Weight Loss & Fiber 101

To those in the nutritional know, foods with naturally occurring fiber have long been considered some of the healthiest. Studies (and common sense) have shown that they're essential to good nutrition and fighting off disease.

Fiber, which comes in both soluble and insoluble forms, is the edible but indigestible portion of plant-based foods. Soluble fiber -- found in legumes, root vegetables, most fruits and a variety of grains -- dissolves to form a gel-like substance that binds with the fatty acids in your intestines and slows the digestion of food. Insoluble fiber -- found in whole-grain foods, certain fruits and vegetables and nuts -- adds bulk to your stool and increases the ease with which foods move through your digestive tract.

Think of insoluble fiber like exercise equipment, it exercises the digestive tract, which helps to keep it healthy and helps move food along in the digestive process while preventing constipation. Soluble fiber is more like a sponge.

The bottom line? You need them both to keep your gastrointestinal system in shape.

Fiber also offers impressive protection against diseases. Research has shown that fiber lowers LDL (or "bad") cholesterol and reduces blood pressure and inflammation. Several large and long-range studies have found that higher dietary fiber corresponds to a significantly lower incidence of heart disease. Most notably, a seminal 1996 Harvard study of 40,000 men found that those with a high-fiber diet had a 40 percent lower risk of coronary disease than those with a low-fiber diet. That Harvard study, as well as a study of nurses at the Ivy institution, also showed that fiber helps lower blood sugar. In the study of nurses, the subjects who ate only a small amount of cereal fiber and a large amount of processed, high-glycemic white flour more than doubled their risk of type 2 diabetes. There's more: A study at the University of Illinois just found that soluble fiber helps boost immunity, while researchers in the UK recently published a paper linking high fiber intake to a lowered risk for colorectal cancer.

Ideally, the average woman should consume about 25 grams per day, and the average man should consume 38 grams per day. But if you're not getting enough, don't go rushing toward those fiber-fortified products. Always try to go whole and natural first.

High-fiber foods are easy to come by, so you should be able to get what you need by simply tweaking your diet. Instead of buying into a quick fix, you'll be able to make lasting changes. Fiber is an important part of any diet, even if you are not trying to lose weight. It is important for your overall health & well being. Hope this has been helpful to ya'll.

As always, I look forward to your comments & suggestions. Thanks for visiting. Terry

6 Best Abs Excercises For Fitness

Long-Arm Weighted Crunch

This abs exercise targets your upper abs. Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Hold a light dumbbell in each hand and extend your arms straight back beyond your head. Now crunch your rib cage toward your pelvis, keeping your shoulders still and your arms straight. Don't generate momentum with your arms. Perform 12 to 15 repetitions.

Seated Ab Crunch

Sit on the edge of a bench. Grip the edge of the pad and lean back slightly, extending your legs down and away and keeping your heels 4 to 6 inches off the floor. Bend your knees and slowly raise your legs toward your chest. At the same time, lean forward with your upper body, allowing your chest to approach your thighs. Return to the starting position. Perform three sets of 12 repetitions.

Corkscrew

This abs exercise targets both the lower abs and the obliques. Lie on your back, with your legs raised directly over your hips. Your knees should be slightly bent. Place your hands at your sides with the palms down. Use your lower abs to raise your hips off the floor and toward your rib cage, elevating your feet straight up. Simultaneously twist your hips to the right. Hold, then return to the starting position. Repeat, twisting to the left. Do 10 repetitions to each side.

Weighted One-Sided Crunch

This abs exercise targets both the upper abs and the obliques. Lie with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor, and hold a dumbbell with both hands by your right shoulder. Curl your torso up and rotate to the left. Lower yourself, finish the set on that side, then switch directions and repeat, holding the dumbbell next to your left shoulder. Perform three sets of eight repetitions to each side.

Kneeling Cable Crunch

Kneel facing the pulley and hold the ends of a rope attached to the high cable along the sides of your face. Bend forward, aiming your chest at your pelvis. Return to the starting position, then repeat the movement, this time aiming your chest toward your left knee. Return, then repeat to your right. That's one repetition. Perform three sets of eight repetitions.

Crunch/Side-Bend Combo

This exercise targets both the upper abs and the obliques. Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet on the floor, and hands behind your ears. Curl up so your shoulder blades are off the floor. Bend at the waist to your left, aiming your left armpit toward your left hip. Straighten, then bend to your right. Lower yourself to the starting position and repeat. Perform three sets of eight repetitions to each side. Enjoy your new 6 pack!

We've been concentrating on belly fat recently, so this is the next step. Once you lose the belly, get those abs in shape. If you have any doubt as to your medical ability to do these excercises, please consult with your Doctor before attempting to do these. Don't push too hard in the beginning, take your time & work up to the full routine. Remember; too much pain while doing excercises is not a good thing, mild discomfort is ok, pain is not. Every other day is optimum, not every day, your muscles need a day of healing in between.

