Fast Breakfast foods

While losing weight there is one thing that I learned will not work. That’s skipping meals. If you skip a meal then you are throwing your body into starvation mode and it will start storing all your fat instead of burning it. Just one skipped meal can set you back weeks until you re train your body, so it thinks you will not be starving any time soon. Breakfast is the most often skipped meal due to time. People are just busy in the mornings. They don’t have time to eat anymore. So why not make something fast go? Here are some great breakfast tips that are both fast and healthy for you.

Scramble some eggs up while making your coffee of even getting dressed. Once done throw the eggs into a whole grain pita pocket. If you have microwave meats, you can also throw that in there as well. A great breakfast food on the go. Wrap a napkin around half, and you can eat it on your way to work.

Yoplait Yogurt Drink- Completely portable and ready to grab and go. If you just don’t have any time to even make something simple then grab one of these drinks. Yoplait has less sugar then the other brands and they are filled with vitamins.

Granola- For another great grab and go snack is the granola to go. Just like a trail mix, except it’s for breakfast. It has granola clusters, dried blueberries, almonds, whole grain oats and more. A great source of vitamins for breakfast.

So there you have it. A few great ideas for you all who don’t have much time to eat in the mornings.

Healthy Sins

Sorry that I have not posted in a while. I have been trying for a few days but it would not let me into my blog. Not sure what the problem was. Anyways, heres some great ways to cheat on your diet once in a while so you dont fall off completely.

Who would have thought anyone would say them two things together. Healthy and sins just don’t go together. It’s not something you hear to often, but it’s something I am bringing together. Sometimes you just want to eat bad things. There is nothing wrong with that. The key is moderation. You just have to learn this and you will be okay.

Fast Food Cheeseburger- If you are anything like I was, you just love the taste of fast food burgers. I don’t know if it’s all the stuff they pile on, the grease dripping out, or what it is, but I just loved fast food. The convience didn’t even have anything to do with it. Since I have changed my lifestyle, I have of course given up fast food. That is just how it works. If you are craving that cheeseburger, then give in. Just give in once in a while. I have had one cheeseburger in 3 months. So make sure it’s once in a while. When you go to McDonalds or another favorite place, order a kids meal with a water, or do like I did and just order a cheeseburger and water. I didn’t touch the fries or pop.

Chocolate- What person doesn’t like chocolate? Unless you are like my youngest and allergic to it, you have nothing holding you back. So eat some. You can not give up everything you love and expect to be okay with it all. I found a great 60 calorie chocolate stick. It’s made by Hershey’s. If you are out and about and have to have a piece, choose dark chocolate. It’s better for you.

Pop- So you love your pop and cant give it all up? Choose a diet pop once a week. Or keep an open one in the fridge, but tell yourself that’s all you can have for the entire week. Just take a few sips here and there. That’s what I did before I started my lifestyle change. I slowly eliminated the pop. I have only had water for almost 3 months now, and I don’t even miss pop anymore. Not like I use to.

So there are some great tips for you all to enjoy

Cholesterol Facts and Myths

Every wonder what’s true about your cholesterol and what’s not so true? Having high cholesterol can lead to blockages in your artery and become the root of many other problems.


To lower your cholesterol you just need to change the way you eat. This is true and it’s not true. While you do need to change your diet, that’s not all you need to change. Changing diet alone will not change your cholesterol levels.

If you eat healthy, exercise regularly then you are not at risk for high cholesterol. This is a myth. Genetics play a large role in your cholesterol level.

If you’re taking medication, you don’t need to change your lifestyle. This is a myth also. You’re never going to get better unless you make changes in your life.

These are just a few myths and facts to get you going. Have your cholesterol levels checked frequently, specially if it runs in your family.

Total Cholesterols levels should be

Ideal... 200 or lower
Borderline... 201-239
High... 240 and up

If you have read this, and think you have high Cholesterol, then make an appointment with your doctor as soon as you can. A doctor is the only one who can correctly diagnose this problem.

Healthy Food Swaps

Hey guys, I haven’t updated in a while, sorry about that. I am back in the game now. I am still losing weight though. I have lost 33 pounds total now!! How about you all? Anyone following all the great advice I am giving and losing some weight? I thought we would talk about swapping. Here are some foods you can swap out to save calories.

