To be healthy, strong, not overweight and cellulite free, you need to eat! But you need to know what to eat, why to eat, and when to eat it.   Our bodies were not designed to eat anything other than real food. By real food I mean food that is in its natural state. Food that is naked, food that is not packaged or wrapped. We were not designed to consume additives or preservatives or chemicals of any kind. So eat food as close to its natural form as possible.  

For instance If you want to eat chocolate, eat good quality chocolate. There are now many reports coming out saying that chocolate is good for you.  The better the quality - the purer the chocolate which means less sugar, less additives. Plus it is such a happy food that it can bring on feelings of joy - I’m serious.   Chocolate is not bad for you - if you are eating well and taking supplements, then your body will not need to keep the sugars from the chocolate for energy as it will already have plenty from the healthy foods you eat and the vitamins you take every day.   Yep, you can have your cake and eat it too. In fact, I eat chocolate almost every day.  

OK, so here’s a news flash for you girls out there - FOOD IS GOOD FOR YOU. EAT IT.   Yes, I can promise you that. So I want you to get into the mind set that eating is good and enjoyable and will make you feel good in mind, body, and spirit. We’ve been doing it for thousands upon thousands of years and it never hurt anyone yet. But in the last few hundred years, for the first time, we are seeing a lot of overweight people. And it is mostly due to what we ate then compared to what we eat now.  

I am a great fan of food, and encourage you all to get back to enjoying food, having dinner parties, and making food your friend again.   Mind you, what you eat must be good food, and it is very, very easy to recognize the good from the bad. Here are some things that you need to start doing straight away.   Shop mostly from the walls, not the aisles of your supermarket.   Most of the items in the aisles are not real foods. But the walls contain your vegetable department, dairy, and the delicatessen - all fresh foods. I personally only shop for fresh food if possible at the local green grocer, as their produce hasn’t been all over the country in trucks, often getting to the supermarket already (at the very least) a week old.   I want you to start reading the ingredients on EVERY item before you put it in your trolley. Limit as much as possible any foods that list ingredients with numbers on it, or preservatives, colours, flavours, or any kind of chemical additive. Mind you some foods that you will eat need to have one or two preservatives - they are in wine for heavens sake, but you can keep them to a minimum. You will get to know your products and learn which companies you can trust. I have learnt to trust Sanitarium for instance, I no longer read the ingredients on their food packaging as I know their products are made with the utmost care with as few preservatives as possible. And no I am not sponsored by Sanitarium but I am using them as an example. And don’t take it for granted that products from a health food store are necessarily good. Read the labels until you know the product or company. Even with the simplest of foods, you will be amazed when you read the ingredients. Beware of low fat, low carb and low salt products. Often the process that foods go through to remove fat or salt is a chemical one, and will leave traces in its wake for you to consume. Seriously.   Back to basics is the way I want you to think as far as food goes.

All you have to realize is that our bodies were created to eat and utilize certain foods for normal bodily functions to operate. Our bodies were not designed to process or metabolize anything fake.  Think back a hundred years - if we didn’t eat it then, don’t eat it now.   Our bodies were not designed to eat preservatives or colorants or flavour enhancers or thickeners (salad dressings are full of them - make your own at home) and all those numbers that come out of a laboratory, not out of the ground. These are the things that really clog up our systems. They block normal processing such as metabolism and eliminating waste, which are ESSENTIAL for staying healthy and to prevent your body from over storing energy. I have it on good authority that there are food scientists trying to do the right thing, and are using natural preservatives more and more where they can.   Be careful, read everything, knowledge is power. Knowing what you are putting into your body is imperative to a happy healthy life. You are in control of your body. Give your body what it needs and it will work for you.

The recent publicity over Janet Jackson’s weight gain, and subsequent weight loss campaign, also aroused a lot of public opinion and comment. Not surprisingly, given the superstar status of the singer, for me the star of the Jackson family, and the size of the weight reduction she supposedly achieved over a 4 month period.