Hope this has been helpful to ya'll, happy health & fitness.

As always, I look forward to your comments & suggestions. Thanks for visiting Terry

Weight loss, health & fitness-that's what this is all about.

Weight Loss-Stomach Fat-3 Tips

If losing stomach fat is your goal then here are 3 great tips that will help you get there faster and easier.

This article focuses on nutrition, as that's the first place you need to focus to lose belly fat fast. Of course, exercise is really important for a healthy life and should not be overlooked. But, ensuring you have a good diet is the starting point to losing stomach fat. I hope these tips help you get started on your path to achieve your goals.

1) Make sure that you consume healthy fats in most of the food that you eat. This is really important to help you control your appetite and the levels of hormones in your body that control muscle building and fat burning.

Healthy fats are contained in egg yolks, raw nuts., extra virgin olive oil, avocados, grass-fed meats and coconut oil, amongst other foods.

Try eating a handful of raw nuts, such as almonds or walnuts, each day about half an hour before meal times. This will curb your appetite while giving you some much needed protein, fiber and healthy fats. This has a dual benefit - it will mean you will eat less and have better nutrition - two benefits in one.

2) Make sure you get a high quality protein source with each meal. These proteins can come from grass-fed raw dairy and meats, as well as sources such as nuts and beans.

A good supply of protein will help to develop your lean muscle, if you are weight training on a regular basis, and will cause your metabolism to run at a higher rate. This will help you to burn off those extra calories much quicker and aid you in your goal of losing stomach fat.

3) Beware of your intake of processed carbohydrates. Examples of these are refined grain-based starches and refined sugars. [ breads, cakes, pastas, etc. ] Eating these on a regular basis can be a major contributor to the challenge so many people have with their stomach fat.

Try to stick to the natural sugars that you find in whole fruits and berries. [ frozen fruits & berries work as well as fresh ] These are really good, as the fiber will help to put the brakes on the creation of too much blood sugar in the body. Do stay away from processed fruit juices as they have most of the fiber removed from them and are mostly sugar. Not good if you want to lose belly fat. Home made juices, if you have a juice machine, are an excellent way to get the benifits of fruits, berries & veggies. You can mix fruits & veggies together, into a tasty & nutritious drink. A great idea for between meal snacks or to drink with your meals. You can make a big jug of juice each morning & have fresh juice all day. [ plus, you only have to clean the machine once a day ] Keep the juice in the fridge, just shake & serve.

Very often, when people begin to reduce their grain consumption, they find it easier to burn belly fat. If you are wondering if this will work for you, why not try it. Set yourself a target to cut out the grain for a trial period and see what happens. Do you notice a difference? Using these 3 tips, will make a huge difference in your weight loss & target that stubborn belly fat. Hope these tips are helpful for ya'll. Sometimes it's the little things that have the biggest impact.

As always, I look forward to your comments & suggestions. THANKS for visiting. Terry

P.S. - If you enjoy this blog, let your friends & family know about it. They will enjoy it, too.

Lose weight as a Couple

You put on that marital-bliss belly together, and now it’s time to take it off as a team. Though the science seems stacked against you—a 2009 study published in the journal Obesity found that just living with a romantic partner for more than 2 years correlated with obesity, inactivity, and sedentary behavior—you can still lose weight with your better half if you take the right steps. Working together to lose those pounds can not only be more productive than working alone, but can be a lot of fun, too. Working as a team, is also good for the relationship.

Couples have so many opportunities to help each other—more than they would have if they were trying to lose weight alone. In fact, a 2008 study found that when one partner enrolled in a weight loss program, the non-participating partner ended up copying their spouse’s healthier behavior: They counted calories, weighed themselves more often, and lost an average of 5 pounds. Use all of the weight loss strategies to ensure that getting hitched isn’t the end of healthy living—together, you can eat better, exercise more, and fight fat. Peel away pounds together! Excercising together will help both of you. It will help motivate, sort of like a competition & make it more enjoyable. So, let's start working together ya'll, let's get healthy & fit! Hope this is helpful!
As always, I look forward to your comments & suggestions. Let me know what you think of my blog. Let me know how I can make it better. Thanks for visiting. Terry

Sleep For Weight Loss & Health

Yesterdays article was a follow up to an article I posted some time ago. While on the subject of sleep & it's importance, I thought a re-posting of the original article might be helpful to ya'll. So, here it is;

 Sleep is one of the most important physiologic processes in our day-to-day lives. We need adequate sleep to feel rested and well. Sleep deprivation can contribute to diseases and premature death. It can also contribute to driving fatalities and work-related accidents.

Getting a good night's sleep becomes a much greater challenge as we age. It can lead to a wide variety of conditions. Including, but not limited to; sleep apnea, diabetes, obesity, acid reflux, heart disease, arthritis, etc.

