Good reads

There are some great websites, blogs that are wonderful and talks about all health and fitness issues. Here are some of the articles that I recently read in quest to make myself more healthy and fit.

CNN health site . With name like CNN, you will know they will have a great information site, everything you want to know about health and health issues.

Some of favorite articles are;

Fatty food might be addictive

Laughing as a exercise , can laughing can count as exercise? if so, I am going to laugh out loud listening to some funny jokes. Easiest form of exercise and fun too. Wanna join?

Movie food This is must read as I go and watch new movie every Friday with my friends. We always share popcorn and but get individual drink. I think I gain 1lbs from all that eating and drinking.

Perils of Plastic , This article is my TIME.com, many people in media are using less plastic and I am also getting concerned. Check out this article for more information.

More later.

How to lose weight

As we saw in previous post How to lose weight, pitfalls to avoid , we will look at how we can lose weight in simple, easy steps that requires some control on our part.

The Lazy Girl's Guide to Losing Weight and Getting FitLosing weight can be a huge struggle that we start thinking we may have to do something drastic to see results I know I have such as  extreme and questionable diets, pills or those product from infomercials that promise instant weight loss while you are sleeping. The one thing that I know that has worked for me and true for many is to make small changes each and every day and you will lose those extra weight. There is no instant success, key is to start small and continue. I am sorry, there is no magic pills or overnight weight loss.

Steps to successful Weight Loss
 
The experts have said that to lose one pound of fat, you must burn approximately 3500 calories above what you already burn doing daily activities. That sounds like a lot of calories and you surely can not be expected to burn extra 3500 calories in a day. However, by breaking it down in small steps, you can lose those extra 3500 calories in step by step process. Let's explore further.

1. 
   
2. Calculate your activity level. Use a calorie calculator to figure out how many calories you burn while sitting, standing, exercising, lifting weights, etc. throughout the day. It helps to keep a daily activity journal or you could even wear a heart rate monitor that calculates calories burned.
3. Keep track of how many calories you eat. You can use a site like Calorie Count or use a food journal to write down what you eat and drink each day. Be as accurate as possible, measuring when you need to or looking up nutritional information for restaurants, if you eat out.
4. Add it up. Take your BMR number, add your activity calories and then subtract your food calories from that total. If you're eating more than you're burning, (your BMR + activity is 2000 and you're eating 2400 calories) you'll gain weight. If you're burning more than you eat, you'll lose weight.

Example:
Mary's BMR is 1400 calories and she burns 900 calories in daily activity with regular exercise, walking around and doing household chores. To maintain her weight, she should be eating 2300 calories but, after keeping a food journal, Mary finds that she's eating 2550 calories every day. By eating 250 more calories than her body needs, Mary will gain one pound every 2 weeks.
This example shows how easy it is to gain weight without even knowing it. However, it's also easy to lose weight, even if the process itself can be slow. You can start by making small changes in your diet and activity levels and immediately start burning more calories than you're eating. If you can find a way to burn an extra 200 to 500 calories each day with both exercise and diet, you're on the right track. Try these ideas:

Instead of...	Do this...
An afternoon Coke	Drink a glass of water. (calories saved: 97)
An Egg McMuffin	Eat a small whole wheat bagel +1 Tbsp of peanut butter (calories saved: 185)
Using your break eat sweets	Walk up and down a flight of stairs for 10 minutes (calories burned: 100)
Hitting the snooze button	Get up 10 minutes early and go for a brisk walk (calories burned: 100)
Watching TV after work	Do 10 minutes of yoga (calories burned: 50)

Total Calories Saved: 532 (based on a 140-pound person) How Much Exercise Do I Need?
Exercise is an important weight loss tool, but how much you need varies from person to person. The ACSM's weight loss guidelines suggest at least 250 minutes per week, which comes out to about 50 minutes, 5 days a week. If you're a beginner, start small (3 days a week for 20 to 30 minutes) to give your body time to adapt. Don't forget, things like walking, taking the stairs and household chores can burn more calories as well. Learn more about getting started with exercise.

