Beating Those Food Cravings

1st N Weight Loss: Couch Potato Challenge: Day 13

Do you often find yourself giving in to your cravings and completely wrecking all of your efforts to lose weight or maintain any healthy eating habits? Before you uncontrollably grab for those doughnuts, slice of cake or chips, read this article and learn how you can easily overcome those cravings by using a few simple strategies.

Everyone, regardless of how disciplined they are with their diet, will from time to time fall victim to cravings for one food item or another. For people trying to lose weight, these cravings are even more of a challenge to deal with than for someone simply maintaining their weight.

Regardless of whether or not you are trying to lose weight, cravings can be the one thing that makes you break your normal dietary habits and overdo the calories you usually try to do without.

Most people know that getting some kind of exercise and eating healthy, low-fat foods is the key to maintaining good health, but with the hectic and hurried schedules so many people have these days, sometimes eating right and getting exercise can be easier said than done.

The best way to insure against dietary disaster when you do get those cravings throughout the day is to plan ahead and use a little strategy.

For one thing, try to plan 5 to 6 small meals with one to be eaten around every 3 hours of the day and make it a point not to miss any of them. It takes an average of 2 to 3 hours for the human body to digest a meal, so by the time you start to feel a craving coming on, it's almost time for your next meal anyway.

Make it a point to drink plenty of water. Quite often, feelings of hunger between meals are really your body trying to signal thirst. By keeping a bottle of water with you all day and making it a point to take constant sips throughout the day, you will keep hydrated, feel better, and eliminate the one common cause for cravings to happen.

When you are at home, always try to keep some fresh fruit on hand. If you are hit with a craving, fruit is a better choice than cake or chips. Also, make a fat-free dip and cut up some fresh veggies like carrots and celery and keep them in the fridge. This will give you another quick and healthy snack that you can just grab and eat during a craving.

Never go to a party, a meeting, or any event where there will be food available on an empty stomach. This will set you right up to over eat when you get there. Always eat a small meal or at least eat a good, healthy snack before you go, this will help stop cravings from hitting you while there.

If there are certain snack foods that you really enjoy, don't try to completely cut them out. You will only overindulge in them when you can't control the urge to have them later. Plan these snacks into your day, and just make them snacks that you have once in a while and in moderate amounts when you do.

Remember that just because certain food items are fat-free does not mean they are calorie free. When turning to fat free snacks, be careful of how many calories they contain and adjust your portions accordingly. It is very easy to assume fat-free is safe and go way overboard on them.

The next time you are hit with cravings, remember these little guidelines and you will be able to deal with them without ruining your efforts to maintain healthy eating habits.



This article is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is not to be used in place of, or in conjunction with, professional medical advice or any doctors recommendation. Prior to beginning any weight loss program, individuals must consult a physician for proper diagnosis and/or treatment.

Does Saying The "D" Word Create Thoughts Of Failure In Your Mind?

1st N Weight Loss: Couch Potato Challenge: Day 12

Why is it that merely saying the "D" word, you know "diet" brings immediate thoughts of failure to the minds of many men and women around the world? Could it be that we have all learned through trial and error that diets simply do not work?

I know many of you are sitting back with jaws dropped at the moment. After all, this is an article about dieting, right? It is and it isn't. Dieting is the kiss of death for many while a new phase in your life or lifestyle adjustment may be just the thing that will mean success for you and your fitness and health goals.

Eating for some is an addiction. Unfortunately, you can't exactly give up eating all together as a smoker can give up cigarettes. I'm not applying by any means that giving up cigarettes is easy but how much more difficult would it be if you were forced to have three a day? At that point you may as well enjoy them every time the urge hits right?

The same holds true for food. You must eat in order to survive. You cannot live without eating. This means that if food is a problem in your life, you must find a healthier way of viewing food.

Isn't this where diets generally come in handy? The short answer is no. This is where diets often fail. Diets do very little to change how we view food. In fact, most diets only serve to tell us which foods are good, which foods are bad, and which foods (typically most of the foods we enjoy most) are strictly taboo.

Diets begin by forcing people to feel deprived or punished. And no one likes to feel either of these things. I know that I don't.

Even worse however, is that we punish ourselves further when we slip along the straight and very narrow pathways upon which our diets place us.

This means that we are going to wallow in guilt over every little misstep we make until we give up all together and decide to over indulge once again and ignore the guilt all together. I have been here, how about you?

In order to have real success you must make a lifestyle change. This is the only way that you will be able to shed those unwanted pounds without experiencing the horrible guilt that so many dieters go through each and every step of the way with their diets.

