So, what do you think about cooking and low carb dieting? Should we be limiting carbohydrates in our diets? Despite what you may think, low carb cooking and dieting has shown great success in helping people quickly drop those unwanted pounds and has become a lifestyle change for many.

Low carb cooking sound simple and is quite appealing to not only women wanting to drop a few pounds, but men also welcome the idea of dropping the carbs and eating all the steak they want. Low carb diets have also become a way of life for many families, parents and children eating healthy together.

If you are interested in dropping those unwanted pounds and keeping them off, I believe this type of dieting can without a doubt get results. The problem is however, that you really need to stick with this diet in order for the results to remain consistent even after you’ve met your weight loss goal. Basically, it’s not so much a “diet” as a complete overhaul in the way you and your family eat.

The best thing about low carb cooking and dieting is that it is hugely popular and you will have no trouble finding advice, tips, and resources to support this lifestyle change. Many stores these days carry specific foods that are low carb in nature and are designed to meet the chocolate or salt cravings so no need to feel deprived. Stores are seeing the value of catering to this market of consumers and are offering a larger variety of low carb friendly foods.

Finding low carb recipes is not difficult at all and can be found at local bookstores, libraries, and of course the internet. In addition to cookbooks and recipies, you also will need to get through what is fact and what is fiction when it comes to low carb cooking. Go straight to the source, contact your doctor or a nutritionist, and make sure you are following the diet to the tee.

Another great thing about low carb cooking is that it gives you the chance to use your grill often! Who doesn’t love to grill? And it’s getting to be that time of year again to fire up the grill. Although I’ve been known to grill in the middle of winter anyway! Or you can always use an indoor grill like the George Foreman grills.

When it comes to low carb dieting just keep your goals in mind. If you aren’t making progress, double check what you are doing and then adjust accordingly.

Really…there’s absolutely no reason to sacrifice anything when you are dieting and wanting to get in shape. So many people view dieting as some sort of punishment for not having the perfect body. They believe that enjoying food is somehow bad for them, which couldn’t be further from the truth. If you want to be completely honest with yourself, when it comes to dieting, it isn’t about giving up food or flavor; it’s about discovering new foods and new flavors. Just make it an adventure.

There are tons of spices out there that can make even the blandest of foods a little exciting. Experimenting is what it’s all about. Fish and chicken are popular diet foods because they are lean meats. And usually they both have a certain stigma about them for being bland. After all when dieting, you should pass on the heavy cream sauces, etc… However, adding a little seasoning is a great way to put a little spice in your meal that will make it taste great without the calories of dressings, marinades or even butter.

There are so many seasonings that will work well and it’s fun experimenting. Many great seasonings for chicken will make the chicken taste delicious in salads for healthier lunches or salad wraps. Simple things that spice up the same old meal can have a huge impact on your enjoyment of food.

You can even enjoy the occasional treat when dieting as long as you do so sparingly. The key when dieting is to learn about proper portions and moderate indulgence. You can find all kinds of low sugar or low carb desserts on the market that you can enjoy on occasion. You can also find sugar free or low calorie candy, although you should keep in mind that calories, particularly when it comes to candy that you eat without really thinking about it, add up quickly.

The point is that you do not have to sacrifice flavor in order to diet. Seasonings are a great way to add a lot of flavor with a tiny bit of effort on your part. Desserts are also great and you can find many dips and sauces that can be made with fat free or low fat mayonnaise or sour cream in order to cut a few more calories during your dieting process.

Low fat dips and sauces can make a great snack, when paired with vegetables (replacing chips!). Cucumbers, green, red, and yellow peppers, broccoli, and carrot sticks all have a nice little crunch to them and when combined with a good low fat dip can help cure the cravings for those greasy chips that often surface when dieting.

Also, if you watch your calories carefully during meals you should know that there are many little snack treats that are prepackaged in 100 calorie packs for your enjoyment. (I love these!) This means that you can indulge on occasion in those treats that you love most without sacrificing all your dieting efforts in the process. I think these snack packs have become one of the best ideas since the invention of diet colas.

We all want the benefits of losing weight and will readily admit that if it were a simple process we’d all be thin. Dieting is simple… It’s simply changing your eating habits and adjusting your lifestyle…for the better! There’s really no need to sacrifice anything, including flavor!

