12 Healthy Ways to Cheat on Your Diet

Beyond sensible splurging, WebMD (one of our favorite websites ever!) asked nutrition experts for more tips to how you can cheat on your diet and still lose weight. Here’s what they said:

1.    Accept your “splurge foods.” Your desire for them isn’t going anywhere. And as we all know, when you tell people they can’t do something — like enjoy a slice of pie — they’re going to want to do it even more, cautions Grotto.

2.    Eat more filling foods. Load up your diet with foods that go the distance — those with lean protein and fiber. “Add eggs, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, broth-based soups, salads, lean meats, seafood, and low fat dairy because these foods fill you up and help tame your appetite” says American Dietetic Association spokesperson Marisa Moore, RD.  For further cravings control, plan for healthy snacks so that you don’t go for long periods without eating. 

3.    Go for flavor hits. Whatever you love, buy it in its most intense and tasty form, says O’Neil. This way, you can have less of it, yet still get the flavor you crave. For example, are you crazy about salty snacks? Splurge on gourmet sea salt or chunky kosher salt, and sprinkle it over a ripe, red tomato. “You’ll have a more brilliant, bright flavor,” says O’Neil, “but a better salty hit and crunch — so you’ll use less.”

4.    Enjoy with all your senses. When you indulge in your diet splurge, serve it on a pretty plate with a colorful garnish so you can appreciate its eye appeal. “Eat your meals and snacks slowly by taking small bites so you can enjoy the taste and have a satisfying and mindful meal experience,” advises Brian Wansink, PhD, author of Mindful Eating. Being more aware of what is on your plate and eating it slowly can help you get more satisfaction from your food.

5.    Have a plan. “If you happen to be a dessert lover and eat out, ask to see the dessert menu first,” says O’Neil. This way, you can budget your calories for what matters most to you. Knowing where you’re really headed — toward that pecan torte, perhaps? — will make it easier to skip the creamy clam chowder or deep-fried cheese sticks.

6.    Eat only what you love. “If it’s bad [for your diet], it had better be good,” says O’Neil. So instead of grabbing a trio of donut holes each morning with your coffee — and distractedly downing a doughy 300 calories — splurge on something worth savoring, like a small, perfect wedge of creamy cheesecake.

7.    Make it yourself. Can’t enjoy your morning coffee without a muffin? Mix up your own batch, slipping in goodies like oats, nuts, and whole-grain flour. Love piping hot pizza? Try making it yourself, using intensely flavored toppings like goat cheese, smoked salmon, and fresh herbs. You won’t even miss the pepperoni. WebMD’s “Recipe Doctor,” Elaine Magee, knows where to slash calories without anyone noticing: “Cheesecake is a perfect example of an easy dish to lighten, because you can use a dusting of graham cracker or cookie crumbs instead of a crust made with 6 tablespoons of melted butter; [and use] reduced-fat ingredients like light cream cheese and egg substitute and a little less sugar,” she says. “Then you can heighten the flavor with lemon or lime zest for a dessert that is much lighter so you can enjoy a larger portion.”

8.    Get away from it all. How many times have you eaten lunch at your desk or in front of the TV, and then realized you didn’t taste a bite? “Our society doesn’t embrace eating and enjoying our food; we try and be productive at all times,” says Grotto. That’s why it’s so important to savor your splurge without distractions. And if you do so away from the kitchen, it’s harder to sneak in seconds.

9.    Eat what you love, in small portions. You can have it all, just not all in one day. No food is off-limits as long as you keep your portions reasonable. “Every day I satisfy my sweet tooth with a couple of bites of dark chocolate that I keep in the freezer so it melts slowly and satisfies my craving without consuming too many calories,” says Magee. 

10. Compromise. O’Neil lives in the South, where sweet iced tea is a popular drink. Instead of doing without when she goes out, she orders unsweetened iced tea with a dash of sweet tea on top. So if you think it’s not a picnic without your creamy chicken salad, enjoy it — but cut the calories by replacing half the mayonnaise with yogurt. “Compromises are an empowering thing,” says O’Neil.

