Habits of Healthy People

Learning about the common habits of healthy people can be a particularly motivational experience, even for people who are already living an active lifestyle. Learning from others who have had success staying fix will  encourage us to continue on the path to a healthier lifestyle.

It’s generally pretty easy to spot someone that is living a healthy life and it’s usually pretty admirable—they seem to smile a little brighter, they always appear to be happy, and they are constantly on-the-go and productive. Learn about four of the most common habits that these people have mastered and how you can emulate these to improve and build upon your own fitness regimen.

They are Actively Aware of Their Food Choices

Healthy people know exactly what type of food they put in their body and often make sacrifices to help keep their bodies running optimally. This means, when they go out to eat with friends, they won’t always be delving into a large serving of nachos or ordering that extra round.

They always read nutritional labels and scan for artificial sweeteners, tricky food additives, and preservatives, because they prefer avoiding over processed foods when possible.

While they are not always 100% perfect with their nutrition, healthy people often abide by general rules of thumb, such as, no alcoholic beverages during the week, no more than one soda a month, or other methods to do their best to avoid food that is unhealthy.

What this doesn’t mean, is that they are over the top or obnoxious about their habits—they choose to lead by example. To start developing this healthy habit, pay close attention to the foods that you eat. Keep a food log that documents what sort of foods you eat and how often you eat them. If you noticed any questionable or unhealthy food choices, work on weaning them out of your diet. You can learn a lot of good habits from healthy people and we can all learn a lot by watching what those people buy, what they eat and what they drink. It's easy to spot healthy people in restaurants, store or in the break room at work. Watching other people is a good way to find better habits that you can pick up.

Consistently Monitor Their Health

Aside from tracking their food and nutritional intake, healthy people also monitor their overall physical performance by regularly exercising to gauge whether or not their health has improved or worsened over time.

This means that they’ll often experiment with jogging longer distances or lifting heavier weights just to see how well their body responds to a more intense workout. If these exercises were more difficult than they had expected, it could be an indication that they should be scaling their efforts.

You should be consistent aware of how your body is supposed to feel so that you can understand when you aren’t working out enough, or even if you are working out too hard. Additionally, you should not be afraid to monitor your health by visiting a doctor for a checkup or consulting with a physical trainer when an outside examination is necessary.

Stay The Course Even When It’s Difficult

There are often going to be times when your fitness goals become unclear, you become physically exhausted, or you lose much of your motivation—hey, it happens to the best of us. But one habit that healthy people proudly focus on is a continual drive to fight onward, even when their health goals become overwhelming difficult.

Instead of painstakingly giving up, they stay consistent and add variety to their routine by incorporating new exercises which can make their healthy habits fresh again. They find other activities that make their lives more enjoyable, such as joining a gym with a friend, hiking with their dogs, or playing football with the kids.

To adopt this habit, focus on breaking any health plateaus that you experience by first realizing that it’s okay to not always be perfect. When times get tough and you start to struggle or question your motivation, this shouldn’t be considered a sign of weakness—this is a sign of growth and change, embrace the challenge.

Experiment With New Habits

Healthy people are always on the lookout for new habits, suggestions, or technology that can help them continue to grow stronger throughout their lives. They understand that their life really begins when they venture outside of their comfort zones and even avoid activity ruts by setting new goals and trying new sports.

Additionally, healthy people transition their new habit building beyond physical changes and introduce a variety of exciting new modifications to their diet—they cook new foods to surprise their metabolism and find new ways to balance their essential nutrients.

Think about how you can incorporate new habits to find the exercise and fitness routines that work best for you. Consider drinking more water, reading nutrition labels, getting annual checkups, scheduling more time for sleep, working out with a friend, trying new outdoor adventures, etc.

What are some of the healthiest habits that you have experienced? What are some of the areas that you are succeeding in and where could you use more help? Do you find developing healthy habits to be a beneficial process in your fitness routine, or more intimidating?

