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A year and a half ago I started a blog where I talk about chocolate in all its various forms. At the same time I made some important life changes to help my health. The result was that I'm eating more chocolate than ever but I've still lost over 30 pounds of unwanted weight, improved my cholesterol levels, evened out my blood pressure, and found more balance in my emotional life. I want to share with you how chocolate factored into all of this. Here's the blunt truth: Consuming more calories than you burn is what causes weight gain. It really does not matter where the calories come from in terms of your body burning them or storing them as fat. If you ate more calories than you burn off in the form of carrots, you'd gain weight. However the type of food you eat can have a huge impact on how much of that food you eat. Yes you can eat too many calories in the form of chocolate but the odds are that that is reflection of other things going on in your life as well as...

Can I eat chocolate and still lose weight? For years, the myth has been spread that chocolate is a diet buster and absolutely has to be removed from your diet to lose weight. Whether you’re a chocoholic or just indulge from time to time, you should know that today’s research into chocolate is now connecting its consumption to lower weight. While moderation is still key, eating dark chocolate on a daily basis is more likely to result in weight loss than weight gain. Those conducting the studies still don’t have conclusive answers for “why” chocolate helps, but here are three theories that might explain. People Have a Sweet Tooth People tend to crave sugar, especially when they are used to eating it. Sugar is empty calories. It has no nutritional value, but does supply your body with energy. The human body will crave sugar beyond its energy needs and begin to store the excess calories as fat. It has been theorized that dark chocolate can satisfy the body’s desire for sweets witho...

It doesn’t take much to fall back into bad old eating habits when you’ve spent years of your life eating large quantities of the wrong kinds of food. If you’ve eaten a poor diet since you were a youngster this is what becomes familiar to you and when you’re feeling upset or anxious eating junk food can be rather comforting. However, comfort eating doesn’t exactly make it easy for you to maintain a healthy weight. You may have believed that you’d got rid of all your food demons, but they can soon creep up on you again. That is one of the problems with losing weight – just because you’ve shifted a few pounds doesn’t mean you can forget about counting calories or doing exercise. Unfortunately, if you slide into complacency you’re likely to regain any weight you’ve lost because your natural inclination is to eat too much food, particularly food that is calorific and crammed full of sugar, salt and fat. If you managed to lose weight quickly it can be even more difficult to keep the weight ...

Obesity is an epidemic in America and also in a lot of Europe as well. Nearly every research scientist claims we are simply just eating too much, but the truth is our foods are laced with sugar. Sugar, in excess, disrupts our insulin as well as other hormones, which triggers our bodies to store fat at EVERY given opportunity. So, even if you normally eat rabbit food all day, just one snack overindulgence in the evening containing High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), can be setting you up for disaster. The question we are all asking ourselves is how can we navigate the confusing product labels full of hidden sugars. First, commit to memory the different names sugar goes by. Avoid HFCS at all cost! Do not only look at the ingredients list on your food, but also pay attention to how many grams of sugar are in a serving. And make sure you account for foods in which you may want more than a single serving- we all do this! A great low sugar breakfast to start your day is one whole egg and...

In most countries obesity rates are higher amongst women than they are for men, and there are a myriad of diet plans, pills, shakes, meals and slimming clubs on the market which appear to specifically target women. At the very same time as people are getting larger in the West, the pressure on individuals, especially women, to be ultra thin has intensified, so that women often end up obsessing about how fat they are, even if they aren't, and thus will try anything in order to lose weight. Although there is also a certain amount of pressure on men to be a healthy weight, the emphasis generally isn't on how skinny they can become, but rather on their ability to maintain a well-proportioned, muscular physique. It would seem that whilst women use the scales to determine whether they have reached their ideal body, men use the mirror and how fit and healthy they feel as a guide. Women have always felt pressurised to look good, and society clearly has a significant influence on how t...

It seems that no matter how slim a woman is she always believes she can be skinnier, which is why she will spend most of her life on a diet and regularly weigh herself to see the results of her efforts. The scales become both her friend and enemy, so that when she loses a pound or two she feels elated, but if the needle moves in the wrong direction and shows that she's gained a bit of weight she might feel dejected and believe that she'll never get down to her ideal size. However, women who claim to constantly be on a diet really mean that they spend half their time not eating enough and depriving themselves, and the rest of the time eating whatever they want. Instead of learning to control their weight, their weight just fluctuates endlessly. Therefore, even when women are at their slimmest they tell themselves that they will just put on all the weight they lost before long, and instead of trying to curb their instinct to overeat, they just give into it. They might be feeling...

