Healthy Weight Loss

Even though everyone loses weight in a different way, it is common and perfectly normal for any dieter to reach a plateau.  Instead of allowing it to frustrate you, use it as an opportunity to double up your efforts and reconnect with your strategy to carry you through to the finish line. Listed below are 5 of the best ways to re-ignite the healthy weight loss process when you feel challenged. Choose the tips that work best for you or simply go for them all!

Healthy Weight Loss Plateau Breaker #1: Start Exercising
Although you can lose weight without exercise, it will always accellerate your efforts. If you are not injured or do not suffer from severe asthma, be thankful that you can get outside and move your body. Take advantage of your ability to be active because many people do not have that luxury. The more you exercise, the better you will get at it, and the less it will feel like work.

If you are already exercising, add something different to the mix to make your body working harder. Add intensity, in the form of extra weight, run faster or for a longer distance, or more duration. Going until you fail is the easiest way to ensure you’re pushing hard enough. Add extra sit-ups and push-ups before you go to sleep and when you wake up. Done in the AM on an empty stomach, this can kick-start your metabolism by teaching your body to more efficiently mobilize its fat stores for energy.

Healthy Weight Loss Plateau Breaker #2: Make Healthier Eating Choices
When you are trying to lose weight, there is nothing more important than proper nutrition. Your body can perform miracles with choices like soy protein shakes, fruits and vegetables. You’ll not only bust past your plateau, but you’ll do it in a healthy way. Eliminate refined sugar grains (most pre-packaged snack foods) so carbohydrates can not get their way unnoticed into your diet.

Cutting back on how often you eat can have a negative impact on your diet plateau as well. Small, frequent meals are more satisfying and produce better weight-loss results than the same number of calories consumed in three large meals. Take advantage of healthys nacks like protein bars, soy nuts and fresh vegetable and fruit slices. Eating more of the right kinds of food is a much smarter plan of action to break a healthy weight loss plateau than starving yourself.

Healthy Weight Loss Plateau Breaker #3: Drink Green Tea
Whenever I want to lose 5 or 10 pounds of stubborn belly fat, I drink more green tea. Packed with more vitamins and antioxidants than any other drink, green tea is an all-natural way to give yourself energy to compliment your enthusiasm for losing weight. The best part, however, is that green tea ahas the amazing ability to actually speed up your metabolism! You will notice results right away with just one cup, but the more you drink it, the more you will want it!

Healthy Weight Loss Plateau Breaker #4: Keep Your Incentive Strong
the body achieves what the mind believes. If you don’t believe you can make it past the hurdle of a weight loss plateau, you probably won’t. You’ll give up before you have a chance to even try. Focus on re-capturing the determination you felt when you first began your weight-loss program. The excitement of watching the pounds drop one by one should be the focus of your motivation. If it was something that has come and gone, like a high school reunion or a wedding, choose a new goal.

Start keeping a diet journal of everything you eat and drink. You may quickly discover that hidden carbohydrates and sugars are keeping your healthy weight-loss progress stuck at the plateau. Eliminate trigger foods or anything that you think may be contributing to your inability to lose more weight. If you are eating pretzels every day at 2pm, don’t starve yourself by not eating if you are hungry at that time…just replace the pretzels with something healthier like fruit or chicken.

Healthy Weight Loss Plateau Breaker #5: Drink More Water
It is extremely important to replenish your fluids by drinking plenty of water on any weight loss program, especially if you are incorporating exercise on a daily basis. An inadequate supply of water can slow down your weight-loss, so carry a water bottle with you wherever you go throughout the day. Keeping well hydrated not only helps you burn fat efficiently, it also helps control hunger.

Follow these 5 steps and you will have a better chance of breaking your healthy weight loss plateau than if youcontinue stressing over the obstacle. Each time you sit down to eat or have a snack, take a moment to become mindful that the food you are about to eat is either taking you one step closer to your goal, or one step away. As you make this mental connection, and dedicate each serving of food or drink to your weight loss, you will naturally be inclined to enjoy the foods and drinks that pushed you past your plateau.

We all know how important protein is to any diet, whether you are trying to achieve a healthy weight loss
or not. Certain fad diets tell people its OK to go out and eat as much greasy bacon as you want, as long as you stay away from those killer carbohydrates. As you probably have already figured out, this type of diet does not work. The main reason is that the source of protein comes from animal fats, and eating too much of it will take its toll on your health.

Be very thankful that we have soy in our world. It is the healthy alternative to animal protein for many many reasons. The incorporation of even just a small amount of soy protein into the diet every day is beneficial in the prevention of all kinds of diseases. What does that have to do with losing weight? Everything!

The key to healthy weight loss is proper nutrition. Once your body is healthy on a daily basis, it can perform miracles. Living a healthy lifestyle means choosing soy over bacon when you want to give your body protein fuel. When you feed your body the right way, you will get the results you want.

Soy contains more protein than milk without the saturated fat or cholesterol. Soya beans are the only beans to be considered a complete protein because they contain all eight essential amino acids. Soy protein contains high levels of a substance called Tyrosine, which helps to maintain our alertness and mental energy without the need for excess calories.

Soy is a low-glycemic index food which helps regulate blood-sugar and insulin fluctuations. This helps you to feel more satisfied and less hungry until your next meal, which is beneficial for weight management and control. Some studies even indicate that soy may stimulate the metabolism! How cool is that!

