Soups are wonderful weight loss food. You can make any kind of vegetable soup for a low cost, and have easy access to a fast, flavorful, and nutritional meal. Use a low-salt broth base, and store it in the fridge in single serving size containers. Then when you need a quick meal, just heat and enjoy. Soup can also be stored in the freezer for up to six weeks.

Substituting low fat processed foods for high fat ones when trying to lose weight is a very popular idea; however, it does not always work. For example, replacing regular store bought muffins with low fat store bought muffins may make you want to eat two of the low fat muffins instead of one! The low fat ones are usually missing some of the taste of the regular muffins. Instead, try making your own muffins and other food! You will know what is going into what you are mkaing and can cut back on certain things without sacrificing taste.

Make sure to keep a variety in your diet to lose the most weight. You need to be healthy when you are thinner. The best diets will have a wide range of foods you can choose from. Avoid eating the same meals more than once in the same week. The more colors in your diet, the better your health will be.

Creating a meal plan is a great step to take toward trying to lose weight. A common pitfall is the temptation of falling back into your old habits of eating bad foods. If you create and stick to a weekly meal plan, you will know what to eat and when to eat it. Best of all, if you prepare all the foods yourself, you can choose what ingredients to include to assure that you’re eating only the freshest, healthiest food.

Use lower calorie versions of your favorite foods in order to help you lose weight. Many people abandon their dieting efforts because they are hungry and crave certain foods. If you eat reduced-calorie versions of your favorite foods, you can still enjoy those taste treats, lose weight and not feel as if you are being deprived.

To help with weight loss you should eat a lot of healthy salads. Buy greens that are already washed and bagged. Have fresh vegetables, like carrots and radishes, ready to add to your salad. A salad using these ingredients, and topped with a low-fat dressing, is quick to make and very filling.

If you are looking to jump start your weight loss, you may want to consider going on a grapefruit diet. The grapefruit diet is great for people who enjoy citrus and tropical fruits. The diet, based around the consumption of grapefruits and grapefruit juice acts as a catalyst that starts the burning process and allows you to burn twice as many calories as normal. This intense diet should be followed for no longer than 3 weeks at the most.

An easy step to help with weight loss is to eat more frequently. Frequent small meals are easier for your body to digest. The frequency also helps you to never get hunger. If you avoid hunger you are more likely to eat good foods. The smaller, frequent meals also keep your blood sugar from spiking.

Pump up your fiber consumption. You will feel full faster when eating foods with a higher fiber or water content. According to a study done at Penn State University, it was found that people who ate foods with a higher content of water or fiber, ate less than those who ate a similar meal with a lower content of water or fiber.

How To Lose Weight Healthy

Creating a timeline for your weight loss goals is very useful when you translate it into a calendar or poster since it is tangible. Having something you see every day as a reminder of your goals will not only keep you on track but also make you more motivated which will bring you one step closer to where you want to be!

An easy way to increase your weight loss is parking at the back of the parking lot as a habit. Walking a few hundred extra feet a day equals burning a great deal of calories you would not have otherwise. It may be hard during the cold months but the benefits will make it worthwhile.

If you find that you have stopped losing weight, start exercising more. Some people might stop or slow down in losing weight after dieting and exercising for an extended period of time. If you still have weight you want to lose, consider exercising more. Increasing your usual exercise routine by just five minutes should kick start your weight loss again.

A tried and true tip for weight loss is: avoid processed foods! Avoiding processed foods will force you to be more mindful about what you are purchasing, or not purchasing, at the grocery store. You will be less likely to load up on junk foods that are full of sugar, fat, and preservatives.

You might consider purchasing a couple of books that have a lot of healthy recipes for you to cook. There are many cook books out there that have a lot of meals that are healthy and promote weight loss, plus you can learn how to cook some great dishes as well.

One of the best way to achieve the weight loss you have been dreaming about is your attitude. A positive attitude of “I can do it” will get you far. Every day, several times a day, remind yourself why you are losing weight and smile about your choices.

Motivation is one of the most integral factors to consider when you are trying to reach your weight loss goal. Every week, take a photo of how you look to chart the progress that you made. This will give you the added motivation to have a successful photo shoot each and every week.

You may be putting yourself in a tough position to lose weight if you are getting to bed late. Sleep deprivation can alter your hormones, which can slow your metabolic rate. Get to bed very early for a full week, as this should have a significant impact on your weight loss and temperament.

