You can lose weight if you set your mind to it! Are you ready to take action to achieve the body of your dreams?

The biggest barrier you face is actually your self-discipline and willpower.

You may have fallen into a vicious cycle. The cycle starts with eating a poor diet full of fats, carbs, and processed foods. These are the kinds of foods that make you feel tired and lethargic all the time. Then, because your body lacks proper energy, you don’t feel much like exercising.

What’s the end result? You end up with a huge loss of willpower and you feel miserable and hopeless.

But there is hope! You can make the change! If you truly want to lose weight, you first have to build the willpower to make it happen.

Here’s a list of things to consider when boosting your willpower:

1. Don’t Wait For Something Bad To Happen. Your willpower is within you and you don’t want something bad to happen in order to find it.

• We’ve all heard the stories about someone suffering a severe trauma, like a heart attack, and how that life event leads to a permanent change in their habits. You don’t need this to happen to you in order to get motivated!

2. Watch Your Portion Size. This is one tip that can allow you to start small. It’s hard to muster up the willpower if you’re trying to go from one extreme to another. Decide that you’re going to have the same meal tonight that you would normally eat - but give yourself a smaller portion size.

• The trick is to use smaller plates so the plate visually appears full.

3. Give Yourself A Cheat Day. It’ll be an easier transition for you if you allow yourself some fun once in awhile. Tell yourself that next Saturday you can enjoy that pizza for dinner or that chocolate cake for dessert. You’ll be less likely to give up knowing that you can eat some pizza next Saturday instead of “never.”

• Your “cheat” day doesn’t mean “over-eat” day.
  
  
• Savor the flavors of your food, even if it means having a smaller piece than you’re used to. Once you’ve finished your piece, your willpower should kick in and say “no more!”

4. Take Photographs. You can motivate yourself to lose weight by taking some self-portraits. We usually don’t have the best idea about how we truly look until we see ourselves in a photograph. Keep a picture with you and look at it when you feel like giving up.

• Update your photo often and compare them as you start to lose weight.

5. Make A Food List. Write down all the foods you enjoy eating, then evaluate whether or not these items are healthy. Chances are there are at least some healthy foods that you actually enjoy eating - such as fruits and vegetables. Make sure you start buying these foods for your home.

6. Exercise In Moderation. Adding exercise to your routine can also be a daunting task if you try to jump in too fast. Nobody is telling you that you need to join a gym and engage in rigorous workouts if that’s not your style. You’ll actually be surprised at how energized you can feel just by taking a 30 minute walk, three times a week.

Set Small Goals

No matter how you choose to approach your weight loss, it’s important to take small steps and remain in good spirits. Doing too much, too fast will only set you up for failure. Instead, set small, manageable goals like one pound per week. By focusing on the smaller, more attainable goal, you’ll actually see results far more quickly.

In the end, remember to reward yourself for a job well done. After all, you deserve it! Once you have mustered the willpower to succeed at weight loss, you can succeed at anything in your life!

Lose weight safely and easily

If you are looking for a way to lose fifteen pounds in two weeks, a high protein diet, a low carb diet, a fruit diet, a no fat diet, a blood type diet, a juice fast, a diet named after a place in Miami, a grapefruit diet, a cactus diet, a coffee and cigarette diet, a diet that includes sweets, a diet based on your body type, a diet based on an ancient religion or a diet based on your hair color, then this article is NOT for you.

Fad and crash diets, such as the ones described above are not only unhealthy but they also cause rebound weight gain. Also most diets, even though diet gurus write them, cause an initial weight loss but the ultimate result is that you gain all of the weight back the minute you go off the plan. If you don’t gain it back within a couple of diets, you are likely to gain it all back plus a bit more within a year.

Crash diets dehydrate you, low calorie diets put your body into starvation mode so you plateau so you can’t lose one more pound and high protein diets stress your kidneys and clog your arteries.

So how does one lose weight?

There is only one answer to this question.

You need to expend more calories than you are taking in. Restricting certain foods, eating so-called fat burning foods, or dehydrating yourself with special pills or teas does not do it. It is simple math. The only way is to eat a little less and exercise a little more. Here is the equation below:

Eating Less + Exercising More = Weight Loss.

