Acai Guide

My weight has gone up and down all my married life. And people say that as you get older, it becomes even more of a problem. However, I’m pleased to say that’s not been the case. My weight in my fifties is now as low as it was in my twenties.

What’s the reason for this turnaround? Monitoring my blood sugar level. My energy would become severely depleted towards late afternoon, which made me crave a quick hit. And so I’d munch on a chocolate bar for an instant pick-me-up. All this did was to add to the fat that was already building around my waist.

And it appears that when fat gathers in the visible places, it’s also attaching itself to hidden areas such as the heart and the arteries. So now I’ve evened out my blood sugar level, and I rarely feel tired or overly hungry. I’m surviving the symptoms of the menopause more easily now too! But the best thing for me is enjoying a great night’s sleep.

What I’ve done is change to eating little and often. In my earlier life, I’d grab a coffee instead of lunch on more days than not. I’d then stuff myself at dinner, and end up uncomfortable all evening.

I ought to have been taking in modest sized ‘meals’ several times a day. Our metabolic rate peaks around the middle of the day, and slows down rapidly after that. That’s why we must focus on a good breakfast and two or three light meals during the day.

Breakfast had to become an everyday occurrence. I only eat a small amount, which saves me having to tot up the calorific value. (Our stomachs are not massive empty containers – we should be aware not to overstretch them).

I try to make lunch the biggest meal of the day, and keep grain to a minimum. By late afternoon, a small snack is now all I need take me through to a small evening meal. I eat lots of green and colourful veggies, and always have a protein source with each portion.

I don’t follow a fat-free regime, but I am careful to eat the right sort of fat. I like seeds and nuts in moderation, and salads always get a good glug of olive oil.

Lastly – and this has certainly assisted my weight loss – I’ve minimised the glasses of wine I drink each week. The high temperatures I was experiencing are a rarity now – a benefit of less alcohol I think! Have I found it difficult? Not when I think of all the benefits it brings. I’m carrying less weight, have more energy, a clearer and brighter skin, less hormonal challenges – oh, and better sex too!

(C) Scott Edwards. Pop to WeightLossDietWar.com for great diet tips on to reduce weight and weight loss diet pill.

Managing our weight often means avoiding temptation. But this isn’t always possible in daily life. It’s especially bad if we’re the one who cooks for the family – with one meal for ourselves and another for everyone else! What can we do to improve on this?

No matter what meals we eat, as dieters we should start by reducing the amount we consume. It’s much more gratifying to start a meal with a full plate, so find a smaller than average plate and keep that one for yourself. Don’t rush to be the first to start eating. Take your time and chew your food well. Eating slowly will leave you more satisfied with your smaller portion for longer.

Basically you can often eat the same food as your family is eating, but cut down on the amount of rice, pasta, potatoes and fatty meat. Eat more veg to avoid getting too hungry. And leave the side portion of bread for hungry teenagers! When it comes to desserts, if puddings are a regular family event – choose carefully. Cooked fruit without the pastry is acceptable, but suet pudding is not!

However, you can do better than that on some days. Appetizing low fat dinners don’t always seem like slimming meals if they’re prepared carefully. Fresh herbs make a great addition to spaghetti dishes – and add plenty of mushrooms and courgettes. Don’t use any oil – just a can of chopped tomatoes and perhaps a hint of sour cream or low fat yoghurt.

When buying food, go for reduced fat dairy products and lean meat. No matter whether your partner or kids could do with losing weight, this will still do them good. Everyone likes lean white meat – just make sure the skin’s been taken off yours before eating. Potatoes can be nice and filling for slimmers – just buy ones with a creamy texture. You won’t need to add butter before serving then.

Be careful when you buy cereals as some have a really high sugar content. Leave cereal bars alone too. Even these have far too many calories for the amount of food you’re eating. Many drinks can give us far more calories than we would like. If you love your drinks, stick to sugar free varieties. If you like juice, dilute it with water and add ice!

On social occasions, keep alcohol to one or two occasional glasses. Try mineral water with a piece of lime squeezed in for a change. Serve your drinks in wine glasses so they still feel more sophisticated.

Obviously, to lose any weight we have to make a few sacrifices. However, a few cunning adjustments can sometimes make all the difference.

(C) Scott Edwards. Browse WeightLossDietWar.com for the best diet tips on losing fat and lose 20 pounds.

Eating more slowly can have a profound effect on losing weight. Dieticians are agreeing that the rate we ingest food has a lot to do with how much we feel we need. Speedy eaters have a tendency to eat bigger meals than slow eaters, according to recent research. If we eat until we’re satisfied, we keep consuming more food when we’re gulping it down than when we take it steadily.

Test it out today to prove it by eating your evening meal very fast. Keep going until you’re satisfied. On another occasion, take your time over exactly the same meal, really working every mouthful until it’s completely chewed up. There’s a very good chance that your first dinner will be bigger than your second. Additionally you won’t feel so hungry a couple of hours on following the slower meal where you ate less food.

Quite often we take in too much if we eat quickly because we haven’t allowed the food time to digest. That’s why we can feel bloated shortly after eating, because we’ve put too much food in at one sitting.