Summary

Healthy individuals have tips to staying on track and getting back on track when they’ve slipped. Watch what you eat. Regularly monitor against your performance goals. Consistently make time for your workouts. And keep on the lookout for new, healthy habits.

The biggest tip I can give you is to pay attention to your body. Make a plan to get back in-shape and stay with it. Monitor yourself every day. Make your goal, "your mission in life". Constantly be looking to improve on your plan and never loss sight of your goal. It will take time, in some cases years, but never stop trying. Sometime other health problems can take priority, but remember your goal and get back on track as soon as possible.

Losing weight is all about the food you eat

Eat the right food and you won't add on body fat. Eat the wrong foods and you'll add body fat everyday. And then there are some foods that help you lose fat. Losing weight is not about counting calories as much as it is about eating the right foods.

This is a common mistake many people make. I want to lose weight so I'll go on a diet. My friend went on a 1000 calorie a day diet and lost 20 pounds in just a few weeks, I'll try that. So I'll have coffee and toast for breakfast, for lunch I'll have a salad with bottled dressing, I like that low-cal french. And for dinner I'll go to Subway and get a foot-long. I think that's under 1000 calories, I'll do that.

Okay that's under 1000 calories alright, but you have very little nutrition. Yes, you made a good choice with the salad if it has the right veggies like Kale, tomatoes, beans, spinach leaves, cucumbers etc. Just a pile of lettuce and a couple cherry tomatoes isn't a salad. It just looks like a salad and use some olive oil on that salad. Just because lettuce is green doesn't mean it's loaded with nutrition. Toast and coffee has no nutrition and you can't lose weight if you're going all morning without eating any protein. And as far as that foot-long sandwich, that about the same as lunch, If you eat the right sandwich you can keep the calories low, but if you want to stay on this diet for any long period of time, you need to pack more nutrition in those 1000 calories.

This is the typical mistake people make when they are new at dieting or their not taking the diet seriously. 9 out of 10 people who start a diet end up quitting. 9 out of 10 people who try to lose weight will quit. So what's the problem? Most people don't do their homework and are not really serious about lose weight.

If your really serious you'll first either do some homework and change the way you're eating, or get some professional help.  We are a country that loves to eat out. Restaurants will have some healthy food on their menu, but the real goal is to make food that tastes good. Restaurants have to take care of their customers, so popular food items will never go away. But because of public opinion restaurants are putting healthy food choice on the menu and if they become popular then they'll stick around.

It's  going to be the consumer that will change the grocery stores and restaurants. If we don't demand better quality foods we will only get what the manufacturers can produce at the highest profit margin. So until we can buy already prepared foods that are healthy we need to buy fresh and eat clean. That means we'll be preparing a lot of our own meal and trying to make some healthy choices on the salad bar.

So if your ready to get serious about losing weight you need to do some homework and learn what you can eat and more important the foods you can't eat.

Losing body fat should be your goal. Read up on weight loss and losing body fat. It doesn’t cost money to lose weight. The internet is full of free information.

Checkout my other blogs: 

blogonweight.blogspot.com

Howbaddoyouwanttoloseweight.blospot.com

But the quickest way and cheapest way is to buy an ebook online and get everything you need in one short read. I have two ebooks on Amazon:

How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight

Getting To A Healthy Weight

Check out one of them, I think you can find all the info you need and plenty of tips on how I lost my body fat. 

Look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find these e-books. These books give you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my books at Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Stop Burning Sugar and Start Burning Fat

A great article that explains why we workout but don't lose any inches. The article explains why you could be working out just to burn the sugar and other sources of energy but not real fat.

by Shaun Hadsall

Did you know that the years of eating processed foods, lack of exercise, and normal eating patterns have literally PROGRAMMED your body to burn NOTHING but calories and sugars from the foods you consume everyday…
…INSTEAD of burning off your ugly body fat?

In fact, today's exercise programs take way too much time and use old-school methods that cause you to crave more food and calories – especially calories from sugar – FORCING your body to burn sugars and waste away nothing but stored energy.

This means that EVERY time you eat and exercise your body is busy fighting a losing battle.

