Small changes make Big difference

Weight control is not only about low calorie intake and more fat burning activities, but it is about developing good habits to bring a permanent change in your lifestyle.

It is all about making small changes that you can live with forever. 

As you incorporate these minor adjustments into your lifestyle, you'll begin to see how they can add up to big calorie savings and weight loss. 

Here are my top 10 habits to help you turn your dream of weight loss into a reality:

 1. Evaluate your eating habits. Are you eating late at night, nibbling while cooking, finishing the kids' meals? Take a look around, and it will be easy to identify a few behaviors you can change that will add up to big calorie savings.

2. If you fail to plan, plan to fail. You need a strategy for your meals and snacks. Pack healthful snacks for the times of day that you know you are typically hungry and can easily stray from your eating plan.

3. Always shop with a full belly. It's a recipe for disaster to go into the grocery store when you are hungry. Shop from a prepared list so impulse buying is kept to a minimum. Eating right starts with stocking healthy food in your pantry and refrigerator.

4. Eat regular meals. Figure out the frequency of your meals that works best in your life and stick to it. Regular meals help prevent bingeing.

5. Eat your food sitting down at a table, and from a plate. Food eaten out of packages and while standing is forgettable. You can wind up eating lots more than if you sit down and consciously enjoy your meals.

6. Serve food onto individual plates, and leave the extras back at the stove.Bowls of food on the table beg to be eaten, and it takes incredible will power not to dig in for seconds. Remember, it takes about 20 minutes for your mind to get the signal from your belly that you are full.

7. Eat slowly, chew every bite, and savor the taste of the food. Try resting your fork between bites and drinking plenty of water with your meals.

8. Don't eat after dinner. This is where lots of folks pack on the extra pounds. If you are hungry, try satisfying your urge with a non-caloric beverage or a piece of hard candy. Brushing your teeth after dinner helps reduce the temptation to eat again.

9. If you snack during the day, treat the snack like a mini-meal. The most nutritious snacks contain complex carbohydrates and a small amount of protein and fat.

10. Start your day with breakfast. It is the most important meal of the day. After a long night's rest, your body needs the fuel to get your metabolism going and give you energy for the rest of the day.

Why Exercise is important part of our routine?

Research has confirmed that any amount of exercise, at any age, is beneficial. 

And, in general, the more you do, the greater the benefits. The National Academy of Sciences has recommended that everyone strive for a total of an hour per day of physical activity. Sounds like a lot, but the hour can be made up of several shorter bursts of activity (it can be walking, gardening, even heavy housecleaning) done throughout the day.

Physical activity is an essential part of any weight-loss program, to maximize your fat loss while keeping valuable muscle mass.

But exercise has many other health and longevity benefits. It can help prevent or improve these conditions:

1. Heart Disease. Regular activity strengthens your heart muscle; lowers blood pressure; increases "good" cholesterol (high-density lipoproteins or HDLs) and lowers "bad" cholesterol (low-density lipoproteins or LDLs); enhances blood flow; and helps your heart function more efficiently. All of these benefits reduce the risk of stroke, heart disease, and high blood pressure.

Researchers at Duke University suggest that the amount of physical activity, rather than its intensity, has the biggest impact on improving blood lipids (cholesterol).

According to The New England Journal of Medicine, these researchers also found that any exercise is better than none -- although more is better.

2. Stroke. In an analysis of 23 studies, researchers found that being active reduces your risk of having and dying from a stroke.

According to a study published in the journal Stroke, moderately active study participants had 20% less risk of stroke than less active participants.

3. Type II Diabetes. This disease is increasing at alarming rates -- by 62% since 1990 -- and 17 million Americans now have it.

Physical activity can enhance weight loss and help prevent and/or control this condition. Losing weight can increase insulin sensitivity, improve blood sugar and cholesterol levels, and reduce blood pressure all of which are very important to the health of people with diabetes.

In a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, Frank Hu, MD, of the Harvard School of Public Health found that a brisk walk for one hour daily could reduce the risk of type II diabetes by 34%.

4. Obesity. Overweight and obese conditions can be prevented or treated with exercise along with a healthy diet.

Activity helps to reduce body fat and increase muscle mass, thus improving your body's ability to burn calories.

The combination of reduced calories and daily exercise is the ticket to weight loss.

And controlling obesity is critical, as it is a major risk factor for many diseases. Lowering your body mass index (BMI) is a sure way to reduce your risk of dying early and to live a healthier life.

