10 Ways to Control Your Sweet Tooth

One of the hardest parts of any diet is having to give up desserts and sweets. We all know that those foods are high in calories and do not normally contain many nutritious ingredients. But the problem is—they taste good and that makes them enjoyable to eat.

There are ways that you can control your ‘sweet tooth’ however. The following are some tips that might help you:

1. When you get a craving for sweets, eat fruit instead. Most fruits taste sweet and are definitely healthier and lower in calories that the normal sweet desserts that you crave. Eating a fruit can give you the sweet taste you want without adding a lot of the other calories and carbohydrates that can be detrimental to your diet.

2. If you are too tempted by that sweet dessert and you simply must have it, have only a nibble or a bite or two. Just that little bit may satisfy your craving without adding too many calories to your diet. And you won’t feel so deprived either, which may enable you to continue to diet successfully.

3. Brush your teeth after dinner instead of having a dessert. You can’t deny that toothpaste tastes sweet. The minty flavor and fresh feeling in your mouth can satisfy your sweet craving.

4. Use vanilla-scented lip balm. This can give you a hint of vanilla flavor that can help stop a sweet craving.

5. Read your food labels. There are cookies and other products available for dieters that contain few calories or carbohydrates. But you need to be careful and read the food labels to be sure which ones contain the least amounts. And be careful of the suggested serving sizes. Some packages will tell one cookie is a serving, while for others it may be three.

6. Eat any sweet things early in the day so that your body has a chance to burn off those extra calories.

7. Use artificial sweeteners in your coffee or tea, or when baking.

8. Having a artificially sweetened cola or drink instead of having a dessert of baked goods can help satisfy a sugar craving.

9. Stay away from sauces and foods that contain high fructose corn syrup—like ketchup. High fructose corn syrup can neutralize the enzyme that tells your brain you are full, so that contributes to all sorts of other cravings and you can have a greater appetite all day.

10. Use your mind to control your cravings. When you are watching T.V. and those ads come up for all the great looking high calorie sweet foods, make your mind focus on what you want to look like instead of the food shown. It is simply a form of ‘mind over matter’. What you tell your brain to do is the most important.

You can have real physical needs for sugar-sweet things, or you can simply have ‘I want’ cravings. Of course the physical cravings are the hardest to overcome, but it can be done. Your body is probably used to having those sweet items, but after a few days of withdrawal you can win out over these cravings. Brace yourself and prepare yourself in how to deal with those cravings and believe that they will get better with each day you are on your diet.

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Consulting Your Doctor Before Dieting

This warning comes anytime someone chooses to diet, and it is a valid one. It is important that you should consult your doctor before you go on a diet. You may not feel the need to do this, thinking that you both know you need to lose weight so why bother. But there may be health reasons (even ones that you may not presently be aware of) that dictate whether or not you should diet, or even which type of diet you should pursue.

Your doctor may help you determine which type of diet is the healthiest for you. Some diets out there today only suggest the fastest way to lose weight and are not necessarily the healthiest for your body. Your doctor should be able to steer you to the right choice of diet, or at least point out the worst ones. You may also have a pre-existing condition (such as Diabetes) that may dictate which type of diet is best for you.

It may also be important for your doctor to monitor your progress. He may want to keep tabs on your blood pressure, your blood sugar, or your cholesterol levels as well as your weight. You may think that losing weight very quickly is great, but your doctor should determine whether losing weight too quickly is the best thing for your health. He will also be able to tell you when you should stop losing weight. Remember that it is possible to be too thin to be healthy.

Your doctor may also be able to suggest other health professionals that can help you in your dieting endeavors. He may refer you to a qualified nutritionalist. He may send you to a heart specialist if he has a concern in that area. He may suggest certain diet centers that some of his other patients have had success with. He may be able to give you pointers on a healthy exercise regime, or even put you in touch with a personal trainer.

Your doctor can provide a wealth of information on healthy eating and dieting. He probably has a great deal of literature already at his office—or he may even have DVD’s or other material at hand. Remember that every doctor is inundated with medical company people offering materials in every health related area. You may be able to benefit from some of this.

Your doctor may also provide you with diet pills or medication if the situation warrants. Of course, dieting without the aid of medication is always the first choice. Every person’s situation is different however, and there may be reasons your doctor feels diet medication is right for you.

