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Healthy eating is about more than the food on your plate—it is also about how you think about food. Healthy eating habits can be learned and it is important to slow down and think about food as nourishment rather than just something to gulp down in between meetings or on the way to pick up the kids.
Eat with others whenever possible. Eating with other people has numerous social and emotional benefits—particularly for children—and allows you to model healthy eating habits. Eating in front of the TV or computer often leads to mindless overeating.
Take time to chew your food and enjoy mealtimes. Chew your food slowly, savoring every bite. We tend to rush though our meals, forgetting to actually taste the flavors and feel the textures of our food. Reconnect with the joy of eating.
Eat but listen to your body. Ask yourself if you are really hungry, or have a glass of water to see if you are thirsty instead of hungry. During a meal, stop eating before you feel full. It actually takes a few minutes for your brain to tell your body that it has had enough food, so eat slowly.
Eat breakfast, and eat smaller meals throughout the day. A healthy breakfast can jumpstart your metabolism, and eating small, healthy meals throughout the day (rather than the standard three large meals) keeps your energy up and your metabolism going.
“Your health and diet tips” is the culmination of many years of my own personal research and diet experimentation. I’ve combined all the essential diets and lifestyle information available out on the web and in many books into these single free resource for healthy lifestyle.
What would it feel like if you knew a friend, who haven’t seen you a little a while said “I’ve know this woman for many years, and every time I see her, she looks better and better. She is always in good shape. I have no idea what she’s doing, but I’d like to know her secret!”
I like to hear that. Friend, I guess you would too. Now is the time. I want to tell you my secret. I want to share my experiences and research which has revealed to me how to live healthier, feel better, and look my best every day.
“Your health diet tips” is about dieting, and it’s not. Dieting is never easy. In fact, many doctors will not even use the word “diet” because it makes people have visions of rabbit food in their head. This is the first thing you should change in your way of thinking. My friend, why don’t you try to think about a lifestyle change instead?
Yes, it’s all about the ultimate healthy lifestyle.
Fat which is been accumulated in the abdominal area is harmful for you, as compared to the fat accumulations in the hips and thighs. The abdominal fat surrounds abdominal organs and liver, closely linked to insulin resistance and diabetes.
If you want to get in charge of your weight and control it permanently then you need to:
Find food choices that will work in the longer run and curb your hunger even more.
Get support from your family and friends. Social encouragement will keep you going and will make it easier for you to avoid the fatty food items.
Make an appropriate aim. Do not try to rush things. Lose one to 2 pounds a week to ensure healthy weight loss and proper diet successful.
You also need self-support while you follow a specific diet plan. When frustration and temptation strike, concentrate on the many benefits you will reap from the diet.
Track your progress. Write down from where you have started and calculate the progress.
In the end, it is important that you select a diet, which is satisfying for you and helps you reduce the amounts of calories in your body. Stick with it on long-term basis for healthier weight loss.
People get excited about a lot of things, but I have never in my life met anyone who’s thrilled about being overweight. I have however, met folks who are sick of the up and down rollercoaster of so-called healthy meal plans to lose weight. Rather than deal with more dieting disappointments, some of these people conclude that living “large” is simply in the cards for them.
Throwing your hands up in defeat and deciding to spend the rest of your days (unhappily) overweight is no way to live. A decision like this can beat your self-esteem into the ground and shave years off of your life. C’mon, you owe yourself and your loved ones so much more than this.
There’s no magic formula to losing weight – if there were, everybody and their mama would be slim. The best way to achieve successful weight loss results is to know what types of foods to keep out of your diet.
Processed foods are cheap, convenient and easy to prepare. Unfortunately, these foods are bad for your health. Of course, you’d never know this by watching those hyped up television ads. Since manufacturers aren’t going to give you the dirty on the ingredients they use in processed foods, I’ll gladly do it for them.
Let’s start with trans fat. This ingredient lowers good cholesterol, raises bad cholesterol, and can increase your risk of cardiovascular disease. Considering heart disease is one of the leading killers of men and women, trans fat is one ingredient you want to steer clear of.
If you’re wondering where that double chin came from, the high fructose corn syrup used in some of your favorite processed foods may be partially to blame. This ingredient has been getting a lot of press lately because it is believed to be a major player in the rising obesity epidemic.
Don’t even get me started on the chemicals manufacturers use in processed foods. If I tried to name some of these chemicals, I’d be tongue tied for days. Besides, you’d probably think I was reading the label on a can of bug spray instead of the ingredients in your favorite microwavable meal.
