Don't give in buying bigger size clothes!!! On the contrary buy one article of clothing in the size you realistically want to be in. Hang it in your room and use it as incentive to stay on task.

What's your excuse??

What's your excuse??

Deadly choices

Get a good start to your day

Eating breakfast jump-starts your metabolism so it's no accident that those who skip this meal are 41⁄2 times as likely to be obese. The heartier your first meal is, the better. In one study published by the American Journal of Epidemiology, volunteers who got 22 to 55 percent of their total calories at breakfast gained only 1.7 pounds on average over 4 years. While those who got zero to 11 percent gained nearly 3 pounds.

Get up and move

Fifteen years of research at the Mayo Clinic has shown that sitting all day long at the office is actually quite harmful to human health and that people who are obese tend to be seated two hours more than leaner people.
Inactivity (4 hours or more) causes a near shut- down of an enzyme that controls fat and cholesterol metabolism. To keep this enzyme active and increase your fat-burning, break up long periods of downtime by standing up—for example, while talking on the phone.

Know thy ennemy

Let me quote from Sun Tzu's Art of War - "If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt". Knowing and understand the kind of fat you need to fight off will give you a better chance of getting rid of it. Below is a brief description of the layers of tissue found in the human body.

Subcutaneous fat. This is the fat you see in your hips, you thighs and your abdomen. A researcher from Wake Forest U stated that during the time of our ancestors, subcutaneous fat actually is of use – as stored nutrients in the body during winter or famine. Today, however, with the ease of access to food and our ever-becoming sedentary lifestyle, subcutaneous fat is bordering from unnecessary to unhealthy. Some sources claim that it becomes far more dangerous when the fat is found in the stomach, as it may affect the internal organs.

Muscle. After the subcutaneous fat are the muscles. More muscle means less fat, burning calories at a faster rate. Building more muscle is the key to weight loss. Not only does it cut fat, but muscle building also gives individuals leaner and better looks.

Visceral/toxic fat. If we were in a video game, then this is the final boss. This type of fat is usually found deep within the abdominals. Ever the danger, visceral fat makes its way through your internal organs via the blood vessels around the internal organs, or the portal circulation, which ultimately affects the functions of internal organs. Fats like these jump from organ to organ, from vessel to vessel, and may attack your internal system such as the liver. Visceral fat counters your liver's capability to manage the levels of cholesterol which poses you at risk of heart disease. Apart from heart disease, visceral fat opens individuals to the risk of acquiring diabetes as they can cause insulin to become less effective in its job of storing fat.

Don't forget...

Break through a plateau

Add resistance training to your program.

A wonderful way to boost your metabolism and break through to the next level of weight loss is by incorporating aerobic exercise into your program, such as 30 minutes of walking three to four times a week. (If you are 35 years or older, or haven't exercised regularly, begin with 10 to 15 minutes two to three times a week.) In addition, resistance training (weight training with free weights or machines) several times a week can help increase muscle strength and density, which in turn allows you to burn more calories faster. Studies show that weight training can increase the rate at which your metabolism burns calories almost overnight by five to 10 percent. Working out can increase your metabolism for up to 21 hours after an intense workout.

Stock your kitchen with healthy convenience foods.

Having ready-to-eat snacks and meals-in-minutes staples on hand sets you up for success. You'll be less likely to hit the drive-through or call in a pizza order if you can make a healthy meal in 5 or 10 minutes.

Say NO to sodas

You need to stop drinking regular & diet sodas.

Quick fact: If you replaced a 20oz bottle of soda with water daily... You would easily lose up to 35 pounds in one year

THERMOGENIC FOODS

Thermogenic foods burn more calories to digest than the calorie content of the food itself, resulting in an increased metabolism for a short amount of time.

Here’s a list of the ten best ones:

· Cruciferous Vegetables (Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage)

· Celery

· Asparagus

· Leafy Greens (lettuce, spinach, kale, etc)

· Mushrooms – Most mushrooms have no calories at all, so all the calories burned processing them

· Chili peppers – In addition to being thermogenic, hot peppers give an extra boost to the metabolism. The capsaicin in them, which is what makes them hot, speeds the metabolic rate.

