There was also a time when the thought of losing weight didn't even occur in our society, people ate what mom cooked for dinner and they went to work. The difference in that society and today's society is that work was not behind a computer screen, but on their feet in the fields or on a warehouse floor. People worked physically because that was the only way to work, in fact, that's why it was called work! It was often during this time that people could eat anything they wanted because they were burning much more calories than what they consumed.
But, like all good things, that too has passed and the technology of today's world has left us in one condition – an overweight one. Our life styles have changed so drastically and our comforts have increased tenfold. As they say, every rose has its thorn and for our society our desire to have comfortable lives and to work less has begun to show around the waistline.
The bad thing about all of this is the more weight you gain, the more dangerous it becomes. Extra weight spells illness, whether it is in the form of diabetes or a heart condition, it's bound to show up if you don't do something about it. You have to be proactive in weight gain and you have to work it off until it gets to a point where you no longer have control. It's not necessarily about being toned and sculpted, but at a weight that is not life threatening. You can work on the abs later, right now you just need to shed some extra body fat. As society realizes what is happening and that we are overweight as a whole, people are trying to play catch up and work from behind. They are trying to lose weight and live a healthier lifestyle.
This eBook is your guide to losing that first ten pounds that we all struggle with. It's amazing what little changes in your life can add up to you losing ten pounds and they all revolve around eating right and getting your body moving.
I do this and what I recommend：
WEIGHT LOSS BEGINNING WITH WHAT YOU DRINK
First and foremost, people don't realize that what they drink is the first step in losing that first 10 pounds. In fact, most people don't know that when they feel hungry, they may actually be dehydrated and they are really thirsty, not hungry. Water is remarkable as well. Over 66% of your body weight is nothing but water. This is also why water plays an important role in weight control. So TIP #1 is:
Drink plenty of water. It is recommended that you drink 8 glasses per day, but that may take you some time to work up to. Your body needs a whole lot of water. Water doesn't just flush all the toxins out of your body, but it makes you feel better and healthier. When you drink a lot of water you just begin to feel fit and this is the motivation you need to lose weight.
The best thing about water is you can drink as much as you want because it has no calories at all. When you're drinking a lot of water, you eat less as well because you won't feel as though you are starving to death. Remember, if you feel hungry, try drinking a glass of water first and you'll realize you were probably just dehydrated and not hungry at all.
The whole 8 glasses a day rule is really something you should strive for. The best way to do this and to measure your water intake is to buy a jug from the drug store or grocery store that is designed to hold exactly 8 glasses of water. These are great weight loss tools because you can fill them up, freeze them and as it melts throughout the day you have fresh and cold water. Or, if you don't mind your water room temperature you can drink it that way as well. All that matters is that you're getting in the water your body needs.
TIP #2: Start off your day with a fresh, clean glass of water. As soon as you get up in the morning, drink one down. This will help your body to get going because it won't be fighting through dehydration. Also, after you drink a glass of water you won't need to eat such a large breakfast. A glass of water wakes up all the digestive juices in your body and gets it well lubricated. You can always have your morning coffee or tea, but be sure to have a glass of water afterwards. Caffeine dehydrates you and you want to ward off dehydration.
TIP #3: Drink a glass of water before you sit down to eat. Water will naturally make you feel fuller so you don't have to eat as much food.
TIP #4: Have a glass of water while you eat as well. Take a drink after each bite and you will feel full more quickly so you can leave the table feeling satisfied without feeling bloated. Drinking water while you eat will also help your food to settle more quickly, which also helps you to feel full faster.
TIP #5: Do your best to stay away from soda. All sodas are sweetened with lots of sugar. The more you can cut out of your diet the better. Also, diet soda is still soda. It may not have as much sugar, but it has other chemicals and components that are not good for your body either. If you drink a soda, counteract it with a glass of water. Remember, caffeine dehydrates you as well. Decaffeinated sodas still have caffeine in small amounts as well and just as much sugar, so they are not much healthier either.