Corn Flakes- While these are good, Bran flakes with raisins are much better for you. Bran is where your fiber comes from, and you need your fiber.

Raisin Bagel- We all know bagels are fast in the morning. So you don’t have to stop eating bagels on your way to work. Skip your raisin bagel and purchase mini bagels. You can eat two mini bagels per one regular bagel and save around 150 calories.

French Toast Sticks- Trade 4 of your sticks in for 2 whole wheat, or even whole grain waffles and you will save around 200 calories along with adding more fiber into your diet.

Corned Beef Sandwich- Try eating a ham or turkey sandwich instead. Corned beef is full of fat, and it’s not the good fat that your body needs.

Vegetable Soup- I know, you thought eating vegetable soup was good. It is good for you, but if you trade that in for split pea soup you will gain 10 more grams of protein.

Bread and Butter- How many of you love bread and butter with your dinner? My grandparents eat bread and butter every night with every dinner. If you are like them, why not swap it for baguette with vinegar and oil. If that’s not your style then switch to light wheat bread and use margarine instead of butter.


Hope these ideas have helped a few of you.

Chocolate is Addicting

Just about everyone you know loves chocolate and they are probably close to being addicted to it, or they are flat out addicted to it. I know I love chocolate and so does everyone in my home. My youngest can not have chocolate though, he is allergic to it. Chocolate is a huge culprit to gaining weight. So if you stop most of your chocolate eating you’re going to lose weight in the long run. This does not mean you should give it up, because when you do that, you are just going to set yourself up to fail.

How many time have you herd someone say, don’t think about it and you wont want it. I hate when people say that. When you try not to think about things, what happens? You can’t get them thoughts out of your head no matter what you end up doing. Who can blame you, you’re only human. Research has shown that you will eat less when you think about it. Trying to avoid it only makes you consume twice as much when you get your hands on it. So instead of avoiding the thoughts, go ahead and think about it, just don’t give in as much.

A tip for you chocolate lovers out there. If you are going to eat chocolate then dark chocolate should be your choice. It’s better for you then milk chocolate. I found a great product at Walgreen’s the other day. Chocolate sticks. They are just think long bars of chocolate. They are near the 100 calorie packs. They contain 60 calories per stick. They have different flavors. I have the dark chocolate. Place this box of dark chocolate in the freezer. When you get a craving, have a stick. Since it’s frozen, it will last long and you will enjoy it better. I have found, eating one stick will cure my sweet tooth for a few days. And at 60 calories, I don’t feel guilty about it.

More Helpful Weight Loss Tips

So you liked the last round of tips and you’re itching for more? No problem there. I can help you out with that.

Support groups- Joining online support groups always seems to help. If you have people routing for your, and on your team, then its going to be a lot easier. I have found a wonderful forum, that really motivates me. We have challenges and team up, so it makes you want to really try, because I don’t want to lose my challenge. It also gives me people to talk to who are struggling just like me, and know how my daily challenges can be.

Tell people- You’re more likely to succeed if you tell people in your family or even friends what you are doing. Letting them know what you are doing and why you are doing it, makes you feel like you really have to see this thing through. I noticed the few other times, when I told just a select few, I fell off the wagon within a week. I have been going strong now for 5 weeks and I have lost 25 pounds. Now some of you may think there is no way I have lost that much. But I am a pretty big girl, and still have a very long road ahead of me, so it’s nothing but the truth. Telling people, has made me stick to it, because I can see how many people are proud of me, and I have a LOT of people telling me where they can tell I have lost weight. That just makes me feel so much better!

Pictures- I would never let anyone take my pictures. I got grossed out. I couldn’t believe I was so big. So I avoided the camera as much as possible. Well when I joined this forum 5 weeks ago, they all begged me. One of the challenges I wanted to join, it was a requirement. So I did it. I had my daughter take some pictures of me, and then I sat her on the computer and just cried as I stared at them. Four weeks later, I had my daughter take another set of pictures. I was in the same outfit, posing the same way. I could see small changes. My face, neck and my sides were a lot thinner. So every month I am going to keep taking pictures. On the days I feel like I just can’t do this anymore, I then come back and look at that first set of pics. It really motivates me.