· Berries

· Apples

· Apricots / Peaches

· Pears

These foods can be eaten cooked or raw, and can be eaten in combination with other foods or on their own.

Adding them to dishes you already make, like putting some celery and brocoli in a stew, ups the thermogenic capacity of that dish quickly and easily.

Choosing thermogenic foods really is a great way to speed up your metabolism, burn more calories and make weight loss happen more easily. This is just one of the ways you can use little tricks in your diet to make it work for you.

Look out for hidden carbohydrates.

.If your weight loss progress seems slow, look out for carbohydrates that might be sneaking their way unnoticed into your diet. Sugar can lurk in the most unexpected places such as ketchup, salad dressings, teriyaki and barbecue sauces. Watch out too for cornstarch, sugar or milk solids in many processed foods such as gravies, or sauces on frozen vegetables. Be careful of "low-fat" foods where flavor is enhanced by sugar and other carbohydrates.

EMOTIONAL HUNGER

Many times, our desire for food is not due to real hunger, but due to other several psychological factors. Hunger is the message of our organism to tell us that we need fuel, so if the desire for food is not due to hunger, the food will not make us feel better. On the contrary we will feel worse because of the extra unnecessary calories we will consume. It is also a not healthy habit because it does not offer anything and will help you destroy your weight loss efforts.
What Is Emotional Eating?
Emotional eating is when people use food as a way to deal with feelings instead of to satisfy hunger
The first step to taking control of your emotional eating is to figure out what triggers it for you. Do you eat more at work because of stress or boredom? Do you eat more at parties or other social situations because you're nervous or anxious? Do you eat when you're bored or lonely?
For many of us, reaching for our favorite foods is an automatic response when we don't feel good about ourselves. Changing that automatic response isn't easy but, if you want to learn how to control your calories to lose weight or get healthy, you need to learn to break the cycle.

BUILD MORE MUSCLES

Exercise can help you build more muscle mass. By adding more muscle
mass you are adding the most important fat burning tool to your body.
Muscle tissue is the most metabolically active tissue of the body, so
make sure to build as much muscle as possible. Studies have shown that
for each pound of muscle you add to your body, you can burn about 35
to 50 calories more per day. So, if you manage to add an extra 10
pounds of muscle you will be in position to burn approximately 350 to
500 calories more per day. This is without making any other changes to
your diet. In some other research, researchers found that regular
weight lifting training can improve the basal metabolic rate by about
15%.

WATER

Drinking lots of water is one of the most important factors for losing weight. Our bodies are over 70% water and they need a large amount of this liquid to maintain their daily functions. Water helps to clean our systems and get rid of harmful toxins. When you water intake is not enough, your body actually turns to the water reserves it has which in turn, leaves you bloated. In order to release the extra water, you need to drink enough of it during the day.
Water is also the best no-calorie source to fill up your stomach which makes you feel that you are not hungry.
Try consuming ice cold water to actually burn more calories. Your body needs to warm up the ice cold water and it uses calories to do so. This is the so called the “thermogenic effect”. You can burn about 100 calories a day by drinking one gallon of ice cold water. Over a period of a month, this comes to almost 1 pound (for a month) and 12 pounds of easy weight loss per year!

Lose weight slowly with small changes

Try to remember that "losing 15 pounds in two weeks" is nothing to celebrate. It is important to realize that the more quickly weight is lost, the more likely the loss is coming from water and muscle, not fat. Since muscle tissue is critical in keeping our metabolism elevated, losing it actually leads to a decrease in the amount of calories we can each day without gaining weight. Fat loss is best achieved when weight is lost slowly. Strive for a weight loss of no more than 1-2 pounds per week. One pound of weight is equivalent to 3500 calories. By making small changes like eliminating 250 calories a day from food and expending 250 calories a day from exercise, you can lose one pound (of mostly fat) per week.

Figure out what your BMI (body mass index) is

http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/bminojs.htm

How to Speed up Your Metabolism Naturally

Research shows it's not just fat burning foods that speed metabolism, metabolism is also influenced by the size and timing of your meals.

So included with these best fat burning foods are ways you need to change your daily eating routines in order to speed up your metabolism.

1. Eat more often. Begin with breakfast and eat at least 4, preferably 5 or 6, meals a day. Every time you eat it revs up your metabolism. On the other hand, skipping or going for long periods of time without eating causes your metabolism to slow down.

