How To Lose Weight On 5 Meals A Day

I found this post on HealthNet.com and wanted to reblog it because this Chef thinks like me. This is the way I lost my weight. Read the following and believe me it works.

I'm a chef (and a mom). You might think that eating frequent meals wouldn’t be an issue.

I understand the concept: Five small meals a day takes the edge off your appetite, evens out blood sugar levels, and keeps your energy steady. But I confess: I don’t always eat this way.

Although my fitness trainer encourages me to eat healthy food every few hours, my meals usually look like this: coffee, a bit more coffee, lunch at 3 p.m., dinner at 9 p.m. I start over again the next morning. This is called "eating when you want and whatever you want".

When I decided to change this habit, I found that doing these five things helped:

1. Plan ahead. Five meals a day equals breakfast, lunch, dinner, and two snacks. To do this right, you need to plan what you’ll eat every day for each “meal.” And you need to schedule eating every 2 to 3 hours.
2. Stock up. Face it: You’re going to grab whatever food is closest. So stock up on veggies, fruit, healthy carbs, lean proteins, and low-fat dairy products such as milk, yogurt, and cottage cheese.
3. Go for taste. Choose snack foods that will sustain you and taste good. Remember, healthy food can be satisfying.
4. Whip up a smoothie. Blend fruit, milk, yogurt and a little honey for a sweet filling snack packed with vitamins, fiber, protein, and calcium.
5. Combine carbs and protein to stay full longer. Try whole wheat toast with peanut butter or a hard-boiled egg; whole-grain pasta with olive oil and cheese; or oatmeal with fruit, milk, and honey. Or make yourself a big pot of soup (like my Tuscan chicken soup) to heat up for lunches or snacks.

It's a good plan but it's a little more complicated than that. For breakfast, you want 12 grams of protein with whatever you're eating. I eat 2 eggs and toast with peanut butter or some lean meat. No processed meat, like ham or sausage. You might prefer a protein shake. I make a shake when I have no time to eat. Almond milk and a banana, a serving of the protein powder and blend it for a few seconds, pour it in a glass or commuter cup and go. Your other four meals should all be about 300 calories. Space out the other meals about 2 0r 3 hours apart and don't skip a meal. 

The idea is if you eat healthy all day you won't get hungry. After the 5th meal, it should be about 6 p.m. and that's where you want to stop eating. No late night snacks. You want to eat the last time 3 or 4 hours before bed. If you are a person who stays up late you might want to try 6 meals a day. Just stick to 300 calories per meal.

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 website 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”.

  

Are Canned Foods Healthy?

I loved Popeye cartoons when I was a little kid. Heck, I still do, and I’m not ashamed to shout it from the rooftops. This is why, when my mom popped open a can of spinach as a “healthy” side for dinner, I’d wolf it down and dance around flexing my bicep muscles like the Sailor Man himself. Something about that delicious, salty flavor just spoke to me, and the not-so-subtle advertising certainly worked magic on my impressionable little brain. 

Later on down the road, when presented with actual, fresh spinach, I was flummoxed. What happened to the salty goodness (not to mention slimy appearance) I’d always treasured? My world was rocked when I found out that vegetables, when done properly, don’t taste like they’ve been hosed down with concentrated sodium. Before you get too down on my parents, remember that this was back in the 1980s when people were still allowed to smoke on airplanes. Research simply hadn’t caught up with the times on many fronts.

Unfortunately, most of us struggle with what food companies want us to believe regarding nutrition, versus what’s actually true. Even if you (like me) adore canned food, there’s really no good reason to keep up the habit because there are so many better and equally easy alternatives. Do these excuses sound familiar?

But... canned veggies have to be healthy because they’re vegetables: Even canned veggies do retain some nutritional benefit, but it pays to read labels, especially when sodium is involved. “We hear a lot about calories, fat, and sugar, but sodium is a major problem in the American diet,” says Wendy Palmer, MS, RD, LD. “This is primarily because the American diet is very high in sodium, especially our abundance of ready to eat, fast food and restaurant foods.” Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) reports that too much sodium causes hypertension, which affects a startling one in three adults in the United States. Pretty much all experts agree that something has to change regarding sodium intake because hypertension is no joke.

Hypertension means high blood pressure

Nearly one-third of all American adults have high blood pressure. High blood pressure is when your blood pressure is higher than normal for an extended period of time. Most people with high blood pressure do not know they have the condition until it is discovered by a doctor.

The prevalence of high blood pressure increases with age, with 65% of men and 75% of women having high blood pressure after the age of 64. 

