Healthy Brown Bag Lunches

Pritikin healthy brown bag lunches not only save you money, they save you loads of calories compared to typical lunch fare. Here's just one example. A Quizno‘s Tuna Melt Sandwich ratchets up a whopping 2,090 calories. Make your own tasty tuna sandwich Pritikin-style (see Tip #1 in this article) for fewer than 400 calories. Yes, you‘ve just erased about 1,600 calories from your diet. Do that every day and you‘d drop about 13 pounds in one month.

Pritikin-style healthy brown bag lunches are much better for you in other ways. A Quizno’s Tuna Melt has 31 grams of artery-busting saturated fat. That’s the equivalent of eating three Big Macs. By contrast, your homemade Pritikin tuna sandwich has less than 1 gram of saturated fat. Oh, how your heart’s gonna love you!

Read on for more tips on making your midday meal scrumptious, money-saving, and healthy. Chances are, you’ll discover some ideas for healthy brown bag lunches for kids, too.

7 Things You Should Pack For A Healthy Lunch

1. Simple, Sensational Sandwiches

Put together a sandwich of tuna (canned – preferably low-sodium, light, and packed in water) with 1 tablespoon nonfat mayo or nonfat plain yogurt, chopped celery, and onions, topped with baby spinach or peppery arugula, on 100% whole-wheat bread.

Or get a great dose of heart-healthy omega 3's by combining salmon (canned, low-sodium) or strips of fresh grilled salmon from last night’s dinner with cucumber, onion, and fresh dill. Stuff into a 100% whole-wheat pita.

Go juicy hamburger-style (and very healthy) with a veggie burger (choose lower-sodium varieties) topped with lettuce, slices of fresh tomato, and mustard in a whole-wheat bun.

2. Veggies, Veggies, Veggies

A veggie-packed lunch gives you lots of food, lots of nutrients, and zippo for calories compared to many other lunch choices. Here are healthy brown bag lunch ideas brimming with crunchy, colorful vegetables.

Fill a big bag of cut-up varieties that you can munch on all day long – baby carrots, celery, radishes, cherry tomatoes, and more. Spice them up, if you want, with a little bean dip. Make your own zesty, low-cal, and inexpensive Mexican-style dip by combining pinto beans, chopped red onion, fresh cilantro leaves, and lime juice in a food processor and blend.

For more veggie goodness, trade your brown bag for a small icebox, like an Igloo, and pack a HUGE salad, like Pritikin Longevity Center alums David and Kathy Heetland of Skokie, Illinois. The couple goes through a bag of greens for lunch a day PLUS, in their salads, diced sweet potatoes, yellow squash, red bell peppers, cucumbers, red cabbage, red onions, and more. Says David: “Pritikin showed us that all kinds of food can go into salads.”

Three heaping cups of salad full of fresh veggies add up to a mere 100 calories.

But boy-oh-boy, don’t let the word “salad” delude you into thinking that all salads are healthy. Three cups of salad with cheese, full-fat dressings, and bacon bits tally up 600 calories and more. The Taco Bell Fiesta Taco Salad packs 860 calories, 46 grams of total fat, 14 grams of which are saturated fat.

For salad dressings that are slimming, use vinegars, lemon juice, fresh salsas, or your own homemade combinations, like wasabi and rice vinegar, Dijon mustard and balsamic vinegar, or fat-free plain yogurt sassed up with a little horseradish.

3. Fruit Galore

Like vegetables, fruits are fabulous weight-loss foods because they’re “big” foods, that is, foods that are bulked up by lots of fiber and water. With “big” foods, you’ll be eating a lot of food (which will satisfy your hunger) but not a lot of calories.

Here’s a great example: For the same number of calories that are in a handful of peanuts (about two ounces), you can eat 2½pounds of strawberries (about five of those green boxes that strawberries come in.) Eating “big” foods like strawberries, salads, and other fruits and vegetables can prevent hunger from taking over and taking you places you don’t want to go.

You can even turn fruit into a delicious sandwich. Combine fresh pineapple chunks with nonfat ricotta cheese. Smooth over a slice of whole-wheat toast. Delish!

4. Wrap It All Up

For “on the go” lunches, keep several types of greens and chopped veggies like carrots, onions, celery, and tomatoes in the fridge.

When you’re ready to leave the house, just spread out a large whole-grain wrap. Lavash bread is a good choice too. Top with greens, veggies, and a little balsamic vinegar or low-cal, low-sodium salad dressing. If you have leftovers like roasted chicken, crabmeat, or turkey breast, add them. Sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper. Roll the wrap up, and you’re out the door with a big, tasty lunch the size of a small football.

5. Thermos Magic

Soup or vegetarian/bean chili made the night before often tastes even better the next day. To keep hot entrees hot, use an insulated wide-mouth thermos.

In several studies at Penn State University, scientists found that people who ate veggie- and grain-rich soups and stews tended to eat significantly fewer calories overall by day’s end than people who didn’t.

6. South of the Border

It’s scary how much belt-busting trouble you can get into at many Mexican restaurants. One cheese enchilada at On the Border Restaurant, Nutrition Action newsletter recently reported, tallies up 1,600 calories and 53 grams of saturated fat. Yes, 53 grams! Think of it as 20 pats of butter.

Take in a fraction of calories (only about 200) and absolutely no sat fat by making your own Mexican-style bowl of corn, black beans, and salsa. Simply combine 1 can of black beans (rinsed and drained), 2 cups of frozen no-salt-added corn kernels (thawed), and 1 cup of fresh salsa.