Soy also helps reduce the amount of fat that is stored in your body by converting fewer calories into fat from the food that you consume. Soy protein can also control insulin levels therefore reducing the frequency of sugar cravings. Since your body will feel more satisfied and less hungry, this will also reduce the overindulgent eating.

Soy also enhances energy levels and building muscle mass in a healthy way. Muscles burn energy during daily activities and exercise. Increased muscle mass burns more calories. Since soy increases the speed at which the fat cells burn the fat stored in the body, it once again affects your metabolism. Exercise is not mandatory for a healthy weight loss, but even the smallest workout every day can accelerate your weight loss efforts.

I had chronic asthma all of my life and could not exercise…until I began drinking soy-based protein shake meal replacements. I lost 70 pounds in 4 months and have kept it off for over 15 years now. The best part is that because of the benefits of soy, I can now exercise every day without any breathing problems. I was also able to get rid of all my prescription medications on top of it.

Do I have to drink a soy-based shake every day? No, I do not have to. If I want to go back to being overweight with breathing problems, I suppose I could stop using soy. But why would I ever want to do that? As I stated before, the key to a healthy weight loss and maintaining an ideal weight is the willingness to lead a healthy lifestyle. You can not lose weight and expect to go back to old bad eating habits without suffering the consequences.

A great advantage to living a healthy lifestyle is that you do not need to give up the foods you love. You can sill eat them, just not as often. You must replace some of those foods with healthier alternatives. The road to a healthy weight loss is littered with all kinds of snack wrappers, like soy nuts, protein bars and fruit. (OK, fruit usually doesn’t need a wrapper, but you get my point.

Since fad diets, unbalanced diets, diet pills, diet supplements, weight loss surgery and other short term weight loss methods are the cheaters way to lose weight, why bother? Cheaters never prosper and there is no substitute for proper nutrition. Take advantage of the many benefits soy can give to you and you will soon find yourself living the kind of life you deserve.

Anyone struggling to lose weight may be focusing all of their energy on the wrong thing…food! It is equally important to make sure you are drinking liquids that accelerate healthy weight loss. Staying hydrated is essential for your body. What you drink can effect your mood and focus not to mention your health. If you pick the right drinks, you will benefit from the nutrients, antioxidants and proteins that will help with a healthy weight loss.

Americans in general are problem drinkers. We crave high-sugar, high-calorie drinks like sodas and smoothies. Over 20 percent of American’s calorie intake comes from drinks such as soda pop, fruit punches, and the oh-so trendy Starbuck lattes. We are becoming obese because of all these extra calories we do not need. The next time you feel thirsty and have trouble determining whether or not a drink is healthy, refer to the list below.

Healthy Weight Loss Drink #1: Water

Water is a crucial part of healthy weight loss success. Forget flavored energy drinks and expensive bottled water. Remember the free stuff that comes out of your kitchen sink? We all grew up on this stuff and no one became unhealthy because of it, yet for some reason we flock to the store to buy it in a bottle just because a television commerical tells us to.

If you think your tap water is full of impurities, buy a Brita water purifying pitcher or some type of water filter. The main point here is that pure water is healthier than any kind of diet soda or energy drink you can pay for. Drink up to 8 glasses a day and you will notice an acceleration in your weight loss.

Healthy Weight Loss Drink #2: Pomegranate Juice

Drinking concentrated pomegranate juice may reduce cholesterol and blood pressure while slowing down LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) oxidation. Because they contain beneficial antioxidants, they rid your body of harmful free radicals that can slow down any weight loss program. The healthier your body is, the better it can perform.

Pomegranate juice is safe to drink, but just like anything else you should not over-indulge. Most studies have shown that a daily helping of 1.5 oz. of pomegranate juice is the most beneficial. Anti-oxidants are found in bright colored fruits like red grapes. Unlike pomegranate juice, be careful when drinking grape juice. Manufacturers tend to add a lot of sugar into fruit juices so they seem healthy, but they really are not.

Healthy Weight Loss Drink #3: Green Tea

Green tea is one of the drinks I use on a daily basis that contributes to helping me keep an ideal weight after losing 70 pounds 15 years ago. Just like pomegranite juice, it is full of powerful antioxidants that give your body the very best fuel a drink can possibly give. Depending on the manufacturer, green tea comes in all kinds of flavors.

One cup of green tea every morning gives me enough energy to last all day long. It is a natural energy, unlike the sugar rush you get from fitness drinks and coffee, so you never feel let down as the day goes on. Energy is obviously important for weight loss because the more you move around, the more calories you will burn.

Healthy Weight Loss Drink #4: Soy-Based Protein Shakes

Along with green tea, soy-based protein shakes are responsible for my weight loss and weight maintenance. Imagine getting 2,000 calories worth of nutrition in a 200 calorie smoothie. Your body gets what it needs without the excess baggage that comes with eating tons of food. It is the closest thing to a magic weight loss potion that you will find.

Depending on how much weight you need to lose, this drink acts as a meal replacement. Obese people who need to lose over 100 pounds should obviously replace each meal with a shake, and those maintaining weight should replace at least one. I would never let a day go by without one of these powerful drinks. Why would I? I have been at my ideal weight and medication free ever since I introduced them into my diet.

The bottom line here is that you must pay attention to what you drink as much as what you eat if you are trying to lose or maintain a healthy weight. Start by replacing what you are now drinking with any or all of the suggestions above. Living a healthy lifestyle is the key to reaching your healthy weight loss goals. That requires the mindset of person willing to make small changes on a daily basis.

You are what you eat…and drink!