The process of sleep is highly organized, and consists of REM sleep and stages one, two, and three of non-REM sleep. While the amount of REM sleep remains fairly constant as we get older, the deep stage three diminishes significantly. With the decrease in stage three, we spend increasing amounts of time in the lighter stages of one and two non-REM sleep. We, therefore, become more vulnerable to sleep disruption.

Since we are wired to get less-refreshing sleep as we age, it becomes crucial to develop good sleep habits as early in life as possible.

Sleep experts refer to these sleep-promoting habits as sleep hygiene. The following is a list of the widely-recommended measures you can usually incorporate into your daily routine:

1. Try to get to bed at the same time every night.

2. Try to get out of bed at the same time every morning.

3. Allow eight hours for sleep.

4. Give yourself time to wind down before sleep. Don't expect your brain to suddenly shut off at bedtime.

5. Use the bedroom for two things only:  Sex & sleep.

6. Keep the television, computer, and other electronic gadgets out of the bedroom. Bright lights and stimulating images tell the brain it is time to be awake. This is counterproductive.

7. If you can't fall asleep within 30 minutes, or wake up and can't get back to sleep within 30 minutes, leave the bedroom. Go to another room and read with a dim light. Only return to bed when you are sleepy.

Use these seven steps and you will be off to a great start in getting a good night's sleep. Look for more information in future blog posts regarding the medical conditions that can have an adverse effect on your nightly slumber. I hope that this was helpful to ya'll in some small way.

As always, I look forward to your commemts & suggestions.Thanks for visiting! Terry

Sleep & Health/Weight

Sleep-Deprived People Eat More. A recent sleep-deprived study unveils that people with a lack of rest eat 300 more calories a day. In fact, ice cream is one of their favorite foods to consume when they’re tired.

Scientists have known for years that too little shut-eye can lead to weight gain and obesity. So researchers at Columbia University decided to find out whether people actually consume more when they are sleep-deprived vs. well-rested. They recruited 26 normal-weight men and women who routinely slept between seven and nine hours a night.

The participants came into an inpatient hospital-like setting for six days on two different occasions. Half slept four hours a night for six nights. The other half slept for nine hours a night for six nights.

For the first days, they received a portion-controlled diet, but the last two days they could eat as much as they wanted from food they chose themselves. The entire procedure was repeated a second time with people getting a different amount of sleep.

Findings, reported Wednesday at an American Heart Association meeting in Atlanta:

- Participants consumed an average of 296 calories more when they were sleep-deprived compared with when they were well-rested.
- When women were sleep-deprived they ate an average 329 more calories a day vs. when they were well-rested; men ate 263 more calories.
- Overall, most of the extra calories came from high-fat foods such as ice cream and fast foods.
- When women were sleep-deprived, they ate an average of about 31 more fat grams a day. Men’s fat intake didn’t climb that much. This is interesting.

I posted an article earlier, about the effects that sleep had on weight loss. This is just a follow up, sort of reinforcing the fact that proper sleep, or lack of it, can cause you to either gain or loss weight. There are a lot of little things that can make or break your weight loss efforts. Of course, everyone knows that you have to burn more calories than you take in, to loss weight. That's the basic part of any plan that has a chance of succeeding. I have been trying to bring you information on little known facts, that not everyone is aware of.There is a program that I reviewed a while back, that can give you all of the weight loss facts that you need to be successful, to not only lose weight, but keep it off forever. It's not a diet, but a life style change that you must make to be successful. As you lose the weight, you will become more healthy. Once you start to become more healthy, you will have more energy & be able to become more fit. As you become more fit, it will be much easier to maintain your weight & stay healthy. If you would like more info on this program;  Click here<>  This video is full of lots of free info, so watch it all. Hope this is all helpful to ya'll.

As always, I look forward to your comments & suggestions. Thanks for visiting. Terry

Weight Loss Power Food - Celery

This water-loaded vegetable has a rep for being all crunch and no nutrition. But ditch that mindset: Celery contains stealth nutrients that heal.

Why it's healthy: Study shows patients who eat four sticks of celery a day have seen modest reductions in their blood pressure—about 6 points systolic and 3 points diastolic. It's possible that phytochemicals in celery, called phthalides, are responsible for this health boon. These compounds relax muscle tissue in artery walls and increase blood flow, I actually take meds to do that.  And beyond the benefits to your BP, celery also fills you up—with hardly any calories. Sounds like a deal to me.

How to eat it: Try this veggie for a perfect snack any time of day. Dip in low-fat Ranch, spread a little low-fat peanut butter on em’, or just eat them plain. Cut em’ up in your salad, or add them to your fav recipes. Hope this is helpful to ya'll. Use these power foods to help you on your quest to health & weight loss.

As always, I look forward to your comments & suggestions. Thanks for visiting. Terry

Weight Loss Power Food - Seaweed

While this algae is a popular health food in Japan, it rarely makes it into U. S. homes.

