Stick To A Diet

You need to eat healthy in order to have your body work at maximum efficiency with the minimum of pain.  Horseback riding is one of the most intense activities known to man or woman – not with just the riding, but with taking care of your horse, and then trying to catch a runaway mount after you’ve tumbled off.  And it’s not a lot of fun for a horse to have to cart around a fat rider.  Horses do get back aches.

If you remember no other fitness tips, remember this one – no fad diets!  They will not work and may leave your body dangerously short on essential nutrients.  Drink plenty of water, herbal teas or fruit juices – not alcoholic beverages, coffee or fizzy drinks.  The last three drinks will dehydrate you – which is the last thing you need.  And, water helps you feel full, which is another helpful fitness tip.

Heel Walking

Another fitness tip for riders is to do some exercises every day, even if you can’t ride that day.  Your muscles can forget how to position themselves on a horse, even though your brain will remember.  Bike riding won’t work the leg muscles you need to grip your horse.  As you know, you don’t squeeze with your knees – you grip with your inner thighs.  This takes a long time to learn.  Keep your muscle memory from forgetting by walking on your heels as much as you can.  This is the closest approximation of the riding position your body is going to get.

Wear A Sports Bra

Perhaps one of the most sadly neglected fitness tips is female riders not wearing a sports bra.  Don’t fool yourself – you need some kind of support!  A regular bra just will not do.  After bouncing around for twenty minutes, your breasts will get incredibly painful.  It is also considered in bad form by show judges to not wear a support bra.

Related posts:

1. Health and Fitness Tips You Can Use
2. Running Tips For Beginners
3. Helpful Fitness Training Tips

To Work For Weight Watchers, You Have To Have Succeeded With Weight Watchers

The program that Jean began, those forty-five years ago did not offer unique recipes or “get thin quick” fad diets, rather it involved the sharing of weight loss triumphs and failures with others that could understand and provide the emotional and spiritual support to keep trying and working to read a goal.  The weekly discussions of diet and nutrition ideas and guidelines helped to educate the group and provided the foundation for success.

As a respect for this basic value in Jean’s original meetings, the employees and leaders that work with the weight watchers company are required to have once been members of the program and to maintain their weight loss.  Using previous members that have achieved their personal goals is a great way to encourage and motivate new members. 

Being surrounded by a group of individuals, who are going through or have gone through the same trials and dilemmas of dieting, increases the sense of community and support with everyone involved.  This sense of community and sharing brings everyone together with a united goal; in a sense, each time one member reaches a goal the whole group celebrates.

The Diet and Nutrition Plans For Weight Watchers Are Designed For Success

Today, weight watchers has two different food plans that are specifically designed with two different types of people in mind.  There are those that enjoy keeping dietary journals and there are those that do not, these two different types of people each have a different diet and nutrition plan to help them reach their desired weight loss goal.

For the individual that enjoys keeping a food diary, the flex plan allows for the counting of points and the monitoring of food intake.  For the individual that detests adding points and logging food journals, the core plan revolves around counting calories by eating a designated wholesome list of food from all the food groups without actually tracking the foods.

Weight watchers implements many new and innovative ideas involving diet and nutrition to supplement the training and learning that takes place during the meetings and within the provided weekly handouts.

Related posts:

1. Following The Food Nutrition Guide To A Healthier And Happier Life
2. Winning at Weight Loss Takes Team Effort
3. Lose Weight Quickly with a Free Fat Loss Program

Awareness of sugar’s caloric impact has fueled demands for sweeping reforms – including the recent trend of removing regular soda and sugary fruit juices from school vending machines. For health-conscious consumers looking to cut calories, reducing their sugar consumption can be a good start. Just one level teaspoon of sugar contains about 15 calories.

Unfortunately, concerns over the long-term health impact of non-sugar sweeteners have kept some consumers from replacing the added sugar in their diet with healthier alternatives. “Controlling calorie consumption is critical to weight maintenance,” says Chef Stephanie Green, a registered dietitian and owner of Nutrition Studios, a nutritional consulting firm. “Erythritol, which is used in the new zero-calorie sweetener Sweet Simplicity, gives Americans an all-natural way to guiltlessly indulge in the foods they love.”

