Imagine yourself on an island; eat only island food

Should you stay on an isolated island for a year, you will be really fit (like Tom Hanks in Cast Away). Do you know why, because you won't find Burger King or Coca Cola or refined sugar or white bread, high sugar juice, etc...

So, if you imagine yourself living on an island, and just eat the foods that you would find there: whole fruits, whole vegetables, fish, etc. you will be much fitter & healthier in a few months.

If you are familiar with the movie, Wilson in this case - for you - would be yourself, everytime you eat something, ask yourself 'would I find this on my imaginary island?' & if the answer is 'No', don't eat it or drink it.

Other names for my diet

You can call this diet the following:

- The 'no diet' diet because it's not really a diet, but a lifestyle, once you are used to these eating habits, they will become habits & you will not have to struggle again with bad eating habits.
For example, I rarely crave McDonald's nowadays!

That's why you can also call it (should millions of people follow it :)):
- The 'Chapter 11 for Fast food' diet

I am open to other name suggestions.
Sincerely,

Mr. 'whole wheat/high protein' Pizza Lover

Benefits of chewing the food well

There are a few benefits to this:

- Healthier digestive system

- Prevent you from overeating; chewing the food well will slow you down which is a good technique to prevent overeating

- Easier to swallow :)

Sincerely,
Mr. Pasta/Pizza Lover

Setting the right expectations is Key

This is a recent quote I thought of thinking of a resolusion of another work/family challenge. But, I thought it's also very applicable in trying to be more healthy. Here it is: "Setting your expectations too high or too low is almost always both disappointing".

It's very key to set the right expectation on your body as well; for example, if you are very stressed out & need to eat something sweet; like a piece of chocolate, just do it. But, plan how you will burn the extra calories.

What do expectations have to do with this? It's basically, when you expect your body to fall along with your plan (sometime unrealistic); this is setting too high of an expectation; you should try to avoid this & be more realistic.

Sincerely,
Mr. Pizza Lover

By the way, I just had the most delicious (also healthy) pizza at California Pizza Kitchen; their white pizza (but ordered it on whole grain ;) ); I like the sweet taste of the whole grain.

I am going to grab a piece of dark chocolate right now.

Eat Less, Exercise More, Sleep More

Eating less & exercising more is something that every diet will suggest. But, sleeping more (ifyou don't sleep enough) is very important to get your metabolism in order.

I am going to sleep right now. zzzzzz.

Do not let one unhealthy meal affect your lifestyle

Once in a while, everyone will eat something unhealthy or overeat, this is normal. What's not normal is to make it a trend. Every time you think of that unhealthy meal or couple of meals, just remember, this can be a drop in a bucket if compared to your eating habits in the whole year. Go ahead & grab some cucumbers or carrots & eat them & you will start getting back to your new balanced, natural, and moderation lifestyle.

Watch less TV to loose weight!!

Watching TV less has helped me burn more calories because most of the activities that you would do would help burn more calories that watching TV.

If you weight 200 lbs & watch TV for 10 minutes you only burn about 16 calories, if you do gardening work, you burn 65 calories in the same amount of time !!

Check out this link for some more useful information about how many calories you burn when you do some activities:
http://k2.kirtland.cc.mi.us/~balbachl/calorie.htm

How my 1.5 year old taught me to loose weight

My 1.5 yr old daughter taught me how to loose weight by refusing to eat & being so active. This is keeping her in the 25% percentile or below on the weight scale as compared to other children her age. Here goes your diet; just do like my daughter: eat less and exercise more.

Hold on, I forgot to mention, if you wonder what fills her up: water, she drinks water all the time & this makes her not hungry. I am trying her techniques right now & it seems to work !!

Exercise is part of the balance

We will not be able to achieve complete balance in the diet without adopting a regular exercise routine. Being overweight, it's very understandable that you will not be able to exercise because you feel heavy or low energy, etc. But, you could start with the following schedule:
- Once/week for the first 3 weeks
- Twice/week for the next 5 weeks
- Then select your ideal frequency & stick with it.

