How To Avoid Those Holiday Pounds

If you believe the old stories about much weight people put on during the holidays, you’re right—partially. In a recent study conducted by The National Institute of Health, the researchers discovered that, in reality, most people tend to only put on just slightly under one pound. But a person who is already overweight will average a whopping five pounds extra after the last horns have been blown.

But it’s not all good news for even those who put on the minimum because the study also shows that we all tend to keep the pounds put on. In other words, over ten years, those not-so-much pounds, could lead someone to being overweight.

So, what can we do in order to keep those extra pounds off? After all, our homes are usually filled with holiday pies, cakes and other goodies, and they can be pretty tempting—even for the most faithful of dieters!

Here’s a few tips to get you through the holidays.

Just A Nibble!

Have you ever noticed that when you start eating a rich dessert it tastes so good, but by the last bite, you’ve had enough? One way to keep the pounds down is just to enjoy a few bites that delicious cheesecake or chocolate fudge brownie. No one says that you have to completely deprive yourself of holiday treats—just limit how much you eat!

Enjoy the Company, Not The Brownies!

Many people think of holiday parties in terms of the foods that they’ll get to eat (or have to avoid) instead of the real reason for the celebration—the company and conversation. If you keep yourself busy chatting with friends, you’ll be less likely to invade the snack table.

Go Full

You’ve likely heard the grocery store trick; don’t go shopping when you’re hungry because you’ll only end up buying more. Well, the same can work for holiday parties! Eat a lot of raw vegetables, and other healthy foods that will stick with you during the party and you’ll be less tempted to binge on the bad stuff.

Drink Water

If you were to add up the calories that you’ve probably consumed in sodas, fruit punches and alcoholic beverages at parties, you would likely be amazed. You can gulp down hundreds of calories without even realizing it if you’re not careful! Instead of one of these high-calorie drinks, make it a habit to drink water—which in itself will help flush out extra water weight.

Create An Eating Schedule

It wouldn’t be fun—or realistic—to try and get through an entire party without at least sampling some of the treats. But instead of heading instantly to the food table and loading your plate—and then suffering the rest of the party because you want more—try spacing out your snacks for the entire time of the party. Plan on taking a nibble of something about every thirty minutes. Not only will it help you eat less, it will be a fun game that you can play with yourself!

Most importantly, remember that the holidays are meant for enjoyment. Don’t be too hard on yourself, and if you make a mistake, talk an extra long walk to work off those extra calories instead of beating yourself up over it!

Five Healthy Weight Loss Tips

Five Healthy Weight Loss Tips

Are you tired of getting the same old advice when it comes to dieting? Are you looking for some quick tips to help motivate yourself during a diet? Why not follow along below to learn about some quick healthy weight loss tips?

Tip # 1: Take off five pounds quickly before a big event!

If you're generally in good shape, but you want to pare off a few

pounds to look your best before a big event like a class reunion, one of the best ways to do it is to cleanse your system. For the week before, skip the breads and pastas, eat lots of raw vegetables and salads, and drink at least eight ounce glasses of water a day. You'll not only end up slimmer, you'll feel 100% more energetic and healthy.

Tip # 2: Lose weight without dieting!

It's a lot easier than you think. The key is exercise. Just one half hour of moderate exercise per day will burn calories - and better yet, kick your metabolism into high gear so that you continue burning calories at a higher rate. Bonuses: you'll be doing your health a favor, too. The latest research shows that adding moderate exercise to your daily routine can help lower cholesterol, slow the progression of type-2 diabetes and improve your circulation. What's moderate exercise? A brisk one mile walk, half an hour of dancing, or chasing the kids around in a game of tag will do it.

Tip # 3: Start your day off right!

Don't skip breakfast when you're dieting, and don't go for the convenience of a 'nutrition bar'. Give your body the pick-me-up of fresh fruit in either juice or raw form, and the staying power of a whole grain. One of the best breakfasts you can have is a bowl of whole-grain cereal with fresh berries, melon or peaches. You get

the sugar your body craves, the carbs it needs to run on, and the added

benefit of antioxidant vitamins to help it stay on track and balanced.

Tip # 4: Take a high quality multivitamin every day.

There's no substitute for a diet that has a healthy balance of all foods, but it's far too easy to skimp on the essentials when you're dieting. Make sure that your body doesn't miss out on the nutrients it needs just because you're cutting calories. A good multivitamin should contain, at a minimum, the minimum recommended daily allowances of vitamins A, B6, B12, C, E and K. While you're at it, get out in the sun for at least ten minutes a day to help your body manufacture the vitamin D that it needs.

