Eat Fresh Fruits, Not Fruit Juice

Eating whole, fresh fruits is better than drinking fruit juice, with regards to achieving your weight loss goals.

The problem with fruit juices, even those that are 100% pure fruit juice, is that it causes you to consume far more sugar than if you were to eat whole fruit.

For example, a typical orange weighs about 4 1/4 ounces. Yet when people drink orange juice, they often drink 8 to 12 ounces, about 2 to 3 oranges. There's certainly a lot of vitamins and minerals to be gained from drinking that much juice, but you're also adding the same amount of sugar as a can of regular soda.

And when you consume that much sugar, in the form of juice, it's absorbed into the bloodstream immediately, causing a surge in your blood-sugar level, which causes your body to stop burning fat.

By eating a whole fresh orange instead, you'll likely limit yourself to eating to just one orange, keeping your blood-sugar to a lower level, and reducing the amount of time your body stops burning fat.

Eating fresh fruit also provides you with more fiber. Fiber can not be digested, but yet your body still tries to digest it, and ends up burning calories in the process. And if you're dieting, you'll need all the fiber you can get.

Also, eating fresh fruit requires you to chew, which itself burns calories. It also requires some sort of preparatory work, such as peeling, slicing, or washing fruit. On the other hand, drinking juice doesn't give you the opportunity to burn calories.

For more information on eating fresh fruits, read my previous article, "What is the Best Fruit for Weight Loss".

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Building a Weight Loss Attitude

One of the reasons why people fail at losing weight is because they maintained a losing attitude.

People want to believe that losing weight is easy as taking a pill and waking up in the morning. And why not? That's what all the advertisements are promising us!

But we all know that there's nothing magical in weight loss. It requires a commitment, a change in the way you eat, and the addition of exercise. To make these changes, and stick to them, you have to have a winning attitude.

Here's a comparison of losing attitudes and winning attitudes...

1. Losing Attitude: "I can't exercise because it makes my knees hurt." - This is just a way for someone to justify that a life of fast-food and laziness is the best thing for them.
   
   Winning Attitude: "My knees hurt, but I can find other ways to exercise." - Where there's a will, there's a way. So start by giving yourself a will.



2. Losing Attitude: "I'm just not in the mood to walk." - Did it ever occur to you that if you walked more often, you'd have the energy? Do you realize that if you had more energy, you'd actually be in the mood to walk?
   
   Winning Attitude: "Why am I watching television when I could be walking right now?" - What you choose as your activities will determine the fate of your weight loss goals. Choose the activities that guarantee success.



3. Losing Attitude: "I've tried every diet out there and nothing is working." - Diets themselves don't make you lose weight, it's YOU that makes you lose weight. Diets are just plans that you follow.
   
   Winning Attitude: "I'd love to have that pizza, but I'm going to stick to my diet instead." - As simple as that reads, it's a tough thing to do. But I don't have to tell you that sticking to a diet is tough.



4. Losing Attitude: "I try to eat healthy, but my husband always wants to go out." - Putting the blame on someone else is just a way to make ourselves feel better about failure.
   
   Winning Attitude: "I don't have to order the fettuccine alfredo, I can always get a grilled chicken salad with salsa." - Every restaurant offers something that will fit into your diet, and every restaurant can customize a dish for you. It's just a matter of how determined you are to stick to a diet.

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Top Five Weight Loss Tips

Based on my dieting and exercise efforts over the past couple of years now, here are the top five things that worked the best for me in losing weight.

In no particular order...

1. Stay away from sugar: For me, it's not so much the amount of fat in foods, it's the amount of sugar. Sugar is absorbed instantly into the bloodstream, causing a spike in blood-sugar level. This causes the body to release insulin, which stops the body from burning fat, and instead burns sugar. Hence, if you can eliminate as much sugar as possible, your body will burn fat more continuously. Read, "Carbs Are OK, Just Not Sugar".


