The first thing that you should consider when picking your new, healthy diet is how often you currently exercise. Some diets are specifically planned with exercise in mind. The nutrient balance, calorie counts and volume of food are based off of how much your body burns off during exercise and how elevated your metabolism is due to exercise. Those who exercise more have a higher metabolism. This means they can eat more calories in a day and maintain weight. While the recommended diet amount is 2,000 calories in a day, this number changes based off of how often you exercise. A 2,000 calorie diet assumes that you are exercising three times a week for at least half an hour. If you don’t do this, you need to consume fewer calories in a day. However, nutrient requirements do not typically change between a higher calorie versus lower calorie diets. These are the base nutrients required for good health and survival. However, those who do exercise more often will need to consume higher amounts of protein. Protein is the building block of muscles, organs and bone. Without protein, the vital organs and muscles atrophy. This can result in extreme illness. When you are selecting your diet, ensure that it will have sufficient protein for good health.

Once you know what type of diet that you want to start, it is necessary that you stick with it. Never start a diet with a drastic change in eating habits and lifestyle changes. Drastic changes often result in immediate failure. It is important that new habits are learned gradually so that they become second nature. When healthy food choices are the norm, it is much easier to maintain good health.

Finally, try to pick a diet that has foods that you enjoy in it. While there are some medical diets where it is necessary to follow with a restriction of foods, picking a diet that you enjoy will greatly improve your chances at success. As success is based off of personal commitment and motivation, taking the time to pick a healthy diet that suits your tastes will ensure the best odds.

At the heart of muscle building science is protein and insulin. So, follow these tips and you will build more muscle and you will build muscle faster.

• Pre – Workout Shake. When you first start into your muscle building regime, you will begin with a protein shake 30 minutes before your workout. There are hundreds of different kinds, but the why proteins are often the ones chosen by new muscle builders because they are more affordable and more readily available. The shake before you workout does not have to have carbohydrates, unlike the shake after your workout.

• Post – Workout Shake. After you have drilled those muscles to exhaustion, it is time to make that blood glucose level jump a little. When you prepare your post workout shake, adding a little carbohydrate powder to the mix will boost the insulin levels in the body which will help to move more protein into the muscle and essentially provide more food for the muscle to utilize when repairing (growing bigger).

Even the person who is new to muscle building can take these tips and build more muscle. You do not have to be a muscle head to build muscle quickly and effectively.

After years of study, the Atkins diet has been proven to be less than harmful on the body. As a matter of fact, in long term study, the people who maintained the Atkins diet for more than 10 years, were in better health than those who ate a lower calorie, higher carbohydrate diet.

The Atkins diet is based on the bodies need for energy. Carbohydrates are utilized as the first energy source due to their quick burning nature. After the carbohydrate stores are used up, usually within the first three days on the diet, the fat stores are then used as the primary energy source. Since the body takes longer to burn the fat, the Atkins diet followers are less hungry and feel fuller longer after a meal.

Pair this knowledge with the fact that studies have also shown higher protein diets keep the hunger at bay for longer periods, and you will have the main reason why the Atkins diet works.

The trouble with the Atkins diet is staying on the diet long term. Many people view the diet as a way to lose weight and then fall right back into their carbohydrate stacking days. In order for the health benefits to be optimized, the lower carbohydrate diet needs to be maintained for a lifetime. In the later phases of the Atkins diet, many people choose to eat between 100 and 150 grams of carbobohydrates a day.

Friendly Reminder: Always consult your Doctor before starting any new diet plan!

1. Skipping Meals

Surprisingly, deprivation alone does not a diet make. In fact, eating smaller, more frequent meals or including small, healthy snacks between meals can prevent putting your body into its “famine mode,” in which it begins storing more fat to provide energy when food is scarce. Furthermore, most experts agree that those who eat a light breakfast lose weight faster than those who don’t.

2. Failing to Include Exercise

Losing weight is about burning more calories than you consume. A sensible exercise program burns calories and leads to better overall fitness. Besides, muscle cells burn more calories than fat cells.

3. Following the Fads

Sorry to burst your bubble, but there is no “silver bullet” when it comes to weight loss. Jumping from diet to diet in the search for the Weight Loss Grail will usually leave you frustrated, unsuccessful, and, because of buying all those books, videos, and special foods, probably poorer.