7. Baked Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Corn – Warm, Yummy, and Very Filling

Think outside the sandwich. A big baked potato topped with a calorie-light dressing like nonfat plain yogurt, mustard, salsa, or nonfat sour cream weighs in at just 300 to 350 calories.

Enjoy the rich flavor of sweet potatoes? While home on Sundays, cook up a batch. Wrap each one in foil and bake for about an hour at 425 degrees F, or until their luscious, sweet juices start to ooze out into the foil. At work the following week, just pop one in the microwave for a quick warm-up. They’re loaded with taste, and they don’t need any extra toppings. Best of all, they REALLY fill you up.

Craving corn on the cob? Easy! Just microwave it, husk and all, for three to five minutes.

Things You Should NOT Pack…

The Dry Stuff

Rid your pantry of all those chips, crackers, goldfish, Cheetos, cookies, trail mix, and other dry snacks that the food industry has packaged of late into petite 100-calorie serving-size bags. What good are they if you’ve got to rip open three or four before you’re feeling full?

All dry foods, even healthier options like pretzels, dried cereals, fat-free chips, and dried fruit, pack a whole lot of calories into very small packages.

Instead, fill up on water-rich, fiber-filled foods like vegetables, fruits, beans, hot cereals, potatoes, corn, yams, whole-wheat pasta, and brown rice. Foods with a lot of water usually provide a lot of stomach-filling volume, but not a lot of calories.

A whole pound of veggies, for example, adds up to a mere 65 to 195 calories. By contrast, a pound of dried cereal or fat-free chips is packed with 1,600 to 1,725 calories.

The Cheesy Stuff

Since 1970, Americans’ consumption of cheese has risen 350%. That’s a huge problem because there’s nothing worse for your heart than cheese because it’s full of artery-injuring saturated fat. “If you want to die early,” Nathan Pritikin said, “eat a lot of cheese.”

Adding just one ounce of American cheese to a sandwich adds six grams of saturated fat (that’s more than you’d get in a McDonald’s Sausage Patty.)

Calorie-Filled Drinks

We’ve become a nation of beverage bloat, and it’s bloating our bodies. The average American drinks 28 ounces of sugary soft drinks a day (nearly 300 calories), which is nearly six ounces more than a decade or two ago, recently reported the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Liquid calories are especially troublesome if you’re trying to lose weight because they do not quell appetite as much as solid foods do.

The good news: If you replace calorie-laden drinks with no-calorie drinks like water, the pounds will melt off. Studying more than 3,000 children and teenagers, researchers at Columbia School of Public Health recently reported that when the kids drank water instead of sugar-sweetened beverages, their total calorie intake dropped an average of 235 calories each day.(Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, April 2009)

Eliminating 235 calories each day could help most people drop about 23 pounds within one year. 23 pounds! And all it took was one simple change: switching to water.

Turn your water into lemonade (and do it very cheaply) by squeezing several slices of lemon into a glass of icy water. Stir in a packet of Splenda, and voila! Tasty lemonade. Great for your wallet. And GREAT for your waistline.

Source
https://www.pritikin.com/your-health/healthy-living/eating-right/986-pritikin-brown-bag-lunches.html#.VTyYACGqqko

Break Through Your Weight Loss Plateau

Pat yourself on the back: You’ve lost weight! Or, at least you had lost weight, but for the past few days or even weeks, the scale hasn’t been budging. You don’t feel like you’re doing anything different with your diet. You’re keeping carbs low, eating the appropriate amount of protein, and you’re moderating all of it with a consistent exercise program.

For most people attempting to lose weight, there comes a time when they reach that inevitable plateau where their motivation is soaring but they’ve stopped seeing results. If you’re nodding right now, don’t worry. What you’re experiencing is totally normal. Plateaus, whether they relate to weight, to your job, or your closest relationship, are a call to charge things up again, refine your strategies and keep moving forward.

So rather than give up and maintain your current weight, or worse yet, drown yours sorrows in a half dozen donuts, there are numerous actions you can take to reignite your program.

Here are our top 5 picks for breaking through your weight plateau:

Consider Intermittent Fasting

Although Conventional Wisdom tells us that fasting forces the metabolism into slow motion causing your body to cling onto fat stores, recent scientific studies have suggested otherwise. According to an article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, alternate day fasting may result in an improvement in insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake, as well as decreases in fat mass. While science is still unearthing the precise mechanisms for why and how this occurs, the previously-held idea that you have to eat six meals a day or more in order to keep your metabolism stoked to lose weight simply isn’t true.

Lucky for you, intermittent fasting (IF) can be done in a number of ways. From daily fasting, by only eating during a 5-hour time period, or setting aside one to three days a week to fast, the combinations are virtually endless. The important thing is to know is what kind of intermittent fasting technique will work best for you and your lifestyle, and this can only be determined by a little experimentation. As long as IF is done correctly, it can kick your body off of its weight plateau in just a matter of days. And keep in mind that IF is not about starving yourself. It’s about eating in a manner that mimics the natural irregularity of Grok’s eating patterns.

Write it Down

A slice of bread here, a handful of tortilla chips there – it all adds up. When we start to lose weight, we might be inclined to loosen the reins on what we can eat. Even though occasional indulgences should be enjoyed guilt-free, when you’re still trying to lose weight, those seemingly benign snacks still count.

