One thing that has been tough for me is eating out. It is always a constant battle with me. I go on streaks of never eating out, but then fall back into the slump of fast food. I am sure I am not the only one with this problem. Of course it would be tough to cut the it (fast food or dinning out) out all at once but it is something that can be done over time.

Something that is crucial when eating fast food or dinning out is choosing something healthy. You will be able to start feeling a bit better about yourself if you choose something healthier, haha at least that my excuse. But serious, even someone that is doing a specific diet should be able to find something healthy on any menu out there.

I am not saying to eat fast food or dine out all the time, but if you get put in the position then you might as well choose healthier then average items. The biggest problem with this is 99% of all people aren’t sure what is healthy or NOT. Well, I will give you some simple and easy choices when out and about. Give me the night to gather some info up and I will have a list set out for you all tomorrow. Until then, contain yourselves, lol, and I will too! Talk to you tomorrow!

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Here is the last part of my What is Healthy blog posts. This particular post covers all the rest of the areas… I think! Make sure and let me know if I missed something.

 Beef, Pork, Veal and Lamb
Baking, roasting and broiling are the healthiest ways to cook these meats. Try and trim away any fat from the cut of meat before cooking. When choosing these meats, make sure and pick lean cuts with the least amount of gristle or fat showing. I usually will ask the clerk in the meat department for advice when looking for a nice lean cut of meat.

Poultry (chicken)
Baking, broiling and roasting are the healthiest ways to cook poultry. A regular chicken breast is the healthiest choice of poultry. Try and choose chicken with no skin, or make sure and remove any skin. Before cooking be sure to remove any fat or gristle.

Fish   
Baking, steaming, and broiling are the healthiest ways to cook fish. I will also ask the meat man when I am looking for fresh fish. If it has a strong fishy smell then it isn’t fresh. If there isn’t much of a fresh fish selection then frozen fish may be better.

Other Proteins
Dry beans, peas and lentils offer protein and fiber without the cholesterol and fat that meats have. These can be easily interchanged or added into meals with the meat group, while either maintaining or enhancing the protein intake.

Bread, Cereal, Rice and Pasta   
Whole-wheat or whole-grain breads are low in fat; they’re also high in fiber and complex carbohydrates. Super Markets are also starting to introduce more whole grain pasta, pitas, rice, wraps and things of that nature. Try and choose these when you have the option, they are becoming more readily available. Both hot and cold cereals are usually low in fat.

Try and stay away from bakery foods like donuts, muffins and rolls. These foods can contain high fat calories. Also avoid snacks like potato chips and tortilla chips. There are many baked or low-fat alternatives out there now.

Fruits and Vegetables
Fruits and vegetables are naturally low in fat. They add flavor and variety to your diet. They also contain fiber, vitamins and minerals. Dark green vegetables are known to contain more nutrients. When choosing lettuce, choose the darker romaine style lettuce. Try and use herbs and spices to enhance taste of these things because stuff like butters and oils will only add fat and calories.

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Hope you all have had a good week so far, mine has been great. I want to chat a little about certain kinds of foods tonight. I have recently gone been in some restaurants and eateries, when ordering I have tried to find healthy items to choose. Lets face it, most average menus aren’t exactly health friendly. Actually, most average homes in North America aren’t even stocked for healthy meals.

One thing that I know people eat a lot of is bread, rice and pasta! When eating pasta or rice in a restaurant, you rarely get a choice of white or whole wheat. This is something you should look for more often within your diet. Simply changing to the whole wheat alternative will help give you added nutrients that the regular white choice doesn’t have.

The whole wheat alternatives taste the same and usually are around the same prices. Some people try and cut things like bread, pasta and rice out of there diet because they think it is unhealthy. Sure, to much of anything is unhealthy, but within moderation and now with a whole wheat alternative you can start feeling better about having these items.