5. Back Pain. Back pain can be managed or prevented with a fitness program that includes muscle strengthening and flexibility. 

Having good posture and a strong abdomen is the body's best defense against back pain.

6. Osteoporosis. Weight-bearing exercise (such as walking, jogging, stair climbing, dancing, or lifting weights) strengthens bone formation and helps prevent the osteoporosis or bone loss often seen in women after menopause. 

Combine a diet rich in calcium and vitamin D with regular weight-bearing exercise for maximum results.

According to The Journal of the American Medical Association, data from the Nurses' Health Study showed that women who walked four or more hours per week had 41% fewer hip fractures than those who walked less than an hour a week.

7. Psychological Benefits. Improved self-esteem is one of the top benefits of regular physical activity.

While exercising, your body releases chemicals called endorphins that can improve your mood and the way you feel about yourself. 

The feeling that follows a run or workout is often described as "euphoric" and is accompanied by an energizing outlook.

Exercise can help you cope with stress and ward off depression and anxiety.

And these are just a few of the ways exercise improves your health. 

Studies have suggested it can also help with certain types of cancer, improve immune function, and more.

Putting It All Together: Exercise and a Healthy Diet

Exercise alone produces modest weight loss; when combined with a reduced-calorie diet, the effects are much more impressive.

In a study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, University of Pittsburgh researchers found that people who exercised regularly and ate a healthy, modest-calorie diet lost weight and improved cardiorespiratory fitness regardless of the length or intensity of their workouts.

Another study published in JAMA showed that it is never too late to reap the benefits of physical activity. 

Sedentary women 65 years and older who began walking a mile a day cut their rates of death from all causes by 50%.

Resistance, Resistance

If exercise is so good for us, why aren't people doing it?

Some 64% of men and 72% of women fail to fit in activity on a daily basis, according to data from the 2000 National Health Interview Survey. Americans today are no more active than they were a decade ago.

Monday to Sunday Diet Plan

If you thought shedding those extra pounds is something beyond your reach, you could be in for a pleasant surprise. Here is a simple meal plan that could be used along with your work out regimen to shed 10 kilos in a matter of just 2 months. So, here we go.

Monday 

Breakfast: 3/4 cup bran flakes, any one fruit like apple or banana, 1 cup fat-free milk.

Lunch: Replace white carbohydrates like rice, bread, potato or pasta with whole wheat bread or chapati, 1 piece of cheese, chicken, 1 teaspoon light mayonnaise, and salad greens or fruit.

Dinner: Fish, steamed broccoli, grated cheese and fat free ice cream.

Tip-Make sure to eliminate high carbohydrate foods and include fruits, vegetables and high protein food. Eating food in smaller portions rather than one big meal will be beneficial.

Tuesday

Start your day with a table spoon of lemon juice mixed with honey.

Breakfast: Cereal with fat free milk.

Lunch: 2 chapatis or a small bowl of rice with vegetables.

Snack: Oat meal biscuits with tea (Try green tea, which is highly recommended for weight loss and health.)

Dinner: Light dinner of salad or whole wheat bread sandwich.

Tip: You can follow an easy diet plan in the following line. You are free to make minor changes to suit your tastes.

Wednesday

Start your day with black coffee or tea.

Breakfast: Cooked oatmeal in fat free milk, half apple or banana topped with a teaspoon of honey.

Lunch: 1 cup rice, and dal, vegetable curry, any fruits like grapes, or bananas.

Dinner: Steamed shrimp, vegetable curry, chapatis, and baked or steamed potato.

Tip: Include five small meals per day including breakfast, lunch and dinner along with two snacks in between. A meal should ideally contain 400 to 500 calories and snacks less than 200 calories. 

Thursday 

Green tea is a good option to kick off your day.

Breakfast: Fruits like apples, banana, and fat free yoghurt.

Lunch: Tomato soup, roasted beef, radish, lettuce, tomato, pear and whole wheat chapatti with 1 cup of chopped vegetables.

Dinner: Cooked brown rice and pineapple/apple/orange pieces.

Eat your food slowly. For snacks instead of fried items or sweets, try nuts or fruits and protein shake, or salads. Settle for sugar free and low carb options while buying ice creams and cakes.

Friday 

Breakfast: 1/2 cup berries, a few almonds and 1 pint of fat free milk.

Lunch: Fat free beans and 1 chapati with vegetables or cheese, cucumber slices.

Dinner: Green salad with fat free dressing, chapati.