So for one week, write down everything that you eat. Everything. From the sugar packet you dropped into your coffee to the two bites of of Cherry Garcia you snuck from cousin Sal’s dessert bowl at your niece’s sweet 16, write it down. A food diary is an honest look into what you’re actually eating, not what you think you are eating.

Need more convincing that you might not be being honest with yourself? According to the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, those who kept a food diary in a 20-week study dropped double the weight of the dieters who did not chronicle their food choices. Keeping a food diary makes you accountable for what you eat because it forces you to consider your actions before you take them. This is an effective safeguard against mindless snacking or emotional eating.

If you’re looking for an online food journal, check out the one at FitDay.com. It’s free and super easy to use.

Side Note: The Primal Eating Plan is meant to be intuitive and easy. One of the great things about Primal eating is that you don’t have to count calories and track every bite of food you consume. This is why we only recommend the food diary as a temporary method to uncover any dietary indiscretions. Once you’ve honed in on and refined your behaviors we say ditch the journal and get on with eating Primal in a natural way that requires little to no effort.

Switch Up Your Workouts

They say variety is the spice of life, and this holds true when it comes to your workouts. Without change you might find yourself dreading the monotony of regular gym sessions and simply lose motivation. Additionally, your body can become used to to the same caloric burn and muscle exertion as it becomes more efficient at completing regular movements. Give your brain and brawn the wake up call they need by shaking up your usual routine with some new additions.

Try increasing the speed as you exercise and do short bursts of intense exercises (such as sprinting) for one to two minutes followed by small rest periods. These short bursts of anaerobic activity will stimulate your body to release human growth hormone, which helps to burn fat while maintaining muscle mass.

If that doesn’t do the trick, try getting super Primal by ditching the gym, shoes, and structure for some free form activity. If this doesn’t keep things interesting we’re not sure what will.

Keep in mind that 80% of your body composition is a result of your diet. The remaining 20% is determined by how you effectively manage your sleeping patterns and stress levels, how you exercise and other lifestyle factors. Increasing your workout intensity is but one way to tweak an otherwise optimized weight loss plan.

Reduce Carbs

Try reducing your carb intake to 50-100 grams per day to reduce insulin production and fire up your fat metabolism. Make sure that you’re eating enough protein for your weight (we suggest using the .7-1 gram per pound of lean body weight formula), eating the right vegetables and snacking on high-fat foods to keep you feeling satisfied.

Keep on Keeping on

Remember that losing 10 lbs when you are starting at 300 isn’t nearly as difficult as losing 10 when you are approaching your ideal weight (say, going from 170 to 160 for a male). Don’t let this come to you as discouragement. Just recognize that changes might not come as quickly as they once had and resolve to stay the course.

Also, know that The Primal Blueprint lifestyle is about long term goals. Though you can lose weight quickly on the PB, keep your head straight and remember that the emphasis should always be on a healthy, Primal lifestyle – not a get-fit-quick routine. You can do it, but it may take time.

Final Tips

If you haven’t done it already (or even if you have!), consider taking the 30-Day Primal Health Challenge. It may sound daunting, but employing the “act as if” tips will be sure to get you through those tough moments when a piece of dry toast looks better than a killer omelet (does this really ever happen?).

If you’ve tried all of these strategies and you’re still stuck, don’t hesitate to hit us up with a comment. Our experienced Primal community will likely be able to help.

Source
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/weight-loss-plateau/#axzz3YOoVm6Cv

Sneaky Reasons You Pack on Pounds

You don’t have to be a C.S.I. agent to spot the usual suspects when it comes to winter weight gain, but if it were that easy to identify every diet and exercise derailer, we’d all still have our beach bodies in January. Yes, your hibernating instincts tell you to move less and eat more when the temperature drops, but turns out the common cold, down comforters, and a hatred for Brussels sprouts could cause the needle to creep on your scale, too. 

You Sleep Under a Pile of Blankets

It’s tempting to burrow under your flannel sheets when it gets cold out, but don’t get too cozy. Being too warm can actually keep you from nodding off, which can spell bad news for your gut. Columbia University researchers found that people who get less than 5 hours of sleep are 50 percent more likely to be obese than those who sleep 7 to 9 hours a night. But what does your comforter have to do with it? Science shows that you enter and get your best sleep when your core body temperature drops. If your body is too warm, heat dumping can't occur normally, making it difficult to go to sleep, says Douglas Moul, MD, from the Cleveland Clinic’s Sleep Disorders Clinic. The optimal ambient temperature: a cool 60 to 68 degrees.

You’re Nursing a Cold

Nothing derails your workout routine easier than getting sick—especially when you’re already looking for an excuse to skip the gym—and it turns out that the sniffles themselves may make you pack on pounds. A 2009 review in the journal Medical Hypothesesfound that catching a cold may triple your weight gain. Animals infected with adenovirus-36, a virus that causes upper-respiratory infections in humans, were more likely to gain chub than those who stayed healthy. Same thing seems to hold true in humans, says Richard Atkinson, MD, clinical professor of pathology at Virginia Commonwealth University and director of Obtech Obesity Research Center. Evidence suggests that the bug increases the number of glucose receptors on your fat cells, causing them to grow bigger in size and number and saddling you with up to 35 extra pounds.

Your House is Drafty

Who knew? Insulating doors and windows does more than save you money, it can also help you eat less. As it turns out, eating in warmer temps is better at leveling your cravings, reports researchers from Maastricht University in the Netherlands. Women who ate in a room kept at a toasty 81 degrees rated themselves as 20 percent less hungry and ate 10 percent less than those who sat down in a room kept at 72 degrees.