The average person consumes about 150 pounds of sugar per year. When you think about the fact that sugar is in almost everything, it’s easy to eat tons of this stuff without even realizing it. So what’s the big deal? There isn’t enough time in the day for me to tell you about all the damage sugar can do to your health. However, I can give you a quick rundown.
Sugar contains nothing but empty calories. When you eat this stuff, a large portion of it gets stored in the body as fat. If your goal is to slim down, being heavy-handed with the sugar isn’t going to help. This is not even the worst of it. Sugar can also depress the immune system, feed cancer cells, contribute to heart disease, raise your risk of osteoporosis and make you look decrepit.
Before you run out and stock your fridge with a bunch of those zero-calorie diet drinks, there’s something you should know. The artificial sweeteners used in diet drinks and other low-calorie products are lab-created. Yep. You heard me right – mixed up in a lab like something out of a Frankenstein movie.
These chemical sweeteners can cause or contribute to a laundry list of neuropsychiatric disorders and chronic illnesses – depression, anxiety, migraines, mood changes, panic attacks, vertigo, memory loss, Alzheimer’s, brain tumors – should I go on? And if you think you’re going to shed a few pounds using artificial sweeteners, think again. These sweeteners stimulate your appetite and make you eat more food.
When you’ve tried diet after diet and not one of them delivers results, it can certainly make you want to give up. But you owe it to yourself and to your family to live the healthiest life possible. Processed foods, sugar and artificial sweeteners are the main culprits of weight gain. When you eliminate these foods from your diet, you greatly improve your chance of losing weight.
Make dieting disappointment a thing of the past. Let the Diet Solution Program arm you with the tools you need to create effective healthy meal plans to lose weight and live healthier.
If you’ve tried diet after diet and you’re still hollering, “Please!Help me lose weight!” It’s because diets don’t work (obviously). Sure, they may help you drop a few pounds in the beginning, but the results are often short lived. Most diets require you to restrict your caloric intake to the point where your body is literally starving.
Not getting enough calories slows your metabolism down, causes the loss of lean muscle tissue, deprives you of the fuel you need to perform, and causes your body to hold on to stored fat for energy. In addition, diets are miserable, depressing, frustrating and not sustainable over the long term. Seriously, how long do you think you can survive off of grapefruits and cabbage?
Take it from a gal who has tried almost every diet on the market. Proper nutrition will give you better weight loss results than simply going on a diet. Here are three good reasons why.
Healthy Foods Are Naturally Low in Calories
Unlike processed junk, healthy foods like vegetables, fruits, legumes, beans naturally raised meats, organic poultry, raw nuts, seeds and organic eggs are naturally low in calories. When you eat reasonable portions of these foods, you automatically reduce your caloric intake and lose weight without feeling hungry, deprived or bitter.
There is so much nonsense in processed foods. When you eat them, your body doesn’t have a clue what to do with the calories; so they just get stored as fat. When you eat nutritious foods instead of processed junk, your body actually benefits from the calories so they are less likely to get stored as blubber.
Proper Nutrition Helps Fuel Your Body
All nutritious (and I mean truly nutritious) eating plans will allow plenty of fresh vegetables, fruits and beans in the diet. These foods provide the healthy carbohydrates you need to fuel your body and keep your metabolism performing properly. If you come across a diet that tells you not to eat healthy carbohydrates, run away from it as fast as you can. Your body absolutely has to have healthy carbohydrates (healthy being the operative word) to survive.
Eating Healthy to Burn Fat
Here’s some great news. Healthy diets that include protein can help you build lean muscle tissue, which can kick your metabolism into high gear. This is definitely a plus if you want to send that double chin packing. When you eat protein rich foods, your body releases a hormone that helps you burn fat. Protein also helps make meals more satiating so you eat less (bring on the protein, baby). Some nutritious protein sources include naturally raised lean meats, organic poultry, beans, raw nuts and whole organic eggs.
Why put yourself through the drama of dieting just to be disappointed with the end results? Healthy eating is a much better option for dropping unwanted pounds. Remember though,nutritious eating is just one part of the weight loss puzzle. If you want to keep those results coming, get plenty of exercise and drink lots of water.
If you are serious about losing weight, watch this video to learn some of the things that help me lose weight and keep it off.
Some people are intimidated by the idea of preparing healthy meals; so they either eat grilled chicken everyday, or they stick to theDiet Solution recipes listed on this site. Newsflash! These are not your only options for nutritious meals. Making your own healthy recipes is easier than you think. Simply start with the right ingredients and learn to channel your inner chef.
