SHORT DESCRIPTION: The importance of home-cooked food, whether or not you are on a diet or a weight loss program, can never be overemphasized…

BODY OF ARTICLE: The importance of home-cooked food, whether or not you are on a diet or a weight loss program, can never be overemphasized.

For one, home-cooked food is definitely more nutritious and healthy than outside food as it is not produced on a mass scale, and more importantly, it is prepared by your family members, which further goes on to ensure 100% hygiene and wholesomeness. Moreover, home-cooked food is fresh, unlike restaurant food, where there are chances that you may be served food that has been sitting in a warmer a good part of the day.

Therefore, it is easy to deduce that if you are weight training or if you are on a diet, then home-cooked food has no parallel ? it ensures you stay on a healthy diet.

Diet and Restaurant Food

Eating at a restaurant while you are on a diet can play havoc with your weight-training program, rip your diet plans to shreds and reverse your weight loss process. Here’s how:

1. Restaurants offer a whole lot of fatty accompaniments such as toppings, sauces, gravies and overly refined foods that can actually make you overweight instead of helping your diet cause.

2. By and large, the raw food in any restaurant may have been frozen and it is likely that some preservatives would be added to such food. Preservatives, and for that matter restaurant foods contain a lot of sodium and, as you know, excess sodium leads to water retention and, hence, weight gain.

3. Restaurants are around because they make tasty food. And tasty food needs quite a bit of fat (especially, saturated fat) to give it the taste. The bottom line is: Most restaurant foods are not in tune with your weight loss diet plan.

4. Since you pay good money to restaurants, you’ll be tempted to bite off more than you can chew and in the process, increase your intake of unnecessary calories that your body does not require.

If you’re binging on restaurant food while on a diet plan, you’re most likely reversing all the benefits you’ve gotten so far. So you’ll be better off eating home-cooked food.

Still, if there’s no escape from eating out while you’re on a weight loss program, here’s a list of foods you must avoid: sauces, gravy, red meat, fat from broiled meat, creamy desserts, meat in salads, creamy salad dressings, wontons, sweet and sour choices, anything that tastes sweet and oily. Period.

If you eat home-cooked food while on a diet, stick to your diet plan and exercise regularly, you will find that your weight loss program will work wonders for you.

RESOURCE BOX: You can get  the FREE Special Report about “Weight Loss Tips” at:
http://www.theweightlossguide.info/

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SHORT DESCRIPTION: With the holiday season here, people can have a good time, yet still maintain their weight. This article shows how to indulge with the holiday foods, yet not get fat or lose your figure.

BODY OF ARTICLE: Here it is the beginning of December and everyone is starting to think of gifts, holiday parties, and all the wonderful food that can be eaten this holiday season.  Really, this 4-5 week euphoric glutton usually begins on Thanksgiving.  The following days after, the question that always is asked is “did you eat a lot.”  This theme continues on throughout the holidays and stops around New Year’s.  At that time, the individual remembers all the times they took a bite out of another cookie saying, “I’ll start my diet back up again after New Years.”  I’m here to tell you that if you can stay focused during these 4 weeks, you can enjoy the holiday treats plus, if you so desire, still lose a little weight.

Now most people reading this are saying, “Yeah right.”  I’ll have to be honest though, I should have wrote this article in October so that if you haven’t been exercising you could have started then so by December your body would have been totally adjusted to the routine.  I will make a mental note for next year, but for now let’s make due with the time we have.

The first thing I want to say is that if you are currently not exercising then this will be a lot tougher for you.  If you still adhere to the majority of the principles that I stress, you probably won’t lose weight, but you won’t gain much either.  I would definitely view that as positive.  If you have been working out, then the first thing that I urge would be to still maintain your workouts throughout these four weeks.  It is easy to get caught up in the holidays, taking time off from work, visiting relatives, etc.  If you can maintain your workouts, you will be able to maintain your body’s ability to burn fat efficiently.