I will usually cook a bag of whole wheat noodles up at the start of the week and have them in my fridge. It makes for a quick, easy and healthy meal for me through out the week. I can cook up some veggies with a little meat and add the noodle and I have a healthy stir-fry withing 15 or 20 minutes. Quality!

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So this is the first post by Roberta, my mom. It has to do with helping yourself change your mind and also your thoughts. It is short an very helpful. Here we go, thanks again Roberta!

Weight loss is a struggle for a high percentage of our population. Whether  it be to lose weight or to gain weight. I have found by reflecting on one word or phase every time I see food it helps me to gain control of myself so I can accomplish what I have set out to do. That makes me feel good inside.

There is no right or wrong words or phases. It can be different for everyone.

For someone that wants to gain weight your phase maybe, I AM HUNGRY

For someone that wants to loose weight it maybe, I AM FULL

So if you want to lose weight, it doesn’t mean you don’t eat. What it may mean is when you feel a craving for unhealthy food or over eating, you use your phrase “I am full” to remind yourself of your goal! Simple and effective. Feel free to leave a comment as to the phrases you may try or just give some ideas for phrases that may help. Thank you

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This is my final post in the Healthy Eating Habits series. If you haven’t read the others then I suggest you do so, they are The Way to Healthy Eating Habits & Healthy Eating Habits Part 2. Now I have gone through a few different concepts that will help you on your way to healthy eating habits. None have been really hard, they just have to get done. Now I will share the final 2 factors and you can start using them all together and see the results for yourself.

Habits
Being able to break bad habits is another important part of starting to eat healthy. No I don’t mean habits like biting your nails or smoking, I mean bad meal, snack and drink habits. It is way easier to be unhealthy because everywhere you turn, there is another fast food restaurant being built. Now, the way you start to rid yourself of these, is to figure out what your unhealthy habits are. My worst habits were from snacking, any little snack I had was bad for me. I stopped buying unhealthy snacks, now anytime I snack; I am forced to eat good things. Once you figure out what the habits are, you can find out how to work on deleting them. If most of your habits are at home, only keep healthy things in the house. I have learnt by experience that if there is any type of junk food in the house it will get eaten before the healthy stuff, always.

It is all the automatic unhealthy choices you make that affect you the most. No matter what type of habit you have, you always have to be committed to breaking it. Say you eat lunch ‘out’ every day of the week. Well, not only is that very costly, but also usually always unhealthy. A very simple technique to interrupting eating out is packing your own lunch. It may take a bit more time to prepare and put together at first, but with time it gets easier then fast food.

Organization
Two little things called organization and preparation will help you out 10 fold when you start trying to eat healthy. Yes you read it right, Organization and Preparation. There are a few different aspects to it, but in the end of this you will be a wizard at all of them. See the thing about my mini course tips is that each one is as important and simple as the next. This makes your success rate that much better.

So when I say stay organized this is what I mean. If you have junk in the house it will get eaten right, well be prepared enough to have all the bad food gone and make sure all healthy food is on hand. The concept is very easy, but you have to be organized to pull it off. So you want to start making lunches instead of eating out, then you’ll need to organize your meals and be prepared enough to have all the food available. Like I said, very simple, you just have to put it into effect.

One thing that helped me out with this is, I would take one night on my day off, and write out what I was going to do each day for lunch. I would then make sure I had all the needed food at home ready to go. I would also pre-cook some things. If you are making a nice dinner, make a bit extra and use it as a lunch through the week.

As I was saying above, none of these concepts are hard to do but you actually have to do them to see the effects. I challenge you to see the results. If you want to start eating healthy then doing these will defiantly help you on your way.

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I find that in the past, when I started going to the gym or decided to run regularly, that if I didn’t set up specific times to take action then I would fail very early. The point I am trying to get across is that setting goals up and getting into a routine is what will help bring success and help you see the results.

