How to Find a Weight Loss Meetup Group

One of the best tools to help you to stick to your diet and exercise regularly is to join a meetup group focused on weight loss.

Meetup.com is one of my favorite websites because it has thousands of meetup groups focused on a wide variety of topics, including weight loss.

Here's the link to their weight loss meetup groups...
http://weightloss.meetup.com/

Type in your zip code, and see what's close to home.

Find a group that's active, and join it. Most of these groups are free to join. Some of them are actually businesses that offer boot camps, or managed weight loss programs. But others are just folks like you that want to find friends that are willing to help each other.

Show up for the next meetup, and tap into the power of your peers to help you stick to your diet and exercise.

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Sushi Diet Tips

Sushi diet? Well certainly! If you already like sushi, and you can afford to dine out often, then you have a great restaurant option at your disposal that will help you lose some weight.

At it's basic form, sushi takes advantage of the "raw food diet", though still using cooked rice, giving you the full nutrient benefit of eating fish and vegetables.

And most sushi is very low in fat, and very low in sugar. But like with all foods, moderation is the key.

Here are some tips to maximize your sushi diet experience...

• Avoid all sushi that incorporates mayonnaise. Mayonnaise is used in certain sushi rolls to create a creamy filling. California rolls are typical.



• Avoid any sushi that uses cream cheese.



• Avoid any sushi that uses a creamy sauce or condiment.



• Avoid sushi containing any kind of sweetened ingredient, such as teriyaki sauce, or sweet bean paste (azuki).



• Avoid deep fried sushi, or tempura sushi.



• Focus on eating sushi with raw tuna or salmon. These fish are highest in omega-3 fatty acids. Better yet, order tuna or salmon sashimi, these are slices of raw fish without the rice.



• Focus on sushi containing only raw ingredients: raw fish, and raw vegetables. Pickled ingredients are fine, such as pickled eggplant, or pickled radish.



• Drink green tea with your sushi. Take a drink after eating each piece. Green tea raises your metabolism.



• Order nigiri style sushi. This is simply a slice of fish, shrimp, or other seafood, laid on top of a wad of rice. This allows you to avoid eating the rice, or control how much rice you want to eat.



• Order more tsukemono. This is just japanese style pickles, usually in the form of sliced cucumber. Eat a few slices after each piece of sushi. It'll help fill you up, it'll slow down your eating pace, and won't cost you anything extra.



• Soy sauce and wasabi are excellent condiments for the sushi diet.



• Always sit at the sushi bar. This allows you to talk to the sushi chef. Let him know that you want sushi without mayonnaise, without any kind of cream sauce, and without any sweet ingredients. Most sushi chefs have a wide variety of sushi recipes, beyond that which you can see on the menu, and are always happy to improvise something healthy.

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Raw Food Diet Tips

The raw food diet is a popular way to lose weight. You may not realize it, but you're probably already using this diet plan.

Anytime people go on a diet they tend to eat more raw fruits and vegetables. They eat more salads, more grapefruit, more apples.

The fact is that you don't have eat everything raw. It's OK to eat some cooked foods. There are no rules to a raw food diet. It simply means eating more raw foods than you normally do.

Here are some tips to getting used to a raw food diet...

• Eat a balance of vegetables and fruit. Putting more emphasis on vegetables will simply make you crave more sugar and eat more fruit. And if you eat too much fruit, you'll only elevate your blood-sugar level, making it difficult to burn off fat.



• Raw food doesn't mean avoiding seasoning. I love to eat raw tomatoes with salt. That's still a raw food diet. I also eat my salads with salsa for dressing, that's allowed too. In fact, fresh salsa is raw food.



• In fact, use salt. In raw food diets, it's very easy to become sodium deficient. If you feel tired or lethargic, more than likely your blood pressure has become too low. Pour some salt in your hand and lick it up. You'll feel better almost immediately.



• Raw food diet also requires protein. You need protein to prevent muscle loss. Eat plenty of nuts. Raw almonds are supposed to be the healthiest nuts for you.



• Eat fruits and vegetables high in potassium. Potassium is what our cells are made of, and you need lots of potassium per day (3,500mg for women, 4,700mg for men). Without adequate potassium, your body will strip away muscle tissue and get the potassium from there. Tomatoes and potatoes are very high in potassium.



• Avoid fruit juices. Fruit contains sugar, and when you drink 100% pure fruit juice, you end up consuming more fruit than if you were to eat whole fruit. Too much fruit will spike your blood sugar level and make your body stop burning fat.



