Fast Weight Loss Diet Program

A healthy eating plan is a crucial element of any diet program. Even if you aren’t dieting, you may find that sticking to a healthy eating plan keeps your mood high, lessens your stress and tension, and gives you additional energy. The key to organizing a sticking to a healthy eating plan is keeping track of the things that you eat and setting realistic goals for yourself. The worst thing that you can do, whether your goal is to lose weight, maintain your weight or do something else entirely, is to lose track of how you’re progressing or set goals for yourself that are too high. Read on for a few tips on how to organize and stick to a healthy eating plan.

1. Set Reasonable Goals

The first thing that you should do is consider what you’re hoping to achieve through your healthy eating plan. Consider that a weight loss program that is done over an extended period of time and achieved through a variety of different means will generally be much more successful than a crash weight loss. You should set reasonable goals that you can measure regularly. For instance, instead of promising yourself that you’ll lose a certain amount of weight in a certain period of time, opt instead to exercise a certain number of times per week or to limit your desserts to once or twice per week. The latter two options are much easier to control and keep track of.

2. Monitor Your Progress

After you’ve set reasonable goals that you can achieve and that you can chart through measurement over a regular period of time, you’ll need to be diligent about monitoring yourself. If your healthy eating plan requires that you weigh yourself, do so regularly and at the same time of day and on the same day of the week.

3. Keep a Food Journal

If you’re prone to cheating on a diet or a healthy eating plan, force yourself to keep a food journal. The food journal should document each item that you eat throughout every day, however large or small. Keeping track of the foods that you eat will help you to better see exactly how much you’re putting into your system at any given time, and over the course of an extended eating plan.

4. Give Yourself Options

It’s very important to provide yourself with many different meal options if you hope to maintain your healthy eating plan for a long period of time. Too few options will cause you to become bored with what you’re doing and eating, and this is a step toward cheating on or breaking your diet plan. Have a range of healthy options that you can substitute in at any time and without much difficulty. Choose items that you enjoy eating, and don’t be afraid to modify your options with additional healthy choices later on.

The new mum

Problem: You’re a new mum or work from home with children.

Solution: “If you’ve just had a baby, then workout groups where the baby can come along, or a gym with a creche are perfect – you and the baby will benefit from the extracurricular socialising,” Hargrave says. “Or put an exercise DVD on while your baby is having a nap or is playing. And don’t forget the benefits of exercising together – a walk to a park 20 minutes away will make up your final hour and your baby will sleep better from getting out in the fresh air too.
 
“For those who work from home, use fitness websites and do just 20 minutes of exercise, three times a day, in your office – a mini workout is better than nothing. Or start your day 20 minutes earlier with a walk.”

The jetsetter

Problem: You travel a lot for work.

Solution: “About 1.1 million Australians travelled overseas for business reasons during 2010,” says Rowan Barker, media and commerce manager for the Tourism & Transport Forum.

If you’re constantly on a plane or in a hotel room and about to head out for another calorie-laden business dinner, how do you keep your fitness levels in check?

“Pack smart,” Hargrave says. “A resistance band doesn’t weigh much and you can attach it to your hotel door and do bicep curls and leg lifts. Take a fitness DVD with you so you’ve got some instruction and a set timeframe to work out to.”

Make the most of your hotel facilities. Swimming pools are usually heated and open late, so don’t forget your swimmers. “Using the stairs instead of the lift is a way to burn calories, and walk to or from dinner to work off the meal.”

The commuter

Problem: Travel by train or car? Then you’ll know you spend long hours in traffic or commuting by public transport – time that could be better spent exercising.

Solution: “Use your lunch hour wisely and attend a 40-minute express class offered by most gyms or a Power Plate class, which is only 30 minutes,” Hargrave says.

Use your hours cleverly. Ask to come in early or stay later (you’ll avoid the traffic) if it means you can get your exercise time in. And move as much as possible throughout the day. “Don’t sit down for too long,” Hargrave says. “Get up from your desk every hour, fill your glass with water and do a stretch.”

The single mum

Problem: You’re a single mother. About 22 per cent of families with children under 15 are single-parent families and 90 per cent of these are headed by women. If you’re the only one in charge, fitting in any sort of exercise routine seems impossible.