BUT – what if there was a way to RESET your body’s fat burning switch so that your body burns fat FIRST every time you move and exercise?

Well there IS.

It’s a super simple 3-step metabolic primer from my colleague, and Stubborn Fat Expert, Shaun Hadsall that TURNS OFF your body’s “addiction” to burning sugars, while making your most stubborn fat your “go to” energy source in ONLY 3 or 4 days.
STEP #1: Try to consume zero starches or fruits for 3 or 4 days in a row during the week.

This will help accelerate depletion of glycogen (your stored energy) and get your body burning fat again. This should equate to a total of 25 to 50 impact carbs for the day. Consume protein in every meal to help increase satiety and keep your body in “fat burning mode”.

You’ll program your body to burn a ton more belly fat by using this approach just a few days of the week.

STEP #2: Increase your fats and double your servings of green cruciferous veggies on deplete days.

When you lower carbs for a few days you’ll automatically need energy from other sources. Friendly fats and cruciferous veggies should be your go to macronutrients to help provide this needed energy.

Some good examples to use are extra fish or krill oil, olive oil, coconut oil, grass fed butter and small amounts of raw nuts for fats -- spinach, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, arugula, green beans, Brussels sprouts and cabbage are great choices for extra veggies.

This will help provide all the fiber, vitamins, and minerals necessary to maximize fat-loss during a lower carb phase.

It will also DECREASE your cravings in a big way.

STEP #3: Double your daily water intake when you deplete carbs.

Remember, for EVERY gram of carbs you eat over the weekend (or any other time) your body holds nearly 3 grams of water.

So if you had a few slices of pizza, some bread and a bowl of ice cream we’re talking an extra 700 to 1000 grams of water sitting under your belly skin.

Consuming extra water is the fastest way to UNDO the damage of over-eating, getting rid of excess water retention, and facilitating other metabolic processes that burn fat.

A good rule of thumb is to consume at least 50-60% of your total body weight in ounces of water a few days after overeating.

After 3 or 4 days of using this strategy, your body and hormones will be PRIMED to burn PURE fat when you exercise.

You just have to make sure you’re using the RIGHT TYPE of exercise or all this could be nothing but a waste of your time and energy.

If your serious about trying this, the exercise is important, but if your an active person and you don't spend hours sitting, a quick 10 minute workout with stretching first and afterward maybe all that's necessary.

If you really want to lose the extra flab you can get help, I write 4 blogs and I’ve written two E-books. Read some of my other blog posts.

gettingtoahealthyweight.blog

idropped40pounds.wordpress.com

howbaddoyouwanttoloseweight.blogspot.com

blogonweight.blogspot.com

E-books are the easiest and cheapest way to learn about any subject without groping through hundreds of websites looking for the material you want.

My first e-book is “HowBadDoYouWantToLoseWeight” and it sells for $2.99 on most online bookstores like Amazon.com, BN.com, iBook, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, and Gardner books in the U.K.

My second e-book is available in the same stores. And on smashwords.com. If you use the Smashwords' promotional code You can get my second book for $1.99 (TL96R). Just type in the search line “getting to a healthy weight”.

Studies Prove: Workout More Loss More Weight

Doubling the amount of time spent in heart-pumping workouts each week pays off.  

The author is bring out a good point. Exercise beginners often just do their 30 minutes a day of walking like they first started to do when they began exercising and after months of this same routine don't understand why they stopped losing weight. The walk you started to do when you first started was meant to get you into shape for some real heart-pumping exercise that will burn fat. But some people never get past the beginners exercise. Beginners have to start slow to avoid injuries. You have to build up stamina. That's the power to increase your program without hurting yourself. Yes, diet is critical for losing weight, but exercise helps you retain muscle mass that's necessary to burn body fat. 

WebMD News from HealthDay

By Dennis Thompson

HealthDay Reporter

Older women who fit more minutes of heart-pumping exercise into their week will lose more body fat, a new study shows.

