Overweight and Out-Of-Shape Part 2

I'm not going to paint a rosy picture about how easy it's going to be to lose that fat, but losing that fat is essential. You don't have to worry that much about what the scale says, your goal should be to lose inches in the truck section of your body. The rest will take care of itself. The bad fat your doctor doesn't want you to have is the fat around your waist. When you measure your waist at the navel it should be half your height. I'm 72 inches tall, my waist should be a 36. I don't mean a 36 pant size, I mean 36 inches at the navel.

So even if your weight is in the normal range, and you can check your range on several different websites, if your waist is too large you need to lose some of that fat. There are two ways fat can build-up, over the top of your muscles or under the muscle layer. Under the muscle layer is very dangerous. You may think that stomach is solid muscle but if you have excess fat under that muscle then it's surrounding your organs. Your liver and your heart are where your doctor doesn't want excess fat. That excess fat around your organs will slow down body functions.

So what can you do about it now? First, you'll have to change your diet and not just temporarily. You have to start eating healthy and that means eating fresh and eating clean. So what does that mean? You can probably get more info from "health and fitness" websites than I can give you in one post, but just to simplify things. "Fresh" means you stat buy only produce (fruits and veggies) that are fresh, not frozen. Meat and fish that's fresh and whole grains nothing processed. That means cereals, pasta, and bread that's whole grain. Whole wheat is not whole grain. Whole wheat is processed flour that strips out the nutrition during the processing. You want to avoid anything containing processed or enriched flour.

Also, you have to be careful how you cook food. Cooking oil is your enemy when you're trying to lose fat. First of all, no fried foods, no foods or drinks that are sweet. Fruit is your new dessert. Nuts and seeds are good in moderation. Cooking oils can be deceiving, most of them are blended oil, some might be good oils but some are bad. They can blend oils in one bottle and call it "olive oil" as long as it's mostly olive oil. And they do the same thing with other oils like "canola". Companies will use 20% palm oil or a mix of other tropical oils and they don't have to put that on the label. When I buy oil for cooking I buy 100% extra virgin olive oil. If you buy the oil that comes from Italy or Spain you want the oil that's bottled over there. I say that because Italy and Spain have laws to protect the quality of their oils. Government inspections are a serious thing and no one wants to lose their license to export olive oil.

So after you straighten out your diet, you will start to have more energy.You have to be on your new diet for a few weeks before you start to feel better. Just being on your new diet will make you feel healthier and then you should start a walking routine, about 30 minutes a day more than you walk now. You want to build up to 10,000 steps a day. That's what you want to do every day to lose inches. 10,000 steps can be a big increase for some of you, so build up to it slowly and don't try to do the whole thing at one time. Try and do some walking early in the morning and then finish up after dinner.

75% of your food should be vegetables and fruit, 15% fish, poultry and some meat and the rest whole grain. Drink mostly water, some coffee or tea and a glass of red wine a couple time a week. Try and go heavy on the fish and don't be afraid of mercury. Go on the internet and look for seafood low in mercury and you'll be surprised how long the list is.

If you stick to this new diet and do the walking every day in just 3 months you'll feel much better and look much better and if you stick with it, you lose that fat and you'll love yourself for doing it. Good health is a one-way road so you can't go back. If you want to live a healthy life, you have to work at it every day and never look back.

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I write about losing weight, how to lose weight, what foods to eat when you're trying to lose weight and exercise that will help you lose weight. I wrote an ebook that will give you all the info in one read. It's a how-to book that also tells you about the mistakes I made and how to avoid them.

My ebook is available at www.amazon.com, www.B&N.com, iBooks (download the app), kobo.com, scribd.com and much more. My ebook will go on sale in May for $1.99. This special will only last for a limited time.

Do You Read Those Health and Fitness Websites?

I’m sure you have read a few yourself. The one’s that advocate exercises that most of us can’t do, but there great if you want to lose inches or lose weight. No wonder most people give up trying. Last month and I think I wrote about it, less than 3% of  American adults are physically fit. We already know that 66% of adults are overweight which means another 30% of adults may not be overweight but they’re seriously out-of-shape.

Now you can understand why Americans on average pay about 17% of their income for healthcare, whereas in other developed countries the average citizen pays about 9% of their income for healthcare. If we had the best healthcare system in the world you could justify the extra cost, but we don’t. We rank number 37 in developed countries according to the World Health Assoc.

