Diet is the biggest component to losing fat — you can burn 600 calories (for example) in a workout, but you can easily eat 2-3 times that much in one sitting if you’re eating junk food. As they say, you can’t out-exercise a bad diet. I’d still recommend getting active and burning calories as much as you can (with adequate rest), but if you really want to lose fat, you need to look at your diet.

So if diet is important, how do you stick to a good diet? The meal plan is often the simplest answer — plan out the foods you’re going to eat, measured for your calorie goal, and then just eat those meals (for the most part). You don’t have to track your eating because it’s already planned out.

Sticking to the meal plan is often the hard part, though. Most people aren’t used to it, and they often fail and feel guilty. So I thought I’d share some of what I’ve learned, what’s worked for me, in hopes that it’ll help you.

I’ve gotten pretty good at sticking to my plan, and I actually enjoy it. Go figure.

The Simple Method

So here’s what I’ve done, and what I’d recommend. Keep it simple.

1. Eat real, whole foods you love. Do NOT see this as a sacrifice. If you hate carrots or eggplant but you eat them because they’re somehow “virtuous” or you think that sacrifice is the only way to lose that fat, you’ll fail. You cannot stick to something you hate for very long. Instead, go for healthy foods you actually enjoy eating. For me, this is berries, fruits of all kinds, raw almonds, veggies cooked tastefully in stir-fries or chili or what have you. Your list will be different, and it could take some experimenting with different recipes you find online, in magazines or in cookbooks to find the healthy foods you like best. Main rule of thumb, though: try for real foods, not packaged ones (not even “healthy” convenience foods). In as natural a state as possible — meaning, not processed or extracted, not fried or smothered with cream or sauces.

2. Improve in iterations. Cut back a little at a time. You don’t have to go from Standard American Diet to a diet of Only Raw Carrots in one day (nor should you ever eat only raw carrots, but you know what I mean). Try a meal plan that’s a little better than the diet you’ve been eating for years — perhaps cutting out the liquid calories at first, or adding more fruits or veggies you love. As I said above, cut the calories just a little. This first meal plan doesn’t have to be perfect — just a little better. Then, once you get used to that, make a meal plan that’s a little better yet — maybe a couple hundred calories less, more veggies, less fatty stuff, less snack food, or more real food. With each iteration of your meal plan, get a little better. I’m still getting better at mine.

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3. Look ahead for bumps, and plan. We all have those bumps in our routines: an office party, someone’s birthday dinner, going on a date with your honey, taking a trip, being on the road all day and not having access to your usual foods. The key is to think ahead — what’s going on tomorrow? How will I deal with it? Should I pack food, or find out what the menu is at the restaurant so I can pick something healthy, or should I use this as a cheat meal? Thing is, don’t just do cheat meals all the time — then you’re not on a meal plan anymore. More on that below. Again, plan ahead and prepare — as you keep doing this, you’ll get good at packing snacks or meals so you’re covered, no matter what the occasion.

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- Swimsuit season is here and pretty much everybody is beginning their quest to develop their beach body. Just yesterday, one of my classes was double it’s normal size. Last week, one of my students told me she was giving herself four weeks to get in shape, and another said she’s going out of town next week and wants to see some results by then. “Only one week?” I thought to myself, but I can’t control people’s desires, I can only offer advice and help them. Seven days isn’t much, but I gave her a few things to try which may help her achieve something in that period of time.

Exercise

Of course, exercise is a must, but it’s the type of exercise that matters. The goal is to fire up the metabolism, and long, slow paced jogs simply won’t do the trick. My suggestion was interval training – tabata style. This method involved 20 seconds of all out 120% effort followed by 10 seconds of rest. This cycle is to be 8 times, for a total of four minutes. Following the sprints, bodyweight exercises can be performed in a similar fashion – push ups, squats and burpees, giving a total of 16 minutes. Granted, 16 minutes doesn’t seem like much, but by the end of the session, you will feel so wiped out that you will think you worked out for an hour.

Want to lose weight? Dance it off!

Sleep

Sleep plays a key role in losing weight. Research shows that sleep deprivation triggers the release of a hormone that inhibits the production of leptin – a hormone which inhibits hunger – and simultaneously increases ghrelin production. Ghrelin has the opposite effect of leptin – it sends hunger signals to the brain. If you are serious about losing weight, get some shuteye. No more late night talk shows and video gaming (I’m guilty of that one, too.)

