Natural Weight Loss News

Slim Fast Recall Good For Consumers Who Want Healthy Diet Drinks

For many, the recent Slim Fast recall may be an opportunity to start fresh with natural weight loss strategies. The Food and Drug Administration announced a nationwide Slim Fast recall due to potential contamination in the diet drinks. These products run the risk of being contaminated with a micro-organism called Bacillus cereus that causes flu-like symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. For those who use these diet drinks instead of natural weight loss products, the Slim Fast recall should be taken seriously, and the cupboards should be cleared of any 11 ounce (325 ml) cans of Slim Fast.

For those who have not found the answers to natural weight loss, clearing out the old and bringing in the new may be just the change needed. By consuming natural diet drinks, it is possible not only to lose weight, but also to increase energy and reduce illness.

Natural weight loss products actually have numerous advantages over the processed diet drinks offered under labels like Slim Fast. One of the most important factors is that they are often made from natural whole foods and are therefore much more easily digested by the human body. This means that more of the vitamins, minerals, and other important nutrients are being put to their proper use. Instead of just "curbing" hunger, natural diet drinks nourish and feed the body on a cellular level.
The variety of natural weight loss products is also a bonus for many consumers. Because there are so many ingredients to choose from in nature, the combinations are nearly limitless. This means a wide range of flavors, as well as different strategies for losing weight. One healthy diet drink may include blueberries for their natural anti-oxidants, for example, while another will utilize carrots to take
advantage of the lycopene they contain. There's certainly something to be said for a diet drink that not only helps with natural weight loss but also has potential cancer-preventing qualities.

Of course, the canned diet drinks do come in several flavors such as vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate. The Slim Fast recall extends to all flavors of the canned diet drink. No matter the lot code or UPC number, consumers are requested to discard the cans immediately. Full refunds are available by calling 1-800-896-9479 from Monday to Friday between 8:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
The recall does not extend to any other products offered by Slim Fast, such as powdered shakes or snack bars. Still, if it's time to get rid of the ready-to-drink canned beverages in order to make way for natural diet drinks, it is probably also time to consider ways to replace other unhealthy foods and drinks with more natural weight loss products, as well. Eating healthy natural foods should always be considered before consuming laboratory-produced "meal replacement" products, for example. For those who need quick, on-the-go foods, there are pre-packaged options that still utilize the concept of whole, natural foods that actually nourish the body, in addition to promoting natural weight loss.

Cliff Smith offers more free diet tips at his online health food store. See Cliff's natural weight loss plan. Discover concentrated health drinks and natural foods that people use for weight loss and more.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Cliff_Smith

 

Natural Weight Loss Foods You Should Add To Your Grocery Shopping List

Changing your diet is one of the key components when you want to live a healthier life, lose weight and get more energy for the fun things in life. If you're changing the diet for yourself you should include your family as well so the also can reap the benefits of a healthier lifestyle.

For some people it is hard to know what to include in their diets, there's a lot of information available and too much information is overwhelming. The list of what not to buy can be made very long and the focus for this article is instead on what you should buy.

These are the foods you should always have at home; and you can eat as much as you like of these foods. They are nutritious and help you on your way to fitness and health. Get them on your grocery list today!


Beans
Apart from some unwanted effects in your stomach area beans are excellent food, high in fiber and antioxidants. Beans contain high levels of protein which is very important for building lean muscles.
When losing weight you have to make sure to get enough protein so that you only lose weight from fat, not from muscle tissue. After all, muscles are what you want to keep. Protein helps you do just that.

Beans digest slowly, and this is a very good thing as it keeps you satisfied much longer and prevents your insulin to spike (causing hunger or cravings). What I usually do is to replace potatoes, white rice or pasta with beans instead such as a bean salads or humus.
Kids love humus with garlic, but if you're cooking for you and your wife you can try to put some red pepper in it to spice it up a little.
 
