Eat your veggies - especially your lettuce. But don’t confine yourself to iceberg lettuce or salads! Darker greens have about the same number of calories and carbs - very low! - but pack a lot more punch in the vitamins and other nutrient categories. By substituting radicchio, watercress, escarole or spinach for the iceberg lettuce, you add vitamin C, riboflavin’s, manganese and other essential vitamins that aren’t present in lettuce. Try them braised, steamed or grilled for something a little different from the usual salad.

Here are some recipes for greens that will tickle your taste buds and make your heart happy!

Wilted Spinach Salad:

The onions take on a natural sweetness that contrasts with the tangy yogurt and the bite of the spinach. A family favorite that’s low in calories and high in important nutrients.

Here’s what you need:

2 cups spinach leaves 1 medium onion peeled, sliced 2 tbs. olive oil 1/2 cup plain yogurt.

Sauté onions in olive oil till transparent. Add spinach and toss in pan to coat with oil until leaves are barely wilted. Stir in yogurt while the spinach is still warm. Eat hot or cold. Only 50 calories per serving!

With this recipe, you’ll get: protein, calcium, vitamin c, manganese, iron, vitamin B12, vitamin A, selenium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, beta carotene, vitamin K, ALA.

Grilled Radicchio:

Dijon mustard and Worcestershire sauce add spice to heart-healthy radicchio without adding much in the way of calories.

1 head radicchio 1 tbs. olive oil 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar 1 tbs. Dijon mustard A splash of Worcestershire sauce.

Combine all ingredients except radicchio in small bowl. Cut head of radicchio in 1/4 inch slices. Brush cut side with marinade mixture. Grill over hot coals till browned. Only 25 calories per serving!

With this recipe, you’ll get: magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, vitamin A, vitamin E, foliate, vitamin K, beta carotene.

Spinach, Mushroom & Anchovy Salad:

Anchovies are one of the best sources of omega 3 fatty acids AND they’re low in calories. Simple to fix and delicious for dinner, on its own, or with a bowl of chunky pasta.

6 cups spinach leaves, loosely packed 1 2 oz can anchovies in oil 10-12 small mushrooms Juice of 1 lemon.

Wash and dry spinach. Drain anchovy oil into sauté pan and warm. Add anchovies and gently stir over heat till anchovies are dissolved in oil. Slice mushrooms thickly and add to anchovy oil, sautéing till browned. Add spinach, tossing with oil and anchovies till just wilted. Spritz with squeezed lemon. Only 50 calories per serving!

With this recipe, you’ll get: magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, vitamin A, vitamin E, foliate, vitamin K, beta carotene, niacin, thiamine, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, omega 3 fatty acids, riboflavin, and calcium.

Walnut & Raisin Greens:

Get even more essential fatty acids and antioxidants in this great tasting warm salad.

6 cups greens, loosely packed (spinach, collard, turnip will all work well) 2 tbs. walnut oil 3 cloves garlic 1/2 cup raisins 1/4 cup chopped walnuts.

Chop greens and place in shallow bowl. Heat walnut oil slowly over low heat. Mash garlic cloves and sauté in walnut oil till soft and browned. Add raisins and toss, and then add walnuts and heat through. Pour over greens and toss to coat well. Only 150 calories per serving!

With this recipe, you’ll get: magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, vitamin A, vitamin E, foliate, vitamin K, beta carotene, niacin, thiamine, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, omega 3 fatty acids, riboflavin, and calcium.

If you’re worried about gaining weight over the holidays you’re not alone.

The average North American gains 7 to 12 pounds over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Follow these simple holiday diet tips and tricks and you’ll avoid the holiday weight gain that afflicts so many other people:

#1 Drink Water - and Lots of It

Boring I know - but the reason this tip stays around year after year is because it works. Adequate water intake keeps your metabolism humming along at a maximum rate and staves off hunger cravings as well.

In fact many people mistake thirst for hunger and end up eating to quench their thirst. This results in more calories than you body needs and - you guessed it - excess pounds.

