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How many extra calories a day are you consuming just because you feel like eating something?
You know that your not hungry but you’ve got the munchies - these are cravings. And cravings can quickly pack on the extra pounds.

Cravings: Eating When You’re Not Even Hungry

Everyone has experienced the occasional self-indulgent binge; it’s part of life. You know your not hungry but you grab something to eat anyway. But how much craving eating are you doing? Is giving in to your cravings causing you to gain unwanted weight or preventing you from losing the weight you desire to lose?

This post will examine the nature of cravings and empower you with the knowledge and tools to stop their sabotaging effects on your weight and on your self-confidence.

Although our human nature is to satisfy our hunger, many of the signals we use to identify hunger and satiation we learn and develop over time, based on the influences of our circumstances and the other people around us.

Unlike how it was for our ancient, forest-dwelling ancestors, in modern civilization we have access to food around the clock, every day. 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Put that together with these misleading signals of ours and we find it so easy to succumb to the desire to eat, even though our body doesn’t require any additional calories or nutrients at that time.

In many regards, there is little that distinguishes compulsive overeating from other forms of substance abuse, and from addictive behavior in general. As with substance abuse and generally addictive behavior, stress, boredom, disappointment, anxiety, loneliness, insecurity, depression, and other negative emotional states all crave relief in some way.

And beyond drugs and alcohol, one of the other ways many people have found to assuage those ill feeling and find the relief they crave is through the comfort of certain foods, or even simply through the comfort provided by very the act of eating.

The sad part of this response to stress is that, usually, giving in to the craving results in you feeling worse, not better, heaping guilt and shame on top of whatever negative feelings you are already experiencing to begin with.

As with all forms of addictive behavior, there may often be a “trigger”, or an event that provokes the craving. This can be a television commercial, an impending part of a person’s daily routine (ie. work or school), an argument, a particular memory, the presence of a particular person, etc. Any of these can lead to a person craving certain foods (or food in general) when their body is not actually hungry.

Listen to your cravings closely, and not only because, in part, many times those cravings will be displaced desires for some form of mental or emotional fulfillment. Listen to them also in part because every once in a while, a craving is an honest-to-goodness cue from your body that a particular nutrient is lacking at that moment and sorely needed. When you have a craving that you may consider absurd (in other words, for something other than fats and sugars), consider that your body may be telling you that it needs some nutrient which that food contains.

Ordinarily, it won’t take much of the food in question to satisfy the craving. So just eat a little of it, then wait 5-10 minutes and see how you feel. Most times, the craving will have dissipated by then. If it hasn’t, eat just a little more and then wait again for 5-10 minutes.

And even before giving in to any cravings be sure to drink a glass of water as it has been shown that many times when we think that we are hungry or have cravings for a particular treat we are really thirsty. Just by having this glass of water may help you fend off an additional 200 or more calories. Don’t care for plain water or you feel you want something with a lot of taste?

Try a sugar free drink like Crystal Light or eat a Crystal Light ice pop.
Zero calories but lots of flavor.

How To Maintain Your Lost Weight

If you have a tendency to yo-yo your weight then this article is for you.

If you thought that weight loss is hard, then try maintaining your slimmer, trimmer body!
Weight loss is not easy for sure, but what is really hard is the task of keeping weight off from getting back to you!
Far too many people lose weight successfully but they are not able to maintain their new weight for long! Why? As soon as they have lost weight, they think it is okay to indulge themselves a little and go back to their old eating habits.

They eat junk and fatty foods which they were deprived of during their weight loss program; they also sit on the couch longer because during the weight loss program they have been denied any kind of rest.
Huh! Weeks later, when they check their weight, they see that the scales are going up again - up…up…up… until they regain all the ‘lost’ weight plus a few extra pounds as bonus! Not only these people failed to maintain their slim figure, they also made a big ‘profit’: profit in body fat, that is!

It is certain that weight loss requires determination and self-discipline on your part; but in order to maintain your newly acquired slim figure, you need the same kind self-discipline and determination,. In order to keep weight from getting back to you, your body must be put on a weight loss maintenance program for at least a couple of years, after which it generally ‘forgets’ to put on additional weight and tends to keep the slim figure forever!

Not all weight loss programs offer a weight maintenance program for its clients. If you programs offers one, you are plain lucky; if not, you need to create your own! With a weight maintenance program, you don’t need to be on a strict diet and exercise routine as in the case with a weight loss program, but still you should monitor your body weight constantly!

In essence, you can base your weight maintenance program on your weight loss program but in a somewhat relaxed form. For example, if your original weight loss program asked for exercising throughout the week without any breaks, now you can workout for say, only for four days.

As for foods, you still cannot afford to eat fatty foods because they are extremely rich in calories. If you cannot control your mouth and if you are too desperate to put that large burger in your stomach then make sure to workout one more day just so that you are able to burn off the excess calories gained from these fatty foods!

The rules for calories are still the same: you must consume fewer calories than what you burn. As for exercises, the best and simplest form of exercise for this period is a plain morning walk.

Remember that you need to do this only for two years, after which your body will automatically adjust itself to your new body weight and will lose its tendency to put on weight time and again!

