Get Slim With Healthy Eating Habits

Get Slim With Healthy Eating Habits

Many women want to be slim. Maybe you’re one of them. Perhaps you’re getting married soon and you want to fit into your wedding gown comfortably. Or perhaps you simply want to look (and feel) great in a swimsuit or bikini.

Whatever your reason for wanting to be slim, there are some things you can do to become slim while staying healthy. If you are reading this article, chances are you want to know what those things are. Read on then, to find out.

First thing is to assess your current eating habits. This is important because you need to know what’s not working. If your current eating habits are keeping you overweight, and you want to be slim, it figures that you need to change those eating habits. If something is not working, change it.

Assessing your current eating habits.

Keep a record of your eating habits for a week. The record should contain the following information:

• What you are eating

• How much you’re eating

• When you eat (note the times) – you want to know how far apart your meals and snacks are.

• Why you’re eating at those times – is it because you’re hungry, or are you ‘comfort eating’?

• How you feel after eating – pleasantly satisfied or bloated and stuffed.

• How many glasses of water you drink each day

When you find out your current eating habits, you’ll need to determine which habits are sabotaging your efforts to lose weight. Those are the ones you want to change. More on that later.

Goal Setting

Determine what your weight goal is. Or you may prefer to monitor your progress in terms of your waistline or hip measurements. Whichever one suits you is best.

Form a mental picture of yourself looking the way you want to look. Goals are more powerful and empowering when we visualize them. Hold that mental picture in your mind at all times.

NOTE: Eating healthily is not all there is to getting slim. You must become more physically active (read ‘exercise’) in addition to eating properly if you’re to lose weight permanently. This article deals with the healthy eating part of that equation.

Action Plan

Now that you know what your ideal size is, you have a goal that you’re working towards. You need to then determine a plan of action to help you achieve that goal.

To help you decide on the right plan, bear in mind that eating should be a pleasure. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Which nutritious foods do I enjoy eating ?

• How soon after eating do I get hungry again? Most adults get hungry about 3 to 4 hours after eating a meal.

• Do I eat only when I’m hungry? Hint: You should.

• How can I stay full? Drink lots of water. Scientists recommend between 6 and 8 glasses of water daily. Your body needs it, and it helps you stay full.

With the answers to those questions in mind, form an action plan, and start a new daily record to help you keep track of your progress. This new record should contain the same columns as your initial current habits record. This way you can monitor each improvement and celebrate accordingly.

When deciding on which actions to take, you need to refer back to your initial assessment of your current eating habits. Decide which habits are preventing you from losing weight. Write down alternative habits that you want to cultivate, which will help you get slim.

These new habits you want to form are now your ‘targets’ – milestones on your way to your ideal body shape and size.

Taking Action

To form healthy eating habits, start with small changes.

Don’t make too many changes at once. Set yourself main targets, such as ‘I will drink 8 glasses of water each day’, then set smaller targets to help you reach each main target.

Using the example above, a small target could be ‘I will drink an extra glass of water after each meal’. When you break down your targets, they don’t seem so daunting. They seem easily achievable, so you feel encouraged to stick to them.

Decide on the foods you will be eating regularly. Make sure they’re foods you enjoy.

Eat small portions, about 5 or 6 times each day, instead of three large meals. This helps keep your metabolic rate high, and helps you lose weight naturally.

How to stay motivated to continue eating healthily

1. Believe that you can do it, and accept responsibility for your health and for the way your body looks.

2. Reward yourself each time you successfully complete a small target. Celebrate each small success – don’t wait until you’ve lost tons of weight before you reward yourself. Make the journey enjoyable by treating yourself each time you make progress.

3. Keep in mind what you hope to achieve – remind yourself of how lovely and healthy your body is becoming each day as a result of your new eating habits. Remember, each small step in the right direction is bringing you closer to your main target.

With a clear goal in mind, a feasible action plan and tips to help you stay motivated, you should find it easy to form habits that keep you slim and healthy at the same time.

Body Fat Percentage

What is body fat percentage, how do you measure it and what is a healthy range.

The amount of body fat you carry, your body fat percentage, makes a difference to your body shape and your health. Our chart below shows how much body fat is healthy.