Canadian researchers found that postmenopausal women who got five hours of moderate-to-vigorous aerobic exercise every week -- double the normally recommended amount -- lost significantly more body fat within a year than women who exercised less.

"More is better. That's definitely what we found here," said study author Christine Friedenreich, a scientific leader in the department of cancer epidemiology and prevention research at Alberta Health Services-CancerControl Alberta, in Calgary. "If you can do more, you will do better."

The U.S. National Institutes of Health currently recommends that adults get at least two hours and 30 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity every week, the authors noted in background information.

Previous research has shown that exercise does decrease body weight and total body fat, Friedenreich said, but her research team wanted to know whether increasing a person's "dose" of exercise would produce even better results.

To test this theory, the researchers recruited 384 women whose body mass index (BMI) ranged from 22 to 40. A BMI under 25 is considered healthy, while 30 or more is considered obese. All women were disease-free, nonsmokers and were not taking hormone replacement therapy.

Half of the women were asked to exercise the recommended minimum amount of two hours and 30 minutes a week, while the other half had to exercise for five hours a week.

The women could take part in any aerobic activity they liked, as long as they kept their heart rate within 65 percent to 75 percent of their heart rate reserve for at least half of each exercise session. Most activities involved an elliptical trainer, walking, bicycling or running. Heart rate reserve is the gap between a person's resting and maximum heart rate.

"It's not light activity," Friedenreich said of the exercise required. "It's something that definitely causes an increase in your heart rate."

Researchers measured each woman's body fat before and after, using X-rays and CT scans, to track their progress after a year's worth of exercise. This is the only true way I know to measure BMI. We don't do it in this country because insurance won't pay for the tests. 

The investigators found that the women who got the minimum amount of exercise did experience improvements in weight and BMI and, on average, lost body fat.

However, women who doubled their exercise regimen experienced significantly more reduction in BMI and total body fat. They also lost more belly fat, and their waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio decreased significantly more.

The findings were reported in the July 16 online edition of JAMA Oncology.

Body fat has been linked to increased breast cancer risk, because fat produces the female hormone estrogen and also increases insulin resistance and inflammation, Friedenreich pointed out.

"It's been very clearly shown that if you gain weight over your lifetime and if you are overweight after menopause, that increases your risk of breast cancer," she said.

Alpa Patel, an epidemiologist with the American Cancer Society, said "these results allow us to say that there's this much benefit if you exercise the minimum 150 minutes recommended, and there's this much more benefit added if you can get that to 300 minutes."

In this study, the women were asked to maintain their usual diet, Friedenreich said.

Women can achieve even greater weight loss and fat reduction if they pair an increase in exercise with a healthy diet, said Kerri Winters-Stone, a research professor at the Oregon Health & Science University School of Nursing, in Portland.

Other studies have shown that combining diet and exercise can provide better weight loss results than either diet or exercise on their own, said Winters-Stone, who wrote a commentary that accompanies Friedenreich's study.

"It really boils down to an energy balance equation," she said. "You can get there quicker by changing diet and exercise, rather than trying to achieve it by exercise alone."

Winters-Stone added that increasing exercise is a good idea, but people need to make sure they understand their own physical limitations. Over-use injuries can occur if a person heedlessly pursues a stringent exercise regimen.

"People can kind of reach their max," she said. "Over-exercise tends to exacerbate knee pain, for instance, or it might cause an old shoulder injury to flare up."

Another New Change for Food Labels

This is a new post from WebMD about yet another change to food labels. It will give us more information about sugar, but it still gives food manufactures many different way to conceal sugar. Read the following post to get the whole story.

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Food manufacturers will be required to tell consumers how much sugar is added to their products and show how the amount compares to recommended daily limits under new changes to nutrition labels proposed by the FDA on Friday.

Many nutritionists and public health experts blame rising amounts of added sugars in processed foods for contributing to rising rates of diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.

But it can be tough to tell how much of the sweet stuff is in processed foods. Nutrition labels only tally total sugars, a measure that includes both those naturally present in foods like fruits and vegetables and those that are added during manufacturing.