People over the age of 55 with normal blood pressure have a 90% risk of developing hypertension in their lifetime.

When you have high blood pressure, your heart is working harder than normal to pump blood through your body. This is something you can’t feel. In fact, high blood pressure is commonly called a “silent killer” because it usually has no noticeable symptoms. Despite the lack of symptoms, untreated high blood pressure can lead to a greater risk for stroke or heart attack. That is why frequent blood pressure monitoring is vital.

Take your health problem serious. Pills are not the real answer. Changing your diet is the answer. Talk to your doctor about your blood pressure.

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 website 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”.
 

Have You Hears Of The "RAW FOOD DIET"

This was first published on WebMD and I'd like to add that some vegetables will actually release more antioxidants if they're cooked, like tomatoes.

The Promise

Your oven gets a rest on this diet. You'll mostly be eating raw fruits, vegetables, and grains.

There's been lots of talk lately about eating raw foods. I understand and that's why most recipes don't boil foods anymore. They claim all the nutrition ends up in the water you throw out. 

The idea is that heating food destroys its nutrients and natural enzymes, which is bad because enzymes boost digestion and fight chronic disease. In short: When you cook it, you kill it.

Some fans of raw food diets believe cooking makes food toxic. They claim that a raw food diet can clear up headaches and allergies, boost immunity and memory, and improve arthritis and diabetes. To take this one step further, Some believe that modern pots and pans cause a lot of our health problems. Example, cooking in Aluminum cook ware and cookware that has a coating inside.

What You Can Eat and What You Can't

Think uncooked, unprocessed, mostly organic foods. Your staples: raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and sprouted grains. Some eat unpasteurized dairy foods, raw eggs, meat, and fish. I will eat Sushi but I don't  know about raw meat. Meat contains chemicals like growth hormones that are feed to cattle. Your food can be cold or even a little bit warm, as long as it doesn’t go above 118 degrees.You can use blenders, food processors, and dehydrators to prepare foods.

Level of Effort: High

You may need to ramp up your kitchen skills. Eating out can be tricky, and if you go organic, you may need to go to specialty stores for a wider selection than your usual grocery store.

Cooking and shopping: Prep work can be extensive. Many raw food fans become experts at blending and dehydrating foods. Some germinate nuts and sprout seeds. I'm not that into it, but I do believe you can buy all you need in specialty stores. A raw food diet will give you a lot of fiber so You won't eat as much as you think. You want to buy foods in small amounts and shop more often. People on this diet will usually take supplements usually protein power along with others. This is for the organic crowd so you'll be drinking mostly water and maybe wine on occasion. 

Because some uncooked and unpasteurized foods are linked to food-borne illness, you’ll need to wash your food thoroughly and be extra careful with risky foods like sprouts, raspberries, unpasteurized juices, green onions, and lettuce.

Dy of us.ue to the risk of food poisoning, a raw foods diet isn't recommended for pregnant women, young children, seniors, people with weak immune systems, and those with chronic medical conditions like kidney disease.

My opinion is that there is merit to the idea that raw foods are healthier but If you have to buy food, it might be best if you cook it. If you grow your food that's different.  I was raised on a farm and we grew all our fruits and vegetables. We knew the cow next door personally and didn't worry about the milk. The point I'm trying to make is that we ate much of our food raw and it never was a health problem for any of us. But that was 50 years ago, today's different. Most of our fruit and vegetables come from other countries and we don't know what happens between picking and the grocery store.  It's a good idea not to take any chances with your food.

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 website 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”.

Adult Obesity Rates Are Still On The Rise

Great post, read it closely, you don't want this in your future. This blog post was first on WebMD.com. Because Obesity is the source of most of our health problems, this is a most read.

Although obesity rates continued to climb among U.S. adults over the past decade, they stabilized for children and teens, federal health officials reported Thursday.

More than 36 percent of adults and 17 percent of America's kids were obese between 2011 and 2014, said researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These are the latest years for which national statistics are available.

Analyzing weight trends since 1999, researchers found the ranks of obese adults have swelled significantly in the last 10 years.

Adult obesity rates climbed from slightly over 32 percent in 2003-04 to almost 38 percent by 2013-14, said lead researcher Cynthia Ogden, an epidemiologist in the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.

Among youths aged 2 to 19, she said, 17.2 percent of children were obese in 2014, compared with 17.1 percent in 2003. "There is basically no difference [in the obesity rate in this group]," she said.

Obesity is a major cause of chronic disease, including heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, dementia and arthritis, said Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center, in New Haven, Conn.