Models and celebrities all know about the powerful slimming effects of drinking water which is why you often see them holding a bottle of water in their hands as they dash through airports or stand around at fashion shows.

#2 Increase Your Exercise A Little Bit Every Day

Everyone deserves to indulge in holiday treats. Part of the fun of the holiday season is the amazing treats that are only around at Christmas and/or Thanksgiving.

Accept the fact that you’re going to indulge a bit - and then enjoy it! But make sure you make up for it elsewhere by increasing your exercise.

You don’t have to double your exercise time or sweat till you fall off your treadmill. Just increase your exercise time a bit every day, maybe ten minutes here, fifteen minutes there. It all adds up.

You’ll burn off those holiday treats and easily avoid extra weight gain. I have several girlfriends who have been doing this trick for years and they never gain a pound over the holidays (in fact they often lose a few!).

#3 Cut Back Where You Can At Other Meals

Did you know that the average number of calories consumed by one person during a typical Thanksgiving dinner is 7,100! That’s about 2 pounds strictly in terms of calories alone.

But not to worry. All you have to do is make small calorie cutbacks at other meals the week before and you’ll easily make up for the extra calories.

For example, instead a huge slice of pecan pie (which normally will run you about 500 calories) for desert, why not try some blueberries mixed with low fat yogurt? Instead of the bag of potato chips you usually indulge in for the big game, why not munch on air-popped, low fat popcorn?

You can save as much as 500 calories and you’re still having a salty, satisfying snack.

Bottom line: cut back where you can in little ways. You won’t miss the little sacrifices and you can then enjoy your holiday meals - guilt free!

#4 Eat What You Like - But Only A Few Bites

If you absolutely cannot imagine giving up any of your favorite treats this holiday season, give yourself permission to have a bite of everything - but only a bite!

I read somewhere that Jessica Simpson never denies herself any of her favorite foods - but she only allows herself one or two bites. And let’s face it the first couple of bites are the best tasting anyways!

#5 Don’t Eat After 7:00 pm

Experts tell us that the earlier in the day food is eaten, the more likely it is to be burned off. However when you eat late at night, this food is more likely to be stored as fat.

Celebrities like Oprah use this knowledge to their advantage and refuse to eat after a certain time like 7:00 p.m.

So if you know you absolutely must have a sweet indulgence during the day, try to have it before noon. Then towards the end of the day, snack on healthy, lower carb foods like salads, vegetable broth, fruits or lean protein.

This keeps your metabolism elevated but won’t pack on the pounds. I’ve personally used this trick before every holiday Christmas party for 5 years running and it certainly helps for getting into those slinky Christmas party dresses!

So those are 5 diet tips to avoid holiday weight gain this year. Follow them and you’re guaranteed to save yourself the stress of unwanted weight gain. Heck, you’ll probably even lose a few pounds, all in time for New Year’s Eve!

Every Monday the gym fills up with endless amounts of people on Treadmills, Ellipticals, Bikes and any other equipment that they can find. Most of these people want to lose weight, but what they don’t realise is that they are missing a serious form of exercise that will get them burning calories when there not even in the gym.Think of it this way, every time you go to the gym how long do you spend in there? About an hour or less?! So what about the other 23 hours in the day. Aerobic exercise is great for burning calories when you are in the gym but it does very little for you when you’re not in the gym and as a consequence it may take you a longer period of time to lose the excess fat.

Resistance training is the key to revving up your metabolism so that you burn more calories whilst sitting at home.

So how does resistance training help you burn those extra calories? By toning up your muscles you increase the chances of burning extra calories. Muscle is an active tissue unlike fat and as we move throughout the day we use our muscles and thereby burn calories. The more muscle tissue you have the larger amount of calories you will burn.

Hold on there though, I’m not saying you should stop your aerobic training. The most effective way to lose excess fat is to use a combination of aerobic and resistance training. For example you could do 2 days of resistance training and 3 days of aerobic training. In between your aerobic training days you could do weights. One weights day could be for your lower body and the other for your upper. This way you will have more focus rather than walking round the gym aimlessly.