The following exercises will help you without putting much strain on your knee if this is an issue for you like most overweight individuals (in the order of least strenous on the knee)
- Swimming
- Elliptical
- Biking
- Walking

Please feel free to post your comments or send me an email with your before pictures, I will keep them for you & then once you loose the weight, I will post them on this blog.

Good luck.

2 reasons why eating breakfast is critical for successfull balanced diet

Eating breakfast everyday has the following benefits:
1 . Boosts your metabolism, you will find yourself more productive & have more energy
2 . This will help you not to overeat on the next meal because you starved yourself in the morning, which would most likely mess your balanced diet.

If you are - like me - not very excited about breakfast, get yourself something quick like a granola bar or a handfull of dried fruits, the important thing is to get those early morning calories for your body to be able to function properly and in a balanced way.

Wear your 'feeling full' belt

Are you so hungry that you are afraid you will go and over-eat? I have a suggestion, go and get a belt (weight lifting back support or any other belt) and wear it around your stomach, then start eating. This will help you not over-eat & you will feel real good afterwards!

Deprivation & stravation are bad for you

Many "diets" nowadays fail because you deprive yourself from a specific type of food like fat, sugar, carb, or whatever. If you want to succeed on the long term, eat small portions of everything. That way, your body is not deprived or a certain type of food. Because, most likely, after 6 months, or 1 year, you will end up eating that food & gaining that weight back much faster than you lost it.

Starvation is also bad, because it will make your body super efficient & will preserve anything you feed it in the form of fat. Once your starvation is over, you body continues to be super efficient & you will gain more weight when you eat any little thing.

Over-Eating Over-Eating Over-Eating...

Over-Eating is one of the main reasons we gain weight; how to stop this bad habit? Here are some suggestions:
- Eating slowly will help you eat less
- If you have to overeat; select what you will overeat, get some lettuce, or tomatoes, you do not want to overeat chocolate or pizza!!
- Talk while you eat, this will help you slow down
- When done with your food & want to eat more, wait for 20 minutes & most of the time, you will realize that you are no longer hungry.
- Get a hot drink like green tea or get some unsweetened juice or some water with lime or lemon; this will moderate your appetite quite a bit.
- Eat more fibers, they will make you feel more full

Most of the time, when we over-eat, we tend to focus too much on the food, try to focus on somthing else like reading a book or browsing the internet.

Cheese lover? Read this

If you love cheese like me, you will need to make substitutions in your diet:
- Substitute whole fat cheese with lower fat cheese
- Eat more cottage cheese
- Eat more vegetables
- Eat more vegetables
- Eat more vegetables
...
I am talking about raw vegetables like snack to fill you up like carrots, cucumber, broccolli, tomatoes...
- This one is hard to get; but, try to find whole wheat pizza, if not make it at home

Educate yourself about nutrition...

Educating yourself about nutrition is way better investment of your time and much more fun than waisting your time shopping around for a diet. This will benefit you on the long term & loosing weight will be a side effect.

When you educate yourself about nutrition, not only will you benefit yourself, but, also the people around you.

5 ways to break the unhealthy eating cycle

My target was to loose 70 lbs; I lost 55 & I got really proud of myself & started this blog to help others who want to loose weight. Then I starting gaining weight, I gained about 6 lbs in the past 3 weeks. I am writing this as I beleive I managed to break the unhealthy eating cycle I was experiecing in the past 3 weeks; this is how I managed to do it:

1 - When I crave something sweet; I eat fruits or if I want more, I eat more fruits. This works because fruits are not as high calorie as ice cream for example. Let's say you grab a bag of hershey's kisses & you eat one after the other, before you know it, you had 500 calories & you are 350 calories over what you needed!! But, when you eat fruits, let's say you eat 3 apples, which is only about 195 calories, you are only 45 calories over & you feel full.

2 - You are now on a cycle of unhealthy eating & you want to finish this big bag of chips or finish a bag of nuts. Remember, nuts are good but in moderation. Now, you cannot achieve moderation because you are stressed out for example. The way to break this cycle is to choose the food you will overeat, grab a bag of baby carrots & try to finish it. You will get bored before you finish it & it won't be as dangerous (from the calorie count point of view) as a bag of nuts.