Tip # 5: Eat your veggies - especially your lettuce.

But don't confine yourself to iceberg lettuce or to salads. Darker greens have about the same number of calories and carbs, but pack a lot more punch in the vitamins and other nutrient categories. By substituting radicchio, watercress, escarole or spinach for the iceberg lettuce, you add vitamin C, riboflavin’s, manganese and other essential vitamins that aren't present in lettuce. Try them braised, steamed or grilled for something a little different from the usual salad.

Helping Your Child Lose Weight

Helping Your Child Lose Weight

I was a chubby child. My mother, out of love and fear, tried everything to help me lose weight - bribes, threats, punishment, diets, commiseration, even hypnotism and diet pills. I usually lost weight, only to put it back on shortly after she stopped doing whatever she was doing. Her biggest worry was that I'd be unhappy - that I'd be picked on and unpopular, and no one would like me because I was fat. Now that I'm a mother myself, I can completely sympathize with her motives, but these days my concerns about my children's weight are far more serious than a little name-calling.

While the name-calling can be devastating, what's frightening these days is the growing evidence that obesity leads to serious health complications, even in young children. Doctors find that they're diagnosing children as young as ten or eleven years old with conditions that were once the province of middle-aged people. Diabetes, heart conditions, and arthritis - all of these conditions have a clear established connection with obesity, and more and more often, they are being seen BEFORE children reach adulthood. It's enough to scare a mother into the extreme methods that my mother used to try to take the pounds off of me, but there are healthier ways to help your child lose weight.

First: Consult a Doctor

Don't decide on your own that your child needs to lose weight. Many of us have grown up with distorted body images that we pass on to our children. Be sure that you're not seeing your child through your own misconceptions about 'ideals', and let a doctor make the judgment call.

If your doctor agrees that your child is overweight and should take off some pounds, your best bet is to serve up a healthy daily diet within the USDA Food Pyramid Guidelines and encourage daily exercise to help rev up his internal motors. Beyond that, here are tips for helping your child lose weight - while retaining a positive self-image.

* Put EVERYONE on a diet. Seriously. Since the best way for your child to lose weight is to eat a healthy, balanced diet in normal proportions, doesn't it make sense that your entire family will benefit from eating the same way? Your dieting child will feel far less deprived if everyone is eating the same foods.

* Serve an after school snack. It may be tempting to cut out the after school snacks, but the truth is you'll be doing harm rather than good. The human body was never designed for the 'three square meals a day' regimen that has been the norm for decades. A healthy snack in the mid-afternoon will provide fuel for afternoon play and stave off the 'I'm STARVING' feeling that leads to overeating at dinner.

* Shop smart. Leave the cookies and chips on the shelf, and instead grab the low-fat yogurt, fresh fruit and fruit cups, sugar free applesauce and other natural treats. If you make healthy snacks available and unhealthy ones hard to find, you'll keep temptation out of the way.

* Exercise with them regularly. Instead of just shooing them out to play - or taking away the Game boy, go out WITH them. Pull together a neighborhood kickball game, or take a walk around the block as a family. If you can get a family membership to a health club with a pool, make a family swim a once-a-week event. It's more than setting an example - it's having fun with your kids.

* Cook JUST enough food. Instead of trying to limit portions on the plate, limit them BEFORE you cook. Only prepare ONE portion per family member. That heads off requests for seconds before they even start asking. No, you can't have the last piece of chicken -- because there isn't one to have.

Follow those five suggestions, and chances are that no one in your family will even realize that someone is on a diet. And everyone will be healthier and happier.

Five Common Diet Tips That Really Work

Five Common Diet Tips That Really Work

Losing weight is a national preoccupation. I challenge anyone to turn on the television or radio, surf online or open a magazine without finding an advertisement for a weight loss product or an endorsement for a new diet or eating plan. Everyone wants to be healthy and look their best, and for possibly the first time in the last half century, those two things happen to coincide.

The current ideal of beauty is far closer to what's attainable by a 'real' person than it has been in decades. Thanks to the recent popularity of actresses and singers who aren’t rail thin, coat hangers are out and healthy muscles and curves are in.

If you've been working toward that comfortable ideal body weight, chances are that you've read the same diet and weight loss tips time and time again. In some cases, it's because someone said it and it got repeated endlessly. In others, though, it's because the tip really works. Here are five of the most common diet tips that really work - and why.

Tip #1

Drink a full eight ounce glass of water 20 minutes before each meal. It's only partly because you trick your body into thinking that it's full. The real trick is in giving your body all the water that it needs. The usual recommendation is at least an 8 oz glasses of water a day. That's WATER - not soft drinks, not coffee. Just pure water. Your body needs water to maintain all its systems and to flush wastes away.