You Turn to Carbs as a Quick Fix

When we’re blue, we unconsciously turn to carbs to deliver a quick hit of the feel-good chemical, serotonin, and we start grabbing them more often during these cold months. “From around October through early March, there are people who go into a hibernating depression. They say they’d rather eat a potato than have sex,” says Dr. Moul. Research shows that seasonal affective disorder can trigger cravings for pasta, potatoes, rice, and that people with SAD can eat an additional 800 calories a day from carbs alone.

Everyone Else is Gaining Weight

The flu isn’t the only thing that’s contagious, being exposed to obesity can make you pack on pounds, too. An oft-cited New England Journal of Medicine study found that you’re 57 percent more likely to be obese if you have a friend who’s fat, and 37 percent more likely if your spouse is chubby. That’s particularly bad news right now, since Americans gain about a pound a year during the winter that they don’t lose later in the year. To make matters worse, researchers fear that the bigger our friends, the lower our motivation to stay in shape. A 2010 study in the journal Obesity found that people are less likely to consider themselves overweight when surrounded by other people who are bigger.

You're a Stress Mess

Between navigating rising heat bills and winter weather warnings, the coldest months spell stress. And when your cortisol levels start to skyrocket, your weight tends to follow. Harvard Medical School researchers found that people who stressed over work, paying off bills, and relationships gained more weight over 9 years than those who kept their cool. Why? Not only do higher stress levels trigger your body to accumulate belly fat, you’re also more likely to self-medicate with the help of Dr. Ben and Dr. Jerry. “When you’re stressed, you don’t think as clearly. You become less attentive to your health, and are less mindful about what you eat,” says Dr. Moul. 

You Hate Winter Greens

Your favorite fresh produce—berries, tomatoes, zucchini—may not be in season for another few months, but that doesn’t mean you should feed on meat and potatoes until spring. An American Journal of Public Health study found that people who ate 2.7 servings of veggies a day were more likely to have a lower BMI 10 years later, so it’s important to get your greens year-round. Luckily, there are plenty of winter veggies worth mixing in your diet. For starters, include cauliflower (1 cup, raw, 25 calories) and spaghetti squash (1 cup, 42 calories). Like all vegetables, they’re high in water content and low in calories, so you’ll feel full, not fat. And if you can get over your childhood fears, add Brussels sprouts to your menu. For only 56 calories, a cup of the vegetable delivers 4 grams of belly-fat fighting fiber and almost your entire day’s worth of vitamin C. 

Source
http://www.fitbie.com/lose-weight/tips/7-surprising-reasons-winter-weight-gain

16 Ways to Lose Weight Fast

From Zumba to yoga to ditching junk food, these simple lifestyle changes will help you lose 10, 30, even 50 pounds!

by Jessica Girdwain

Tweak your lifestyle

From Health magazine It's a familiar story: You pledge to honor a daily elliptical routine and count every last calorie. But soon, you're eating cupcakes at the office and grabbing happy hour mojitos, thinking, Oops, diet over.

There is a better way: Swap the all-or-nothing approach for one or two healthy switch-ups in your daily routine. "Doing this can lead to more weight loss than you ever imagined," says Marissa Lippert, RD, author of The Cheater's Diet.

In fact, we talked to readers who knocked off 10, 25, even 60 pounds with some easy tweaks. Borrow their slim-down secrets to transform your body the real-world way.

Swap your go-to order

"I used to eat out at restaurants up to nine times a week! By cutting back to just once a week and ordering a grilled chicken salad instead of a large bowl of pasta, I've lost 20 pounds in one month." —Kerri Butler, Joplin, MO

Skip the salty aisle

"I reached my goal weight after I stopped routinely buying snacks at the grocery store. If I wanted a bag of chips or a candy bar, I had to walk to the store to get it. That inconvenience usually made me ignore my cravings." —Heather Del Baso, Worcester, MA

Have a 300-calorie breakfast

"I used to skip breakfast, but now I never go without. I always eat about 300 calories of a healthy mix of protein and whole grains. My go-to meal: a sandwich with natural peanut butter and apple butter. It keeps my hunger down so I snack less throughout the day. In a little over a year, I've shed 65 pounds." —Bo Hale, Tulsa, OK

Get fit in five

"I try to fit in small bouts of exercise whenever possible, like doing jumping jacks or crunches during television commercials or dancing while washing dishes. This burns extra calories and keeps me from mindlessly munching in front of the TV. Now my clothes fit way better, and I’m more toned than ever." —Megan Tiscareno, Hammond, IN

Kick the habit

"I quit smoking, and right away joined a gym and started working out with a personal trainer. There was no way I could exercise and feel healthy if I kept lighting up. I've already dropped 37 pounds in three months!" —Leila Fathi, Memphis, TN

Do a purge

"I totally cleaned out my pantry. Once I replaced the foods I used to overindulge in, like ice cream, with lower-cal snacks, such as roasted sunflower seeds or Special K Chocolatey Delight cereal, I began making better choices automatically. Now, I'm slimmer than I was before I had my two kids!" —Lori Feldman, Coconut Creek, FL

Healthy up your happy hour

"After work, my colleagues and I always grabbed dinner—and it was usually deep-fried. Then we changed things up. Instead of nights out, we started walking and running around a local track. A year later, I’m down 40 pounds." —Ellen Setzer, Cleveland, OH