Food labels also list ingredients by weight, so the higher up on the ingredient list, the more sugar is in a food. But manufacturers use many different names for added sugars, such as dextrose and fructose. And they sometimes use several different kinds of sugar in the same product so they can list each one lower down on the ingredient list -- further obscuring the total amount.

"It's a great public health victory," says Jim O'Hara, director of health promotion policy at the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest. "This is what consumers need to know so they can make healthy choices. They need to know that 20-ounce [soda] has about 130% the daily value of added sugar."

In March 2014, the FDA proposed adding the amount of added sugars, in grams, to food labels. The agency said Friday it is revising that proposal to also tell consumers how much added sugar a food contains relative to a total daily limit -- a measure called the percent daily value.

Specifically, regulators are proposing that people limit the added sugar they eat to no more than 10% of their total daily calories. For a person who eats 2,000 calories a day, that's about 12 teaspoons of sugar a day. A teaspoon of sugar is about 16 calories.

Studies show that the average American now takes in almost twice that much sugar -- 22 teaspoons -- each day, which amounts to an extra 350 calories.

"The FDA has a responsibility to give consumers the information they need to make informed dietary decisions for themselves and their families," says Susan Mayne, PhD, director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, in a news release.

The advice for the past decade has been to cut back on added sugars in the diet, she says, "and the proposed percent daily value for added sugars on the Nutrition Facts label is intended to help consumers follow that advice."

The change comes after the FDA reviewed the recent recommendations of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. The committee's report found that it was hard for a person to get all the recommended nutrients in their diet if they also ate more than 10% of their total daily calories as sugar.

The proposed changes will be open for public comment for 75 days.

The food industry has lobbied hard to keep added sugars off food labels. Public policy experts say they expect significant pushback on the changes.

"I expect the food industry -- led by the Grocery Manufacturers Association -- to go berserk over this one," says Marion Nestle, PhD, in an email to WebMD. Nestle is a professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University. She predicts food makers will go to Congress to try to block the changes.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment from WebMD.

SOURCES: Jim O'Hara, director of health promotion policy, The Center for Science in the Public Interest, Washington, D.C. Marion Nestle, PhD, MPH, professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University in New York City. FDA, News Release, July 24, 2015.

©2015 WebMD, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

I just finished a sugar detox, I didn't eat anything with added sugar for 10 days. I don't believe in adding sugar to anything I eat, but going on this detox wasn't easy. It's hard to find food in a grocery store that doesn't have added sugar. I had to stick to the basics. You have to read the labels on everything. I was even reading labels on frozen vegetables. After the detox I was feeling better. My blood pressure was lower, my heart rate was lower and I lost some of my food cravings. I had to make my own meals to avoid added sugar, but I'm glad I did it. I learned a lot about processed foods. We talk a lot about processed foods but many consumers don't really understand which foods are processed foods. That's the biggest problem the consumer has.

Define Clean Eating

Eating "clean" is gaining traction — but what does it actually mean, and how is it good for the body? You here about it almost everyday if your reading food blogs of watching cooking shows.

Clean eating is a deceptively simple concept. Rather than revolving around the idea of ingesting more or less of specific things (for instance, fewer calories or more protein), the idea is more about being aware of the food's pathway between its origin and your plate. At its simplest, clean eating is about eating whole foods, or "real" foods — those that are un- processed, refined, and handled, making them as close to their natural form as possible. However, modern food production has become so sophisticated that simply eating whole foods can be a challenging proposition these days.

Stores like Whole Foods have changed the food scene. We have more mini grocery's that specialize in fresh foods, organic foods and healthier brands. Ten or fifteen years ago we had 3 major grocery's where I live, and we had Whole Foods and convenient foods in gas stations. Today the scene is much different. Healthy foods are becoming common place in the majors and small grocery chains are springing up throughout the city selling organic, fresh, healthy food. Restaurants are starting to offer healthy food on the menu. The difference is today the public demands it. Menu will have to show the calorie count. And recently the FDA what's food manufacturers to put the amount of added sugar on food labels. These changes won't happen immediately but the changes will be a good thing for consumers.