4. Weighing Too Often

Sustainable weight loss is gradual, not sudden. Also, your weight will normally fluctuate during the month, especially if you are a woman. If you have included exercise as part of your regimen, you’re probably also building muscle, which is denser than fat. For all of these reasons, checking your weight every day can be frustrating and undermining to your long term goals. Weigh regularly, and at the same time of the day (preferably first thing in the morning). But don’t obsess, and don’t do it too often.

5. Banning Favorite Foods

What could be a more discouraging prospect than realizing you would never again taste your favorite dish? Unless you have a severe medical condition and have been so advised by your doctor, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t continue to enjoy sensible, controlled, occasional portions of your favorite food. “Control” is the key.

6. Thinking Too Short Term

This is related to #4. Approach your weight loss goal as a long range objective. Your weight loss will be healthier, and you’ll be less frustrated by normal fluctuations. Try some freezer meal recipes to plan ahead on your diet…

7. Too Much Protein, Too Few Carbs

Your body needs carbohydrates, especially if you’re exercising regularly. Once again, moderation and control are the keys.

8. Not Enough Water

Insufficient hydration is bad for you, and adequate hydration can help you have more energy and can even boost your metabolism. At the very least, poor hydration makes it difficult for you to get the most from your exercise.

9. Inconsistency

Whatever you do to lose weight, you’ll have better success if you persist and get on a maintainable and realistic schedule. Too many fitness resolutions fail because they are too complicated, costly, or difficult to schedule. Make your routine work with your lifestyle, not against it.

10. Eating Out Too Often

When you eat in a restaurant, you lose control over your portion size and the ingredients. Enjoy a nice meal out every so often, just don’t overdo it.

On of my favorite personal tools is the kefir smoothie with frozen fruit. This simulates ice-cream in a very satisfying way; I think part of that may be the yeast in the kefir which lends a kind of “richness” to the flavor and feel.

What are your favorite personal tools to stay on the path to weight loss?

I’ll tell you right now. I’ll try ANYTHING at least once. The only thing I won’t bother with are “miracle diet pills” or pharmaceuticals or scammy “lose weight fast” diets and so on.

But by golly, if you have a product or service or recipe or method that makes some sense, I’ll try it! This is how I discovered kefir and kombucha and added them to my tool kit. They were both such an integral part of helping to heal my digestive system; people, probiotics, fresh, delicious probiotics are fantastic for your body and I pound my body with them everyday. These simple cultured foods have been relief beyond relief.  I used to take Priolosec everyday, at the most now, 3-4 times a month, and ONLY after something oily, and not always after something oily, no not at all… and not after alcohol either.

I’m not a doctor, but, if I had to bet on it, I would say every person out there with obesity problems has digestive diseases and syndromes. IBS, reflux, etc.  The first order of business, I think, should be to get your digestive system healthy for a couple of months, even before cutting calories and really dropping the weight. I’m glad I’ve had these two wonderful foods in my toolbox to start this journey.

When I first started going raw back in March, I spent a lot of time studying; and don’t be fooled, raw food cuisine requires study and commitment.   There are great sites out there with oodles of recipes and technique descriptions to get you started.

One of my first questions when I started learning about raw food cuisine really seemed so obvious to me: Raw food cuisine is prepared in the danger zone of food temperatures. The temperatures that bacteria are most lively and reproductive are the exact same temperatures as that tasty raw taco you are eating now. 

It is absolutely critical, even though you are working with just vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds, to keep a spotless and “hospital like” kitchen environment.  I am serious about this. You don’t need anything toxic to disinfect, oils like lavender oil were used by hospitals in World War 1 for disinfecting and are very effective on bacteria like e coli.  And yes, even organic vegetables and fruits can carry the same germs and bugs as the conventional kind.   A spray bottle with lavender oil, water and dish detergent is perfect for washing all of your fruits and vegetables.

A couple of weeks ago I had a not-so-nice experience at my very first visit to one of the local “raw food restaurants.”   My husband and I both had mild cases of food poisoning that lasted for almost an entire week.  I’m sure that’s not the usual experience with this place since they have such good reviews.  We won’t eat there again and I’ll probably never eat at another raw food restaurant out of anxiety issues. I know what I prepare at home is in a practically sterile kitchen with lots of fruit and vegetable washing.