An accountability partner can help in your weight loss journey. Having someone to share your mess-ups and successes with help keep you on track. No one wants to tell someone that they’ve done something wrong, so do the right thing, stay on track, and you can share your successes with your partner.

Reducing your caloric intake by eliminating sugary beverages will significantly boost your weight loss efforts! A million calories are overlooked in things like soda, ice-tea and sport drinks everyday and they are so counterproductive to weight loss! Liven up bottled water with lemon or lime and drink as much of it as you desire. Not only will you be cutting out calories but water is your best weapon in weight loss anyway so drink that up to shrink down!

As you can see, it is important to eat. You need to make a lifestyle change in order to lose weight and keep it off. Food offers nutrients that are important to maintaining your body. No diet will offer you the nutrients your body needs. Only a lifestyle change will give you what your body needs and wants, and will help you lose weight.

Alimentation is of course essential. Muscles and diet do not go well together, especially if you are quite sedentary and you’ve just choose a seriously restrictive diet. I choose my diets wisely, I can not risk the loss of muscular tissues while dieting on a solely cabbage soup diet or by trying to eat just fruits and vegetable without any added proteins. I know now that muscles are actually developed by protein usage and if the body lack proteins, then preventing muscle loss while dieting is not possible because your metabolism will start consuming muscular protein to keep the body from starving. In fact, I’ve noticed that whenever I’m on a restrictive diet I lose weight slowly at first, but loose strength rapidly. Well, this is nothing more than the muscular loss that occurs, until the valid proteins from muscles are consumed. Only then the body turns to burning fats.

But preventing muscle loss while dieting is possible. Just because muscles are the ones that get consumed first when you are on a diet it doesn’t mean that I allow them to get consumed. You see, the trick is to constantly solicit them while on a diet, and what better way to solicit muscles than to work them? A constant gym schedule is crucial for me, as a man that wants to remain strong but also wants to eat healthy at least once in a while and occasionally needs a quick or not so quick diet that will decrease the weight to normal levels. I aim to burn fat, without destroying muscles, and I’m pretty sure I have managed to do just that by boosting the exercise schedule whenever I diet.

It’s natural to feel hungrier when you exercise. In fact, I can not keep normal weight loss diets because I do exercise. It’s kind of funny, because I need to eat more than recommended if I want to lose weight efficiently and without loosing muscles. But you see, I burn plenty calories while at the gym, way more than in a usual day, and I believe that the weight shown by my weight scale is to my main focus. I aim to have zero fats and 100% muscles, and that is not necessarily a loss in weight. Of course, it’s absolutely impossible to replace all fats with muscles, and there are persons that don’t even want that. I myself don’t want to look like a body builder…that’s their job. I just want an efficient and fit body, that can remain young for as long as possible, and replacing the muscles or growing new muscular tissue can re-new the skin and inner organs in many ways.

One day, I met an interesting man. He was well in his 50s, and still, he was jogging early morning and from behind, he looked like a teenager. Very athletic and very energetic. I didn’t talk to him; I just passed him and then realized just how old he was. Since them, he remained a living proof that sports are possible at any age and for everyone. It also occurred to me that he is one of the “healthy living” people, eating lots of fruit shakes and raw vegetables, on a constant diet if you wish. Still, he had nice muscles, so sports were the thing that helped him preventing muscle loss. Of course, everything is just my imagination, even the image of him having women-like snacks like salads and then doing some more gym exercises. But, some truth must be in this, because it’s clear that sports and healthy eating keep us younger for longer.

Maybe it would be easier for men to stay connected to weigh loss programs if the society would care for they way they look as much as it cares when it comes to women. I look at my work colleagues, neither of them seems to care what’s happening to their weight, and when I ask them if their wives are happy with them, they simply respond :”Of course she is, I work, I’m a decent man, what more could she want?”. I wonder why women never seem to care about the aesthetic aspect of their partners. Maybe if they did, men would also diet for a living and learn how to diet and still keep great muscles.

Preventing muscle loss while dieting is in my option only a matter of common sense. I mean it’s more than striking that eating something scarce in calories will eventually kill your muscles. And it’s equality stinking that a sedentary schedule will only cause weight gain and muscle loss. Preventing muscle loss while dieting and in general can only be done by building muscles.

Please post your thoughts in a comment below.