TIP #6: Fruit juice isn't as healthy as most people think either. Juice actually has a lot of sugar in it as well. If you are craving a glass of juice, drink fresh fruit juice instead of juice that has artificial flavors and coloring. It is even better if you can make your own fruit juice. Just be sure not to add too much sugar which adds to the calories. Instead of drink fruit juice, eat more fruit. Fruit provides your body with much needed fiber as well as vitamins.
TIP #7: Go easy on the tea and coffee. They are pretty much harmless if you don't add a lot of cream and sugar to them. It is the cream and sugar that becomes fattening. Think of it this way, when you have a cup of coffee or tea with cream and two cubes of sugar, you are essentially eating a piece of chocolate cake every time. Now think of how many pieces of cake you are eating when you have a Venti Starbucks Latte – yikes.
TIP #8: If you must have your tea and coffee, try to drink it black. Black tea or coffee actually has health benefits to it as long as you counteract the caffeine in your body with a nice big glass of water. Caffeine is also not good for you because it affects functions in your body, like your metabolism.
Another type of tea that you can drink freely is green tea. Green tea has been used as a medicine in China for over 4,000 years. It aids the digestive system and can help ease an overly full stomach and it has been linked to a reduction in cancer risk.
TIP #9: If you can say no to alcohol, then that is best. Alcohol beverages are not exactly good for you, although a glass of red wine does have heart benefits, most are just fattening. Beer is especially fattening. Cocktails are fattening depending on what they are made of. For instance, whiskey and Coke. The whiskey may not be fattening, but the Coke definitely is. Plus, after a few drinks most people get the munchies and when you're feeling a little inebriated and hungry you won't be able to make rational decisions regarding your diet and it's usually late at night, just before you pass out from a night of drinking, that you overeat. The overall combination is just not a good one.
TIP #10: If you must have alcohol, try dry wine. Dry wine is better than your sweet wines, because sweet wines have more sugar! Dry wines have sugar, but most of it has been fermented away into alcohol and from a weight gaining perspective, dry is better.
TIP #11: Another word on coffee, that is not necessarily bad, but more interesting than anything. Some people have reported that when they drank black coffee before exercising, they lost more weight. There's no scientific proof to back this, but nutritionists believe it may be caused by the body being forced to depend on fat for fuel. Hey, it's worth trying if you can stand black coffee. Just remember to drink plenty of water during your exercise!
TIP #12: Avoid drinking excessive amounts of coffee, as it desensitizes your body to the natural fat burning effects that caffeine has. One or two cups (if the day's really slow to get started) max.
EATING WELL AND LOSING THE POUNDS
Okay, when most people think about losing weight and eating, they think about dieting. Well, unfortunately, all of the fad diets out there tend to cause people to gain weight. Why? Because they starve them to death and the person eventually breaks down and eats everything in sight because they are so darn hungry. They also deprive them of the foods that they love. This is not a way to lose weight, nor is it a way to live. You only cause yourself stress, which actually causes you to gain weight!
So, in eating right there a few tips that you can follow each and every day and they're not going to deprive you of the foods that you love, but treat those foods as luxury items so you enjoy them that much more.
TIP #13: Eat fresh fruit and vegetables that have high water content. These are foods like tomatoes, watermelons, cantaloupe, kiwi, grapes – you get the idea. All of those fresh and flavorful juicy fruits and veggies are good for you. These items contain about 90 to 95% water, so you can eat a lot of these and they will fill you up without adding on the pounds.
TIP #14: Eat fresh fruit instead of processed fruit. Anything that is processed as more sugar. Processed and canned fruits also do not have as much fiber as fresh fruits.
TIP #15: Increase your fiber intake as much as you can. This usually means eating more fruits and veggies.