Get fired up

"I loaded my iPod with jams that make me look forward to going to the gym. They energize me, allowing me to pick up speed on the elliptical—and because I want to hear my entire playlist, my workouts are longer now. Two months later, I'm down 13 pounds and have killer legs." —Kara Marshall, York, ME

Pile on the veggies

"By adding vegetables to the foods I love—like eating pizza topped with arugula and green peppers instead of pepperoni—I became so full so quickly that I no longer had room to eat things like chips or super-rich desserts. I said good-bye to four dress sizes!" —Janessa Mondestin, New York City, NY

Run your butt off

"When I wanted to fit into my skinny jeans again, I started running 20 minutes a day during my lunch hour. In two months, I've lost 20 pounds, have tons of energy, and just finished my first 5K. Those jeans? They're too big now!" —Lauren Castor, Anniston, AL

Downward dog it

"Yoga has become the best thing for my relationship with food and my body. From practicing it several times a week, I'm now more in touch with my hunger cues—so I eat intuitively and stop when I'm full. I've gone down a jeans size, and my cellulite has disappeared!" —Jessica Nicklos, Morgantown, WV

Don’t supersize it

"When going out for fast food, I used to get the large-size value meal. Now, I satisfy a craving by ordering just one item: a small order of fries or a six-piece box of chicken nuggets. So far, I've shaved off 16 pounds in seven weeks, and I'm on track to being thinner than my high school self for my 10-year reunion later this year." —Miranda Jarrell, Birmingham, AL

Save room for your dessert

"I budget for the treats I love. By eating healthy snacks like carrots and hummus, I have calories to splurge on a piece of chocolate and glass of wine each night. And I've still managed to lose 20 pounds in three months." —Elaine Higginbotham, Fort Worth, TX

Brave a new class

"Two months ago, I started going to Zumba twice a week. The crazy dance routines really tone your muscles—especially legs and abs—and give you a heart-pounding cardio workout. Eleven pounds later, I've almost reached my goal weight." —Morgan Howe, Rochester, NY

Nix nighttime eating

"Each time I needed to lose the baby weight, I stopped eating after 6:30 p.m. five nights a week. The other two evenings were reserved for nights out. Most of what I'd eat at night was junk food anyway, so it took only two months to get my pre-baby body back." —Deborah Gilboa, Pittsburgh, PA

Walk with Spot

"My dog and I go for a walk every day, even if it's for just 10 minutes around the block. When the weather is horrible, her enthusiasm gives me the incentive to get out when I wouldn't dare lace up my sneakers otherwise. All the walking adds up: I've lost more than 50 pounds this past year." —Jamie Altholz, Denver, CO

Source

Avoid Winter Weight Gain

There's A Good Chance You're Going To Put On Unwanted Weight This Winter. Here's How Not To:

Call it the worst leftover evolutionary urge ever: winter weight gain. 

It turns out, your body is hardwired to put on weight during the winter. During the season, most people unconsciously (and against all better judgment) try to bulk up like bears and squirrels, as putting on extra insulation used to be a good way to stay healthy during the harsh, underfed winter months, according to Indiana University researchers.

Meanwhile, the short, dark days can deprive your body of vitamin D and up your production of drowse-inducing melatonin, leaving you lethargic and craving sugar and calories. Also, during the winter, serotonin is less effective in interacting with brain cells involved in controlling mood and appetite, says Judith Wurtman, Ph.D., former MIT research scientist and co-author of The Serotonin Power Diet. So in an attempt to improve our moods, we reach for high-carb foods that will trigger the release of mood-boosting serotonin. (One recent Cornell study found that most people buy more food and calories in January and February than they do during the holiday season.) 

Plus, in the winter, your body’s levels of fat-storing enzymes increase, meaning those extra calories are even more likely to give you the jiggles, says dietician Georgie Fear, R.D., author of Lean Habits for Lifelong Weight Loss. 

And motivation to work out? Yeah, right. The setting sun, even at 5 pm, is a signal to our body that the day is over and it’s not time to expend more energy, it’s time to relax, says trainer Mike Donavanik, C.S.C.S., C.P.T. So we don’t work out and, in turn, don’t get the endorphins and feel-good hormones we need to perk up during the winter. We get further into a funk, working out less and eating even more.  

Hence why most people gain around one pound over the winter months, per research published in the New England Journal of Medicine. And while that doesn’t sound so bad, about five percent of normal weight adults, and 30 percent of overweight ones, put on at least five pounds. 

But, biology isn’t fate. Here are five ways to beat Mother Nature and never gain winter weight again.

Cut Back On The Booze

When you’re trapped inside for the winter, it can feel like there’s little to do… besides drink. “With my clients, alcohol intake is a huge contributor to winter weight gain. While I can't suggest a substitute for beer, drinking less beer and choosing a flavorful one can help you reduce the number of drinks you have. One pint of strong beer is still going to be fewer calories than three pints of weaker beer that happened to be on special,” Fear says. Cutting back on the drinks can also help you cut back on the junk food. According to research published in Alcohol & Alcoholism, putting back three drinks can reduce your body’s levels of the feel-full hormone leptin by 30 percent.

Slim Your Coffee

Your caffeine habit can do more than warm you up and give you some extra energy. It can also pack on the pounds. While that’s not to say you need to forgo coffee altogether, work on limiting your use of full-fat milk, white sugar, and even artificial sweeteners, recommends Fear. And make sure you get all of your coffee by noon. That will help ensure it’s out of your system come bedtime. After all, when you don’t sleep well, you’re even more apt to reach for high-energy, low-performing foods the next day.

