Wednesday, December 31, 2008

2 Powerful Strategies to Lose Holiday Weight Fast!

Holiday weight gain is almost inevitable! In fact, you would need to be a staunch, self-disciplined, health-conscious individual to be able to avoid the temptations of cookies, candies and alcohol at parties! In fact, the 'food season' starts much before Christmas - usually from Thanksgiving Day!

From Thanksgiving Day to New Year, people stuff themselves as much as they can with all of their favorite foods. A bite here, a bite there and then more bites follow!

All this while the individual keeps reminding himself that even if he gains some extra pounds during this time, there is nothing to worry about as he would work very hard after the New Year to Flatten My Stomach! Truth to be told, you CAN lose holiday weight within just a few weeks, provided that you make a little effort and are determined to reach your goal!

1. Continue with your workouts: The first thing you need to keep in mind is that no matter how busy you are, you should continue with your regular workouts! If you haven't exercised ever, start doing it right now, and continue doing it at least throughout the whole holiday season - up until the New Year, when much of the 'food craze' usually dies away and is replaced by a new craze: the craze of weight loss!

If you workout regularly then you would not only be able to lose weight, but also have very little chance of gaining weight either! However, to be on the safe side, I would suggest that you focus on the intense workouts which help you burn a lot of calories within a very short time! On one hand, you would spend very little time on your workout regimen and on the other, these intense exercises would help you burn calories even at rest!

There is no excuse for deferring your workouts or taking a sabbatical from your exercise regimen simply because it is holiday or that you don't 'feel' like working out, or are too busy with shopping and writing and sending out party invitations! Keep in mind that health always comes before everything else, and nothing but your health should always be your number one priority!

2. Indulge yourself only on the 'cheat' day: Just because it is holiday season doesn't necessarily mean that you would throw all dietary cautions in the wind; but at the same time, you also won't want to deprive yourself from the fun and enjoyment of this period! What I recommend is that you eat healthy foods for at least six days pf the week and then use the next day as the 'cheat' day.

Now how would you choose this 'cheat' day? If you have a party to attend to soon, just plan things in such a way that you attend it on your 'cheat' day! That way, you would be free to indulge yourself in all the delicacies available to you: candies, cakes, eggnog, you name it!

Keep in mind that one day of indulgence won't hamper your health or make you excessively overweight, provided that you don't eat the same bad foods throughout the whole week! Even if you gain weight, it won't be much and you would easily be able to lose it within a short time!

If You want to lose your Holiday weight gain Visit www.LoseMyStomach.com for information articles and reviews of the best diets to lose weight.

Top 3 Holiday Weight Control Tips for Women!

You probably dread holidays for one single reason: it is that time of the year when you have more chances of gaining weight than at any other time of the year! And why not! Most of the foods available at this time are full of fat and sugar, the two demons which make people overweight all too easily!

However, considering that holidays come only once in a year, it won't be wise to cut yourself from the enjoyment entirely! In this article I will tell you about three ways to enjoy the holiday foods while at the same time keep the weight under control!

Contrary to what you might believe, it is not that hard to balance the two. Here are the three things you need to do to get yourself started:

1. Eat well before attending the party: If you attend a party with an empty stomach, you are more likely to crave for the tempting junk foods available to you than otherwise! So make sure that you eat considerable food at home before venturing out! And what would you eat?

Definitely not cakes, sugar, biscuits, candies or cookies! Instead, you should stuff yourself with protein-rich foods. Protein is known to keep a person full for a long time! Consequently you would be eating very little at the party, but of course, without any sense of deprivation! After all, you are not depriving yourself of the delicious foods: you are not eating them simply because you CANNOT!

Protein is also helpful in another way: it builds strong lean muscles for you! Since muscles need more energy to maintain themselves than is required by fat, your body is forced to burn your fat deposits in order to produce this extra energy! Consequently, you lose weight! As you can see, eating protein-rich foods is a win-win situation for you!

And don't think that protein-rich foods are all bland and boring! After all, how could you forget about the tasty yogurt, which is high on protein!