Your shape is affected by body fat percentage because muscle tissue is more compact than fat - a balloon containing 1lb of muscle tissue would be smaller than a balloon containing 1lb of fat!

So a woman, 5' 6" tall weighing 140lbs (10 stone) who does regular muscle enhancing exercise, will have a lower body fat percentage, and look slimmer, than a woman of the same height and weight who doesn't exercise and therefore has a higher ratio of body fat.

Measuring changes in body fat percentage, rather than just measuring changes in weight, can be very motivational when you're dieting - especially if you are exercising as part of your Weight Loss regime.

How much body fat is healthy?

Daily Calorie Intake

Recommended daily calorie intake varies from person to person, but there are guidelines for calorie requirements you can use as a starting point.

UK Department of Health Estimated Average Requirements (EAR) are a daily calorie intake of 1940 calories per day for women and 2550 for men.

How many calories are needed each day can vary greatly depending on lifestyle and other factors.

Factors that affect your personal daily calorie needs include your age, height and weight, your basic level of daily activity, and your body composition.

In order to lose weight you need to eat less calories per day than your body needs. To lose 1lb a week you need a negative calorie balance of 500 calories per day. To lose weight at 2lb a week you need to reduce your calorie intake by 1000 calories a day.

Weight Loss Resources has all the tools you need to calorie count for weight loss. Including online calorie and nutrition databases, with information for UK and USA foods, there's no obligation and you'll learn a lot in a short session.

The programme adds up the calories you consume through the day and deducts them, as you go along, from your daily calorie allowance. So you'll always know how many calories you have left for the day. It also takes account of the calories used during exercise.

The Weight Loss Tools

The Weight Loss Tools

Weight Loss Goal Setting

Find out where you are now, what is a healthy weight for you, how many calories you need each day to maintain your current weight and how many to reach your weight loss goal at the rate you choose.

Food Diary

Your food diary starts the day with your calorie allowance, and, as you add things you've eaten, it tells you how many you have left. The Food Diary also keeps track of how many grams of protein, fat, carbohydrate and fibre you consume - and produces a pie chart to show you the balance of your diet.

Exercise Diary

Your Exercise Diary keeps track of the extra calories you burn during exercise. These calories are added to your Food Diary's calorie allowance for the day - great motivation to do a little exercise, and exercise helps weight loss.

Recipes

You can calorie count your own recipes, or try some of Weight Loss Resources' recipes, all calorie counted and suitable for a weight loss diet.

Weight Loss Results

There's nothing so satisfying as a nice downward slope on a weight loss graph. You can record and track weight loss, inch loss and body fat percentage.

Healthy Eating Plan Basics

Eating healthily isn't complicated once you know the basics. The Balance of Good Health will help you plan for a healthy diet.

Many people are unsure of what healthy eating means - not surprising when you consider the variety of, often conflicting, advice given. The following guidelines are based on the WHO Org ‘Balance of Good Health’ and apply to most people over the age of 5. People under medical supervision or with special dietary requirements may have different needs and should check with their doctor. If you are trying to eat more healthily in order to lose weight, you'll also need to pay attention to calories.

The Balance of Good Health

Fruit & Vegetables

Eating healthily means at least 5 a day

This includes frozen, canned, dried and pure juices as well as fresh. Also included in this group are beans, including baked beans, pulses and lentils. The key for good health is to choose a wide variety - aiming for five different portions per day. A portion is approximately 80g, e.g. one medium apple or two medium plums.

Bread, Other Cereals & Potatoes

A healthy eating plan should include 5 portions daily

This group includes breakfast cereals, pasta, rice, noodles, oats and other cereals as well as bread and potatoes. You should aim to include at least one food from this group at each meal.

Milk & Dairy Foods

2-3 servings daily is the recommended healthy eating level

Milk, cheese, yoghurt and fromage frais are included in this group, but not butter, eggs and cream. Serving sizes in this group vary, depending on how concentrated the food is, e.g. 1 serving of milk is 200ml, a serving of yoghurt is 150g and a serving of cheese is 30g.

