7 Habits of Highly Effective Weight Loss

I lose weight through intermittent fasting. But I’m not saying that intermittent fasting is the best weight loss method.

If you look at almost any diet program, you’ll find groups of people who have found success with the plan. They’ve been able to lose the weight they wanted to lose and have been able to keep it off for the long-term. The common denominator here is not the diet programs, but the people following the programs. The reason they’re successful - regardless of the diet plan—is that they have the proper mindset to follow the diet program to lose weight and then most importantly, they stick with the plan for the long-term.

I’ve recently come across a book called “THINK! and Lose Weight” to help anyone to develop and sustain the proper mindset to lose weight and keep it off, regardless of the diet program being followed. The book is based on the principles of two of the greatest self-help books ever written - Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey.

I’m someone who has the experience of changing habit to achieve weight loss.  Hence I know it’s true that the habit of choice can change life.  So if there is a book which can help people change and build healthy habits, I’m more than eager to recommend.  THINK! and Lose Weight is one of such books.

7 Habits of Highly Effective Weight Loss

Have you ever looked at an overweight person, maybe even yourself, and thought, "That person just needs discipline. If only they'd expend a little effort and self control they wouldn't be fat anymore."?

But why not? We all know what it takes to lose weight - eat less and move more. Why do so many of us find it so hard? Why do we start with the greatest enthusiasm and the best of intentions only weeks later to throw in the towel?

In a word, habit

The things we do over and over again are our habits. Some are good and some are not. It's their consistency that both makes them a habit and gives them their power.

For most of us the reason we fail at losing weight is that the habits of poor eating and not enough exercise are stronger and more established than the new habit of good eating and exercise we are trying to establish.

And therein lies the first problem, we don't acknowledge that it's a habit we are trying to change or recognize the difficulty in doing so. Which is by no means a suggestion that we shouldn't try, just an acknowledgement that the issue is more involved than we might first assume.

If we are to be successful in any endeavor we have to be able to assess the entirety of our situation and develop a competent strategy for change.

Here is where THINK! and Lose Weight can help

There are no new secrets to weight loss. There is no magic wand, elixir or pill that can change the process, make it faster or less arduous. Burning more calories than you consume on a consistent basis is the only way to lose weight.

It is to the snake-oil salesman's advantage that the issue is made more complicated than it needs to be.

However, within the rubric of "eat less do more" a surer path to effective weight loss can be found. This is the path of effective strategies, of understanding why you eat too much, of destructive habits and how to convert them into constructive ones.

This is the path laid out in THINK! and Lose Weight: the 7 Habits of Effective Weight Loss

Along the way you will learn the habit of success, a habit that can be applied to any endeavor and with great reward.  Of course you can make use of what you learn to develop your intermittent fasting style of eating habit.

Each chapter focuses on one habit and how acquiring that habit is essential to successful weight loss. Beyond the habits are several appendices with real-life strategies for organizing your exercise and diet and bringing them into compliance with not only your weight loss needs but your lifestyle as well. So, while the formula for weight loss is the same it's always been - eat less and do more - THINK! and Lose Weight offers strategies designed to help you effectively change your life, to make weight loss a consistent part of your lifestyle and ensure your continued success.

Click Here To Learn More About the 7 Habits Of HighlyEffective Weight Loss

Paleo Breakfast

If Paleo diet sounds new to you, let me do a little briefing here. It is a diet that resembles what our ancient ancestors ate - foods from hunter gathering, wild game, seafood, fresh fruits, vegetables and nuts, whatever naturally from nature. There is no wheat, no grain, no rice, no pastry, no dairy.

What is special about Paleo diet and why I go on with it?  Recently I’m suffering from some seasonal allergy, my doctor suggested a number of holistic healing methods and one of them is to go on a temporary Paleo diet.

Actually I don’t really fond of the idea of food restriction, as it is quite inconvenient when I have to eat with others. So buffet is a good idea, as each one of us can eat whatever we love to eat. Today I have a free coupon to eat at Café Too of Island Shangri-La. Below is a summary of my Paleo breakfast along with a Paleo dinner of the previous night.

One-Egg Omelette with Ham and Mushroom

Curry Chicken with Cucumber

I usually eat curry with rice, but went for cucumber as I was on Paleo diet

Poached Fruits, Prunes, Baby Pear, Appricot, Apple - are very delicious and healthy.

Of course I won't miss my favourite fresh fruits.

At dinner, we still had a wide range of food choice by omitting rice and pasta.

Crystal Pork

Drunk Chicken

Hot and Sour Soup with sliced pork, mushroom

Tea Tree Mushroom and Green Bean Sprouts in Fish Broth

To do Paleo diet is not that difficult, but in the first few days, I do feel miss my favourite fried rice, fried noodle, pizza, hamburger etc.  After the first week, it becomes much easier.  As I’m not on strict Paleo, so I can still enjoy coffee and tea with a bit of milk.  However at the buffet table, I do miss my favourite toast.  Anyway, temporary food restriction is a test of my willpower.  I’m sure I can do it, especially I’m doing it for my health. 