Why it's healthy: There are four classes of seaweeds—green, brown, red, and blue-green—and they're all packed with healthful nutrients. Seaweeds are a great plant source of calcium. They're also loaded with potassium, which is essential for maintaining healthy blood-pressure levels. Low potassium and high sodium intake can cause high blood pressure. Most people know to limit sodium, but another way to combat the problem is to take in more potassium.

How to eat it: In sushi, of course. You can also buy sheets of dried seaweed at Asian groceries, specialty health stores, or online at edenfoods.com. Use a coffee grinder to grind the sheets into a powder. Then use the powder as a healthy salt substitute that's great for seasoning salads and soups…….Personally, I might be ok with it ground up & mixing it with other foods. Don’t know what it tastes like, I’m just giving you the benefit of what I dig up. [ Don’t care for raw fish, either. ] Any hoo, this is what I have for you today. I never said weight loss was going to be easy. Hope this weight loss tip is helpful.

As always, I look forward to your comments & suggestions. Thanks for visiting Terry

Weight Loss Power Foods - Hemp Seeds

Despite the Cannabis classification, these seeds aren't for smoking. But they may provide medicinal benefits.

Why they're healthy: Hemp seeds are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke. What's more, a 1-ounce serving of the seeds provides 11 grams of protein—but not the kind of incomplete protein found in most plant sources. Hemp seeds provide all the essential amino acids, meaning the protein they contain is comparable to that found in meat, eggs, and dairy.

How to eat them: Toss 2 tablespoons of the seeds into your oatmeal or stir-fry. Or add them to your postworkout shake for an extra dose of muscle-building protein. This is something new to me, I never knew about these. So, I'm learning, right along with ya'll about healthy eating. Sounds like a good way to get some extra protein in your diet, without having to eat meat or eggs so much.Hope this is helpful to ya'll.

As always, your comments & suggestions are welcome. THANKS for visiting Terry

Weight Loss Power Food - Scallops

Perhaps these mollusks are considered guilty by association, since they often appear in decadent restaurant meals that are overloaded with calories. (But then again, so does asparagus.)

Why they're healthy: Scallops are more than 80 percent protein. One 3-ounce serving provides 20 grams of protein and just 95 calories, they're also a good source of both magnesium and potassium. (Clams and oysters provide similar benefits.) They also taste pretty darn good.

How to eat them: Sear the scallops: It's a fast and easy way to prepare this seafood.

Purchase fresh, dry-packed scallops (not the "wet-packed" kind) and place them on a large plate or cookie sheet. While you preheat a skillet on medium high, pat the scallops dry with a paper towel and season the exposed sides with sea salt and fresh cracked pepper. When the skillet is hot, add a tablespoon of olive oil to it. Being careful not to overcrowd, lay the scallops in the skillet, seasoned-side down, and then season the top sides.

Sear the scallops until the bottoms are caramelized (about 2 minutes), and then flip them to sear for another 1 to 2 minutes, depending on size and thickness. Now they're ready to eat. Pair the scallops with sauteed vegetables, or place them on a bed of brown rice. Try some, you might be surprised how good they are.

Hope this has been helpful to ya'll. I grew up eating these, with shrimp, oysters & all kinds of seafood. Of course they were always deep fried back then. Since, I have learned that deep fried, although it tastes extremely good, is not good for you. So, hence I've turned to baked, broiled & pan fried in just a touch of olive oil. Hey, I'm in pretty good shape, for the shape I'm in. [tongue in cheek ]

As always, I look forward to your comments & suggestions. Thanks for visiting. Terry

Weight Loss Power Food - Dark Meat

Sure, dark meat has more fat than white meat does, but have you ever considered what the actual difference is? Once you do, Thanksgiving won't be the only time you "call the drumstick."

Why it's healthy: The extra fat in dark turkey or chicken meat raises your levels of cholecystokinin (CCK), a hormone that makes you feel fuller, longer. The benefit: You'll be less likely to overeat in the hours that follow your meal. What about your cholesterol? Only a third of the fat in a turkey drumstick is the saturated kind, according to the USDA food database. (The other two-thirds are heart-healthy unsaturated fats.) What's more, 86 percent of that saturated fat either has no impact on cholesterol, or raises HDL (good) cholesterol more than LDL (bad) cholesterol—a result that actually lowers your heart-disease risk.

As for calories, an ounce of dark turkey meat contains just 8 more calories than an ounce of white meat.

How to eat it: Just enjoy, but be conscious of your total portion sizes. A good rule of thumb: Limit yourself to 8 ounces or less at any one sitting, which provides up to 423 calories. Eat that with a big serving of vegetables, and you'll have a flavorful fat-loss meal. Hope this is helpful!

As always, I look forward to your comments & suggestions. THANKS for visiting. Terry

Weight Loss Power Foods

Lentils

It's no surprise that these hearty legumes are good for you. But when was the last time you ate any?

