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.

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.”

Guilty and frustrated from cheating on your diet plan? These diet plan saving tips will keep you on track!

mediaimage
It’s nine thirty at night and you have followed your new diet plan perfectly to a tee all day. A pizza advertisement comes on the commercial break of your favorite show and you notice it is close to your next mealtime.
Up to the kitchen you go to eat your next meal. When in the fridge pulling out your nicelyprepared diet plan meal, you notice some left over Fettuccini Alfredo your wife or roommate brought home. Sure looks good you think as you catch a little bit of saliva about to drip on your shirt!

“Just a little taste won’t hurt my diet plan,” you justify…

“ I’ve stuck to my diet plan all day……”

A little taste and before you know it you tell yourself the extra carbs and calories will be a good boost to your workout tomorrow!

An hour later your gut is stretching and Indigestion plagues you from cheating on your diet plan!!

“I should have stuck to my diet plan!” is going through your head as you lay down to have nightmares of a fat ass! “Tomorrow I’ll stick to my diet plan “, you chant in your head!But you fall from your diet plan only a day or two later!

The occasional stray from your diet plan can really add up!And billboards,tv’s, radios and people are everywhere pushing fast foods and junk to sabotage your diet plan!

Here are five diet plan saving tips to arm yourself against the onslaught of the Cheating War!

Diet Plan Tip #1 – Eat Slowly – Take your time when you sit down to eat.

The chances you will stuff yourself or overeat diminish and you will reach the point of satiety much more quickly if you eat slowly!

The more you are satisfied with what you have eaten the less likely you will continue to think of food. That chocolate Black Forest cake won’t be as tempting either!

Diet Plan Tip #2 – Have Delicious Meals That Fit Your Meal Plan Prepared Ahead Of Time.

Having meals prepared ahead of time makes it convenient to eat according to a plan and on schedule.

You can make it more convenient to stick to your diet plan than it is to eat that bag of candy by having your diet plan meals prepared and available when it is time to eat– and when you gethungry.

Diet Plan Tip #3 – Get Used To Eating For Your Purpose Instead Of For Your Taste Buds.

Satisfying your taste buds when you get the urge to gorge down a Big Mac will never develop a healthy, lean, muscular physique! Keep in mind you are eating to develop a lean, healthy muscular physique every time you open your mouth! The temporary taste satisfaction of a jelly-filled donut will be gone real fast but the empty calories you just devoured can defeat a whole day’s worth of bodybuilding effort!

Diet Plan Tip #4 – Be creative with your cooking to make sticking to your diet enjoyable.

Ideally, with proper preparation and some reciperesearch you can create delicious mouth watering meals that meet your diet plan criteria. Learn to cook. Employ spices from other parts of the world. India and China are twocountries with interesting choices to really spice up your diet plan. When you don’t have to force feed yourself with your nose plugged the chances are much higher you can stick to your diet plan more easily!

Diet Plan Tip #5 – Drink Water.

Drinking water between meals can help to reduce your hunger pains temporarily by giving a sense of fullness. For those of you that sabotage your diet plan munching here and there,keeping a water bottle with you wherever you go can really help.Just sip away when its oral satisfaction rather than hunger driving you.