2. Have small mini-meals. Eating small, frequent meals keeps your blood sugar stable, fuels your metabolism and gives you sustained energy. If possible, taper calories to fit your daily energy output – breakfast would be your biggest meal (but not too big). And your last meal of the day, at least 4 hours before bedtime, would be your lightest meal.

3. Choose maxi-metabolism foods. Focus on whole food high fiber carbohydrates for fat burning energy. And countless studies show that good quality protein helps you build lean muscle and lose fat, so include enough protein at every meal. Also make sure you take nutritional health supplements to get sufficient vitamins, minerals and nutrients.

4. Spice up your dishes. Hot and spicy seasonings, such as chilies, mustard and curry have been found to raise metabolism by up to 40% for two or three hours. Just make sure your spicy dish is not a high calorie meal or you'll undo the fat burning advantage.

5. Drink ice cold water. Water makes up 70 to 80% of your blood and brain, so it's essential to good health. And now German researchers have found dieters can increase their metabolic rate by as much as 30% by drinking 17 ounces of cold water. Actually, just being cold increases your metabolism. Your body has to burn about 100 calories to get warmed back up to normal temperature. Plus, thirst is often mistaken for hunger, so staying hydrated can help keep you from overeating too.

6. Switch to green tea. Studies show green tea can speed up metabolism and help burn fat. So consider exchanging your morning cup of java for a mug of green tea – especially since it's also been shown to be a good source of antioxidants.

7. Get an optimum level of good fats. According to fish oil and weight loss research, certain specific omega 3 fatty acids are important for their fat conversion abilities. Essential fatty acids are also necessary to keep your thyroid and other hormonal glands working optimally.

Omega 3 and weight loss

recent study that was published in the international journal of obesity, researchers want to find out if by supplementing the diet with omega 3 fish oil (good fat) would increase the number of fat calories burned in a single day.

The two groups were fed exactly the same diet apart from one group were fed 6 grams of fat in the form of butter, olive oil, sunflower oil and peanut oil, the other group were given 6 grams of omega 3 fish oil.
The fish oil group were given 8 capsules per day, 2 in the morning, 3 at lunch and 3 in the evening.

The Total daily intake of omega 3 long chain fatty acids was 1.8 grams.
The out come of the test results were fairly conclusive.

The table below shows you the changes in fat oxidation, body fat, and metabolic rate after three weeks for the groups with or without fish oil

	without fish oil	with fish oil
Measurement of body fat lost	0.7pounds	-2 pounds
Daily metabolic rate	1710 calories	1775 calories

These results show that the group who were supplementing with fish oil burned about 1.1 milligram of fat per kilo per minute. This is roughly 26% higher than the other group who weren’t supplementing with the fish oil.

One of the key reasons as to why omega 3 fish oil has such a powerful effect on fat metabolism is that the insulin levels were 50% lower when subjects used the fish oil. Insulin is a hormone that reduces the use of fat for fuel, while also promoting fat storage in the presence of excess calories.

Insulin increases the activity of an enzyme known to promote the storage of fat.

Insulin inhibits the action of hormone sensitive lipase, which is responsible for breaking down stored fat and preparing it for use as energy.

Insulin also activates an enzyme, which, along with fatty acid synthesis, is responsible for converting carbohydrate into fat.

Simply put, high levels of insulin make it less likely that your body will use stored fat as a fuel source. The drop in insulin levels when subjects used the fish oil would have allowed more fat to be used for energy.

Overweight (excess weight) and obesity (excess body fat) are commonly assessed by reference to the Body Mass Index, which measures the relationship between height and weight. Although the Body Mass Index has drawbacks (eg. it doesn't measure body fat), it is a useful guide to weight-related health risks.

To Calculate Body Mass Index

- Simply divide your weight (pounds) by your height (inches) squared.
Multiply the result by 705.

-

For example:

- if you weigh 160 pounds with a height of 5 feet 4 inches (64 inches), the body mass index formula runs:

Step 1. (160) divided by (64 x 64 = 4096) = 0.039
Step 2. 0.039 x 705 = 27.4
Result: Your body mass index is 27.4 (overweight).