Visiting your doctor regularly can also provide encouragement for you. If you know that your doctor is monitoring your progress and you have an upcoming appointment with him, you just might think twice about having that extra helping at supper-time. He will also tell you how well you have done by losing three pounds this week. Wouldn’t you like to hear that? Hearing that encouragement can give you the will-power and motivation you need to continue succeeding on your diet.

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Causes of Being Overweight

There is no easy answer as to why someone is overweight. It does not simply mean that the person eats to excess, although that contributes to the problem. Never before in history have so many cases of obese and overweight people been reported. The increase in weight gain for the general population has had an alarming increase and has reached epidemic proportions. In fact, studies have shown that one in three people in the United States are overweight, and one in three are obese. Where once it was common to have nutrient deficiencies in our diets, today excesses and imbalances in our food intake has lead to our overweight population increase.

Basically, the cause of being overweight is when someone consumes more food than their bodies can process for energy. This means that you are eating too much and not expending the energy produced by your body in physical activity, so the excess is stored as fat. Having too much fat results in you being overweight or obeses. In short, too much food-not enough exercise.

This however is not the whole problem. In the past overweight people were stereotyped as people who ate too much and were lazy. Recently doctors have discovered that being overweight or obese may be influenced by heredity-it may run in families. Therefore being overweight may not be caused just by your eating or exercise habits.

Other factors that could influence your weight problems may be the result of your metabolism rate, environment, behavior, the culture you live within or your socio-economic status. Some medications and medical conditions can also contribute to you being overweight. Your behavior and the environment that you live in can play a major role in what causes you to be overweight. The good news is that these factors can be dealt with and changed to enable you to get control of the problem.
Here is a list of common causes for being overweight:

• Over-eating
• Pregnancy or recent child birth (many mothers retain weight after giving birth)
• Aging (the aging population is often less active, and may have metabolism changes due to age)
• Appetite changes
• Having a high fat diet
• Having a high carbohydrate diet
• Smoking/ or quitting smoking
• Excessive snacking
• Reduced exercise
• Having a sedentary lifestyle
• Lifestyle changes (which can lead to stress and over-eating)
• Your body’s reaction to previous dieting (Yo-yo dieting)
• Stress
• Depression or depressive disorders
• Compulsive eating
• Genetics
• Water retention problems or Edema (your body may retain water which is not really true weight gain)
• Premenstrual bloating
• Heart problems

As you can probably tell from the list, many of the causes of being overweight can be corrected by changes in your eating habits or through lifestyle changes.

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Do I Really Need to Diet?

Many people today who are on diets are influenced by the media. The media is always cramming it into our heads that the thinner you are the better. All the T.V. and movie personalities, music stars or ‘who’s who’ are always concerned about their weight—you see it all the time in commercials, magazines and tabloids. But what does that translate to for the average person? How skinny is good?

What you need to do is take a good hard look at yourself in the mirror—and be truthful. Stand before a full length mirror in your underwear (don’t worry—no-one’s watching). What do you see? Honestly now! Do you see a little ‘pouch’ here or a bit of flab there? That does not necessarily mean that you need to lose weight. It could just mean that you might have to exercise a bit to firm up that little bit of flab. Or it may mean that you are being over-critical of yourself.

Be assured that not many people (even all those movie stars or ‘special’ people) have a perfect body. Everyone has areas about their body that displeases them or that they need to work on improving. So, before you decide to go on a rigid diet to try to get rid of those imperfect areas, think honestly that perhaps a little extra exercise in those particular areas may work even better that dieting would.

If you do decide, however, that you have more than ‘a little extra’ perhaps a diet would help.

According to the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) there are three indicators that can tell you if you may need to lose weight or be at risk for certain diseases. They are your Body Mass Index (BMI) measurement, your waist circumference, and any risk factors you may have for diseases and conditions relating to obesity.

Your Waist Circumference:

To determine your waist circumference, place a measuring tape snugly around your waist just above your belly button. This measurement gives you a good indication of your abdominal fat, which increased your risk for developing heart or other diseases. If the measurement is over 35” in women, or 40” in men,
Determine your waist circumference by placing a measuring tape snugly around your waist. It is a good indicator of your abdominal fat which is another predictor of your risk for developing risk factors for heart disease and other diseases. This risk increases with a waist measurement of over 40” in men and over 35” in women. A Body Mass Index (BMI) of 20-25 is considered good, but a higher or lower BMI could increase your health risks.