Solution: “Many council-run gyms have relatively cheap creches,” Hargrave says. “These will give you some respite from 24-hour child care too. If your children are older, try taking part in their sports: practise netball or football with them for some great cardiovascular workouts.”

The workaholic

Problem: You work long hours. Australians average about 42 hours a week at work. It’s no wonder we have no time to work out, when we’re so busy working. And our health is suffering. In a study published in the British Journal Of Sports Medicine last year, Swedish researchers found that sitting all day may significantly boost the risk of lifestyle-related diseases, even if you do manage to fit in some exercise.

Solution: “It is recommended that we get 30 minutes of exercise a day for every nine hours you work,” Hargrave says. “Use a wireless headphone and walk while you talk. Stand up – you’ll use more muscles than sitting down.”

When you do sit, Hargrave advises: “Sit on an exercise ball at your desk. It’ll strengthen your core and relieve lower-back pain.”

And don’t make the mistake of exhausting yourself at the weekends. “Use the weekend for exercise which relieves stress,” Hargrave says. ”If your levels of cortisol – the stress hormone – are elevated from Monday to Friday, try to lower them as much as possible on weekends. Take a long walk somewhere pleasant, outdoors, at food markets, shopping or art galleries, or with the family. If you do want to don some Lycra, do a cardio class and make sure you stretch before and after.”

5 ways to have more time, by Marie Rowland

It seems we never have enough time. Whether it’s running for a meeting, doing the school pick-up or even finding a moment to unwind, time seems to get away from us. Here are five ways to buy back the minutes.

1. Plan your day and even your week, diarise it and stick to it. Include personal, professional and social commitments. This way, you get a bird’s-eye view of the landscape of your life.
2. Monitor and limit your time on the internet, especially social media, as it can swallow up chunks of time.
3. If you are habitually late and refuse to get up early or to make provision for bad timing, simply set your watch 15 minutes ahead. 
4. Prioritise your time. Remember, once it’s gone it can never be recovered. So allocate time to the things that are important to you.
5. Differentiate between down time and wasted time. Wiling away the hours reading a book or soaking in the bath can be time well spent. Waiting for a phone call that may never come is dead time.

Eyes

Watch out for: Cholesterol ring

This sign presents as white halo around the perimeter of the iris. It may indicate a family history of heart disease. If you exercise, eat well, add garlic and fish to your diet, maintain a healthy weight, you will probably avoid this fate. Either way, it’s advisable to go for a cholesterol check too.

Watch out for: Orange tones

A deep orange colour surrounding the pupil can be a sign of disordered sugar metabolism. Eating sweet and high glycaemic foods may have a negative effect on your mood and energy. Desist from these foods, eat protein with each meal, take a supplement with B vitamins, chromium and zinc and enjoy the difference.

Nails

Watch out for: Paleness

When you press the nail, the area should initially be white or pale, but as soon as the pressure is released, the nail should look a rosy pink. Nails that are very pale may indicate a deficiency in iron. Take a liquid iron supplement or increase iron rich foods including red meat, green leafy vegies (with a squeeze of lemon juice to increase iron absorption) prunes and dried apricots.

Watch out for: White spots

White spots on the nail may be due to a trauma or bump, but may also indicate a zinc deficiency. When you take a zinc supplement or eat more zinc rich foods such as oysters, seafood, seeds and meat, the spots should disappear.

Watch out for: Peeling

Thin, weak, peeling weak nails may indicate a deficiency of hydrochloric acid in the stomach, which in turn has an effect on digestion. Bloating is a common symptom. Taking herbal bitters before meals will help strengthen your nails and reduce bloating.

Tongue

Watch out for: Scalloped edges

Scalloped edges or teeth indentations around the edge of the tongue are a sign of Qi deficiency. In other words you are exhausted and need to rest. Book a holiday, take some stress reducing herbs including withania, Siberian ginseng and rhodiola. A vitamin A+B complex won’t go astray either.

Watch out for: White or cream coating

A thick white coating on the tongue, and sometimes on the inside of the mouth may indicate thrush or candida. Reducing sugar, wine and beer will help. A creamy coating towards the back of the tongue may indicate dysbiosis – where the intestinal microflora are out of balance.  A course of probiotics should help.