Do You Have To Die To Lose Weight?

This post is from HealthDay and it explains the misconception people have when they use the word "diet". Your diet is simply the foods you eat. Your diet changes every day because you don't eat the same thing every day. 

The Rumor: You have to go on a strict diet to lose weight

It's fitting that "diet" has four letters, because, for many of us, it's a curse word. We associate dieting with punishment, starvation, beating ourselves up, avoiding any fun social activities and basically, waiting until it’s over and we can start living our lives again -- in leaner bodies, of course. In 2012, there were 108 million people on diets in the United States. To help them reach their goals, Americans spent about $20 billion on various weight-loss products, including diet books, diet drugs, and weight-loss surgeries.

Is it necessary, though? Can you lose weight without being on a diet? We talked to nutrition experts Amy Jamieson Petonic for her tips on how to shed pounds the healthy way and keep them off for good. 

The Verdict: The most effective weight loss involves lifestyle changes, not crash diets

"When you tell yourself you can have this and you can’t have that, oftentimes it winds up backfiring. People end up giving in and eventually binging on the foods they avoided because it’s very hard to be extremely restrictive for a long a period of time.”

“But healthy eating is a lifestyle,” says Lakatos Shames. “Focus on healthy options of what you know you should eat. If you concentrate on eating fruits, vegetables, lean proteins and whole grains, there is less room for the dessert and junk in your meals. Focusing on what you can’t eat is the dieting mentality.” "Focus on what you should eat."

I don't like the idea that if I just eat less junk, I can lose weight. Eating healthy food is the key. Healthy foods will burn fat. Snacks and other frankenfood will only add more fat to your body. 

“Dieting [has] such a negative association with food,” says Petonic. “When you begin to associate good, whole foods with pleasure, weight loss will happen with very little effort.” Petonic suggests eating these foods to help you lose weight without dieting:

Whole grains: Eat 100 percent whole-wheat bread, whole-wheat pasta or brown rice. All provide essential B vitamins and minerals that will fill you up and keep energy levels high.

Quinoa: It’s a complete plant protein that give's you all nine essential amino acids and is packed with fiber and iron.

Salmon: This protein source is high in omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA, which are anti-inflammatory, and they provide essential proteins for growth and development.

Pistachios: These protein-packed nuts may help increase you metabolic rate and promote fat burning.

But don’t forget to get moving! Exercise is just as important as nutrition because that’s how you burn calories, says Lakatos. “Exercising is how you speed up your metabolic rate and get your body going. We’ve found that when our clients exercise, they feel good about themselves, and they don’t want to undo their hard work by eating the wrong foods.”

If you're serious about losing weight you want to do a little homework. Find out what foods are good for you, and which ones will only add fat to your body. You can't work off a bad diet or any food that your body can't process and pass through. If you wonder why you're adding body fat it's because your body can't process the food you're eating.

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. 

Brisk Walking Will Keep You Thinner

Erik Isakson/Getty Images

Which exercise is best for keeping off weight? A long term study found that people who enjoyed a 30-minute brisk walk most days had the smallest waists and lowest body mass indexes. Brisk walking beat gym exercise and sports for staying slim. Brisk walking was associated with being thinner, especially for women, and people over age 50.

Does Brisk Walking Beat Other Physical Activity for Staying Thin?

In Britain as well as the US and many other countries, health authorities recommend 30 minutes or more per day of moderately intense physical activity for health and weight management.

The researchers wanted to find out which activity was most effective, and the data showed that brisk walking was the winner.

What is Brisk Walking?

Brisk or fast walking is at a pace where you are breathing heavier than normal and the heart rate is elevated. To be in the moderately-intense activity zone, you should have a heart rate of 50% to 70% of your maximum heart rate. Use our heart rate calculator to find this number for your age.

The study focused on brisk walking rather than strolling at an easy pace and lower heart rate, in order to compare it to jogging, gym exercise and sports.