Slurp Soups

“Filling up on soup before your main course is a valid method of warming up from the cold and losing weight.” Appetite research shows that eating soup as an appetizer can help you put back fewer calories and lose weight. “The trick is to choose soups that are low in calorie density, so think broth and vegetables, not bacon and cheese chowder,” Fear says

Switch Up Your Workout Schedule

If your mood is highly affected by the weather and short days, it can be beneficial to change your standard workout times to lighter hours, says Donovanik. Consider squeezing in a quick workout during your lunch break, or aiming to hit the gym on the weekends, rather than during the workweek.

Pick Up a Winter Sport

Just because it’s snowy, it doesn’t mean you can’t—or shouldn’t—take your workout outdoors. Getting outside for a sport can help you switch your mindset from “I need to do this” to “I want to do this,” Donavanik says. Bonus: You can burn more calories in the winter. Research published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise shows that race times speed up as the temperatures drop—and quicker runs burn more calories. Skiing, for instance, burns 400 to 600 calories per hour, according to University of Utah Health Care.

Source
http://au.askmen.com/sports/foodcourt_150/167_eating_well.html

The “Friend Diet”: How Your Social Circle Can Help You Lose Weight

Did you know that if your two best friends are fat, you’re 150% more likely to be fat, too?

source

Obesity spreads like a cold or the flu. The Framingham Heart Study–data on the health and well-being of people in the town of Framingham, Massachusetts, spanning three generations back to 1948–shows that people with a friend who became clinically obese were 57 percent more likely to become obese, too.

Astonishingly, you don’t even have to know someone to be influenced by them. In Framingham, people whose friend’s got fat were 20 percent more likely to gain weight, too!

The research–by Harvard’s Nicholas A. Christakis and UC San Diego’s James H. Fowler, authors of “Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How they Shape Our Lives”–shows the powerful influence of social networks on our health.

What–if anything–can you do to ensure the social influences shaping you are healthy ones?

• Join a group of Active People. A walking group, a sports team, even a gardening club–all these are likely to help you build the kinds of friendships that will encourage an active, healthy life. Your local chapter of the Sierra Club will likely have organized physical activities likes hikes, skiing, and camping trips. Just show up–you’re sure to meet people who will encourage you to stay active.

• Find a Healthy Mentor. Blogger Jeff Goins recommends the following steps: 1. find someone you want to be like; 2. study him to see what his habits are; and 3. take your time before making the request. But it doesn’t stop there–one of the most important steps is to show appreciation for all that your mentor does.

• Date Someone Active. You mate has a huge effect on your behavior. One study in Israel showed that the wives of men who were participating in a weight loss program lost weight themselves when they learned about the diet—even though they weren’t officially dieting. If you don’t have a partner, find one! Websites like eHarmony.com can be a great resource. If you struggle with dating, hire a coach—someone like Evan Marc Katz 

Turns out that weight gain (or loss) isn’t the only thing we “catch” from our friends.  Smoking, excessive drinking, tendency to divorce and even unhappiness are also contagious.  So, know that your friends impact you–and if you don’t have enough of the good ones, go on a Healthy Friend Diet!

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How to Lose Weight: 40 Fast, Easy Tips

You know the drill when it comes to losing weight: take in fewer calories, burn more calories. But you also know that most diets and quick weight-loss plans don't work as promised. If you're trying to drop a few pounds fast, these expert tips will make it easy for you to lose the weight quickly.

From Stealth Health (Reader's Digest Association Books)

. Write down what you eat for one week and you will lose weight. Studies found that people who keep food diaries wind up eating about 15 percent less food than those who don’t. Watch out for weekends: A University of North Carolina study found people tend to consume an extra 115 calories per weekend day, primarily from alcohol and fat. Then cut out or down calories from spreads, dressings, sauces, condiments, drinks, and snacks; they could make the difference between weight gain and loss.

2. Add 10 percent to the amount of daily calories you think you’re eating. If you think you’re consuming 1,700 calories a day and don’t understand why you’re not losing weight, add another 170 calories to your guesstimate. Chances are, the new number is more accurate. Adjust your eating habits accordingly.

3. Get an online weight loss buddy to lose more weight. A University of Vermont study found that online weight-loss buddies help you keep the weight off. The researchers followed volunteers for 18 months. Those assigned to an Internet-based weight maintenance program sustained their weight loss better than those who met face-to-face in a support group.

4. Get a mantra. You’ve heard of a self-fulfilling prophecy? If you keep focusing on things you can’t do, like resisting junk food or getting out the door for a daily walk, chances are you won’t do them. Instead (whether you believe it or not) repeat positive thoughts to yourself. “I can lose weight.” “I will get out for my walk today.” “I know I can resist the pastry cart after dinner.” Repeat these phrases and before too long, they will become true for you.

5. After breakfast, stick to water. At breakfast, go ahead and drink orange juice. But throughout the rest of the day, focus on water instead of juice or soda. The average American consumes an extra 245 calories a day from soft drinks. That’s nearly 90,000 calories a year—or 25 pounds! And research shows that despite the calories, sugary drinks don’t trigger a sense of fullness the way that food does.

6. Eat three fewer bites of your meal, one less treat a day, or one less glass of orange juice. Doing any of these can save you about 100 calories a day, and that alone is enough to prevent you from gaining the two pounds most people mindlessly pack on each year.

