questions and should also be physically and mentally rewarding.

A notebook of goals, a goal picture of yourself, or positive affirmations are all good to work on to remind yourself of the vision. This routine may also help you stave off impulse food decisions.

Prepare
Preparation to de-stress means thinking through your decisions. It’s not enough to hope for change. Channel the extra energy of stress into ways to make improvements in your life. This will help you see positivity, even when certain stressors can’t be removed.

Should you see a financial adviser to plan a debt reduction? Can you downsize or move closer to work to lessen a long commute? Is there a solution to a common family argument? Seek out counseling or support as to how you can build the skills or expertise you need to make things better. By continually making well-informed decisions, you may find it easier to practice healthy habits like cooking, exercising, and planning meals.

Push
Lowering your stress levels doesn’t mean grinning and bearing it. It’s not about accommodating or folding to others’ desires, but rather finding ways to see an end to things that are weighing you down. This may mean doing something others may not approve of.

Push past feelings of complacency or depriving your own desires by speaking up about your needs, and doing what you feel is best for you. Don’t let how other people feel about your decision to change deter youfrom finding a happier you. You’ll be a better support to them when you feel your life is fulfilled.

(carolyn_r caloriecount.com)

Less sugar = rapid weight loss

By sugar, we mean white sugar, high fructose corn syrup, corn sugar, sucrose or whatever different names it is called. Consumption of sugar should be limited for a healthier as well as happier life. In fact, for those who want to lose weight fast must limit their sugar intake. This will help them immensely to reach their target weight. Also, limiting your sugar intake will help you to avoid diseases like diabetes, stroke, obesity, heart attacks, and teeth cavities.
What is sugar?
Sugar is a carbohydrate and a major source of calories for your body. This is because half of your calories are from carbohydrates. Carbohydrate is important for your body overdose of it is not at all good for your health. Carbohydrates that come from whole grains, fruits and vegetables are good. However, carbohydrates from sugars like table sugar, high fructose corn syrup, or honey are not at all healthy.
Extra sugars are just empty calories with no extra nutritional benefit. Well, it is not easy to avoid sugar sugars completely, but you can definitely limit their consumption. According to The United States Department of Agriculture you should have some sugar in your diet to allow a few calories in your body.
Well, the answer to the question ‘How many grams of sugar per day to lose weight?’ is pretty tricky. We know that for any weight loss diet you need to restrict your sugar intake. But how much?
Well, as a rule of thumb, the amount of sugar you consume should not exceed 30% of your daily caloric intake.
Amount of calories in sugar:
• 1 cube of sugar is approximately 10 calories • 1 teaspoon of sugar is approximately 15 calories. • 1 heaping teaspoon of sugar is approximately 25 calories. • 1 tablespoon of sugar is approximately 45 calories.
According to the American Heart Association:
For women: Limit added sugar to 100 calories (25 grams) per day. This is equivalent to 6 teaspoons of sugar. For men: Limit added sugar to 150 calories (37.5 grams) per day. This is equivalent to 9 teaspoons of sugar.
Note: This figure mostly depends on how many calories you need to fulfill your daily nutritional requirements for vitamins, minerals and fiber. Also if you’re diabetic, you should be consulting a licensed physician about your recommended sugar intake per day which is usually less than 10% of your daily caloric count.
Excessive consumption of sugar is bad for your health as it:
• Suppress the immune system. • Upset the body’s mineral balance. • Contribute to hyperactivity, anxiety and depression. • Contribute to a weakened defense against bacterial infection. • Cause kidney damage. • Increase the risk of coronary heart disease. • Interfere with the absorption of calcium and magnesium. • Contribute to diabetes. • Contribute to osteoporosis. • Cause food allergies. • Increase fluid retention.
Within the past six decades, sugar consumption has actually grown by more than 40 pounds for each individual. Sources report that at present, average intake of sugars in the USA is 87 grams per day and according to a recent review, the average child ingests 91 grams of sugar each and every day. This is why obesity rates have increased in kids and adults and people are looking for ways to lose weight fast. Many nutrition and health professionals recommend decreasing sugar. Many of us don’t use much sugar while cooking, but still we end consuming more sugar than necessary. This is because sugar is one of the main ingredients of processed foods that we enjoy every day.
Here is a list of common foods that have added sugar:
• Regular soda, energy drinks, sports drinks • Grain-based desserts such as cakes, cookies and pies • Fruit punches and other sugar-sweetened fruit drinks • Dairy-based desserts such as ice cream, sweetened yogurt and sweetened milk • Candy and chocolate • Refined breads • Different types of cereals • All types of desserts
If you have been wondering how much sugar per day, you should note that sugars naturally occur in foods such as fruits in the form of fructose, and in milk products in the form of lactose. While these sugars are fine for your overall health, it is the added sugars that you should be wary about. Added sugars do not provide any benefits to your overall health as they contain no nutrients and instead add excess calories to your diet.
In order to know how much sugar per day, you will need to check your packaged foods and carefully read their labels. If the packaged food contains the ingredients such as: corn syrup, fructose, dextrose, glucose, lactose, maltose, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, fruit juice concentrates, malt syrup, sucrose, molasses, sugar, raw sugar and syrup.
If you are serious about how to reduce your sugar intake, here are some valuable tips:
Drink plain water:
Many of us have the habit of drinking sweet drinks like carbonated drinks, syrups and cordials. As a matter of fact, these drinks have added sugar and are also high in calories. This is why sweet drinks are a big NO for those who want to lose weight fast. Instead of sweet drinks you can always drink plain water. Water has no calories and is good for your overall health.
Use less sugar:
For every cup of sugar indicated in a recipe only use 2/3 to 3/4 of a cup and replace omitted sugar with an equal amount of non-fat dry milk to increase the nutritional value. You could also use brown sugar instead of white sugar.
Reduce sugar in cooking:
Avoid adding sugar or other sweet ingredients in cooking. Make homemade sauces and toppings with less sugar. Use sugar substitutes in recipes and hot drinks instead of sugar.
Eat Smartly:
Avoid eating snacks and sweet food between main meals and before bedtime. Instead, eat food that is high in nutritional value like oat biscuits. Try limiting dessert to once or twice a week. When you eat foods that contain added sugars, choose foods that also contain nutrients like vitamins, minerals or fiber.
Eat healthy:
Choose fruits instead of sweet cakes and ‘junk’ food or sweet snacks. Be mindful that fats and sugars are often found together in foods like chocolate, biscuits and cakes making them particularly bad for those of us with weight loss goals. Be careful not to replace foods high in sugar with foods high in fat and sodium.
Know what you are buying:
Read the ingredients on the food label and avoid food or beverage products where sugar is listed first or if there is a high percentage of sugar content in that particular food. When reading “Nutrition Facts” labels remember that 7 grams of sugar is equal to around 1 tablespoon of sugar. Choose food and beverages that are labeled ‘less sugar’ or ‘sugar free’. Be a smart consumer.
Conclusion:
For those who are on weight loss mission must consider the role that refined sugar plays in our diets and should be reduce the consumption of sugar as much as they can. With less sugar in your diet you can lose weight fast and lead a happier and healthier life. (www.howmuchcaloriestoloseweight.net)
Paul Gustafson, R.N., C.H. has been featured on WBZ radio, hosts TV show Healthy Hypnosis, is an Angie’s List ‘Super Service’ provider. Check out his in-office Gastric Band weight loss program. Also available as MP3 download.
Contact Paul for free consultation: 888-290-3972 or info@burlingtonhypnosis.com and visit Burlington Hypnosis.
 