So why is this important to you. The numbers of physically fit people in our country are steadily dropping generation by generation. Americans need to realize what they are doing to themselves. Americans have a strange attitude toward themselves and it’s not just about fitness. We tend to put thing off. We have a “why do I have to do it today?” attitude with most everything and that’s one reason we are so rushed. We are in a hurry to do everything. We thing that we can do everything at the last-minute, not realizing that we are putting extra stress on ourselves.

This is one reason why we fall for all those quick weight loss methods. We want to be able to use the quick and easy method and we think that if we just keep looking we’ll find one.  Well, good luck with that. The methods for getting rich and the methods for losing weight aren’t much different and as we all know there’s no quick way to get rich.

Anytime your body loses weight quickly your body goes into starvation mode and starts to hoard calories, and the fat starts to return. The bad part is when you lose weight quickly you're losing mostly muscle weight and only about 30 fat. But when you gain the weight back, it comes back all fat. So now you’ve increased your percentage of body fat you decrease your percentage of muscle mass. So what the different you might ask. It’s your muscle mass that has to burn fat to maintain it’s size and strength. So every time you lose muscle your losing your ability to burn fat.

Overweight people constantly complain to me in emails that they eat like a bird and can’t lose weight. If you're already overweight and out of shape you have your work cut out for you. I’ll write more about this in my next post and give you tips that I used to lose my fat. Before you can get into shape you have to lose that fat.

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I write about losing weight, how to lose weight, what foods to eat when you’re trying to lose weight and exercise that will help you lose weight. I wrote an ebook that will give you all the info in one read. It’s a how-to book that also tells you about the mistakes I made and how to avoid them.

My ebook is available at http://www.amazon.com, http://www.B&N.com, iBooks (download the app), kobo.com, scribd.com and much more. My ebook will go on sale in May for $1.99. This special will only last for a limited time.

Compulsive Eating and How to Stop

This is a feature article on WebMD and is definitely worth a read. Compulsive eating and food addiction are a major cause of the overweight problem in this country. It will be worth your while it analyze your weight problem and how you got to where you are now. Failing to realize what caused your weight problem will only set you up for failure.

Compulsive Overeating and How to Stop 

By Jennifer Rainey Marquez

Reviewed by Joseph Goldberg, MD

Think back to the last time you ate so much you felt absolutely stuffed. Were you tearing into a huge cake to celebrate a friend’s birthday? Loading up on turkey and sweet potatoes at Thanksgiving? Or were you at home alone, maybe at the end of a tough day? How did you feel afterward -- simply annoyed that you gave yourself a stomachache? Or were you tormented by guilt or shame?

Eating too much every once in a while is normal. So is eating for emotional reasons. “From the moment we’re born, we’re nurtured with food, rewarded with food, and so emotional connections to food are normal,” says Michelle May, MD, author of Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat.

People who compulsively overeat, though, may use food as their only way of coping with negative emotions. As a result, they often feel that their eating is out of control. They think about food all the time and feel guilty, ashamed, or depressed after eating. “That’s very different from what someone feels after, say, eating a big Thanksgiving meal,” May says. “You might feel full, and you might regret having had that last slice of pie, but you’re not consumed with shame.”

Some people who overeat have a clinical disorder called binge eating disorder (BED). People with BED compulsively eat large amounts of food in a short amount of time and feel guilt or shame afterward. And they do so often: at least once a week over a period of at least 3 months.

Not everyone who overeats is a binger. You might eat a lot of food throughout the day, rather than all in one sitting. And you might not do it regularly, but only when you’re feeling stressed, lonely, or upset.

How does it start?

In some cases, people simply overeat out of mindless habit, like always sitting down with a bag of chips in front of the TV at night. But oftentimes, it’s the result of underlying emotional problems. Having a negative body image can play a big role. 

For many people, compulsive overeating is part of a cycle that starts with a restrictive diet. May calls it the “eat, repent, repeat” cycle. You might begin a diet because you feel bad about your weight or size but find that it’s too hard to stick to -- especially if you use food as a coping tool. Eventually, you hit a breaking point and binge on “forbidden” foods, and then the guilt and shame set in, and the restrictions begin again.

The cycle can be hard to break. “Even people who say they’re not on a diet often have ingrained ideas about ‘good’ or ‘bad’ foods,” says Marsha Hudnall, president of Green Mountain at Fox Run in Vermont, a center for women who struggle with overeating. “But when you have a substance that is naturally appealing and soothing and comforting, and you make it off-limits, it just becomes more attractive.”

Can people be “addicted” to food?