This is not a magical formula, it is just logic. It is also not a fast way to lose weight. As I have mentioned before, this is not an article about how to lose ten pounds in three days or 30 pounds in a month. It is about safe, healthy weight loss.

In order to lose weight safely and without putting yourself at risk for such health hazards as dehydration, kidney failure, malnutrition, exhaustion, nervous dysfunction, tooth loss, dull hair, wrinkles, cellulite, sudden heart failure or stroke and lose the weight so that it stays off, you should lose no more than approximately two pounds a week!

Although that might not sound like a large amount of weight to lose it actually is! If you lose 2 pounds a week that means you can achieve a weight loss of ten pounds a month! If you only have twenty pounds to lose then your weight loss is not only quite rapid, but you have the extra guarantee that it will stay off because you have followed a sensible exercise plan that did not involve starving, exhausting or depriving yourself. If you are willing to drop your impatience and desire for immediate gratification and stick to an exercise plan and healthy eating habits, then a Mediterranean Diet is for you. Remember being slim is only good if you are able to enjoy it!

Do You Need to Lose Weight?

Fascination with Fat

If you want to lose weight, you first need to assess whether you need to actually lose weight or are simply a fashion victim. Unfortunately this society is fascinated with fat - who has it and who doesn’t. As we are persuaded by so many images in the media that persuade us to believe that you can never be too thin, many of us are bad judges of our actual body weight.

If you are under the age of eighteen and reading this book, the first thing you need to do is consult with your parent about your plans to lose weight. Have her make an appointment with a physician so that he can indicate to you whether or not you are a candidate for weight loss.

If you are an adult, it is possible that you may not be overweight and are just trying to be, as Bridget Jones put it in Bridget Jones Diary “a stick insect with eyelashes.” It is also very possible that you know you need to lose weight but have no idea where to start.

If you are obese and you know it, then you have to check with a physician first to see how your health is before you embark on any exercise program or plan. The same is also true if you have any kind of medical condition but especially a thyroid condition or heart condition. Some physicians may not recommend a weight loss program for those who are over 40 as due to genetics and hormonal changes some people naturally just round out or gain weight in a way that simply cannot be changed. If your doctor tells you your spreading hips are due to menopause or genetics, believe him! It is not clever to fool with Mother Nature.

If you are interested in giving the Mediterranean Diet a try Risk Free <<CLICK HERE>>

Everyone has heard the expression, “You are what you eat.” This very simple saying means more and more each day as we gain a greater understanding about how foods affect us.

•    The food you put into your body has an effect on your physical appearance, energy levels, bodily processes and how well your brain functions.

Your brain is a system of chemical connections firing off at each other so fast that it’s almost impossible to fathom. Well, the food you eat affects the chemical make up of your brain, altering how it acts and works.

Feelings and emotions also affect your brain. Obviously feelings are born in the brain, and, depending on the emotion, they can alter the brain chemistry. For example, some people with mental health issues do not produce certain chemicals in their brain, which radically changes their behavior patterns.

There are things you can do to regulate this chemical reaction on a daily basis, and it’s simpler than you may think! Eating certain foods can specifically affect different functions of the body, the chemicals in your brain, and your emotions.

Here are some healthy foods you can eat to help optimize both your body and mind:

1.    Omega-3 Fatty Acids. Eating foods high in Omega-3s has a great deal of health benefits, including improving your brain’s development and functions. The Omega-3 fatty acid, DHA, is an important polyunsaturated fat found in the brain.

•    Fish is a great source of Omega-3 Fatty acids, including DHA.

2.    Choline. Choline is a chemical building block of every cell in your body. Choline has also been shown to help with retaining information in your memory. The more choline your lifetime diet includes, the less likely you’ll be to face extreme memory loss as you grow older.

•    Eggs yolks have a high concentration of choline in them.

3.    Antioxidants. We all recognize the health benefits of antioxidants in fighting diseases, but did you know a cup of hot cocoa has a higher concentration of antioxidants in it than either red wine or green tea? It’s true – as long as you use a dark chocolate.