Okay, so I just had to share this with you today! Fitness madman Jon Benson is at it again… this time telling us you can get “skinnny eating fast-food…” And he intends to prove it. Hmmm… let’s see! Obviously, you have to modify the way you eat fast-food (I’m guessing) but his tips are really clever. Check out these 3 => Here’s what Jon has to say =>

Believe it or not you can get lean by eating fast food.

I know, it sounds crazy… but in a few weeks I’m going to prove it to the world with the release of my newest mini e-book “Fast Food Fitness: How I Dropped 40lbs Eating Fast Food Every Day.” (You can bet I’ll be reading this one! )

Do you think I’m joking?  I’m not.

Of course there’s a WAY to eat fast food and drop the pounds. You can’t just eat like everyone else does. That’s common sense.

And believe me, there are more healthy ways to drop the pounds than eating fast food… for sure.

But the way I figure it: Would you rather be healthIER and lean or UNhealthy and overfat?

Silly question… so consider “Fast Food Fitness” a path to the lesser of two evils… and one that actually got me to 10% bodyfat (that’s pretty lean!) a few years ago.

Here’s how it started:

I simply hate to cook!  I have since solved that problem… I hired a part-time chef (it’s cheaper than it sounds)… but until two years ago I was eating out every single meal… I mean EVERY MEAL.

Most of the time… not all of the time, but most of the time… these meals were fast food joints like burger joints and even fried chicken places.

But I had to keep my physique, so … what to do?

Well… you’ll have to wait. At least a few weeks.

If you want the book for half-price, you have to own a copy of “Every Other Day Dietplan”… everyone who owns a copy before “Fast Food Fitness” hits the Internet will get half-off.

So visit here if you don’t have EODD yet …

Here’s 3 of my top 25 fast-food diet-tips… just these 3 will take you 1/3 of the way there…

First, use my Half-n-Half Principle. Order whatever you are going to order and then have the person behind the counter cut the order exactly in HALF.

Half to go… half to eat there.

Eat half now…. then the other half 3-4 hours later. Believe it or not you will store less bodyfat and even increase your metabolism eating like this.

Simple trick… give it a shot.

Second, ditch all the starch. That means buns, bread and anything made of flour. BUT here’s the “still tastes good” trick I use. I keep ONE of the pieces of bread from, say, my hamburger. Then I “pick” at it while I enjoy the meat and either a small diet soda or tea. Eat no more than 5 “picks” at the bread… about half a slice. You still get the exact taste of a burger with none of the stuff that makes most people over-fat.

Third, for you chicken lovers, split your order between fried and baked chicken. KFC has excellent baked chicken… try it. Then strip most of the skin off the fried chicken. Not all… most.

You still get the taste, but with far fewer bad food-stuffs and calories…. make sense? (Yes!)

Enjoy the tips… but remember, the healthiest (and tastiest) way to eat is still my Every Other Day Dietplan, which works in your favorite foods each week.

What’s Your Dieting Mindset?

When it comes to dieting, I’m a big believer in the fact that you have to be in the right frame of mind, have the right mindset. Too many people set themselves up for failure before they even begin. They just dread going on their diets and before they start, they are usually planning their mishaps along the way. Yes, I know, but it’s really true – far too many would be dieters are planning their first failure before even actually starting their diet!

I have no idea why we tend to do this to ourselves but it is something I’ve seen many times. The most popular notion is that one must binge on and eat up all the foods most loved and enjoyed before beginning the diet because after starting, these foods must be completely eliminated in order to shed those unwanted pounds. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Moderation is simply a concept that many of us just can’t embrace.

You really must change your way of thinking about food and your personal enjoyment of food in order for any diet to be successful. Food isn’t the enemy. And I think that’s a notion that not enough people really understand. Even the ‘tasty’ foods aren’t the enemy. The enemy is your personal inability to properly portion the foods you eat. The problem is that the majority of us eat the wrong foods far more often than we eat the right foods.

Our bodies need the nutrients we are lacking because we are not eating the required servings of vegetables and fruit each day. Our bodies know that something is missing and we feel hungry or deprived. If we were actually consuming the proper balance of fruits and veggies each day we would find that we were far less likely to feel hungry and far less likely to crave those foods that aren’t as healthy.

Portion control can be another problem. We live in a society of “up selling”. Super sized fries and empty calories by the gallon of your favorite cola are offered with almost every fast food meal that can be bought. Learn to say no to these things and avoid the super sized orders.

Embrace dieting as building a healthier you rather than depriving yourself of something. Don’t think of your weight loss plan as something negative but rather a positive force in your life to make changes for the better.