Three habits supporting weight loss success

1. Daily Food Diary Women who were more consistent with keeping a food journal lost about 6 more pounds.

If you’ve already logged your meals for the day, kudos to you. If not, get back on the wagon. Staying on the wagon means making logging easy. Try to log all your meals at one time. If you plan at least one meal a day, say dinner, logging at lunch time will help you stay accountable to stick to what you planned.

Be sure to create meals instead of having to key in each item in your meal. After you have a month or two of data, go back and favorite certain foods. You can also replicate entries by searching by date range. Look for your A meals and make sure you incorporate these at lease once a day.

If your work week is easy on your log, but weekends have you lagging, log what you intend to eat on Friday, and make changes through the mobile app as needed. You can also log during a cool down from working out or after taking a leisurely walk. Try to track your progress at eating better every few weeks and that will reinforce the one thing that will help you stay on top of counting calories.

2. Don’t Skip Meals Women who reported skipping meals lost almost 8 fewer pounds than women who did not.

Skipping meals increases food cravings and deadens your mood. A Spanish study found healthy women reported an increased negative mood after fasting. The study also found that food cravings was significantly associated with the number of calories eaten after fasting.

Another study by Cornell University researchers found after fasting, we intuitively reach for high-calorie foods. Instead of testing your willpower to resits, avoid intense food cravings by staying satisfied. That means eating breakfast every morning as well as snacking reasonably when you’re hungry.

Planning meals is the easiest way to go, but plans are made to be broken. You might consider having a small number of go to meals lined up or even eat a standard breakfast to avoid skipping meals on certain days. Oatmeal, Greek yogurt, and hard-boiled eggs are quick morning eats. By always having these on hand, and adding fruit, nuts, or raw vegetables to them, you can make a meal despite any changes in your meal plan.

3. Avoid Eating Out–Especially at Lunchtime Women who ate out for lunch at least once a week lost on average 5 fewer pounds than those who ate out less frequently.

If you skipped breakfast, your lunch break might be a calorie disaster. While many Americans skip lunch all together, for others, it’s the one meal you have to yourself. If you don’t bring your lunch from home, or have a salad bar right outside of your workplace, lunchtime can be a battleground against excess calories that you can’t afford to lose.

Americans on average eat out 5 times a week, and with the hour-long lunch break disappearing, and many Americans commute further than 15 miles from home, chances are you have limited access to healthy food choices. If brown-bagging it isn’t your style, find a grocery store with a deli close to you and pair fresh options with deli fare.

Take note of the food scale and cup size to keep portions under control. If a grocery store is out of reach, stock up a workplace fridge with some options so that you’re not stuck if you forget your lunch from home. You can also avoid eating out at lunch, by building in physical activity. Some alternative options include starting a workplace food delivery.

Delegate online grocery shopping or have a variety of produce sent. Share the cost with health-conscious co-workers. If fast food is all you have, make a list of meals from close restaurants that are under 500 calories and stick the list. Going off-list should be a planned event.

Caloriecount.com