Last summer I wanted to start going to the gym again so I asked a couple of friends if they wanted to join me (friends or partners help with getting into a routine and staying focused also but thats for a different post). Two of my good friends agreed to start going to the gym with me at least 3 times a week. I myself got organized and set out when specifically I was going to go to the gym. For me, I decided that after work through the week was the best fit for me. My friends on the other hand never really had a plan as to when they were going to work out. Big mistake. Withing 2 weeks they were pretty much unseen at the gym. Fortunately, my first week at the gym, I met with a friend that had already been going so I started joining up with him. We both were in the same workout time routine and this helped both of us very much.

When you don’t have set times to take action, it’s too easy to find unhealthy things to do. If you have set times and a routine, then you will find that it becomes automatic. When I would get home from work, I would automatically grab a little food and then go and workout. Once I was in the routine I never thought twice about doing anything other then working out. Try it and you will find out how much it helps.

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I am going to take this post to talk about staying positive and being patient. These two things don’t only pertain to weight loss or fitness, they pertain to everyday life! You will be surprised the difference that being positive will make in your life.

In most peoples life, things aren’t always 100% peachy, things can and do go wrong. It’s how you deal with those things that make your life what it is. Of course when something wrong happens it’s easy to think negative and maybe go eat some food and get drunk, but is that good? Nope! Try to really focus your thoughts and feelings on being positive. The next time something doesn’t go as planned, like losing that 2 lbs, gain a positive ground on the situation and really focus on the good things. There will be plenty of time to change things around and see all of the positive things come back to you.

Patience is another big thing people forget about. I find that patience goes right along with positive thinking. Although some things can be done instantly, others can take a bit of time. If something doesn’t happen on the time line that you have planned then make sure and stay positive and be patient. There will be more time to complete the task or goal and for some reason it wasn’t meant to be at that point in time.

I find that when I am put in a negative thought or situation, I will mentally take a step back from the situation and take a deep breath. This helps me collect myself and really give thought to the situation. This technique helps me stay positive and not jump to negative conclusions. I hope this post will be of use to you, not only for your weight loss, but also to your everyday life! Take Care.

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So I have already brought in a guest article for the new year. I got this article made up and thought all you female readers would enjoy it. It’s a good read for any woman wanting to form a nice flat stomach and have some sweet female abs.

The female body is capable of developing the much-desired “six pack” abs. But many women stay away from the thought of becoming the female version of Incredible Hulk. And so they never perform the exercises that are meant to develop the muscle abs. As time goes by, the once sexy female figure slowly becomes pear-shaped. They begin to realize that the development of the abdominal muscles is not just about having a sleek body but also a strong and healthy one. Strong abdominal muscles meant more energy to perform everyday tasks. But it’s never too late to work out the muscle abs. There won’t be waves of muscles on the abdomen, but there would certainly be flat female abs.

The key to having great flat female abs is to do the abdominal exercises right. A wrongly performed exercise would not work out the targeted group of muscles. Worse, wrongly performed exercises may lead to injury and lots of pain. To illustrate the right way of doing the abdominal exercises, here are tips for five of the most popular ones: hanging leg raise, hanging bent-knee raise, hanging side raise, bent-knee crunch, and alternating crunch.

In the Hanging Leg Raise, the cardinal rule is to never swing the body. When the body swings, its momentum is directed towards raising the legs, which defeats the whole purpose of the exercise. The legs should be raised by the efforts of the abdominal muscles. Thus, the legs are raised while the hips are being flexed until the knees reach the nearest point towards the shoulders. To avoid swinging, this exercise should be carried out slowly.

In the Hanging Bent-Knee Raise, the same restrictions about momentum and swinging are applied. These should never be used, especially in this particular exercise. The greatest benefit of the hanging bent-knee raise is the strengthening of the lower abdominal muscles. To carry this out while hanging on a pull bar, the legs must be pulled up using the power of the abs. To add force, rotate the pelvis forward, but keep the legs together. Then slowly release to the original position.
In the Hanging Side Raise, the aim is to exercise the sides of the abdomen together with the lower abdominal muscles. Starting from the position similar to the hanging leg raise, the knees are together lifted to one side. The knees should be lifted as high as possible. It can be done by curling the spine. Then hold and squeeze the abs before slowly releasing to the starting position. As usual, swinging is not allowed.