Watching your weight and counting your calories does not mean that you can never go over your allotment. The goal really is to find balance. If you learn to portion your food correctly, indulge in moderation, and incorporate enjoyable calorie burning activities into your daily routine you may be amazed at the results.

Healthy Fat Intake for a Leaner You!

This post is aimed at helping you reduce your fat intake and becoming a leaner you! The average person still eats too much fat, and as we all know fat is a factor that’s linked to a variety of health problems.

I’m sure a ton of New Year resolutions have been made to lose weight, to become more lean, and to become more fit. This can be accomplished by reducing your fat intake. Most people can bring their fat intakes down to a healthy range by making a few adjustments in the way they shop for, cook, and prepare foods.

It’s so much easier today to control the amount of fat you consume.  The fat content of foods are available through the nutrition labels and through brochures distributed at restaurants, yes even fast food restaurants.

Use this information on nutrition to choose lower fat foods by comparing products and food brands.  Once you have a rough idea of what a healthy intake of fat is, you’ll know what you can and what you can’t have. It will become routine and a part of your daily living.

Of course, day to day, the amount of fat you eat will vary. Some meals and some days will be higher in fat than others, depending on schedules, etc…  Even high fat meals can be kept in line with healthy eating as long as you balance out those days with lower fat meals/days.

The best thing to remember is that the average fat intake over the course of weeks and months is far more important that the fat intake of every meal and food you consume. It’s a long term habit.

Of course, younger adults and highly active adults who have higher calorie needs can probably eat a little more fat.  Older adults and those that aren’t very active should definitely aim for a lower fat intake. You can control your fat intake and avoid the many problems associated with it and start on your way to a healthier, leaner you!

One of the best programs on burning fat, which I have personally used and follow is Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle by Tom Venuto. If you are even remotely interested in losing fat permanently and learning about healthy fat intake, then you should at least check it out.

Here’s to a healthier fat intake for a leaner you!

Tips For Eating Healthy During the Holidays

Have you ever noticed, when the holiday season arrives, many people tend to forget all about their diets, healthy eating, and fitness workouts. Gaining weight becomes quite a common theme between Halloween and the New Year.  Here are some tips to healthier eating throughout the holiday.

Most traditional holiday foods can be made low fat style. Turkey is usually very lean without the skin, and gravy can be made without any fat. Potatoes that are served without the butter are also healthier. (I know…I miss the butter already!) Pumpkin pie is delicious and can be made into a less fatty dessert if you don’t top it with whipped cream.

Don’t forget about exercise. Even though the holidays are here and we are busy, busy, busy… you need to still stick with your exercise program – something… in order to burn off those extra calories. Plan a walk after meals, park farther away from stores when you shop, and if you’re at a mall, walk a few laps around the mall before or after your shopping.

During those holiday parties and at family gatherings, take small portions, sample foods, just don’t overdo it. Decide on what you plan to eat in advance, then stick to your plan. Snack on the vegetables and fruits, use low fat dressings, and eat slices of the lean meats. Also, before you go to a party or family dinner, eat a small healthy snack which will help curb your appetite.

Limit your alcohol intake. Having too many drinks can cripple your willpower and also add excess calories to your diet. Want to replace alcohol totally? Drink water with lemon. Tasty and water also helps to curb your appetite. Oh… and try to avoid the eggnog, as each glass can have up to 300 calories. (but it’s so tasty!, I know )

Just be flexible, aware of how you are eating, and doing some form of exercise.  Certainly one bad meal won’t ruin your diet or cause you to gain ten extra pounds, just get back on track as soon as possible!

Happy Holidays!

5 Interesting Things That Make You Leaner

Want to be leaner? Especially with the holidays upon us, there’s no better time to start than now!

So… here’s 5 tips that will help you along…

1. Ditch The Starch

Starches, such as rice, potatoes, some veggies, oats, etc. are often considered “health foods.”

While they can be healthy, they can also pack on stomach body fat like crazy if you overdo them.

But listen to this… the Every Other Day Diet System (EODD) by Jon Benson actually encourages you to eat starches and even sweets several days a week to get rid of excess bodyweight. This is one program I’ve been following and highly recommend.

Well (you’re probably thinking) … how does THAT work?

Simple:  Timing is everything.

And it takes a “weekly” approach to foods rather than a daily approach. This keeps your metabolism guessing. If your body cannot figure out what you’re up to, fatburning is that much more powerful. And you can get by with eating starches… at least a specific times on specific days.