• Eat low sugar fruits. Not all fruits are high in sugar. Some are actually quite low. Strawberries happen to be one of them, and are high in vitamin C. Read my previous article on "Best Fruits for Weight Loss".



• Use the USDA Nutrient Database. The USDA Nutrient Database will show you the nutrient content of just about every fruit, vegetable, nut, grain, meat there is. You can find out which foods are highest in fiber, highest in potassium, lowest in sugar, etc. It's been a big help for my weight loss efforts.



• Sushi is good too! Technically, sushi contains cooked rice and is not really a raw food. But like I said above, you don't have to eat everything raw. It's ok to eat some cooked foods. So if you love sushi, look for sushi that contains only raw food (minus the rice). Avoid the fancy stuff with cream cheese, or anything fatty.

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Debunking Myths of Natural Food Diets

There are many articles out there suggesting that sticking to a "natural food diet" will make you lose weight more quickly.

In my own experience with dieting and weight loss, I've found this to be true, but not directly due to eating natural foods.

The predominantly accepted theory about natural food dieting is that by eliminating all the artificial ingredients, preservatives, and other man-made chemicals, the body can operate as Mother Nature intended, therefore metabolize more effectively.

In fact, I've listened to some people tell me personally that after they eliminated all the processed foods from their diet, and replaced them with fresh foods and/or organic foods, they lost weight more easily.

But in my case, I have not found this to be true.

In fact, I can't find any impartial studies that suggest this to be true or false.

However, what I've found is that when you eat more natural foods...

• You consume less fat and sugar,


• You get more vitamins,


• You get more fiber,


• And you actually exercise more.

Yeah, exercise more. That's because fresh fruits, vegetables and meats have to be prepared and cooked, instead of just microwaved or eaten straight out of the package. And with cooking always comes cleaning.

So, it's not that natural foods contains something magical that makes your body burn fat more quickly, it's just that you're consuming fewer calories, getting more nutrition, and more fiber.

As for processed foods, preservatives, and artificial ingredients? Well, I'm not saying they're totally safe. And I do think if you eliminated them from your diet you'll feel better and will probably find that the things that ailed you are now gone.

But on the question if natural food dieting will actually make you lose weight more quickly, I tend to think that it does not. It's simply the fact that natural foods are just lower in calories overall.

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Do You Have To Exercise To Lose Weight?

Lately there are articles getting published on high-profile news websites asking the question, "Do You Have To Exercise To Lose Weight?"

And they answer they give is that you do not.

Technically speaking, from my experience, that's true.

Like I mentioned in my earlier post, "How Many Calories Do You Burn in a Day?" I said that if a 150 pound person spent almost their entire day sitting and sleeping, with no exercise, they will burn about 2,000 calories. And the heavier you are, the more calories you'll burn. A 200 pound person will burn about 2,900 calories.

So obviously if you consume fewer calories than that in a day, and stick to this every single day, you will lose weight guaranteed.

However, losing weight is the easy part. Keeping it off is the hard part.

To keep it off, you have to adopt a healthy lifestyle. You've heard this before.

A healthy lifestyle, of course, involves exercise. I don't need to explain why exercise is important.

All you need to do is walk.

You don't need to lift heavy weights, you don't need to join a gym, and you don't need to purchase expensive exercise equipment. Just some comfortable walking shoes is all you need.

Make it a regular habit to spend two hours walking around your neighborhood. Do this a minimum of twice a week. You have to make it a regular habit or else you will fail to create a healthy lifestyle.

If you take the belief that exercise is unnecessary towards losing weight, then that explains why you're overweight. You simply have the wrong attitude.

If you're serious about slimming down and staying slim, you know what you have to do.

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400 Calorie Fix Diet Debunked

The "400 Calorie Fix" is a diet plan from the editors of Prevention Magazine. The plan itself is revealed in a book that costs you $32.00.

The plan claims you'll lose 11 pounds in two weeks.

It's based on the concept of eating only 1,200 to 1,600 calories a day. They want you to break that up into three or four meals a day, each being about 400 calories each. The book is simply a bunch of recipes that you're supposed to cook and prepare yourself.

And they're calling the 400 Calorie Fix a "scientific breakthrough".

Wow.

I wrote earlier that the average person (weighing at 150 pounds) will burn about 2,000 calories a day, just by doing nothing. That is, if you spent most of your day sitting and sleeping, with just a few hours devoted to doing basic things, like brushing your teeth, taking a shower, cooking some food, you'll actually burn that many calories.