"Where there is a high prevalence of obesity, there are high rates of preventable chronic disease," Katz said.

Widespread efforts to encourage people to eat healthy and exercise may be having a positive effect, Katz said.

"But we will not really know if these are working until obesity rates and the rates of related diseases dip decisively," he said. "While there is some encouragement in these new data, clearly, we are not there yet."

• More women (about 38 percent) were obese than men (about 34 percent). No gender difference was observed among children and teens.
• Obesity was higher among middle-aged (about 40 percent) and older (37 percent) adults than younger adults (about 32 percent).
• More whites, blacks and Hispanics were obese than Asians.
• Nearly 9 percent of preschoolers were obese, versus more than 17 percent of kids aged 6 to 11. 
• Among teens, more than 20 percent were obese.Adult obesity was defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more. BMI is a calculation of body fat based on height and weight. For example, someone 5 feet 9 inches who weighs 203 pounds or more has a BMI of 30. Among youth, a BMI in the 95th percentile or higher for their age and sex was deemed obese, the CDC said.Katz, who is also president of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, wasn't overwhelmed youth obesity statistics. "Stable obesity rates over much of the past decade is the proverbial glass half-full or half-empty, depending on one's perspective," he said.The glass is half-full because stabilization is an improvement over obesity increases seen for decades, he said. "The glass is half-empty, because stable rates are not falling rates, and obesity prevalence remains alarmingly high," Katz said.What's unclear, Katz added, is whether stable rates mean the obesity epidemic is being treated effectively or that everyone who is vulnerable to obesity is already obese. "I suspect a bit of both [is true]," he said.
• WebMD News from HealthDay
  
  

  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 website 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”.
  
  

Reviewing "The Flat Belly Diet"

What you eat matters! This is what they Promise you. I found this in my email today and wanted to write about it. This is really what everyone hopes for when they diet.

The Promise

Eat fat and lose weight. That's the promise of the Flat Belly Diet.

Now for the fine print: The kind of fat matters. The plan focuses on monounsaturated fats, which you get from olive oil, nuts, and other plant foods.

Authors Liz Vaccariello and Cynthia Sass, MPH, RD, claim that in 32 days, you can lose up to 15 pounds and drop belly fat by following their plan:

• Eat 400 calories per meal, four times per day (daily total: 1,600).
• Don’t go longer than 4 hours without eating.
• Eat monounsaturated fats at every meal.

What You Can Eat and What You Can't

First, you target bloating for four days, aiming at consuming 1,200 calories each day. During that time, you can't add salt to any food and you must avoid:

• Processed foods
• Foods that can make you gassy, like beans, broccoli, and onions
• Carbs like pasta, bananas, and bagels

You must also drink 2 liters of water mixed with ginger root, cucumber, lemon, and mint leaves, which the book calls "sassy water."

After that, you eat a Mediterranean-style diet for 4 weeks with 1,600 calories per day. The menu includes items like Greek Lemon Chicken and Pumpkin Maple Cheesecake.

Level of Effort: Medium

The diet loosens up a little after 4 days. You'll still need to eat often and include monounsaturated fats, and hit the calorie mark precisely every day.

Limitations: The first 4 days are very restrictive. After that, you must eat 400 calories every 4 hours and include monounsaturated fats with every meal. A busy or unpredictable schedule can make this challenging.

Cooking and shopping: The diet includes recipes, ideas for snacks, and tips for ordering fast food.

Packaged foods or meals? Certain brands of food are recommended but not required.

In-person meetings? No.

Exercise: It's not required. But the book includes a “flat belly workout” to support the diet.

Does It Allow for Dietary Restrictions or Preferences?

Vegetarians and vegans: The plan suggests substitutions that work for these diets.

Low-salt diet: You're not supposed to add salt to anything you cook. You still need to check the label on other foods to see how much sodium they have.

Low-fat diet: This is not a low-fat diet, but the type of fat is heart-healthy. You eat monounsaturated fats at every meal, and you need to watch your portion sizes so you don't get too many calories.

What Else You Should Know

Cost: None except your groceries. Olive oil, nuts, and avocados may add to your bill. You could save by cutting back on other foods that the diet doesn't emphasize.

Support: You do this diet on your own.

What Dr. Michael Smith Says:

Does It Work?

Chances are if you eat just 1,600 calories a day, you’re going to lose weight. But losing 15 pounds in 32 days is a huge stretch.

To do that and lose fat (not water weight), you’d have to cut about 1,600 calories out of your diet every day! You could do that by eating less and increasing your exercise, but that’s a lot to ask of anyone.