•    Serve a cup of rich dark hot cocoa after dinner, and know you’re actually taking good care of your health!

4.    Green Tea. Have a glass of green tea every day to help keep the cognitive functions of your brain in tiptop shape. Studies have shown 70% of people who drank green tea showed an improvement in the functions of the brain.

5.    Cranberry Juice. This beverage is not only good for your body, specifically, kidney and urinary functions, but it can also help prevent a stroke. Cranberry juice has also been shown to help reduce brain cell damage after a stroke.

6.    Mangosteen Juice. This botanical was shown to reduce certain parameters of inflammation and to improve weight and body fat in an overweight population, this has positive implications in the future prevention of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Eating a well balanced diet that includes fruits, vegetables, protein, and some fat is the best way to nourish both the body and mind. Our bodies are highly complicated machines requiring many different things to function properly, and what we eat determines how it functions.

By taking simple steps to optimize your nutrition, you’ll also optimize your mind and body. Start making healthy, nutritious food choices today and enjoy looking, feeling, and thinking better.

More On Chinese Food and Diet

I received this question from Lisa E. via email, it is a good question and I am going to answer it here for the rest of the community to benefit from the answer.

Lisa’s question:

Hey, thanks! Say, what is the deal with low starch and yet lots of rice??? Whats the real facts on their rice consumption?? as opposed to what I always hear about “no carbs” diets and “cut out all white foods”…thanks

Answer:

Hey Lisa,

Good question.

The truth lies somewhere in between,
as Americans we eat a lot of processed
foods (empty calories) mostly simple
carbohydrates with no nutritional value.

Potatoes, pasta, bread, rice are starches,
which are starches are mostly complex
Carbohydrates, but they don’t contain as
much fiber (higher on the Glycemic Index)
as lest say, piece celery or a carrot (lower on the
Glycemic Index).

You can consume large amounts of foods that
are low on fiber, because they aren’t as filling,
but they add a considerable number of calories
to your diet. The lower the fiber content the
faster the food is digested, and you gets hungry
a lot sooner.

“Eat less, and exercise more”

was my grandmothers advice for losing weight.
It still applies today, as much as it did yesterday.
But you are going to have a hard time eating less,
if the bulk of your diet is rice and potatoes (white foods).

Carbohydrates are vital in a persons diet,
they are the main source of energy for the body.
When choosing starches, go for wholegrain
alternatives which have a lower GI and hence keep
you fuller for longer. Avoid simple carbohydrates
like sugar, which is found in lots of things.

1 can of cold-drink contains 8 teaspoons of sugar.
Don’t be fooled by products that say fat free, they
are usually jam packed full of sugar. just read the
label, and compare, if it has 30g of carbohydrates
it is equivalent to 2 slices of white bread.

To maintain a healthy weight balance is the name
of the game, too much of anything can be bad for you.
Smaller portions, of nutritious food, is the best strategy
for longevity and health.

In Chinese medicine anxiety disorders are related to three organs: heart,
gallbladder, and kidney.

Disharmony between the energies of these organs
can lead to different disorders such as:

• Panic attacks
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Phobias
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

In Chinese Medicine this disorders are treated with a combination of herbal formulas and acupuncture with satisfactory results. But if the person is not able to receive acupuncture treatments, or take herbal supplements like in the case of a pregnant woman. You can still address the underlying problem with food therapy and every day supplements.

Here are some guidelines to follow:

* Include calcium (1,000 mg a day) and magnesium (500 mg a day) supplements to your diet. Try taking half the amount in the morning and
half at night to increase better absorption of calcium. Also, take a B complex (50 to 100 mg a day, best in the morning) to decrease stress effects.

* Avoid stimulating foods and drinks: caffeine, sugar, processed foods and alcohol. Avoid foods that commonly cause food sensitivities (peanuts, soy, dairy, wheat, corn, shell fish). Increase consumption of fresh vegetables and whole grains.

According to Chinese Medicine these are some of the foods that also help with anxiety disorders and should be included on your diet:

Corn silk, cow’s gallbladder, water spinach, abalone, asparagus, dried ginger, cinnamon, chicken egg, banana, bamboo shoot, oyster, royal jelly, and pork.