Meat Fish & Alternatives

2-3 servings daily, choose low fat if your healthy eating plan is for weight loss

This group includes eggs, poultry, and meat and fish products such as beefburgers and fishcakes. Some of these products can be high in fat - so it’s best to choose lower fat versions of products, and trim visible fat from meat and poultry. Alternatives are non-meat sources of protein such as nuts, tofu, mycoprotein, textured vegetable protein (TVP) and kidney beans.

Foods Containing Fat & Foods Containing Sugar

Eat in small quantities, 0-3 servings daily

These are foods high in fat and/or sugar. Butter, margarine, oil, mayonnaise, cream, crisps and fried foods are high in fat. Soft drinks, sweets and jam are high in sugar. Cakes, chocolate, biscuits, pastries and ice-cream are high in both. It is essential to include a small amount of fat in your diet, but most people need to eat less. The emphasis should be on unsaturated fat e.g. olive, sunflower and corn oil, rather than saturated fat which tends to come from animal products, cakes, biscuits and pastries.

Weight Loss Tips

You can influence all these factors, and speed up your rate of burning calories using some, or all, of the following tactics:

1) Build Muscle

Increase the amount of muscle in your body. For every extra pound of muscle you put on, your body uses around 50 extra calories a day. In a recent study, researchers found that regular weight training boosts basal metabolic rate by about 15%. This is because muscle is ‘metabolically active’ and burns more calories than other body tissue even when you’re not moving.

Training with weights just 3 times a week for around 20 minutes is enough to build muscle. Not only will you be burning more calories, you’ll look better – whatever your weight.

2) Move More

Although the average person burns around 30% of calories through daily activity, many sedentary people only use around 15%. Simply being aware of this fact – and taking every opportunity to move can make quite a dramatic difference to the amount of calories you burn.

The trick is to keep the ‘keep moving’ message in mind. Write the word ‘move’ on post-it notes and put them in places you’ll notice them when you’re sitting still. Then, take every opportunity to move – here’s some ideas for burning calories:

• Tap your feet
• Swing your legs
• Drum your fingers
• Stand up and stretch
• Move your head from side to side
• Change position
• Wriggle and fidget
• Pace up and down
• Don’t use the internal phone – go in person
• Use the upstairs loo
• Park in the furthest corner of the car park
• Stand up when you’re on the phone
• Clench and release your muscles
  

You’ll find lots of opportunities for burning more calories if you remember that you’re looking for them! Keep thinking ‘keep moving’.

3) Eat Spicy Food

There is evidence to show that spices, especially chilli, can raise the metabolic rate by up to 50% for up to 3 hours after you’ve eaten a spicy meal.

Drinks containing caffeine also stimulate the metabolism, as does green tea.

4) Aerobic Exercise

As well as the actual amount of calories burned during exercise – studies have shown that sustained, high-intensity exercise makes you burn more calories for several hours afterwards.

Try 30 minute sessions of heart rate raising exercise, such as vigorous walking, step aerobics, jogging or swimming, 3-4 times a week.

5) Eat Little and Often

There is some evidence to suggest that eating small, regular meals will keep your metabolism going faster than larger, less frequent meals. There are two reasons why meal frequency may affect your metabolism. Firstly, levels of thyroid hormones begin to drop within hours of eating a meal, and metabolism slows. Secondly, it may be that the thermogenic effect of eating several small meals is slightly higher than eating the same amount of calories all at once.

Provided your small meals don’t degenerate into quick-fix, high fat, high sugar snacks, eating little and often can also help to control hunger and make you less likely binge.

Weight Loss Tips

You burn calories to provide energy for three main functions:

1) Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)

This is the amount of calories you burn just by being alive – even when you are lying down, doing nothing. BMR accounts for approximately 60% of the calories burned for an average person.

2) Burning Calories for Activity

This is the energy used during movement – from lifting your arm to operate the remote control to cleaning the windows. This accounts for approximately 30% of the calories burned by an average person.

3) Dietary Thermogenesis

The ‘thermogenic effect’ described as meal-induced heat production – the calories burned in the process of eating, digesting, absorbing and using food.

Weight Loss Tips

You can make weight loss quicker and easier by increasing your metabolic rate and burning more calories – here’s how:

Metabolic Rate is the rate at which the body burns up calories. A body that consumes 2500 calories a day, and burns 2500 calories a day will stay at the same weight. A body consuming 2500 calories daily but burning only 2000 will gain weight at the rate of about 1lb a week.