11. Make small changes. Passionate about a nightly dessert? Enjoy every mouthful — but top it off with a walk around the block afterward. Addicted to a pizza slice and a cola for your daily lunch? Relish every bite — but enjoy them four days a week instead of five. Grotto and O’Neil agree that small steps can add up to big results, so find the changes that work best for you. “We almost have it built into us, hard-wired, the resistance to simple things,” says Grotto. “That’s why I think so many people fail on diets.”

12. Don’t let a little slip become a backslide.  It is almost impossible to be an “A” student when it comes to dieting. “Everyone slips up, and that is fine as long as you don’t let one slip turn into a backslide,” says Wansink. Whenever you slip up, take note of it, try to learn from it so you can anticipate it in the future, and get right back into your diet plan to avoid the temptation to throw in the towel.

Special thanks for WebMD - a fantastic website full of useful information! http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/cheat-on-your-diet-and-still-lose-weight

Simple Tips to Help You Lose More Fat in Less Time

By Connie Limon

If you’re looking to lose some unwanted body fat, this article will show a few simple, proven ways to shed more fat in less time.

Drink more water throughout the day. Drinking water will help you feel fuller throughout the day. You will be less likely to be hungry and less likely to snack. Try drinking an 8 ounce glass of water or flavored water before you eat. The water should help you feel less hungry so you will eat less during the meal. If you are new to drinking water each day. Start out drinking one quart of water per day. Slowly increase your water intake up to a total of 64 ounces per day. If you are not use to drinking water and then you suddenly start to drink a lot of water, you can mess up your electrolytes. So start out drinking water slowly, just as you would start an exercise program slowly and slowly increase as the days go on. Did you know you can live for weeks without food, but only a few days without water? Water is essential to overall good health and helps to carry out the toxins from the body through the urinary tract and bowels.

Eat five to six small meals each day. One good rule to follow is to fuel the body with something small and nutritious every 5 hours. This helps to keep your metabolism running smoothly and efficiently, which in turn helps your body to burn more fat. If you eat one or two large meals each day will cause your metabolism to slow down. Skipping meals will cause your body to hold onto stored fat as a defense mechanism. Your body becomes unsure of when it will get its next meal. The body will conserve stored fat in case of future calorie needs.

Each meal should be a combination of high protein, carbohydrates and a dash of fat. Your plate should contain more fruits and vegetables than the protein or fat. A good rule to follow with how much protein to consume at mealtime is just enough that would cover the palm of your hand. Anymore protein than this eaten at one meal will automatically turn into stored fat, which is exactly what you doesn’t want to happen. Never skip breakfast. You should eat a well-balanced breakfast within two hours of awakening from an 8 to 10 hour sleeping period. Good sleep is also important for good overall health and burning fat. Sleep that has some dreams throughout the period of sleeping is a good indication that you are getting the kind of sleep you need.

High quality protein is found in foods like chicken, turkey, fish, eggs, milk and cheese. Quality carbohydrates are fruits and vegetables. Berries are especially good for antioxidants. Use breads, cereals and pasta sparingly and only as condiments. Take Fish Oil everyday.

Cardiovascular workouts 3 to 4 times per week are highly recommended to help you burn fat and calories. The safest exercise for bones and joints is a moderately brisk walk, 30 minutes at least per session, and 3 to 4 times per week. Cardiovascular exercise increases your metabolic rate and helps you to burn more calories throughout the day even while you are resting. Anymore than 30 minutes per day of cardiovascular exercise can lead to overtraining.

Weight train three to four times per week. Weight training helps you burn more calories and fat in the future. Weight training does not burn a sufficient amount of fat while you’re training. It is important to add lean muscle to your body. You burn more energy/calories just to maintain that lean muscle tissue. If your body has lean muscle you will burn more calories even while sleeping. The more calories you burn, the more fat you lose. This is why weight training is an important part of a weight loss program.

With all exercise programs, always remember to begin slowly.

