Trim Your Waistline

You may be looking at your waistline as the target of your weight loss program because it is so prominent. It is what you notice the most as you watch your reflection in the glass windows as you walk through the mall. And it makes fastening your jeans a real challenge. But appearance isn’t everything. There are some real health dangers associated with having a large waistline.

Those dangers include diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis, sleep apnea, arthritis and back pain, to name a few. More than anything else, it is these dangers that should motivate you to trim your waistline.

You may be familiar with all kinds of online offers for losing belly fat. As with all the other quick weight loss schemes, be careful. If you want to lose the belly fat you have to lose the weight. That means committing to a program that requires improvements in the way you eat and making time for exercise.

How can you jumpstart the process?

First, make healthier food choices. Second, eliminate the sodas, chips, cookies, candy, cake and other sugary and high-fat foods. Third, skip the fast food and nightly pizza. And finally, get moving.
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Consult a Registered Dietitian. If you need help with creating a healthy weight loss program, talk to a registered dietitian. Registered dietitians are the healthcare professionals most trained and experienced in the art and science of nutrition for healthy weight loss. You can locate a registered dietitian by going to the American Dietetic Association website at www.eatright.org and searching to find a registered dietitian.

10 Tips for Keeping the Weight Off

If you lost weight and want to keep it off, you will need to continue to make healthy food and lifestyle choices. It might be tough, but you have to stay focused. One of the biggest mistakes people make after losing weight is going “off the diet” and back to old ways of eating. Those old ways are what caused the initial weight gain in the first place, so you should not be surprised if the weight comes back after you go “off the diet.” Consider the follow steps that you can take to avoid regaining the weight:

1. Be prepared for withdrawal symptoms, the biggest of which might be cravings. Acknowledge what is happening and try to find ways to overcome the cravings. Perhaps drink a tall glass of water. Sip on an ice cube. Eat a large salad or grab a handful of nuts. Of course, you could also go for a long walk, away from the temptation. By the time you return, the wave of cravings should have passed.
2. Drink a glass of water every couple of hours. This will help to keep you feeling full so that you don’t have to deal with hunger pangs. Add a few drops of fresh lemon or lime juice if you wish to flavor the water. But avoid sweetened drinks.
3. Plan ahead when you will be eating out. You should have a fairly good idea of what you plan to eat before you sit down at the restaurant, or before you get to the party if it is a party that you will be attending. You might find that having a light snack or even eating a light meal before you go could take the edge off of deciding what to eat later.
4. Avoid drinking alcoholic beverages, especially before you eat. Drinking on an empty stomach could get your digestive juices flowing and cause you to overeat. It could also weaken your resolve and remove any degree of self-restraint that you might have intended to use.
5. If you must drink, make sure it is highly diluted. Then drink slowly to make the drink last. This will cut calories and help to limit the total amount of liquor consumed over the course of the evening. Avoid sitting or standing near the bar if at all possible.
6. Keep things fresh. Choose fresh or minimally processed foods instead of highly processed foods that may contain large amounts of fat, sugar and salt.
7. Read food labels and avoid foods that have a lot of ingredients listed. Be especially careful to limit foods made from refined, white flour and those that contain trans fat and saturated fats.
8. Resist the urge to have pizza, fast food burgers and all the other foods that you know were the source of your problem to begin with. In other words, stick with what worked to shed the weight. Now that you can be a little more liberal doesn’t mean that you should let your guard down.
9. Pay attention to how much you eat. You can eat a lot more vegetables without consuming excess calories, as compared to bread, butter, salad dressing, fried foods and rich desserts. You will have to make some tough choices. Be sure to make the right ones.
10. Stay active. Regular exercise will continue to be an important element of your daily activities. It is what will allow you to eat a reasonable amount of food without regaining the weight. If you see that you are beginning to regain the weight, don’t let it happen. Do something to stop it before it becomes a major problem – again.

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If you are struggling to lose weight or need professional support in controlling your weight or eating to prevent or treat diabetes, heart disease or other chronic health problem, talk to a registered dietitian. You can find a registered dietitian by visiting the American Dietetic Association website at www.eatright.org. Registered dietitians are the healthcare professionals most trained and experienced in the art and science of nutrition and most qualified to help you make smart food and lifestyle choices.

Salt and High Blood Pressure

Overview

If you have high blood pressure, your doctor may have told you to “watch the salt.” In essence, this means to eat less salt. For some people, it could mean eating a lot less commercially processed foods, which tend to be high in sodium.

Recommended Intake

According to the US Government, American adults should consume 2300 milligrams of sodium daily. That is equivalent to roughly one teaspoon of salt. People with high blood pressure are generally advised to keep their sodium intake even lower, to about 1500 milligrams. But it is easy to consume a lot more sodium and not even know it. That is because salt and other sodium containing products are widely used in cooking and preserving food.

Dining Out
Fast food places and other restaurants are notorious for the high levels of sodium in most of the foods they serve. That makes it very difficult to control your salt intake when dining out. Thus, your best bet is to prepare your own meals and snacks from scratch.