2. Cut down on carbs: Should you be eating carbs? Yes, of course, but you should definitely cut down on the intake of simple carbs such as sugary foods, and opt for the more complex ones. The rationale behind this is simple: simple carbs, as their name suggests, are very simple and easy to digest. They dissolve in your body very quickly and turn into fat. Moreover, they accentuate your carb cravings so that you tend to eat more and more sugary foods to satiate yourself!

On the other hand, complex carbs take longer to digest and are therefore better for you!

3. Be selective with turkey: There are very few families which don't eat huge turkeys during this holiday season. Turkey is all fine, as long as you don't buy the dark variety! The white skinless turkey is best for you since it is low on fat!

Also keep in mind that the way you cook your turkey would determine how much weight you would put on by eating it! Make sure to use minimal oil and a lot of spices when cooking it, and if possible, use fat-free or low-cholesterol oil!

Follow the tips above and you will find it very easy to keep your weight in check when everyone else would be displaying their fat bellies!

Is It Really Possible to Keep Weight Under Control During The Holidays?

With the holidays approaching fast, it is not unusual to add a few pounds of extra flab to your belly and make it bigger than ever, but with the four holiday nutrition tips I am sharing with you in this article, that won't happen, ever!

And before you even ask, let me know tell you that you don't need to starve or eat like a baby in order to maintain your slim figure! With these nutrition strategies, you will ensure that you don't end up becoming as big as Frosty The Snowman! At the same time, you won't eat like a mouse and deprive yourself of the fun of holidays!

1. Leave your indulgence at the party itself: If you are attending a party and indulging yourself there enough, don't continue with your indulgence even when you leave the party! Believe it or not, I have seen many of my friends enter a fast food restaurant to get an extra fill even though they had their fill at a party! That is a strict no-no.

Remember that while indulgence during the holiday season is okay and understandable, over-indulgence would make it almost impossible for you to keep your weight under control!

It is not always possible to eat full stomach at a party, which is why I recommend many of my clients to have a full course meal from home before going to any party. This meal should consist of healthy foods rich in protein, fiber, carbs, vitamins and other nutrients. Whenever you eat at home, avoid junk or sugary foods altogether, since you would be eating them at parties!

In this context, let me tell you one another thing: never skip your meals in order to keep 'space' in your stomach for the delicious foods you would be offered at the party! Remember that when you are hungry you are more likely to overeat than otherwise.

In fact, you should not only eat your regular meals but also drink a lot of water so as to suppress your appetite. Often I have found that when I am on full stomach, I decline to eat even my favorite foods!

2. Take some of your treats back home and share with your family: It is not necessary to annoy your host for the sake of maintaining that slim figure! What I do is that I take some of the treats back home and share it with my family! This way, I don't gain a lot of weight and at the same time, let my family members enjoy a taste of the party food!

3. Control your portions but don't deprive yourself: Often people make the mistake of deliberately depriving themselves of their favorite foods out of fear of weight gain. You couldn't do a worse thing to yourself!

If you deprive yourself of your favorite foods, the food cravings would continue to haunt you until a day would come when you, being unable to suppress your cravings anymore, would start eating like a beast! Isn't it better to eat a little 'bad food' everyday instead of having lots of them on a day!

If you think you cannot resist the temptation of that eggnog or cookie, go ahead and enjoy yourself. Just be sure to eat them in small quantizes so that you don't end up gaining a lot of weight.

4. Try to take your mind off food: At the same time it is also important that you try to take your mind away from food. Very often people attend a party with the sole intention of stuffing themselves up with as much junk foods as possible! Such thinking won't do you any good. When you attend a party, try to catch up with your old buddies and have a nice time with them, or chat up with your host.

Do anything which helps to get your mind busy. When your mind is busy in other activities, it would seldom think about foods!

How to Overeat During the Holidays and Still Keep Weight Away!

No I am not crazy. If you want to keep the weight away, you not only need to plan your regular food intake but also by how much you would be overeating. After all, no matter what you do, you won't be able not to overeat anyway, what with all the temptations floating around; so why fight a losing battle? Rather, you should try to make lemons from lemonade, something which you are going to learn about from this article.

Do you know what makes you gain weight during the holidays? It is not the junk foods you eat, it is not because of overeating and overindulgence on your part, and of course it is not because you eat candies and cookies right from the Thanksgiving day throughout Christmas and New Year!