In recent years, food addiction has become a popular idea among some scientists. Those researchers say that certain foods high in fat, sugar, and salt are addictive, causing changes in the brain similar to those made by drugs. Studies in animals have shown that rats that binge on sugar, for example, can develop signs of dependency.

But the idea of food addiction is controversial. For one thing, the standard treatment for addiction is abstinence, and that’s not possible with food. Also, “dieting is a very strong component of the binge eating cycle,” May says. “From that standpoint, it’s counterproductive to label certain foods as negative.”

There’s no doubt that eating can stimulate the release of feel-good chemicals in the brain, Hudnall says. “But that doesn’t make food an addictive substance. There’s evidence that it’s actually the behavior -- the restrict/binge cycle -- that causes the signs of dependency, not the food itself,” she says. Some researchers have even stated that the term “eating addiction” is a more accurate term than “food addiction.”

How can I control compulsive eating?

Seek help. It can be hard to stop overeating on your own, particularly if there are deep-rooted emotional problems involved, says Robin B. Kanarek, professor of psychology at Tufts University. Working with a counselor can help you uncover the psychological triggers -- like a negative body image -- that may be driving your behavior.The cycle can be hard to break. “Even people who say they’re not on a diet often have ingrained ideas about ‘good’ or ‘bad’ foods,” says Marsha Hudnall, president of Green Mountain at Fox Run in Vermont, a center for women who struggle with overeating. “But when you have a substance that is naturally appealing and soothing and comforting, and you make it off-limits, it just becomes more attractive.”

“Understand that you’re not a bad person doing bad things,” May says. “Labeling yourself can become a self-fulfilling prophecy in terms of continuing the cycle.”

The same goes for labeling foods. “Food is food -- it’s not good or bad,” Kanarek says. “It can be hard to get over those deeply held beliefs, but research shows that if you eat what you deem a ‘bad’ food, you’re more likely to overeat afterward.”

Take a pause. When you feel like eating, pause for a moment and ask yourself: Am I hungry? “Sometimes people get so focused on what they want to eat that they don’t stop and ask themselves why they want to eat,” May says. If you use food as a coping tool, you may be out of touch with the cues that signal hunger or fullness, and it’s important to bring your awareness back to your body.

Change your environment. “A habit is very often simply a behavior that’s on autopilot,” Hudnall says. Making a tweak to your environment can return your focus to your behavior and give you a chance to make a more purposeful decision. For example, Hudnall says, “if you always sit in a certain chair to eat, move it to a different place in the room -- or sit somewhere else entirely.”

Give into cravings -- in moderation. Banning foods can cause you to overeat them later on. If you’re really craving something -- even if you’re not hungry -- give yourself permission to have a small amount. 

End restrictive diets . “Overeating and restrictive eating are often two sides of the same coin,” May says. “Deprivation can be a trigger for overeating just like stress, anger, or anxiety.”

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. 

What's So Important About Eating Vegetables?

About eating more vegetables

So how important is it?

The benefit of nine veggie-serves a day is astounding. Seven servings (not even the nine we recommend) slash your risk of death at any point in time by 42 percent compared to folks who eat one serving a day. Fresh vegetables offer the best protection, each daily serving reduces your overall risk of death by 16 percent (salads reduce risks 13 percent) and each serving of fruit by 4 percent.  

But only around 60 percent of you eat four servings of veggies a day at least four days a week. And French fries (your most favorite veggie) don’t win you any points!

Here’s how you can ace your veggie-serves:

1. Start smart: At breakfast try sliced tomatoes with 100 percent whole grain toast; butternut squash puree added to oatmeal. Get creative. (one serving)
2. Snack smart: Midmorning and afternoon grab carrot and celery spears with non-fat, no-sugar-added Greek yogurt or ¼ cup hummus. (one-two servings)
3. Lunch a bunch: Toss together two cups greens (two servings), ¼ c. tomato (1/2 serving), two tbsp. avocado (1/2 serving), and ¼ c. blueberries (1/2 serving).  (three and a half servings)
4. Dinner—and it’s done: Enjoy mixed, steamed veggies (one cup = two servings) with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Not enough veggies are one of the big reasons for obesity. Also, eating all your veggies will cure a lot of your health problems. What you eat is what keeps your body functions running properly. Just because you're still alive doesn't mean your body is working properly. Just like an 8-cylinder engine, it can run on 7- cylinders but that doesn't mean it's working properly. 

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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. 

Don't Diet, Just Eat the Right Way

Dieting can cause you to starve your body and bring on or force you to binge. 