Shopping 

You will need to read the labels on packaged foods to be sure that you are not getting too much sodium. The ingredients list will list salt along with any other sodium-containing compound in the food. 

The Nutrition Panel is more specific. It tells how much sodium is in each serving of the food and shows the Daily Value (DV) for specific nutrients - in this case, sodium, This DV is given as a percent of the total recommended intake.

Tracking Your Intake

You can keep track of your total sodium intake by paying attention to the milligrams of sodium per serving or to the percentage shown per serving. If the package contains 4 servings, you will need to multiply the percent sodium per person by 4 to get the total percentage of the DV you will be getting if you eat the entire package. The same goes for calculating the total milligrams of sodium. A good rule of thumb is to avoid foods that contain more than 5 to 7 percent of the DV per serving.

Other Related Health Issues

There are many other things besides sodium that may cause you to develop high blood pressure, including obesity, stress, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and certain prescription drugs. Unfortunately, not everyone will have success by merely cutting back on the salt. If non-drug strategies do not work, you doctor is likely to put you on prescription drugs.  

Summary

If you have high blood pressure, pay attention to what you eat. Keeping your salt intake to about 1500 milligrams of sodium per day might help, particularly if you are salt-sensitive. For others, 2300 milligrams of sodium should be adequate.

Health Dangers of Cheap Snacks

Overview

Snack foods, often referred to as junk food, are everywhere. They are cheap, require no time or skill to prepare, and can be eaten anywhere, anytime - no cleanup required.

Unfortunately, what is cheap could be dear. That is certainly the case when it comes to filling up on cheap snacks. These foods are generally made with a hodgepodge of cheap, synthetic ingredients, artificial coloring, preservatives and binders. And of course, you get loads of calories from cheap fats and sugars. Then there is the salt - lots of it. All of this spells danger.

Snacking Dangers

While it is possible to eat healthy snacks, most people aren't choosing the right snack foods. Instead, they are opting for the wrong foods - filled with saturated fat, trans fat, sugar, high fructose corn syrup and refined flour. You should try to substitute healthier alternatives for these high-calorie snacks.

Here is a partial list of snack foods that could spell danger. Try to avoid or at least limit these foods:

Sodas. Sodas (soft drinks), are loaded with sugar. High fructose corn syrup is the sweetener used most often in these drinks. Sodas containing high fructose corn syrup may satisfy your taste buds but can wreak havoc on your weight and your health.

Cakes and pastries. Cakes and pastries are made from the terrible 3’s – saturated or trans fat, refined flour and sugar. Each bite takes you one step closer to gaining another pound and creating a chronicle of chronic diseases.

Candy/Confectionaries. Candy usually refers to sweets that are nothing more than solidified sugar. Eating excessive amounts of sugar puts you at risk for obesity. It can also lead to inflammation in your cells and lead to a number of chronic diseases.

Fast-food burgers, hot dogs, sausages and other cured meats. You might think that it is okay to eat fast-food burgers and other cured meats on a regular basis because they provide some protein. But keep in mind that these types of foods are also high in saturated fats and usually contain excessive amounts of salt/sodium, as well. You face the risk of gaining too much weight and developing high blood pressure and heart disease if you snack on these foods too often.

French fries, chips, and other deep-fried snacks. French fries, chips and other deep-fried snacks tend to be loaded with excessive amounts of calories from fat, along with high levels of sodium. Snacking on these foods too often can lead to obesity, high blood pressure and heart disease. Baked chips may be a healthy alternative to fried snacks, as they are likely to have less fat and salt. If you are buying packaged snacks, read the label to be sure.

Summary

This is just a taste of foods that are heavily consumed as snacks in the US. Unfortunately, these foods provide a lot of calories, sugars, unhealthy fats and sodium but offer little in the way of the vital nutrients that your body needs for optimum functioning. This can lead to unhealthy weight gain, diabetes and other dangerous health conditions.

What Can You Do?

Avoid snacks that are high in calories, unhealthy fats, large amounts of sugar and excessive salt. Opt instead for foods that are loaded with a wide variety of fiber and essential nutrients. And quench your thirst with a refreshing glass of water instead of sodas or other sweetened drinks.

15 Telltale Signs of an Overeater

You know that you are an overeater if:

1. You eat mindlessly.
2. You gulp and swallow instead of chewing your food.
3. You can’t remember what you ate after the last bite.
4. You can’t stop eating until your stomach feels like it is about to burst.
5. You are constantly hungry and foraging for something to eat.
6. You swallow your emotions.
7. You supersize your fast food meals.
8. You eat an extra-large pizza and wonder where it went.
9. You drink a liter of soda daily.
10. You're always thinking about food or things pertaining to food.
11. You're suddenly up four dress sizes.
12. Your shopping cart is overflowing with ready-to-eat meals and junk food snacks.
13. You forgot to buy the veggies.
14. Your waist size is the same as your hips.
15. You binge and purge.