The subjects of the study determined for themselves whether they were brisk/fast walking.

Study Finds Brisk Walking Associated with Lower Fatness Measures

The study looked at data collected in the annual Health Survey for England (HSE) from 1999 to 2012. Over 68,000 respondants reported on how many days in the past month they engaged in 30 minutes or more of moderately intense activities.

The categories were:

• walking at a fast or brisk pace
• sports or exercise including swimming, cycling, gym workouts, dancing, running/jogging, football, tennis and other racquet sports.
• heavy housework
• heavy manual activities

Measurements were made of body mass index, which uses the ratio of height to weight, and measurement of waist circumference. A wider waist shows central obesity, which is associated with developing health problems independently of BMI.

The exciting results were that brisk walking beats the other activities for predicting who has a lower BMI and smaller waist. The graphs of the data show a consistent downward trend in these fatness measures with the number of days of brisk walking each month. Brisk walking five or more days per week was a good target, consistent with the health recommendations for physical activity.

Who Benefits the Most from Brisk Walking?

The good news is that brisk walking worked best for populations who may be less inclined to join in sports or didn't have access to recreational facilities.

• People over age 50 regardless of gender
• People who are pressed for time. 
• People who are unable to do conventional exercise

There is no monetary cost to walking so it is very likely that the benefits will outweigh the costs. A simple policy that 'every step counts' may be a step towards curbing the upward trend in obesity rates and beneficial for other health conditions.”

Why would walking be found to be more effective than spending the same amount of time in the gym? Walkers may be more faithful to their regimen over time. It can also be harder to know how much of your time spent in the gym is in moderately-intense exercise and whether you are performing the exercises correctly. Walking is much easier to get right and to know when you are breathing harder and working up a sweat.

How to Start Brisk Walking

People who enjoy walking at an easy pace can take steps to walk faster and raise the heart rate and breathing rate into the moderately-intense zone. Walking with good posture and arm motion can speed up the feet.

People who have difficulty in walking faster due to arthritis or other conditions can add walking poles or small hand weights to their walking workouts. Using walking poles can raise the heart rate while walking at your usual pace.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my Ebooks at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet.

There’s two ebooks.  “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 Ebook. 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 ebook is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Not Exercising Is As Bad As Smoking

  

New studies show how bad immobility can be. Some people just don't believe working out is necessary. "My grandmother lived to 92 and I never saw her do any exercise." I hear that a lot. I understand but people from that generation lived a hard life. Physical demands on even the housewife were pretty tuff. There was no dishwashers, no washing machines. Before World War II a lot of families didn't have hot water,  the only heat was a coal burning furnace. No TV's until the 50's and no supermarkets. A housewife worked about 16 hours a day. Most men worked some type of blue collar job. 

People were very active but because people of that generation smoked more than we do today, they had a lot of respiratory illness that caused early death. No one really understood what smoking does to your lungs, today we know. They also consumed more food than they should have which caused more obesity. After the Great Depression and World War II when most food was rationed, American started to binge on food trying to make-up for those lean years. Over-eating became the right way to eat. After World War II the average family had more money and was beginning to spend it. We were eating more and eating better. No more canned meat, no more skipping meals or eating scraps. 

The reason I bring this up,those people from that World War II generation were much healthier because they were much more active than people today. They were actually more active then and healthier than their children. We have to workout today because today we work with our minds and do little physical work compared to our grandparents. Read the short article below: 