Part of the human diet for thousands of years and found in grapes, melons, mushrooms and fermented foods such as wine, soy sauce and cheese, erythritol has been used in foods and beverages in Japan since the late 1980s. It was recently approved for use in both the U.S. and Canada.

Chef Green offers the following tips to lower daily caloric intake with zero-calorie sweeteners that won’t compromise taste:

* Homemade salad dressing can pack a lot of calories. Replace the sugar in your secret recipe with an all-natural, zero-calorie sweetener.

* When you barbecue, use an all-natural sugar alternative instead of brown sugar in your baked beans or barbecue rub.

* The sugar on the rim of a cocktail glass can add 15 calories or more. Instead, sweeten your favorite summer cocktail by rubbing a wedge of lemon, lime or orange around the rim of the glass, then dipping the rim onto a plate of all-natural sweetener.

For a natural way to indulge, Chef Green recommends the following recipe:

Pomegranate Peach Spritzer

Makes 4

4 small ripe peaches (about 1/2 pound)
14 packets Sweet Simplicity sweetener
1 teaspoon orange zest
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1/4cup 100 percent pomegranate juice, chilled
24 ounces club soda, chilled
6 packets Sweet Simplicity sweetener for garnish

Directions:
1. Wash and peel the peaches. Cut in half, remove the pit and discard.
2. Transfer peaches, 10 packets of Sweet Simplicity sweetener, orange zest, and lemon zest to a food processor or blender and puree for 1 to 2 minutes.
3. Pour peach puree into an ice cube tray. Distribute evenly into 12 ice cubes and freeze until hard.
4. Rub the rim of each serving glass with an orange. Turn the glass upside down; dip the moist rim onto a plate of Sweet Simplicity sweetener for garnish.
5. To each glass add 1 packet of Sweet Simplicity, 1 tablespoon of pomegranate juice, 3 peach ice cubes and 6 ounces of club soda.

Nutritional Analysis Per serving:

Calories: 35
Fat: 0
Sodium: 0 mg
Carbohydrates: 29 grams
Protein: 1 gram
Fiber: 1 gram

Erythritol-based sugar replacements such as Sweet Simplicity sweetener are now available at stores such as Whole Foods and Wild Oats, and online at www.sweetsimplicitysweetener.com.

Courtesy of ARA Content

Related posts:

1. Smart Drinking Options that Will Not Sabotage your Diet
2. Be Careful Going On An Orange Juice Diet
3. “Fad-Free” Weight Loss Advice

By improving the solidity and bulk of solid waste it also helps to keep those who are aging more regular, less constipated. The result, supported by many studies, is (among other benefits) a reduction in the odds of colon cancer.

Insoluble fiber, so-called because it doesn’t dissolve readily in water, can be found in nuts, wheat bran, whole grains and many vegetables. But there’s another kind called, not surprisingly, soluble fiber. As the name suggests it does dissolve readily in water. It, too, has benefits.

Soluble fiber is found in citrus fruit like oranges and lemons, apples, beans, oats and barley grain. Among its other virtues, studies strongly suggest that some soluble fibers (beta glucan) can help reduce cholesterol.

But, as with every other aspect of diet, it’s best to have everything in the proper proportion. What is that, in the case of fiber? The recommended consumption for the average adult over 50 years of age is 21g for women and 30g for men. For those under 50 the amounts are 25g for women, 38g for men.

Of course, that’s only an average (for men about 170lbs, women around 120lbs). You’ll want to consult tables to find out the needed amounts for your weight. There are those rare individuals who are sensitive to certain foods and they will need to seek out sources of fiber that suit their particular circumstances.

But, as a rough starting point, there are several common foods that will be right for most.

A cup of raisin bran cereal has 7g of fiber, and is usually manufactured with helpful vitamins as well. A cup of oatmeal is a good source, even though it only contains 4g. A half-cup of cooked black beans contains about 7.5g. A half-cup of tomato paste has nearly 6g, while a half-cup of cooked Lima beans has nearly 7g.