Janet Jackson is reputedly a yo-yo dieter, someone who has phases of dieting followed by putting all the weight back on. That can never be good for long term health for anyone, and that surely goes for Janet Jackson too. But, she was overweight by the accepted measures that are used by the medical profession today, and she knew it. So she set out on a weight loss campaign, as millions of people around the world do, every year. Only in her case, and on this occasion, she was successful in losing weight.

Cause of Janet Jackon’s Weight Gain

Many have speculated how and why Ms Jackson got so heavy in the first place; depression, stress and all the usual reasons have been suggested by various commentators. Some excused that it was her stressful superstar existence that caused the recent problem, and the eating disorders that have been reported on in the past. Maybe, maybe not; that’s her business really. Stars in the public limelight do have stresses that may be different to other people’s stresses. But there are millions of people not in the limelight who are overweight and may be tempted to blame stress.

Of course, it could be that Janet Jackson just felt like letting herself go for while, and let the weight drift upwards, without feeling any real incentive to keep it under a tight rein. Then one day felt the effects of being too heavy and thought: “That’s it, I’m going to lose weight.”

Unless Janet Jackson has a medical problem, then being overweight was simply caused by consuming too many calories compared to the energy she was expending each day. That is the case with almost all overweight and obese people. So, once that decision was made to get back to what she thought was her best weight, she had to set about reversing that situation. In other words, strike a better balance between exercise and food consumption.

If the figures that we read at the time were true, Ms Jackson lost weight at a rate well above the “safe” rate suggested by most doctors. She was losing nearly 4 pound a week over the period of 4 months, about double the recommended weight loss rate. But how was she able to do it?

How Janet Jackson Lost Weight

If reports are to be believed, Janet Jackson just did what all the books and experts tell overweight people to do. On the one hand, she had a controlled diet; on the other hand, she had a systematic exercise programme. Now, any of us can do that, but most of us do not. We spend billions of dollars a year on special diets and weight loss plans, and just keep getting heavier. We know what to do, but just don’t do it.

In Ms Jackson’s case, she did it. To simplify things, she had the motivation to lose weight, despite the effort and self control that was required. If anyone has the motivation, they too can lose weight. There is enough free information to enable anyone to get those pounds off, and to bring their BMI down to a healthy level.

When Janet Jackson’s weight loss success was reported, many people dismissed it, saying “oh, it’s alright for her, she can afford a personal fitness trainer and personal chef.” That, though, is not the point. She could have done the same without the personal chef or trainer; she just happened to take advantage of her wealth to outsource two important features of her weight loss campaign. Surely she would have been too busy to count out her calories every day? Most of us are not, although we may claim to be. And we can all exercise and go to the gym, or just exercise at home, or walk the streets, beaches or fields to burn off those calories.

The simple fact is, Janet Jackson was inspired, for whatever reason, to lose weight, so she did what was necessary. Some say it was to get to looking slim and sexy for a new album, but that does not matter. What does matter is that she found the motivation to reduce her weight, and took seriously to the task with a high level of endurance.

I suspect that for millions of people, motivation is the missing link. Find that inspiration, that motivating factor, and you could be shedding the pounds at a healthy rate suggested by your doctor.

The first thing you need to know about the acai berry, is that contrary to the marketing hype, it is not a “magic” pill from the Amazon that will help you lose dramatic amounts of weight in a week. Oprah may propose the acai berry diet, but that doesn’t telephone for a number of the scamming attainment approximately the marketplace recently. Many of these claims are absolutely unfounded; they’re not backed by any kind of scientific evidence or research. You know the old saying, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

The acai berry is actually used for losing weight instead. Combined with regular exercise and a proper diet, its high antioxidant content along with a healthy amino acid combination, the acai berry boosts your metabolism, helping your body function more efficiently.