3 - Shop for healthy food; keep a lot of fruits arounds; if you don't have ice cream at home & you want to eat something sweet, you will grab a couple of fruits.

4 - Green tea is very useful when you are on an unhealthy eating cycle; if feels like it melts those fats away; at least for me it works nicely. I am talking about decaffinated green tea.

5 - Try to avoid watching TV; it encourages one to eat more snacks; instead go online or read a book or do anything that will keep those hands busy ;)

Eat Slower to achieve moderation

Eating slowly is one of the key habits that if you are able to get used to will help you eat more moderate portions. One way that would help you eat slower is opening a conversation while you eat. Also, chew slower & never speak when your mouth is full. Also, do not put more food in your mouth unless you are done eating all what is in your mouth.

Portion Control is critical to better eating

In order to achieve moderation while you eat, it's very important to control your portions; in other words you should always fill your plate or glass with smaller amount than what you think you need to eat. Especially if you are like me hate to throw food considering how many people suffer starvation in the US and around the world today. Anyway, not going off the subject too much, it will help you a lot taking smaller servings & if you are still hungry, have more. But, never fill your plate or glass too much at the beginning of your meal or even your snack. For example, if you will sit down to read or write or study & want some snack, do not grab the whole bag of chips or nuts, but rather bring a small plate & have a small portion because very often we get distracted with what we do & eat more than we need.

If you want to loose weight and looking for a diet read this

If you are overweight & looking around for a diet you need to reconsider. A diet - or at least the way they are sold today - are mostly like a band-aid or a reciepe for long term failure even if they work for the short term. The main issue with most of these diets is that they will not provide you with a well-balanced eating pattern. But, rather will tell you eat no carbs or no fat or whatever. This is not balanced, your body needs the fat & the carbs even if you are overweight. The key is to control the portions in a balanced way proportinal to how much overweight you are.

Let's agree on some points first; do you agree that obesity is some kind of disease? If you do, then read on. There was a study that showed that even if you are sick & crave for some kind of food, get some no matter what this food is. Let's apply this to obesity, let's say you are 70 lbs overweight & you are trying to apply the principles of my diet here but suddently you crave for an ice cream bar with caramel, nuts, and chocolate. That's totally fine, eat it & don't feel guilty about it. The fact that you crave it means that your body needs it. As long as you just eat one & have in mind that you are eating balanced, natural, and in moderation in general, you will be OK.

My point is, keep focused on eating healthy and apply these principles on a long term basis & exercise as often as you can. This will be your recipe for loosing those pounds for good. You may experience some minor increases of your weight along the way, but, that's normal & natural as long as you are loosing weight and feeling better on the long term. You will feel better because you are loosing weight without depriving yourself of any foods.

Keep positive attitude & good luck.

Do not waste your time or money on diet plans or pills

I have been trying to loose weight for over 7 years, until I figured this "diet" out; I realized I don't need a diet but rather a dramatic lifestyle change based on the concepts of eating natural food in moderation and balance.

We are much smarter than to need someone to tell you what to eat & when to eat it & you pay them for it! What you really need is apply my program. If you can excercise also along the way, that would be perfect, even a 20 minutes walk every day or every other day would be great.

We are more complicated than to just follow a simplistic 'low fat' weight loss program or 'low carb', you need a smart balance of natural (whole) foods in moderation & you will loose weight. Try it out for a month, not only will you loose weight, but, you will feel better & more healthy.

The great thing about my "diet" plan is that it does not tell you to stop one type food completely; this will guarantee that you won't crave that food later and jump on it like crazy & this is the key to maintaining the lost weight. A study showed that a crave means that your body needs it. For example, if you crave something sweet, your body needs it for whatever reason whether it's physical or emotional. How do you answer it based on the guidelines of my diet: eat what you crave, but IN MODERATION!! that way, you know you are not depriving yourself from something you may need or develop some vitamin deficiency or get hooked on vitamins or jump from one diet plan to another and so on...

Why other diets don't work

Most diets out there have what is called 'tubal vision' where they only focus on one aspect of your eating habits like fat or carbs or sugar and so forth. I will tell you from a logical point that these diets are just a band-aid; they will work for a short term & then you will be disappointed and go try another diet. That's why you need to start right here.