When you see someone smoking, you might question “Why would you do that to yourself when you know it could kill you?” Do you react the same way when you know someone doesn’t exercise? You should.
When I was at a recent medical conference, one of the presenters reminded the audience that research has shown physical inactivity to be as deadly as smoking. I was shocked at this when I first heard it a couple of years ago, but I think I was just as shocked hearing it the second time. My guess is you are too. It’s hard to imagine being inactive could be comparable to smoking, but it is.
You wouldn’t dream of smoking (and if you do smoke, you’re likely trying to quit), so why poison yourself with inactivity? But many of us do. Nearly 80% of us don’t get the recommended amount of exercise. Many experts agree the inactivity epidemic is more concerning than the obesity epidemic.
The benefits of exercise are numerous and irrefutable. It helps prevent heart disease, diabetes, breast and colon cancer, dementia, depression, and more. If you exercise, chances are you’ll live a longer, healthier life. Period.
What’s so powerful about exercise? Take heart disease, for example. Heart disease is associated with inflammation in the body. Exercise is a natural inflammation fighter. When you move, your muscles send out anti-inflammatory chemicals.
Also, every time you get up and move, your blood sugar, cholesterol, and triglycerides improve. When you sit down, they get worse. It’s just about moving more.
If you’re not active now, I’m sure it sounds overwhelming to start an exercise program. The good news is you can see health benefits with even a small amount of activity. Even taking a daily 5-minute walk around the office will improve your health. Slowly build up from there.
Ultimately, you want your goal to be 30 minutes at least 5 days a week of moderate exercise. We’re talking about a brisk walk– hard enough that you can talk comfortably but not able to sing. But take your time getting there. Throw in resistance exercises a couple of days a week, and you’re on track.
If you’ve tried exercise before and didn’t lose weight, don’t be discouraged. You are still getting health benefits even if you’re not shedding weight. If you’re overweight but active and fit, you can expect to live as long and healthy as someone who is normal weight and fit. Even if you’re obese, being active helps you live a longer, healthier life than a normal weight person who isn’t active.
Think you’re too old for it to matter? Hardly. Regardless of your age, getting active has enormous benefits even in your 80s and beyond. We’re not just talking about living longer, but living better with a higher quality of life.
As British-American anthropologist, Ashley Montagu once said, “The idea is to die young as late as possible.” Stay fit and healthy as long as you can.

How Long Can You Live?

Or is the question, "How Long can I stay Healthy?" This is a post I found on the HealthDay site.

Children of long-lived parents are less likely than others to die from heart disease in their 70s, new British research suggests. "We found that for each parent that lived beyond 70 years of age, the participants had a 20 percent lower chance of dying from heart disease." Specifically, the children of longer-lived parents had lower rates of vascular disease, heart failure, stroke, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, the study found. The findings aren't an excuse to turn into a binge-eating couch potato if your mother and father reached their 80s or 90s. Nor are they a sign that those whose parents died early should just give up. On the contrary, your decisions about your health can reverse trends toward the illnesses highlighted in the study, Pilling said.

"Though people with longer-lived parents are more likely to live longer themselves, there are lots of ways for those with shorter-lived parents to improve their health. People can really take their health into their own hands," he noted.

Indeed, the correlation between the lifespans of parents and children is actually fairly weak, said Kaare Christensen, a professor of epidemiology with the University of Southern Denmark. As a result, he said, "there is a lot of room for improvement." 

It's known that parents who live a long time are more likely to have kids who live a long time, but Pilling and his colleagues wanted to learn more about this connection -- such as why some people develop heart conditions in their 60s and others don't.

The link between long-lived parents and heart-healthier offspring held even after the researchers adjusted their statistics for factors such as education, age, weight and physical activity. According to the study, some researchers have made similar connections in the past, but they looked at smaller groups of people. 

How might genetics explain the lower risk of heart disease in kids of longer-lived parents? Your genetic inheritance from your parents seems to affect blood pressure, cholesterol levels, tobacco addiction, drug and alcohol dependence, and levels of obesity in the participants, Pilling said. So you can inherit your parents health problems. In other words, your health problems can be passed down to your children. But you can change those factors that you inherit by change what you eat and the way you live. 

"These are all factors that affect the risk of heart disease," he said.  "If you have a parent who died young, it is always good if it can be determined why he or she died very early and whether there is an inheritable disease for which there are treatments," Christensen said. But in general, he said, people whose parents died very early are "not generally doomed." That's because of the "low correlation"   between the lifespans of parents and their kids.