Tip: Drink fresh water all through the day. Avoid soft drinks and soda instead includes tomato or lemon juice in your diet.

Saturday 

Breakfast: 1 Idli or chapati, with vegetable curry. 1/2 sliced banana, skimmed milk.

Lunch: 1 chapati, 1 cup of rice, light yoghurt, fish curry, mustard, cucumber, tomatoes and onion slices.

Dinner: Brown rice, steamed spinach and an apple.

Tip: Spicy food containing chili pepper is thought to have weight reducing properties.

Sunday 

Breakfast: Muesli with skimmed milk or chapati with cheese, tomato slice.

Lunch: Rice, salads, vegetables.

Dinner: Grilled chicken, chapati, pineapple slices.

Tip: Drink lots of water to lose weight fast.

Make sure to consult your doctor before starting any diet plan. Denying food to your body is not the solution to lose weight. Instead choose your menu carefully and see the pounds drop slowly yet steadily!

6 Meals Diet Plan - Indian Meal Plan

About- 6 Meals a day Diet plan (Indian Meal Plan):

We've many diet plans on net but very few are for Indian meal. And we know Indian meals are very yummy but at the same times it's loaded with calories, fats, sugar, carbs and saturated fats.

So here is a meal plan which works. Go ahead and try it.

Rule: Drink 200 ml water before every meal.  Exercise/ Walk 5 times a week for 40 min. 

Morning Breakfast (7am-8:00am)  :

Whole wheat Bread slice 2 toasted  and tea/milk.  OR 

Oat meal bowl ½ cup oatmeal boil with 1cup skimmed milk. Add some cut fruits e.g. apple or banana or grapes or strawberries.  OR

 2-3 Idlies with sambhar and very little chutney. It’s good to avoid coconut chutney. Instead try cilantro or mint or onion or tomato or cabbage chutney. OR

1 Boiled egg with Toasted Bread and tea.

Snack Time (9:30am - 10:30am):  

1 Orange OR

1 Cup yogurt/dahi with little cut fruits OR

Sliced carrots 1 Cup OR

Cucumber slices 1 Cup OR

1 Apple OR

2 Cups Water Mellon OR

Hand full Almonds (6-8 in count) OR

Walnut (6-8 Half in counts). OR

Combination of Almonds and Walnut

Lunch Time (12:00- 1:30pm):

2Phulka/Roti (without oil & ghee) , ½ Cup Vegetables curry, 1 Cup Dal, 1 Bowl Salad. OR

1 Cup Cooked Rice (without starch(Maad in Hindi) i.e drain starch from rice when it's cooked half way) with  ½ Cup Vegetables curry, 1 Cup Dal, 1 Bowl Salad.

OR Chicken (try to make curries with 2teaspoon oil) Curry in 1Cup with 2 Phulka/Roti (without oil & ghee)  , 1 bowl salad.

Snack Time (3:30am - 4:30am):

1 Orange  OR

1 Cup yogurt with little cut fruits OR

Sliced carrots 1 Cup OR

Cucumber slices 1 Cup OR

1 Apple OR

2 Cups Water Mellon OR

Hand full Almonds (6-8 in count) OR

Walnut(6-8 Half in counts)

Combination of Almonds and Walnut

Dinner (7:00pm – 8:00pm): 1 Phulka/Roti (without oil & ghee), ½ Cup Vegetables curry, 1 Cup Dal, 1 Bowl Salad. OR

Rice (without starch) 1 Cup with, 1 Cup Dal, 1 Bowl Salad. OR

1Cup Chicken Curry (try to make curries with 2teaspoon oil only) with 1 Phulka/Roti (without oil & ghee),  1 bowl salad, ½ cup boiled rice(without starch).

Snack (10:30pm):

1 Glass butter milk OR

lime juice with salt and warm water OR

Water Mellon OR

Any seasonal fruit.

Important Tips:

·  Always try to keep Diet food Indian so you don’t have to compromise in flavor.

• Cook rice in vessel and not pressure cooker so it’s easy to throw rice starch.
• Add soy powder or palak or maythi or ½ cup moong dal in wheat flour while making dough so as to reduce carb intake.
• Add cut vegetables in  Rice to reduce carb intake.
• Plan your meal and snack previous night to avoid hassle or slippage next day.
• Keep oil in small bowl/kattori and put 1/2teaspoon measure oil spoon from measuring set or use tiny flat steel spoon.
• Use water to cook curries instead of oil. Mix garam masala in water add to curries and pressure cook. It’ll come out good.
• Use cooker to speed up cooking process and  use non-stick pan to use less oil.