You can’t be slack these days, even doing something as simple as preparing and organic lettuce salad; e coli is everywhere and makes people sick all of the time when they eat raw fruits and vegetables.  You need a good but safe disinfectant procedures for your raw kitchen. Stay well everyone!

Cashew – Almond Milk — soaked raw cashews and almonds, blended, and nothing else. Run it through a nut milk bag and store in fridge for up to 4 days. This recipe is for a small amount, 1/2 cup cashews and 1/2 cup almonds.

Cashew – Almond Cheese Sauce — once again, soaked, blended, but with a smaller amount of water, and run through the nut milk bag. To this is will get nutritional yeast and a few other things before I stick in in the dehydrator to warm.

Hemp Seed Chorizo   — this is my star creation since I started going raw. It’s really out of this world. tee-hee

Plenty of Romaine Lettuce — for the “taco” salads topped with hemp seed chorizo and cheese sauce.

tomatoes – onions -avacados – garlic – cilantro — we can eat off of this for days when it’s made into a raw hot salsa.

and now for the drumroll please…….

I will attempt to make a raw version of “Hamburger Helper’s” infamous “Cheeseburger Macaroni” flavor. Yeah. pics are coming and the recipe too if it’s as good as I am hoping!

For this ambitious project I will need:

The Cheese Sauce

zucchini sliced into “noodles”

hemp seed “burger crumbles” — another ambitious attempt.. I’ve found that hemp seed makes a sublime substitute for ground meat and sausage when prepared with other things.

and that’s my “Hamburger Helper”

The “cheese sauce” is a standard ingredient that can be used in both dishes and lasts about 5 days in the fridge.

Honey Mangoes — smaller and yellow, this is how they are different from the regular mangoes and oooohhhhhh soooo good. I just peel and eat them as-is whenever I like.

Raw, as I have said here before, will most certainly get you up to the vegetable and fruit requirements you NEED to lose weight. I was eating them before, but not like now! Not to mention the fact that I do not have the same digestive issues with the “raw” diet as I did vegetables in the cooked diet. Is that weird? I guess not because none of my protein comes from bean sources; you can’t eat beans or soy raw!  And honestly? I feel much better without beans and soy (which has been replaced with mostly hemp seed and kefir). I am not 100% vegan raw, although most days I am 100% raw since I do consider kefir raw because of its probiotic content.

I have also been drinking coffee and alcohol. lol. The dirty little secret of “raw” was how quickly I recovered the next day from a night of martini drinking festivities. teee-heee.  Raw fruits and vegetables are so refreshing!! I always crave GREASE the day of a hangover, like pizza. My hangovers last all day. Not this time! I did not give into getting a slice of pizza to make myself feel better I had a fresh fruit smoothie and essene bread. It sure made me feel better! lol!

Busy now coming up with a list of foods that seem to taste good raw and in raw recipes for the dehydrator and salads……..

The benefits of this are amazing. Starting with the fact that it totally resets my appetite.  Appetite is the root of all weight loss failure and this is why bariatric surgery is so effective in helping the severely obese lose weight; their appetite is controlled.  Once you ride on the obesity train for a number of years, it’s almost impossible to stop the appetite monster. I still have trouble with this, even after all this time. Since I started doing a once a week clear liquid fast I have noticed a significant change in my cravings and my willpower.

The key for getting through your first weekly clear liquid fast is is to stay very hydrated with LOTS of liquids.  In addition to this I avoid all physical exercise (no rebounding, no housecleaning, etc.). My fast day is  the day I spend sitting around and focusing on defeating the appetite monster and assessing my progress on this journey. It’s the day I listen to my body and plan my nutritional and exercise needs for the upcoming week.  Fast day is ME day.

The other benefit of a fast day is that it can help compensate for any “mistakes” made during the week. For example:  you eat one more avocado than you are supposed to during the week (an extra 200-300 calories) a fast day can help bring the weekly calorie count down.

My favorite day during the week is the day after the fast. It’s amazing to wake up in the morning after your digestive system has rested for an entire day! Healthy foods taste sooo good after a day of fasting. In fact, I am soaking some raw brazil nuts today to make fresh, raw brazil nut “milk” in the morning! YUM. …