Saturday, June 2, 2007

Healthy Snacks for Those Dieting

Do you ever have a Snack Attack? One of the most difficult parts of any diet regime is the sacrifice of comfort foods and snacks. Many dieters find that they have no trouble planning and eating sensible meals, but they falter when it comes to snacking. Potato chips, cookies and candy are easy targets for a hungry dieter because they require no preparation and can be eaten quickly before guilt has time to set in. The best way to avoid breaking your diet with junk food is to keep it out of your house altogether. If you have a family, or roommate that is not on your diet, that may not be possible. An alternate way to fight temptation is to keep a supply of healthy, diet-friendly snacks on hand. Snacking throughout the day can actually help you to lose weight by boosting your metabolism provided you keep the snacks healthy.

Traditional Diet Snacks Traditionally, there were not a lot of options available when it came to snacking for dieters. Raw vegetables were generally thought to be a good choice, and many people still enjoy a snack of carrots, celery or fresh cauliflower throughout the day. Vegetables have the distinct advantage of being practically limitless, even when dieting. Low calorie, no fat Jello was a typical dessert substitute, as was fresh fruit. Carb cravings were satisfied by Melba toast, a diet-friendly bread option. While these choices are still good for todays dieters, nutritionists and diet experts have created a number of modern, healthy snacks that will not cause you to break your diet, but will give you more snacking satisfaction when you really crave something you should not be eating.

Modern Solutions to Healthy Snacking There are numerous healthy snacking options available for todays dieters. As people have realized that diets need to be somewhat realistic in order to succeed, snacking has become an important factor in most diet plans. From low fat ice cream and frozen yogurt, to baked snacks like potato chips and pretzels, modern diet snacks are anything but plain and boring. Flavored rice cakes make an excellent crunch alternative, and even cookies are available in low fat, lower calorie versions. The thing to remember with all snacks is to watch the serving amount. Even diet snacks can negatively affect your calorie count if you over indulge. Eating the right snacks in the right amount can help you to keep your diet successful.

Easy Ways To Lose Weight - 3 Easy, No-Fuss Ways To Lose Weight

Is there an easy way to lose weight? That's usually the question on most people's minds this time of year as we hurdle towards bathing suit season. Often, just the thought of losing weight makes people think of deprivation diets and painful stomach rumblings.

But weight loss doesn't have to be like that.

There are several easy ways to lose weight. Many slim people know about them and use them this time of year to take the weight off rapidly without a lot of fuss or hassle. This article will review 3 of these ways, giving you a bit about each.

As always, consult your doctor or health care team before making any changes to your diet and/or lifestyle.

#1 Hoodia Gordonii

Hoodia is a natural appetite suppressant that tricks your brain into thinking that you're full and turns off the desire to overeat. It not only helps turn off physical hunger but many people also report that they do not even have the desire to overeat, which makes it REALLY easy to lose weight.

Hoodia is a natural plant extract from the South African desert and has been declared safe to take by experts. It has also been eaten by the South African tribesman for years with no ill effects.

Compared to synthetic diet pills that can make you all jittery and nervous (and may cause serious side effects), Hoodia Gordonii is an excellent natural alternative. People taking it have reported losing up to 5-7 pounds per week.

The only downside is that the market is flooded with 'fake' Hoodia. Because there is too much demand and not enough supply (Hoodia plants take approximately 4-7 years to mature), a lot of companies are using fake Hoodia and/or not putting enough Hoodia into their pills.

If you end up buying a poor brand of Hoodia, it won't work for you and you'll have wasted your money. So be careful when shopping to buy from a company that uses South African Hoodia Gordonii and offers you certification like their C.I.T.E.S. certificate and lab analysis. If you do your research ahead of time, you'll be much more likely to find pure Hoodia and get the weight loss results you want.

#2 Weight Loss Patch

Weight loss patches are growing in popularity because they're easy to use, often work better than pills and offer a great variety of fat burning ingredients.

Weight loss patches work by decreasing your appetite and/or increasing your metabolism or both. Instead of taking something through your mouth, a weight loss patch is placed on the skin and delivers it's ingredients transdermally (through your skin).

For many people with compromised digestive systems, this can be a better way of absorbing the fat-burning ingredients into their system.

You can get weight loss patches that offer Hoodia, green tea, caffeine, guarana, fucus vesiculosus (a natural seaweed that boosts your thyroid) and other fat burning ingredients.

It's important to choose a weight loss patch that only has ingredients you feel comfortable with (for example, if caffeine makes you feel jumpy, avoid those weight loss patches that use green tea and/or caffeine.)

The beauty of a weight loss patch is that it's working to help you lose weight while you're going about your daily business. How easy is that?

#3 Diet Home Delivery

Diet delivery is becoming an extremely popular way for busy people to lose weight. These days, we may want to eat better - but really, who has the time? It's so much easier to have the food prepared for you.

Many popular diets are offering their diet food delivered straight to your door. You pay a monthly fee and you either get the food delivered weekly or daily to your door.

Unlike in the past, diet delivery is actually quite affordable due to companies growing and buying in bulk. Many plans start at around $15-25 a day for all 3 meals.

Plus it's extremely convenient. In most cases you just take out your meal from the fridge or freezer, follow the heating instructions for 5-10 minutes and eat. Diet delivery is like having a dietitian or personal chef helping you lose weight.

So those are 3 easy way to lose weight. They give many people that extra push that is often needed when it comes to weight loss.

Remember however that the easiest way to lose weight is found when you match the right plan to your lifestyle and unique tastes. Choose a weight loss plan that gets you excited and motivated - you'll have much better (and probably faster) results!