Usually most people eat a lot of junk and fatty foods during the holiday season because they know that as soon as the holidays are over, they would have to go back to their boring diet, or start one if they are not dieting already! Because of this, they stuff themselves with as much of their favorite foods as they can, because they would probably never get to eat them again until the next holiday season!

This is also known as the 'last supper', whereby you eat all of your favorite foods before going on a diet. Once you take the 'dieting' and the New Year resolution out of your mind, you would find it much easier to avoid holiday weight gain!

1. Plan your party eating: When you attend a party, there would be a lot of delicious foods laid out there, but chances are that you would be interested only in one or two foods. Naturally there is no need to take a bite of every food available there. Instead, eat as much of your favorite foods as you want and leave the rest! Keep in mind that apart from this one instance of 'cheating', you should always maintain a healthy eating plan consisting of natural fruits and vegetables!

For example, if cookies make you go weak-kneed, eat as many cookies as you need to satiate yourself, but don't go and try out something else such as eggnog or cakes! If on the other hand, eggnog is your weakness, then drink only that and leave the party when you are done, so that your temptations don't get the better of you!

2. Working out doesn't hurt: Actually, if you try to workout for several hours at a stretch then it might hurt, but since you are being proactive here and planning things ahead, why not start working out right now? Even if you exercise only for fifteen minutes per day, it would help you a lot in keeping away those annoying pounds!

And keep in mind that working out doesn't mean hitting the gym day and night or buying a huge exercise equipment for your home; there are several simple exercises you can do at home even without the help of exercise equipments!

3. Get back to healthy eating: It is okay if you had a bucketful of cookies or several pegs of eggnog at your friend's party, but that doesn't mean you should continue with that kind of diet even after leaving the party. Once you leave the party and get back home, you should get back to healthy eating!

Do Not Do These Three Things and You Will Not Lose Weight This Holiday!

There are so many people who take a weight loss resolution every New Year, but why do most of them fail to stick to their resolutions? There is more to weight loss than just a New Year resolution! As a matter of fact, simply taking a resolution won't guarantee successful weight loss. If you are really serious about losing stomach fat, you need to do the three things I am going to discuss about in this article!

1. Break down your goal into baby steps: Setting unrealistic goals is bad enough, but expecting to achieve them within a very short period of time is even worse! Keep in mind that it is possible for you to achieve your unrealistic goals too, provided that you keep your expectations low and be patient.

For example, let's say that you want to lose all the "extra weight" before next Christmas comes. Your next job would be to determine how much weight is 'extra weight'; this number would give you an idea of how to break up your goal in a way so as to make it achievable.

Let's say that you need to lose thirty pounds. Fine. Now just calculate how many weeks or months it would take you to achieve this goal, assuming that you could lose no more than 2 pounds per week healthily, and that you would be sticking to your diet plan throughout and won't 'cheat'.

At this rate, it would probably take you about four months to achieve this goal. Add a couple of months extra to that, because I am sure you would 'cheat' on your diet once in a while; in fact, even I have done it too! But even with all that 'cheating' there is no doubt that you would be able to reach your weight loss goal successfully, much before another Christmas comes!

2. Find a buddy: People who have lost weight successfully have almost always found a sidekick to help them out. Find someone who is in the same situation as you, has the same goal as you, and shares the same interests as you! When we work on something all alone, we often feel dejected and suffer from low-self esteem, but when you have got a buddy, you could motivate each other, discuss weight loss plans with each other, and even keep a tab on each other.

The last one would work wonders for your weight loss goal. Even if you try to cheat, you won't be able to because you would be afraid of losing your face in front of your body. You may not feel ashamed of letting yourself down, but you simply cannot afford to let down your best friend!

3. Use rewards as incentives: Last but not the least, rewarding yourself from time to time is important so as to make sure that you don't stray from the path of weight loss! Setup small milestones for yourself and reward yourself every time you reach one of these milestones.

Let me clarify beforehand that rewarding does NOT mean indulging yourself in fatty foods; that would be like shooting yourself in the foot! There are many other ways you could reward yourself. For example, you could setup a reward of about 10 bucks for every 4 pounds you lose. When all your rewards add up you could buy some new clothes for yourself, take a mini-vacation, or indulge yourself in a spa or salon! Do anything EXCEPT eating!