When you don't take in enough water, it starts trying to conserve it by retaining water in muscle and fat tissues. Water your body as faithfully as you would a plant, and you'll find that it starts ridding itself of excess water regularly as well. Is it just water weight? Well, yes. But that water weight is weight you don't have to carry around with you as long as you're taking in enough water for your body's needs.

Tip #2

Eat your fruits and veggies raw. Aside from the fact that raw fruits and vegetables pack more nutrition per calorie, in many cases you're actually getting LESS calories when you eat your produce raw. Especially if you generally opt for canned fruits or vegetables, there are added preservatives and flavorings that can increase calories substantially.

But there's another reason as well: your body works harder to digest raw fruits and vegetables, and that means that it uses more calories in getting all the nutrients out of it. Your body NEEDS the extra roughage present in fruit and vegetables that haven't been cooked and processed to keep it working right.

Tip #3

Eat a balanced diet. It's obviously more healthy, but will it help you lose weight? The answer is yes, and here's why. When your body lacks ANY nutrient in its daily intake, it tries to make up the difference by substituting other nutrients. The result can be false messages that you're hungry, when what your body really craves is enough of ONE particular nutrient. Eating a balanced diet provides all the nutrients your body needs in the proper proportions so that it isn't telling you it's starving.

Tip #4

Half an hour of moderate exercise five times a week. Your body uses the food it eats to produce energy for your daily activities. The more energy you use, the more of your food your body will use to fuel it. When you eat fewer calories than your body needs, it will turn to stored reserves to keep it going.

Adding one half hour of moderate exercise to your daily routine five times a week increases your body's consumption of energy. But there's more. Your body is using up calories even when you're not exercising just to maintain circulation and health in its tissues. It uses up more calories maintaining muscles than fat. As you exercise, your body is converting fat to muscle -- resulting in a higher metabolic rate as it increases its activity to keep your muscles in tone.

Tip #5

Snack between meals. Our bodies were never designed for the 3-times-a-day eating schedule we've adopted. They work round the clock, and need energy all the time. Rather than eating all your calories in three sittings, spread them out over 5 or 6. The trick is to eat smaller meals - not add more food. You'll keep your digestive system busy, and your body at full energy all day long.

Don't Go It Alone

Don't Go It Alone

There's an old story about a child trying to move a heavy stone while his father looks on. The child works and works, but is just not strong enough. Finally, he tells his father, "I can't do it. It's impossible."

His father responds, "Of course you can. You haven't used all the strength you have available to you yet." The little boy answers that he has tried his hardest, and still can't do it, to which the father responds, "You haven't asked me to help you yet."

Sometimes dieting can seem like moving that heavy rock. You struggle and fight, exercise and sweat, but it's so hard to stick to a diet and exercise schedule that you give up. There comes a time to recognize that asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness. Enlisting the aid of friends, family and a good weight loss support group can bolster

your efforts and help you overcome setbacks that threaten to derail your weight loss efforts. Instead of trying to go it alone, try a few of these suggestions to help you stay on track with the help of friends and family.

1. Hook up with an exercise buddy. Making a date and a commitment to help support someone else's efforts will help you stick to yours as well. Think you don't know anyone you can exercise with? You might be surprised. Several years ago, I was commiserating with an online friend about another failed effort to lose weight when she proposed a novel idea. We each got a cell phone with the same calling plan, and every afternoon at 2, we 'met' for a walk. She did her walking in Seattle, and I did mine in Boston - but by keeping each other company, we helped each other lose 25 pounds each, and cemented a friendship that will last a lifetime.

2. Get your family on the right page. Husbands, wives, children and siblings can offer support in unexpected ways. Something as simple as a sincere compliment at the right time can be all you need to nudge you onward. By the same token, refuse to let them sabotage your diet efforts. When you recognize it, point it out but keep in mind that they probably don't think of it as 'sabotage'. If your husband habitually brings you a bowl of ice cream when he gets one for himself, for instance, he probably thinks he's expressing his love. Let him know that you appreciate it, but you'd rather have a kiss than ice cream anytime.

3. Join a weight loss group like Weight Watchers. There's a lot to be said for seeking out the support of others who are fighting the same battle you are. Whatever it is that motivates you, you can find it in a weight loss support group. Healthy competition, companionship, encouragement, applause and practical, common sense advice from others who are also fighting to take off pounds can all make reforming your eating habits considerably easier.