Acai berry will boost your metabolism since it has essential amount of omega fatty acids. These fatty acids are so important because your body doesn’t naturally produce them, meaning they must be obtained by an outside source. Unequal oleaginous fats that run to accumulation up in your embody, omegas “jump-start” your metastasis. This comes in handy if you are slow to lose weight or if you have reached a fitness plateau and need an extra kick to get you over the hump.

Suppresses Your Craving - The nasal stuff cognition in the acai berry helps you seek engineer, faster. Which in turn helps u cut down on cravings, and trips to the closest fast food stop.

Aids Your Digestion - As mentioned before, the high fiber content in the acai berry promotes regular digestion, as well as cleanses your digestive system of fatty residues.

Increases Your Energy - In addition to its nutritional value, the acai berry also gives massive amounts of energy and stamina. Boxers, distance runners and other endurance athletes incorporate the berry into their pre-competition diets for a good reason. The benefits of acai become especially clear when an athlete feels like he or she is running low on energy. Acai gives them a boost and pushes them through to the finish. It will definitely help you push through the last quarter mile at the gym, if top-athletes use acai for energy.

Builds Muscle Tone - The acai berry contains amino acids that help the body recover and grow after each workout. The amino acids allow your muscles to grow bigger, and your body to burn fat more efficiently,in combination with the fatty acids. The more calories you are able to burn, and in turn, the more weight you can lose,the more muscle you have.

Running is one of the most leisurely things that you can do to lose weight. Here are some tips that you can look at in order to lose weight by running.

1. Choose a good pair of running shoes: A good pair of running shoes is a wise investment if you intend to take on running as your exercise to help with your weight loss. What it will do is to help absorb the impact on your legs, your ankles and your knees as you pound through the track. This is especially helpful if you are running on asphalt or cement, since those types of running ground are hard on the legs. This will help you lose weight by running.

2. Choose your running ground: As mentioned earlier, if you want to lose weight by running, you have to take care of your instruments: your legs. It would be best to run in a track since it is built with a cushion underneath to absorb the impact of a person’s weight. If this kind of location is not readily available, you can either choose to run on soft ground with grass or on asphalt. These are going to be softer on the knees. You will not be able to run if you damage your knees and ankles by running on concrete as this is the most unforgiving surface that you can run on.

3. Select your running music: To lose weight by running, it has to be enjoyable. A better way to do this is to listen to great music while running. Select songs with different tempos so that you can match your pace with the tempo of the song currently playing on your mp3 player.

All of us are desperate to shed some weight, but the problem is that instead of having a long-term goal and working towards it, we try to find a magic formula that will help us to reach our desired weight within a matter of days. This is the reason the lose weight quick programs and diet pills have such a huge market.

Before you use any of those lose weight quick fads, pause for a moment and think if it is really healthy to fight weight problems this way and what diet pills may be doing to your body. If you are looking for healthy ways to lose weight, just follow these simple tips. The results will be long lasting and the only side effect will be a healthier body and better stamina.

Reduce the oil usage in all your foods by half. For example, if you use 2-teaspoons of oil in any cooking, use 1-teaspoon next time. Trust me, there will not be much difference in taste.

Reduce your salt intake. Salting food is an abnormal habit that we have picked up hundreds of years back. No animals need salt in their food. Whatever amount of salt we need are basically fulfilled if you have a healthy diet. Therefore, try to cut down on table salt, soy sauce, salted peanuts, French fries and all salty food items.

Go for a walk in the morning or in the evening each day. Walking is the best form of exercise to lose weight in a healthy way. You can visit a shopping mall or the local market. Or if you prefer, you can arrange to walk with a group of friends or on a treadmill. Make it interesting. You should look forward to go for a walk.

Replace candy bars with oatmeal bars, ice-cream with a fruit smoothie, sour cream with plain sour yogurt, sugar with honey, high-fat salad dressings with a light dressing of salt, pepper and lots of lime juice.

Another healthy way to lose weight is to get to a dance or a yoga class. You will not only melt calories away but will make a lot of new friends while having a very good time.

You don’t need to do all these at once, of course. Do one and add more as you progress. You’ll lose weight in no time flat.