Always consider and food allergies that you may suffer from, and avoid those foods.

Like I said before Chinese Herbal formulas like Tian Wan Bu Xin Dan or Wen Dan Tang, plus acupuncture are effective, but if you are unable to get these treatments, the above guidelines should provide a measure of relief.

In my practice I have found out that anxiety disorders are often linked to unbalanced hormonal levels.

Some of the symptoms of hormonal imbalance are:

• Night sweats
• Hot flashes
• Weak erections
• No desire
• Weight gain (easy and rapid)
• Mood swings
• Insomnia
• Fatigue
• Palpitations
• Gastric problems aggravated by emotions
• Back pain
• Weakness of the Knees
• …and about a dozen other problems.

If any of those symptoms sound familiar, and you would like to check on natural alternatives to bring balance your endocrine system, check this excerpt from Dr. Lucille Holly’s fantastic book, “Creating and Maintaining Balance.”

Woman Loses Weight Eating Chinese Food

By Eating Chinese Food Morning, Noon and Night

When I was going to acupuncture school, the wife
of one of my classmates used this strategy to shed
excess pounds. I’ll tell you more in a bit…

First I want to tell you that we got a great response
to our last newsletter where we shared out report
on healthy eating “Back to Basics”

One of the people that got back to us was Ms. Mena
Ms. Mena started to implement the dietary suggestions last
Wednesday, the same day that she got the newsletter, I
talked to her over the weekend, and she told me that she
is already lost 3 lbs. She also said is feeling better than
she has felt in a long time. Ms. Mena doesn’t feel as bloated,
and she is not retaining water like she was before she
started the program.

We are very proud of Ms. Mena and wish her the best.

I also got some emails asking for recipe suggestions
that follow the guidelines of the report.

That is what made me think of my friends wife, and
her success with her ethnic diet.

If you think about it the Chinese diet is:

• Low fat
• Low calorie

My wife Carmen and I have been using a very good
book to get our recipes, and I thought I’d share a couple
of them with you.

Here are two of my favorites:

Chicken with Broccoli

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 whole chicken breasts
1 large head or 2 small heads broccoli
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sherry
2 tsp corn flour
1 cup good chicken stock
1 tbsp olive oil
grated fresh ginger to taste. I use about 2 tbsp (keep fresh ginger in the freezer, and when required grate it straight from freezer)
1/2 cup cashew nuts or blanched almonds
Crisp Fried Rice noodles or Orgran Rice Pasta

Directions:

1. Cook noodles or pasta.
2. Skin the chicken, cut into pieces.
3. Wash broccoli and break into small stalks.
4. Combine salt, browning, and sherry in a bowl, mix well.
5. Heat oil in wok, add ginger, stir fry 1 minute.
6. Add chicken, stir fry 1 minute.
7. Add sauce mixture and broccoli, bring to boil, stirring, reduce heat, cover and simmer 3-4 minutes, adding more stock if necessary.
8. Add nuts, serve on noodles or pasta.

Per Serving (excluding unknown items):

277 Calories; 14g Fat (44.1% calories from fat); 28g Protein; 10g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 72mg Cholesterol; 587mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain (Starch); 3 1/2 Lean Meat; 1 1/2 Vegetable; 2 Fat.

Beef Fried Rice

Prep: 10 min, Cook: 10 min.

Ingredients:

2 Tbs. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. sugar
1 Tbs. vegetable oil
2 eggs, well beaten
1/2 lb. ground beef
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
1 celery rib, finely chopped
1 scallion, chopped
1 tsp. fresh ginger, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups cooked rice, cold

Directions:

Combine soy sauce, sugar and salt and pepper to taste in a small bowl and set aside. Heat oil in a heavy nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Cook eggs about 45 seconds, stirring constantly, until eggs are just set. Transfer eggs to a bowl and set aside. Add ground beef and next 3 ingredients to same pan over medium heat. Sauté about 3 minutes, stirring often to break up meat, until browned. Stir in ginger and garlic and cook 1 minute. Discard excess fat. Increase heat to high and add rice. Stir-fry about 1 minute, until heated through. Stir in soy sauce mixture and eggs and stir-fry 30 seconds longer.