Simple Tricks to Help you Lose Weight

I thought, giving you some simple tricks to lose weight, will help you along your journey. These are things you can do everyday, while you are doing your daily routine. So you wont have to take any time out of your day for these. If you don't have time to exercises as much as you should (like most of us) then changing some things in your routine, will help you out. Now you still have to find some time to exercises, so don't try and use this as an excuses not to.

While out shopping park further away from the door. This will make you walk further and when you think about it, can save you some gas money. Because your not driving around in circles trying to find the closest parking spot.

When shopping in a store, try taking the stairs to get to the next level instead of the elevator. This will get you in some extra walking time, and walking up stairs is better then just plain walking.

Drink plenty of water throughout the day. A lot of time we think we are hungry when we are actually dehydrated. Also before each meal, down a glass full of water. This will help fill you up, so you wont eat as much food.

5-6 small light meals, instead of 3 heavy meals is the way to go. This gives your body better time to process what its taking in. Make sure you don't skip foods, you want your body to get use to eating at certain times. This way it doesn't go into starvation mode, where it stores all your fat.

Stop eating when you are full, not stuffed. When you eat until your stuffed, you are slowly stretching your stomach out. Thus, next time you eat, it will take more food to fill you up. Get into a habit of this, and the results are not going to be pretty.

Turn music on when cleaning your house. This gets you moving faster and your heart rate up higher. Chances are you will be more active with the music on. I always have the music on when I clean. I can get things done faster, when I am singing and dancing along to some good tunes.

These are just a few changes you can make to your daily routine and it will help you stay fit. Its not going to make them pounds pour off, but it will help you out.

The Atkins Diet- What is it?

The Atkins diet was created by cardiologist Dr. Robert Atkins. It didn't take long for the entire world to adapt to this new fad. But is it just a fad? Or could it be something that you might be able to benefit from?

I have tried the Atkins diet myself, and while I started losing weight on it, I don't think it was for me. Not that I couldn't do the whole low carb thing, but it just got a little to pricey for me. I do feel though, this diet can help you lose weight, while teaching you how to change your daily eating habits. Which is the key to losing weight and keeping it off.

The Atkins diet is basically a low carb diet with phases. During Phase one, you have a short list of food items that you can have. You basically eliminate every carb for two weeks here. It has been said now, that phase one is not a must, but an option now. However, I feel if your gonna do it, then do it right. So phase one you can not have any carbs. There is a list of items that you can have. Let me warn you now, that list is not all that large. I'm sure you can handle it for two weeks.

Once you have completed phase one, you will then move on to the next phase. Over a period of time, this diet slowly introduces carbs back into your daily eating habits. While doing this, it teaches you portion control. You can have carbs, just small amounts. This is also a good thing to learn. Remember, once you lose the weight, you have to know how to keep it off. So learning how to change your lifestyle of eating is key.

By eliminating the most of the carbs in your daily intake, your body will learn how to use other things, such as fat cells for energy. Thus, you start losing weight, because your body is using up everything that you have ate that day, and also some left over fat in your body.

For me, when I first started this diet, I was pretty tired. When you go from eating a lot of carbs daily, to eating none, it is gonna mess with you a little bit. So don't worry, if this happens to you, it will pass. In my personal opinion, I feel this diet is a really good diet, I just don't think its the one for me. It may or may not be the right one for you.

Diet Pills- Do or Dont

This conversation can bring up many arguments on so many levels. So what should you do? How do you know if you should choose a diet pill, or if you shouldn't? And if you choose to take one, which one should you take?

First let me say this. There is no magic Diet pill out there. NONE. So now that you know that, we can actually think about this a little bit more. How do you know which pill to start taking? That answer is simple, you don't. You don't have a clue as to which one you should be trying, and lets not talk about how much money you will waste trying to figure it out. Try going to your doctor and asking for help. They might suggest something to you. I believe there are diet pills out there that are safe to use. There is just very few of them, so the bad outweighs the good, and people start to assume all diet pills are bad. You cant really assume this. Asking your doctor will help you.

Now ask yourself, why do you want a diet pill? Your probably over weight and would like to lose weight. This is fine, but do you know, your gonna be over weight for the rest of your life, unless you make changes. These changes need to be what you eat, portion control and exercises. Even if you find a pill that helps you lose the weight, you have to make these changes so you don't gain it all back. Otherwise you will be starting right back at the beginning.

