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Ok, let’s get real with weight loss. It’s very simple. You probably already know everything you need to know to lose weight. But, let's make weight loss easy for you. There is one place that you have total control over what you eat at home and that is at the shopping cart. You have total control over what you put into your shopping cart. I believe that "weight loss begins at the shopping cart".
Oh, you say that you can’t do this. So what are you going to do?
As you are putting chips, cookies, snacks and other foods with poor nutrition value into the shopping cart do you do the mental justification game?
Perhaps you say things like, I have to bring these home for my family because they want them. Yes they want them, and are they overweight?
Don't continue with the justifications help your family eat healthy. Buy healthy foods, leave the unhealthy foods out of your shopping cart. It's all about the shopping cart. This saves you from having to use willpower at home.
Make a list before going to the store and stick to the things on the list unless you see a healthy item that you would like to start using. Spent a lot of time in the fresh fruit and vegetable section.
Let's just get to the bottom line. You want to be healthy and you want your family to be healthy. As the grocery shopper of your family you are in charge of your own nutrition and health as well as that of your family. You don't want the bad foods and you don't want to be tempted by them. You don't want trans fats and saturated fats, the "bad foods", so read the labels. Then don't put the unhealthy foods into your shopping cart and they won't be in your house.
If the others in your family want the foods that are bad for them then let them do their own shopping with their own disposable money. Don't participate in creating bad health in your family. Keep unhealthy foods out of your shopping cart and out of your home. It's that simple. Good health begins at the shopping cart.
Water is a good start. Have you noticed all of the slim people around you carrying a bottle of water with them? "Join the slim trend - drink water".
Need I say more? Ok, most people who quit drinking all soft drinks (regular and diet) lose 8 to 10 pounds within 6 weeks. Then they will continue to lose 1 or 2 pounds a month for another 6 to 12 months. When the stores put soft drinks on sale I used to stock up thinking I was really getting a great buy. Yes, thirty or forty dollars of soft drinks in my cart, what a great buy. Now that thirty or forty dollars is available to buy better "healthy" foods and other things that we really want and need.
One thought on the "juicy drinks"... what a rip off. You are buying junk, what are they ten percent juice and ninety percent water and sugar with an artificial flavor? Oh, Yummy, what a good buy and so healthy - Not really! Why do people buy these things, do they think that juicy means healthy? If you enjoy the flavor of juices then get the real thing. I get pure 100% fruit juice with no sugar added.
Our bodies are designed to properly digest and make use of the fruit sugars in real juice. There is a very real difference in how our bodies process fruit sugars as found in fruit and how our body processes the sugar in fruit drinks and how our body processes cane sugar. The sugars in the phony juice drinks with cane sugar added are what causes us to gain weight and get diabetes.
The place for the phony juice drinks is on the shelf. Get the real thing - get a real fruit juice. Your body will thank you for it. Are you grabbing that big 16 ounce glass to pour the juice into? No, no, no the 16 ounce glass is for your water. Use a 6 or 8 ounce glass for your juice.
It’s a proven fact that all soft drinks even diet soft drinks put weight on the people who drink them. There is research that shows that artificial sweeteners cause our bodies to store fat. But the diet soft drinks have even worse long term side affects from the artificial sweeteners.
A good starting point on portion size is to use smaller plates, bowls and glasses. If you don't have these items in a smaller size then it's time to go out and buy new one's. Get rid of your large size dishes and bowls. The amount of money that you will save by cutting down on your food consumption will quickly pay for the new dinnerware and higher quality foods.
Having smaller plates makes it easier to control everyone's portion size. You and your family will soon have more energy, feel better and have good health. You can look back and say I did it, I did it, I'm healthy! Portion control soon becomes easy. You will find that as you cut down on the size of the serving your body will soon adapt to your eating less. You will find that eating less becomes easier and easier as the days, months and years go by.
Remember to serve water with your meals. "Water the drink that goes with anything."
Now when my wife, Charlene, and I go out to eat we eat half of what is served. What a value. We take home the remainder. Two meals for the price of one. Living good in the neighborhood. We just went out to a top rated restaurant and had a fantastic meal. Then the next day we enjoyed it again. The take home leftovers were even better the next day. Don't forget order water with your meal. What about the kids? Yes, you should tell your children that they are only allowed to order water. Why should you permit your family to destroy their health with sugar drinks? You can help your family learn the healthy way to living. One step at a time.