When you’re preparing your recipes, always use wholesome ingredients. With all of the different foods on the market, trying to determine what’s healthy and what’s not is kind of difficult. I have one rule that I follow – keep everything as natural as possible.
Natural foods for diet solution recipes include fresh produce, whole eggs, free-range poultry and lean meats. These foods are not processed and they do not contain trans-fats, preservatives or any of the other chemical additives that make them dangerous for human consumption.
Those of you who read my blog or follow the DSP program know where I stand with regard to organic foods. I choose organic meat, poultry and produce for my family because these foods don’t contain synthetic chemicals, sewer sludge or genetically engineered materials.
Besides, when I think about feeding my little one food that can potentially cause or contribute to life-altering conditions, it motivates me to buy organic every chance I get.
Despite what manufacturers say, your body was not designed to handle the toxins in processed foods.
You’ll find a lot of recipes that require food to be sautéed, baked, fried or grilled. If you want to make your Diet Solution recipes as healthy as possible, forget about using shortening and vegetable oil. Instead, use olive oil, real butter or coconut oil–all organic of course. All of these oils are healthy and can add nutritional value to your meals.
Coconut oil is great for deep frying foods. Olive oil and real butter can be used for sautéing. If you try to deep fry your foods in olive oil or butter, you may set your kitchen on fire, so please, don’t do it! You can also use olive oil to coat your meats and vegetables before grilling or baking them.
Recipes are not etched in concrete. You have every right to modify them by swapping out unhealthy ingredients for ingredients that are more nutritious. For instance, if you come across a recipe that calls for milk, you can make it healthier by replacing it with raw milk, almond milk, or coconut milk.
If you don’t like a particular food, or you want to give a recipe a different flavor, simply replace or eliminate the ingredients of your choice. Also, don’t be afraid to get in the kitchen and use healthy ingredients to whip up a few original concoctions of your own. Chefs do it all the time. I’m definitely not a chef and I do it too.
Sometimes my self-created mixtures are a big hit and others times – not so much. The point is there are a lot of delicious, healthy recipes to be made; so get in that kitchen and start mixing! I’m always itching to try new foods. If you come up with a dish that you absolutely love, send me the recipe so I can taste test it.
You don’t have to deprive yourself of delicious meals to slim down with our Diet Solution recipes. Watch the video to find out some simple and basic ideas that are delicious and creative. The Diet Solution Program will teach you how to eat hearty and still lose weight.
Is it possible to put together a simple and healthy meal plan? One that is not going to be complicated and hard to follow? Yes. It is possible and I will show you how. The healthy meal plans below will help you achieve your health goals while simultaneously shedding fat off your body.
Here are 3 healthy meal plans you can get started on right now.
Breakfast
Protein should be included in every meal throughout the day and breakfast is no exception. Make sure to include organic eggs, cottage cheese, raw nut butter or smoked fish as one component of your healthy breakfast. Carbohydrates should also be included in the form of oatmeal, sprouted grain bread, fruit and/or vegetables.
3 great sample breakfasts are:
Oatmeal with almond butter, topped with fresh berries and a bit of Stevia to sweeten.
2 hard boiled eggs, 1 slice sprouted grain toast and ½ grapefruit
Smoked salmon over sliced tomato and 1 green apple
Lunch
The same rules apply as breakfast. An easy way to ensure that you always have ahealthy meal protein available for lunch is to pack leftovers from dinner the night before. Leftover hamburger, chicken legs or wild fish are all great to include in a salad or over vegetables.
3 great sample lunches are:
Baked Tilapia over sautéed spinach, green salad with chick peas (oil and vinegar as dressing) followed by ½ cup of pineapple.
Leftover chicken legs with ½ sweet potato and broccoli.
Lean hamburger over portabella mushroom and brown rice. Cooked vegetables or a green salad. 1 orange.
Dinner
You can really be creative with dinner. Look for recipes that are quick and easy and modify them with your own healthy ingredients as needed. Again, always remember to include protein and carbohydrates.
3 great sample dinners are:
Mexican salad: Ground beef over shredded lettuce and tomato, guacamole and brown rice.
Grilled Salmon over asparagus, green salad (oil and vinegar as dressing) followed by a fresh fruit salad.
Buffalo meat balls over rice pasta with sautéed broccoli.
Snacks
You never want to let your body get too hungry. Hunger often leads to binge eating of unhealthy food and makes sticking to a healthy eating regimen much more difficult. It’s important to keep snacks handy so you never experience hunger or a blood sugar low without having a healthy option nearby.