The more active the metabolism is, the more efficient the weight loss is. When I digest something slowly it gets deposited and transformed to fat, even if it is scarce in calories. After reading several materials that claimed to effectively change the metabolism I decided to try some small daily tricks and diet plan, which in the end manage to make a visible change.

Morning light contribute a lot at changing the metabolic rhythm. This is why it is essential to wake up early in the morning and then eat a breakfast that has at least 400-500 calories, based in oak cereals mainly. These cereals have helped me decreasing my obesity risk which was evaluated by my doctor and they give a lot of energy for the entire day. As a matter of fact, it’s a known thing that people eating cereals for breakfast have a better calorie burn rate rather than those who skip it. Another thing I like for breakfast near cereals is raspberries. Just a small cup of raspberries have 90 milligrams of vitamin C, which means they go over the minimal recommended daily dosage. And vitamin C is not only an efficient immune ally, but will also aid in burning fats.

When I’m going to work in the morning, I try to walk longer distances, because the morning light help change the metabolic rhythm for night rhythm to accelerated day rhythm. At work I try not to stay glued to the desk. I get up often to talk to colleagues or simply walk about the room. This way I keep the metabolism active. A cup of coffee is also helpful while at work. My nutritionist says that coffee contributes to a faster metabolism and stimulates the nervous system, helping to burn a few calories. But the trick is to drink it slowly. The morning snack I eat at the office is never more than a yogurt or a fruit. Because digestion also burns calories, I try to have snacks often, at least every three hours.

Since the spring arrived, I became increasingly aware of the winter’s marks on my weight. The small metabolic changes obtained by little tricks were not enough anymore. So, I needed a diet that could speed up your metabolism. After read a lot about several diets claiming to speed up metabolism, I’ve decided on one that seemed reasonable enough, not to restrictive, but not too allowing either.

It is a rather complicated diet with lots of possibilities and scheme, depending on how much you want to burn and how long you are willing to diet. The diet has the following schemes: Period I scheme A – one week and B – two weeks, Period 2 scheme A – two weeks and B – four weeks, period 3 scheme A – three weeks and B – six weeks.

Depending on the gained weight and metabolism speed, scheme A guarantees to speed up your metabolism by 5% – 8%, and scheme B will speed up your metabolism by 10%-12%. The weight loss associated has the same percents, out of your total weight. For people that are after losing more weight the schemes can be repeated.

Scheme A: can be repeated 3 times a year, at an interval of 4-6 weeks

Scheme B: can be repeated 2 times a year, at an interval of 6-10 weeks.

A complete diet is one that completes a period. That means you first choose your scheme, A or B, and then go through all the three periods attached to it. I personally did scheme A, for a total of 6 weeks, and so far the effects are visible. The diet ended a few weeks ago, and I feel different and even if I eat normally, I’m not gaining any weight.

The diet is based on the theory that the body creates its own balance out of custom. Practically, if it is over-alimented frequently, it will regulate the alimentary need to the level obtained by over-alimentation so that it consumes the daily needed nutrients and then stocks up the rest of them, causing obesity.

The diet works something like this: during first period it destroys the existent equilibrium, during the second period it lowers the level of alimentary needs and during the last period it manages to speed up your metabolism and resettles the balance at the new healthy levels. As a general rule for all schemes and periods, you need to drink half a liter of water in the morning, half hour before breakfast. Also, coffee and alcohol are agents that cause hunger, so, even if they are not prohibited, they should be reduced as much as possible.

Period 1 (scheme A- one week, scheme B – two weeks)

Forbidden aliments:

Sugar, Honey, alcohol, flour products( bread, pasta, some cereals and so on), milk products, any type of animal fats, pork, veal, chicken, potatoes, beans, soy, bananas, green melon, apricots and other fruits with high sugar counts.

Recommended aliments:

Cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, apples, lemons, oranges, grapefruits, carrots, olives, corn, tomatoes, peppers, raspberries and other berries, cauliflower, cucumbers, celery and so on.

Exceptional aliments:

Eggs, fish, sea fruits, no fat milk, oil without cholesterol.

Period 2 – scheme A two weeks and scheme B four weeks

Forbidden aliments:

Sugar, Honey, alcohol, flour products( bread, pasta, some cereals and so on), milk products, any type of animal fats, pork, veal, chicken, potatoes, beans, soy, bananas, green melon, apricots and other fruits with high sugar counts.