Reduce your calorie intake slowly. In order to lose body fat, you need to burn more calories than you consume. Begin by reducing your daily calorie intake by 150 to 300 calories. Start cutting out extras like butter, cream, mayo, sugar and high-calorie dressings or condiments. Try using spices to add flavor to your food.

As you reduce your daily calories, you should be able to observe in the mirror what effect it is having on your body composition and shape. If you don’t see results after a couple of weeks of reducing your daily calories, reduce than again by 150 to 300 calories per day. A slow, methodical drop in calories will allow you to find the number you need to keep losing fat without sacrificing lean muscle tissue. If you eat too few calories, your metabolism will also slow down and you will stop adding lean muscle tissue. Over time, you will fine the number of daily calories you need to keep losing body fat without losing lean muscle tissue.
Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_89299_23.html
About the Author: Connie Limon publishes a FREE weekly newsletter http://www.stainglassshihtzus.com

9 Ways To Burn More Calories

By Gergana

If you do not have time to go to the gym you can easily burn calories doing your daily duties. You would be surprised at how many pounds/kilograms you can lose without even suspecting.

Lets get to the essential part now, namely how to lose more calories without this being our main purpose?

Rule # 1- Use the stairs.

No matter whether you use the stairs in the building you live or at the place where you work, it is always an advantage if you take the stairs instead of the elevator.  You can take 2-3 stairs at a time; you can jump, skip a few stairs, climb sidewise, or simply do a little run up the stairs.

Rule # 2- Set your alarm 10 minutes earlier.

Waking up and doing a short series of morning exercises will get you far. It will not only accelerate your blood circulation and warm up your muscles, but it will also charge your batteries for the whole day.  Only after you are done you can go ahead and have breakfast. Burning calories before you have your first meal is much more effective for your body than burning calories late at night after you have already consumed a lot of food.

Rule # 3- Choose the longest route possible.

Wherever you go to work, home, to the store, and etc., always take the longest road. You either way have to get where you want so why not actually burn some calories while you are doing that?

Rule # 4- Sleep naked at night.

When your body feels cold it burns more calories in order to warm itself. If you want to burn even more, you can simply keep the air conditioning on all the time. However, I recommend that you to keep the air on during the day when you are awake and can control it constantly.

Rule # 5- Dress up warm while working out.

Some of you might say hmmm, why is it better that I sleep without clothes but at the same time I need to put more clothes on while working out? Yeah, it is very strange, but it is a fact that sleeping without clothes and working out with more clothes have an equal positive effect when it comes to burning calories. The more you sweat during active physical exercising, the more effort your body needs to make to get you back to your normal body temperature. That is the main reason why you tend to burn more calories when you are dressed warm.

Rule # 6 - Burning calories in front of the TV.

Do you enjoy watching TV shows? I am sure you do. Do not forget that during each show there are plenty of commercials a few minutes each. During that time you need to get up from the couch and do a few exercises. You can do jumping jacks, pushups, crunches, or simply stretching exercises. The choice is all yours. You will be amazed how these couple of exercises can really make you mood and body feel better.

Rule # 7- Buy a pedometer (a step counter).

You can wrap this little device either around your wrist or around your waist and it will automatically start counting the steps you make. In this way you can keep track of how many steps per day you make walking or running.

Rule # 8 - Start walking faster.

If it usually takes you 15 minutes walking to get to the gym or somewhere else, try to shorten the time to 10 minutes. You can even rotate by walking 2 minutes fast and 2 minutes slow and so on. This way of walk will accelerate your heart rate and therefore it will be easier to burn additional calories.

Rule # 9- Chew gum.

It might really sound crazy to you but every time you chew gum you burn calories. Scientists have found that you can burn 12 calories for every 1 hour of chewing gum. It is not a lot but it?s really something. Additionally while chewing gum you produce extra saliva which helps clean your gums and teeth as well. Well, as you can see there are many creative ways of losing some extra weight without putting any effort in them.  Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_894856_23.html