Mindful eating is the practice of becoming more aware of what you're eating. It has its roots in Buddhism, in which mindfulness is an important component. Mindful eating can help you lose weight easily, without dieting. By making your meals into a meditation, you can reduce the tendency to binge or overeat. You can also make more intelligent choices about what, when and how much you eat. With mindful eating, you can lose weight without giving up your favorite foods. Prepare your meals more slowly. Be very conscious of which foods you choose and how you prepare them. Don't reject foods simply because they seem unhealthy. Instead, consciously combine the foods that you love with foods that are good for your body. The TV and the computer tend to promote mindlessness during meals and snacks. People lose track of how much they've eaten because their minds are somewhere else. Sitting down at the table whenever you eat can help. So turn off the television and step away from the c...

Weight appears to be a bit of an obsession for some women, as they spend most of their lives on a diet, continually trying, and often failing, to watch what they eat and lose a bit of weight so that they can finally fit into a smaller dress size. In the past women may have aimed to reach a UK size 10 (US size 6), but at the very time that more people are being classed as obese so has the ideal female figure become smaller. Nowadays, size 10 isn't regarded as small enough so that more and more women are pressuring themselves to get down to a skeletal size 4 (US size 0). Being able to fit into size 4 clothing might not be that shocking for teenagers and women who are shorter and who have a naturally petite frame, but seeing six foot models walking down the runway and actually being able to fit into the sample sizes, which are usually extremely small, can come as rather a shock. Although representatives of the modelling industry are keen to assert that models tend to be naturally tal...

Owning a treadmill won't automatically help you to lose weight, particularly if it never gets used. It is not unusual for people to decide in the New Year or when summer is just around the corner that they want to lose a bit of weight and get fitter, and so immediately go out and buy a piece of exercise equipment in the belief that if they own a treadmill or exercise bike they are more likely to use it. Of course, it rarely works out that way, since many people aren't prepared to set aside the time to exercise regularly. They might enthusiastically use their treadmill for a couple of weeks to convince themselves that they haven't wasted their money, but in most cases the treadmill will soon end up gathering dust. Exercise is obviously crucial for enabling people to achieve their weight-loss goals, but it is only one side of the coin, as diet is also key. Losing weight requires you to get the balance right between the number of calories that go into your body and the number...

How long to leave green tea bag in water? How long to steep green tea for health benefits? The benefits of green tea are manifold, but its fat burning properties have been a hot topic for some time; with many people using green tea as an important component of a weight loss program. Even body builders are extolling the virtues of green tea extract as a herbal supplement towards getting that "shredded" body look. Green tea comes from the plant Camelia Sinesis, but unlike oonlong or black, is made without going through a fermentaion process, therefore its active ingredients remain intact and potent. These are the properties of green tea which makes it such a phenomenal supplement in fat burning. How long to steep green tea for health benefits? Green tea should steep for 8-10 minutes. If a green tea brews for less than 5 minutes, only 20% of the catechins are released compared to the brewing time of 10 minutes. What are the health benefits of green tea? Caffeine: Caffeine is ...

An excellent question, that immediately makes me think the best way to avoid the misery of dieting is to of course, NOT diet! This is not the answer most want to hear though. They want to have an easier way to diet. To not feel they are starving, to eat tasty food, to not have to battle cravings. They may also want to be able to enjoy social functions where food is a part of the equation, without having to do without sampling all fancy or down home dishes proffered. Still they want to be able to lose weight and usually quickly, so they can fit into those “dream” clothes and in the back of their minds return to old eating habits. In other words they want it all. Diets are big on restrictions, you can only eat certain amounts of certain foods at specified times. If you weren’t obsessing on food prior to the diet, you will be by the time you are done. I have come to believe that when we make something taboo, we only make it more desirable. Whether it’s a new pair of shoes, or a tool, an ...

If you’ve been overweight your whole life it can be difficult to know where to start when it comes to tackling your weight problem. You may have watched your weight go up and down over the years but find that you always end up back at the same spot. Although you can lose weight you never seem to be able to keep it off and so you pile on the pounds just as quickly as you lost them, sometimes even gaining more than you lost. It can be frustrating and you reach a stage where you think to yourself that you’re going to be fat forever, so there’s no point even trying to do anything. However, taking such a negative attitude won’t help. It is possible to lose weight and keep it off, but you have to go about it in a sensible way, rather than relying on fad diets, pills and slimming drinks to help you reach your goal. You may lose weight quickly by going on a diet that gets you to drastically reduce your calorie intake, but there is a good chance that you will struggle to keep the weight off be...