Menopause may be a natural stage in a woman’s life but the accompanying weight gain has all women worried. Weight gain is not just bad for cosmetic reasons but also unhealthy too.

The latest researches have established that the risks related to high blood pressure increase by at least five percent per two pounds increase in the weight! The decreasing estrogen levels also cause a decrease in the metabolism, which causes the body to hang on to its fat resources more tenaciously. Worrying isn’t it?

This weight gain also is responsible for other health problems as well. Heart diseases, diabetes and even an increased risk of cancer of the breast and other kinds have been attributed to this menopausal weight gain.

The modern science along with some pharmaceutical companies has developed certain menopausal weight loss products that claim to ease the weight problems of women. These weight loss products claim to set your metabolism right and even suppress your appetite, which increases in menopause. They also claim to help women in coping with symptoms of menopause and protect them with nutrients. Are these tall claims or there is some iota of truth in them?

Estrin is one of the new players in the market of menopausal weight loss products. It claims to have ingredients like caffeine, guarana, yerba, matte and herbal constituents like damiana, ginger, schisandra and Tibetan ginseng. These constituents are said to help in regulating appetite, increasing metabolism and reduce mood swings, which result from fluctuations in hormonal levels. The ingredients in the product are all known to increase the basal metabolic rate in a person. The caffeine present in the product is a natural stimulant as well. However, the question that arises is that can this be used by women undergoing menopause?

Medical research tells us that caffeine during menopause is not such a good idea. Caffeine in normal circumstances can cause an increase in the heart rate, increase blood pressure, sweating. It’s seen that women experiencing menopause can experience some ill effects if they take caffeine. The classic menopausal symptoms like hot flashes, insomnia and night sweats may become more pronounced by consuming caffeine. Caffeine consumption can also cause osteoporosis in women during menopause.

So is this product really good? According to the reviews by users this product has a high quantity of stimulants, which are not medically recommended for women with menopausal problems. These stimulants may cause nausea, anxiety and jitters in women. Besides, stimulants do not guarantee sustained weight loss. Also there seems to be no appetite suppressant in the formula. Caffeine does not guarantee fat loss as compared to a patented fat burner. Moreover, the company does not offer a money back guarantee and the product is pretty high priced.

Menopause problems can be overcome by proper diet and exercise rather than these supplements. These supplements do more harm than good due to such a high amount of stimulants. All you need to do is cut the fat and the fried foods in your diet and exercise regularly.

When it comes to overall success with your weight loss campaign, some of the best fat binders do give weight loss surgery a real run for it’s money if such a comparison can be made. Of course taking a fat binder as opposed to actually going under the knife are two completely different weight loss strategies but each are inherent with their own side effects. However, finding the right weight loss supplement through a stress free and painless route which can offer you long term weight loss results would be the preferable option for many.

Especially when the alternative being surgery offers a distinctly less desirable option as most will find when they search the web, that there are 4 types of weight loss surgery - each of them risky and painful.

These are:

Vertical Banded Gastroplasty (VBG): Here your stomach is stapled into 2 parts, with the upper part being made smaller to reduce space for food. As the food arrives, it’s passed through an opening into the lower pouch. To prevent the whole expanding, a simple band is used to restrict stretching.

RISKS: The staple line can breakdown and in some cases stomach juices will leak into the abdomen causing infection and potential death. The band is also prone to wearing; which can cause further chances of infection.

Aparoscopic Gastric Banding (Lap-Band): Intended strictly for people who are 120lbs overweight, this device works by applying an inflatable band around the upper part of your stomach. The band can be altered in size by changing the quantity of salt that’s is in your saline solution, but overall this band is generally intended to be permanent.

RISKS: The treatment effects can lead to heartburn, nausea, abdominal pain, vomiting, band slippage and the enlargement of your pouch.

Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RGB):  Whilst during the surgery, your surgeon will make your stomach smaller by stapling it thus creating a smaller pouch. This pouch is then clipped to the middle part of your small intestine.