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(BlackDoctor.org) — When it comes to beauty and looking your age, black women are very lucky. Because of darker skin pigmentation and the heightened amount of melanin in the skin of women of color, there is a minimum amount of flaws and imperfections that appear with the coming of age, such as: crow’s feet, wrinkles and sagging skin. And even though we know that weight gain knows no race, women of color wear their weight differently; usually in the lower half of the body, and at times this too can increase with each birthday.

The truth is that a great nutrition plan, diet regiment and exercise will all help to ensure that you stay on Mother Nature’s good side. In the meantime, a little extra help doesn’t hurt. Here are a few simple tips that can keep people asking, “How old did you say you were again?”

1. Buy a good bra, not just a pretty one

Sometimes we get a little too taken with lace, sheer and embroidery and forget the best thing of all is the fit. Most overweight women wear bras that let their breasts fall too low, making them look older and heavier. However, a good bra can make you look leaner and slimmer. If you are unsure, get fitted in the lingerie department of your favorite department store. You will see the difference next time in your favorite shirt

2. Make it a point to add color in your wardrobe

Because black women come in so many shades, why limit yourself to dark and neutral colors. Venture outside of the box. Try beautiful pastels and earth tones, and even some vibrant patterns. Try bright colors on your good features and dark colors on problem areas. Since black women come in all colors, so should the wardrobe. Color will make you look much younger.

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3. Know yourself is knowing your size.

Another common mistake that plus-size women make is that they squeeze in the wrong size trying to look thinner. But, the unfortunate and blatant truth is that this only makes you look bigger and older. Women believe that if they risk going up a size than they have to eventually deal with that weight gain, which might be true. But who says that you have to look terrible while waiting to lose the weight. If you look your best at any weight, you might find yourself in a better frame of mind to take on a diet and exercise routine.

4. Boot camp on boot cuts

Please, please, please ladies; throw out tapered and ill-fitting jeans. As mentioned, black women tend to carry weight at the bottom making a lady looking larger and shorter. If you want to make your hips appear slimmer, try boot cut jeans. These jeans flare out at the knee and give you the appearance of being slimmer and taller.

Get Mary J’s get-fit-anywhere secret

5. Accessorize Your Wardrobe

Black women are naturally beautiful. To enhance that beauty, try a host of attractive accessories. Scarves, long dangling earrings, pins, handbags and shoes all help you look very attractive before and after you lose weight. After all, it’s very hard to notice problem areas on your body when you are adorned with an array of eye-catching accessories.

Lastly, don’t try so hard to be noticed, just being yourself will get you plenty of attention. Black is beautiful no matter what!

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The key to raising healthy kids is teaching them how to make healthy decisions. To do this, you must be informed about health issues that affect your child and be willing to take an active role as a parent. Childhood obesity is the biggest health threat facing kids.Follow these steps, and you can take action to stimulate healthy decision-making and prevent obesity:

Step 1

Begin with a healthy pregnancy. Make sure you consume the recommended amounts vitamins and nutrients. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists states that pregnant women require higher daily amounts of vitamin A (770 mcg), calcium (1,000 mg), iron (27 mg), vitamin C (85 mg), vitamin B12 (2.6 mcg), folate (600 mcg) and folic acid (400 mcg). Some prenatal vitamins now provide DHA Omega-3 to support brain and eye development.

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Step 2

Take an active role in your child’s health care. Discuss concerns about important issues, such as circumcision, medications and vaccinations with the pediatrician. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.

Step 3

Provide a supportive environment. Children excel when they feel safe and comfortable. By creating a welcoming, open atmosphere at home, your child will be less likely to seek gratification in other ways, such as overeating, drugs, alcohol, promiscuous behavior or some other unhealthy alternative.

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Our appetites can be quite the pranksters. It often fools us to think we are hungry, when often, we may be suffering from something completely different. Distinguishing between false hunger and true hunger will help you know when your body really needs food and when it needs something else.

1. Hunger Due to Eating the Wrong Food: Symptoms include craving high sugar foods or feeling “hungry” soon after eating a meal. If you just had a big meal that is high in simple carbohydrates and did not contain fiber, protein or healthy fat, all of which help provide a sense of satiety, you may have experienced a drop in blood sugar. In this case, have a healthy snack, such as a piece of fresh fruit and nuts, or cottage cheese or celery and peanut butter or 1/2 of a sandwich on whole grain bread.