2. Don't Go Hungry: If you allow yourself to go hungry, your body will try to conserve fat rather than burn it off. So the trick is to keep food in your belly all throughout the day to keep your metabolism running. To maximize this, eat lots of protein in morning, in the form of low-fat, low-carb meats. Think beef jerky! Meat takes longer to digest, and will keep you feeling fuller longer. Read, "Eat More Meat For Breakfast".


3. Set weekly weight loss goals: The number one reason why people abandon their weight loss plans is because they look at the long term goal of losing 100 pounds, which seems insurmountable, and they give up hope. All it takes is for you to tell yourself that you'll lose two pounds in one week. Then each morning, weigh yourself to find out if you're on target to achieve that goal, and if you're not, make adjustments to your dieting and exercise. Read, "Set Weekly & Monthly Weight Loss Goals".


4. Stick to beer: Most of us love to drink alcohol, myself included. Beer has the lowest calorie impact of all alcoholic beverages, mainly because it's contains little to no sugar, has no fat, and has a relatively low alcohol content. Alcohol itself adds calories, the more alcohol the more calories. Also, alcohol tends to slow the metabolism, and beer generally has the least amount of alcohol. Wine and mixed drinks generally contain sugar, which adds even more calories. Even with mixed drinks based on fruit juices, bars and restaurants tend to use juices with added sugar.


5. Don't get bored: In my experience, boredom causes people to eat. As long as you can keep yourself busy, you'll keep your mind off of food. Anytime I found myself at a break in my work, I'd find myself thinking about eating. So, I kept a list of things that needed to be done, or other activities I could do, just to keep myself occupied. And more often than not, these things caused me to burn more calories. Read, "Boredom Can Create Weight Gain".

I think these five tips are pretty easy to do for most of us, and they don't even involve exercise. You'll have to give up sugary foods and drinks, but then again there has to be some pain involved. Get sugar-free stuff instead.

If you can stick to this for a couple of months you'll actually find yourself making a lifestyle change.

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Can Fiber Supplements Help Lose Weight ?

The short answer is "yes".

Insoluable fiber is a type of fiber that does not dissolve in water. This is stuff like oat bran, wheat, and other grains. Soluable fiber is the kind that dissolves in water, and is found in fruits and beans.

Insoluable fiber is something the body cannot absorb into the bloodstream. So any such fiber found in food, or ingested as supplements, passes through the digestive system and out of the body. But the digestive system still expends energy trying to break it down before it passes. This is one way in which fiber helps you lose weight.

Insoluable fiber also has the effect of making you feel full. Taking several fiber supplements about 15-30 minutes before a meal, can cause you to eat less.

Another way is that fiber acts a binder, trapping bits of food into its mesh, and preventing them from being absorbed. Hence, fiber works to prevent a certain amount of calories from being taken in.

Soluable fiber has the effect of binding up cholesterol, and passing that out of our bodies.

The Daily Requirements of Fiber

The USDA recommends that women up to age 50 takes 25 grams of fiber each day, while men up to 50 take 38 grams. Women over 50 should take 21 grams, while men take 30 grams.

I found that just with the food I eat, my fiber intake varies between 5 grams to 30 grams per day. So, I end up taking fiber supplements to help make up for that.

How to Take Fiber Supplements

When looking for fiber supplements, read the bottle carefully to see how much fiber per gram is offered in a single serving. Note that some supplements require you take as many as four pills for a single serving. And some of these pills can be large.

Look for a combination of insoluable fiber and soluable fiber for the maximum benefit.

About 15-30 minutes Before a meal, take about 5 grams of fiber. Then during the meal, perhaps midway through, take another 5 grams. Try this over the course of a week and evaluate how your body feels. If you feel fine, try boosting the fiber intake.

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How to Lose Weight on Vacation

If you're planning to take a vacation, and you're in the middle of trying to lose weight, how do you stick to your weight loss plan and still have a good time?

I'm in the middle of a vacation right now in Honolulu, HI, typing this from my hotel room, having just watched the sun rise.

Here are the problems associating with dieting on vacation...