Per serving:

calories 338, fat 15.7g, 43% calories from fat, cholesterol 133mg, protein 16.8g, carbohydrates 31.0g, fiber 1.6g, sugar 2.5g, sodium 547mg

If you like the idea of using Chinese food as part of your diet, priced at only $19.97 Nicholas Zhou’s cookbook “Real & Healthy Chinese Cooking” is a real bargain, with 500+ low carb and low fat recipes with 170+ colorful pictures. It is based on a master chef’s 40 years of cooking practice and 4 years of writing and research, and it has helped 12,800 people worldwide improve their health.

Click here to order Nicholas Zhou’s Cookbook

I am no different than everyone else, and I struggle with my body-weight just the same, that is why when I read Jon Benson’s book the “Every Other Date Diet” I wanted to try his suggestion (eat your favorite foods and still shed body-fat like crazy). I have had great success, on the first 5 days I dropped 5lbs. even though I had ice cream, and Mexican food two out of the five days. I am really excited about my progress and I wanted to share my new found knowledge with you, but I thought who better to explain the “Every Other Date Diet” than the author himself. The following is an excerpt of an excellent article from Jon Benson’s Blog I hope you enjoy it…

Rapid Weight Loss Foolishness: The Yo-Yo Syndrome

We must clarify the difference between accepting and adopting a more rapid form of weight loss and going on a quick weight loss fad diet. These two ideas may sound similar, but they are night and day different.

Our plan is controlled, measured, and reasonable; designed from the ground up to be a lifestyle approach as well as a rapid fat loss system. Fad diets are predesigned to END. If you can think of one fad weight loss diet that does NOT have an end to it, be sure to let me know in the comments below!

Ending a diet is similar to ending a savings plan. Do you really think you stand a chance of accumulating wealth if you plan to STOP saving money, or plan to invest only for a few months out of the year?

The only real diet is a a lifestyle diet. This is a system of eating that, while regulated, allows you the mental and physical freedom to enjoy food and enjoy your life. Diets based on deprivation for long periods of time are destined to fail. The body cannot stand deprivation and will fight for its survival.

This brings us back to caloric staggering. This is the skill of “planned deprivation” — a short period of caloric restriction followed by a shorter period of structured re-feeding. This is your ticket to weight loss paradise, and I suggest you take it.

The alternative is a lifetime of “yo-yo dieting”, or going up and down in body weight, never really losing any weight over the long haul at all. In fact, the vast majority gain weight slowly over time when yo-yo dieting, making it fool-hearty at best and downright dangerous at worst.

Most diets fail because there is no end in sight to the deprivation. The result is emotional and physical frustration, followed by long periods of overeating. This is not a weakness on your part as much as it is a natural physical reaction, just as running might be after being caged up for a period of time. The body craves balance. When balance is removed it usually results in a pendulum swing to the other side. In this case, the swing is to high-calorie foods and emotional eating after being drained by low-calorie foods and emotional stress.

Stress is the key player in yo-yo dieting. Diets that cause emotional stress will fail on multiple levels. Stress causes cortisol, the “fat-friendly” hormone, to be secreted in greater amounts. Talk about going in opposite directions! A “stressful diet” is literally an oxymoron. The two cannot coexist, as one nullifies the other.

When I created the low-stress dietary principles in Evey Other Day Diet I did so with a purpose. I knew from my own experience with obesity and emotional overeating that stress, particularly emotional stress, was a key factor in my weight gain. Dieting too severely and with too much restriction for too long a period of time not only shut down the metabolic processes that burn fat, such as lowering thyroid output and increasing cortisol levels, it also led to emotional frustration and burn-out. And we all know what that leads to: Overeating.

It was only through learning how to manage my “bad foods” and actually use them to my weight loss advantage (yes, you can do this!) that I was able to adopt what I call a “real-world approach to dieting.” One that did not restrict myself from any food for too long a period of time, yet one that promoted long-term fat loss with periods of rapid fat loss.

EODD is just what the doctor ordered.

Click here to find out more about the “Every Other Day Diet”