5 Smart Cooking Tips to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain!

Obesity is caused not only by the foods we eat but also the way we cook them! Yep, if you can cook foods smartly, you would be able to keep your weight under control. If you thought that you need to be a smart chef to learn how to cook healthily, you are dead wrong! In this article I will offer you five simple cooking tips which would get you up and running in no time!

1. You use stuffing for turkey, right, and probably you cook them along with the turkey! Okay, let me tell you a smart way to do the same thing but in a healthier way! When you cook your stuffing along with turkey, the whole food becomes very rich in calories. However, if you cook the stuffing separately, then you would be able to cut down on a lot of unnecessary calories!

2. Gravy is surely an essential part of meat. In fact I refuse to eat either chicken or turkey if I am not served sufficient gravy with it! But if you pass the gravy through a skimmer before serving it, your gravy would have fewer calories than otherwise!

3. Pecan pies might be tasty but not at all good for someone who is looking forward to losing some pounds during the holiday season, or rather keep their weight under control. Instead of pecan pies, why not try apple pies which are no less delicious and at the same time won't make you fat! If you don't like the taste of apple pies, you can always top them with low-fat or fat-free yogurt!

4. I make sure to monitor not only my own food intake but also that of my friends. Whenever they come to my house for snacking, I serve them pretzels and snacks which are low on fat. I avoid serving chips and doodles as they are high on calories! Whenever I host a party, I make sure to have fresh fruits and vegetables available for party guests at all times!

As a matter of fact, most people hate eating raw vegetables, so I steam them and use lemon juice as well as several kinds of flavored herbs as toping before serving them! This much I can guarantee that if you ever attend any of my parties, you won't gain any extra weight!

5.Sugar candies and sugary candied yams are a strict no-no, especially if you don't want to end up with a huge fat belly at the end of the holiday season! I have found that potatoes, when eaten either in baked or roasted form, offer a much better and healthier option than those candies!

Keep in mind that it is a lot easier to put on extra weight than lose it. A little discretion on your part would ensure that you never put any unnecessary weight on yourself and always stay fit!

2 Easy Ways to Keep the Pounds Away During the Holidays

2 Easy Ways to Keep the Pounds Away During the Holidays!

It is easiest to gain extra pounds in holidays than at other times of the year. Guess why? Well you don't need too hard on it! Come on, it is holiday season, so we don't have jobs to run after, which in turn means that we are less active than usual. Add to it the gazillion holiday parties that we have to attend to, and the calorie-rich foods served therein, and it won't take you long to add two and two and make four! Fortunately though, it is not too hard to avoid holiday weight gain! But how would you do it? Read on to find out!

Usually people gain a minimum of five pounds during the holidays; some even gain as many as ten pounds which is not good news at all, and yet some others quit their diet programs! However, if you follow my step-by-step Flatten My Belly strategy, neither of these things would ever happen to you!

1. Stay active: Okay, since it is holiday it is understandable that you are taking a break from your job. But that doesn't mean that you would be sitting at home the entire day, right? For starters, you may take the entire family on a brisk walk every morning! Or, how about a short vacation!

If you have children, why not play with them for a few hours everyday? That way, not only you but even your kids would remain fit and healthy by burning extra calories! Keep in mind that working out in the gym is not the only way to keep yourself fit; there are other and much easier ways to help you achieve the same results!

2. Savor but keep your appetite under control: With holidays arrive huge arrays of tasty foods that are simply irresistible! And there is no reason to deprive yourself of these foods simply out of fear of possible weight gain! Holidays come only once in a year, and if you don't enjoy yourself at this time, when else you will? Plus depriving yourself of anything is really not a very wise decision on your part, for usually it increases your food cravings all the more!
What you could do instead is to control your appetite! No, I don't mean to say that you should pop dozens of appetite suppressing pills before attending any party! What you should do is just taste all the foods available at the party by eating a handful of each of them, but you must NOT eat beyond that limit! Don't gobble lots of junk foods as that would make you fat!

3 Surefire Ways to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain

3 Surefire Ways to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain!

You might be thinking about shutting yourself out from the world and staying in your cubbyhole during the whole holiday season just so that there is no temptation for you to attend holiday parties and gain weight that way! But let me tell you that there is no need to make your life miserable out of fear of weight gain!