Other Risk Factors that may indicate that you need to lose weight or be at risk for certain diseases are if you have any of the following:
• High blood pressure (hypertension)
• High LDL (the ‘bad’ cholesterol)
• Low HDL ( the ‘good’ cholesterol)
• High triglycerides
• High blood glucose (or sugar)
If you have two or more risk factors listed above and the indicators according to the BMI and Waist Circumference Chart, then the NHLBI recommends weight loss. They suggest that even a small amount of weight loss (even 10% of your current weight) may help to lower your risk of diseases associated with obesity.

People who may be overweight have less than 2 risk factors listed above and do not have a high waist measurement may only need to prevent further weight gain to reduce their risk to diseases associated with obesity.

It is important to consult your doctor to determine your health risks. He will help you understand that people who are overweight or suffer from obesity have a greater chance of developing high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, Type II Diabetes, heart disease, stroke, or certain cancers.

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15 Tips to Lose Weight Fast

Want to lose weight fast? It's easy to say goodbye to 10 pounds of unwanted fat with these easy diet tips. Just pay attention to what you eat and be sure to have good tasting, fresh and healthy food (including snacks), fill up on vegetables, and keep your taste buds happy with fruit.

No need to make sacrifices! Just follow these simple guidelines to lose your first 10 pounds, last 10 pounds or give your weight loss program a boost when it seems to have stuttered to a halt. This is a balanced and flexible plan that you can use for as long as you want.

1. Keep a note of everything that you eat and drink. You do not need to estimate calories. Just write down what it was that you had and the approximate quantity. You will find that being more aware of what you are eating helps you to plan healthy meals and snacks.

2. Halve your intake of all pure or added fats. This means using half as much butter or spread on your bread, toast, muffins and potatoes; half the usual amount of mayonnaise or dressing on your salad; and half the oil in the frying pan every time.

3. Limit treats containing sugar to three times per week. This includes chocolate, ice cream, desserts, cake, pastries, cookies, etc.

4. Include a lower fat source of protein at most meals: chicken, fish, beans, cottage cheese, or low fat yogurt. Have eggs, nuts and red meat occasionally but not every day.

5. Plan at least one lunch and dinner every week without meat or cheese. Build those meals around whole grains, vegetables and beans to increase fiber and reduce fat.

6. Reduce the fat content in your milk products. If you are currently drinking whole milk, reduce to 2% fat. From 2% reduce to 1%. Choose lower fat cheese and yogurt. When you buy yogurt, also check that it does not contain sugar.

7. Have at least two servings of fruit every day. This can be for dessert or snacks. Choose fruit that is in season.

8. Drink water instead of sodas, juices, milky drinks or alcohol. Avoid diet soda - the sweet taste only encourages you to crave sugar. Hot water with a slice of lemon can be very refreshing in the morning.

9. Include at least two servings of vegetables at lunch and dinner. If you are getting hungry, have more.

10. Eat slowly. The body is slow to register when you are full and it is easy to eat too much if you are racing through your meals.

11. Grated carrot makes a great snack. You will find that a grated carrot is much more filling than a whole carrot. Strange but true.

12. Use whole grains wherever possible. The fiber will give you a fuller feeling and also help your digestion.

13. Choose food that you can chew. Again this will increase your fiber intake, and the act of chewing will make you feel more satisfied too. This means eating fruit instead of drinking juice. If you have soup, make sure it is chunky.

14. Plan your meals and snacks ahead of time. Plan your shopping too - make a list of what you need and stick to it. If you just grab something when you are feeling hungry, you will probably choose high calorie food.

15. Always switch off the TV when you eat. That includes snacks as well as meals. Studies have proved that we eat larger portions in front of the TV, probably because we are much less aware of what we are eating. When you eat, only eat if you want to lose weight fast.

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Yo-Yo Dieting

When you try to lose weight, many times you jump from diet to diet trying to find the one that is the right fit for you and your lifestyle. Although the switch from one diet to the next may initially help you lose weight, often times you gain all the weight you lost back—and then some. When you do this repeatedly, this is called yo-yo dieting. It is also sometimes referred to as ‘weight cycling’ or ‘chronic dieting’.