This explains why that ‘lucky’ person across the table from you doesn’t get fat from all that junk food.

You can do quite a lot to speed up your metabolism – the secret of burning calories lies in knowing what determines your metabolic rate and what you can do to influence it.

How to Make Your Body Burn More Calories

Three Ways :

• You can make weight loss quicker and easier by increasing your metabolic rate and burning more calories

• You burn calories to provide energy for three main functions

• You can influence all these factors, and speed up your rate of burning calories

Exercise for Slimming

As well as sticking to your daily calorie allowance while you're slimming, it’s also important to find ways to use up more calories through exercise. Being more active in your daily life is a great starting point, so think about how you can increase your activity levels each day. It might be as simple as putting more effort into the housework, taking the stairs at work rather than the lift, walking rather than driving to the corner shop for milk or parking further away from the supermarket entrance so that you have to walk further.

But for the best slimming results, you should also take planned exercise for a minimum of 3½ hours a week. That might sound a lot but when you consider that each week has 168 hours, it’s only a tiny fraction of time! It’s up to you how you divide this time up, for example, you might like to do 30 minutes of exercise every day or prefer to do an hour-long aerobic class, an hour in the gym and a 90-minute cycle or walk each week. It’s up to you!

Most fitness experts agree you’ll have more success with sticking to an exercise programme if you find activities that you enjoy. So do some research to find out what’s on offer in your local area. You might be surprised to find that you can do everything from salsa and self-defence classes to belly dancing and basketball. Think back too, to the activities you enjoyed when you were at school. If you loved netball, for example, it might be worth finding out whether there’s a local team you could join, or if you really enjoyed cross-country running, maybe there’s a local running team that wants new members.

If you really can’t find any activities that you enjoy, you may find it helpful to change the way that you view exercise and rather than looking at it as something you should have fun doing, view it as something that you simply have to do, such as cleaning the house. Most people don’t enjoy doing housework, yet it’s something they still spend time doing because they enjoy having a clean house they’re proud off. So if you hate exercise, start viewing it as something that you HAVE to spend time on because ultimately you’ll enjoy having a slim, fit body.

It’s also important to find activities that fit in with your lifestyle. For example, while you might choose to go swimming, you’ll never manage a twice-a-week swim if your nearest pool is a 40-minute drive away. Similarly, while going to an aerobics class might appeal to you, you’ll never stick with it if you’re unable to find someone to look after your children while you’re there.

Once you’ve started taking in fewer and burning up more calories through slimming and exercise, respectively, you’ll find the pounds start to drop off. But how do you stay on track, especially when your motivation starts to flag

Resolution to Avoid - The Basics

1. I’ll lose a stone in the next two weeks

For safe and effective weight loss you should allow around six weeks to lose a stone. Very low-calorie diets that result in rapid weight loss may leave you short of essential nutrients and will limit your choice so much that you’ll quickly get bored and give up.

2. I’ll never eat chocolate again

Ban any food and you’ll make it even more tempting with the result that you’ll end up overindulging as you try to curb your craving. It’s far more realistic to simply reduce the amount you eat – that might mean cutting down from two bars a day to one a day, or having chocolate just once a week instead of several times.

3. I’m going to be a size 8

You don’t have to look like Kylie or Kate Moss to be slim. We all have different sizes and shapes and most women will struggle to fit into a size-8 outfit. Instead, focus on setting a realistic target weight for you – and enjoy whatever size that makes you!

4. I’m going to cook everyday

There’s no need to turn yourself into a Domestic Goddess simply because you want to lose weight. Accept the fact that there will be times when you don’t have the time or inclination to cook and instead make the most of quick and easy dishes such as low-fat ready meals, beans on toast, jacket potatoes with tuna and salad and veggie stir fries.

5. I’ll go to the gym every day

Chances are you won’t have the time or energy to take up residence at your local gym and soon stop going completely as a result. Instead, see the gym as just one of the many ways you can build exercise into your daily life.