Why they're healthy: Boiled lentils have about 16 grams of belly-filling fiber in every cup. Cooked lentils also contain 27 percent more folate per cup than cooked spinach does. And if you eat colored lentils—black, orange, red—there are compounds in the seed hulls that contain disease-fighting antioxidants.

How to eat them: Use lentils as a bed for chicken, fish, or beef—they make a great substitute for rice or pasta.

How to Prepare:
Pour 4 cups of chicken stock into a large pot. Add 1 cup of red or brown lentils and a half cup each of onion and carrot chunks, along with 3 teaspoons of minced garlic. Bring everything to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook the lentils until they're tender, about 20 minutes. Remove the lentils from the heat, add a splash of red-wine vinegar, and serve. Happy eating & weight loss.

This is the first in a series of weight loss power foods that I will be bringing to you in the next few days. These will be foods that have been proven to enhance your weight loss, for one reason or another. If you incorporate these foods into your daily diet, you will see results.

Check out my review page, for a weight loss program that will bring you an amazing amount of information, that will put you on the road to a life changing way of eating. This program lets you know not only what you should eat to loose weight, but lets you know what NOT to eat [ & some of these will surprise you].

As always, I look forward to your comments & suggestions. THANKS for visiting! Terry

FITNESS - 6 Best Ab Excercises

Long-Arm Weighted Crunch

This abs exercise targets your upper abs. Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Hold a light dumbbell in each hand and extend your arms straight back beyond your head. Now crunch your rib cage toward your pelvis, keeping your shoulders still and your arms straight. Don't generate momentum with your arms. Perform 12 to 15 repetitions.

Seated Ab Crunch

Sit on the edge of a bench. Grip the edge of the pad and lean back slightly, extending your legs down and away and keeping your heels 4 to 6 inches off the floor. Bend your knees and slowly raise your legs toward your chest. At the same time, lean forward with your upper body, allowing your chest to approach your thighs. Return to the starting position. Perform three sets of 12 repetitions.

Corkscrew

This abs exercise targets both the lower abs and the obliques. Lie on your back, with your legs raised directly over your hips. Your knees should be slightly bent. Place your hands at your sides with the palms down. Use your lower abs to raise your hips off the floor and toward your rib cage, elevating your feet straight up. Simultaneously twist your hips to the right. Hold, then return to the starting position. Repeat, twisting to the left. Do 10 repetitions to each side.

Weighted One-Sided Crunch

This abs exercise targets both the upper abs and the obliques. Lie with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor, and hold a dumbbell with both hands by your right shoulder. Curl your torso up and rotate to the left. Lower yourself, finish the set on that side, then switch directions and repeat, holding the dumbbell next to your left shoulder. Perform three sets of eight repetitions to each side.

Kneeling Cable Crunch

Kneel facing the pulley and hold the ends of a rope attached to the high cable along the sides of your face. Bend forward, aiming your chest at your pelvis. Return to the starting position, then repeat the movement, this time aiming your chest toward your left knee. Return, then repeat to your right. That's one repetition. Perform three sets of eight repetitions.

Crunch/Side-Bend Combo

This exercise targets both the upper abs and the obliques. Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet on the floor, and hands behind your ears. Curl up so your shoulder blades are off the floor. Bend at the waist to your left, aiming your left armpit toward your left hip. Straighten, then bend to your right. Lower yourself to the starting position and repeat. Perform three sets of eight repetitions to each side. Happy fitness!

Hope these excercises help you get the abs you want. They are not painless, but they will get you there.As always, I look forward to your comments & suggestions. THANKS for visiting. Terry

The Simplest, Cheapest Weight Loss Tip Ever!

Losing weight could be as straightforward as turning on the kitchen tap.

A new study found that middle-age and older adults who drank a couple of glasses of water before each meal lost about 30 percent more weight than those who didn't.

Common wisdom has long held that drinking water before meals can promote weight loss, but there were no studies proving the point. To test it, researchers at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg assigned 48 overweight  men and women ages 55 to 75 to one of two groups. Both groups consumed low-fat, low-calorie diets for 12 weeks, but one group was told to drink two 8-ounce glasses of water before breakfast, lunch and dinner.

They were concerned that they might have trouble drinking this much water before each meal but they had no problems.

At the end of the 12 weeks, the water drinkers shed about 15.5 pounds, while the other group dropped about 11 pounds.

They found that after a year both groups succeeded in keeping the pounds off, but those who continued to drink water before meals lost even a bit more, an average of 1.5 pounds. Why is water so effective?  It may be because it fills the stomach with a zero-calorie fluid, so people eat less.

Drinking water before meals may work only if you've reached middle age. Researchers believe that in younger people, water begins to leave the stomach almost immediately. But in older people, it takes longer for the stomach to empty so they feel full for a longer time.

This interesting study shows that drinking water before meals provides some benefit in terms of weight loss. Clearly, any tool we have to help people feel more full has value.