TIP #16: Veggies are your friends when it comes to shedding pounds. There are tons of options here and you may even want to try some you haven't had in the past. The leafy green varieties are the best and you always want to work in a salad when you can. Salads are packed with nutrients as long as you don't pour too much dressing on and load them with too much cheese. The leafy greens also have a lot of natural water.
TIP #17: Be intelligent about what you eat. Don't eat just to eat. Animals eat on instinct; people eat when they know their body really needs it. Don't be an impulse eater.
TIP #18: Watch everything you consume from the food itself to what you top it with. Garnishments and condiments can sabotage a healthy meal because they are typically high in fat.
TIP #19: Get a handle on the sweet tooth. This doesn't mean you can't have your sweets; just don't eat them as a meal. Always remember that these sweets end up adding to an area that you don't want them to add to. Don't deprive yourself either though, because then you'll eat twice as many as you should.
TIP #20: Set meal times and stick to them. Try to have your meals at specific times and eat them at that time. An eating pattern will help you to control what you eat and when you eat it. Also, it really is better to have 5 small meals a day rather than just one or two huge meals. Just eating once a day makes your body feel as though it is starving, which packs on fat instead of using it as fuel. Also, don't wait until your starving to eat. This only makes you overeat until you're stuffed.
TIP #21: Eat only when you are hungry. Be sure to drink a glass of water first to determine if you really are hungry or if you are really thirsty. Many people have the tendency to eat when they see food. It doesn't mean they are hungry; they just want to eat it. Don't eat anything you're offered unless you really are hungry. If you feel you must eat it out of being polite, just nibble, don't have a meal.
TIP #22: Try not to snack between meals, but if you must have a snack make sure it is a healthy one. If you travel a lot try to find healthy snacks and not junk food.
TIP #23: Veggies make great snacks. They can get you through the hunger pangs if you are having them. Carrots are great because they satisfy hunger and they are packed with nutrients.
TIP #24: Counting calories is a good idea for those must have food items. If it is a packaged food item, then it will have the calories on the packaging. Be sure to pay attention to serving sizes in terms of calories as well. An Otis Spunkmeyer muffin is intended to be two servings, so you have to double the calories listed. This is where food producers get tricky and you can't fall in their trap.
TIP #25: Work off the extra calories by the end of the week. If you feel you have splurged too much this week, be sure to get to the gym or go walking a little longer to work off those extra calories you have consumed.
TIP #26: Stay away from all things fried. If it is breaded, it is better that it is baked. Fried foods are immersed in fat and oil. Even after the excess has oil has been drained away, there is still oil absorbed into the food item itself.
TIP #27: Don't skip meals. You should have, at the very least, three meals a day, but preferably five small meals. This will keep you from getting hungry during the day and overeating out of starvation.
TIP #28: Just like fruits, fresh vegetables are better than those that are canned. It is even better if you can eat your veggies raw. When you cook them, you cook away the nutrients. If you must cook them, try to boil them to the point that there is still some crispness to them. Also, don't soak them in butter. If you can buy organic and pesticide free veggies, that is even better.
TIP #29: Don't eat more than one egg per day. It is best if you can reduce your egg intake to three a week.
TIP #30: Chocolates should be treated as luxury items. Buy the good stuff and only eat them every once in awhile. If you really savor each morsel, you'll experience that much more joy in eating them and they will taste even better.
TIP #31: Eat foods from all of the food groups each day. This is a great way to ensure you are getting all the nutrients your body needs and it helps to ward off any diet deficiencies. Also, don't eat the same foods all the time. Experiment so that you don't get bored with same old diet.
TIP #32: Try to eat breakfast within an hour of waking up. This is the best way to give your body the jump start it needs. Don't wait until you are really hungry. Breakfast is important, but you don't need to stuff yourself. The idea is that you're breaking the fast from not easting all night.