I believe that your children inherit your genes in whatever condition their in at the time of conception. I believe your genes will change during your life, depending on your condition. So if your overweight at the time of conception your child may also have that same gene. Of course, if both parents are overweight at the time of conception the child will have a much greater chance that he will suffer from the same obesity gene. Remember that your genes will change as you change. Your body is constantly evolving.

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 You Embarrassed About You Weight?

Being overweight creates a lot of new problems for your body. If you're the typical office worker and has gained too much extra fat around the middle, your probably having to deal with extra physical problems that others don't. That beer belly can keep you from buttoning your suit coat. It will also cause a sloppy appearance. The extra big waistline also causes Belching, heartburn, and acid reflux.

Other problems your extra weight can cause are things like sweating and body odor, bad breath, and gas.

So many of us go to the doctor and hope he has a pill to fix all your problems and yes, he will probably make suggestions and give you a list of some things to take, but the answer to all your health problems is your diet.

You're eating the wrong foods.   You don't have to cut back on your food or cut out meals, you need to change what you eat.  Whatever you're eating today just stop eating all of it. Go home and get rid of everything that has a label.

For the next few weeks until you get use to eating fresh; shop for food every day. Plan on eating 6 small meals a day. You want to eat about 2 1/2 hours apart, three hours at most. The object is to eat before you get hungry.  Only eat about 300 calories at one time. You want to give your system time to process the food you eat. So, small quantities, several times a day.

Now, how do you eat fresh? For someone who never has, eating fresh will take some work. You will have to make your own meals. But it's not like you have to learn to cook. Most of the meals I eat are cold meals that I put together in 5 minutes. And yes that's not easy when you work all day, but you will get good at this, and you will lose fat. As you lose fat you'll feel better and feel healthier and have more energy.

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.

Change Your Food, Change Your Life And Lose Weight

There have been thousands of studies done by scientists all over the world on the subject of eating good foods for better health. Everyone seems to agree, the way to good health is to eat fewer calories. In one study all the seniors that were interviewed were eating less than 2000 calories a day and women about 300 less than men. Women don’t metabolize calories the same as men. No one said that they felt like they were on a diet, they felt like they had plenty to eat. So I decided to try it. I was going to change, kick those bad habits of eating empty calories and start eating food that would help my body.

First, I had to start keeping a record of my calorie intake. Then I knew I’d have to change some of the things I was eating so I could get more nutrition out of my calories. I could eat just bread and pastries and stay under 2000 calories but I’d run out of energy. I knew I’d have to maximize the nutrition in the calories so I had the energy to work, exercise and maintain my body.

I knew I’d have to give up eating a lot of the foods I liked and start eating the foods my body needed. Today it’s so much easier to get good information than in years past with all the information on the internet and the easy access using your cell phone or your laptop or use the computers at the library if you don’t have internet access at home. Today you can’t turn on a talk show on Television or go to the bookstore without seeing something about diet and nutrition. There’s thousands of websites and hundreds of books dealing the subject.

Keeping a record of the food I was eating really helped me see what I was doing wrong. After a few weeks of keeping records, it’s easy for anyone to see the mistakes. The hardest part for me was giving up alcohol for several months until I reached my goal. After that, I eased back to a moderate one drink a day. Alcohol will mess with your metabolism and keep you from burning calories, and it also is a big source of calories. Yes, a lite beer is only 100 calories or some as little as 65 calories but the alcohol will interfere with your body’s ability to burn calories, so alcohol in general even if you stay below your proper calorie intake will keep you from burning calories. Once you reach your goal one drink a day won’t hurt, but you’re not trying to lose weight only maintain it.