The research was presented in Boston on Aug. 23 at the 2010 annual meeting of the American Chemical Society. The study was funded by the Institute for Public Health and Water Research, a nonprofit, independent science organization that was launched by an unrestricted grant from the Brita Products. Sometimes the smallest things can have the biggest impact. I know I've written about drinking water before, but this just puts a little more emphasis on the use of water to lose weight.
As always, comments & suggestions are welcome. Thanks for visiting! Terry

The Myth of 'Just Do It', for Fitness or Weight Loss

If you're having trouble getting motivated to exercise more, don't expect to suddenly change your behavior by telling yourself to "just do it". This is a great phrase for those already "doing it" and are feeling a moment of laziness. The phrase backfires, however, with people who aren't in the "action" stage of behavior change.

It's because change doesn't begin with action, there's more anxiety around change than there needs to be. That's because there's been so much pressure to act-- regardless if someone is ready for it. By consciously dealing with change in stages...it's easier to apply appropriate strategies at the appropriate times.

1. Precontemplation
Precontemplators aren't willing to consider making a change ("I've never exercised, and I have no desire to start now").

Strategies: Consciousness-raising activities are important--a doctor's warning about a patients health risks that are due in part to lack of physical activity; a life event such as the birth of a grandchild or one's 50th birthday; reading the Surgeon General's report, Physical Activity and Health.

2. Contemplation
Contemplators know they need to change and begin to think seriously about it. The problem is that people can get stuck in this stage for years. Some people wait for the magic moment (you need to make the moment) or engage in wishful thinking (hoping to get healthier without changing behavior).

Strategies: Write down the benefits you hope to obtain from physical activity. Next list the perceived roadblocks and how to get past each one. More consciousness-raising is in order, not to convince you that you need to change, but to propel you into the next stage.

3. Preparation 
Most people in this stage are planning to take action within a month, they think more about the pros of a new behavior than about the cons of the old one."

Strategies: Develop a firm, detailed plan for action. Set a date to begin and make this public. When making your plan, it's important to choose an activity that you'll like and that will fit in your schedule. Time saving tips: record your TV programs. If you watch 2 hours per day, you'll save 1/2 hour in commercials--use this for your physical activity. How about getting more organized with your meal planning and go shopping only once a week--you know what to do with that extra time!

4. Action
People in this stage have begun to make the changes for which they have planned. It's easy to let perceived excuses turn into roadblocks, then to relapses and then a move back to the Contemplation Stage. It's a good idea to do your physical activity with others, at least until the behavior becomes a habit. Round up co-workers, friends, or relatives and form a walking group (even if it's only you and a partner). Make a ground rule that the only excuses for not attending are being sick or injured. (When traveling, take your walking shoes and walk wherever you are). By the time you are in the Action Stage, the phrase "just do it" will have more meaning for you. I hope this all makes sense to you. Remember, I always look forward to comments & suggestions. THANKS for visiting Terry

Nutritionist's Tips for Healthy Living

WATER - Adequate water can actually reverse athrosclerosis (hardening of the arteries due to plaque build-up). It seems that water can actually flush the arteries of plaque.

It also expands blood vessels and makes arteries more elastic, which is essential for healthy hearts.

Most importantly, I believe, is that adequate hydration raises the metabolism and allows for stored fat to be burned more efficiently as well as slowing heart rate, reducing blood pressures and reducing fluid retention.

** Drink enough water to make your urine clear and colorless all day. Limit coffee, tea and pop to three cups a day.

BREAKFAST - Breakfast should include at least four grams of fiber, which in turn reduces cholesterol and fat in the blood. Every 10 gr. of cereal fiber reduces the risk of heart disease and diabetes by 30 per cent!

It also reduces cancer and diabetes risk. Good sources of fiber are cereals, dried beans and lentiles.

He also suggests adding nuts and seeds to breakfast cereal and to have a whole piece of fruit as well. Whole wheat toast, a bagel or a bran muffin is NOT a good source of fiber.

It's important that one eats breakfast within 30 minutes of waking.

It also reduces the risk of cancers by preventing absorption of carcinogens and reduces cholesterol by preventing its absorption.

He suggests that breakfast should be the heaviest, while lunch should be a little less, and supper even less than that.

He says that the body adjusts and hunger won't be an issue at the end of the day.

So, in other words, our bodies become more efficient and burn, burn, burn those calories when we eat a good breakfast.

VEGETABLES: Choose at least two different vegetables at lunch AND at supper. Eat a minimum of one cup of vegetables at each meal, then eat the rest of your meal. Rice, potato and corn are starches and are NOT counted as vegetables.

MEAT - Eat a maximum of four ounces of meat, pork, chicken or fish a day.

WALKING - Walk for 25 minutes every night after supper. The benefits of walking after supper compared to walking before supper are many. It can lower your blood sugar by 50 per cent, but best of all when one exercises as described above, your body is burning calories the whole time you sleep.