If you have binge eating disorder or think you might, you can learn how to form a positive relationship with food -- and that can help you stop overeating. A positive relationship means eating for the right reasons. 

Think about food as a source of nutrition and energy instead of something to relieve stress or to be avoided. It may seem hard at first, but you can change the way you feel as you improve your eating habits.

Don't Diet

Bingeing might have made you gain weight, as it does for a lot of people, but trying to cut calories or not eating certain kinds of foods can trigger overeating, and that can make it harder for you to recover from the disorder. It can lead to a cycle of dieting and bingeing that’s hard to break.

If you want to lose weight, talk to your doctor about when and how to do it. You want to make sure it doesn’t affect your recovery. With proper help, many people lose weight after they stop bingeing.

Make Regular Meals a Habit

Don’t skip meals. Being very hungry can make you more likely to overeat. It also ups the odds you’ll choose foods that are high in fat and sugar, which can trigger a binge.

It’s important to eat breakfast every day, too. A morning meal can help curb hunger all day long.

Choose healthy foods for meals and snacks. You’ll get nutrients that your body needs. You might also feel fewer cravings for unhealthy foods that make you want to overeat. 

Healthy choices include fruits, vegetables, and protein-rich foods like eggs, chicken breast, salmon, and Greek yogurt. You want to eat fresh foods and eat clean, meaning foods without additives or chemicals. Meats without hormones, fruits, and vegetables that haven't been sprayed with pesticides. 

We are in the habit of only eating when we feel like it. That's the problem, we are causing our own weight problems by not eating properly. We have to eat what our bodies need for energy and nutrition. If you're not doing that over time you will cause your health problems by not eating the right foods. Eating the wrong foods will only cause you to gain weight, be sick more often and miss more time from work. You will be spending more time in the Doctor's office and in general have more health problems. 

Ask yourself why more people over 55 aren't working? Is it because they don't want to? Or is it because employers aren't interested in hiring people who are not very productive.  It's a fact that overweight people have more health problems and miss more time from work. Studies show that the more calories you eat the shorter your life. The more body fat you have the shorter your life. You can be a little overweight and still be healthy, live a long healthy life. Just eat fresh, eat good healthy foods and don't over-eat. 

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I write about losing weight, how to lose weight, what foods to eat when you're trying to lose weight and exercise that will help you lose weight. I wrote an ebook that will give you all the info in one read. It's a how-to book that also tells you about the mistakes I made and how to avoid them.

My ebook is available at www.amazon.com, www.B&N.com, iBooks (download the app), kobo.com, scribd.com and many more. My ebook will go on sale in May for $1.99. This special will only last for a limited time.

Drowsy a lot?

Being drowsy doesn't always mean a lack of sleep.

Iron Deficiency Signs and Symptoms

Iron is necessary for producing hemoglobin and myoglobin, two proteins that carry oxygen. So, you need to get plenty of iron in your diet to have enough energy to do all the things you need to do every day.

When you don't get enough iron, you're at risk of developing iron-deficiency anemia, a condition where your red blood cells can't carry enough oxygen to all the cells in your body. People with iron deficiency anemia may have any of these symptoms:

• Fatigue
• Weakness
• Problems with memory and thinking
• Feeling cold
• Red, inflamed tongue

Iron deficiency can occur if you don't eat enough iron-containing foods, or if you have trouble absorbing iron. Most women need more iron than men due to blood loss from menstruation, and pregnant women need more iron for the developing fetus. Blood loss due to ulcers or other digestive system disorders can also lead to an iron deficiency anemia. 

If you have iron deficiency symptoms, you should see a health care provider, who can order blood tests to determine if iron deficiency is the problem or if there are other causes. Don't attempt to diagnose and treat yourself.

Vegetarians and vegans may be more prone to iron deficiency because the form of iron found in plants (called non-heme iron) is not absorbed as well as heme iron found in meat, poultry and fish (heme iron). However, you can increase the amount of non-heme iron absorbed by adding a food rich in vitamin C to your meal (for example, serving black beans with green peppers or drink a glass of orange juice with a plate of spinach).

How Much Iron Do I Need To Eat Every Day?

It all depends on your sex and your age. Adult men need about 8 milligrams (mg) of iron per day, and premenopausal adult women need 18 mg per day. Women over the age of 50 only need about 8 mg per day.

Eating a healthy diet with plenty of foods high in iron is usually the best and safest way to prevent iron deficiency.

Meat, poultry, legumes, oysters, tuna, pork, nuts, dark green vegetables, tomato juice, and potatoes are all good sources of dietary iron. 