Recommended aliments:

Cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, apples, lemons, oranges, grapefruits, carrots, olives, corn, tomatoes, peppers, raspberries and other berries, cauliflower, cucumbers, celery, fish, sea fruits, no fat milk, eggs.

Exceptional aliments:

Chicken, low fat cheese, cereals, oil without cholesterol.

Period 3 – scheme A 3 weeks and scheme B 6 weeks

Forbidden aliments:

Sugar, Honey, alcohol, flour products (bread, pasta, some cereals and so on), pork, bananas.

Recommended aliments:

Cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, apples, lemons, oranges, grapefruits, carrots, olives, corn, tomatoes, peppers, raspberries and other berries, cauliflower, cucumbers, celery, fish and chicken, sea fruits, low fat milk, eggs, low fat cheese, cereals.

Exceptional aliments:

veal, potatoes, beans oil without cholesterol.

General alimentation rules for all schemes:

The recommended aliments can be consumed in any quantity and in how often as it is needed, because they way they are distributed can speed up your metabolism.

The exceptional aliments will be introduced only if it’s needed, but in moderated quantities.

The forbidden aliments will not be consumed at all. There can be very small exceptions, as long as they are rare.

You can consume and avoid aliments by analogy with those in the presented groups.

Please post your thoughts in a comment below.

When I am setting weight loss goal, I have to consider the fact that I can not reach astonishing performances in a matter of days. I am an experienced person when it comes to dieting, so I already know that a fast diet will do no more than starve my body dry and then allow it to take action fast with the boomerang effect of such diets. There might be beneficial for skinny women that just want to drop two pounds for an evening out, but for a serious weight problem they are not something that can help.

In time, I’ve established a few strategies when setting weight loss goals. They work fine for me, and I always manage to lose efficient pounds whenever I am dieting. The first weight loss goal is referring to the amount of weigh that I want to lose in a certain time frame. I’ve read various articles and also received confirmation from my doctor that a loss of a quarter of a pound a day can be done. So, a reasonable goal is to lose about 2 pounds a week. But this might be too little when we are talking about tenths of pounds that are seriously endangering my looks and health… I usually choose a middle goal, I mean I will not aim to lose only 2 pounds a week, but at the same time I won’t target unrealistic targets like 30 pounds a week. I think that an average of 6-8 pounds a week is enough for starters, but it also depends on the type of diet.

The second thing I take into consideration when setting weight loss goals are exercises. Regardless of the diet and pounds I’, willing to lose, I make a strict exercising schedule. This includes morning sessions of jogging and also afternoon gym hours. It’s very important to keep this schedule, otherwise even the most restrictive diet will not do its job. I mean, I might lose a lot of pounds a week, but as soon as the diet is over I will gain them right back.

Then, setting weight loss goals will also include the daily calorie intake. Even if the diets that are supposed to work will usually cut in half the calorie amounts, I tend to disregard that, because if I do not eat as much as I need to I will be unable to perform the exercises I have planned, and for me they are more important. If a diet restricts meat consumption, then I will not eat meat, but instead of eating 800 calories of fruits and vegetable a day, I will eat 1400-1500. My usual amount is anyways over 2000 calories, as I usually work out, so cutting back on 500 calories does a real good job. Furthermore, the diets based on greens and vegetables will help me feel better even if I do not count calories. I feel in a way more energetic and that’s probably because they have a high detoxification action.

In conclusion, I am not unrealistic at all when it comes to my weight loss goals. Sometimes, I will also plan the daily meals. Planning ahead raises my enthusiasm and also gives me enough time to find and evaluate various healthy recipes that can fit in that respective diet. Setting weight loss goals and deciding on meal plans is often the thing that makes all the difference in my dieting. Before I started doing this, I used to fail in almost any diet and frequently forgot to eat at certain hours or forgot to count the calories I was consuming.

Don’t think that I am a slim man. I am not. This is why I need dieting constantly. And it would work well, if only I could stop eating unhealthy stuff while I’m not dieting. But the long periods in which I feel able to diet help a lot, and overall, during a period of a couple of years, I have lost lots of pounds and I am a more active and successful man.

Please be sure to come back and leave your thoughts and ideas in a comment.