Eggs
Eggs are another protein rich food source (6 grams per egg or 12% of recommended daily value) that you probably already have in your kitchen if you do any kind of cooking at home.
If you've been to a gym or seen those unnaturally big guys with really big muscles I can tell you they probably eat tons of egg every year. A hardboiled egg is a great snack in the afternoon or as part of your breakfast. Eat them any way you'd like.

Eat scrambled or boiled eggs for breakfast and omelets for lunch. Easy to cook and it keeps you satisfied for a long time. Eggs also are a good source of vitamins such as vitamin B6, B12, A, D and E.

When you're really after the protein and want to cut down on calories you can do an egg white omelet from just the egg whites, salt, pepper and some parsley.

Worried about all the fuzz about cholesterol levels in eggs? Don't be! Research has shown that cholesterol in our body is not directly linked to cholesterol in food but to overconsumption of saturated fat.

What this means is that the cholesterol you're getting from fried eggs or a cheese omelet actually comes from the saturated fats in the butter and not from the eggs.

Stick to natural eggs without any added nutrients. The eggs you eat should come from a happy hen!
Grapefruit

This fruit has been on every weight loss program for the last 30 years or so, and for a good reason. Grapefruit is low in calories (40 kcal for a normal sized grapefruit), high in nutrients and has a unique compound that aids weight loss.

Why grapefruit aids weight loss is not completely understood but research has shown that consuming grapefruit or grapefruit juice clearly helps when you want to lose weight. Juice does the trick but the real fruit is always better to eat.

Lemon
Lemon contains citric acid, pectin and a lot of vitamin C. It is the citric acid that helps break down fats, carbs and protein into carbon dioxide and water. Some weight loss methods suggest that you should drink a glass of water with squeezed lemon first thing in the morning for an extra weight loss effect.

Actually drinking water in general is a good habit when you want to lose weight and if you drink it first thing in the morning you'll also get an extra weight loss effect. So combine the two every morning - a few glasses of water with fresh lemon in it.

Cinnamon
Cinnamon's got a group of compounds which help increasing the efficiency of insulin. Insulin transports glucose (one of the compounds our bodies break down food into and use as energy) from the blood to each individual cell (so that we can use the energy).

Use cinnamon on your Greek Natural Yoghurt that you eat for breakfast along with some grated apple.

Sorry, cinnamon rolls do not count.

Chili Pepper
 Chili is a great fruit that is used endlessly in cooking, especially in asian food. Use it as much as you can because it will get your metabolism going. Chili is well-known for its ability to speed up metabolism. In fact, this goes for many spices and herbs so make sure you eat them often to help you lose your belly fat naturally.

Be a bit careful though, I always remove the seeds and pulp as this is the hottest part of the chili.

Vinegar
Along with lemon, using vinegar is an old weight loss trick. It has actually been used for thousands of years to promote weight loss. The major benefit is that it makes you feel full longer. Just use it in your salad dressing. You're eating salad every day, right?

In conclusion there are many more foods you should include in your diet than listed here. But it's a great start! As a rule of thumb, stick to natural food and stay away from highly processed foods.
If the food has been processed in any way it is better to stay away from them, if you can. Sometimes its hard to exclude processed foods altogether but strive towards keeping them to a minimum in your diet.

If it's good for you it's probably good for your family as well, so stay informed and stick to what's natural.

Max J Miller is the father of 2 kids and a health and fitness enthusiast. Just an ordinary guy trying to stay in shape and teach my kids what's healthy and the things to eat to make your body feel good.
Are you a dad wanting the same things? Come over to GetDadFit now and find more information about fitness and natural weight loss for dads.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Max_J_Miller

11 Tips to Weight Loss Success

Weight loss, specifically fat loss, is a process that requires patience, perseverance, self-efficacy, and determination. It's more than exercise and nutrition programming; it's also behavioral and mental.