You don’t have to go without food to lose weight, just stop eating the junk and start eating the good stuff. Cut your portions and don’t skip meals. Skipping meals will keep you from losing weight. Everyone thinks I’m lying but eating will spike your metabolism and that’s what burns calories. Eat something as early as possible and try to eat something small about 6 times a day. Just remember small portions all day long.When I was trying to lose I would stick to 300 calories at a meal and 6 meals a day. Others have more luck, with a three meal plan that reverses meal size. You eat the largest meal for breakfast. Smaller at lunch and only a snack size meal for dinner. You might have heard of it. You eat like a King for breakfast, a Prince for lunch and Pulper for dinner. The idea is to consume 80% of your calories early in the day so you have time to burn them. That's the opposite of what people do today. Today we eat too much at night and we don't do any activities to burn the calories. That's the time of day when your metabolism is almost dormant. Which means most of the food you're consuming at night will be turned into fat. Only a small part will be digested. 

The fastest way to start losing weight is to change your eating habits. 

Eat real food for breakfast like Oatmeal or one egg and one piece of Bacon or Canadian Bacon(ham). To jump-start your metabolism you need to eat some protein the first hour your up. Some people who always seem to be pressed for time will make a protein shake and drink it while their driving. You can make those shakes the night before then take it out of the frig in the morning and blend it and pour it. In two minutes you're gone, you have coffee later. That's about 300 calories.

Next, because you packed snacks the night before, around 10 a.m. while you're drinking coffee, you have a Greek Yogurt or half a sandwich with real cheese not processed or peanut butter, just be careful what your buying, read the labels. Personally, I buy the ground peanuts, they're in paste form like peanut butter, but they have no additives. Manufacturers use palm oil in jar peanut butter and I never eat palm oil or those other chemicals. 

Lunch is next about three hours later and if you bagged your lunch then you want to eat a sandwich and a piece of fruit. Try to only have bottled water or tea with no sugar. Your should be drinking about 4 bottled water at work, one every two hours. I can get a little tired of plain water so I flavor it with lemon juice, no calories in that. Sometimes I bring celery or radishes to eat with the sandwich at lunch. Both of them have lots of nutrition. This is another low-calorie meal, but it only has to last you 3 hours and then you can eat again. When you cut your calories, you want every calorie to count for increased energy. And you don't want to get your energy from sugar highs. Lunch is where most of us go off the diet. You're out with a friend and you're in a restaurant looking at the menu and trying to do damage control by not eating anything that will add pounds but you're trying to eat normal so you don't have to explain what you ordered. I always order salads for lunch in a restaurant. I try to order one with seafood, like shrimp and I get the salad plain and then I put olive oil and lemon. It might not be what you like but I had to get used to eating lots of things I never had before and you will get too, it's not bad tasting food, it's just not what you are used to. Again, I drink water with lemon or iced tea no sweetener. 

Mid-afternoon, about 3 hours after lunch you want about a 300 calorie snack, so I'd have a greek yogurt and a piece of fruit. I pick greek yogurt because there's less added sugar, Get your sugar from the fruit you eat, not out of a packet or as an additive in your food. Personally, I buy the greek yogurt plain and add my own fruit. I buy the blueberries or strawberries in the frozen food section, there's nothing added. But if you're bringing your snacks from home you have many choices. You want to stay within the daily calorie count and you want something nutritious. Another idea would be a handful of mixed nuts or just almonds.

Dinner is next about three hours later and for dinner, that's when I eat meat and usually a vegetable or a salad with fruit and vegetables. No gravy on the meat. No salad dressing, use olive oil and lemon or vinegar. When eating meat, I try to eat fish as much as possible and white meat chicken or turkey about twice a week. When I was trying to drop pounds I was following the Mediterranean diet and I'll go over that in more detail later in the book.

Finally, the sixth meal was about three hours after dinner. I'd have another greek yogurt. You can substitute with fruit if you like.

That was my whole day and you will lose weight, you'll have lots of energy and you won't be hungry. You might want to skip that last snack if you eat dinner late and go to bed early. Try not to eat the last two hours before bed.

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. 