The world we are living in is overloaded with toxic substances that get in our body when we breathe eat and drink water. Even our body is producing residue that must be eliminated to keep us healthy and maintain our vital force. A body that is correctly and healthy fed will eliminate those toxic residue naturally through the lungs, skin, kidney and colon. But it’s quite obvious that my body as well as yours hasn’t been fed as it should’ve for many many years. And in this case, the toxins will accumulate.

Does any of this sound familiar to you? Because they did sound all too familiar to me: tongue residue, unpleasant mouth smell, headaches, dizziness, the constant need of sleep, a serious decrease in energy levels, negative thoughts, irascibility, hypertension, bad digestion … I was shocked to know that all these things are also a sign of a urgent need for a detox diet, next to the fact that I was obviously overweight.

Apparently, because of the incorrect alimentation, of the food rich in starch I was eating of aliments excessively prepared and with way too many calories as fries, meat derivates and fast food that I used to love and eat every day, there will be a thin plate of residue left on our colon that in time will solidify. At the same time, putrefaction and fermentation processes will occur in the colon. Both sides of the story affect the body. I even read that if we fail to detoxify when needed, we are actually poisoning ourselves with intestinal toxins, and this is causing us to lose the race with longevity.

After reading all these depressing facts that seemed to have no answer and were only making me aware of how much harm I have already done to my body by eating all the time prepared food and very fat meat, I finally reached the solution. I needed to take a detox diet immediately. But detoxifying once is not enough, especially after years of not caring about this. This is a thing that needs to be done periodically between 2 to 4 times a year, for one to two weeks.

Here is my detox diet check list, which proved not to be such a hard thing to do and also managed to raise the efficiency of further weight loss diets I have tried:

• Never eat anything fried these two weeks.
• Aliments that are preserved in some way are also a big no no.
• Nothing bought out of the hypermarket that contains additives (E – substances)
• No meat or any other meat products
• Instead of sweets I was eating fruits
• No white flour. Instead, I ate cereals and black bread
• At least two liters of water a day
• No sugar, coffer, alcohol and sodas
• Instead of sugar, add honey
• Instead of coffee I decided to drink green tea, because I am a caffeine addict
• I drunk lots of natural juices and teas, all made in my home by my wife, and not bought from stores
• Before bed, I had to drink a glass of plain water with a honey spoon and the juice of a half a lemon: a delicious lemonade in fact
• I ate lots of fresh yogurt, without preservatives
• I did daily easy exercises, as walking for half hour or running for ten minutes, but mainly walking
• One day in each week of the diet I ate only non-cooked food: fruits, vegetables, nuts, cereals and milk, teas

You will never go wrong in eating healthy food, you’ll surely enjoy all the benefits that it could give so you can live a longer life. You may find the benefits of healthy eating long and continuing. If you accompany this with frequent exercise, elimination of bad habits and adequate hours of sleep, you will be able to enjoy your life to the fullest.

If you eat healthy foods, you can prevent yourself from storing too much cholesterol in your body which would eventually lead to obesity. Many people are involved in losing weight nowadays, and more of the obesity issues have been evaluated to be due too wrong food intake. As mentioned, cholesterol is actually a part of this, and since this is a substance that is present in various parts of our body it is essential to keep only adequate amounts of it in the body, enough for the body to function properly, because too much of it can be very dangerous. More often, cholesterol is related to certain diseases such as heart attack and high blood pressure.

Healthy food includes vegetables and fruits, which has antioxidants that eliminates the free radicals; found to be harmful in our body. Free radicals roam into our body and cause normal cells to deteriorate, which disables them in doing their regular function and regenerate. If these free radicals are stored in the body, eventually they will be considered as carcogenic. So, one of the greatest benefits of healthy eating is preventing you from acquiring cancer. The more you eat the right food, the better chances of you living a healthier and happy life.

These are just a couple of benefits that you can get from healthy eating, you have a lot of them to look into, however, you would like to know what foods are eligible for healthy eating, right? While there are a lot to mention, you should look into the food groups indicated on the food pyramid because, that is very essential.

Keep in mind that healthy eating doesn’t mean that you have to not enjoy eating at all. Healthy eating is not a restrictive diet, it’s just that you need to make a choice of foods that would provide you more vitamins, minerals and nutrients, than that of pure junk, like for instance and too much sugar.

To live a healthy lifestyle, healthy eating should always be accompanied with avoiding bad habits, getting enough sleep and frequent body exercises, to keep you body fit and full of energy at all times.