But if you don’t want to do EODD, then you’ll have to wing it. And the best way to wing it is to simply cut starches out entirely for 4-8 weeks. Then slowly add them back a few days per week. This is no where near as effective (or as fun) as the EODD method, but it will get you pointed in the right direction.

2. Can The Sodas

Why diet-sodas? A recent study revealed that people who drank diet-sodas actually increased body fat when compared to those who drank sugar-sodas.

What??

Yep. Your body cannot be fooled by aspartame and chemicals. Sorry, but that’s the truth.

So, what do you need to be drinking?  A quart of pure water per 50 lbs of bodyweight a day.

Try mixing water with lemon and a bit of Stevia (an herbal sweetener) and make lemonade. It’s wonderful!

3. Stay Hungry

It takes a special person to be hungry… and an even greater one to stay that way.

Stay hungry in two ways:  In how you workout and literally… stay a bit hungry before you go to bed. Not “starving”… just a bit hungry.

For your workouts, I have a great solution. When you pick up EODD you’ll get a limited shot at “7 Minute Body”… Jon Benson’s combination of “7 Minute Muscle” and “The 7 Minute In-Home Workout” in one book… and for more than half off… but that’s a very limited deal and you’ll need them both…

You see, progression — “forced” progression — is the best way to stay hungry. 7 Minute Body forces you to progress without thinking about it. Progression is built into the System.

As far as staying hungry at night? Check with your doctor and if he/she okays it take 500mg of potassium and 1000mg of magnesium/calcium a few hours prior to bed. This helps with the
hunger pangs. Also, keep hard-boiled eggs in the fridge. If you get really hungry, eat one with half the yolk (toss the other half.) It keeps you full for an hour at least.

4. Cardio Clarity

Hours and hours of cardio a day is not the answer. However, you can do “light” cardio (i.e. brisk walking, or riding the bike at 60% of your max) just to burn off calories. That’s okay… and personally I don’t find it that boring. It does not interfere with my main fat loss exercise (weight training… YES!) and it burns off about 400 calories an hour.

What does work is early morning fasting cardio… but you only need 9-15 minutes which Jon Benson explains in the 7 Minute Body book.

5. Get Raw At Night

Raw veggies with your last meal and as a snack will really help your fatburning along. Try starting with red peppers because they’re sweet. Seriously, you’ll begin  eating veggies raw at night without thinking about it. Give this a shot. The fat loss is well worth it. What a great snack!

For more information on the EODD system, The 7 Minute Body, and the Radical Fatloss Blueprint, just visit here.

Are You Into Organic Food?

I recently have been re-evaluating my eating regim and am making an effort to eat many many more vegetables, and go more organic. It’s sometimes difficult to weed out the “self-labeled” organic foods from the “real” organic foods and this is something I concentrate on because not only are the “real” organic foods truly healthier for you, but most organic foods are more expensive and I want to make sure I’m getting what I pay for!

What is organic food? Organic food is any food that is produced without the use of artificial pest control, fertilization, or drugs. But in order to be certified by the government as “organic,” the food must be produced under very stringent guidelines and rules. It must meet certain set standards. Basically, just because your neighbor doesn’t use pesticides on his tomato plants, doesn’t make the tomatoes organic.

For fruits and vegetables to be certified as organic, they must be grown without the use of pesticides, artificial fertilizer, or sewage sludge. The food must have been processed without the use of any kind of food additives or preservatives. Meat that is deemed organic must come from animals that have been raised without the use of growth hormones or antibiotics that are very widely used in the production of all meat-producing animals including beef, poultry, pork, lamb, etc. The animals must have been fed a diet that consists of nothing but organic feed.

So, that’s the key word – certified. These days, many big retailers are trying to get their cut of the rapidly growing organic food market and even giants like Wal-Mart are not marketing “organic” foods, they are marketing “certified organic”. This is how you (and I) can be sure that the food that you are buying really is completely organic.

Now, there’s no law against selling food deemed “organic,” but in order to be deemed “certified organic”, the farm or ranch on which the food was produced must have met rigorous standards and been certified as an organic producer. The rules and regulations are strict, and getting that designation is not easy by any means.

Something also to note… Food that is marked “organic” can be imported from other countries that do not have the same standards as those of the United States. The term buyer beware would definitely apply to this organic food market.

The Right Foods Can Make You Look Young Again => Eat and Look Good!