What resistance training exercises should you be doing to get the best results? Compound exercises are the most beneficial to you; these are exercises that work your muscles over 2 joint movements. Examples are, Squats, lunges, chest press, pull ups, etc.

To burn those extra calories through the day, when you are not in the gym you need to start lifting those dumbbells and barbells. Tone your muscles and rev your metabolism to help burn that excess fat.

It’s kind of like running into a wall — that feeling you get when, after a few months on a weight-loss program, you suddenly stop seeing results. This is called hitting a plateau and it is not uncommon. In fact, unless you continually update your program to reflect the changes your body has already experienced, you can almost be guaranteed to plateau at some point along your journey toward reaching your goal weight.

WEIGHT-LOSS WOES

The first thing you should do upon hitting a plateau is try to determine the cause. Could you be eating more calories than you think? Research shows that most people underreport the number of calories they eat — it’s not that they’re lying, they just don’t know how to make an accurate assessment of how much they’re eating. And even if you’re eating less calories than before you lost the weight, you could be eating just enough to maintain your current weight at your current activity level. It is important to keep in mind that as you lose weight, your metabolism slows down because there is less of you to fuel, both at rest and during activity. So, while a diet of 1,800 calories per day helped you lose a certain amount of weight, if you’ve hit a plateau, it could be that 1,800 calories is the exact amount you need to stay at your current weight.

EXERCISE YOUR OPTIONS

This leaves you with two options:

Lower your caloric intake further or increase the amount of time you spend being physically active. The first option is less desirable because you may not be able to get sufficient nutrients from a diet that is very low in calories, and it is difficult to stick to it for very long. It is much better to moderately reduce calories to a level that you can sustain when you reach your goal weight. The same is true for exercise. Trying to exercise for several hours per day to burn more calories is a good way to set yourself up for failure.

Not only does this type of regimen require an enormous time commitment, it is hard on the body, making you more susceptible to injury and overuse syndromes. Another means for getting you off the plateau is strength training, which has been shown to be very effective in helping people manage their weight because the added muscle helps to offset the metabolism- lowering effect of dieting and losing weight. Muscle is much more metabolically active than fat; therefore, the more muscle you can add, the higher your metabolism will be.

GET OFF THE PLATEAU

If you’ve stopped losing weight, the key to getting off the plateau is to vary your program. The human body is an amazing piece of machinery, capable of adapting to just about any circumstance or stimulus. By shaking things up a bit and varying your program by introducing some new elements, you’ll likely find yourself off the plateau and back on the road to progress in no time. To help balance the intake with the expenditure, a good rule of thumb is to multiply your goal weight by 10 calories per pound, and add more calories according to how active you are. Again, be realistic. Don’t attempt too much in an effort to burn more calories. Instead, aim for 30 minutes of moderate activity most of the days of the week and, as you become more fit, gradually increase the intensity and duration of your exercise sessions. Choose activities that you find enjoyable, whether that be in-line skating, step classes or even mall walking.

Every second American is overweight. Indeed 1 out of every four Americans is obese. And it is universally known that obesity is a direct invitation to various diseases including hypertension, diabetes, stress and depression.

According to one study at least 65 % of these obese people have tried one or the other methods of weight loss in a single year. Wherein, about 23 % of these people succeeded in their weight loss endeavor.

Reading these mis-adventurous statistics of the Americans, it can well be said that most of these people are disillusioned with the available over the counter medications, prescription medications and the so called instant weight loss programs. People, in their search for weight loss pills, methods and product usually forgo the basics underlying this whole concept of weight loss. They look for quick weight loss methods, wherein they should primarily hunt for healthy and safe weight loss methods.

Let’s peep into the various aspects of healthy and safe weight loss and find out what an ideal weight loss program should be like.

Well, adopting any weight loss technique is like setting up of the process of internal combustion of the additional luggage that you are carrying within in the form of toxic materials and additional flesh. It is initiating the private revolution to become a normal human being from the over sized one. It is atoning for your past eating sins. It is a careful understanding of your internal mechanism and the process of its regular maintenance.