Heck, people gain weight simply because they don't follow the three basic healthy eating tricks that I am going to tell you about in this article! By using these tricks, you can enjoy the holidays to your heart's content while staying fit at the same time!

1. Eat organic: People hate organic foods such as vegetables and fruits, and more so during the holiday season so that they could keep their stomachs empty for the tasty junk foods that they are going to gorge on at parties! Keep in mind that it is one of the reasons why people gain weight at the end of holidays! If you keep yourself full by eating natural fruits and vegetables, you will eat fewer junk foods! Being low on calories, these natural foods won't make you fat either!


2. Cut down on holiday drinks: A lot of drinks available at the holiday parties are nothing but full of empty calories which make a person gain weight by leaps and bounds! One example of such a drink is alcohol. Among all alcoholic drinks, I would suggest that you specifically monitor your eggnog intake! Sure, eggnog is one of the tastiest holiday drinks available, but behind that taste exists an ugly reality which you may not be aware of: it is extremely rich in calories! In fact, even if you drink just one or two pegs it is not unnatural for a few pounds to be added to your body that way! So keep your eggnog intake under control!

3. Avoid emotional eating: By emotional eating I mean eating for the purpose of deriving comfort from foods rather than out of hunger! Of course, the reality is that food can never be a source of comfort to you; if anything, it could only bring distress by making you overweight!
Often people end up overeating because they have nothing better to do! If you indulge yourself in various activities such as hobbies, sports, crafts, etc, your chances of gaining weight are minimal! Also, when you attend a party, try to chat up with your old buddies rather than going after foods; you would avoid weight gain that way!

Stop Holiday Weight Gain

Stop Holiday Weight Gain Dead In Its Tracks with These 3 Amazing Tricks!

Holidays are all fun except for one part: it brings along weight gain! Actually, we shouldn't blame holidays for weight gain since it is actually the result of our poor eating habits! Has anyone said that holidays are meant to stuff ourselves with lots of turkeys, candies and pumpkin pies? Nope! Rather, we do it on our own accord!

Truth to be told, we would love to eat those foods not just in the holiday season but throughout the year! So it is not the holidays which are to be blamed for our unhealthy food cravings!
For the record, people don't gain weight if they just sip a little bit of eggnog, pop in a few cookies or candies into their mouths, or even take a large bite of that pumpkin pie; rather, they gain weight because of several other important reasons, most of which can either be controlled, changed or avoided! In this article I will tell you about three ways to avoid weight gain!

1. Do not attend a party on hungry stomach: It is commonsense that if you attend a party hungry, you could only behave like a hungry wolf by going after whatever delicious foods grab your attention! At parties, people are supposed to meet with old friends and buddies and have a nice time with them, but since you were 'smart' enough not to even eat a morsel from your home, your one and only friend at the party would be food! I don't even need to tell you what could be the outcome of such behavior!

Make sure that you eat lots of protein and fiber-rich foods before you venture out of home; this not only applies to holiday parties but even to holiday shopping!

2. Make wise food decisions: With all the tasty foods being laid out at holiday parties, it is time that you get selective about what you eat! Skip chips and doodles and opt for pretzels! If there are fresh fruits and vegetables available at the party, eat lots of them so that you have less appetite for junk foods!

Whenever you are confused about what to eat and what not, prefer smaller foods over larger ones as they usually tend to contain fewer calories.

3. Do not drink your way: You see, many people harbor a misconception that while fatty foods are bad for them, they could give the drinks a go because they are totally 'innocent' and fat-free! Nothing could be further from the truth!

Drinks are as much loaded with calories as foods. Alcohol is one notorious drink which contains loads of empty calories; if you don't monitor your alcohol intake you could easily add several extra pounds to your body without your knowledge!

Calorie counting is an essential tool that should be used at holiday parties. Unfortunately, however, people tend to count only the calories of the foods they eat, and ignore that of the drinks. Again this is nothing but poor judgment, for as I already pointed out, drinks could be as bad for you as foods!

To be honest, it is not at all possible to avoid booze at the holiday parties, but you could surely control its intake, couldn't you? Once you think you have had enough booze, stay firm and don't give in no matter how much your friends and colleagues pester you to have 'another peg or two'; don't budge no matter how much they try to convince you that 'one peg ain't cause any harm'!

