Wellness for the Mind and the Body

16 Fat Loss Tips to get your started so you can bask in all those other health benefits that come along with it.

1. Eat more fruits: Studies at Penn State University proved that increasing fruit intake helps facilitate weight loss.

2. Drink tea: research suggests that those who drink tea, have lower BMI’s and have less body fat

3. Lift weights. Build more muscle, burn more calories.

4. Start meals with a salad and low-fat dressing. Salad will provide some bulk to help fill you up, so you eat less calories overall.

5. Eat more protein. Replacing refined carbohydrates with lean protein will not only help satiate you, but will also increase your metabolism.

6. Eat more veggies. They fill you up, without providing many calories. Just avoid the high fat/high calorie dressings.

7. Include low-fat water based soups as snacks with meals. This will help fill you up and decrease the amount of calories and fat you consume.

8. Don’t forget the fiber. Think of fiber like a sponge; it absorbs water and makes you feel full.

9. Lift heavy to build muscle. Put down the pink 1-lb. dumbbells and push some iron. Don’t worry; you won’t get “too big.” What you’ll get is a fat burning machine.

10. Bump up the intensity – make your workouts count!

11. Take a walk. The more calories you can burn each day, the better.

12. Replace one meal/day with a large salad and lean proteins. 13. Portion control. Avoid the buffet line and never super size a thing; instead make sure you’re following what the nutrition label recommends for a serving.

14. Switch to calorie-free drinks. All calories count, whether they’re liquid or solid, so unless it’s milk, opt for tea or water.

15. Don’t drink juice; eat the whole fruit. The whole fruit provides more nutrients and fills you up more.

16. Eat breakfast. A review published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that those who ate breakfast were more successful with long-term weight maintenance. Other research has shown the same for weight loss. Grab a yogurt, a piece of fruit, or make a smoothie. It doesn’t have to be fancy.

By Christopher R. Mohr, eDiets.com

Your health is important, make sure to know what happen for you at www.wellnessyou.com

Most people know that losing weight boils down to eating fewer calories and/or exercising more. That’s what nutritionists tell us.

University of Washington researchers have found that protein has a strong effect on appetite, perhaps one key reason why so many dieters have successfully dropped pounds on high-protein diets.

The surprising part is that how many carbohydrate calories are in your diet has nothing to do with the weight loss. The study found that simply increasing the amount of protein in your diets can help you lose weight, even if you don’t cut back on carbohydrates at all.

In the study, researchers had subjects bump up protein intake to 30 percent. Fat was reduced to 20 percent.

Within three months the subjects had lost an average of 11 pounds, even though half of the calories they ate still came from carbohydrates. People on the modified diet reported feeling satisfied with less food. In other words, they lost weight because they consumed fewer calories, not because they ate fewer carbohydrates.

Researchers are still trying to figure out exactly how protein has more control over hunger than other nutrients. One possibility is that it makes the central nervous system more sensitive to leptin, a hormone that tells your body when it has stored enough fat.

What researchers do know, however, is that even slightly increasing the amount of protein you eat can help you lose weight without having to banish carbohydrates from your diet.

Pumping up protein intake by just 5 to 10 percent could make a difference, says Colleen Matthys, a bio-nutritionist and one of the study’s researchers.

Previous research has shown protein also helps keep the brain alert. Ever notice that a high-carbohydrate lunch can leave you dragging through the afternoon?

Carbohydrates can make you feel tired—and hungry for an energy boost—because they increase the brain’s level of the amino acid tryptophan, which in turns spurs the brain to make the calming neurotransmitter serotonin. Protein, on the other hand, prompts the brain to manufacture norepinephrine and dopamine, chemical messengers that promote alertness and activity.

Protein is also an essential component of every cell in the body, and we need it to repair and replenish our skin, bones and muscle tissue, as well as for enzymes, hormones and other chemicals. But carbs are equally important, despite their bad rep. Carbs are the brain’s main fuel.

Protein’s natural power of appetite suppression should be implemented cautiously, Matthys says. She suggests you eat low-fat diary products, beans, fish and lean cuts of meat, such as skinless chicken and turkey breasts.

By Catherine Shu, Ediets.com

Your health is important, make sure to know what happen for you at www.wellnessyou.com

With mounting evidence in favor of consuming breakfast, it is becoming clearer that breakfast may indeed be the most important meal of the day.

Breakfast Benefits

Studies examining eating habits suggest that the regular consumption of breakfast can: • Reduce risk of obesity and high cholesterol.

• Decrease insulin resistance (a condition that increases risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease).

• Improve performance on memory-related tasks.

• Minimize impulsive snacking and overeating at other meals.

• Increase intake of essential nutrients that are rarely replenished by other meals of the day.

• Enhance school performance in children and young adults.

Quality Counts

Think of breakfast as the perfect opportunity to start accumulating the minimum five servings of fruits and vegetables and three servings of whole grains recommended for optimal health.

The National Academy of Sciences recommends adults consume 21 to 38 grams of fiber a day. Whole grains, fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts and seeds are the best sources of dietary fiber. High-fiber foods have the added benefit of warding off mid-morning snack attacks by creating a feeling of fullness. Likewise, adding some protein – such as seafood, low-fat dairy products, skinless poultry, egg or egg substitute – can also aid in suppressing hunger.

A lack of appetite in the morning may be the result of a large meal or snack consumed the night before. Perk up your morning appetite by eating lighter – and earlier – in the evenings.

Try blending a mixture of either low-fat milk, low-fat yogurt or soy milk with fruit, 100 percent fruit juice and your favorite spices or flavor extract. Oat bran, wheat germ or ground flax seed can be added for extra fiber.

So start your day the healthy way by fueling up with a nutritious breakfast!

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While adults need to eat breakfast each day to perform their best, kids need it even more. Their growing bodies and developing brains rely heavily on the regular intake of food. When kids skip breakfast, they can end up going for as long as eighteen hours without food, and this period of semi starvation can create a lot of physical, intellectual and behavioral problems for them.

A Good Investment

If you and your kids regularly skip breakfast in the interest of saving time or getting a few more minutes of sleep, remember that eating a wholesome, nutritious morning meal will probably save you time in the long run. By recharging your brain and your body, you’ll be more efficient in just about everything you do. Interestingly, studies show that kids who skip breakfast are tardy and absent from school more often than children who eat breakfast on a regular basis.

Preparing a good breakfast can be as quick and easy as splashing some milk over cereal. Time invested in breakfast is much more valuable than the few extra minutes of sleep you might get by bypassing the morning meal. If you and your kids seem unable to make time for breakfast, consider enrolling your children in a school breakfast program, if possible, or pack a breakfast brown-bag the night before so that you and your kids can eat on the way to school and work.

Break the Fast to Shed the Pounds

Some people skip breakfast in an effort to lose weight, but the practice is more likely to cause weight gain than weight loss. Skipping breakfast is strongly linked to the development of obesity. Studies show that overweight and obese children, adolescents, and adults are less likely to break the fast each morning than their thinner counterparts.

According to research, skipping meals, especially breakfast, can actually make weight control more difficult. Breakfast skippers tend to eat more food than usual at the next meal or nibble on high-calorie snacks to stave off hunger. Several studies suggest that people tend to accumulate more body fat when they eat fewer, larger meals than when they eat the same number of calories in smaller, more frequent meals. To teens, especially teenage girls, skipping breakfast may seem like a perfectly logical way to cut down on calories and lose weight. It’s important for moms to educate their kids about the importance of the morning meal and the role it plays in maintaining good health and preventing obesity.

article from Rallie McAllister

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