I'm not trying to say that all diet pills are bad. I just think you should really look into it, and maybe find one that will help suppress your diet, more then fill you with all these promises to make you lose all this fat. Finding one under your doctors care that helps suppress your diet will be your best choice. Then , with the help of these pills you can learn how to change your eating habits and your daily activities.

Healthy Food that help Reduce Illness

Eat an apple a day, keep the doctor away. How many times have you herd this saying? I know my mother use to say this all the time. I was never sure if she meant it, or was just trying to scare me a little. There is some truth to this saying though. Along with that apple, there are a number of other foods that can really help you with certain things.

Does your skin look dull during the day? Even with lotion you cant seem to get it glowing the way you would like it to? Try eating berries that are rich with antioxidants. Berries such as blackberries or raspberries. These are both really good choices. Try switching your food to whole grain food. This will help keep your blood sugar normal. When your blood sugar spikes it can damage collagen. Hence, making your skin look not so young and pretty.

Do have a hard time falling asleep? A lot of people in the world suffer from Insomnia. I have one that lives here, my Husband. It’s a horrible thing to suffer from, and something that you never really get use to. Try eating a banana every day. Since bananas are filled with vitamin B6, your more likely to get on a schedule. You should eat one every day though. B6 helps your internal clock. Which is the thing that tells you when you should fall asleep and when you should wake up again.

Cure that headache, or try and prevent it from even coming around. Headaches are one of the worst things you can get. They can prevent you from doing so many things. When your head hurts, seems like everything hurts as well. Black beans are great for headaches. Black beans are high in proteins, fiber and magnesium. All which can help you with your headache. Tuna which is loaded with omega-3s can also help your headache. Eating tuna just once a week, can help prevent them headaches from even showing up.

Walking for your Exercise

We all know that walking is the easiest exercise for just about anyone. Everyone seems to walk places. Which is really a good thing. But do you know why waking is good for you, besides for burning calories?

It’s free! Should I say anymore? Okay, I guess I can. Along with being free it helps your heart, lungs and helps your bones. So why wouldn’t you want to walk? It’s easy and makes you healthy, there is no reason why you can’t walk a few times a week. Here are some ways to help you walk better, longer and sneak in some extra walking.

Shoes are the most important factor here. And I don’t mean go out and buy the most expensive pair you can find. Cost does not mean they are any good. You need to get a pair of shoes that fit you well. Some that are not too tight and not to lose. Making sure you have a little room for your toes, so they can move. Having a cushioned heel is a plus.

Taking an Ipod or something to that effect to help keep your mind busy is also a plus. Upload some upbeat music, and have fun while walking. If you don’t have anything to do while walking, then walking is going to become pretty boring. If you like to talk, then grab your cell phone, call a friend, and tell the friend you’re going walking to talk to you for a while to keep your mind busy. You will be amazed at how far you have walked while your mind was busy on something else.

The next time you go grocery shopping, park as far away from the door as you can. This will sneak in a little extra walking time. Walk around the store a little more then normal. I walk around the skinny women’s clothes every Thursday while I am out shopping. This gives me a little more incentive to keep it up. Then I go get all my groceries. This gives me even more walking time.

If you have gas stations or restaurants near your home, start walking there instead of driving. We have a restaurant that is a few blocks from us. Me and the kids walk up there for lunch or dinner once in a while. We always walk there, get some food, and then walk back home. Making sure you don’t eat anything to bad. I typically eat a chicken salad there. But that choice is all yours.

Some Awesome Foodie Articles

A great friend of mine is a awesome foodie writer. She loves writing about food and this girl, really knows her material, which really shows in her articles. Here are some previews of her material that would really help you get on track with your weight loss.

How to Make Baked Goods Healthier by Amy Brantley is a new favorite of mine. She explains to us, some great ways to make your favorite foods, and make them more healthy. Who would have thought this was possible. So if your looking to make some baked goods like cakes and cookies, but your trying to lose weight, then this article is a must read!

