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.

Get Slim With Atkins Diet Plan

The Atkins’ diet has been a craze for a couple of decades. Here’s how you can gain from it.

mediaimage
All of you who are reading this article right now have definitely been on a diet at some point or the other of your lives. The battle of the bulge is an ongoing problem and we are always on the lookout for various means to win this war.

Along with exercise, our diet and nutrition also plays an important role in reducing our weight. Hence, this obsession persists in all of us to undertake some form of dieting. But going on a diet is definitely not an easy thing. What to eat and what to stay away from is always a perennial problem.

One of my friends told me that she ate the normal menu which she cooked for the family, but her weight loss recipe is “portion control.” This is a really simple diet plan. In this plan, you cut down on the portion of food you consume. For example, if you usually have two pieces of toast for breakfast, you should eat only one piece. If you normally eat two cups of rice for lunch, cut it down to one cup. In this way, you are automatically reducing your calorie intake by half.

Another popular method of dieting is to stop all intake of fatty foods and sugar. In this diet, you cut down on your oil, butter and ghee intake which automatically reduces your fat deposits.

While I was leafing through a magazine, I read about one of our Hollywood celebrities following the Atkins’ diet. This immediately aroused my curiosity about the diet. Though I have heard about the diet many times, I had no inside knowledge about it. So, I immediately set to work on it and found out certain basic facts’ about the Atkins diet which I want to share with my readers.

The Atkins’ diet made its first appearance in 1972 and was invented by its namesake, Dr Atkins. According to him, this method enables us to lose weight by inducing a change in metabolism. Our body burns both fat and carbohydrates to provide energy. If we reduce the intake of carbohydrates significantly, our body starts burning only fat to provide energy. This method is called “lipolysis”, which in turn induces ketosis. In ketosis, our body burns fat as fuel. Atkins also felt that ketosis will affect insulin production which will result in less fat being formed. And, once your body enters ketosis, your cravings for carbohydrates will reduce significantly which, in turn, will reduce your body weight.

The major difference between Atkins’ diet and other types of diet is that, while most diets restrict calorie, intake, the Atkins’ plan encourages us to eat more. While most of the diets recommend low fat, high carbohydrate intake, Atkins’ does just the opposite. Instead of carbohydrate and sugar, this diet wants us to consume plenty of fat and protein.

The core principle of the Atkins’ diet is that, by limiting carbohydrates, our body is forced to burn its stored fat, rather than carbs for fuel.

The Atkins’ diet has a four carbohydrates stage plan induction, ongoing weight loss, pre-maintenance and lifetime maintenance. With the help of these four stages, you can reduce as well as maintain your weight throughout your life.

Induction – phase 1: This phase lasts for two weeks, by the end of which you can obtain significant results. Another point is that, in this diet plan you can begin at any of the phase. But it is recommended to start with induction. As you cut back on your carbohydrates significantly in this phase, you will jump start your weight loss programme. In this phase, only 20 gm of carbohydrates are allowed and hence your weight loss is significant. As you drastically cut down on carbohydrates your body shifts into high gear and starts burning fat. This takes about 48 hours to occur and you may feel hungry and irritated for the first three-four days. But don’t worry, as soon as your fat starts getting converted to fuel, you will feel fit as a fiddle. Induction will strengthen your immune system and also improve our long-term health.

Ongoing Weight Loss (OWL) phase 2: In this phase, the weight loss pace slows down as you add nutrient-rich carbohydrates to your diet. During this period, you will boost your body’s ability to burn fats as well as understand your body better. You will find the right amount of carbohydrates which you can consume and still lose weight. Your body will also prepare itself for permanent weight management. The amount of carbohydrates which you can eat is increased to 25 gm per day for the first week and increased in five gm instalment for the next few weeks. If your weight loss is significant, you can increase your carbohydrate intake. A person has to be on OWL till he or she is within three-five kg of their goal weight.

Pre-maintenance – (phase 3): Pre-maintenance is a practice run for lifetime maintenance. In this phase, you are fast approaching your target. As long as you continue to lose weight, you can increase your weekly allotment of carbohydrates by another 10 gm. You will be in this phase till you reach your goal and stay on it for one month. The ultimate goal here is to achieve a state of balance called Atkins’ Carbohydrate Equilibrium (ACE). The ACE is your individual level of carbohydrate intake wherein you neither gain nor lose weight.

Lifetime maintenance phase 4: In this phase, you have to focus on your individual ACE and strive to stay within two kg of your ideal weight for the rest of your life. By following a sensible eating plan, you gain energy, better health and confidence in yourself.

By following these four phases, you not only achieve your dream weight but are also able to maintain it throughout your life. You can learn more about this diet by reading the book, Dr Atkins’ New Diet Revolution. But, as with any other diet, this plan also has its pros and cons. The good point is that this diet recommends exercise as a vital part of the weight loss programme. Another point to be noted is that you cannot start on carbohydrates after you lose weight as this will result in your gaining back all that you have lost.

Medical experts advise that people who have gout, kidney problems, diabetes or are pregnant women should not follow this diet plan. As this diet is very stringent, do consult your doctor/dietician for proper advice.

Your dietician will provide you with a proper menu chart as to what should be eaten, in what quantities, etc, based on your eating habits and general lifestyle.

Happy dieting and hoping to see slimmer and fitter readers.