The reason your surgeon will do this is firstly, to limit how much you eat and secondly to restrict the amount of nutrients that are broken down in the small intestine.

RISKS: ‘Dumping syndrome’, where food moves too rapidly through your small intestine. These treatment effects include - diarrhea, infection, leaking, nausea, weakness, pulmonary embolism, sweating, faintness, gall stones and nutritional deficiency.

Biliopancreatic Diversion (BPD): This is an extremely risky surgery that is often rarely used. Here surgeons take out a large part of your stomach, restricting food and stomach acid production. This small pouch is then attached to the last segment of your small intestine. An obvious channel is kept to allow your bile and pancreatic digestive juices to therefore mix with the food before it enters your intestine.

RISKS: Rejection of the procedure by your body which makes reversible surgery potentially impossible. If your body accepts the procedure the obvious nutritional deficiencies occur.

As you can see all 4 surgeries come with inherent risks and costs. These risks are impossible to ignore given the alternatives available.

Now as stated, if comparing surgery with a proven fat binder, these too come with their unpleasant side effects. To name just a few, Xenical, Alli and Reductil each cause unpleasant and negative side effects.

Then there is there is the problem that they can only be used for a limited time, varying from three months to a year -and  if it’s long term weight loss results your after, these fat binders won’t be able to assist you here.

However, there is hope.

Knowing where to start when considering the best way to lose weight is always a dilemma, so it is often quite useful to have some bullet points or as I like to call it ‘a master plan’, to adhere to that will help you to stay focused on your objectives, so here we go and don’t forget, go right ahead and add your own personal bullet points, if you believe they should be on your, ‘best way to lose weight’ master plan:

1: Watch what you eat but don’t become obsessive: Everyone feels uneasy around obsessive people, so please don’t become one by listing everything that passes your lips; this would not be the best way to lose weight more like the best way to lose all your friends and family! Hopefully, you’ll take heed before you start to calculate your average daily dust inhalation rate!

2: Set yourself targets: There is nothing worse that setting off on a journey and not knowing when you’ve arrived!

3: Working with someone else: It is always easier when you are trying to do something that is difficult with the support of a like minded individual and dieting is no different. Find someone to diet with and you will find that the support you offer one another will be invaluable in reaching your goals. There again, if you haven’t heeded the warning in the first point you may not have any one to work with!

4: Plan to succeed: When I used to spend a lot of my time in management meetings I regularly heard the phrase, ‘plan to succeed, don’t plan to fail’, but never a truer word has been spoken, especially when in it comes to dieting and losing weight. The best way to lose weight is to have a plan of action, daily food allowances and exercise periods must be noted and adhered to, although we don’t want to become obsessive as mentioned in the first point we do need to enforce an element of control without being classified as a ‘looney tune’.

5: Change the way you cook your food: Grill, Boil and Steam your food, fried food is OUT! Yes, I realize that for some of you this may be like learning to walk, talk and use the toilet again but it needs to be done!

6. Junk food is OUT! OK, we all love one certain item of junk food whether it is deep fried chemically enhanced chicken or nuked 5% meat burgers, but most of it is high in fat and filled with greed inducing chemicals that make you crave more of the same, stay away from it. Trust me, using the excuse ‘they will go out of business if I don’t buy some’, does not wash.

7. Eat more often: Yes you heard me right didn’t see that one coming did you? Eat smaller meals more often and you won’t feel hungry quite as often.

8: Drink water: Stop drinking soda, it is just sugar in liquid form, why do you think wasps and bees love it so much, come to think of it I’m surprised there isn’t a cola flavored honey! Water will also help to flush out the toxins your body stores so it makes good sense to drink more of it anyway.