6. I’ll do it on my own

Good support is a vital component of any successful weight loss plan so prepare to ask for help and encouragement, whether that’s from a friend, partner or Weight Loss Resources.

Slimming Menu - Drinks

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Drinks
1 large glass of dry white wine (135 calories)	1 single gin and slimline tonic (50 calories)	85 calories
1 can of cola (135 calories)	1 can of diet cola (0 calories)	135 calories
2tsp sugar in coffee (30 calories)	Artificial sweetener in coffee (0 calories)	30 calories
1 regular latte (200 calories)	1 skinny cappuccino (80 calories)	120 calories

Slimming Menu - Snacks

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Snacks
1 small pot of low-fat fruit yoghurt (135 calories)	1 small pot fat-free fruit yoghurt (60 calories)	75 calories
40g packet of crisps (220 calories)	apple (50 calories)	170 calories
1 bar of chocolate (265 calories)	1 small banana (75 calories)	190 calories
1 Danish pastry (430 calories)	2 chocolate digestive biscuits (180 calories)	250 calories
Garlic dip and tortilla chips (230 calories)	Salsa dip and crudités (40 calories)	190 calories
1 jam doughnut (250 calories)	1 crumpet with jam (95 calories)	155 calories

Slimming Menu - Night

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Night
attered sweet and sour chicken and egg fried rice (1,105 calories)	Chicken with cashew nuts and boiled rice (750 calories)	355 calories
Tagliatelle with a creamy carbonara sauce (1,020 calories)	Tagliatelle with a tomato sauce (400 calories)	620 calories
Steak and kidney pie (570 calories)	Cottage pie (350 calories)	220 calories
Large pepperoni pizza (1,120 calories)	Large veggie pizza (835 calories)	285 calories
Beef lasagne (665 calories)	Vegetable lasagne (470 calories)	195 calories
1tbsp oil in cooking (100 calories)	10 sprays of a spray oil (10 calories)	90 calories
Cheese and onion quiche and salad (595 calories)	Cheese and onion omelette and salad (345 calories)	250 calories
2 grilled sausages (270 calories)	1 grilled large skinless chicken breast (175 calories)	95 calories

Slimming Menu - Afternoon

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Afternoon
1 small can tuna in oil with salad (285 calories)	1 small can tuna in water with salad (150 calories)	135 calories
1 small can of tomato soup (160 calories)	1 small can of carrot soup (65 calories)	95 calories
1 jacket potato with cheese (445 calories)	1 jacket potato with cottage cheese (335 calories)	110 calories
1 regular sandwich (600 calories)	1 low-fat sandwich (350 calories)	250 calories
1tbsp mayonnaise on salad (105 calories)	1tbsp fat-free dressing (10 calories)	95 calories
4 inch piece of French bread (220 calories)	1 small wholemeal roll (115 calories)	105 calories

Slimming Menu - Morning

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Morning
2 slices of toast and butter (325 calories)	2 slices of toast with low-fat spread (220 calories)	105 calories
6tbsp muesli (330 calories)	6tbsp branflakes (155 calories)	175 calories
1 blueberry muffin (550 calories)	1 bagel with honey (215 calories)	335 calories
1 croissant (215 calories)	1 wholemeal fruit scone (155 calories)	60 calories
Full-fat milk on cereal (65 calories)	Skimmed milk on cereal (35 calories)	30 calories
1tbsp peanut butter (85 calories)	Scrape of Marmite (0 calories)	85 calories

Slimming Info - Finding the Best Diet

Finding the Best Diet

Finding the best slimming diet for you :

Once you’ve done the groundwork, it’s time to devise a diet plan that will work for you. While ‘miracle’ slimming diets that claim they’ll help you lose weight fast might sound tempting, many will...

• Severely restrict your food intake
• Have you scouring the supermarket shelves for weird and wonderful ingredients
• Require you to make time-consuming meals
• Ban certain groups of foods such as carbs or dairy products as well as all your favourites.

The Conclusion : meals will be boring and leave you feeling miserable or take too long to prepare so that you quickly give up. These diets may also leave you short on many nutrients if groups of foods are off limits, putting you at risk of a whole host of health problems ranging from anaemia and osteoporosis to constipation and lowered immunity.