Normal Weight, Overweight or Obesity

· Normal weight means having a body mass index of 19-24.99

· Overweight means having a body mass index of 25-29.99

· Obesity means having a body mass index of 30+

Facts About Overweight

· Less than half of U.S. adults have a healthy weight.[9]

· Almost two-thirds of U.S. adults are overweight. [8]

· All adults (20+ years old): 129.6 million (64.5 percent)
Women (20+ years old): 64.5 million (61.9 percent)
Men (20+ years old): 65.1 million (67.2 percent)

Facts About Obesity

· Nearly one-third of U.S. adults are obese (BMI > 30).[8]

· All adults (20+ years old): 61.3 million (30.5 percent)
Women (20+ years old): 34.7 million (33.4 percent)
Men (20+ years old): 26.6 million (27.5 percent)

Overweight and Obesity Trends

· The prevalence of overweight and obesity in adults has steadily increased over the years among both genders, all ages, all racial/ethnic groups, all educational levels, and all smoking levels.

· From 1960 to 2000, the prevalence of overweight (BMI > 25 to <>

· The prevalence of obesity (BMI > 30) during this same time period more than doubled from 13.3 to 30.9 percent, with most of this rise occurring in the past 20 years

· From 1988 to 2000, the prevalence of extreme obesity (BMI > 40) increased from 2.9 to 4.7 percent, up from 0.8 percent in 1960.

· The prevalence of overweight and obesity generally increases with advancing age, then starts to decline among people over 60.

The facts about carbohydrates

Carbohydrate foods have been misunderstood for years. Numerous scientific studies show that healthy carbohydrates are an essential part of a nutritious diet

Bad carbs (high glycemic index cabs) cause dangerous spikes in blood sugar. While good carbs (low glycemic index carbs) keep you healthy and fit.

Low glycemic healthy carbohydrates, such as whole grains, beans and most vegetables, are slowly absorbed into the blood stream. But high glycemic carbs, like sugar, white bread, white pasta and white rice, are rapidly absorbed, causing high and low blood sugar swings.

Eating high glycemic carbohydrates forces your pancreas to produce an insulin surge to lower your blood sugar as fast as possible. Your body does this by converting sugar into fat.

Your blood sugar then drops way down out of the high danger zone into the low blood sugar zone. The spiking-then-dropping insulin workout your body goes through makes you feel ravenously hungry.

What's more, insulin keeps you from metabolizing the fat you've got stored. And, when you're feeling hungry, since you can't burn your excess fat, you have to eat more food for energy.

Make smart choices!!!

Inadequate Sleep Undermines Fat Loss Efforts

Authors of a research study published in the latest issue of the medical journal, Annals of Internal Medicine concluded that a lack of sleep has a profound impact on the fat loss process. Researchers compared the difference between receiving 8.5 hours of sleep per night and 5.5 hours per night. Study subjects slightly reduced caloric intake (the amount of calories consumed on a daily basis). The results were incredibly interesting: Subjects who received less sleep lost a significant amount of lean muscle tissue (not good) and lost very little fat tissue (also not good). Those who received 8.5 hours of sleep lost primarily fat and retained muscle tissue.

The take home-message of the study: When we try to lose weight, it is imperative that we are receiving adequate sleep. If our sleep is compromised, we will find it very difficult to lose fat and will be much more likely to lose muscle tissue (our ally in fighting fat long term).

New Year's Resolutions

January, the month of new beginnings, resolutions, life changing goals. Make them last through the year and you got something. Most of us pick goals too lofty or unrealistic. Or worse yet choose a goal but do not choose the proper path to get there.

Weight loss has to be the number resolution out there.

In our office we have a fantastic No Fad Weight Loss plan. It is not a fad because we will find the areas that need changing in your life and give you the solution for it. You have gotten the way you are by doing certain things. If you keep doing those same things, you will not change. According to Einstein expecting to change as such is the definition of insanity. It might be the type of food you are eating, the quantity, the lack of proper exercise, the type of exercise; it could be a hormonal issue, a candida issue or issues with toxicity in your system. Something is preventing you from losing weight. Let’s find out what it is and correct it. We will help you look AND feel the way you want to.

During the month of January I will devote this blog to tips about weight loss.