2. Emotional Hunger: Sometimes, our appetites can go haywire when we are experiencing boredom, fear, anxiety, stress or loneliness. Try taking a walk, journaling, listening to some favorite music, calling a friend or chewing a piece of mint gum instead. Read a book, go to a “safe place” like a library or museum or park where you will not be tempted to overeat or distracted by food. Take a bath, meditate, or think about what REALLY would satisfy you, vs. eating to stuff down emotions you do not want to confront.

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5 Foods You Should Never Ditch, Even When Dieting

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Before you beeline for the buffet table, arm yourself with holiday diet tips and strategies that will help you stay away from the most fattening foods of the season from shape.com:

Eggnog

This aromatic drink is a dietary disaster—it’s basically just sugar, cream, and eggs. Instead of reaching for this calorie-laden beverage (roughly 200 calories in just a 5 ounce serving), stick to your healthy diet plan by opting for hot chocolate, which has about 113 calories if you make it with water.

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Baked Potato with Toppings

It’s tempting to load up baked potatoes with sour cream and butter, but doing so turns this complex carbohydrate into one of the most fattening foods at the table. Just one tablespoon of butter can add around 100 calories to this fiber-rich food. Instead of dousing it in artery-clogging toppings, try using salsa, or go for roasted potatoes.

Prime Rib

While this is the holiday cut of choice, prime rib comes from the fattiest part of the cow, which translates to lots of calories. A 10-ounce slab of this hearty beef can have a whopping 1,000 calories and 37 grams of fat, which will take you more than two hours to burn off ice skating. Beef can be part of your healthy diet plan, just opt for Select or Choice grade beef and a lean cut, such as sirloin.

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(From Glamour)

No bossy list of health to-dos here! Just insider info from Dr Oz, that’ll make you want to treat yourself right:

What Happens When…You Try a Fad Diet

The Master Cleanse and other restrictive weight-loss plans seem to have become more popular than ever. But let me fill you in on something: After a few days of massively scaling back food intake, your metabolism starts to plummet. That’s because your brain senses that there isn’t enough food coming in. It tells your body to cling desperately to the fat stores it already has, and starts burning lean muscle tissue for fuel—two things that ultimately increase your percentage of body fat. After several days on a very low-calorie diet, levels of omega-3 fats in your brain can fall as well. Around 30 percent of the brain is made up of these fats, and without enough of them, you may be more prone to depression.

How to help your body: The healthiest, most effective way to lose weight is to eat small, balanced meals and snacks every few hours so your brain never goes into that starvation panic mode, and to never, ever drop below 1,200 calories a day.

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What Happens When…You Skimp on Sleep

After even one night of four hours’ sleep instead of eight, you’ll feel crankier and generally “down.” You’ll have more difficulty processing complex information, and you’ll want to eat more—specifically simple carbs like sweets. Why? Your body wants a quick energy fix any way it can get it. When you don’t get enough rest, your body also produces less growth hormone, a substance that helps tissues regenerate and repair themselves, keeping you younger longer.

How to help your body: The exact amount of rest your body needs is very personal, but, on average, I recommend women get no fewer than seven hours. Men are a bit needier (as you probably already knew). They have to get closer to eight.

What Happens When…You Eat a Fatty Meal

Once a bacon cheeseburger gets into your system, the saturated and trans fats cause blood vessels to constrict. They stay that way for about four hours—boosting blood pressure and reducing blood flow and oxygen supply. And here’s the kicker: As soon as those tough four hours are up, it’s time for your next meal; choose another fatty one, and the cycle happens again. Someone who eats this way most days is almost always walking around with tightened arteries—a prescription for heart disease.

How to help your body: To feel your best and live longer, make high-fat splurges like this the exception, not the rule.

What Happens When…You Have a Glass of Wine

Piles of studies have linked light drinking—whether it’s wine, beer or the hard stuff—to a healthier heart. One study illuminated the possible reason: After one drink (4 ounces of wine or 1.5 of liquor, not a glass the size of a soup bowl), your blood vessels relax. That’s a good thing, but having a second drink stresses your circulatory system. And it’s worth noting that men have more of an alcohol-digesting enzyme in their stomach than women do. More of the alcohol you drink gets into your bloodstream than it does for men, making you drunker quicker. Once boozed-up blood hits your brain, your reaction time and your ability to process information slow. And your liver gets pulled away from its work of clearing out toxins to focus on neutralizing the alcohol. Research suggests that alcohol may be two to three times riskier for a woman’s liver than a man’s, even when they drink the same amount.