3 great snacks are:
2 Tbsp almond butter on ½ apple
Trail mix made up of walnuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds and dried fruit (no sugar added)
Cottage cheese and pineapple
Incorporate just a few of these meals into your daily eating regimen and you will see an incredible difference in your weight loss results. Following simple and healthy meal plans like these is the first step in achieving your health and fitness goals.
To get started right away on your own fat loss goals , download these Simple and Healthy Meal Plans right now.
YES and NO. The right answer to this question is dependent on what type of fat we’re talking about. Certain fats are actually essential for so many important bodily functions, but the wrong kind of fat can lead us down an unhealthy path to weight gain and a long list of diseases. Fat to Avoid
Hydrogenated Oils
You have probably already heard in the media or just about anywhere that hydrogenated oils are detrimental to your health so to avoid them at all costs. But what exactly are they?
Hydrogenation is a chemical process used to make fat more shelf stable. This hydrogenation method completely alters the liquid oil’s molecular structure so that it no longer resembles a natural fat. Because your body does not recognize the transformed molecule as a natural fat, it cannot process it and treats it as a toxin. This “toxin” has been linked to cancer, birth defects, heart disease, diabetes, weight gain and obesity.
We must read labels! Hydrogenated oil and partially hydrogenated oil can be found in most packaged foods (margarine, crackers, chips, pretzels, cookies, cereal bars, sugar cereals, microwave popcorn, and low-fat and fat-free snacks). There are even many packaged foods advertised as “health foods” that include this toxic ingredient.
Fats You Must Eat
Your body cannot survive without fat – specifically essential fatty acids. Your brain, hormones, immune system, and digestion are all dependent on this healthy fat (which is why people who go on very extreme low fat diets often suffer many health problems).
Omega 3 Fats
Omega 3 Fats are essential to human health but cannot be produced by the body which is why it is essential that we get these natural fats from food. Foods high in Omega 3 fats are leafy green vegetables, flax seeds, salmon, sardines, raw walnuts, organic eggs and grass fed beef.
Extensive research indicates that omega-3 fatty acids reduce inflammation and help prevent risk factors associated with chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and arthritis. These essential fatty acids are highly concentrated in the brain and appear to be particularly important for cognitive (brain memory and performance) and behavioral function. In fact, infants who do not get enough omega-3 fatty acids from their mothers during pregnancy are at risk for developing vision and nerve problems. Symptoms of omega-3 fatty acid deficiency include extreme tiredness (fatigue), poor memory, dry skin, heart problems, mood swings or depression, and poor circulation.
Cooking Oil
The only oil that is suitable for high heat cooking (and one of the healthiest oils you can consume) is raw, organic, unrefined coconut oil. Coconut oil has been proven to be one of the healthiest oils available for the human body and increases the body’s metabolic rate (helping in weight loss)
Oils best Raw
Olive oil and flax seed oil are two wonderful oils to use for salad dressing or on cooked or raw veggies. These oils have a lower melting point and are more stable (and healthier) when kept raw.
All you need to know about fat and fat consumption:
1. Avoid all products containing hydrogenated oil and partially hydrogenated oil
2. Consume foods high in Omega 3′s such as salmon, flax seeds, walnuts and organic eggs
3. Cook with Organic, Unrefined Coconut Oil
4. Use Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Flaxseed oil raw for salads and veggies. Also include avocados as a healthy source of natural fat into your meal plans.
Remember all fats are not created equal and proper use of the good fats can be a great way to keep you and your family at optimum health!
For more information about Omega 3s,
Many people are unaware of what organic food really is. It seems that everywhere we go now, someone is promoting something that is “organic”. Are these foods worth your time and money?
It almost seems like some people are afraid of organic food. Could this be possible? Are people afraid that eating one morsel of organic food is going to somehow instantly initiate them into the organic food cult where you’re only allowed to wear sandals made from tree bark and deodorant is prohibited?
I swear I have had people say to me “Well, you can’t be that organic because you wear make-up and you don’t smell.”
What? That’s not what organic means at all! All it means is that the food or the product has been grown the way mother nature intended: without the use of chemicals, pesticides, herbicides and fungicides. In other words, naturally!
Are some people afraid of the price? Organic does not automatically mean “break the bank”. Many times when I compare the price of the organic food versus the conventional food, they are only a few cents different. In the case of the bag of organic carrots I bought today for my lunch, they were the exact same price as the conventional ones. Imagine that!