Having a Garden in your yard

Eating well and fresh produce can go hand in hand. Growing small garden in your yard is always great idea, you can grow, herbs, pepper, tomatoes, basil and other plant that you can buy it from gardening store.

Here are some great resources for you to look at it, check it out.

Helpful gardener has a great tips on how to grow herb garden. Site also have other gardening resources such as gardening flowers and other useful tips.
How to grow herb garden

About.com has a great section on gardening. Here is a good article that shows you what type of stuff you can do in month of June. Check out, June gardening

Heart and Mind websites that talks about more about life style improvement and slowing down and enjoying life wrote about 101 changes series that she writes there. Check out 101 changes: Plant something in your garden .

Veggie Garden tips site has a great suggestions on growing mushroom at home. I never thought of doing it, does people plant mushrooms at home? It might be good thing, check it out Mushroom gardening

Do you garden? Was this suggestions useful?

How to take off your weight and keep it off: Tools you will need : Part 1

First of you want to is to start out with is check your BMI: Body Mass Index, so you will know your weight is normal, underweight, overweight etc. So how do you know your BMI? It is easy and FREE. If you have an access to internet, check here to check your BMI.

BMI Calculator

When you will type in your height and weight, it will automatically tell you the range you will fall in. From there you can determined, if you need to lose a few pounds or more or some lucky ones may need to gain a few pounds. For sake of majority, we will assume that we need to lose a few pounds, adjust this according to your own weight gain and comfort level.

Second you want to find out how much calories you need to eat per day to lose X amount of weight.
According to Judith Beck's diet book, Complete Beck diet for life using following formula will set you in right direction for amount of daily calories you need to eat in order to lose weight. It is bit complex but I have tried it, so check it out.

For women
A =Your age * 7.31
B = 387-A
C = Your weight in lbs *4.95
D = Your height in inches * 16.78
E = C+D
F = B+ E
G = F-200 = Your daily calorie goal

 For Men
A =Your age * 9.72
B = 864-A
C = Your weight in lbs * 6.46
D = Your height in inches *13.8
E = C+D
F = B+ E
G = F-200 = Your daily calorie goal


More on Part 2.
Mgirl

Weight Loss, - pitfalls to avoid

Summer is here, are you ready? I always have to work little bit hard to get ready for summer, so I can wear summer friendly clothes. How about you?

Weight loss seemed to be simple enough someone who is fit and slim. Many experts will tell you simple, eat less and burn more calories, do exercise at least for 15 minutes. It was simple enough, then all of us would be doing it right? Let's say you even got started, but sticking to the program is harder in long run. And losing those 15 lbs are impossible, at least for me. They are like my long lost pals, who does not want to leave me at all.

What are your pitfalls? What have you tried that quite did not work for you.

1. Excersizing too fast and losing momentum and feeling drained
2. Eating more, due to more excercise, burning calories, net result zero or sometimes gain weight.
3. Eating too little, feeling tired and dizzy to do anything.
4. Seem like losing weight, but it is only water loss and causing you to dehydrated.
5. Your body getting adjusted to new excersise routine, stopping any new weight loss
6.Stop eating your favorite food, hence craving and binging on chocalte icecream later on.
7. Losing motivation, no momentum
8. Your metabilism does not budge no matter what you do, or it gets adjusted fast to your new routine
9. No support system
10. Or worse, sabotage system where someone does not want you to be fit and slim and does everything in his/her power to entice you to fall out from your goal.

These are some realistic and possible pitfalls one can have when trying to lose weight as if losing weight itself was not hard enough. No wonder we can not start and stay motivated enough to lose weight and stay fit. There are way too many distraction and friction in between.

What is yours? How do you keep it to your goal?

Image: Zenhabits.net