But there is another reason to keep food in the mouth for longer. Well chewed food assists dieters with weight loss, as the whole digestive process is then optimised.

Our style of eating subconsciously affects the amount we eat. It’s advisable whenever possible to sit upright and concentrate on the meal. When we do that, we naturally tend to take more time to eat. We also tend to stop when we’ve had sufficient.

Conversation tends to flow more around the dining table, which could also be a reason for slower eating. Either way, dining at the table beats TV dinners on the sofa hands down where digestion is concerned.

It’s also the case that we eat faster if we’ve allowed ourselves to get too hungry. Aim to prevent this by planning meals in advance, and eat smaller meals more frequently. Sweets and chocolate give instant gratification, but the effect doesn’t last. But five or six mini-meals aren’t always possible when we’re at work. That’s when we need to take pieces of fruit, packets of seeds or nuts or perhaps some oatcakes to have throughout the day.

In summary, evidence is building to suggest that there’s a direct correlation between the time we take to eat a meal and how well satiated we feel. So delighting in each mouthful may well be an easy bonus that every dieter can benefit from.

(C) Scott Edwards. Try WeightLossDietWar.com for clear ideas on losing weight stomach and stomach fat loss.

Serial dieters can often get locked in the same way of thinking about weight loss, even if they constantly try new diets. Take this concept for example: There’s a belief in society that if we succumb to temptation and snack throughout the day, we’ll just get heavier and heavier! But is this strictly true?

Traditionalists would have it that breakfast, lunch and dinner are all anyone needs for a healthy diet. But this doesn’t appear to be enough according to weight loss analysts today. Could this possibly make sense?

Won’t more meals mean we’ll eat more food overall? Mentally we associate hunger with weight loss. The truth though is interestingly more complex.

We often get really hungry if we have long gaps between each meal. So when eventually we do pick up the knife and fork, our craving is significant. This in turn can lead to us eating more than we would otherwise have done. An especially vulnerable meal for this is the evening meal. So a few hours before we go to bed, we’ve filled our body full of food.

If on the other hand we were to eat five smaller meals each day, we’d be less likely to feel so hungry. Our body appreciates the regular food input. This makes it much more efficient at processing food through our system.

If it’s not fed on a frequent basis, it has to retain fat in case it needs an energy reserve later on. Hence we can struggle to lose weight despite the fact that we’re starving ourselves.

By eating several meals before the end of the afternoon, our calorific intake is geared towards the earlier part of the day. It’s then possible to process that food when we’re burning more of it up, which leaves less in our stomach later on. If we get too hungry before a meal it’s harder to restrict what we eat as well as how much.

With a rapacious appetite, we long for the ‘heaviest’ of foods. It’s the fries, pizzas, pasta and breads that appeal to us the most. They hit the spot momentarily, but will not help us to lose any weight. To wrap this up, if we do not go very long between each (small) meal, we will not get desperately hungry, but we will lose weight more effectively.

(C) Scott Edwards. Pop to WeightLossDietWar.com for excellent diet tips on weightloss and fast lose weight.

Why not keep a diary to monitor your weight loss? Take a normal week before you start dieting. Enter every single piece of food and every drink you have into the diary. A log of seven days consumption will tell you a lot about your eating habits, and how you can make positive changes.

You may be surprised at how many snacks and sweets you’re getting through, or how many glasses of wine. If that’s the case, they should be minimised first. Maybe your diet looks pretty good. But if you’re too heavy then you’re probably eating too much of it. Whichever one is closest to your situation, what’s in the diary will reveal a lot.

Then take the next seven days and write down exactly what you’re going to stick to. Put everything down relating to exercise, food and drink. With regard to food, note what you can’t eat, and what you’ll only eat occasionally. Also write down the alternative food that you do plan to eat.

If you enjoy alcohol, decide on a small quantity that you will allow yourself at the weekend, and write it down. Sugary fizzy sodas are banned! And on to exercise – make a note of the daily activities you plan to fit into your week.

Accurately weigh yourself the morning your regime starts. Each week, repeat the process, modifying your plan according to the results you’re achieving. It’s tempting to get on the scales every few days – don’t. Keep it to once every seven days, first thing in the morning.

You’re in the driving seat with a regime like this. Little illustrations of what’s gone well and what hasn’t will encourage and remind you once you’re several weeks in. Don’t forget to be honest about how much exercise you’re taking. Write it all down! You’ll notice the difference it makes once everything is committed to the diary.

It’s vital however not to look for an instantaneous result. Although you may not be able to see evidence of weight loss in the first couple of weeks, you should be starting to feel fitter. Remember patience is a virtue! Motivating yourself over a long period has it’s challenges – but if you concentrate on the prize instead of the price it becomes much easier.

Aim to get back into your plan as speedily as possible if you come off for any reason. It could be that you should look at altering your diet. Could you introduce extra activity into your day? Walking quickly around during your lunch-break is one way.

Acknowledge your accomplishments. Quantifying the results you achieve makes dieting a great deal easier to maintain long-term. A lovely new suit should probably wait until your full weight loss is realised. But an evening at a show would be spot-on to toast a ten pound loss!

(C) Scott Edwards. Pop to WeightLossDietWar.com for superb diet advice on diet weight and weight loss stories.