Are Your Relationships Fat?

Successful weight management requires a lifestyle change that includes healthy eating patterns and lots of activity. Making far-reaching changes may be even more challenging if you are involved in relationships that promote or support an unhealthy approach to eating and exercise.

For example, does your best friend agree to go to the gym with you but, once there, grumble and complain the entire time? After an hour with a whiner, who wouldn’t avoid the activity again?

Does your mother tell you that you need to lose weight but constantly push fattening food at you when you visit?

Common saboteurs to a healthy lifestyle are the relationships around you. After all, change can be frightening or threatening within a relationship.

Take the spouse or partner who becomes nervous or argumentative when you being to lose weight. This partner may have his/her own weight problems or simply feel more comfortable when you are lacking self-esteem. When one partner begins to actively work on lifestyle issues and loses a few pounds, the saboteur may accept an invitation to a lavish party, or bring home chocolates, or simply insist on restaurants that lack healthy food choices.

Their actions may be entirely unconscious – they may actually believe they are rewarding the dieter for their efforts. Suggesting to your partner that a non-food reward would be more positive and encouraging is important. Clear and effective communication is often the cure for many ripples in fat relationships.

Parents and relatives offer a special dilemma when they have a long-standing history of aiding and abetting various food transgressions: Aunt Millie, who loves to bake dozens of your favorite cookies; Grandpa, who has always secretly smuggled candy bars in past Grandma’s watchful eye; the ever-present mother who shows her love by cooking and feeding her brood.

The longer the habit or ritual in family life, the harder it is to break. Also, it is difficult to be assertive when you realize the person is not consciously attempting to harm you – in fact, they often see their actions as loving or affectionate.

The hidden bonus in these often guilt-ridden situations is that they are the perfect ground to practice boundary-setting. Try to see your well-meaning relatives, spouse, parents or siblings as built-in practice participants.

Start with easy boundaries. Do you only see Aunt Millie once or twice a year? Gently tell her you want to visit her and spend time with her, but your tastes have changed and you are not as fond of cookies as you were as a child. If she insists on making them, simply do not eat them – not even one!

When you notice other people interfering with how or what you eat, look for agendas like guilt, jealousy, fear, control issues, resentment, and loss of socialization. Changing the status quo of a relationship when a great deal of the relationship is built on eating together always stirs up some complicated emotions.

When embarking on a healthier lifestyle, it’s important to foresee these issues arising and be prepared to address them. Here are some tips for doing that:

(1) Be clear and direct about what concerns you. Don’t let resentments or jealousy grow.

(2) Be curious. Ask questions of your friend, relative or partner. Rather than accuse them of jealousy, try “What’s going on here?” or “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

(3) State your needs without emotion, accusation or blame. Try “It would mean a lot to me if I had your support for what I’m doing” or “If you reserve your judgment about what I eat, it would allow me to make my own choices and learn from them.”

10 Facts About Weight Loss and Food That Nobody Told You

It can be a real challenge with weight loss and food. It can be very difficult trying to buy and eat healthy weight loss foods. What foods are good for you and what foods should you avoid? Take a look at these 10 facts about weight loss and food that will help you with your diet.

1. Some Foods Actually Combat Belly Fat.

Cruciferous vegetables, like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, brussels sprouts, radishes and kale all contain nutrients that help counteract elements that trigger the body to deposit fat around your stomach.

2. Give Your Diet Variety.

Bland or plain food can make sweet, high calorie alternatives more tempting. To liven up your meals, you can use spices and herbs for flavouring without adding loads of calories or fat. Cook on an open flame to add flavor to meat, fish, and poultry.

3. Eat More Water Rich Foods.

Foods that are high in water and fibre but low in calories will help your weight loss diet. These include cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, watermelon, berries and apples.

4. You Can’t Just Eat Negative Calorie Foods.

Negative calorie foods are those where you use more calories in eating and digesting the food than it is made actually up of. Celery is the most famous variety but if you ate celery all the time you would not receive the nutritional requirements that your body needs and you might even starve.

5. Eat Healthy Fats.

Fish and raw nuts provide good sources of healthy fats. You need to eat healthy fats to develop the brain, provide the body system with energy and help to produce hormones. Healthy fats also enable your body system use vitamins more efficiently.

6. You Need Protein.

The protein rich foods for weight loss are fish, beans and poultry. Without protein you will have issues with exhaustion, sleeping difficulties, and weakness.

7. Eat Smaller Portions Of Food More Often.

Eating smaller portions will help your weight loss diet plan. The body really only needs about 300-400 calories in one sitting. Any more than that is turned into fat stores.

8. Eat At Least One Portion Of Fruit Or Veg With Every Meal.

Have some fruit with your breakfast, some salad or steamed vegetables with your lunch and vegetables with your dinner. Doing this will supply your body with a healthy stream of natural carbohydrates right through the day.