Bad Eating Habits Stop You From Losing Weight

Quit smoking. Lay off the junk food. Stop being a couch potato. Don’t stay up too late.

Sounds simple enough: If you have a bad habit, break it.

But “simple” doesn’t necessarily mean “easy.” You’ll need a good strategy. Losing weight is more about the kind of food you eat rather than how much food you eat. Yes, the amount of food will make a diiference, but eating pizza and hamburger or fried chicken every day will put on weight even if you only eat a child's portion. 

Swap Bad for Good

It’s important to add good habits to replace your bad ones. Otherwise, the stuff you want to stop doing will probably come back. For instance, you go to Starbuck's in the morning to meet friends, that's not a bad habit, it's what you order that can make it a bad habit. You want to replace the Latte with something that doesn't have calories. Black coffee or tea with non-fat milk. You might not eat breakfast, but Latte's have lots of calories and they're empty calories.

If you smoked, people who quit smoking can replace it with eating too much. Packing healthy snacks can be a good replacement. Bring fruit or nuts with you to work, don't buy junk from the snack machine. 

It might be great that you turn off the computer in time to wind down and fall asleep, but if you replace that with looking at your phone or watching TV, that’s probably not going to help. Instead, try meditating, writing in a journal, or reading something on paper. (Light from a screen can keep you awake.) Use a book or something printed on paper to help you fall asleep.

Make sure you enjoy your new healthy habit. If you hate running on a treadmill, chances are you won’t stick with it. If you don’t like broccoli, there’s no point in loading your plate with it because you won’t enjoy it. When you're looking to replace a bad habit make sure this is something you like.

Change one habit at a time. Trying to do too much at once can be overwhelming. It can make you feel like you don’t know where to start, so you don’t start at all. As you meet each goal, try to add another one.

Don’t rush it. Chances are you didn’t develop the bad habit overnight, so give yourself the time to develop the new one. It can take 2 to 3 months for a habit to really take hold.

Track Your Progress

Keep a daily record of the changes you make. If you haven’t met your goals for the week, think about what went wrong, then adjust. If you’ve met your goals, give yourself a little reward. Seeing things add up -- like your work-outs or the days since you’ve had a cigarette -- can motivate and encourage you.

Forgive Yourself

Setbacks are normal. Don’t beat yourself up. Think back to when you first started, look at your daily record, and remind yourself of how far you’ve come. One slip-up doesn’t wipe all of that out. Pick up where you left off.

Breaking a bad habit is about the journey, not the destination.

I wanted to change what I eat and I changed all at once to a fresh food diet. I wasn't going to buy anything anymore that had a label. Everything fresh. Meat,fruit and vegetables, I even started to buy bread from a bakery fresh baked.

I found out that it takes a lot of will power to change everything all at once. For most people, it might be too hard, but it worked for me. After you make the change, you can't look back. I know it might sound easy, because there won't be any calories to count or special diets to follow. That's true, but that also means no canned or bottled drinks except for water. You can't drink anything with calories. 

Coffee and tea is fine, but don't add calories. Don't make foods with gravies or sauces. Eat fresh means to eat the food as close to it's natural state as possible. Yes, you can season your food but use spices but no added sugar. 

The part that I found the hardest was "eating out". That can be challenging. For the longest time I was eating dry salads with vinegar or lemon juice and a glass of water. You have to be careful ordering salads. Don't order a salad with cheese or meat. You can change a 300 calorie salad into a 800 calorie salad real quick. Chef salads and Taco salads are the worst. Some can be more than 1000 calories.

I know it sounds crazy to only eat salads when you're in a restaurant, but meats in restaurants are usually soared in marinates which is bad for your diet and sometimes bad for your health. Restaurant chains will use marinate to tenderize meat and add flavor and that's when it becomes a high-calorie dinner. Fish can be a better option, if they will serve it without a sauce or any gravy.

I found that eating "fresh" meant a lot of home-cooked meals and that's the hardest part. Making your own meals can cut several hundred calories a day.

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.