Bran muffins have been touted as a good source of fiber, and that’s true, they are. But many also are high in fat and sugar, so exercise moderation and seek out a low-fat type. A couple dozen peanuts can also be a good source of fiber, but here again they are high in fat. Control the urge to get large amounts of fiber from them. You don’t want to pile on the calories when getting needed nutrients.

Many fruits are a good source of fiber, including raspberries (1/2 cup contains 5.5g), blackberries (1/2 cup has 3.8g) and apples (3.3g per apple). Even pumpkin is a good source (3.5g in 1/2 cup), but this too can be a source high in fat and sugar, if it’s in the form of pumpkin pie.

A slice of bread has 2g, so the average sandwich will supply 4g. But be sure to get whole grain bread, not the ultra-processed white.

Put both soluble and insoluble fiber in your diet and be good to yourself.

Related posts:

1. The Connection Between Fiber And Cellulite
2. Weight Loss: Nutrition 101
3. Get your Fill with the Fiber Diet

Despite all the fads of the last 30 years or more, it remains true – backed by a large amount and variety of nutritional research – that a good diet is the old-fashioned ‘balanced diet’ that has remained largely unchanged for 60 years or more. The keyword deserves repeating: balanced.

There are fad diets that emphasize protein over carbohydrates, or fruits one day with meat the next or eating vegetarian exclusively. All these may have valid elements, but they almost all tend to go too far in one direction or another.

Everyday, at regular intervals, a person interested in optimizing health should eat daily meals consisting of fruits and vegetables, grains, dairy and a protein source. Of course, there will be exceptions for those with special dietary needs. Some people, for example, can’t process dairy products. Others are sensitive to peanuts or other things.

But the four traditional food groups, in the proper proportion, remain the undisputed recommendation of every reputable nutrition scientist. The reasons are that studies continue to support the notion that these supply the compounds needed by the body. From those it can perform muscle maintenance, proper electrolyte balance, cellular repair and other essential activities along with the needed energy to carry out all of them.

Nature, as discovered by science, determines what the body needs – not marketing.

Insoluble fiber, for example, (as gained from fruit, vegetables and grains) isn’t readily digested. As a result it helps digestion and in cleansing the digestive system.

Certain vitamins (D, B, E, K) and minerals (lithium, calcium, postassium) are needed for carrying out the thousands of biochemical reactions critical to proper health. Sodium and potassium, in moderation, are used by the heart muscle in order to keep pumping blood through the body.

Proteins are needed so the body can lyse (split) them into essential amino acids. Those amino acids are then used to build up new proteins used for muscle and other important components.

Carbohydrates (chiefly those easily converted to glucose) are needed to supply the starting point of the cycle that generates energy to fuel all the other processes. This is a fundamental process called the Krebs cycle that converts sugars into ATP, which is then converted to ADP, releasing energy.)

Fad diets can supply many of these essentials, but typically do so in the wrong proportion or with too much at one time, not enough at another. They also frequently contain additional components that are not helpful, and – in excess – may be harmful, such as excessive fats or complex sugars.

In the world of diet, moderation and regularity may not sound glamorous, but it’s the key to good health.

Related posts:

1. Weight Loss: Nutrition 101
2. Losing Pounds with the High Protein Diet
3. Proper Weight Management

There is the 3-day diet, which touts eating little more than fruits for three days, followed by vegetables or meat or grains the other days. There are lots of variations.

While it’s certainly true that eating fruit regularly is a key element to good health – most contain needed carbohydrates, vitamins and fiber – eating almost exclusively fruit for three days leads to imbalance – in carbohydrates, fiber and additional otherwise healthy components. To an extent the body will equalize and store what it needs for later, but there are limits.

Similarly, the ‘low carb, high protein’ diets, such as Atkins, recommend cutting way down on carbohydrates and eating substantial amounts of food high in protein. Here again protein is vital to proper nutrition, but so are carbohydrates. Putting too much emphasis on the first over the second leads to rapid, temporary weight loss, but at a high cost.

Carbohydrates are essential for supplying energy for all biochemical processes. Though the body, when needed, will use other sources, such as fat and protein. Too great an emphasis on protein reduces the ability of the body to store and regulate the appropriate amount of water, whereas carbohydrates help that.