9. Substitute An Unnatural Carbohydrate For A Natural Carbohydrate.

If you eat a candy bar and a bag of crisps on a daily basis, dump one and substitute it with a natural carbohydrate like an apple or an orange. Doing this will reduce some calories from of your day and increase your intake of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients.

10. Avoid Processed Foods.

Processed foods are those that come in a box, can, bag or carton and often altered to prolong shelf life resulting in little or nutritional value. Watch out for the ‘fat free’ versions of processed foods as well. Manufacturers take out the fat but frequently add extra sugar to boost the taste which usually results in additional calories.

What is Dukan Diet and its side-effects?

This article gives pertinent information about Dukan Diet and its side-effects

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Pierre Dukan, a French doctor and nutritionist, challenged with the case of obesity started to look for alternative ways in curing the illness. After 20 years of thorough research he published in the year 2000, a book called, “Je ne sais pas maigrir” or translated as, “I don’t know how to get slimmer.” It gained the best-seller in France after a year it has been published.
It was made a hit in UK when Kate Middleton, now the duchess of Cambridge, tried the Dukan Diet before her marriage to the beloved Prince William, she reportedly claimed a loss of two dress sizes. It also allegedly claimed to help five million French. The book is also gaining fame in the US in the year 2011 when actress/singer, Jennifer Lopez, lost pounds after her pregnancy by following this diet.
Dukan Diet: What is it? How does this work?
Dukan Diet is similar to the famous Atkins diet. Atkins and Dukan are much alike in terms of non-intake of carbs initially and do not require portion control or counting calorie consumptions. In Atkins, it requires net carbohydrate intakes and unlike Dukan, it suggests a daily intake of oats, increase water consumption and 20 minutes of everyday brisk walking. Dukan Diet adopts four phases namely: Attack, Cruise, Consolidation and Stabilization.
Four Phases of the Dukan Diet
Attack: In this starter phase, the dieter is only allowed take protein rich foods that are exquisitely low in fat. Dr. Dukan provided 72-item list of foods to be eaten, it excludes pork, lamb, poultry products and cheeses. Food should always be cooked but without adding any fat to it, it best to cook in grilling or roasting. It also requires you to eat 1 ½ tbsp. oat bran & 1.5 liters of water per day. This phase should be followed around 2-7 days or more. Results from this initial phase within 5 days may result in 4-7 lbs. loss. This phase promotes quick loss of weight since it is strictly based on a protein-only diet.
Cruise: Cruise, the second to the fourth phase of the Dukan diet scheme. During this phase dieters who were only allowed to eat protein-only foods can now alternate a 28-items of non-starchy vegetables. They may take attack phase diet for today and take non-starchy veggie diet for tomorrow, and so this phase must go on by alternating these two types of diet each day. This phase may last long enough as much as you want by reaching your desired weight and assuring 2 pounds per week loss.
Consolidation: As one achieves the desired weight, one has to go the next phase called Consolidation, this is the maintenance phase of this diet scheme where you have to prevent putting back excess pounds. The plan in this phase is less strict compared to the first two phases. During this phase you are permitted to eat protein-only and veggie diet along with a piece of low-sugar fruit, 2 slices of whole grain bread and a portion of hard cheese. In this phase you are allowed to have 1-2 serving of starchy foods and one celebration meal per week. The phase of consolidation does not expect to loss off pounds but rather it is steadily the maintenance process.
Stabilization: Stabilization is the final phase and a life-long phase of the diet scheme. In here maintenance of the life-changing diet may be a challenging and tempting. During this portion of the scheme, one is already permitted to allow any food intake that a person wants and by also sticking to the diet rule in the consolidation phase. As Pierre Dukan suggest, that staying on the phase 1 rule once a week and eat whatever you like for the rest of the week lowers the chances of regaining weight.
Pros and Cons of Dukan Diet
Pros: The fast results of this diet scheme is beneficially rewarding and motivating. It allows you to have protein and veggie meal plan diets and does not require you to count off your calorie intakes.
Cons: It is highly restrictive and can exclude healthy foods. Dieters can experience side-effects such as symptoms of headaches, nausea, lethargy, irritable and loss of concentration. Dieters may acquire halitosis (bad breath), metallic tasting mouth and strong smell in their urines. For those people who have problems with their kidneys and liver are not advised to follow this diet plan. It is not also recommended for pregnant and nursing mothers.

Views and Opinions by Health Experts on the Dukan Diet
There are lots of critics in this diet plan. Due to the restrictive type scheme of this diet, some fruits, grains and nuts which are healthy and have high amounts of vitamins and minerals that are vital to the nutrition of the body are eliminated. Keri Gans of American Dietetic Association, said that the lost amount of multivitamins that should be acquired from those restricted foods are not compensated in the Dukan diet. Experts have also criticized that experiencing such side-effects may not be healthy at all.