7. Watch one less hour of TV. A study of 76 undergraduate students found the more they watched television, the more often they ate and the more they ate overall. Sacrifice one program (there’s probably one you don’t really want to watch anyway) and go for a walk instead.

8. Wash something thoroughly once a week. Whether that’s a floor, a couple of windows, the shower stall, bathroom tile, or your car, a 150-pound person will burn about four calories for every minute spent cleaning. Scrub for 30 minutes and you could work off approximately 120 calories, the same number in a half-cup of vanilla frozen yogurt.

9. Wait until your stomach rumbles before you reach for food. It’s stunning how often we eat out of boredom, nervousness, habit, or frustration—so often, in fact, that many of us have actually forgotten what physical hunger feels like. If you’re hankering for a specific food, it’s probably a craving, not hunger. If you’d eat anything you could get your hands on, chances are you’re truly hungry. Find ways other than eating to express love, tame stress, and relieve boredom.

10. Sniff a banana, an apple, or a peppermint when you feel hungry. You might feel silly, but it works. When Alan R. Hirsch, M.D., neurological director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, tried this with 3,000 volunteers, he found that the more frequently people sniffed, the less hungry they were and the more weight they lost—an average of 30 pounds each. One theory is that sniffing the food tricks the brain into thinking you’re actually eating it.

11. Stare at the color blue. There’s a good reason you won’t see many fast-food restaurants decorated in blue: it functions as an appetite suppressant. So serve up dinner on blue plates, dress in blue while you eat, and cover your table with a blue tablecloth. Conversely, avoid red, yellow, and orange in your dining areas. Studies find they encourage eating.

12. Eat in front of mirrors and you’ll lose weight. One study found that eating in front of mirrors slashed the amount people ate by nearly one-third. Having to look yourself in the eye reflects back some of your own inner standards and goals, and reminds you of why you’re trying to lose weight in the first place.

13. Spend 10 minutes a day walking up and down stairs. The Centers for Disease Control says that’s all it takes to help you shed as much as 10 pounds a year (assuming you don’t start eating more).

14. Walk five minutes for at least every two hours. Stuck at a desk all day? A brisk five-minute walk every two hours will parlay into an extra 20-minute walk by the end of the day. And getting a break will make you less likely to reach for snacks out of antsiness.

15. You’ll lose weight and fat if you walk 45 minutes a day, not 30. The reason we’re suggesting 45 minutes instead of the typical 30 is that a Duke University study found that while 30 minutes of daily walking is enough to prevent weight gain in most relatively sedentary people, exercise beyond 30 minutes results in weight and fat loss. Burning an additional 300 calories a day with three miles of brisk walking (45 minutes should do it) could help you lose 30 pounds in a year without even changing how much you’re eating.

16. Don’t buy any prepared food that lists sugar, fructose, or corn syrup among the first four ingredients on the label. You should be able to find a lower-sugar version of the same type of food. If you can’t, grab a piece of fruit instead! Look for sugar-free varieties of foods such as ketchup, mayonnaise, and salad dressing. Also, avoid partially hydrogenated foods, and look for more than two grams of fiber per 100 calories in all grain products. Finally, a short ingredient list means fewer flavor enhancers and empty calories.

17. Put your fork or spoon down between every bite. At the table, sip water frequently. Intersperse your eating with stories for your dining partner of the amusing things that happened during your day. Your brain lags your stomach by about 20 minutes when it comes to satiety (fullness) signals. If you eat slowly enough, your brain will catch up to tell you that you are no longer in need of food.

18. Throw out your “fat” clothes for good. Once you’ve started losing weight, throw out or give away every piece of clothing that doesn’t fit. The idea of having to buy a whole new wardrobe if you gain the weight back will serve as a strong incentive to stay fit.

19. Close the kitchen for 12 hours. After dinner, wash all the dishes, wipe down the counters, turn out the light, and, if necessary, tape closed the cabinets and refrigerator. Late-evening eating significantly increases the overall number of calories you eat, a University of Texas study found. Stopping late-night snacking can save 300 or more calories a day, or 31 pounds a year.

20. Walk before dinner and you’ll cut calories AND your appetite. In a study of 10 obese women conducted at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, 20 minutes of walking reduced appetite and increased sensations of fullness as effectively as a light meal.

21. Make one social outing this week an active one. Pass on the movies and screen the views of a local park instead. Not only will you sit less, but you’ll be saving calories because you won’t chow down on that bucket of popcorn. Other active ideas: a tennis match, a guided nature or city walk (check your local listings), a bike ride, or bowling.

22. Buy a pedometer, clip it to your belt, and aim for an extra 1,000 steps a day. On average, sedentary people take only 2,000 to 3,000 steps a day. Adding 2,000 steps will help you maintain your current weight and stop gaining weight; adding more than that will help you lose weight.

23. Put less food out and you’ll take less in. Conversely, the more food in front of you, the more you’ll eat—regardless of how hungry you are. So instead of using regular dinner plates that range these days from 10 to 14 inches (making them look empty if they’re not heaped with food), serve your main course on salad plates (about 7 to 9 inches wide). Instead of 16-ounce glasses and oversized coffee mugs, return to the old days of 8-ounce glasses and 6-ounce coffee cups.

24. Eat 90 percent of your meals at home. You’re more likely to eat more—and eat more high-fat, high-calorie foods—when you eat out than when you eat at home. Restaurants today serve such large portions that many have switched to larger plates and tables to accommodate them.