What About Taking Iron As a Dietary Supplement?

Most men and postmenopausal women get enough iron from foods and should not take iron supplements unless prescribed by a health care provider. Prenatal vitamin and mineral supplements usually contain iron and women with heavy periods may need supplemental iron. 

You need to be careful with iron supplements. Don't take more than 45 mg per day unless your doctor instructs you to take that much. Anything higher than that can potentially lead to iron toxicity.

Iron supplements are especially dangerous for people who have hemochromatosis, a condition where iron overload occurs. Adult iron supplements can quickly become toxic for young children, too, so iron supplements should be kept in tightly capped, childproof bottles.

_Sources:

_{Office of Dietary Supplements, National Institutes of Health. "Dietary Supplement Factsheet}

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I write about losing weight, how to lose weight, what foods to eat when you're trying to lose weight and exercise that will help you lose weight. I wrote an ebook that will give you all the info in one read. It's a how-to book that also tells you about the mistakes I made and how to avoid them.

My ebook is available at www.amazon.com, www.B&N.com, iBooks (download the app), kobo.com, scribd.com and much more. My ebook will go on sale in May for $1.99. This special will only last for a limited time.

Does Fatty Foods Make You Drowsy?

We think that we are drowsy because we over-ate. What if that food you ate at lunch makes you drowsy. 

Men who eat a lot of fatty foods may find themselves needing an afternoon nap, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that among almost 800 men aged 35 to 80, those with diets high in fat reported more problems with daytime sleepiness. The connection was not explained by body weight, exercise levels or chronic health issues, such as diabetes or depression.

The study, published recently in the journal Nutrients, does not prove that dietary fat, itself, induces drowsiness.

It's unclear why a fatty diet might affect drowsiness, according to lead researcher Yingting Cao, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Adelaide in Australia.

But, Cao said, lab studies suggest that certain "gut neuro-hormones" promote sleepiness, so it's plausible that a high-fat diet could somehow affect daytime drowsiness.

According to Cao, more research is needed to understand how fatty foods might encourage drowsiness, and whether the timing of a high-fat meal matters: Does eating fat-laden food at night, for example, interfere with sleep?

The study findings are based on 784 Australian men who were surveyed about their diet and lifestyle. The men also underwent an at-home study, to detect symptoms of sleep apnea -- a nighttime breathing disorder that can cause loud snoring and daytime drowsiness.

Overall, Cao's team found, the one-quarter of men with the highest daily fat intake were more likely to complain of daytime drowsiness than the one-quarter who ate the least fat.

The investigators found that 46 percent of the men in the group with the highest level of fat intake were habitually sleepy during the day, compared to 37 percent of the men in the lowest-intake group.

The researchers weighed a number of other factors -- including body weight, exercise levels, diabetes, depression, and smoking and drinking habits. And men with the highest fat intake were still 78 percent more likely to complain of drowsiness than those with the least fat in their diets.

Men who ate the most fat also had a higher risk of sleep apnea symptoms -- though that seemed to be explained by heavier body weight, the findings suggested.

In contrast, there was no clear connection between the men's carbohydrate or protein intake and problems with daytime drowsiness.

Even though the study authors tried to account for other factors that might cause drowsiness, it's difficult to pin the blame on one nutrient, according to Jim White, a registered dietitian, and spokesman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

"There are many factors that can cause daytime sleepiness," said White, who was not involved in the study.

"This study does show a relationship with increased fat intake and sleep," he said. "But we have to look at people's overall lifestyle and eating behavior, rather than pointing the finger at one macronutrient."

While it's unclear whether a high-fat diet drains a man's energy, Cao said there are already reasons to be careful about fat intake.

"Keeping a light and balanced diet is always right for anyone," she said.

White agreed on the need for balance. "The best chance of having high energy levels during the day is to incorporate a diet that consists of whole grains, lean proteins, fruits and veggies, low-fat dairy and a high-quality fat intake," he said.

"High-quality," according to White, means unsaturated fats from sources including vegetable oils, avocados, nuts, seeds and peanut butter.

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I write about losing weight, how to lose weight, what foods to eat when you're trying to lose weight and exercise that will help you lose weight. I wrote an ebook that will give you all the info in one read. It's a how-to book that also tells you about the mistakes I made and how to avoid them.

My ebook is available at www.amazon.com, www.B&N.com, iBooks (download the app), kobo.com, scribd.com and many more. My ebook will go on sale in May for $1.99. This special will only last for a limited time.