Now that you are not throwing your money away on junk foods, you are now investing in anti-aging and life extension foods. Pick out some of your favorite apples and then add a few varieties of apples that you have never tried. Now add some, berry's, oranges, tangerines, bananas and other fruits in your shopping cart. These fruits will look great on your table in that beautiful bowl that you haven't used in a long time. Beyond looking good on your table they will be right where you and your family can see them. They are right there when you are hungry for a snack.
Expand the selection of foods beyond what you have tried in the past and try some new varieties of fruits, berry's and vegetables. Make trying different fruits and vegetables an adventure. Eating and having snacks can be an adventure for you and your family. Make it fun for everyone.
Pick up some walnuts, almonds and nuts that you enjoy. Nuts will make a great snack and they have the good oils for your heart and body. Walnuts and almonds are a part of the life extension and anti-aging foods that you can add to your healthy lifestyle.
Wow, what a treat of a breakfast my wife makes for us each morning. She cooks oatmeal with a cup of frozen blueberry's and a big handful of walnuts and then a big spoon of local harvested honey. She also adds one tablespoon of flax oil for the Omega 3 Oil that is so necessary for your good health. Doesn't this sound good to you? When you consider all of the benefits of the ingredients of this breakfast you will know you are on the right track to a healthy lifestyle with all of the good nutritional benefits your body wants and needs from your food.
Be sure and take your vitamins with a meal, as well as your enzymes during the day. Check the link to the reasons why enzymes are essential for life extension and feeling great.
Ok, this is the reason you bought the fruits, vegetables and nuts. Yes, you are going to want to have snacks and it's ok. Here's the secret to having snacks. If you are having nuts as a snack don't take the whole bag to snack out of. This is really important, should I stress this? This is important! Have some small or even tiny bowls, 2 or 3 ounces, to put each persons nut snack in. Each person should have their own tiny bowl of snacks. Go back later if you are still wanting more, maybe this time you will have some fruit. Mix it up.
Be sure and have a glass of water along with your snack. It will help fill you up. In fact have the glass of water before your snack and you will enjoy the snack even more and you will eat less. Whoopee! My taste buds really tingle when I have an apple and a few nuts with it. If your taking your snacks to work then pack the nuts in individual small portion bags. Be sure and take some fruit to work as well. Wow, your co-workers are going to be so jealous of you. Those moochers, make them bring their own. Remember - "Join the slim trend - drink water". Ooh, you are going to enjoy your new lifestyle so very much. It's a new adventure. Make it fun.
Yes I'm sure that you have heard that in losing weight it helps to eat six meals a day. That doesn't sound right. How can eating six meals a day help a person lose weight? I think that what is not being said about eating six meals is - just what size meals are you talking about? Ah, now we are on to the right path. Well here's the way it works an apple can be a meal, a piece of fruit can be a meal. So how about considering having some healthy snacks between your regular meals? A fact that also can be considered is that is is suggested that your main meal not be over the size of your clinched fist. A piece of fruit or two could be considered a meal of this size. See it's all about healthy foods and portion size. So when you have that hunger raging at you, screaming I'm hungry, then feed it. Grab up a healthy snack, a small hand full of healthy nuts and a piece of fruit. The raging hunger will soon be satisfied. Wow, you look great. I bet you feel great too. This is a really healthy option of keeping healthy snacks at work as well, a few nuts and a piece of fruit and a bottle of water and your ready to take on that project at work or at play. This also falls in the realm of providing your kids with healthy snacks as well.
I'm going to give you the brief version because you have been reading the things that I have learned and used to lose my extra weight. The bottom line I have reached my target weight by losing 40 pounds. It took me a little over a year to the 40 pound weight loss and get to my target weight. Actually it took me well over a year because of what I will call false starts. These false starts were actually learning curves and the time it took for me to start using the new ways of eating and living. Don't worry if you have a period of learning to implement the shopping methods of only putting the good foods into your shopping cart. I know it's hard to throw out the "bad foods". Just quit buying the bad foods and you will be well on your way to eating and living healthy. Soon your pantry and cabinets will be filled with only healthy foods. The only good foods in the shopping cart method works. This is an easy way to get started on the natural route to good health.