• You're in unfamiliar territory, you don't know where all the health food stores are, your favorite restaurants are not around, you may not even have a rental car to get around with.


• You want to do everything while on vacation, including eating at the best restaurants, and drinking plenty at the bars.


• You and your family (or significant other) tend to stay together the whole time, meaning you have fewer options as you negotiate on what to do, and where to eat.

Ideally, here are some tips for planning your vacation around your weight loss plan...

• Travel to places that encourage you to walk. I found that here in Waikiki Beach, the hotels are located on the main drag, and the main drag is chock full of shops, cafes, restaurants, beaches, activities, and places of interest. You don't really need a car here, everything is within walking distance. The other tours and activities have shuttles that can pick you up.
  
  Look to vacation in metropolitan areas, where there's an abundance of things to do, and everything is within walking distance. The Las Vegas Strip, the Gas Lamp District of San Diego, the Waterfront Park area of Seattle, etc.
  
  On the other hand, if you vacation at a resort that is located far from civilization, you'll end up stuck at that resort, and won't find yourself doing much walking. Even though the resort claims to have hiking trails, and a fitness center, the reality is that your vacation time is limited and your family and/or significant other will draw you away from your exercise time.
  
  
• Don't rent a car. Many hotels have shuttles that pick up from the airport, and take you back, and some of them will take you to other popular tourist spots. Before booking a room, find the hotels that have these shuttles. If you rent a car, you'll find yourself driving everywhere, and won't think about what's close by.



• Keep yourself busy every day with activities. As long as you're busy doing things, you won't think about eating. But as soon as you find yourself not knowing what to do, your thoughts will immediately turn to eating and drinking. Do a lot of guided tours, and walking tours. They seem to take up the most time. Read, "Boredom Can Create Weight Gain".

Here are some weight loss tips after you've arrived at your destination...

• Get eight hours of sleep each night. You'll want to stay up late, which is fine. Just make sure you sleep for eight hours. A 200 pound person can burn about 625 calories just sleeping for eight hours. Put up the "Do Not Disturb" card on your door, and close the curtains. Read, "How Many Calories Do You Burn Sleeping".


• Do a lot of drinking. You'll want to drink anyways, so just do it. Liquids will keep you feeling full. More than likely, you and your family will dine out frequently, but at least you'll have less space for food.


• Beer is the best alcoholic beverage for dieting. Beer has the least amount of calories compared to wine, hard liquor, and mixed drinks. If you can help it, stay completely away from wine and mixed drinks. Both of them have higher amounts of sugar. On the other hand, beer has little sugar, mostly complex carbs, and is lower in alcohol. The higher the alcohol, the higher the higher the calories.


• Always avoid desserts. Stay away from sugary foods and drinks. Sugar is perhaps the biggest enemy of dieting. Not only does it add calories, but it causes your body to stop burning fat. Eat fresh fruit instead, which will satisfy your sweet tooth, but at a much lower sugar content, higher fiber, and more vitamins. Read, "What is the Best Fruit for Weight Loss".

Don't go into a vacation planning to lose a few pounds. If you do that, you'll only end up doing it at the cost of your family's enjoyment. Instead, get all your money's worth from a vacation.

But if you vacation in places that encourage you to get out and walk, and explore, and stick to the tips above, you can actually lose weight on vacation without thinking about it. Even if you just break even on weight gain, or just gain a few pounds, that's still pretty good considering you had a ton of fun on your vacation.

Don't think of vacations as a time to lay down and do nothing. Think about it as a time to explore and experience. See all the sights, do all the tours, and stay busy at all times. The more you're busy, the less you'll think about eating.

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Beware of Restaurant Salads!

Men's Health recently published a list of the worst restaurant salads in terms of calorie content...

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/eatthis/ 47832/the-unhealthiest-salads-in-america/

The common theme I see in this list of salads is that they're all complex in terms of the number of items in the salad itself, as well as lot of ingredients you don't typically find in salads, such as quesadilla slices, parmesan crusted chicken, and noodles.