Instead, it’s best to avoid faddy diets and devise your own reduced-calorie slimming diet based on what you currently eat, including some of your favourite foods.

WLR will set an appropriate calorie intake for you, based on whether you want to lose weight at a rate of ½lb, 1lb, 1½lb or 2lb a week – and then it’s simply a case of sticking to this daily calorie intake.

The good thing about this is that it allows you to adapt your diet to your lifestyle – rather than trying to change your lifestyle to fit around mealtimes. This means you can still create incredible meals if you love cooking or can simply heat up a ready meal if you don’t like, or have time, to spend hours in the kitchen.

Better still, cutting your calorie intake for slimming purposes isn’t usually as hard as it sounds. Often it is as simple as reducing your portion sizes slightly and/or making simple calorie swaps every day. For example, swapping a daily Danish pastry for a wholemeal scone will save a staggering 275 calories, while having a small 150ml glass of wine instead of a large 230ml glass will save almost 70 calories. Slimming really is that easy.

Slimming Info - Calories to Lose

Calories to Lose a Pound of Body Fat

Here comes the slimming tips :

To shift 1lb of body fat, you need to ‘lose’ 3,500 calories. That might sound a lot, but over a week, it amounts to just 500 calories a day – and that can easily be done by making a few little changes to your diet, being a bit more active, or best of all, doing both. For example, cutting 500 calories in a day is as simple as swapping a bowl of creamy chicken soup for vegetable soup, topping your jacket potato with cottage cheese rather than Cheddar cheese, switching a can of cola for the diet version and doing 50 minutes of housework! Make little changes like this every day and in a week you’ll lose 1lb – without having to starve yourself or fill up on an unpleasant milkshake in place of a meal or banning all your favourite foods! And if you want to lose 2lb a week, you simply need to double your calorie saving and ‘lose’ 7,000 calories in a week or 1,000 calories a day!

Understanding the ‘maths’ is crucial to slimming but it’s also essential to set realistic goals, both in terms of the total amount of weight you want to lose – and how long it will take you. So if your list of resolutions includes aims such as losing a stone in a couple of weeks or wearing a size-8 dress in the spring when you have 6 stone to shift, it’s time to cross them out and get real!

Burn Calories - Get Slim

Give your slimming plan a boost with Juliette's 30 fun ways to burn 300 calories a day Show some leg power and walk fast for 52 minutes Rearrange your bedroom and lug heavy furniture around for just 35 minutes Go back to the 70s and rollerskate for half an hour Hog the ski machine at your gym for 22 minutes Do a 40-minute low-impact aerobics class Dust off your bike and go for a 26-minute cycle Book a badminton court for 45 minutes and persuade a friend to have a game with you Do 26 minutes of circuit training exercise Spring clean your house for an hour Have a laugh with your partner and learn to ballroom dance – a one hour and 10 minute lesson is all you’ll need Take a 35-minute hike in the countryside – and then order a diet drink when you get to the pub Go for a 30-minute jog Get rid of your aggression and have a go at kick boxing – 20 minutes is enough Tidy up your garden for 42 minutes Spruce up your front room and paint the walls for 45 minutes Do a 55-minute class of aqua aerobics Row vigorously on the machine at your gym for 25 minutes Have a go at horse riding – you’ll need to book a lesson for 1 hour and 30 minutes Get together with friends and go ice skating for 40 minutes Cycle vigorously on the exercise bike at your gym for 20 minutes Have a fast and furious game of squash for just 17 minutes Scrub your kitchen floor for 40 minutes Go for a 21-minute swim, doing front crawl at a fast pace Scrape off that wallpaper you’ve always hated for 45 minutes Go clubbing with your friends and dance for at least 35 minutes Hog the running machine at your gym for 21 minutes and run at a pace of 10 minutes per mile Walk your neighbour’s dog for an hour Learn to snorkel at your local pool – you’ll need to practice for 45 minutes Get into martial arts and have a go at tae kwan do – you’ll only need to do it for 21 minutes Join an aerobic dance class for 30 minutes These figures are based on a woman who weighs 11 stone. If you weigh more than this or are a man, you’ll burn more calories. If you weigh less, you’ll burn fewer calories.