This next point I’m going to tell you is the big credo to remember this holiday season.  One day of eating holiday foods (i.e. cookies, eggnog, and other fun stuff) will not make you fat.  Eating several days, even many days of holiday foods, yes might do something to your health, but one day here or there is not going to ruin the many days you HAVE been exercising and eating right.

So with that in mind, here is what I suggest.  Ideally, I would love for my clients to eat 6 days properly and have one day be a cheat day.  If you know of a day coming up, which we always do, that you are having a party that you just want to let loose at, then plan that as your cheat day.  If there are several parties throughout the week (which would mean you are Mr./Mrs. Popular), then try to eat healthy the meals prior to the time of your party, but by all means have a good time at that party.  If you are eating right and continue to exercise, your body will still be able to do its job and quite possibly, help you lose weight, if that is what your goal is.

With that being said, the same credo can apply to exercising.  The days that you know you can get your workouts in, then do.  If you are planning on partying one night and anticipating not feeling the greatest the next day, then take the day off.  Your body isn’t going to flab up for missing one day of exercising.  In fact, it might enjoy the break to rejuvenate you for the next workout.  Fitting in 2-4 workouts throughout the week, will definitely help keep your body where it is and counter the affects of any holiday cheer you might experience.

The holidays are a fun time and you should thoroughly enjoy them.  If you do a little planning though, it doesn’t have to be the train wreck you might be anticipating.  Continue to exercise when you can and eat appropriately when you can (you aren’t going to parties 24/7 are you?) and you will be in great shape for the New Year to roll around and kick in those resolutions.

RESOURCE BOX: Adam Kessler is President of Fitness Planning Consultants, Inc. located in Gahanna, Ohio.  His free reports on weight loss and health rejuvenation can be found at his website at
http://fitnessplanning.com .

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SHORT DESCRIPTION: You are sure to have read somewhere or have heard from someone that eating four times a day, moderately, and spreading out the mealtimes evenly is the correct way to eat, irrespective of the fact you are on a diet or on a weight loss program.

BODY OF ARTICLE: You are sure to have read somewhere or have heard from someone that eating four times a day, moderately, and spreading out the mealtimes evenly is the correct way to eat, irrespective of the fact you are on a diet or on a weight loss program.

Well, there is a science behind eating four moderate meals a day rather than two or three heavy meals and it is important that you know how this kind of timely eating can help you in your diet plans or in your weight training program.

To understand this theory, you must understand metabolism. Metabolism is the rate at which your body burns calories and you will be surprised to know that your body burns calories throughout the day, while you are at work or even at rest ? even when you are sleeping!

It is this metabolism that is the principle behind having those four moderate meals everyday, evenly spaced out. If you try to eat heavy meals at one time, say at breakfast, thinking that you can compensate by skipping lunch, you are wrong.  What you eat in the morning will get digested in 2.5 to 3 hours and all the excess calories will end up getting stored as body fat ? they will not be kept aside for your calorie requirement in the afternoon.

Now, contrast this scenario with the one where you take four moderate meals every two-and-a-half hours or so. In this case, you are consuming just sufficient calories to keep you going for that much time, not extra. As a result, whatever you have consumed would be burned before your next meal and there would be no storage of excess calories as body fat.

Therefore, if you want your diet plans or your weight training program to succeed or even if you want to control your overweight condition, it is important to consume only the amount of food that yields calories just sufficient for 2.5 hours or so. Do not try to eat your lunch along with breakfast.

Of course, before declaring your diet plan to be an unqualified success, keep in mind that your metabolism/metabolic rate depends on several factors such as your genes, your diet and your eating habits and your physical activity level.

Having said that, the benefits of such a diet are many if coupled with the right kind of exercise ? you will find that this kind of diet keeps you light and refreshed. Your metabolism will burn up your calories faster, leading to weight loss and, above all, you will stay fit and healthy both in mind and body.

RESOURCE BOX: You can get  the FREE Special Report about “Weight Loss Tips” at:
http://www.theweightlossguide.info/

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