In the Bent-Knee Crunch, the starting position is lying flat on the floor, with the back resting comfortably. Bend the knees to about 60 degrees and outstretch the hands to the sides. Using the power of the abs, slowly move the pelvis back, raise the hips off the floor, and bring the knees close to the chest. Hold this position and squeeze the abs before slowly straightening up to the original position. To add challenge to this exercise, the ankle may have weights.

And in the Alternating Crunch, the body starts in the same position as the bent-knee crunch. This time, the hands are not outstretched. Instead, these are placed over the ears. Then, the upper body is raised and rolled towards the right, with the left elbow touching the right knee. After holding this position for a few seconds, the body goes back to its lying position. Then, the upper body is rolled again, but this time to the left side. The right elbow touches the left knee.

Most exercises can work wonders on female abs, even when the abs cannot be seen. The exercises need only to be done right and the burning of calories begins.

Hope you enjoyed the post and I hope this will motivate you all to get going on those abs workouts. Abs has been the biggest topic when it comes to problem areas on people.

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This is a quick continuation of my first post, The Way to Healthy Eating Habits, so I will be touching on another key aspect of gaining healthy eating habits. If you haven’t read to first post then I suggest doing that either before or after reading this one. All of them together will help with the success of finally getting a grasp on healthy eating habits instead of fast food and junk! This post is about a single aspect. I only did one point because this is important and should really be looked at, because without this it will be very hard to succeed.

Commitment
You are probably wondering what this commitment talk is all about, well believe it or not, it is a huge part of getting on the right track. Eating healthier doesn’t mean that you eat one healthy meal every week. In order to really turn the corner and get healthy you need to put some effort in to it. Be committed to eating healthy. Commit yourself to eating good healthy meals each and every day. It is too easy to fall out of sync with health, with all of the many fast food restaurants out there. If you can stay committed with your eating, you will see success. It will be hard to begin with, but in time, it will get easier and easier.

Now like I have said many times, this may be weird and tough when starting out, but it gets easier. The way you make it work is pushing yourself. The days or times where you just don’t want to do it anymore, push yourself to keep doing it. If you can stay committed enough to make it past a few of those days then your going to succeed. It’s that simple.

That is all for this segment of healthy eating habits so hopefully you enjoyed it. Remember also take a look at The Way to Healthy Eating Habits if you want to learn more about this area. I will do the 3rd and final post about how to be more successful with gaining healthy eating habits next weeks.

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Well, these aren’t official water facts or anything but I will talk a little bit about water intake, why it’s important and some sweet rewards for drinking it. Probably about 75% of our bodies are made up of just water. That is a huge percent, that means that if your body isn’t getting enough water then it won’t function at full potential.

The right amount of water intake is different per person, so it’s hard to say how much one should drink. Drinking the proper amount of water is super important and can have some awesome effects. Weight loss is among the effects if your body gets the right amount of water. Another great effect that comes with the proper amount of water is higher energy levels.

Like I said above there is no exact amount of water consumption one should drink, but there are some tells from your body that say “I need water”. Some of these tells are; darker urine, headaches and fatigue. So now down to how much water one should consume, the simple answer is, drink more then what you are right now. It may be hard to go from 1 glass per day to 15 glasses, but there is nothing wrong with a gradual increase. Put a conscience effort into drinking more water and you will see results.

I suggest carrying a good sized water bottle around with you throughout the day to help with drinking water when you are thirsty. Drinking more water is defiantly something I am going to do starting now and I can’t wait to see the healthy results! I hope you do too.

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