9: Always eat a breakfast: you should always eat a good breakfast and try to consume the majority of your daily intake of calories earlier in the day rather than later, as your body will have a better chance of burning them off. Don’t eat after 8 pm, you have a much better chance of burning off calories whilst you are awake rather than asleep, plus you will sleep much better with an empty stomach, although that doesn’t seem to hinder my father, whom after a Sunday lunch drifts into an unconscious slumber in his armchair, that can only be best described as resembling the lions of the Serengeti after feeding on a zebra kill!

10: Exercise: Without a shadow of a doubt, the best way to help you lose weight whilst dieting is to exercise. It needn’t be anything too drastic, a walk round your local park for half an hour or maybe even going for a bike ride; if you can’t get out the house for one reason or another why not try walking up and down your stairs at home whilst listening to your favorite CD, whatever you decide to do, do something, anything..It will help burn calories, and that is your objective.

Losing weight isn’t about starving yourself, or exercising yourself until you’re sick, it is about managing your lifestyle so the calories you consume equal the calories you burn and when an in-balance occurs, you have to up one side of the equation and drop the other until equilibrium is restored. So in conclusion the best way to lose weight is to manage your lifestyle by controlling your diet and exercise levels and once you achieve this balance you will start to lose weight and become healthier.

With more than 60% of the country being obese, so many people want to know how to burn fat and lose weight and what they can do to shed all that extra weight. There is no secret to burning fat and the steps to weight loss are actually a lot simpler than people realize. Below I am going to talk about things you can do to burn fat so you no longer have to be part of a statistic.

Eat Raw Foods: Now, when I say raw foods I’m not talking about raw eggs and raw meat. I’m talking about things like, fresh fruits and vegetables and things like whole grain cereal, pasta and bread. The closer something is to be natural the better it is for you. Other foods that are good for you are things like; olive oil, lean meats, almonds and berries, and even popcorn and beef jerky.

Walking or Jogging: If you’re wondering how to burn fat and lose weight, exercise is probably number one in everyone’s book. Doing moderate exercise on a regular basis can do wonders for your body and your mind. Even if you just walk for 20 minutes every so often you will feel great afterwards. It gets your heart pumping, improves circulation and boosts your energy.

Smile & Be Happy: I know it sounds stupid but when you smile your body releases serotonin and endorphins that make you feel good, relax you and can reduce stress and this can lead to lower blood pressure. Smiling also makes you more attractive and can improve your mood if you’re feeling a little glum.

By making minor adjustments in your everyday life like making smart food choices and doing a little bit of exercise you can reduce your weight and improve your overall quality of life. A smart thing to do before starting any sort of diet is to see a doctor or dietician if you can afford it. They can point you in the right direction and give you great insight into different diets that exist.

What exactly is the best way to lose weight fast? This is a question that is asked over and over again. Almost everyone who wants to lose weight also wants to lose weight fast. This usually involves going on some type of crash diet and trying to shed pounds in a matter of weeks.

You may not be aware that these diets could be depleting vital nutrients from your bones and this includes calcium. These fad diets often promise fast weight loss, but forget to inform you that calcium and other essential nutrients are not really included in the menu, and this can cause loss of bone, or osteoporosis later in life.

There have been many studies which have researched the eating habits of women and found that the ones who drastically limit their calories will have decreased bone mineral density along with decreased bone mineral content as opposed to those women who eat a normal diet and do not limit their calories.

Your bones of course need adequate calcium in order to stay strong and healthy. This is something that almost everyone knows. Unfortunately, many of the diets which promise that they are the best way to lose weight fast do not address this issue.

A little known fact is that calcium is not only essential for your bones but it can also assist in maintaining a healthy low-fat diet as well. Studies have shown that eating a diet high in calcium can help decrease body fat.

The reason for this is that calcium itself is actually a fat burner. Diets which are high in calcium tends to cause your body to burn fat rather than store fat. Other studies have shown those who have a high intake of calcium have the lowest percentage of body fat.

So for healthy and safe loss of weight, include in your diet some of the foods that are good sources of calcium including dairy products, beans and other lagoons, and leafy dark green vegetables. This will ensure that you reduce your weight quickly as well as stay healthy while doing so.