Sometimes there are other changes outside of the gym that you have to make. It could be your attitudes and perceptions of exercise and nutrition or of your ability to lose weight. It could be triggers in your environment that is causing you to veer off course too often. Maybe it's that you don't know the quality of the calories or ingredients that you're consuming and how it is affecting your weight loss goals. The following tips are tools to help you reach your weight loss destination.

1. Keep track of your calories; not only how many calories you're consuming, but also the quality of the calories that you're consuming. A candy bar that's 250 calories is not as nutritious as a 250 calorie chicken wrap.

2. Keep a food journal. Record what foods you eat, calories consumed, time the meal was eaten, and how you felt before and after eating. This gives you a visual about what you're consuming day-to-day. Also, record your exercise activities and caloric expenditure. Weight loss occurs when calories expended are greater than calories consumed per day so this helps you to see if you're doing just that. Record how you felt or what you were thinking before and after exercise as well. Seeing this helps you to realize if you perceive exercise and nutrition in a negative or positive light. If you view them as negative, it may help to check why or talk to a personal trainer who is skilled in lifestyle management counseling.

3. Make exercise a priority. We are all busy, but yet we make time for things that we really want to do. You have to do the same thing for exercise sessions. Plan to exercise by making time for it in your schedule. If you still feel you don't have enough time, check your daily activities. Are there times when you're sitting on the couch for an hour watching television? Do you have at least 3-10 minute breaks throughout the day? These are both opportunities to get in thirty minutes of exercise!

4. Set short-term and long-term goals. You have to have a road map to success. You have to have a purpose of going to the gym or participating in boot camps. You can't just say, "I want to lose weight." How many pounds do you want to lose? By what month and day? How much body fat do you want to lose in a year? You must be specific and realistic. Write your goals down, repeat them every day, sign your name to them and put them in a place you frequent the most (i.e., your cubicle at work, refrigerator door).

5. Control sugar cravings by consuming 5-6 meals consisting of low-glycemic foods per day. When you skip meals, your body thinks it's starving and calls for immediate energy. This triggers cravings for candies, cookies, energy bars, pretzels, and other high-sugar foods. These foods are high in calories and low on nutritional value, and they trigger you to eat more of those unhealthy foods. If you must have dessert, eat it after you eat your meal so that you'll be less likely to over-indulge. Another option would be to find recipes that use fruit, nuts, and other healthier, low-calorie foods to make dessert.

6. Develop patience. It takes time to lose weight. Sometimes you may not drop to your goal weight, but you may drop body fat and gain muscle. Your weight may not change because of this, but you're healthier. When you reach your weight loss goals, you'll appreciate it that much more.

7. Don't be so hard on yourself. You will get off track sometimes. You still have a life to live that's full of ups and downs. It helps in many cases to have a relapse plan. When you get off track, how are you going to get back to exercising 5 days per week or eating 5-6 meals per day? What if you have a candy bar or indulged in a healthy serving of potato chips? That's okay. Consider it a slip-up and move on. It's perfectly fine to have one treat per week to keep yourself sane and to reward yourself. Smile and enjoy this weight loss journey.

8. Educate and empower yourself. The more you know about yourself, the better you can help yourself become a healthier person. If you have hypertension, research how to lessen the risk of it, besides taking medication (and those medications don't always work). Learn about the underlying causes of hypertension and what you can do to control it more effectively. Also, you must understand how severe the condition may become in the long-term. Sometimes these facts are motivators to want to lead a healthier lifestyle.

9. Develop a fitness vision. Think about the person you are now-how you perceive yourself and how healthy you feel. Then think about the person you want to become, the body you want to have, the clothes you want to wear, how healthy you feel and how you feel about yourself. Go to a quiet place to close your eyes and visualize these situations. Remember how you feel when envisioning both situations. Write these things down and review them periodically. When you reach your fitness vision, reward yourself with a vacation, spa day, or outfit and create a new one. Think about how you would feel if you gained all the weight you lost back or how much energy you have when you're playing with your children or grandchildren.