Not eating processed foods is the biggest part of "eating clean". I was surprised to learn how many people don't really understand what foods are considered to be processed foods. Most people don't realize that bread is a processed food and that some cheese is processed. These new milks like soy milk and almond milk are processed foods and may have chemical additives.

I just finished a sugar detox recently. For 10 days I couldn't eat anything with added sugar. I'm glad I did the detox, but it's difficult finding foods or drinks without sugar.  I had to just buy the basics and make my own food. It's very healthy and I learned a lot and I have no regrets. The hardest part was not eating in restaurants. The other hard part was only drinking water, tea and coffee. I could add lemon for flavor and add cinnamon to black coffee. I could eat salads in some restaurants but no salad dressing, only lemon, oil, or vinegar.

The reason I mentioned the sugar detox is, if you want to get a taste of what it's like to "eat clean", try a sugar detox.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Are Your Meds Causing You To Gain Weight?

You watch what you eat and fit regular workouts into your schedule. So why is the number on your scale going up instead of down? The reason might lie in your bathroom cabinet. I talk about consulting your doctor about losing weight and I'll repeat it, "If your on Doctor's care and you have a prescription you need to talk to your Doctor about the foods you eat and if you have and your gaining weight anyway, you need to tell him. He might have to change your prescription. 

“As many as 10% to 15% of weight issues are related to medications,” says Louis Aronne, MD, director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Center at Weill Cornell Medical College.

Some meds can make you feel hungrier. Others slow your body’s ability to burn calories or cause you to hold onto extra fluids. Medicine is not an exact science. When Your Doctor give you a prescription or your pharmacy tells you that this over-the-counter  medication should help you, remember that they go on past history. If they have never had any problems recommending that product it doesn't mean it will work for you. It only means there is a high probability that it should work. If your not getting the results you expected, go back and let them know. 

The effects aren’t the same for everybody, though. “One person might gain 15 pounds on one drug. Another might not gain anything,” Aronne says.

If you suspect the medicines that you take are behind your weight gain, don’t go off them before you talk to your doctor. “You might need to be on that drug to save your life,” says Donald Waldrep, MD, co-director of The Center for Weight Loss Surgery at Los Robles Hospital.

You may be able to switch to another medication, including one that can even help you shed pounds. If not, your doctor can suggest what you should do to offset the weight gain. It might just be a problem with some of the foods your eating. For instance, I love cheese and while taking a certain medication I ate some Goat Cheese that made me really sick. I spent the next two days in bed. Real Goat Cheese isn't pasteurized and has a certain type of bacteria that I shouldn't have eaten while I was taking that medication. I know it's complicated but it was my fault. Swiss Cheese is another cheese that can affect certain medications. After the incident with the Goat Cheese, I ask a lot more questions about any medication I have to take even if it's over-the-counter.

“There’s evidence that a low-carb diet and more exercise may help,” says Sue DeCotiis, MD, a board-certified internist who specializes in medical weight loss.

Below are some types of medicines that may be the cause of your expanding waistline. It’s not a complete list, so speak to your doctor if you have any concerns about your prescriptions.

Depression Medications

Which ones:

• citalopram (Celexa)
• fluoxetine (Prozac)
• fluvoxamine (Luvox)
• mirtazapine (Remeron)
• paroxetine (Paxil)
• sertraline (Zoloft)

Your doctor may call these “SSRIs” (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) or “tricyclic antidepressants.” They boost the amount of certain “feel good” chemicals in your brain. Some of those chemicals also control your appetite and how your body breaks down calories.

“You might eat but not feel full,” DeCotiis says. “Or you might lay down more fat even if you’re not eating more.” That’s the case especially in the long run. Some depression drugs may cause you to gain as much as 24 pounds in a year.

Keep in mind that depression itself can affect your appetite and eating habits. Your doctor or counselor can help you with that.