Now that I have reached my target weight, what I thought would be my optimum weight, I have reevaluated what I think my perfect weight should be and I feel that I would like to either lose another 10 pounds or firm up what I have by exercise. I'm going to start with a yoga class to get my body limber and then work into a more physical routine.
I am not going to worry about it now because I know that my body will reach a perfect weight on it's own because I am now eating in a manner that will allow my body to find it's perfect healthy weight. I have also just started to increase my taking walks on a regular basis.
My weigh loss was done up to this point by just changing the way I eat. I am really enjoying the walks and so It feels like a natural way to increase my happiness. Isn't being happy what our true goal should be? I know it has been my long time goal. Follow this link for more on the subject of happiness.
The spring of 2007 brought us friends who stayed with us for two weeks. It was a wonderful time with lots of stories shared between us. The two weeks flew by as good times do when we are with interesting people, she is a writer and he is an artist. She has two books published and has completed two other books that are soon to go to the publisher and while staying with us he worked on the final touches of a commissioned painting. During the two weeks with us they ate every meal with us, so they ate the same as us, and each day she would weigh herself in the morning. Each day started off with a surprise to her because she was losing weight daily. At the end of their two week stay she had lost a pound a day. She was happy because she had found a different way of eating that didn't deprive her and she had gotten fantastic weight loss results.
Charlene and I made the decision to quit adding salt to the food we prepared for ourselves in 1995. Quitting adding salt to our food turned out to be easier that we expected. What we discovered is that the food tasted very bland for the first two to three weeks. Then somewhere between the second to third week of no salt it just became less of an issue. After a few months we started noticing that some of the food that we was eating out tasted very salty and it was mostly at fast food places. We have now been salt free at home for a number of years and it's never an issue in enjoying our meals at home.
Recently we started preparing rice in a new stainless steel rice cooker. I became the chef of this part of our daily meal and thinking that I needed to spice it up some I started experimenting with spices well this led to me finding Charlene's food grade sea salt that she uses in her bath, so I started adding some of this sea salt to our meal and I have to admit that salt tastes quite good in food. But then we noticed that we were having headaches and a lack of energy plus we noticed an increase in the portion that we wanted to eat. We were going back for seconds when there was salt in our food. It was quite a revelation that adding salt and spices to our meal increase the amount that we wanted to eat. We went back to enjoying the wonderful natural flavors that rice has.
Have you tried red rice? Years ago it was reserved for the Emperor and his court to eat. Charlene loves red rice without any thing else added. I like to have about one third medium grain brown rice and two thirds red rice. We don't use any spices or salt with our rice, it is wonderful au natural. We will sometimes add black rice or wild rice to get a different flavor.
The most important thing is to determine the texture of your rice that you enjoy. This is done by how much water used in the preparation. Some people like a wetter rice and some like it dryer. For most rice we use three and a half times the water to the amount of rice used. If we use a six ounces of rice we will use 21 ounces of water. Vary the water to get a different texture.
The absolutely best rice cooker that we have found is made by Lotus Foods it has a stainless steel liner and a automatic switch to the warm mode. It make the rice so easily and just perfect in texture. It also has a stainless steel steamer compartment for steaming vegetables.
I hope you already know the dangers of teflon and non stick cookware and aluminum cookware. Please switch over to stainless steel, cast iron cookware or ceramic coated cookware. It will save your health.
A questionnaire of 6,600 adults given by the federal governments National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey showed that adults living with children ate almost 5 grams more fat each day compared to adults living without kids. This amount of fat included nearly 2 grams more of saturated fat each day. Saturated fat is the fat linked to heart disease, diabetes and many other diseases caused by the bad fats.
It seems that the adults are buying these bad foods for their children, but they are eating these bad fat foods as well. Wait just a minute! Are we to really believe that parents would buy foods containing bad fat's for their children? If you are giving in to the kids and getting the unhealthy snack foods then you probably are putting the unhealthy foods into the shopping cart. As the parent it falls onto you to teach good eating habits to your children as soon as you learn them yourself.
With all of the advertising that is aimed at children and their parents I do believe that parents could be guided into making bad choices for their kids and thereby affecting the heath of themselves and that of their children in a negative way. It doesn't have to be this way.