There are very attractive sounding ‘chocolate diets’. Nearly everyone loves chocolate and, contrary to some reports of a few years ago, it is healthy – in moderation. Chocolate contains anti-oxidants and other compounds that are helpful. But, as with anything, too much of a good thing is just that – too much. Also, since many will seek chocolate in forms that come with high fat, high sugar amounts it’s possible to get some not-so-helpful elements along with the good.

There are ultra-low fat diets. Once again, the problem isn’t with reduced fat, but going to extremes. A certain amount of fat in the diet is a healthy thing.

Any diet which makes promises of radical, rapid or quick weight loss – or any other extreme claim – is almost guaranteed to be more harmful than helpful. The human body has evolved over millions of years and decades of good nutritional research still confirms the common sense truth: balance is good, moderation is healthy.

Eat moderate portions at regular intervals of fruits and vegetables (for vitamins, carbohydrates and fiber), grains (for carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and fiber), protein (for amino acids) and dairy products (for calcium, unless you’re lactose intolerant). For the average person, between 2000-2500 calories per day is appropriate. Less for women, on average, and for those seeking rapid weight loss.

A balanced diet, coupled with age-appropriate, moderate and regular exercise, will lead to a healthy percentage of body fat, good muscle tone and a well-tuned system. You’ll find you feel better and look good.

Related posts:

1. Nine Reasons Why High Protein Low Carb Diets Are Not an Optimal Choice
2. Bodybuilding Diets: You Must Eat To Grow
3. Weight Loss: Nutrition 101

Every month there’s a new claim, often given a coating of respectability by quoting the latest ’study’. But if trained scientists have difficulty deciding what the truth is, you can bet the average laymen doesn’t know for sure.

So what’s a person who just wants to lose weight to do? Not everyone is a scientist, and very few have the time or inclination to read a dozen scientific studies. Well, there’s no perfect solution to that dilemma, but there are a few common sense guidelines that can go a long way toward avoiding common mistakes.

Greet with a skeptical eye any outsized claims. ‘Outsized’, here, means those that make rock certain claims to know what’s best in nutrition – especially when they contradict long-standing and obvious guidelines.

Studies may differ on details, but they all agree that a balanced diet of the basic essentials – carbohydrates, protein, etc – is best. All agree that moderate, regular age-appropriate exercise is an important factor in health.

Be wary of anyone making promises for safe, easy, quick results. It’s possible to achieve any one of these three, but never all three together. A wise weight loss program will definitely consider safety first. It will rarely be easy – technology has advanced, but not THAT much. And, it is almost never quick. Reducing excess body fat, losing weight and getting fit require a long-term commitment.

Treat with caution any program that tries the other side of the coin: to scare you into adopting it. Many will tout claims of the dangers of meat, for example. While consuming excess animal fat can increase health risks, what is ‘excess’ is still being examined.

Any claim that eating meat in moderation is harmful is based only on junk science. Adopting a strictly vegetarian diet for ethical reasons or matters of taste is a valid choice, but not one required by science.

In other words, avoid extremes.

There are 3-day diets that recommend eating nothing but fruit for three days, then other foods the rest of the week. Bad idea. Such a diet is necessarily unbalanced and will cause rollercoaster effects on the body.

There are diets recommending almost all protein and very few carbohydrates. Bad idea. The body needs a variety of materials from which to extract and synthesize what it needs. That means it benefits from a balance of protein (to produce amino acids), carbohydrates (for energy), fiber and other essential elements.

Anyone selling a miracle cure, effortless or instant results, while claiming to have a safe and reliable program is selling you air. Don’t buy.

Related posts:

1. Science and Sustainability are the Secrets to Successful Weight Loss
2. Weight Loss: Nutrition 101
3. An Important Weight Loss Tip

You may have read this one: eating ice cream actually causes weight loss. The so-called theory is that since ice cream is cold, and it takes energy (measured in calories) to warm it up, your body is consuming energy while eating.

Your body does certainly require energy to warm up ice cream, and even to digest it. Any action the body takes requires energy, that’s basic physics applied to physiology. But the devil is in the details. Eating ice cream, usually high in fat and sugar, takes in far more calories than are used to warm and digest it. Sorry, you still need to go easy on the dessert.