If you want to try Paleo diet, please understand this diet encourages weight loss.   I’m quite below par according to BMI, but I lost five pounds in the first week.  If you are in a hurry to lose weight, you may consider combining intermittent fasting with Paleo diet. 

If you want to find out more about Paleo diet and learn preparing your own Paleo meals, here are some links for your reference.

 

Paleo Diet  Paleo Power Lunch Paleo Cookbooks

Intermittent Fasting - Paleo Diet

Top 10 Diet Rule Experiment

Top 10 Diet Rule Experiment: How To Tell If a Diet Will Work For You
If you and I went to the local magazine stand and scanned the covers of the fitness magazines we would find dozens of ‘weight loss’ rules.

In fact we could spend the rest of the week reading magazines about the latest greatest weight loss tricks many of which may actually work for someone. But realistically there’s just no way you could actually follow ALL of them. So how do you know which ones are right for you?

The easy answer is you have to decide which rules fit best for YOUR life and then try to stick to just one or two that will make the most sense for you and have the most benefit.

This may be the first time in your life you become a scientist, and your experiment is you. Here’s what you do…

Browse any of the popular magazines, blogs, websites or anywhere you like to get fitness information. Read up on the diet and weight loss tips and tricks, these could be simple changes like not drinking calories, or a bigger philosophy like limiting the amount of carbs that you eat.

Make a top 10 list of diet strategies you’d like to try, and that sound doable to you. At this point add one new diet strategy to your life for two weeks. Record your bodyweight at the beginning of the two weeks and again at the end. If you haven’t lost any weight this strategy doesn’t work (for you). Discard it and move on to the next one.

This is the simplest way to tell if something will work for YOU. If the strategy you picked sounds like a good idea but seems too difficult for you to manage then it’s simply not a good fit for you in this stage of your life. If it worked for your friend but not for you that’s ok, there will be one that works just for you, this is why you make a top 10 list and try each of them, one at a time.

Let’s suppose you find one that works over a two week period and you don’t want to stop. That’s fine, just add the next one in the list, if you can handle more than one strategy at once more power to you and you’ll probably lose fat even faster. My guess is that sticking to more than one or two rules will be almost impossible, so it will be pretty easy to tell which strategy is really working.

For me the simpler the diet is the better, (which is the main premise behind Eat Stop Eat).

Even when you are following the Eat Stop Eat lifestyle you can still use the top 10-diet rule as a way to guide how you eat on your ‘eat days’.

The top 10 diet rule experiment is the fastest way to find dietary habits that work for you - after all you’ll never know until you try.

Article source:  Eat Stop Eat

10 Secrets to Fasting in a Healthy Way

One of my readers suggests 10 fasting tips which I find intersting and would like to share with you.

Fasting has been a part of many dietary regimens and religious observances for centuries, and while met with some skepticism, has proven to have very definite health benefits when done properly. Whether your goals are spiritual, physical or both, you can gain more from fasting by following some helpful advice. Here are 10 secrets to fasting in a healthy way:

1. Allow adequate time to eliminate harmful foods and substances from your diet – Prepare for your fast by gradually weaning yourself off such things as alcohol, nicotine, and sugar. Your body will not suffer from withdrawals if you give it time to adjust before embarking on a full-blown fast.
2. Gradually reduce food intake – Eat increasingly less food each day leading up to a more extensive fast. Again, you want your body to adjust to the reduced caloric intake, which will allow you to fast for longer periods later.
3. Try a liquid diet instead of a full fast – If you are skeptical about eliminating all substances from your diet, or you are about to embark on your first fast, you can try a juice fast, rather than not eating anything. Replace solid foods with fruit or vegetable juices, which will supply the necessary nutrients for your body, and minimize any ill effects of fasting, such as headaches or irritability.
4. Fast carefully – Do not fast if you are not in good health, are pregnant, or are underweight. You should be in sufficient health to subsist on reduced caloric intake without any risks to your body. The benefits of fasting would be lost if your body is not receiving adequate nutrition already from your normal diet.
5. Stay away from rigorous exercise or activities – Avoid strenuous activities while fasting. Limiting your food intake will also reduce the energy your body requires for performing such activities. Focus instead on cleansing your body, and meditation. Your body will still burn calories efficiently enough to lose weight without being taxed too heavily.
6. Maintain a healthy diet when not fasting – Fasting should be preceded and followed by a nutrient-rich diet. A person will not benefit as much from a fast if their diet before and/or after the fast is not a healthy one. So build up to your fast ahead of time; then afterward, build back up to your pre-fast diet.
7. Avoid binge eating at the conclusion of a fast – When ending a fast do not eat a large amount of food right away. Your stomach will have shrunk during the fast and will not be able to properly digest a lot of food for several days. After several days of fasting, your appetite will also have diminished accordingly; so there’s no need to binge at its conclusion.
8. Stay hydrated – Drink lots of water when fasting. Your body will be eliminating a lot of toxins from your bloodstream, and the additional liquid in your diet will help to cleanse it. Avoid other liquids like coffee and soft drinks, however.
9. Keep the fast period short – Extended fasting should only be done under close medical supervision. A fast lasting no longer than 4 to 5 days should be no problem for a healthy individual. Beyond that, you want to be sure that your body is handling the stress and diet change without difficulty.
10. Pre-fast eat foods that will continue to benefit you throughout the duration of the fast – Certain foods rich in complex carbohydrates allow for a slower, gradual release of energy which facilitates fasting much better. These include: beans, barley, wheat, oats, semolina, and rice.

