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Before You Start Your Next Diet
With New Years resolutions right around the corner, it’s no doubt that you are planning on starting a new diet. Will this one last 1-2 weeks, a month or will you make it longer. It’s all well and good to start out with the right intentions but sooner of later you’ll probably give up (statistics prove it).
This time before starting any diet ask yourself a few questions:
1. Does this diet sound healthy or is another fad type diet that promises miracles?
2. Do the foods allowed on the diet appeal to me?
3. Do I totally have to leave out my favorite foods?
4. Will I be hungry all day or will the foods allowed satisfy me?
5. Do I have to cook unusual foods or recipes or can I adopt this for my family also?
6. Will I be eating foods from all the food groups?
Although you do know that while on a diet you will have to make some sacrifices and give up the junk food but when you choose a diet, look into it first to see if it is a diet that you can actually live with and one that won’t leave you hungry, cranky or unhealthy.
Do a bit of research first and the chances of you following through with your diet plan grows 10 fold.
Diet Tips For Christmas Day
What diet on Christmas Day? Are you crazy?
Actually NO!
You can stay on your diet and still enjoy the season’s treats.
Here are a few tips to avoid over eating on Christmas Day
* Start you day off by eating a bowl of oatmeal. The oatmeal will help fill you up and has a lot less calories and fat than bacon and eggs or pancakes.
* 30 minutes before your Christmas dinner eat an apple. The fiber in the apple will dull your appetite and you’ll naturally eat less.
* If your a guest at a dinner and there are snacks and treats available before your meal, snack on a few nuts instead of chips and dips. Better yet, if they are nuts that you have to shell yourself you’ll find yourself eating less. Nuts also have protein which will help with hunger.
* If possible drink water or diet soda with your meal instead of regular soda.
* You don’t have to avoid the rolls, just have them without butter.
* If your meal is served with gravy, just have a small amount. You’ll still get the flavor without the average 290-385 calories that comes with each serving.
* Pie for dessert? Have a small piece and leave the end crust. That is where most of the fat and calories are.
* After dinner, help cleaning up, play with the kids or take the kids for a walk. You’ll burn off some calories and give the grown up some peace and quiet.
By just making a few simple changes you can save calories, yet still enjoy your meal. This way you won’t have as much to lose when you start your New Years Resolutions!
Green Tea and Weight Loss
Green Tea and the Weight Loss connection
You have probably already heard that green tea can help aid your weight loss goals. In fact, green tea or green tea extract can be found in many of the popular weight loss supplements that are on the market today. Continue your reading to find out how adding green tea to your diet can help you shed the pounds you want to lose!
Green tea extract is used in many weight loss products as a caffeine replacement. Green tea extract is safer for then ephedrine and many other stimulants that are included in weight loss medications. In addition to acting as a stimulant, green tea extract also has other health benefits that do more for you then caffeine and other stimulants.
Health Benefits of Green Tea
Green tea is a powerful anti-oxidant. Like that of Vitamin C and beta-carotene. In fact, antioxidants are widely used as ingredients in most dietary supplements that are used for health purposes such as preventing cancer and heart disease.
Green tea can also help regulate glucose levels by slowing down the rise in blood sugar following your meals. Green tea slows down the digestive enzyme amylase which is an important in the breakdown of starches (carbohydrates) that can cause blood sugar levels to rise after eating a meal.
By drinking a few cups of green tea a day you can aid your weight loss plan significantly. Green tea raises your metabolic rate which results in a greater calorie burning affect. At first you may not like the taste of green tea but adding a sugar substitute can help to enhance the flavor. It can also be served hot or cold.
Substitute your morning coffee for green tea. You will still get the dose of energy that comes with the caffeine in coffee but now you will also help aid weight loss.
Are You Ready For A Fitness Challenge
Some of us, including me like a bit of competition and gets motivation from others successes. Just take the popularity of TV’s The Biggest Loser. We root for our favorites and we try to emulate their weight loss success stories. I know that I follow along to see who has lost what and how they deal with frustrations when they don’t lose as much as they thought that they would.
I have just found a pretty cool site that has challenges that you get involved in. There are weigh ins, fitness level tests, ways to track your progress and see the progress of others.
It’s called the GripIron Fitness Challenge and it’s a game you play against others. It’s where players compete to improve their fitness levels. Players share their progress, workouts, and training advice as the compete for their charities. It’s an easy way to stay motivated as you make friends and share what works and what doesn’t.
I have just become a free member today, so I don’t have tons of info to give you just yet, but thought that I would share the site with you as it’s almost time we all start our New Years resolutions and this fits in perfectly.
Take a look around and see what you think and get your friends and family involved and compete against them.
Getting Your Teen Interested In Fitness
Do you have a teen that doesn’t seen interested in fitness?
Are they the type that likes to play video games or hang out an listen to music?
You probably didn’t realize it but you can turn their interests into a fitness plan for them and they won’t even realize that it’s good for them.
With the popularity of Wii, Playstation and other game console many complained that it turned teens (and others) into gaming zombies that would play games for hours and never get off the couch. However, many of the game companies started to add games to their line which involved players getting up off of the couch and actually getting the heart rate up and working up a sweat.
One of these games which is now the hottest selling game is Dance Dance Revolution DDR as it is often called gets you kids off the couch and moving. A 30 minute game will give them an equivalent of a 30 minute aerobic workout, but with DDR, they look forward to playing it.
The second fun way to get your kids active is with Hip Hop Abs. Hip Hop Abs you may have seen in an infomercial. With HHA your teen will move and dance along with Shaun T. to hip hop style music. Also it’s geared towards teens and young adults, it appears that everyone is getting in and dancing to the beat. Although it’s advertised as a way to dance your way to flatter abs, HHA works your entire body.
If you want your kids off the couch both Dance Dance Revolution and Hip Hop Abs will do it, and what makes it even better –is that they will want to do it.
Now that the way to get your kids moving.