But if you weigh more than 150 pounds, you'll simply burn more calories. For example a 200 pound person will burn about 2,900 calories doing the same things.

So obviously the "400 Calorie Fix" is no miracle diet, and no scientific breakthrough. It's just based on the notion that the body already burns a minimum of 2,000 calories each day. As long as you consume less than that, you'll lose weight no matter what.

What it boils down is if you need to spend $32.00 for a collection of low-calorie recipes.

If you've followed my Beef Jerky Diet blog, you'll know I rely on a combination of fresh fruits, vegetables, whole wheat, and of course beef jerky as my daily diet. I'm not cooking at all. I simply eat the stuff plain largely because it's a lot easier that way, and because I've eaten it enough times that I've grown to love it that way.

That's all you really have to do.

So should buy the "400 Calorie Fix" diet book? In my opinion, no.

I think you'll end up looking through this book and realizing most of the recipes are stuff you won't feel enthusiastic about preparing anyways. I mean, if you're already full of enthusiasm, you would have lost your weight through exercise and eating fresh foods.

If you're like me, who needed an easy, more convenient way to lose weight, take a look at the tips I've written in this blog, that's what they're all designed to address.

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Relaxing Your Belly Helps Lose Weight

A funny thing I've noticed recently, that simply relaxing the muscles in my abdomen helps lose weight.

Over the years I've developed a habit of tightening the muscles in my abdomen anytime I'm standing up because it makes me look more fit and trim. I'm guessing this is true with just about everyone of one us.

But overtime, I find that I continue doing this even when I'm sitting down.

Over the same period I also noticed infrequent bowel movements (constipation), and have tried increasing my fiber intake, increasing my water, increasing exercise, but with little success. Then I noticed myself tightening my abdomen even while sitting.

Today I remind myself to keep my abdomen completely relaxed, at least when sitting down. I find that my digestion improves, and my bowel movements improve. Improved bowel movements of course will aid in weight loss simply because you're getting rid of material.

It doesn't have anything to do with metabolism or calorie burn, but it might help you shrink that belly and improve your overall health.

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The Best Jerky For Weight Loss

We all know that beef jerky makes for an excellent dieting snack because of its low calories, low fat, and low carbs. So what is the best brands of jerky out there to maximize your weight loss efforts?

Here are my picks...

• Joe's Beef Jerky (Regular or Spicy) - Joe's comes in at lower 60 calories per serving, and is the lowest sodium jerky on the market, while also listing zero carbs and zero fat. In fact, it has no sugar added, only what trace amounts of sugar found in the worcestershire sauce marinade. And it's free of preservatives, and free of MSG. You'll also find it easy to chew.



• Route 66 Beef Jerky (Regular or Green Chile) - Route 66 offers perhaps the most simplest, more purest beef jerky using only two ingredients: beef and salt. Otherwise, it's sugar free and carb free. It's also free of preservatives and free of MSG. It's rather bland tasting, though the Green Chile variety will add a touch more flavor. If you love thin sliced, crispy jerky, you'll like this stuff.



• Gourmet Jerky (Turkey) - Gourmet Jerky has perhaps one of the best tasting turkey jerkies I've ever tried, and I've tried many brands. It's lower in calories at 70 per serving, it contains zero fat, and lists only 1 gram of carb per serving. It's also sugar free, preservative free, and no MSG, and lower in sodium than most other brands of turkey jerky.

Believe it or not, I've eaten over 200 brands of jerky (I love eat jerky), and to make it into this small list of "best jerky for weight loss", a jerky had to be sugar-free, low sodium, preservative-free, MSG-free, easy to eat, and still has a decent to good flavor.

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Hot Sauce Diet & Weight Loss

Pouring hot sauce on your food can help you burn more calories.

Specifically, any use of chile peppers to perk up the flavor and heat of your favorite food will give you a short term burst of calorie burn.

That's because chile peppers contains a chemical called "capsaicin". This is what makes chile peppers hot. Capsaicin has the effect of tricking your body into thinking that its temperature has increased, thus causing the heart to beat faster and pushing sweat out from your pores. This raises the metabolism and burns off some extra calories.

But the best thing about hot sauces is that most of them are as close to zero calorie as you can get with condiments. In fact, most hot sauces don't even contain sugar. So not only are you getting a condiment that burns off some calories, but adds no calories as well.

But always check the ingredients list and nutrition label when choosing a hot sauce. Make sure it contains no sugar (brown sugar, molasses, corn syrup, honey).

I personally love hot sauce on just about anything. But I recommend it on steaks, eggs, salads, burgers, and even french fries.

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