Set goals for yourself. Keep them aggressive but realistic for fitness, dropping pounds, and eating new healthy foods. Even if your goal is as simple as eating  5 vegetable servings a day it is a great place to start.

Change your way of eating. Then change your way of seeing food and you will experience amazing changes in your attitudes toward your health, your body, and even your fitness level.

As the first pounds begin to drop you will begin to experience more energy and less pain when exercising. This should help keep you motivated to do even more as time goes by.

Do not think that long term weight loss goals will be as easy to achieve as the first five or ten pounds. Consistency is vitally important when making these lifestyle changes. Take each day as it comes and begin again the very next day.

This means that even if you fall completely "off the wagon" today, you can start over tomorrow. The trick is in staying the course more days than not and learning moderation and balance when it comes to straying from the straight and narrow. Wow, this is so true!

There are many ways to fail when it comes to dieting and I know people who have failed in almost every one I can possibly imagine. There is no way to fail, however, when you are making positive changes in your life that are getting positive results.

It may take weeks, months, or even years to reach your goal. As long as you are making steady and continuous efforts and progress, you are doing many great things for your health and well being. So remember, TODAY IZ THE DAY....WHY WAIT!


This article is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is not to be used in place of, or in conjunction with, professional medical advice or any doctors recommendation. Prior to beginning any weight loss program, individuals must consult a physician for proper diagnosis and/or treatment.

Which Diet?

1st N Weight Loss: Couch Potato Challenge: Day 11

There is no diet that suits everyone. So how will you know which diet suits you best?

The hallmark of a modern developed society seems to be people with those ugly bulges. And lots of dieting ads! Okay, let's face it. We will have to live with dieting. The question then is how to do it effectively and safely.

Dieting refers to regulated food intake to satisfy a short-term goal: losing weight or adding it. Diet refers to the food items that form the dieting process.

We as humans need essential nutrients such as proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. A well-balanced diet must meet these nutritional requirements or it could threaten general health and physical fitness. The diet must make the person healthy enough to be active and still provide only enough calories that can be burned away in the course of a day without it accumulating as fat.

Remember not every diet works for everyone. That is because there are metabolic differences between individuals. The challenge is to choose a diet that works for you. This you can do only with the help of a physician.

Diet pills are quite the "in thing" among health-conscious individuals. Some diet pills are associated with comprehensive dietary programs. However, these diet pills, especially the ones containing vitamins and minerals are not effective weight-loss tools for everyone. Some medicines cause short-term weight loss, but the loss is normally accompanied by dangerous side-effects.

Diet drugs can be classified into diuretics and stimulants. Diuretics induce water-weight loss, while stimulants such as ephedrine increase the heart rate and reduce appetite. These drugs can also cause kidney and liver damage. The stimulants increase your risk of sudden heart attacks and also cause addiction.

Exotic dieting patterns are not just ineffective, but dangerous as well. Starvation diets are undertaken by many to gain that perfect physique - the lean and athletic one. You know the look. But these diets are normally counterproductive. Yo-yo dieting refers to alternating periods of feasting and famine. It too is quite ineffective. When you starve, the body responds by decreasing metabolism. When you begin consuming food again, the food gets stored as fat. These adjustments leave the dieter feeling lethargic and fatigued. 

Certain medical conditions require special diets. A diabetic person is put on a diet for managing the blood sugar level, while mild hypertension is partly cured by following a diet of fruits and vegetables and a diet low in fat and sodium. The hypertension diet could focus on weight loss, if controlling blood pressure is necessary. Celiac disease patients follow a gluten-free diet, while people with kidney disease are required to follow a low-sodium diet to lessen the load on the kidneys. Lactose-intolerant people leave out milk products from their diet. 

Many diets include medicinal plants. These herbs include leaves, bark, berries, roots, gums, seeds, stems, and flowers. They come in the form of tablets, capsules, liquid beverages, bark pieces, powders, tinctures, fluid extracts, creams, lotions, salves, and oils. These medicines include herbal products which are available over-the-counter or at health food stores. However, it's always better to consume medications prescribed by doctors and provided by pharmacists.

Go on a diet if you need to. But play it safe, and do it in consultation with your doctor.  And remember, if one diet does not work for you, it doesn't mean you have failed. You could still find a diet regimen that will work wonders for you!

This article is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is not to be used in place of, or in conjunction with, professional medical advice or any doctors recommendation. Prior to beginning any weight loss program, individuals must consult a physician for proper diagnosis and/or treatment. Results may vary by each individual while working out, or utilizing any of the products mentioned in this article.