Even though you’d probably like to reach your weight-loss goal as quickly as possible when you’re carrying a few extra pounds, sometimes it might actually be better to aim for gradual weight loss. The trouble is that you if you try to lose weight as rapidly as you can you usually have to go on a very low calorie diet that will enable you to shift your excess weight, but won’t prepare you for what to do after you’ve reached your goal. You won’t be in the right frame of mind to manage your weight and you won’t have embraced the necessary habits either. Consequently, you could find yourself piling on the pounds just as quickly as you lost them, which means you’ve basically wasted your time. What is the point of losing a lot of weight just to gain it all back again? Indeed, after going on a crash diet you sometimes put even more weight on as you make up for lost time by eating all the foods that you haven’t allowed yourself. Your body has to readjust to being fed after you’ve virtually st...

The Internet is full of lists of high protein food for dieters or anyone who is looking for food containing high protein. However, if you are really serious about being on a diet of high protein food, you will want to use the only reliable ones. This articles shows you which are the best ones and why. High Protein Food Lists Highproteinfoods.net is a website that has detailed information on various food that contain high protein. The food are classified into various categories including breakfast cereals, cakes, eggs, fish, fruits, lambs, legumes, soups, snacks, diary products, and vegetables. Under each category, you will be able to see a list of different types of food for the category. Under each type of food, you will see some important details including the the amount of protein and calorie the food contains; and the amount calories you can obtain from the protein itself. You can also know the percentage of calories you can get from the protein from the website. Weighlossforall...

How can I train myself to eat less? Whether we like it or not losing weight means changing our lifestyle, and this is not an easy thing to achieve. Our lifestyle is built into who we are, and changing lifetime habits is one of the hardest things to do. But there are a few things you can do to at least get you on the right track. How can I train myself to eat less? First, change the way you look at food. Without a doubt food is one of the great pleasures in life, but if we use it as a comforter we are going to end up putting on more weight than we need. Instead of reaching for cakes as a treat to cheer yourself up, listen to music or watch something good on the telly. Any form of distraction is better than eating if you are overweight. Second, make a practical point of not finishing everything that is on your plate. No matter how small the portion is to start with, and especially if it is a large portion, always leave a bit behind. Third, by slowing down the pace at which you eat, perh...

Benefits of a Weight Loss Blog: A weight loss blog can provide a variety of benefits, both to the writer and the readers. The following are some of these benefits. Benefits of a Weight Loss Blog It can help the blogger lose weight A lot of people find that keeping a blog can help them lose weight. This happens in different ways. First it keeps them accountable. If they are blogging regularly then they may feel like they have to say what their weight is. When they are thinking about cheating or not doing what they are supposed to in order to lose the weight then they might think about how the people will read it and be disappointed. Thus they might work harder to lose the weight by sticking to their diet, exercising, etc. A weight loss blog can also help to motivate the blogger in other ways. They can also use it as a place to keep track of everything such as what they eat, how much they are exercising and the other measures they are doing to keep their weight down. They can se...

Most people in America are classified as overweight or obese. I'm not talking 51%, it's much greater. I am one of them but I am excited. I’ll explain why in a minute. I think FBC does not stand for First Baptist Church. It stands for Fat By Choice. We are a free country. What and how much we eat is voluntary. I'm currently overweight. Didn't get there overnight, will not get slim overnight. In fact I don't know if I'll ever earn the nickname "Slim". I'm overweight because I made decisions on what and how much I would eat based on today only! I decided on a sedentary activity level based on what I wanted to do today. Not tomorrow, not next week, month or year. I wanted it, I ate it. Now look where I am. Leaders and winners do not make decisions for today! If you are overweight, why in the world does this shock you? In many aspects of your life, physical, financial, relationships, even maintaining your reputation and integrity, you have two choices....

Fancy abdominal machines. Hundreds of crunches and sit ups every day. Hours of cardio on the stationary bike or aerobics class. Still no abs. That’s no surprise especially if you’re not paying attention to your diet. Exercise is one thing but diet has an even larger role to play when it comes to getting sexy abs. You still have to do lots of cardio with intensive bursts a few times a week, along with weight training and flexibility work while you take care of what you fuel your body with. Diet tips that target the abs 1 – Go sugar free completely. Those sexy abs aren’t going to show if you’re snacking on sweets more than celery sticks. Take care of your body and get a nice set of abs by changing your sugar laden meals for ones that use other spices. Choose herbs and spices to add different flavor to your meals and get rid of the sugar from your pantry. Sugar doesn’t just hide your abs, it also leads to many preventable diseases like diabetes. 2 – Up the fluids every day. If you want g...