You can adopt various methods to reduce weight. But what is most important for you is to adopt the one that is safe and conducive to your body mechanism. A successful weight loss method may include low crab diet, weight loss pills, weight loss supplements and many other weight loss programs.

But health and wellness should assume the prime slot in any of the techniques employed for the weight loss. What you eat makes your body, therefore for the cause of weight loss switch over to healthy foods such as fruits, vegetables, carbohydrates and those items containing lots of fiber. Make it a rule: Unhealthy eating is an ugly habit!

You have to understand the state of your health in the proper perspective and make a suitable program depending upon your own circumstances. Remember what is good for your friend may not be as good for you in this weight loss spree. So always consult a professional dietician or a doctor before you start your weight loss program. For, your agenda is not quick weight loss, but the healthy weight loss!

Here is a list of things you can adopt for healthy weight loss.

Take two spoonfuls of honey in lukewarm water mixed with 1 spoon of lemon juice on the empty stomach. You will be surprised to experience the beneficial results of this discipline, within a fortnight. Not only weight loss, several other health benefits are bound to accrue.

As for the breakfast, give up all junk food and take the juice of any seasonal vegetable like carrot or cucumber. Fruits and vegetables are nothing but the herbs provided to you by the nature.

Next, regular use of the fresh, tender coconut water is definitely going to help you in your weight loss vow. This again, you need to take on the empty stomach, in the morning. You can take this leaving half an hours gap, after you take your honey dose. Diet pills and food supplements which are depended upon the herbal extracts and natural ingredients have decided advantage in the weight loss program. This is a step in the right direction. But you need not endlessly depend upon these products.

All in all, healthy living, the good food habits should evolve in a way that would help the weight loss program in the long run.

The Mediterranean diet a real weight loss program or is the Mediterranean diet just another fad diet? Here is some light on this growing weight loss diet.

We all know that their are many fad diets that suggest carbohydrates and fats are responsible for weight gain and bad health. So, many people taking part in the low carb diet. This has lead to many fad diets to focus on low-carb dieting. However, the facts are revealed that carbohydrates and fats were not main problems, and suggested the “right” fats and carbohydrates can be the basis for a diet that could work for you.

So, exactly what is the Mediterranean diet? How can a diet like this help us lose weight?

True of the matter is there actually is no ‘Mediterranean’ diet. Instead, most people know this diet as compilation of the way that people in countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea eat. This is where the Mediterranean diet comes from. While there were some changes in the foods, most other surrounding countries base their diets on the same food groups and calories, and most include olive oil as a main source of fat.

The Mediterranean diet consists of the following guidelines:

• 70% of total carbohydrates from grains, fruits and vegetables.
• This includes wheat rice, vegetables, fruits, whole grain breads and, wheat.
• Use of red meat, fish and poultry.

The average adult Mediterranean consumes about 20 ounces of red meat and poultry per week. Around 10-15 ounces of fish per week. This accounts for the bulk of their protein intake. A typical American diet may include a 1 pound meat for supper one night and 1/2 pound chicken the next night.

Olive Oil

Remember that olive oil is not a cure for weight loss. It is, however a monounsaturated fat. Good Fats! Monounsaturated fats help lower cholesterol. Most Mediterranean lifestyle are active. The typical Mediterranean day might include walking rather than driving, physical activity with others. All the diets in the world are not worth the time or energy if you don’t exercise. Physical activity and exercise are vital in helping the body to get the weight loss you’re looking for.

There is not great miracle to losing weight. With the Mediterranean diet you base your meals on healthy carbohydrates, green vegetables, whole grains and meats. Use meat lightly - no more than 5 ounces per day. Derive dietary fat from vegetable sources - or from fish oil. Always exercise often with a routine that is targeted to weight loss. Remember that the Mediterranean diet is not weight loss program. It’s a new way of eating that may help you get that weight loss you’ve been dreaming about.