There’s also nothing magical about the diet that’s going to lead to a flat belly. Monounsaturated fats don’t have any special effect on belly fat. Any diet that cuts calories and leads to weight loss will slim your belly along with the rest of you.

The diet also recommends you cut back on high-fiber foods like beans and broccoli. Yes, they may cause gas -- maybe even a bit of temporary bloating if you’re not used to them. But these foods are great ways to lose weight and keep it off. Fiber helps you feel full, so you eat less.

If this diet ultimately gets you to follow the Mediterranean diet, then it’s a good thing. That’s a winning strategy and one that has been linked to weight loss in multiple medical studies.

Is It Good for Certain Conditions?

Removing saturated fat (the kind found most often in animal products like meat) and replacing it with monounsaturated fat in moderation is undoubtedly a good thing. It helps lower LDL “bad” cholesterol and the chance of heart attack and stroke. So it’s a good approach for anyone with diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or heart disease.

The aggressive weight loss the plan promises is concerning, and there isn't flexibility on calories. If you have diabetes, you should attempt this diet only under the care of your doctor. You’ll need to work closely together to monitor your blood sugar and adjust your meds, so your blood sugar doesn’t fall too low.

The Final Word

If you’re not ready for a huge change in your diet, look elsewhere for weight loss. The extreme cut in calories in this diet is more likely to leave you discouraged instead of thinner. If you think you have it in you, go for it. Just have a plan in place for sticking with a more moderate weight loss plan in the long run.

I'm going to add something to the Final Word. No one sticks to a restrictive diet for very long. And that's why restrictive diets have a very high failure rate, some as high as 90%. How do I get those numbers? Well, if you put the weight back before the end of the first year, then it's a failure.

So why do people buy into those plans? In the case of this plan, the author wrote a book and is hoping to sell a copy to you. There are people who lose weight and some do actually keep the weight off. But for the average working adult, it's very hard to stick to the plan and I don't think the author has offered any alternatives. In defense of the diet, It will work if you stick to it. Four meals a day, 400 calories in every meal, 4 hours a part and don't skip a meal. Oh, and don't forget to drink the water. I think that requires a lot of meal planning and preparation. If you have an office job, you have to pack two meals to take with you every day. Now they're only 400 calories each and they don't have to be hot meals. Just no processed foods.

I could do that, but I don't have an office job and I don't have to deal with the public, so it's easier for me. You should think about it and if you think you can stick with the diet, do it. Remember, you can't go back to the old diet.

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 post.

gettingtoahealthyweight.wordpress.com

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 website 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”.

Why Is Junk Food Popular?

By Shereen Lehman, MS, author for VeryWell.com 

This is a blog post from VeryWell.com and because I love this topic I had to write something about this piece. I have to admit that I love Pizza, cookies, ice cream, and a few other junk foods that I don't eat anymore. If you're trying to lose weight you can't even think about these things. If you're just trying to maintain, there are some healthy choices to some of the basic ones, like pizza, cookies, chips, and soft drinks. Even the healthy choices can sabotage a weight loss diet but I can buy a slice of pizza or eat one cookie without adding weight. 

How so, you might ask? Once you lose your body fat and have switched to a healthy diet, your body works better and burns more calories naturally just because muscle burns more calories than fat does. So now you know that if you lose your fat you can do a little cheating if you still eat healthy meals.

Dwight Eschliman/Getty Images

So if junk food is so bad for the body and bad quality overall, why is it so popular? You'd think no one would touch it.

First, let's back up and define "junk foods." It's the stuff you eat that has little to no nutritional value, usually combined with ingredients that are bad for you, or is high in calories when consumed in excess. So that means candy, chips, cookies, cake, sugary soft drinks, greasy burgers, hot dogs, French fries, ice cream, and most things that served at fast food restaurants qualify as junk foods.

So why do so many people eat junk food? Here are three possible reasons:

#1 It's Cheap

I think one big reason junk food is popular is because a lot of it is cheap to buy. I mean you can go to most any fast food restaurant and order something off a dollar menu of some sort. If you have a couple of bucks in your wallet, you can buy a full meal. But, statistics show that most fast food is bought by middle class working people.

Same story at the grocery store. Cheap snacks, inexpensive high-sodium and high-fat meals can be found on the shelves. Healthier foods—like fresh fruits and vegetables—tend to be more expensive. Those bags or cups of instant ramen noodles cost less than 50 cents, whereas an orange costs a dollar. 

Although a lot of junk food is cheap to buy up front, I think the argument can be made that cheap junk foods end up being more expensive in the long run due to their negative impact on health.