Truth be told most people end up gaining a few pounds during the holiday season. To Lose Belly Fat see reviews of the best diets by visiting Http://www.LoseMyStomach.com.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Prevent Holiday Pounds With These 3 Little Known Weight Loss Tips!

Holiday season is a season of happiness as well as sadness! We are happy because finally we are able to take a break from our daily grunt work and meet our family and enjoy some quality time with them, but we are also sad at the same time because of the approaching holiday weight gain! After all, with all the delicious snacks and drinks we get to taste during this season, who could avoid weight gain?

But it does not have to be like this! There are ways you could prevent weight gain during this time! If you are wondering how that is possible, I am going to discuss it in this article!

1. Do not quit your exercise program: As the holiday season approaches, some people avoid workouts out of laziness; they prefer to have a nice time at home instead! Others avoid exercises because they don't want to venture out in the cold. Keep in mind that you don't need to hit the gym everyday to keep the pounds away, nor is it necessary to spend hours upon hours on exercises in order to keep the weight away!

Do you know that there are simple exercises you can do at home to keep the pounds away! Even better, focus only on those home workouts which won't require you to spend more than 2 hours per week! Yep, you heard me right: there are special intense exercises which would help you burn a lot of calories within a very short time!

Now you simply don't have any excuse left for not doing your regular workouts!

2. Don't skip meals: Most people believe that skipping meals is the best way to lose a lot of pounds quickly or avoid weight gain! I tell you what, this is completely bizarre thinking! In fact, if you skip your meals, especially breakfast, you would be hungry throughout the day. And when you are on a hungry stomach craving for food, it is much easier to stuff yourself with junk foods than otherwise! As you can see, skipping meals is not a very wise on your part!

3. Prepare your eating plan before attending a party: At holiday parties it is pretty hard to avoid junk food cravings, what with so many tempting foods floating all around, right? Wrong! If you exercise self-discipline and prepare a list of foods you would be eating at the party in advance, it would be easier for you to control your junk food intake! If you have difficulty in preparing the food plan, you might want to consult with your nutritionist or doctor!

Simple Weight Loss Tips for Holidayers

Don't deprive yourself but control your portions: Many people think that avoiding or depriving themselves completely of their favorite foods is the surefire way to avoid weight gain! If you too think this way you cannot be further from the truth!

If you deprive yourself of your favorite foods, your food cravings would increase all the more and a day will come when you would gorge on junk foods like a hungry wolf, thereby adding several pounds to your body in an instant! So a better option is to eat your favorite foods at least once every week! But at the same time you should monitor your food intake.

A good way to make sure that you don't gain weight by eating your favorite foods is by exercising the trick of 'portion control'! When you eat slowly and in small quantities, you would become satiated even by eating very little food. This way you would not only be able to satisfy your junk food cravings but at the same time keep your weight under control!

2. Smash all your beer bottles: Yep, you heard me right: open your cellar and throw out all the beer and soda bottles from there! Then promise yourself never to touch them again! Why would you do so? Quite simply, alcohol is high on calorie and sugar, both of which are bad for your health, especially when you are struggling hard to keep your weight under control! With alcohol and soda out of your way, you will find it easier to keep the pounds away and stay fit during the holiday season!

3. Buy tighter clothes: You might hate me for this advice, or think that I am crazy, but the fact remains that this is a good way of reminding yourself that you need to lose weight urgently! Think about it: how often have you promised yourself that you would lose weight before the next Christmas, and how many times have you failed to keep that promise!

It is no wonder that many people fail to lose weight because they simply don't make weight loss their number one priority! I know that wearing tight clothes would make you feel uneasy, but it is this very uneasiness which would propel you towards the path of weight loss! The more uneasy you feel, the harder you would try to lose weight and become slimmer! This way you would reach your weight loss goal quite fast!

And by the way, don't you want to be able to fit yourself in your favorite clothes? Make your dream a reality by doing this right now and eventually you will see that you are able to wear your favorite clothes without any feeling of uneasiness!
And that day would come soon!

These are just some of the ways to lose your holiday weight. Tosee reviews of the best diets to lose weight visit http://www.LoseMyStomach.com