Fasting can provide you with an array of health benefits if it’s done the right way. By maintaining a healthy diet and staying properly hydrated before and after the fast you can receive the maximum benefits throughout.

Article source:  AuPair.org

Quick Fat Loss Workouts

Fat loss is a hot topic nowadays.  Although I'm not an expert in this area, I would want to share a sweetly short article with you today.  When we talk about fasting, many would say 'I can't survive without food'.  When we talk about workout, you'll hear this a lot - I'm busy.  In fact, no matter how busy you are, you can workout if you want to and if you know how to.  Here's a short article telling you how.

Quick Fat Loss Workouts

‧ Do you find yourself strapped for money and/or time?
‧ Would you like to be able to lose weight quickly without the use of gym equipment?

If you answered yes to both of these questions then this quick fat loss workout is perfect for you. Not only will it take less than 10 minutes to complete, you will feel as though you got an amazing workout in the process. Not only will you feel the benefit of losing weight this workout will also serve to tone your lower body.

For best results perform these exercises in a circuit. In other words perform these exercises with no breaks between exercises.

‧Walking Lunges x 20 steps per leg
‧Step-ups x 20 steps per leg
‧Bodyweight Squat x 20 reps
‧Wall squat isometric hold x 1 min

Repeat circuit after resting for 1 min.

These exercises serve to fire up the major muscle groups of the legs. If you found this workout to be effective for you, then stay tuned for more quick fat loss workouts.

Written by Dan Miller, author of Fat Loss 4 Life

Fasting and Cleansing

While I'm enjoying the benefits of fasting weight loss, fasting is not only responsible for weight loss.  It is also responsible for cleansing - I mean the cleansing that is far beyond many products being marketed for the purpose of cleansing and detoxing.

Many people questioned the science behind fasting, and insisted that any type of "fasting" was inherently dangerous. I've recently read an article written by Brad Pilon (author of Eat Stop Eat and a nutrition researcher) in which he describes the science-backed benefits that support fasting, and describes the real way to cleanse your body.

As the original article is quite long and technical, I've tried to do a summary here.

The Truth About Fasting and Cleansing

To understand the long-term health benefits of true cleansing, we need to look into a unique process within the human body called 'autophagy'.

Autophagy: The Anti-Aging Solution?  The term autophagy is derived from the Greek language meaning 'eating of self'. In short, it is the internal 'custodial system' that your body uses to identify and discard the damaged or malfunctioning parts of a cell.

If you are interested in how autophagy works, check it out from Wiki.

The more time you spend in the fed state, the less time you have to really ramp up the autophagic (cellular cleansing) process within your body.

This is where short-periods of fasting come into play.  One of the major health benefits of fasting is that it improves autophagy. The principle signal to "turn on" the autophagy dial is the act of entering the fasted state. And if fasting is the signal to turn on autophagy, then eating is the signal to turn it off.

By allowing for growth when we eat and the autophagic process of repair maintenance and cleansing when we are fasting, we help restore a balance in the cellular maintenance process, not to mention the possible prevention of muscle loss as we age.  So you can consider fasting as an anti-aging solution.

The key is there needs to be a balance - You can't overeat all the time or fast all the time without expecting some sort of negative repercussions. It is the optimal balance of these processes that allows for the breakdown of damaged pieces and their replacement with new well-functioning pieces.

By allowing for growth when we eat, and the autophagic process of repair, maintenance, and cleansing when we are fasting, we help restore a balance in the body that may be a missing link in the prevention of many of today's deadly and debilitating diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's and Huntington's disease, liver disease, and even loss of muscle size and function.

Brad Pilon is one of the world's most recognized advocates of Intermittent Fasting - You can learn more about his approach to intermittent fasting in his newly revised and expanded book Eat Stop Eat.

Eat Stop Eat - New and Expanded 5th Edition

As my blog title indicates, intermittent fasting is responsible for my weight loss success. One of the top fasting books on this topic is Eat Stop Eat. And here is a good news about the book.

Introducing the New and Expanded 5th Edition of Eat Stop Eat !

With all new information on why Intermittent Fasting may be BETTER than traditional dieting when it comes to hunger, maintaining testosterone levels and even for building muscle. There's also new information on exercise and even a chapter on cleansing!

Pick up your Copy Before Friday April 6th and get an exclusive teleseminar with author Brad Pilon as he personally walks you through all the new information in the newest version of Eat Stop Eat.

One More Special Offer for You:

Have 3 days to try out the Newest Version of Eat Stop Eat for only $9.99. Read Eat Stop Eat NOW and if you like it, you'll be charged the remaining 27 dollars in three days. If you don't like it, just return and get a 100% refund (no questions asked). Click here for your 3-day $9.99 trial.