Most North American (95 per cent) eat little through the day relative to their large meals and evening snacks. This raises the blood sugar really high before sleeping. Higher bedtime sugars directly create extra weight and extra cholesterol and lower anti-oxidants which help prevent cancer.

Walking for 25 minutes after supper raises your metabolism, releases growth hormones which suppress appetite for late night snacks and act as a natural fat burner overnight.

He says one can change diet overnight, but allow an average of 3-5 weeks for these changes, as listed above, to impact your metabolism. Once again, I hope you enjoyed this post. Hope there was some useful information here for you. Remember, I always look forward to comments & suggestions from my followers. THANKS for visiting! See you tomorrow. Terry

Three Tips to Losing Belly Fat

If losing stomach fat is your goal then here are 3 great tips that will help you get there faster and easier.

This article focuses on nutrition, as that's the first place you need to focus to lose belly fat fast. Of course, exercise is really important for a healthy life and should not be overlooked. But, ensuring you have a good diet is the starting point to losing stomach fat. I hope these tips help you get started on your path to achieve your goals.

1) Make sure that you consume healthy fats in most of the food that you eat. This is really important to help you control your appetite and the levels of hormones in your body that control muscle building and fat burning.

Healthy fats are contained in egg yolks, raw nuts., extra virgin olive oil, avocados, grass-fed meats and coconut oil, amongst other foods.

Have a go at eating a handful of raw nuts, such as almonds or walnuts, each day about half an hour before meal times. This will curb your appetite while giving you some much needed protein, fiber and healthy fats. This has a dual benefit - it will mean you will eat less and have better nutrition - two benefits in one.

2) Make sure you get a high quality protein source with each meal. These proteins can come from grass-fed raw dairy and meats, as well as sources such as nuts and beans.

A good supply of protein will help to develop your lean muscle, if you are weight training on a regular basis, and will cause your metabolism to run at a higher rate. This will help you to burn off those extra calories much quicker and aid you in your goal of losing stomach fat.

3) Beware of your intake of processed carbohydrates. Examples of these are refined grain-based starches and refined sugars. Eating these on a regular basis can be a major contributor to the challenge so many people have with their stomach fat.

Try to stick to the natural sugars that you find in whole fruits and berries. These are really good, as the fiber will help to put the brakes on the creation of too much blood sugar in the body. Do stay away from processed fruit juices as they have most of the fiber removed from them and are mostly sugar. Not good if you want to lose belly fat.

Very often, when people begin to reduce their grain consumption, they find it easier to burn belly fat. If you are wondering if this will work for you, why not try it. Set yourself a target to cut out the grain for a trial period and see what happens. Do you notice a difference? Hope this was helpful to most of you. As always, your comments & suggestions are welcome & looked forward to. THANKS FOR VISITING! See you tomorrow.

Losing Stomach Fat-Which Veggies Can Help!

You may be aware that there are certain chemicals that make up part of the environment and food supply today that can generate more estrogen inside our bodies. Some examples of these are pesticides, herbicides and petrochemicals.

You may or may not know that these can cause an increase in stomach fat for both Men and Women. This is something that everyone should know, especially if you are trying to lose stomach fat.

The name of these chemicals are xenoestrogens (they even have a horrible name, don't they?), and when you are exposed to them through the food supply, water supply or the environment, they will stop your body from getting rid of stomach fat.

"No problem" - I hear you say. You can just stay away from the offending foods and that's it, right? Wrong.

Although you may be careful with what you eat and stick to organic food, it is very hard not to get some amount of daily exposure to these chemicals. They are found all over the place - even in the perfume you wear and the cleaning products you use in your house.

So, what can be done to battle the impact of the xenoestrogens in causing you to retain unwelcome stomach fat?

The great news is that there are certain types of vegetables that will assist you in your aim of losing stomach fat.

There are many types of vegetables, teas, spices, etc that have compounds which can help to fight the negative effects of xenoestrogens. Possibly the most effectual are cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, kale, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, etc.

These vegetables have very special and unique compounds that can help to fight against the negative impact of xenoestrogens on your body, and therefore, can assist you to burn off belly fat more effectively.

There are already loads of terrific reasons for consuming broccoli and cauliflower - now you can add losing stomach fat to the list! Hope this info was helpful to you. As always, comments & suggestions are welcome. THANKS for VISITING!

The Power of Protein

The moment it leaves your fork, protein starts winnowing your waistline. High-protein foods take more work to digest, metabolize, and use, which means you burn more calories processing them. They also take longer to leave your stomach, so you feel full sooner and for a longer amount of time. The cumulative effect has obvious benefits for anyone who is watching her weight.

In a study published in Nutrition Metabolism, dieters who increased their protein intake to 30 percent of their diet ate nearly 450 fewer calories a day and lost about 11 pounds over the 12-week study without employing any other dietary measures.