What is cellulite?

Even if you don’t know what cellulite is, you probably have some - most of us do.
Although cellulite is more common in women, many men also have pockets of cellulite around their belly, butt and thighs.

Embarrassing and unsightly, no one likes cellulite, on themselves or anyone else. But while most people have no trouble identifying it, scant few understand exactly what cellulite is.

Cellulite is fat that protrudes out from the lower layers of skin into the dermis, or outer layer of the skin. Cellulite gives a dimpled appearance to the skin, often grotesquely described as a “cottage cheese” look. Commonly cellulite is seen on the rear end, thighs, and lower legs, though it can appear elsewhere.

Surprisingly, modern science still knows very little about the cause or causes of cellulite. We do know, however that between 85% and 98% of women (that’s almost all women) have at least some cellulite somewhere on their bodies. So, contrary to popular misconception, then, and despite how used to seeing cellulite on obese people we may be, cellulite is not a derivative of being overweight.

Science has also observed that cellulite is less common in men, leading many researchers to believe there is hormonal component to its formation. Prevailing theories suggest that the appearance of cellulite could be related to one’s diet, more specifically the ingestion of large amount of trans-fats as well as foods like pasta, white bread, and other foods heavy in white flour. Again, this is suspected, but not yet “known” or proven.

As is the case whenever a perceived new problem arises in our culture, manufacturers scamper to produce and release countless products targeting the cellulite-afflicted. You’ll find gels, lotions, pills and more all promising to rid you of that unsightly cellulite. Do they work? So far there’s nothing but anecdotal evidence supporting these products at best.

Another false hope in the battle against cellulite is liposuction, the removal of fat from the body through surgery. Liposuction does not suck out cellulite.

Some sufferers have found that certain kinds of massage may produce a temporary reduction in the appearance of cellulite on the body, but not a reduction in the actual existence of it.
This is because there are no blood vessels in subcutaneous fat, so when the body is massaged and circulation below the skin is stimulated, the surface of the skin appears smoothed out. Massage, then, is only a superficial solution to cellulite, and one with effects lasting only for the short term.

The only steps so far that have shown to make any real and lasting reduction in cellulite are the same steps advised for proper and effective weight loss: a healthy lifestyle.

Eating a balanced diet, drinking plenty of water, and getting plenty of both exercise and rest seems to be the only known remedy for unsightly and embarrassing cellulite. It’s not reinventing the wheel, and it’s no quick fix – but it works. And when it comes to looking and feeling good, what works is all that matters.

Raw Food Diet isn’t really a DIET but you can still lose weight

Most people starting a raw food diet are not eating this way to lose weight but are increasing their raw food consumption to make their body healthier and help it run better.

However, one of the great side effects is that participants often lose weight in addition to feeling better.

Our busy lives can sometimes make it difficult to stick to our dieting plans when we’re trying to lose weight.
We’re either keeping track of our fat intake, our sugar intake, our carbohydrate intake, or our caloric intake.

With all that counting, it’s no wonder most of us become discouraged and ‘fall off the dieting wagon.’ Add to that the surplus of convenient diet foods that are out there that are chock-full of preservatives and additives that we choose when we’re tired from a busy day and don’t have the energy or time to prepare a nutritious meal, and we’re headed down a wrong-way street trying to navigate our way through our weight-loss journey.

Enter the raw foods lifestyle

Not only are raw foods full of the nutrients, vitamins and minerals our bodies need to perform optimally, they provide enzymes for proper digestion, and will also result in the purging of toxins and the cleansing of your body systems.
The best part? You can eat as many fruits and vegetables as you like….and you will lose weight.

In addition, the natural high fiber content of most raw foods will help you feel fuller, thereby reducing your food intake.

They’ll assist in turning up the thermostat in your body, helping to melt away that excess weight and nourishing your body’s cells to continue with the fat-burning process.

Most raw foods are naturally low in calories, and obviously much lower in calories, fats, sugars, and carbohydrates than the dieting convenience foods we’d been reaching for in the past.

The added bonus of increased energy regulated blood sugar and blood pressure levels, sharper vision and improved mental functionality, and you’ll wonder why you didn’t become a ‘raw foodie’ earlier in the weight loss and dieting game.

And, once you reach your weight loss goals, you’ll realize how healthy you’ve become in the process, and the raw food lifestyle will then be your way of life.

The South Beach Diet Phases

The South Beach Diet is comprised of “phases“, and you move through phases as you get closer to your weight loss and health goals.

The South Beach Diet, created by cardiologist Dr. Arthur Agatston, is a safe and effective diet that differs from other diets in that it advocates not just a new way of eating but a new way of life.

The South Beach Diet puts an end to counting calories and it puts an end to portion control. The South Beach Diet also avoids putting people in a position where they feel like they’re depriving themselves from eating food that tastes good and satisfies them.

The focus of the South Beach Diet is on fats and carbohydrates, more specifically, the right fats and carbohydrates. With the South Beach Diet, you find that healthy carbohydrates and fats satisfy your hunger and feed you energy while eating the wrong carbohydrates and fats can actually make you feel hungrier than you were before eating them, causing you to eat even more and, as a result, gain weight.