10. Sleep!!!! You need at least 7-9 hours of sleep per night. Lack of sleep creates an imbalance between the hormones leptin and ghrelin which controls your appetite. Your body suppresses leptin, the hormone that tells you to stop eating, and increases ghrelin, which tells you you're hungry and triggers you to eat more. Growth hormone levels are also highest during sleep. Growth hormone is a powerful fat-burning hormone and plays a major role in weight loss. So, beauty sleep is important in the weight loss process!

11. Last, but not least, love yourself regardless. Yes, you may want to change the number on the scales or the size of the clothes you want to wear. But, if you don't love yourself unconditionally, you'll never be happy with anything that you do. Make yourself happy and love yourself first, and you will attract positive people and situations. If you have any negativity around you, let it go. That's a stressor that no one needs.

Weight loss success is a journey that requires perseverance, determination, discipline, and hard-work. It's possible to do, however. Restructuring how you think, what you think about, and how you handle stress and emotions play a huge part in this process. Evaluate your attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs about exercise and nutrition, restructure the negative and keep the positive. One day, you will make it to destination: beach body.

Pamela Brown
http://peak2successfitness.com
Personal Trainer and Fitness Consultant

Pamela Brown, owner of Peak 2 Success Fitness, specializes in weight loss with a focus on individuals who are recovering from surgery, injury, or pregnancy. She works in both one-on-one and group settings educating and training people who want the lean, toned body that they desire, as well as those who are recovering from orthopedic injuries or surgeries after release from medical care. She has a Master's degree in Human Performance Studies from the University of Alabama as well as three personal training certifications. If you want to learn updated, current, and effective training and nutrition methods and tools that will help you achieve your goals, please visit
http://peak2successfitness.com and subscribe!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Pamela_L_Brown

Take Responsibility for Your Health and Weight

While most of us know we need to exercise and eat healthy to lose weight, we often blame our inability to do so on things like overloaded schedules, low energy, confusion and boredom. Playing the blame game not only gives us more excuses to skip workouts, it also distances us from the fact that how we live our lives is a choice. Taking responsibility for your own choices may be the most important step you take to lose weight.
Why We're Fat
Obesity is on the rise, despite our obsession with six-pack abs and movie-star bodies. There are many things that contribute to our current weight problems including:

• Sedentary jobs
• Computers and the Internet
• Hundreds of TV channels to keep us entertained for hours
• Long hours spent in cars
• Neighborhoods that aren't exercise-friendly
• Technology that makes it possible to do almost everything from a chair
• Medical advances that let us off the hook (such as plastic surgery)
• Busy schedules
• Lack of physical activity in schools as well as easy access to junk food for kids
• Denial - Most people know that quick fix pills and gadgets don't work but they keep trying them anyway to avoid exercise.
• Confusion - There are so many rules about eating and exercise that we allow ourselves to get overwhelmed by the choices and don't do anything.
• The belief that, if we can't meet the exercise guidelines, why exercise at all?
• Fear of failure, doing the wrong thing, injury or even making fools of ourselves.

Of course, there are other factors involved with obesity, such as genetics or certain medical conditions that preclude weight loss, but for most of us, we're overweight because of our own choices. If you're tired of making excuses for your health, now is the time to take control.
How to Take Control of Your Own Choices
Losing weight means creating a calorie deficit by exercising more and eating less, but the first step in doing that is taking a look at how you live each day and asking yourself: Where am I going wrong? What am I really in control of? Take a moment to make a list of all the choices you make each day that can affect your weight such as:

• What, when and how much you eat
• Whether you exercise or not
• How active you are throughout the day
• How you deal with stress