TIP #33: Your diet should include all aspects of the food groups including carbohydrates. In fact, your diet needs to be about 50-55% carbs. Carbs are a great source of energy. Those diets that prohibit carbohydrates are actually harming you and only making you crave them that much more. Your diet should cause you to be deficient in anything.
TIP #34: Proteins should make up only 25-30% of your diet. Far too much emphasis is put on meat as the main part of your meal. In actuality, it should be considered more of a side dish rather than the main course.
TIP #35: Fats should make up 15-20% of your meal. This is really all the fat your body needs. A lot of this is going to be in your diet in the form of cream, sugar and the like.
TIP #36: Eat more white meat than red meat. White meat includes chicken, fish and some other fowl. Red meat includes beef and pork.
TIP #37: Try to go as vegetarian as you can. This really is a healthier lifestyle, even if you can't cut meat out completely. The more fruits and veggies you can eat the better. The more meat you cut out, the more fat you can cut out of your diet as well. However, protein is important, so be certain that your option allows you to maintain good protein levels.
TIP #38: White bread is good, but high fiber multigrain breads are much better. These breads are another way to add more fiber to your diet and they also have a good protein level.
TIP #39: Pork does not assist in weight loss in any way. The less pork you eat, the better off you will be when trying to lose weight. Pork has a high fat content and includes food items such as bacon, ham and sausage.
TIP #40: Limit your sugar intake as much as possible. If you must have sweetener in your coffee and tea, try to find an artificial sweetener that you don't mind the taste of. However, these things are not all that healthy either and should be limited as well.
TIP #41: Try grazing five to six times a day. These are those small meals we discussed earlier. Some people lose weight better when they never feel hungry and grazing on healthy food items can do this for you. Plus, it keeps your metabolism working, which will burn fat naturally.
TIP #42: Don't worry about cheating, but don't cheat for a meal. Eat sweets and your favorite cheat food for the flavor only. If you want dessert after dinner, share one with the whole family. You'll get the flavor, but not the pounds.
TIP #43: Watch your fat intake. Each fat gram is 9 calories. If you know your total calories then you can figure the amount of fat in those items.
TIP #44: Take it easy on the salt and try to cut what you use in half. Salt is one of the main causes of obesity.
LOSE WEIGHT BY CHANGING HOW YOU COOK
Here are a few tips that will help you to lose those first ten pounds by simply changing how you prepare your food. How food is cooked has just as much to do with how healthy it is or is not.
TIP #45: Instead of frying in oil or fat, try baking those items instead. Baking does not require all the fat and oil that frying requires and your food is not soaking in those substances while it cooks.
TIP #46: Use non-stick frying pan spray so you don't use oil. Also, pans that are non-stick don't require as much, if any oil.
TIP #47: Boil vegetables instead of cooking them. You can also steam them, as this is probably the healthiest way to eat foods like cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli and carrots.
TIP #48: Be leery of no fat and low fat food items. There are many of these food items on the market, but they are not exactly healthy. Many of these food items use some sort of chemical or carbohydrate to sweeten them so that they taste better. However, the body turns these chemicals and carbohydrates into sugar in the body, which means they are still getting turned into fat.
TIP #49: Don't fall victim to crash diets. These are bad for you and do more harm than good in the long run. The short term results are typically that you will lose a few pounds, but once you give them up then everything comes back and your weight is worse the second time around. You cannot survive on a crash diet and you eventually get to a point where you have to give it up.
TIP #50: Chew your food at least 8 to 12 times whether it is liquid food, sweets or ice cream. This adds saliva to the food that digests the sugar. When food isn't eaten properly and is just swallowed, you fill your stomach with food that isn't ready to be digested and it then does not yield the health benefits that you need.
TIP #51: When you are cooking with oil, use a good Extra Virgin Olive Oil. It is more expensive than vegetable oil, but the health benefits are much better and it is worth the cost. Olive oil has been associated with a reduced risk in coronary heart disease and helps to increase the elasticity of the arterial walls which reduces the chance for heart attack and stroke.