25. Serve food on your plate instead of on platters. If you eat your dinner restaurant style on your plate rather than family style, helping yourself from bowls and platters on the table, you’ll lose weight. Most of us tend to eat an average of 150 percent more calories in the evening than in the morning. You’ll avoid that now because when your plate is empty, you’re finished; there’s no reaching for seconds.

26. Don’t eat with a large group. A study published in the Journal of Physiological Behavior found that we tend to eat more when we eat with other people, most likely because we spend more time at the table. But eating with your significant other or your family, and using table time for talking in between chewing, can help cut down on calories.

27. Order the smallest portion of everything. If you’re out and ordering a sub, get the 6-inch sandwich. Buy a small popcorn, a small salad, a small hamburger. Again, studies find we tend to eat what’s in front of us, even though we’d feel just as full on less.

28. Eat water-rich foods and you’ll eat fewer calories overall. A body of research out of Pennsylvania State University finds that eating water-rich foods such as zucchini, tomatoes, and cucumbers during meals reduces your overall calorie consumption. Other water-rich foods include soups and salads. You won’t get the same benefits by just drinking your water, though. Because the body processes hunger and thirst through different mechanisms, it simply doesn’t register a sense of fullness with water (or soda, tea, coffee, or juice).

29. Bulk up your meals with veggies. You can eat twice as much pasta salad loaded with veggies like broccoli, carrots, and tomatoes for the same calories as a pasta salad sporting just mayonnaise. Same goes for stir-fries, omelets, and other veggie-friendly dishes. If you eat a 1:1 ratio of grains to veggies, the high-fiber veggies will help satisfy your hunger before you overeat the grains.

iStock/Thinkstock

iStock/Thinkstock

30. Avoid white foods. There is some scientific legitimacy to today’s lower-carb diets: Large amounts of simple carbohydrates from white flour and added sugar can wreak havoc on your blood sugar and lead to weight gain. While avoiding sugar, white rice, and white flour, however, you should eat plenty of whole-grain breads and brown rice. One Harvard study of 74,000 women found that those who ate more than two daily servings of whole grains were 49 percent less likely to be overweight than those who ate the white stuff.

31. Switch to ordinary coffee. Fancy coffee drinks from trendy coffee joints often pack several hundred calories, thanks to whole milk, whipped cream, sugar, and sugary syrups. A cup of regular coffee with skim milk has just a small fraction of those calories. And when brewed with good beans, it tastes just as great. You can also try nonfat powdered milk in coffee. You’ll get the nutritional benefits of skim milk, which is high in calcium and low in calories. And, because the water has been removed, powdered milk doesn’t dilute the coffee the way skim milk does.

32. If you’re going to indulge, choose fat-releasing foods. They should help keep you from feeling deprived and binging on higher-calorie foods. For instance: honey has just 64 fat releasing calories in one tablespoon. Eggs have just 70 calories in one hard-boiled egg, loaded with fat releasing protein. Part-skim ricotta cheese has just 39 calories in one ounce, packed with fat releasing calcium. Dark chocolate has about 168 calories in a one-ounce square, but it’s packed with fat releasers. And a University of Tennessee study found that people who cut 500 calories a day and ate yogurt three times a day for 12 weeks lost more weight and body fat than a group that only cut the calories. The researchers concluded that the calcium in low-fat dairy foods triggers a hormonal response that inhibits the body’s production of fat cells and boosts the breakdown of fat.

33. Enjoy high-calorie treats as the accent, not the centerpiece Make a spoonful of ice cream the jewel and a bowl of fruit the crown. Cut down on the chips by pairing each bite with lots of chunky, filling fresh salsa, suggests Jeff Novick, director of nutrition at the Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa in Florida. Balance a little cheese with a lot of fruit or salad.

iStockphoto/Thinkstock

iStockphoto/Thinkstock

34. Eat cereal for breakfast five days a week. Studies find that people who eat cereal for breakfast every day are significantly less likely to be obese and have diabetes than those who don’t. They also consume more fiber and calcium—and less fat—than those who eat other breakfast foods. Make oatmeal, or pour out a high-fiber, low-sugar cereal like Total or Grape Nuts.

35. Try hot sauce, salsa, and Cajun seasonings They provide lots of flavor with no fat and few calories, plus they turn up your digestive fires, causing your body to temporarily burn more calories. Choose them over butter and creamy or sugary sauces.

36. Eat fruit instead of drinking fruit juice. For the calories in one kid-size box of apple juice, you can enjoy an apple, orange, and a slice of watermelon. These whole foods will keep you satisfied much longer than that box of apple juice, so you’ll eat less overall.

37. Drop your milk type and you cut calories by about 20 percent. If you drink regular, go to 2%. If you already drink 2%, go down another notch to 1% or skim milk. Each step downward cuts the calories by about 20 percent. Once you train your taste buds to enjoy skim milk, you’ll have cut the calories in the whole milk by about half and trimmed the fat by more than 95 percent.

38. Snack on a small handful of nuts. Studies have found that overweight people who ate a moderate-fat diet containing almonds lost more weight than a control group that didn’t eat nuts. Snacking once or twice a day helps stave off hunger and keeps your metabolism stoked. You can also pack up baby carrots or your own trail mix with nuts, raisins, seeds, and dried fruit.

39. Get most of your calories before noon. Studies find that the more you eat in the morning, the less you’ll eat in the evening. And you have more opportunities to burn off those early-day calories than you do to burn off dinner calories.

40. Brush your teeth after every meal, especially dinner. That clean, minty freshness will serve as a cue to your body and brain that mealtime is over.

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