Maybe your speciality is Fried Foods. If you love fried foods, and you have a hard time letting go of them, then I have the perfect solution for you. You must read How to make Healthy Fried Foods by Amy Brantley. She explains how you can still eat the fried foods that you love, without all that extra fat. Now while I don't think this should be an all the time thing, this would be a great way to have your fried foods as a treat and not get all the fat!

How many of you love chocolate chip cookies? I know that I love it! Being on a diet, means I cant eat things like these. I could, but I choose not to cheat on my diet, for the most part. But with an article like How to Make Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies by Amy Brantley , Means you can not only have an all time favorite, but it means you wont have to cheat as bad! Now this is something I would not feel guilty about!

While this next and last article I am about to show you, is not a foodie article, It still fits in perfect. Low-Impact Exercises: Get the Exercise You Need Without All the Pain by Amy Brantley is a great read. There are some people out there who can not do things as well as other. Maybe your really overweight, or you have some sort of difficulty that stops you from exercising like you should. This article shows you some great ways to exercise without all the pain you would normally have.

Low Calorie Snacks to cure your Sweet Tooth

Have you decided that you would like to venture on this long road of getting healthy and losing weight with me? It’s defiantly going to be a long road, but it’s going to be completely worth it. I'm three weeks into it, and I tell you, I really feel good about myself. I have almost reached my first mini goal of 20 pounds lost, and I am starting to feel great about myself. I still have a long road ahead of me though. Still have 61 pounds to go to reach my ultimate goal. Then once I get their, I have to learn how to maintain my weight so I don’t end up on this path again. As you have read in my previous entry's, you have learned that I am on a low calorie diet. With the low calorie diet , its suggested that you eat small frequent meals and have a few snacks throughout the day. This is so your body does not go into starvation mode. So what are some snacks that you can have? Well, First let me just say this. You can not deprive yourself of all the things you love. The key is moderation. I still eat some sweets, I just don’t eat as much and not often. Here are some of the snacks that you can eat, and still enjoy your food.

100 calorie packs are the new craze. Its easy to see why they are. I am obsessed with these things. They give me the sweet food I want, and they are portioned just right. You can grab the whole pack, and you know its only 100 calories. Some of my favorites are The mini cupcakes. Just like the regular cupcakes. They have the cupcake, frosting and the cream filling. Its not diet food. It’s the same ingredients they use in their regular ones. These ones are just bite sized. You get three in a pack, which is just about perfect. I also enjoy their chips. I often eat a turkey sandwich on light wheat bread and grab a pack of the chips. It’s perfect for me, and that lunch really fills me up. This way, I don’t over eat on the chips. Some other things they have are cookies, crackers and mixes. They are good and really help you stay on track.

Apples seem to be my kick also lately. I cut up an apple and for around 70 calories, I can eat the whole thing. Not only does this have a lot of good nutrition for me, but its also naturally sweet, which helps my sweet tooth at times. Its also a good side, when you cook dinner and cant eat everything the family does. I often make my family a normal dinner and I just eat the meat and vegetables and then a cut up apple. I skip any potatoes or pasta that is made with dinner. Of course there are times I just cant eat what the family is having (still have to give them variety) so I will just make myself something different.

Before my diet, I use to love eating a special treat at night. It was hard for me to break this habit. While I realize eating at night is not the smartest thing to do, its actually something you should do while on a low calorie diet. Its just what you eat at night can be the problem. Because you are eating small frequent meals so your body does not go into starvation mode, you should still eat something small at night. I have found that I love eating either the apple or weight watchers ice cream. Their ice cream is really good, much to my surprise. I have had their fudge pops, which are awesome and I have also had a few different kinds of their single serving cups. The fudge pops are huge and have 110 calories In them. These single serving cups which are a pretty large serving, end up with 120-140 calories in them. Last night I tried the chocolate chip cookie dough in the single serving pack. I was very surprised at how good it actually was. So as long as you have the calories left, you can still eat some foods like this. Just make sure you figure these into your normal calorie count.

Tips for your Low Calorie Diet

Eating small frequent meals is something that you should be doing while your on your low calorie diet. You don't want to feel like your starving all the time. Having this feeling is not going to help you lose weight. You are just setting yourself up for a huge fall here. If your starving, chances are your body is also thinking that its starving. Meaning, your body is going to go into starvation mode. So everything you place into your mouth is going to be stored into fat and wont be turned into energy as it should be. In order for you to lose weight, you need the food going into your body, turned into energy, so you can in turn burn off the extra fat. Now you may have lost some weight in your first few days of this, but its not going to continue this way. It will take your body a few days to realize whats going on, and when it does, it wont be pretty. Eating 5-6 small frequent meals a day is the way to go. You must do this every day, so your body will know its going to be fed when its hungry.