But there is actually a way to do this, even if it’s not with brute force, and not taken literally. While he was visiting, I decided he was way too underweight, especially when I compared him to my immense dimensions. While I was right about the fact that he was a bit under normal limits, don’t imagine that he was ill or suffering from something. He was just not eating right, and I was doing the same thing, only that different circumstances affected us differently.

So, in my quest of helping him to gain weight I managed to find out a bit about how to lose weight in my case. The two concepts are not that antonymic, as opposed to popular conception. Gaining efficient weight without affecting the normal functioning of internal processes includes the same principles as weight loss. If we simply get someone 10 meals a day with unhealthy cooking and force them to eat all type of fats and fired meat we will not be helping them in any way. They will not gain the weight we want to make them gain, and if they do they will feel constantly sick. Their liver and kidney functions will get affected and we can’t reach our purposes this way. Sweets are not a solution either. Eating too much sugar gets you diabetes when you are not accustomed to it, and we don’t want that either.

So, I decided to question him a bit about these eating schedules. I was VERY surprised to find out that eats the same junk I do…he doesn’t exercise at all and pretty much has no alimentary schedule. So, in the two weeks I spent with him, we took turns in cooking meals and made a pact to include only natural ingredients and stay away from fats. We were basically looking to get accustomed to a healthy eating program rather that finding how to lose weight or to gain it in his case. We were sure that part of the problem in both cases was the stress we both had because of work issues. So, we decided to also get into aromatherapy and relaxation techniques that are explained by aromatherapy materials. I’m not sure if any of the “wonder aromas” did any wonders, but I did feel more relaxed, but again, this might’ve happened because now I was aware I had a stress problem.

For two week, we eat a normal intake of 1800 calories a day. Given the fact that I was much bigger than him, 1800 calories was in fact less that my body cells needed and for him it was more. So, what better prove can there be that eating healthy can help both ways? It’s also important to mention that we gave up on meat altogether, and eat fish instead, lots of it. Also, to avoid feeling hungry, I replaced many morning whole cereals with boiled rice with fruits…it tastes delicious. We didn’t stay away from milk, but we avoided the fat one, we only drunk partially degreased milk. In addition, because there were two of us, we successfully went to the gym daily for 30 minutes or even one hour.

The so called diet we had worked wonders for us both. Not only that he has gained 10 pounds, but I had lost 12! For me, this was a wonder because I didn’t feel like dieting at all. I simply felt better and more alive. It’s a definite plus for eating healthy…it beats any diet.

Low Cholesterol Diet

I can not stress enough the importance of cholesterol in our organism. Those who have never thought of it are either women (hehe, they tend to get cholesterol problems much rarely than men do and their cholesterol levels are quite low compared to ours) or still in their 20’s , without a care in the world.

But once you’ve reached a certain age, once you see your fist grey hair and you start feeling the effects of all those years you’ve spent eating only bad stuff that affected your body in almost irreversible ways, you are starting to realize that there are certain substances in your body that have an important role, and their levels are not to be ignored. Either you notice that by yourself, or the doctor notices it for you, as it has happened in my case. When I went for my annual check, he just said in a low concerned voice that I needed to take a few more tests. I was kind of worried at first, and when he said that he needed just to measure my cholesterol levels I felt relieved.

I don’t know why I thought at the time that high cholesterol was something expected and not worrisome. Because in fact it’s a sign that our body is failing his tasks, and we are the ones to blame. Eating meat and barbecues every Sunday and then eating some more fast food in our lunch brakes, as I am actually, or better said, was, is only adding to the natural cholesterol levels without allowing them to lower at any time. The body needs cholesterol, but the needed quantities are usually produced by our organism. By supplementing them and over supplementing them we will only do harm.

When I was recommended to take a low cholesterol diet, I first tried to eat pretty much…nothing. Only non-processed food, and greens and no proteins basically. This is because I tried to eat stuff with no cholesterol and no fats. I didn’t even read the brochure given by my doctor, and I jumped for an internet search on fat free diets. This was no that good, as I later learnt, when my girlfriend and her “diet wisdom” came to me and explained that all the diets that claim to do something (lose weight, lower cholesterol and so on) in X weeks where X can only be replaced by numbers from 1 to 2 in most cases are just scams most of the times.