Parents want to make the right food choices for themselves and their kids, I know and believe this. But this study shows that it's as I have said good nutrition comes down to what you put into your shopping carts. Read the labels on the food you are putting into your shopping cart for everything you are buying.
If the food has trans fats or saturated fats in it - then keep it out of your shopping cart. In just a short amount of time you will know what not to put into your shopping cart, but you will discover a whole new way of eating and of improving the health of your children and yourself. The health of your family depends on you and the choices you make as you do your shopping.
How about putting into your shopping cart a large bag of apples, oranges, bananas and other fruits. Then when you get home arrange these fruits on the table into a beautiful display. This beautiful display of fruits will get eaten if they are in plain view.
Compare the price you are paying for the junk foods with the healthy fruits. The healthy fruits will soon demonstrate themselves to be a great bargain, as well as being healthy for your family. Yes, you are great when you make great decisions for your family. Your a great parent!
Dr. Helena Laroche was the study author, she works in internal medicine and pediatrics at the University of Iowa College of Medicine and with University of Michigan researchers examined the data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture an adult eating a 2000 calorie diet should consume less than 65 grams of total fat a day,. In the National Health and Nutrition Examination survey adults living with children ate a total of more than 91 grams of fat a day. You can do better than that, just read the labels.
If the food has trans fats or saturated fats in it just put it back on the shelf. You and you family will benefit by having better health and feeling better. By eating right you don't have to diet. Your weight will reach a normal level over time. Just cut down on the portion size as you eat right. Remember to eat six or more portions per day. I'm going to start calling meals portions because people think that a meal should have a great variety of foods on the plate to be a meal. How about a banana or apple with a few ounces of nuts on the go for a meal? It works for me. Remember to enjoy it with water, "water the drink that goes with everything".
Charlene has been making large pots of soup for us. Turkey, rice and vegetables - chicken, barley and vegetables - beef, vegetables and noodles, mix it up with what you put into your soups. Don't forget the onions and garlic, Charlene will put in 6 to 8 garlic cloves and half an onion into batch's of our soup. Doing this adds to our immune system building foods. Then add a few seasonings sage, cayenne, thyme, turmeric, curry, pepper what ever you enjoy.
You have given up using table salt haven't you? Let me suggest that if your going to use any salt at all that you switch to celtic sea salt. There is a world of health difference in using a great sea salt.
What is great about doing a large slow cooker of soup is then putting a large bowl of each soup into a individual freezer baggy for each person in your family and freezing it. Then each person will have their choice of a variety of soups to have at another time. What a great time saver for a busy family.
I will soon be preparing a (...book of healthy recipes...) that our family enjoys. Sign up for my newsletter and I will let you know when it is available.
There has been research that shows that eating pecans, almonds and walnuts can help lower your cholesterol.
Increasing the amount of water that you drink each day can help lower your blood pressure.
How do you know if your drinking enough water? Take your weight and divide it by 2 this would be the minimum water you should be drinking each day. Let's use the example of a person weighing 150 pounds divided by 2 would be 75 ounces of water per day to drink. A suggestion would be to start out with a container filled with your daily amount of water and drink at least this much each day.
Click here - If you would like to know more about the importance of water and your health.
Sadly, statistics reveal that on an average every man, woman and child in America consumes some 173 pounds of refined sugar each and every year!
One 12-ounce Soft Drink contains approximately 11-teaspoons of sugar. If only one sugary drink is consumed daily this is enough sugar to cause a 15-pound weight gain in one year.
A new study suggests that cutting children's intake of sugary beverages and food may lower their risk of chronic disease later in life.
The study, which was conducted at Penn State's Center for Childhood Obesity Research, looked at symptoms of heart disease and diabetes in 154 adolescent girls. "Research on obesity and associated problems such as hypertension and type-2 diabetes has largely dealt with adults," said study leader Alison Ventura. "But with increasing rates of obesity in children, we are seeing these problems at much younger ages."
The clustering of traits such as insulin resistance, abdominal obesity, hypertension, and high triglycerides combined with low HDL is known collectively as "metabolic syndrome," and is a strong indicator of chronic disease. The study team is trying to find a risk profile for children with symptoms of metabolic syndrome.
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"weight loss begins at the shopping cart"
"join the slim trend - drink water"
"water the drink that goes with anything"
"water the drink that goes with everything"
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