Is long term weight loss possible? Long term diets are no joke. They require preparation in many forms. You have to prepare yourself mentally, physically and in the kitchen. Usually when people decide to go on a diet they don’t really take the time to think about what they need to do and how much commitment they are going to have make. Here are some things to do before starting a long term diet. Things to do before Stating a Long Term Diet Consider your eating. Look at your current diet by writing down all the food that you consume. Most of the time we don’t realize how much we are actually eating until we put the information down on paper. Once you are armed with the knowledge you can prepare the necessary changes that will help you stick to a long term diet. The next step will be getting rid of any junk food, sweets and processed foods from your home. You don’t want to be faced with temptations when you are trying to lose weight. Go shopping for lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. B...

Losing weight can be made a lot easier by planning ahead. With the right mind frame and the right individualized plan you can lose weight safely and in a timely fashion. Planning ahead can aid your weight loss efforts in a number of ways. There’s no need to reach for the diet books to give you assistance. Making a plan before you start trying to lose weight is the best way to increase your chances of weight loss success. 1 – Planning ahead makes you better prepared for what is to come. Weight loss can be an emotional process that takes a lot of energy and courage. It’s not always a walk in the park that some people imagine, they are the ones who usually don’t have to make the effort. Prepare yourself for everything that the weight loss journey may have in store for you. The right workout clothes and fuel in the fridge isn’t enough. Make sure that you have emotional support as well, someone that you can call upon when the going gets tough. You don’t want to be looking for it when you’r...

After you’ve reach your weight loss goals, your challenges aren’t over yet. If you’re not careful, you could easily regain your weight in no time. It doesn’t need to happen to you though, if you keep the following in mind. - Be on a sustainable plan to begin with. One of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to losing weight, is choosing a plan that’s not designed for them to succeed over their lifetime. Most plans fail, because they aren’t designed to arm us with the tools that’ll prepare us for “life after weight loss.” We also seem to always look for the “quick fix” too, and the guidelines are so strict, that we possibly can’t stick to it over our lives. How many times have you been on a plan that you had to cut out your favorite foods? How long did that last? We usually go back to those foods, and end up eating more of them, because deprivation often leads us to being out of control. On the other hand, if we put together a plan that takes our individual needs and desires...

Losing weight can be a difficult task to do for some people. Also, losing it too fast can become quite dangerous as well. If you need to shed 35 pounds in 3 months, here's a weekly schedule that has worked for me. Be sure to check with your main physician before choosing any diet plan. On week one, cut your calorie intake back. Drink a lot of water. Water helps remove the toxins from your body and keeps you hydrated. Search the Internet for your proper calorie intake. Then select the desired weight you want to be; that's based on your height and bone frame structure. Use a calorie counter and buy yourself a scale if you already don't own one. You can find free calorie counters online, that can help you with this. On weekends, eat all you want. Do not diet on this weekend. On week two, cut back on all of those fatty foods and replace it with fruits and vegetables. Also rotate your days to high carbs with low protein for two days, then two days of high protein with low carbs...

The decision to lose weight isn't as easy as picking up a razor and shaving it off like you would hair. At the same time, it isn't as difficult as digging a ditch. As with anything you would do in life, you have to put forth an effort and see what happens. The trick is to set a plan of action and stick to it. In your plan, you will probably set up an exercise routine and you will establish a diet that you can live with. Diets are the downfall for many people. They see them as the enemy or like they are punishments. The truth is sticking to a diet will come as second nature once you are used to it. You must work on your mindset. Get yourself ready for a diet by establishing fact from fiction. Be aware of common myths. Going on a diet doesn't mean that you have to starve yourself. It also doesn't mean that you will instantly lose weight. Falling back on a diet does not mean that the diet is over. You just have to be willing to make good decisions and resist temptations. ...

Losing weight is a difficult thing to accomplish for many people. It’s not easy to lose weight when there’s usually a lot of pressure we put on ourselves to do it. We often do whatever is the opposite of what it does take to lose weight, and keep it off for good. Part of this, is because there’s so much conflicting information available from so many different sources. A lot of times, we’re mostly getting our information from advertisers, or by someone selling something. We often get mislead, believe the hype, get more confused than ever, and end up continuing to fail. There are few plans offering everything that it takes to do it right, but once we’re able to find what works, success is achievable. Here are a few of the reasons why it’s so difficult for many people to lose weight, and a few things that can be done to change that. - We take the wrong approach. The one thing most people do wrong, is allow themselves to get consumed by their weight. They think weight loss is about starv...