The right way to approach a low cholesterol diet is to eat things that are low on bad cholesterol and high on good cholesterol. The bad cholesterol foods are any types of meat, especially if it’s roasted or fried even eggs, but not the egg whites, fat cheese, milk and most over cooked foods. Good cholesterol foods are not to be avoided. Even if the term is the same, they contain good fats that will actually lower cholesterol levels or at least improve the good/bad rapport in our blood. I was recommended to eat lots of fish, and nuts, seeds, linen oil, olive oil. Of course, replace other aliments with these foods. Instead of meat, fish…in salads, nuts or tuna instead of meat and eggs, replace alimentary oil with olive oil.

After a week of avoiding meat and fat aliments, I was already a few points down in my cholesterol test, so I’m guessing my cholesterol diet is working. In the long run, I estimate to regain normal levels, if I keep on eating like this. And the fun part is that I’m not feeling like I’m missing anything. Except the cookies. I still crave for those creamy cookies I am trying to avoid, but I have “people” working on getting done some cookie recipes without eggs and butter, with fruits and honey. We’ll have to see how they end up tasting.

All diets I’ve even considered worthy of trying had to be what I call balanced and nutritive. I always eat 3 meals a day at about 5 hours each and have 2 snacks between the meals, usually a fruit. Basically, my daily plan looks like this:

In the morning I eat either a fruit based shake or a fruit salad with cereals.
At lunch I eat fish or chicken with a salad or boiled vegetables, or a soup and chicken barbecue. Dinner is made of fish and rice, or cow cheese, boiled vegetable and yogurt and so on. I always drink 2 liters of water and tea a day and I eat many fruits between meals.

It has become obvious to be that if I were to lose weight without endangering my health and if I wanted to keep the good results for a long time I had to choose the easy and healthy way. You have to allow your body a while to adapt to any new life style. I’ve started my change by cleaning the fridge: I’ve practically thrown away all aliments that were full of fats, sugar and many alimentary preservatives, the well known E substances.

To help me have a various diet and to find out a couple of thing about non-prepared food and its related possibilities, I’ve found and tried lots of free weight loss recipes that are simply delicious and can be done in a matter of minutes. Each of them constitutes a very consistent meal course, so I never felt hungry after eating them. Here are a few of the free weight loss recipes I’ve used:

Aperitif cake with fibber and cow’s cheese: Ingredients: 7 fibbers, 300 grams of cheese, 200 grams of butter, 2 onions, aromatic plants, pepper, tomatoes juice, crushed garlic, parsley.

I placed this one the first in the free weight loss recipes because I personally liked it the most. You have to mix the fibber with one onion, garlic, the tomato juice and parsley and then mix it some more with 100n grams of butter. You get a composition which you will divide in two equal parts. Place half of it on a plate, just like you would be making a cake. Over this layer place a cream made out of cheese mixed with cut onion and 100 grams of butter. Place on top of this the rest of the fibber pasta and decorate the cake with eatable flowers and weeds. Keep it in the fridge for 2 hours and serve it with lettuce.

Pepper pasta: Ingredients: 5 peppers, 2 green onions or 1 leeks, 100 grams butter, some parsley, a few olives, aromatic plans and spices (curry, oregano, chilly, basil).

You   have to rub the butter well and then mix it in a blended with all the other cut ingredients. Place the cream in recipients and keep it in the fridge, you can serve it on brown bread slices.

Stuffed kohlrabi: Ingredients: 5 kohlrabi, 4-5 radishes, 5 spoons of cow’s cheese, parsley, one onion.

Get rid of the hard parts of the kohlrabi. Cut them in half and hew out the middle. Grate the middle on the grater and mix it with all the other ingredients. Then fill the kohlrabi with this composition and decorate it with radish slices. This is one of the most nutritive free weight loss recipes I’ve found.

Natural soup, very nutritive and tasty: Ingredients: a carrot, one celery, one small beet, 2-3 green onions, 1-2 green garlic with leaves, grated horseradish, parsley and other greens.

You need to grate all the vegetables on the small grater and then put into small pieces the greens and the onions. All the greens and vegetables are to be placed to macerate in a liter of fresh broth. The second day you have to add a litter of boiled and cooled water, tomato juice or whole tomatoes without the peel, salt, pepper. You can server it cold or can be heated up until it reached 40 degrees Celsius. This is one of the delicious free weight loss recipes and it offers our body vitamins and minerals that are easy to assimilate.