And if, like most successful dieters, you're burning calories as well as counting them, protein is doubly essential for making sure you lose fat, not muscle. Your body uses the amino acids in protein to build lean muscle, which not only makes you stronger and more toned but also fries calories even when you're not active—unlike lazy fat. Ultimately, this keeps your metabolism humming along at high speed so you can burn off the occasional cookie, no problem.

Experts advise consuming between 0.8 grams and 1.1 grams of protein per pound of your body weight. That's 112 grams to 154 grams a day for a 140-pound woman. Skew on the high end if you're very active, and on the low end if you're trying to lose weight. If both apply, shoot for an amount somewhere in the middle—around 130 grams.

Even more important: Aim to get at least 30 of those grams at breakfast, (That's roughly the amount you'll get from two eggs and a cup of cottage cheese.) After fasting all night, your body is running on empty and may start drawing on muscle tissue for fuel if you don't replenish its protein stores first thing in the a.m. Plus, studies have found that protein-rich breakfasts can help regulate your appetite all day.

But not all proteins are created equal. While nuts, whole grains, and veggies technically count, they don't contain all nine of the amino acids your body needs in order to build lean muscle. Those that do—known as complete proteins—are typically found in animal products. Your best flat-belly bets are skinless white chicken or turkey, seafood, low-fat dairy, pork tenderloin, and lean beef. All of these foods have just one to three grams of fat per 50-calorie serving.

Vegetarians need to be a little more creative. Pairing incomplete proteins—peanut butter on whole-wheat bread, or brown rice and beans, for example—can pinch-hit for complete ones. Or nosh on complete proteins such as tofu, hemp seed, buckwheat, and quinoa. The beauty of protein is that with so many tasty options, getting your daily dose is a simple pleasure.

Hope this has been helpful to everyone. Remember, all comments & suggestions are welcome. Let me know what interests you & I will research it & bring you the info. Thanks for visiting!

Healthy Way of Life is No Mystery

We’ve heard over and over again that a well balanced diet and good exercise program are the building blocks of good health. So why don’t more people strive to achieve both?

 According to the National Center for Health Statistics, 50-percent of U.S. adults - or approximately 100 million people - are overweight, and more than 33% are trying to lose weight.

Over the years, I’ve heard more excuses than you can possibly imagine. People tell me they’re too busy or that it’s too difficult to take the time to eat right and exercise. Others have tried and faced disappointing or ineffectual results. We aim to help folks change their habits and attitudes toward achieving better health.

Numerous studies have shown that getting enough exercise and receiving adequate nutrition are critical if you want to live a healthy lifestyle. The 1996 Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity recommends the average American get 30 minutes of physical activity per day.

New science shows you don’t have to go for high intensity physical activity to improve your lifestyle. Regularly walking the dog around the block, raking leaves, folding the laundry or taking the stairs instead of the elevator can all help. The key is to be consistent about it.   Personally, I park a little further away from the places I’m going so I can get a little exercise in on my way to appointments.

Staying active isn’t the only thing you need to do to maintain a healthy lifestyle. All the exercise in the world isn’t going to help you in the long run if you don’t eat right too.

 Fitness nutritionists recommend that instead of a big breakfast, lunch and dinner, people eat several small balanced meals (optimally four) and a couple of small snacks throughout the day. By balanced we mean meals that contain protein, complex carbohydrates, fruits and vegetables.

Good sources of protein include lean meats, fish, egg whites, dairy products, beans and rice. Complex carbohydrates include whole-wheat bread, wild rice, whole-wheat pasta, multigrain cereal and potatoes. You should also aim to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables throughout the day. Keep in mind that they also make great snacks.

For the 9 out of 10 adults who do not get the essential daily vitamins and nutrients from the food they eat, nutritional supplements should be considered. There are companies that offer a full line of nutritional products, including men’s and women’s multivitamins, energy bars and shakes and weight-loss supplements, I will be reviewing some of these in the near future.

The reason diet and exercise are so important has a lot to do with metabolism - how your body breaks down food and regulates energy. If you have a fast metabolism, your body stores less fat and you have more energy. The exact opposite is true for people with slow metabolism.

Many people think the reason we exercise is simply to burn calories, but it goes way beyond that. What people really need to realize is that the true purpose of exercise is to send a message to our bodies, asking for improvement in metabolism, strength, aerobic capacity and overall health and fitness.

 Trainers recommend that people who are serious about shedding the pounds and keeping them off participate in aerobic training exercise regimens a minimum of three times per week for at least 30 minutes at a time. Aerobic exercises include walking, biking, jogging, swimming, aerobic classes and dancing. Dieters are also urged to take part in resistance training exercises, such as weight lifting, at least twice a week for a minimum of 30 minutes per session.

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Thanks for visiting! Come back often & remember, I always appreciate comments & suggestions.