There are many ways in which to lose weight. In fact, there are too many for me to mention here in this article. However, perhaps the most effective means as to lose excess weight is physical exercise paired with healthy eating habits. Some of the most common and effective kinds of physical exercise are walking, jogging, and swimming.  These three forms of physical exercise are indeed effective, weight-loss tools for all different age groups. But of course, physical exercise alone will not be sufficient to lose weight. Healthy eating practices are imperative for weight loss to be accomplished. For instance, if a person eats nothing but donuts and cake for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, he will not be able to effectively lose his excess body weight, no matter how much physical exercise that he does. But on the other hand, if a person has a well balanced and healthy diet at the same time as performing a sufficient amount of physical exercise, he will lose his excess weight....

Most diet plans have cheat days or meals built into them. The first reaction to that might be, what exactly is the point of a diet if you are going to cheat? The very language used seems to help you psychologically as you struggle to maintain discipline throughout the week, knowing that you get to "cheat" on that one special day you've planned out. If you didn't call it that you would probably appreciate it less and it would just feel like another meal, built into your diet that you "have" to abide by. That's the beauty of it, that you feel as if you are rewarding yourself for your hard work, that you have earned it. Unless you are a magnificently disciplined creature, you are going to cheat on your diet anyway. The very idea that you are telling yourself constantly that you cannot have this or that can be consuming. Building in scheduled cheats is to prevent you from going crazy and binging one day when you give in to your body's cravings and...

What makes losing weight so frustrating is the fact it takes so long. You can easily gain a few pounds in one week, but taking them off is another matter, especially when it’s such a challenge trying to eat healthily and exercise regularly. Your natural inclination is to simply lie back, watch some television and stuff your face with junk food. Weight loss doesn’t work like that, though, and so day in, day out you have to be prepared to count calories and get active. The alternative is to go on a crash diet, where you eat very little indeed, but although you lose weight quickly you tend to gain it all back anyway. You therefore have to face up to the fact that you’ve got to start eating healthily and doing exercise from now on to reach your goal weight and to keep the pounds off, or you have to consume so few calories that you lose weight quickly but then regain it when you go back to eating your normal diet. Obviously, the most sensible approach would be to aim for gradual weight los...

There are several reasons why the majority of the population are overweight. Maybe some of us do not like to admit it but the truth is that many people are overweight because they became lazy. Although American adults work long hours, many of us are lazy in our habits regarding exercise and eating. We live in a fast-paced society and although we should be fit for all that we cram into a single day, our choices for what keeps us going is what is making us fat. Caffeine gets us up in the morning and often that is the breakfast that many people start off with. A cup of coffee is not a healthy breakfast. Some people will have a donut, buttered roll or breakfast sandwich from a fast food place and call that breakfast. The calories in a breakfast like that do nothing to promote maintaining a healthy weight. When the average person begins to crash mid-morning from the caffeine high that started them off, it is usually more convenient to grab something unhealthy along with another cup of coff...

There’s no doubt about the fact that children would benefit from more sport in their lives. Obesity is an enormous problem that continues to grow. It’s a health issue that costs governments billions every year. It’s not just the problem that children are fat that is a worry but that their health is suffering also. When health suffers other areas of life suffer also. Children spend the majority of their free time either doing homework, watching television, playing computer games or surfing the Internet. Not enough children spend their free time in an active way and walking to and from school doesn’t count. Children need to get more sport. Taking part in sport has many benefits for children’s physical development. It also has a positive impact on their psychological and emotional wellbeing, as well as their education. Children who take part in regular sporting activities are likely to have better body image than those who lead sedentary lifestyles and are generally overweight. Body imag...

Here is the secret to losing weight... Can you handle the truth? Do not lose weight just to lose weight. It NEVER works. Permanently change your diet and exercise and the weight will come off and stay off. Americans love short cuts. We love instant gratification. We will do anything to find a magic diet that will make us look like we did in college. Only one problem... Diets do not work. They never have. They are illusionary. They work for a time and give you the false impression you can go back to some of your fattening habits and before you know it, you weigh more than you did before your diet. That is not a diet. That is a self-defeating behavior system that should tell you that you are not truly serious about changing the life of your body. Stop thinking diet. Atkins, Grapefruit, Pritikin Principle, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, Dr. Phil, Weight Watchers, all of them. They do not work. If you don't believe me look at Oprah. No one has dieted more than she has in the history of the...