Looking at that list or your own list, what comes to mind? Do you feel like you're in control of these things and, if not, why not? You may feel that your choices are limited (or even nonexistent) because you're overwhelmed by a busy schedule, trapped by a job that doesn't allow for much movement each day or you're simply too tired to workout.
However, even with the busiest life or the most sedentary job, there are always healthy choices you can make. Even one good choice can put you on the right path and, more importantly, make you feel more in control of your weight, your health and your future.
Think about one healthy choice you could make each day, something that would give you back control without having to overhaul your entire life. Some ideas:

• Bring your own healthy lunch to work
• Use part of your lunch hour for a brisk walk
• Incorporate simple office exercises into your work day
• Look for one task, appointment or to-do item you could delete in favor of a workout session
• Find 10 minutes each day for a quick workout
• Get up 10 minutes early for a walk around the block or a short yoga workout

No More Excuses
To take control of your health and fitness is to take full responsibility for what you're doing or not doing. It isn't easy to change how you live. In fact, it takes tremendous courage, strength and will to look at your life, see where you're going wrong and switch directions. However, the more you do it, the more you realize you can do it and that's what you really need to lose weight.

Take Responsibility for Your Health and Weight

While most of us know we need to exercise and eat healthy to lose weight, we often blame our inability to do so on things like overloaded schedules, low energy, confusion and boredom. Playing the blame game not only gives us more excuses to skip workouts, it also distances us from the fact that how we live our lives is a choice. Taking responsibility for your own choices may be the most important step you take to lose weight.

Why We're Fat
Obesity is on the rise, despite our obsession with six-pack abs and movie-star bodies. There are many things that contribute to our current weight problems including:

• Sedentary jobs
• Computers and the Internet
• Hundreds of TV channels to keep us entertained for hours
• Long hours spent in cars
• Neighborhoods that aren't exercise-friendly
• Technology that makes it possible to do almost everything from a chair
• Medical advances that let us off the hook (such as plastic surgery)
• Busy schedules
• Lack of physical activity in schools as well as easy access to junk food for kids
• Denial - Most people know that quick fix pills and gadgets don't work but they keep trying them anyway to avoid exercise.
• Confusion - There are so many rules about eating and exercise that we allow ourselves to get overwhelmed by the choices and don't do anything.
• The belief that, if we can't meet the exercise guidelines, why exercise at all?
• Fear of failure, doing the wrong thing, injury or even making fools of ourselves.

Of course, there are other factors involved with obesity, such as genetics or certain medical conditions that preclude weight loss, but for most of us, we're overweight because of our own choices. If you're tired of making excuses for your health, now is the time to take control.
How to Take Control of Your Own Choices
Losing weight means creating a calorie deficit by exercising more and eating less, but the first step in doing that is taking a look at how you live each day and asking yourself: Where am I going wrong? What am I really in control of? Take a moment to make a list of all the choices you make each day that can affect your weight such as:

• What, when and how much you eat
• Whether you exercise or not
• How active you are throughout the day
• How you deal with stress

Looking at that list or your own list, what comes to mind? Do you feel like you're in control of these things and, if not, why not? You may feel that your choices are limited (or even nonexistent) because you're overwhelmed by a busy schedule, trapped by a job that doesn't allow for much movement each day or you're simply too tired to workout.
However, even with the busiest life or the most sedentary job, there are always healthy choices you can make. Even one good choice can put you on the right path and, more importantly, make you feel more in control of your weight, your health and your future.
Think about one healthy choice you could make each day, something that would give you back control without having to overhaul your entire life. Some ideas:

• Bring your own healthy lunch to work
• Use part of your lunch hour for a brisk walk
• Incorporate simple office exercises into your work day
• Look for one task, appointment or to-do item you could delete in favor of a workout session
• Find 10 minutes each day for a quick workout
• Get up 10 minutes early for a walk around the block or a short yoga workout

No More Excuses
To take control of your health and fitness is to take full responsibility for what you're doing or not doing. It isn't easy to change how you live. In fact, it takes tremendous courage, strength and will to look at your life, see where you're going wrong and switch directions. However, the more you do it, the more you realize you can do it and that's what you really need to lose weight.