Thursday 29 November 2012

Fitness and diet


Fitness and diet

What you put into your body will form 75 - 80% of the results you will see. Therefore, it is extremely important to be consistent in your eating routine, to eat 5 - 7 small meals per day and to plan ahead. An eating routine is a huge topic and I will aim to put up some detailed meal plans, articles on good foods and healthy recipes. But if I were to sum up the basics of what you should or should not be eating into a short paragraph, I would say, avoid all refined sugars and as much processed food as possible. As to what you should be eating, aim for protein rich foods, such as chicken, turkey, tuna, fibrous carbohydrates, such as green veg and salad and limited good fats, which includes olive oil, almonds and flax seed.
Eat 5 - 7 small meals a day. The reason behind eating so frequently throughout the day, is that, every time you eat, you raise your metabolism. This is why eating breakfast after your 7 - 8 hour overnight fast is so important when trying to lose weight. Do remember that you want to maintain the same calorie intake (assuming that your current calorie intake is at the appropriate level) across the larger number of meals as you ate previously with fewer meals. For example, if you should be eating 1800 calories a day, a rough breakdown across 6 meals would be 350 calories for a main meal, ie breakfast, lunch and dinner and 250 calories for your three snacks, mid morning, mid afternoon and pre-bed. You may need to modify this depending on when you train but I will expand on this in a later article.
It is much easier to stick to your planned diet if you plan ahead for this. One way of managing this is to prepare your food for the week on one day. I prepare food for a 5-day working week but you could do it for a full 7 day week too. I make the protein portion of my meals and snacks on one day, because this is the time consuming part of meal planning.
I prepare my week's food on a Sunday, making sure I check on portion sizes, based on the "size of your hand" principle. This usually means one chicken fillet, a cup of lean mince or a palm-sized piece of steak for each adult. Because the protein preparation is the most time-consuming, this is mostly what I prepare ahead of time. The carbohydrate portion is usually salad, which I prepare in the morning, or frozen vegetables which only take a few minutes.
A typical week might have two fish dinners, two chicken dinners and one steak dinner. I use frozen fish, so this doesn't need preparation ahead of time because it only takes 15 minutes to bake on the day of use. I thus need to prepare for two chicken and one steak dinners, plus lunches. For two people, this might mean cooking 2 steaks, 8 chicken fillets and 6 hard boiled eggs. The cooked steaks, four chicken fillets and the eggs go in the fridge for dinner and lunches early in the week and the other four cooked chicken fillets go in the freezer for lunch and dinner later in the week. The eggs may also be used for breakfast. This assumes cooked meat can be stored safely in the fridge for two or possibly three days.
This leaves just snacks to be prepared for the end of the week and it is easy to boil some more eggs on a Wednesday evening.
On a closing note, always remember, failing to plan is planning to fail.

Monday 26 November 2012

Extremely Important Weight Loss Advice


Extremely Important Weight Loss Advice

If you're like millions of other people in this country, you wouldn't mind if you lost a couple of pounds here and there. But doesn't the thought of dieting alone make you want to dive into a piece of chocolate cake? Fortunately for all of us, we can safely shed our excess weight without subjecting ourselves to fad diets and extreme exercise regimens. How, you ask? Simple, through portion control. Read on and learn how you can start losing weight immediately with some key tips and tricks that will teach you how to control your meal portions.

In our society today, portions are as big as they ever have been. Other countries often make fun of Americans and how much they eat. They find the size of our meals ridiculous as well as gluttonous. The fact of the matter is, they are right. We eat far more than we need to, and as a result, we weigh much more than we should. The first thing that needs to be established is how many calories our bodies need in order to maintain a healthy weight. The widely accepted number is approximately 2000 calories each day. This means that if we are eating 3 square meals every day, they should average to about 650-700 calories per meal. This seems straight forward enough, but you'd be surprised how quickly those calories can add up. A typical fast food meal is well over 1000 calories, and that is just one serving.

As a general rule, you want to cut fast food out altogether. Making your own meals is by far the best way to make sure that you not only are getting the right amount of calories but that those calories are coming from the right foods. Each of your meals should consist of equal parts protein and carbohydrates and minimal fat. What fat you do consume should generally be healthy fat that is mono and polyunsaturated fats. Before you go counting calories and read food labels, understand that it isn't too difficult to just eyeball these amounts. Strive to have a first sized protein source, such as a lean meat, with each meal and about a palm sized portion or carbohydrates. This simple formula will be enough to make sure that your calories are coming from the right place.

You are also going to want to stay away from empty calories. These are foods that are packed with calories but add little nutritional value. This is typically your junk foods, candies and the like. Now, this doesn't mean you don't ever get to indulge, but you shouldn't make them a part of your everyday diet. Rather use this as a treat every once in a while. A popular method is to use the 80-20 method. That is, about 80 percent of the foods you eat should be healthy and work towards your weight loss, while the remaining 20 can be used for cheat meals and other food cravings you may get.

Losing weight doesn't have to be hard. All it takes is a little preparation and willpower, and before you know it, you'll be fitting into clothes you haven't worn since college. Just make sure to implement the advice given into your everyday routine, and you are sure to be dropping pounds before you know it.

Thursday 8 November 2012

Weight Loss Tips.


Weight Loss Tips To Help You Get In Shape Quickly

Do you need to get in shape quickly? The best way to reach an Weight Loss Tipsis to go on an efficient weight loss program. Keep reading for some useful tips on dieting and exercising.

Do not attempt to transform your diet and your lifestyle overnight. Getting rid of your bad habits and adopting a healthy lifestyle takes time. Keep in mind that all your efforts will be ruined if you go back to your old habits once you reach an ideal weight. All the changes you make to your diet and lifestyle need to become lifelong habits. Introduce a new food or habit each week and keep in mind that it can take up to ten weeks before a practice turns into a habit. These changes will be easier to make if you take your time, even if you do not reach your ideal weight as quickly as you hoped.

It is essential that you get rid of all your bad nutritional habits as quickly as possible. Stay away from fast food restaurants as well as fried and processed foods. Replace canned and frozen foods by fresh produce if possible and check the labels of all the foods and beverages you buy, even if they are advertised as lite or fat free items. Avoid foods that contain too much salt, sodium, fat, sugar or preservatives. You should also stick to having three meals a day at fixed hours or five smaller ones and avoid snacking. Overeating is also a common cause of Weight Loss Tips Reduce your portions and take your time when you eat so you can stop when you are full.

Adopting a healthy diet will be a lot easier if you look for foods you enjoy. A lot of weight loss programs will give you a list of recipes and menus to choose from, but you can make your diet more enjoyable by trying new foods each week and preparing the dishes you like best. There are probably a lot of exotic fruits and vegetables you have never tried, some ethnic dishes you have never heard of and you might even love some vegetarian dishes. Try some new restaurants and go to different grocery stores to have a wider selection of foods to choose from.

Developing an efficient fitness program will help you weight.Loss Tips You will notice results in less than three weeks if you work out regularly. Start with two weekly thirty minute sessions and plan on working out more frequently and for longer periods of time as you progress. You should start by focusing on your core muscles so you can quickly lose weight in your midsection. Explore different cardio workouts and find an activity you really love to keep your fitness program fun. As you start working out more regularly, you should do some exercises designed to help you tone certain muscle groups, for instance to help you lose weight in your thighs or your arms.

These weight loss tips will help you reach a healthy weight quicker than any other weight loss program. Set some goals for your first weeks and get started!

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