As it turns out, these aren't really salads at all. They're main dishes, sliced up and placed over a bed of greens. Restaurants call them "salads", but it's a ruse to get you to think it's good for you.

In the quest for creating buzz and excitement, restaurants try to one-up each other in making the most fantastic and mouth-watering salads, but at the cost of fat and calorie content.

The most simple salads are always the most healthiest.

Just use lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, carrots, cucumber, peppers, and make sure they're all fresh.

Here are some tips for eating salads...

• Make the salad yourself, it's the best way to get the lowest calorie salad, using the ingredients you like the most.


• If you don't want to make your own, buy the salad in the bag. Grocery stores now have so many choices of pre-made salads, and they're all pretty low calorie, with none of the fancy stuff.


• If you're at a restaurant, stay away from anything fancy, unusual, or unheard of. Stick with grilled chicken salad, or a chef salad. They're usually the most simplest.


• Avoid a chopped salad. Because you don't have to chew this as much, you tend to eat much more quickly. Chewing, as it turns out, burns some calories.


• Ask for dressing on the side so that you can control the amount. Better yet, ask for salsa instead. It's got the salt you love on salads, and the flavor, but no fat and very little carbs.


• Stay away from sweetened salads, primarily the asian salads like Chinese Chicken Salad, or a Thai Chicken Salad. They use sugary dressings.

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Constant Eating Not Constant Snacking

There's a report out today that children are increasing their daily snacking, reaching as much as three times each day, and that it has caused kids to increase their total daily calories by 27%.

The report blames "constant eating" as the culprit, but doesn't mention why these children are eating more, however. Personally, I tend to believe that it's because today children live in a world of convenience, and never gained a sense of "regular meals".

Constant eating is not a bad thing. Rather, it's constantly eating bad food that's bad.

Eating all throughout the day actually helps you burn more calories. Digesting food keeps your metabolism running, and if you can keep your belly satisfied with low-fat, low-carb foods, you'll be able to lose weight with simple, easy exercises.

It's when you eat sugary foods, and high fat foods, that you must perform strenuous exercises, more often, just to burn off the foods, let alone the extra pounds off your mid-section.

Read my previous tip, "How to Lose Weight by Constantly Eating", which goes into more detail on this.

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How To Choose A Weight Loss Plan

As it turns out, losing weight isn't really that hard, as just about any weight loss plan can result in pounds lost. Keeping it off is the most difficult part.

So how do you know which weight loss plan will help keep the weight off over the long term?

Simple, look for the plan that strengthens good eating habits.

The reason why so many weight loss plans fail is because they don't teach you how to eat healthy.

• Diet drugs fail because they make you dependent on drugs, and allow you to eat anything you want.


• The HCG diet fails for the same reason, making you dependent on hormone injections, and not teaching you good habits.


• The lap band, gastric bypass, stomach-staple, all fail as well because they too don't teach you good eating habits.

Weight Watchers is a good plan simply because it teaches you which foods are healthier through the use of a scoring system. But I wouldn't buy Weight Watchers food. Rather, their use of the scoring system reveals which foods to encourage, and which foods to avoid. It's not as good as reading nutrition labels and ingredients lists, but it still develops a pattern of healthy eating that you can rely on for years ahead.

Any kind of weight loss plan that categorizes foods into groups, either by their fiber content, calorie content, fat content, carb content, is a plan that shows you which foods help you lose weight, and which don't. That's a plan to consider.

A weight loss plan that rewards you for eating fresh fruits and vegetables will help you change your taste buds so that you actually love eating them. That's a plan to consider.

On the opposite side of the coin, any plan that says you can eat whatever you want, is a plan to avoid.

Any plan that makes you dependent on something, such as a drug, device, or surgery, is a plan to avoid.

Here's a tip, decide if the weight loss plan you're evaluating is going to help you deal with a 1/2 pound bacon cheeseburger oozing with secret sauce. If that plan doesn't strengthen your resistance, then you're not going to succeed over the long haul.

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