Mushrooms and celery: Ingredients: 1 celery, 5-6 whole mushrooms, a few spinach leaves and 1 onion.

The sauce: 4 small spoons of virgin olive oil, 1 garlic, 2 yogurt spoons, salt, pepper, condiments.

You will grate the celery and then mix it with onions that are also cut into small slices, with the spinach cut into long and thin slices, the onion cut well and the sauce. It can be fried in the sauce for 4-5 minutes, until the onions roast a bit.

Chinese sauce: Ingredients: vegetal mayonnaise, 2-3 spoons of milk cream, 1/3 banana, 1 full spoon of coconut powder, 1 curry spoon. You will mix all the ingredients in the mixer and get a healthy salad dressing.

Green mayonnaise: This can be made from regular mayonnaise or vegetal mayonnaise, or from one you make at home with olive oil. Add to it two spoons of cow cheese, some parsley, green onions and 1 spoon of lemon juice and well as salt.

Avocado sauce: You need one avocado cut into small pieces, 4 spoons of milk, 2 spoons of orange juice, 13-4 spoons of yogurt, and one lemon spoon. 1 mayonnaise spoon, curry, pepper, sea salt and aromatic plants. All ingredients will be mixed in a blender until you obtain a source that has the consistency of mayonnaise, this goes well with fish salads.
 
Mixed melon salad: You need one yellow melon a few plums, a few grapes and one pear. Then add 4 spoons of honey and 4-5 spoons of apple juice. All fruits will be cut in small pieces and mixed with the juice and the honey. This is not only a great children’s desert, but also a sweet between meals snack.

Fruit cream (apricots, apples or peaches): Ingredients: 250 grams of fruits, 7 spoons of dried grapes, 2-3 spoons of honey and 150 grams of cow’s cheese plus 100 grams of milk cream.

You will soften the dried grapes, then cut the fruits in slices and blend them together with a kitchen tool with the cow’s cheese. AT the end, add the cream and mix again. Place the whole thing in the fridge for two hours.  Add fruits on top, and you get one of the free weight loss recipes that go perfectly in the summer.

Vanilla and cheese Ice-cream: Ingredients: 200 grams of cow’s cheese, 150 grams of whipped cream, 4 honey spoons, 1 small vanilla sugar envelope and 2 egg yellows.

The free weight loss recipes that are so tasty were always appreciated by my children as well. You have to mix everything here in a blender or by hand, and then add the whipped cream. Put everything in a recipient and refrigerate it for 2 hours, Perfect for the summer day, I’ve tried it many times.

I’ve had my share of diets during the last years, after the doctors said I was pretty high on cholesterol for my age (I’m slightly over 30). Also, the fact that everyone around me seemed to be well built, that all my friends were going to the gym as a pleasure and they were constantly laughing at me because I could only pride on my fat behind and basketball shaped belly, while they were showing off their perfect abs and well developed upper arms.

Then, I tried something that had hoodia gordonii in it, and for the first time I’ve clearly read about water and what’s the meaning of feeling thirsty. Apparently, this hoodia stuff was used by people in Africa to help them deal with the extended hunger and thirst they had to endure while left on huge hunting expeditions. The substance comes from a cactus plant and it is used to suppress hunger. Basically, you will eat less, because you are not hungry anymore and this is why you end up loosing weight. Not a diet pill to take by women that are only slight overweight and eat less anyway, because they will end up starving their body. But it’s perfect for men like me, who eat huge meals and go well over the recommended calorie intake every day.

But let’s return to water help to loss weight. I was warned while talking this diet that if I don’t remember do drink water I might seriously dehydrate. Hoodia was taking away my thirst as well, but water was still needed by my body. If I didn’t make a habit out of drinking lots of water, I would’ve ended up in some hospital eventually. All appetite suppressants have this effect.

I’ve also discovered something interesting about thirst. It seems that we shouldn’t even wait until we feel thirsty to drink water. The thirsty sensation is actually a bad sign, it’s a sign that our body is suffering from the lack of water. And we don’t want this, we want it to have all the water it need before it starts consuming vital resource, like the water in blood, which can cause major arterial blockages if it decreases in amount.

Besides, when I started to drink lots of water whenever taking a diet, I was filling up my stomach, so the satiety sensation would come faster. Water wasn’t only covering a biological need that help my metabolism regain normal levels and speed, but also helping me eat less, even when not taking appetite suppressants.