Here is a typical yo-yo dieting scenario—see if this fits your dieting habits:

• You know you need to lose weight and want to achieve weight loss in the quickest manner possible. A new fad diet has just been released promising you will lose a great amount of weight in record time. It could be an extreme calorie restricted diet, a diet with injections, or a high protein diet—whatever is the latest rage on the market. You decide to try it.

• For the first while you are ‘pumped up’ and excited so you stick to the diet strictly…and you may even begin to lose weight.

• As time goes on, you find the diet overly restrictive or you begin to feel unwell. You could experience feeling tired all the time, hair loss, being constipated or even having achy joints or cramps. These symptoms may cause you to re-think the diet plan and feel it may not be a healthy choice—so you quit.

• You then return to your regular eating habits and may possibly eat even more than before because you may be feeding your depression (because of feeling deprived from the diet or even trying to compensate by feeding yourself more to overcome your feelings of failure).

• As a result, you find your weight increasing again. In the end you may have gained back all the weight you lost, plus more (due to your lowered metabolism and eating more to comfort yourself).

• The next new fad diet comes along, and in hopes of losing weight again, you try the newest offering.

• And the cycle continues…

Yo-yo dieting is often the result of a too restrictive low calorie diet. Low calorie diets tend to slow your metabolism down. Your body goes into its ‘starvation mode’. This means that your body isn’t getting enough food for energy and thinks it is being starved. Your body then slows down or plateaus. It then tries to set up reserves for this perceived starvation period and becomes more efficient at storing fat. Hence the weight slows down or the weight loss stops, and you may even gain weight.

Yo-yo dieting also tends to cause you to ignore your natural feelings of hunger and fullness. Relying solely on the measured portions and diet plan of one low calorie diet can make you feel deprived, which can then lead to binging and more weight gain. This leads to frustration and a lowered self-esteem. You often then decide that this particular diet isn’t working, so you move on to the next one in an effort to lose the weight that you have just regained. And the yo-yo dieting process continues.

One major problem with yo-yo dieting is that the body becomes less efficient with each diet attempted. This therefore decreases your body’s efficiency at losing weight and you may find dieting more of a struggle each time you move on to the next new diet. Also with severely restricted diets, you may encounter a loss of muscle tone. And less muscle causes your metabolism to slow down even further. A common indicator of loss of muscle tone is flabby upper arms, which is due to the loss of muscle tone in your triceps as well as subsequent fat gain.

The way to avoid the yo-yo dieting process is to go on a healthy diet regime. Losing weight at a slower pace and eating the right healthy foods will not cause your body to go into its ‘starvation mode’. You will also not feel as hungry or deprived by eating the right amount of healthy foods. And you will not have the feelings of unwellness that some fad diets tend to produce.

Take a good look at your past dieting history. If you find that you do fall into the pattern of yo-yo dieting, weight cycling or chronic dieting, it is time to stop this unproductive type of behavior. Find a healthy diet plan and follow it before trying any of the newest, latest fads that promise the world, but may only lead to another failed diet attempt.

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On Dieting -- Just to Begin

I am creating this new blog for the sake of those of you trying to lose weight. It has also been my life-time struggle to lose weight, and I know how difficult it can be. I just want to share some information with you to perhaps make your goal of weight loss more successful.

This blog will contain a lot of tips and articles that will hopefully keep you motivated and on track in your weight loss endeavors. I know there is a lot of information on the web already about weight loss, but I hope I can bring you some new helpful tips and information that will guide you to success.

Some of the articles I intend to introduce will be health-based as well as those geared to your diet. I believe that health and diet go hand-in-hand. When you are eating the right foods to diet and following the right diet regime, you will also gain in your overall health as well.

This is just a short introduction on what you will see coming up in the future. Tomorrow I will begin posting articles.

Hope to see you visit my blog in the future, and if all goes well, I hope eventually you will lose enough weight that you don't have to visit my blog anymore (but please do refer me to your friends).

If you have any questions or subjects you would like to discuss, please let me know in your comments.

If you are looking for a good ebook on dieting tips, try this one: 101 Diet Tips to Help You Lose Weight - great tips on dieting (more than you think!) Only $1.99!!!