I’m pretty used to people coming to my home and saying “Wow, this place is so super healthy. I can’t believe it.” As you may or may not know, it does take quite a few people to keep the Diet Solution Program running. I had a bit of a “retreat” at my house where I invited 3 of our employees to come and work from my house and spend some time together. Whenever entertaining guests, I always try and be the “hostess with the mostess” and in my best Martha Stewart impression I asked “Can I get anyone anything? Some food or a drink?”
One of my employees replied, “Yes, I would love some juice please.”
As I did everything in my power to hold back the look of death, I said “We don’t have any juice. How about water or a tea?”
Without going through the entire conversation, this particular employee couldn’t believe there was no juice in the house. Moreover, she absolutely could not believe that my son does not drink juice and only drinks water (and yes, I did let her keep her job).
She has, of course, read and knows the DSP inside and out, but she admitted that she really didn’t believe that I completely lived my life that way until she saw it with her very own eyes.
But back to the juice…
Juice is one of those drinks that many people perceive as healthy, especially when it’s labeled natural or organic and it says it is made from all natural ingredients. Let me clear this up right now…Juice is NOT part of a healthy eating plan unless you are freshly squeezing it right in your kitchen with your own hands or through a juicer.
“But Isabel. My juice says its organic, natural, 100% juice with no sugar added. Is that ok?”
Well, I spent a significant amount of time reading the label of almost every single juice container, juice box, and juice product and they all came up the same…with tons of SUGAR. Read the label clearly and you will see that every gram of carbohydrate contained in the juice directly comes from sugar.
“But Isabel. All the carbs from fruit are from sugar too right?”
Yes, fruits are almost entirely sugar (coming from fructose), but a whole fruit also contains plenty of fiber and vitamins that are lost when you make a juice, bottle it and store it for any amount of time.
“But Isabel. My juice is fortified with calcium, Vit D and iron (or whatever they are fortifying juice with these days).”
When you “fortify” any food or drink with a vitamin and/or a mineral, your body is smart enough to know that this is not the real version of this particular nutrient. So much so, that it will choose not to use it. Yes, all of these fortified products are not giving you the vitamins and minerals you need. You must obtain these from natural sources like real fruits and vegetables (i.e. real food).
So if you’re a juice lover like many people are or have fallen for the “juice is healthy” trap, here are a few strategies to help you get your juice fix while simultaneously following a healthy eating plan.
1. Buy a quality juicer and make your own juice. There are so many different delicious and nutritious juices you can make in a juicer that will give you a super boost of vitamins/minerals and super nutrition. One of my favorite is carrot, apple and ginger. Be careful though! If you’re anything like me and sensitive to too much sugar at once, I would suggest having a serving of 4 oz or less or mixing your 4 oz with some water. I would also suggest juicing primarily vegetables and not as many fruits. This is a great way to get in some serious nutrition without having to eat vegetables all day long (a great option for children). I would also combine your fresh juice with a protein and healthy fat to keep your blood sugar balanced.
It is best to drink freshly made juice right away, as the longer it is stored, the more it will decline in nutrition. You can put your juice in a glass jar with an airtight lid and fill it to the very top. There should be a minimal amount of air in the jar as the oxygen in air (air is about 20 percent oxygen) will “oxidize” and damage the juice. Wrap the jar with aluminum foil to block out all light. Light damages the juice.
2. Make my favorite “tea juice“. If you haven’t seen this recipe in the Diet Solution Recipe Guide, here it is again:
5-6 bags caffeine-free herbal tea (e.g., peach, mint, chamomile, or fruit tea)
3 quarts boiling water
Stevia powder (or liquid) to taste
Pour water over tea bags in a large pot. Add stevia while tea is hot. (Adjust amount
according to the desired sweetness.)
Let the tea cool, remove tea bags, transfer tea to a serving pitcher or individual water bottles, and refrigerate.
3. Make your own DSP approved lemonade. My business partner loves this and drinks it almost daily (be careful if you’re sensitive to citrus or too much lemon.) Mix the juice from half a lemon, 5 drops of liquid stevia and 12oz of water in a large cup. Add more stevia or lemon based on your taste. This drink is a great alternative to people who need a bit more flavor than plain water all day.
So what did I end up serving my thirsty employee? Water! (And she bought juice when we went out to lunch). Oh well, I tried.
So now that I’ve shown you why juice is not good for you and how you can make your own healthy drink alternatives, why not learn more about which foods will cause you to lose fat.