#2 It's Easy

This reason goes along with the being cheap part. Junk food is lurking in vending machines, convenience stores, and even stores that don't typically sell food items might have snacks and sodas near the cashiers. Yes, it might be cheaper to buy, but you can find fast foods everywhere you turn because it's a high-profit product. Stores and restaurants want to sell high-profit items to make more money but they know they can't over charge their customers. If you have a menu with $7 or $8 entries, it would not be good for business to raise the price to $9, so the thing to do is to serve entries that have a lower food cost. By doing that you cheapen the quality of the food and the nutritional value of the food goes down. 

You Are What You Eat. 

And if you eat healthy foods you’ll feel healthy. 

Those instant meals I already mentioned? They're easy to prepare, and you can store a bunch of them in your kitchen cabinets for a long time. 

Of course, fast foods live up to the name. You can order a fast food meal and then eat it a minute or two later. Or you can order your meal from your car and save time by wolfing it down while you drive away.

That drive-thru thing isn't good, though. Not only is the food bad for your health, but dropped fries can accumulate in your car, under the seat. And that gets kind of gross.

#3 It's Sweet, Fatty, or Salty (Or All 3)

Rarely do junk foods tempt you with delicate or complicated flavors. They pretty much hit you hard with sweet, fatty and salty flavors. I think those simple flavors might be preferred by people who are picky eaters—it could be the slightly bitter flavor of many vegetables turns some people off, especially kids. 

But it's more than flavor. Various combinations of sugar and fat make for textures people like. Fat makes foods feel smooth and creamy, like ice cream. Starchy potato and corn chips cooked in hot oil have a satisfying crunch. That's not to say that healthy foods don't have a nice texture, but sometimes the textures of fresh fruits and vegetables take a little getting used to.

Then It Becomes a Habit

Since junk foods are easy to find, easy to make, and a lot of them just flat out taste good, consuming them becomes a habit. That's the real problem. I mean eating a candy bar now and then or snarfing down a bag of fries once in awhile isn't all that big a deal. But when junk foods make up a big part of your daily diet, then you run the risk of becoming overweight and obese, plus you're not going to get enough of the nutrients and fiber your body needs for good health.

So, next time you find yourself standing in line at a burger joint or staring at a vending machine, think about how your choice could affect your health. Then walk away and find something better.

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 post.

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 website 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”.

  

What's Zapping Your Energy?

Sure, we all get draggy from time to time. A sleepless night here and there, a stressful day at the office or one too many doughnuts can take their toll. But when you're constantly feeling drained, it might be time to look at what's bringing you down. Check out these energy zappers and see how many apply to you.

Sugar provides quick energy, but after picking you up, it drops you hard and leaves you looking for more.

One key to cutting back on sugar is having the right food with you so you don't head to the nearest vending machine. "The best intentions go out the window when you're not prepared," says Florida nutritionist Pamela Smith, RD, author of The Energy Edge. Smith tries to make sure she always has healthy snacks on hand, and she advises making sure they contain at least 1 to 2 ounces of protein to keep your blood sugar stable for several hours, combined with a complex carbohydrate to give you a quick boost of energy. Here are a few of her favorites:

• Whole grain crackers and low-fat cheese
• Fresh fruit or a small box of raisins and low-fat cheese
• Half a lean turkey or chicken sandwich
• Plain, nonfat yogurt blended with fruit or all-fruit jam
• Small pop-top can of water-packed tuna or chicken with whole grain crackers

2. Caffeine

Caffeine can also leave us "tired and wired," Silber says. "If we need sleep and we choose caffeine instead, we continue to throw off our natural sleep cycle. If you find that too much caffeine -- whether it comes in the form of coffee, tea, cola, or even chocolate -- is keeping you from getting a good night's sleep, switch to decaffeinated varieties of your favorite beverage.

I wanted to write about "lack of energy" because it happens to me occasionally. I chalk it off to overdoing it when I was working out or maybe I should have ate more calories this morning. Whatever happened to me seem to happen to most of us. But some of us who are overweight experience this lack of energy every day. It's not funny to them. I shrug it off and drink an extra protein shake or eat an extra energy bar, but I'm not worried about losing weight. 

Most of us feel this way in the afternoon. My go-to drink is coffee. I drink about 4 cups a day and now medical experts say if you have no health problems extra cups of tea or coffee won't hurt you and might even be good for you. This is something to take up with your doctor. People taking medications have to consult a physician about changing their diet.

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 post.

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 website 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”.