Baby Steps Can Equal Big Changes in Diet

Do you want to make changes to your diet and lifestyle but intimidated by the prospect of making big changes in how you live? It’s a common misconception that in order to make significant changes in your health it’s necessary to totally overhaul your lifestyle. In fact, you can make great changes in your health and fitness levels just by making small changes to the way you already live. Baby steps can equal big changes in your diet, fitness level and overall health. In fact, experts say that taking baby steps is the best way to create lasting change when it comes to diet and exercise. Here are some small steps that you can take to change your diet and fitness level.

Take a Walk

Walk whenever you can. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Walk to work one or two days a week. Park your car at the farthest end of the parking lot and walk further to get into the store. There are lots of small ways that you can get more active everyday without changing your schedule drastically. Walk around the block after dinner, or even just walk in place in the living room while you’re watching your favorite show instead of sitting on the couch. You don’t need to join a gym or spend thousands of dollars on exercise equipment to get more active. Just get off the couch.

Add One Serving of Vegetables to Your Daily Diet

Diet is one area where people often try to make sweeping changes and then ultimately go back to their bad eating patterns because they try to change to many things quickly. To start off with, just add one more serving of vegetables to your daily diet. Drink a glass of vegetable juice in the middle of the morning for a quick pick-me-up instead of having a doughnut. Have a salad with dinner. Throw some tomatoes into your morning omelet or make a breakfast wrap with scrambled eggs, tomatoes, onions, and cheese in a low fat tortilla. You don’t need to make any big dramatic changes, just add one serving of vegetables to your daily diet and you’ll be amazed at how much better you’ll feel.

Drink Water

Replace sugary soda with water. Invest a few dollars in a refillable plastic bottle and carry it with you. There are lots of delicious sugar free drink mixes that come in individual portions so that you can put one in a bottle of water, shake it up, and have a delicious and refreshing beverage that is much healthier for you than a soda or fruit cocktail. Our bodies are mostly made of water, and most people don’t drink enough water every day. Dehydration can cause mental and physical sluggishness, so drink more water every day to feel better.

Take Vitamins

Most people don’t eat balanced or healthy diets. Even when you’re working on eating better, a multi vitamin is necessary to make sure that you get all the vitamins and minerals you need everyday. Investing in a good multi-vitamin and remembering to take it everyday is a great baby step everyone can take to start feeling better. Put the vitamin bottle on the counter with the coffeemaker or next to the juice glasses so that you remember to take one every morning.

Stretch during the Day

Your body was made to move. Sitting at a desk all day causes the body to become sluggish and no one wants to exercise after sitting down all day. Take little five minute breaks throughout the day to stand up and do some stretching at your desk. It will help you stay alert and awake, and get you ready to walk the stairs and out through the parking lot at the end of the day. Baby steps can add up to big changes in your diet, fitness level, and desire to exercise each day, so start taking baby steps to better health.

Knowing Diet Secrets of the Stars

We know that Celebrities always look wonderful. If appearing in television or films or strutting down the red carpet during movie premiers and awards, they never cease to fascinate us with their larger than life presence. It takes a lot of effort to look the way they do.

Of course these stars have their own secrets when it comes to staying fit and gorgeous. Their health agenda can range from extreme workouts to well-planned meals. Who doesn't want to know their secrets in staying absolutely sexy? Here are some of the diet secrets of seven women celebrities.

1. Claudia Schiffer
The bodacious German supermodel eats salad and steamed vegetables for dinner and eats only fruits before the afternoon. While on locations, she prefers to eat black grapes and drinks tomato juice and herbal tea.

2. Christie Brinkley
Long-time supermodel maintains her all-American good looks by being a vegetarian. She does not keep junk foods of any kind inside her home to make sure that she does not eat them when cravings occur. She snacks on sweet potatoes in place of candy bars, and she adopts a liquid juice diet when she needs to slim down fast.

3. Gwyneth Paltrow
A lot of people may find it hard to believe that the perpetually slim Academy award-winning actress actually needs to diet. Gwyneth actually follows a healthy eating plan that resembles Oprah's, avoiding sugar and white flour. She usually follows a macrobiotic diet, eating foods like vegetables, brown rice, and lean meat. She also eliminated dairy from her diet, and does yoga everyday.

4. Jennifer Aniston
The star of the phenomenal television show Friends not only mesmerized audiences with her adorable comic sense and her famous hairstyle, she was also known for having one of the sexiest bodies in Hollywood, as she appeared in countless magazine covers. To stay trim, Jennifer follows the 40:30:30 diet method. The diet consists of:

40% Low glycemic carbohydrates
-Foods such as beans, fruits and vegetables, legumes

30% lean proteins
-Tofu, fish, chicken, turkey, beef and low fat dairy products

30% essential fats
-nuts and seeds, fish and olive oils

It is essential that every meal should contain macronutrients to attain the balance of hormones and maximum weight loss.

5. Kate Hudson
The gorgeous daughter of actress Goldie Hawn gained 60 pounds during her pregnancy, which she needed to shed quickly before commencing on her next film. From her previous eating plan, she switched to a higher protein diet. She consumed high protein meals in smaller portions, and she combined this diet with an exercise program that includes weight training and cardiovascular workouts. After getting a lot of flak because of her post-pregnancy figure, Kate removed all that baby weight in only four months and has gained abdominal muscles that gained the envy of many in Hollywood.