Watching what you eat and reading nutritional facts are very important. Don't eat something that is high in calories, because then you wont have enough calories to eat the rest of the day. Choose foods that are lower in carbs, sugar and calories. Eating fruits, vegetables, lean meats and whole grain are the way to go. While some whole grain and still have a higher amount of carbs, these are what we call good carbs. These will turn into energy and not store into fat.
Pre Plan your food. Once I started to watch what I was eating and changing my eating habit's, it started getting hard to eat 1200 calories. This coming from someone who could have easily ate 3000 a day and not even thought twice about it. So then I started to pre plan my day. I would write down breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks. This way, I knew what was going in my mouth already and I didn't go over or under my calories. So pre planning my food really helped me out, and made me keep my body use to a certain amount of food and usually right around the same times.

Low Calorie

I am back and going to explain the Low Calorie diet some . This should give you a better understanding of a low Calorie Diet.

I am currently on 1200 calories. This means that I can not have any more then 1200 calories in a day. I also shouldn't have less then 1200 if possible. Talk with your doctor to decided whats the right amount of calories for you.

With doing the Low calorie diet, I have found this to be so much easier then any other diet. Reason is, I can still eat some of my favorite foods. I don't have to give up everything, which was very hard for me on other diets. After all, this is going to be a life style change, not something temporary.

Being on the low calorie diet, I have learned to pay close attention to what goes into my mouth. I also keep a food log, and that seems to help. I use an online version, so it helps me keep track of what I eat and whats in it. www.fitday.com is the place that I use. I always input the food before I eat it. This way, I can see how much I can have, and if I decided that might not be for me. I have also learned, if I eat things that are better for me, then I can have more food.

I can still have a lot of the normal foods just small portions. That's a big factor, is learning what an actual serving is. I still cook normal food for my family, since they are not trying to lose weight. But if the kids have mac&cheese or potatoes, I just don't eat them. Instead I will have the meat and a vegetable or meat and a cut op piece of fruit.

I challenge each one of you for today, substitute something your eating at the dinner table. If you have potatoes, then skip them and eat a piece of fruit with dinner.

What works for me

I don't know how many time I have tried a diet. How about you all? A lot of times I am sure. I think I may have finally found something that I can do. I think that's the key to all this dieting. You have to find something that you can do yourself. Not trying something that your friend can do, and not finding something that your neighbor has tried. You have to find a way that will really work for you. Of course the only way to get there is by trying new ways.

So far, I have found that counting calories works for me. This makes me pay close attention to all the nutritional details in the foods I eat. I am on a low cal diet currently. Believe it or not, I am actually enjoying this. Wow, who would have thought you could actually enjoy something called a low cal diet. Trust me, I know how crazy that sounds.

I have found though, by counting calories, I will make smarter choices. The reason for this is, I don't want to starve. Flat out, that's the entire reason. I have found I can have a few pieces of fruit, instead of that one cupcake. So counting is really starting to work for me. After talking with my doctor, he helped me decided just how many calories. I am currently on 1200.

The key is to figure out what is going to work for you. Try and few things out. You have to find something that you like and something that is not to hard for you to follow. If you start something that's to hard to follow then your likely to fall off.

So if you are currently on a diet and trying to lose weight like me, then Good luck to you. Join this Blog, and we will discuss counting calories further, and other types of diets.

Welcome

This blog will be all about the weight loss journey. I know many of us have been on and off this not so wonderful path at some point in our lives. I am currently back on the correct path, and I hope to stay this way. I will be updating this blog with several good articles, tips and suggestions about losing weight. I am what the Internet says as sever obese. I hope to soon change this. You will hear all about my journey in this blog as well.

By posting these articles, I hope to help myself and a lot more of you out there. Maybe together we can fight and learn how to stay on the correct path, rather then steering into the wrong one. *hoping*

Comments, tips and suggestions are always welcome!