Grocery Shopping – The Healthy Way

Grocery shopping is certainly something we all have to do and choosing the right foods can be very hard, agree? Below are some tips on grocery shopping – the healthy way. Hopefully this will make is a little easier to choose the right foods during your next visit.

1.  Never go grocery shopping on an empty stomach. Make sure you aren’t hungry. (I’ve got to tell you…this is my all time number one rule) If I’m hungry and attempting to food shop, most times a few not-so-good-for-me foods end up in the cart and that’s not a good thing.

2.  Select canned fruits and tuna that are packed in water, not oil or syrup.

3.  Look at the labels for the words “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated”.  The earlier you see them appear on the list, the higher the amount of unhealthy trans fatty acids the food will contain.

4.  Try to buy turkey without the skin on it, and buy a chicken breast for your meals, not the darker wings and thighs.

5.  When you purchasing frozen dinners, select those that are not only low in fat, but low in sodium and cholesterol as well.

6.  Choose calcium fortified orange juice.

7.  Go for whole grain breads, cereals, and rolls.

8.  Give cantaloupe a try.  With just 95 calories, half of the melon will provide more than a day’s supply of Vitamin C and beta carotene.

9.  Don’t be tricked into buying yogurt covered by nuts, etc. as the coating is normally made of sugar and partially hydrogenated oils. And always check the fat content.

10.  Get some lower fat treats, such as pretzels, ginger snaps, and angel food cake to snack on.

Hopefully, the above tips will help you out a little when grocery shopping. You’ll avoid the bad foods and get more of the healthy foods that you need.  There are many different healthy foods at the grocery store, all it takes is the will power to roll right past the bad foods and on to the good ones, especially if you aren’t hungry!

Ordering too much. Many people that find themselves overweight have more than an eating problem, we have an ordering problem. We may experience eater’s regret afterward but we stand in the fast food line knowing we shouldn’t even be there in the first place but justify it with time or expense. Then we hear that all to familiar line, “May I take your order please?“. Here’s where our mistakes compound drastically. “Yes, I’ll have that huge monstrosity of a sandwich packed with a full day’s calories“, we say in more forgiving words. We tell ourselves we’ll order less tomorrow. The fast food franchise knows how to run a business and they have trained their employees well, “Would you like fries with that?” or “would you like to make that a meal?“. We give in because it’s almost like getting the drink free, right? You know what’s coming next… “Would you like to ‘upsize, biggy size, large size etc.’ that?“. We are very familiar with the routine, we quickly say, “Yes“, before we allow two seconds to consider the consequence. We don’t want to have to think about it. We know we are overeating all the wrong foods and we’ll regret it later but right now we’ll enjoy the high-calorie, high-fat meal loaded with a bunch of taste and very little nutrition.

It’s no wonder 57% of American adults are overweight according to the CDC. Every corner is packed with two things – gas stations and fast food restaurants all competing for your business. No one knows marketing better than the fast food industry. We can’t go ten minutes in the city without seeing a big juicy burger on the side of a bus or a roadside billboard announcing the latest ‘deal’ waiting for us just a half mile up the road.

Fast food restaurants know many will walk in just to order a small sandwich to hold them over for a while. The restaurant franchise also know people and they know a large percentage of those frugal and health conscience people can be transformed into bigger profits. Poster and life-sized, full color signs strategically located assault you from every direction before you even step up to the counter. There’s no escaping them. Even the drive-thru has glossy professional posters lining the curb. These are high quality graphics touched up better than a super model’s front page photo. You can almost taste that wonderful delight, no expense has been spared.

We eat every bite of the food we purchased. We force those self disciplining thoughts back until we’re finished. After all, we don’t want to waste food, right? I walk out of the dining area feeling too full and tired. We know how to deal with this familiar feeling, that’s not a problem.

The only way to beat our over-ordering disorder is to understand we do it and get a handle on it. First of all, pack a healthy lunch and stay out of restaurants at all costs. Start looking at the marketing tactics in a new light. Admire the marketing message or get mad at it, whatever makes you not fall for it. Most importantly, understand that smaller portions are going to be a fact of life if you are going to lose weight. It takes very little food to curb hunger. We just need to eat until we are no longer hungry, not until we are full. All we need to do is listen to ourselves. We know right and wrong. We have become pros at pushing reason and rational thought away for instant gratification and over indulgence. Don’t be afraid to step out of the line line and walk it off.