6. Madonna
The pop star known as the Material Girl has always flaunted a body that is to die for, and has become a true fitness paragon over the years. She keeps herself in tip-top shape by having Ashtanga Yoga, and follows a strict diet that mostly shuns junk foods. She adopted a macrobiotic eating plan that includes organic foods rich in lean protein.

7. Oprah Winfrey
As one of the most successful talk-show hosts in the world, there is no question that Oprah needs to maintain her physical appearance for her millions of audiences. Known as one of those celebrities who are constantly battling weight gain, she has recently toned up her figure and has never looked figure in age 50 by combining a regular exercise regime and diet plan. Oprah works out five days a week, spending 30 minutes on the threadmill and doing free weights. Her eating plan consists of legumes, fish, nuts, fruits and vegetables, chicken and dairy products that are lowfat. She limits her consumption of white sugar and flour. Oprah also credits her trim figure to her habit of not eating anything after seven in the evening.

Celebrities are just like ordinary people. They need to maintain their figures just like anyone else, and there is more pressure on their part since they are constantly in the public eye.

Do you want to have celebrity-like bodies? By following these diet and fitness plans, you can also look like red-carpet worthy.

Planning Your Weight Loss

Since excess weight puts you at risk for many health problems, you may need to set some weight loss plans to help avoid those risks and prevent disease.

But what should be your long-term goal? And what short-term goals should you set to help you get there? You have a better chance of attaining your goals if you make sure that the weight loss plans that you will use are sensible and reasonable right at the beginning.

Here are six important things from the experts in choosing your weight loss plans and goals.

1. Be realistic

Most people’s long-term weight loss plans are more ambitious than they have to be.

For example, if you weigh 170 pounds and your long-term plan is to weigh 120, even if you have not weighed 120 since you were 16 and now you are 45, that is not a realistic weight loss goal.

Your body mass index or BMI is a good indicator of whether or not you need to shed of pounds. The ideal BMI range, according to the national Institutes of Health, is between 19 and 24.9. If your BMI is between 25 and 29.9, you are considered overweight. Any number above 30 is in the obesity range.

From this point of view, you will need a sensible weight loss plan that will correspond to the required BMI based on your height, because this is the primary factor that will affect your BMI.

2. Set appropriate objectives

Using a weight loss plan just for vanity’s sake is psychologically less helpful than losing weight to improve health.

You have made a big step forward if you decide to undergo a weight loss plan that includes exercise and eating right so that you will feel better and have more energy to do something positive in your life.

3. Focus, focus and focus on doing, not losing

Rather than saying that you are going to lose a pound this week, say how much you are going to exercise this week. This would definitely make up of a sensible weight loss plan.

Keep in mind that your weight within a span of a week is not completely in your control, but your behavior is.

4. Build bit by bit

Short-term weight loss plans should not be “pie-in-the-sky.” This means that when you have never exercised at all, your best weight loss plan for this week should be based on finding three different one-mile routes that you can walk next week.

5. Keep up the self-encouragement

An all-or-nothing attitude only sets you up to fail. Learn to evaluate your efforts fairly and objectively. If you fall short of some goals, just look ahead to next week. You do not need to have a perfect record.

After all, self-encouragement should definitely be a part of your weight loss plans. Otherwise, you will just fail in the end.

6. Measure your measurable goals

Saying that you are going to be more positive this week or that you are going to really get serious this week is not a goal that you can measure and should not be a part of your weight loss plan.

This is another reason why you should incorporate exercise on your weight loss plan and focus on it. You should be able to count up the minutes of exercise in order to be successful in your plan.

The bottom line is, people should make weight loss plans that will only remain as it is, just a plan. They have to put it into action by incorporating goals that will motivate them to succeed. So, planning your work and working your plan!

weight loss plan

Fast weight loss diets

You are overweight for the most simple of reasons -- because you're eating the wrong foods, the wrong types of calories per meal, and you're also eating meals in the wrong patterns each day.

Think closely about what we're about to tell you, since it's going to change the way you think about dieting...

FOOD is more powerful than any prescription weight loss pills, because the FOOD that you eat can either make you THIN or FAT. You don't get fat because of a lack of exercising, that's a myth. You get fat because you don't eat the right foods at the right intervals each day.

Also, the pattern that you choose to eat your meals each day is more powerful than any prescription weight loss pills. This is true because your body is like an "engine" and it only needs certain foods at certain intervals each day, and if you don't eat the right foods at the right times then it won't burn those calories -- and you'll wind up storing those calories as fat tissue. (Hint: You need to eat more than 3 times per day to lose weight, but we'll show you the details later).

You have gotten overweight by eating the wrong foods, that much is a fact. And guess what? You can get SLIM by eating the RIGHT FOODS at the RIGHT INTERVALS each day.

It's not really any more complicated than that, and the way to start losing weight has nothing to do with starving yourself or jogging.

Read more about fast weight loss diets