Quick Tips to Loss 5lbs (2.3kgs) in two weeks:

Check weight every week to keep track of weight loss.

• Avoid emotional/pampered eating.  Avoid processed food e.g. Cookies, crackers, Diet Bars, Juices, Diet Cookies, Cakes, Bread.
• Try to eat food in original form. E.g eat fruit instead fruit juice.
• Avoid oily and sweet food.

Note:-I got this diet plan on internet, and i have not tried this myself but it will not cause any harm rather its seems this will help, so you can try this out.

Morning Banana diet

Morning Banana Diet Rules

Every diet has rules. If a diet works for you, it’s simply because the rules have had the effect of making you eat less food (nothwithstanding whatever magical claims a diet may make). Diet rules generally do this by making eating a little harder or less convenient, through restricting when or what you can eat. Throw in a little “scientific theory” for motivation, and you have a diet. And remember, no diet works for everybody. So what are the Morning Banana Diet rules? Here’s a synopsis collected from various sources:

Eat a banana for breakfast

You can eat more than one, and in fact the inventor of the diet often ate four bananas in the morning, but don’t stuff yourself to the point of fullness or discomfort.

§  Eat only raw, uncooked, unfrozen bananas.

§  Other fruit may be substituted.

§  If other fruit is substituted, some variants require it be restricted to one type of fruit per meal.

§  If you are still hungry 15 or 30 minutes after your banana, you can eat other food (the Japanese inventor of the original Asa Banana Diet sometimes ate a rice ball two and a half hours later, about 200 calories worth; Morning Banana forum members have suggested oatmeal, although it’s not as portable as a rice ball).

Eat normally for lunch and dinner

§  Dinner must be eaten by 8 p.m. at the latest (6 p.m. is better).

§  There are no explicit limits on the types of food you can eat for lunch and dinner, or the amount. But in practice dieters report on Mixi that they try to cut the amount of rice they eat and find substitutions for fried foods. As with many diets, the mere fact you have decided to go on a diet tends to make you more aware of what and how much you are are eating and how healthy it is. The diet avoids strict food rules to prevent a sense of deprivation.

§  However, you should not eat a dessert with dinner or any of your meals; you’ll need to satisfy your sweet tooth during a snack, but we’ll get to that later.

§  At all meals you should eat only until you’re satisfied but not full or stuffed. The Japanese have a proverb, Hara hachibu ni isha irazu, “A stomach eight-tenths full needs no doctor.” American dietitians define this level of fullness or satiety as a 7 on a 1-to-10 “hunger scale,” and they teach their clients to recognize this feeling.

Drink only water

§  The only beverage allowed at most meals is water, preferably mineral or filtered.

§  The water must be at room temperature, not chilled or hot.

§  The water should be drunk in small sips and not used to wash down food.

§  There is no quota of water to drink, and you should not drink it in excess.

§  Outside of meals non-caloric beverages like tea, coffee, and diet soda are generally allowed but somewhat frowned upon, and in general water is encouraged as much as possible; frequent consumption of milk products is discouraged.

§  On social occasions you may drink beer or wine.

Eat your food mindfully

§  Chew your banana and other food thorouoghly and be mindful of its taste.

You may eat an afternoon snack

§  A sweet snack of chocolate, cookies, or the like is allowed at about 3 p.m.

§  Ice cream, a donut, or potato chips are not recommended.

§  Some substitute fresh fruit for their snack, but if you want sweets you should not deny yourself.

§  Some Japanese who like salty snacks eat salted konbu (seaweed) snacks and some Japanese who are very hungry in the afternoon substitute a filling, fist-sized rice ball for sweets.

§  A good alternative if a salty or more filling snack is needed is popcorn according to Morning Banana forum members, but watch out for excessive fat content.

§  If you are hungry after dinner, you may have a second snack of fresh fruit, but this should not be a habit.

Early to bed

§  Go to bed by midnight. If you can manage to go to bed earlier, all the better.

§  Try to aim for a four-hour period between your last meal or snack and bedtime (which is why 8:00 p.m. is the latest you should eat dinner).

Exercise only if you want to

§  Put no pressure on yourself to exercise.

§  If you want to exercise, go ahead: the test is to do what puts the least stress on you.

§  But try to get some walking in every day if possible (but again, don’t force yourself if it stresses you out).

Note : - I have not made any changes in this diet plan I got it from the original website of morning banana diet.