How to help your body: You’re far better off having a glass of wine a day than having none all week and then seven on Saturday night.

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Full Figured Tips From Deborah Gregory!

Society pushes the image of the super skinny models and starlets on the average women making us feel like we are too big to be sexy. But if this finding is true then the reverse is true that being overweight leads to thicker hair? One can make the argument that over-eating feeds the hair follicles allowing them to grow. When we feed our bodies with protein, vitamins and minerals it can maximize the function of hair giving us fuller locks. A diet high in fat and protein may give you thunder thighs, but who cares if you have a full head of hair to help balance the thick gut and lack of a waist. So does this mean that big girls also have bigger booties and thicker, fuller heads of hair?

The downside is that studies have also shown that obesity in women leads to thick, coarse facial hair because of a hormone imbalance, while obesity in men leads to the appearance of male breast.

Pick your poison: which one would you chose thin hair or thunder thighs?

THICK VS. FAT: Aren’t They The Same???

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Artichoke always look so inviting but ever wonder “how the hell do I eat this thing??” Alas, we found a great guide from simplyrecipes.com on how to cook and then eat an artichoke!

How to Cook an Artichoke

1. If the artichokes have little thorns on the end of the leaves, take a kitchen scissors and cut of the thorned tips of all of the leaves. This step is mostly for aesthetics as the thorns soften with cooking and pose no threat to the person eating the artichoke.

2. Slice about 3/4 inch to an inch off the tip of the artichoke.

3. Pull off any smaller leaves towards the base and on the stem.

4. Cut excess stem, leaving up to an inch on the artichoke. The stems tend to be more bitter than the rest of the artichoke, but some people like to eat them. Alternatively you can cut off the stems and peel the outside layers which is more fibrous and bitter and cook the stems along with the artichokes.

5. Rinse the artichokes in running cold water.

6. In a large pot, put a couple inches of water, a clove of garlic, a slice of lemon, and a bay leaf (this adds wonderful flavor to the artichokes). Insert a steaming basket. Add the artichokes. Cover. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer. Cook for 25 to 45 minutes or until the outer leaves can easily be pulled off. Note: artichokes can also be cooked in a pressure cooker (about 15-20 minutes cooking time). Cooking time depends on how large the artichoke is, the larger, the longer it takes to cook.

Now the artichoke is ready to eat! Check out the rest of the article on simplyrecipies.com for dips and sauces for your artichoke plus what to do with the artichoke heart!

As Breast Cancer Awareness Month approaches, we need to think about realistic ways to protect ourselves from getting the second most common cancer for women. Here’s how making smart food choices might just lower your breast cancer risk.So why bother trying to prevent breast cancer? For one, second to skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer women face.

Here’s what you can do to lower your risk according to eatingwell.com:

1. Stay lean, move more
One of the most important ways to reduce risk of breast cancer is to avoid gaining weight, suggests a recent review article in the journal Cancer. That means balancing a healthy diet with plenty of exercise. And a study of over 100,000 women reported that those who got regular, strenuous exercise had a lower risk of developing breast cancer than others who didn’t. Exercise may help lower levels of hormones that are involved in breast cancer. Commit to regular exercise, if you haven’t already.
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2. Enjoy fats in moderation
The Women’s Intervention Nutrition Study (WINS), a major clinical trial of postmenopausal women with early-stage breast cancer, found that those who followed a low-fat diet significantly reduced their risk of cancer coming back. They also lost an average of 4.6 pounds after the first year of the trial, while those in the control group gained a half pound. Because weight gain is linked with breast-cancer recurrence and lower survival rates, perhaps the key benefit of a lower-fat diet is the weight loss it encourages. Watching your fat intake can help prevent you from gaining weight and may thus be a cancer-fighting strategy.

3. Eat soyfoods, not supplements
In countries like China and Japan where soyfoods are commonly eaten, breast-cancer rates are among the lowest in the world-and one analysis of 18 studies found that eating soyfoods, such as tofu and soy nuts, slightly lowered breast-cancer risk. But don’t be tempted to pop a soy supplement, warns Laurence Kolonel, M.D., Ph.D., director of the epidemiology program at the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii: the high doses of soy phytoestrogens found in supplements can behave like estrogen in the body, causing breast-cell changes that could potentially lead to cancer. Breast-cancer survivors and women at high risk for the disease should avoid soy supplements.

Blast away your belly bulge

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