The South Beach Diet works in 3 phases, dieters going through phases 1 and 2 sequentially, each for a particular period of time, then moving to phase 3 where they remain for the rest of their lives.

South Beach Diet Phase 1 – For two weeks certain forms of carbohydrates are restricted, based on their glycemic index (a measurement of their affect on a person’s blood sugar). Portion sizes for all other foods are normal.

This two week period is the most intense and restrictive of the three phases. Foods emphasized in Phase 1 include chicken and turkey, fish and shellfish, vegetables with a low glycemic index (including salads with light dressing), low fat cheeses, eggs, and nuts. This is the period where drastic weight loss is usually noticed in a short time.

This type of weight loss is not sustainable, however, which is why the South Beach Diet then promptly transitions you into Phase 2 where you can adjust your dietary patterns so as to achieve a more sustainable rate of weight loss without gaining back that initial poundage you just shed.

South Beach Diet Phase 2 – Here many of the carbohydrates that were forbidden in Phase 1 are incrementally introduced back into your diet.

The desired effect of Phase 2 is to get yourself to a place where you lose between 1 and 2 pounds each week, a rate of weight loss than you can easily sustain until you achieve your body’s individual “healthy weight” (generally best determined by your Body Mass Index and percentage body fat to muscle mass).
Phase 2 lasts as long as it takes for you to reach your desired weight.

South Beach Diet Phase 3 – Now you begin to establish the balanced diet you aim to maintain for the rest of your life, so long as weight remains where it is. Should you start to gain weight again, you can simply go back to one or both of the earlier phases until you get back to where you need to be.

The South Beach Diet is not a starvation diet. In it, you eat 3 satisfying meals per day plus 2 snacks in-between meals. Your meal plans are not set in stone, so you can still enjoy variety and spontaneity in your diet.

Studies of the South Beach Diet have shown that it not only helps people lose weight, but it increases their “good cholesterol” (HDLs) and decreases their “bad cholesterol” (LDLs) levels, while also improving their levels of insulin.

Dr. Agatston’s South Beach Diet is outlined in full in his book: The South Beach Diet: The Delicious, Doctor-Designed, Foolproof Plan for Fast and Healthy Weight Loss.

How to read nutrition labels and why it is so very important

Does this sound familiar?
You follow your diet to a T, you watch your carbs, fats and calories yet you don’t lose weight and in many cases you actually gain weight.

Although you think that you have just eaten 1 serving of pasta or cereal if you were to check out the nutrition label of the product you will find that you have consumed 2-3 servings.
No wonder your gaining weight!

Over the years, our portion sizes have gotten out of control, they are much larger than they were just 20 years ago. Bagels are larger, an order of regular fries is almost 3 times larger than they were in 1970 and even the size of soda bottles are larger than their 8 ounce counter parts.
Yes, the sizes for take out, fast food and restaurants are much larger than they were so we really don’t understand what a “correct” size portion is.

Getting back to the bagel –if you were to look at the nutrition information at the bakery you would notice that your plain bagel is actually 2 portion sizes — not 1. They may give you 1 bagel but you should only eat half, if you want to eat only 1 portion.

This is why it is so important to get to know the nutritional information of what you eat and learn how to read a nutrition label correctly.

Ok, so what is a What is the Serving Size: standardized amount (like cups or tablespoons or pieces) followed by the equivalent amount in the metric system (such as grams). Each product will have its own serving (portion) size even if 2 products appear to be similar.

The first few times that you actually measure out your food, you’ll see how much you have been over eating even though you thought that you have been “good”. If your like me -you’ll actually be shocked to see what a correct portion size is.

How Many Servings Per Container: Most packaged foods contain multiple servings in a single package, making it easy to double, triple, quadruple, etc. the caloric intake from that of a single serving.

What are the Amount of Calories Per Serving: Typically, a single serving of around 40 calories is considered low-calorie, around 100 is considered moderate, and 400 is considered high-calorie.

Keeping tabs on the amount of servings you take in, based on the caloric intake per serving, is one great way to manage your weight. Another is to balance out eating high-calorie foods with some low-calorie foods earlier or later in the day.

The next step to using nutrition labels to help control your weight is to get the most nutrition out of the calories you take in.

Use the Percentage Daily Value to tell you how rich in each of the required nutrients the food really is.
Daily values are based on a 2000-calorie diet. 5% or less of a nutrient’s %DV is low, 20% or more of a nutrient’s %DV is high. Limit your amount of Total Fat, Cholesterol, and Sodium.

No daily requirement exists for Trans-Fats (the most dangerous kind), though their quantity per serving does appear on the label; so just be sure to keep them to an absolute minimum. Make sure to get plenty of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Calcium, and Iron.

Once you have gathered all the information you need, you simply ask yourself if a food choice is a wise choice for you in terms of both calories and nutrients, and whether it makes more sense for you as part of a meal or as a standalone snack.

If the answers to these questions don’t satisfy you for a particular food, then the next question to ask yourself is whether you can find a suitable alternative. The answer that question is almost invariably, ‘Yes’.