Sometimes ice water is substituted in the myth. True it has no calories, so you’re much better off. But the energy needed to warm it to body temperature is negligible in terms of the weight loss effect. However, sometimes you feel hungry when in fact the body is just slightly dehydrated. Drinking water can cause you to feel less hungry, and it’s much lower in calories than regular soda or even orange juice.

Or, you might have heard this one: adding a pound of muscle makes the body burn an extra 50 calories. Not only not true, but meaningless. ‘Burns 50 calories’ over how long? Just sitting consumes about 70 calories per hour. The body is consuming energy to maintain internal temperature, repair cells, pump blood, etc.

A pound of new muscle will burn at most a dozen calories per hour. Still, adding muscle is a good idea, since to do so requires high effort – either through running, weight training or other vigorous exercise. Mild exercise, such as walking, is good but tones more than builds muscle. The average man will burn about 350 calories in an hour long workout.

Vigorous exercise also raises the metabolic rate for a day, burning about 250 calories more than if one hadn’t exercised. A brisk walk will do so also, but at a much lower level. It’s still a good idea to workout every other day and walk on the non-workout days. It keeps the muscles toned, stretched and helps prevent the lactic acid buildup that causes sore muscles.

The reality is that if you take in more calories than your body uses the remaining energy is stored, generally in the form of chemical bonds in fatty tissues. When the body requires more energy that you’ve supplied, it will turn to those fat stores in order to get some needed energy. That leads to lower fat in the body and weight loss. That reality is best achieved by the old-fashioned combination of proper diet and adequate regular exercise.

Related posts:

1. Best Classes for Weight Loss
2. Weight Loss for Men
3. Six Weight Loss Tricks

Whenever you take in more calories than you use, the remaining energy is stored in chemical bonds between adipose tissue (fatty deposits). In adult men those fat deposits are preferentially stored around the waist and abdomen, in women around the hips, thighs and abdomen.

As you take actions that place a demand for energy on your body that is greater than can be supplied by available glucose (its preferred source), it turns to fat to supply the deficit. Fat molecules are broken down and severing those chemical bonds releases the energy needed for maintaining internal temperature, muscle movement, etc.

But, here’s the kicker: you have no control over where the body takes that fat from. Cortisol may aid in releasing those fat deposits and breaking down those bonds, but it isn’t targeted. There is, currently, no technology that will remove local fat deposits from any part of the body except mechanical removal, such as in liposuction.

It’s true that doing abdominal exercises, though, helps reduce fat around the waist, and in two ways.

First, since abdominal exercises typically involve large-scale movement that requires high effort, it naturally requires lots of energy. Once the available free energy is consumed, the body turns to those fat deposits to get more. The result is less fat and weight loss.

But it does that in an overall way, with no narrow location getting most of the benefit. Most of the fat may indeed come from the waist, but that’s because that’s where most of it is, as a percentage. But the exercise doesn’t target that fat in any way.

Second, during a vigorous abdominal workout those muscles are being worked harder than others. That’s the whole point of abdominal exercises. As a result, those muscles (along with the back muscles, typically) are being strengthened. Toning and strengthening those muscles helps restore their youthful ability to hold in the internal organs, primarily the stomach.

At the same time there will be a (largely temporary) loss of fluid that contributes to both weight loss and slimming. The net effect is that the waist looks slimmer, the bulge is reduced. That’s definitely a good thing, both for general health and weight loss or fat reduction.

But it’s not the same thing as targeting specific fatty deposits, as the makers of cortisol pills (and other) ‘miracle cures’ would like to sell you. The only effective program for reducing fat deposits – around the waist, on the thighs and buttocks, or anywhere else – is the old-fashioned, high effort, high willpower one.

A program of adequate daily exercise and proper diet is the key to long-term health, safe weight loss and fat reduction. You’ll feel better and your health will be optimized. And, not coincidentally, you’ll reduce those unattractive fat deposits around the middle.

Related posts:

1. Weight Loss: Myths and Reality
2. What Is Obesity?
3. Margerine & Glycemic Index: The Truth Behind The Myth