Weight Loss

Join the 90 day Challenge

Join the 90 Day Challenge with me and kick start your 2013 New Year goals! These shakes have helped me lose weight, stay physically fit and active and It can do the same for you. Visit the site and check out more Info on the 90 day Challenge. www.ljayhealth.myvi.net

Feel free to email me with any questions. ljayhealth@gmail.com

Eat Your Veggies

Whether you’re eating your vegetables or not will determine how great your weight loss goes. Myplate.gov recommends that the average adults eat at least 3 cups of vegetables a day. Vegetables have many benefits alot in which helps speed the metabolism, increase muscle toning, bone density, and steady blood flow.

Vegetables are hard for our bodies to digest due to the fiber content however this is a good thing. The more fiber we intake the harder our bodies work to digest the food and the harder our bodies work the more calories we burn. Typically you will burn more calories when eating vegetables than the calorie amount of the veggies itself. You may burn 100 extra calories just by eating a cup of vegetables 🙂

I usually try to eat veggies for each meal. I can tell it has helped with the weight loss, workout recovery, and overall endurance.

Try to eat leafy green vegetable for maximum weight loss results

• Broccoli
• Spinach
• Celery
• Cucumber
• Romaine lettuce
• Spring Mix

Make a commitment today to incorporate more veggies with a normal cardiovascular routine 45-60 min a day and watch yourself maximize your weight loss results.

Are you Beach ready?

Summer is right around the corner and will be here before you know it. I want to provide you with 10 efficient ways that you can work on burning the the fat and shed the pounds before summer. Good luck to you all and I will also be focusing on the steps along with you. Keep us posted on your progress and leave comments.

1. Drink at least half your body weight in ounces for your water intake a day.

2.Cut the excess sugar (sodas, fruit juices, sugar in coffee, candy, chocolate, etc).

3.Cycle out your carbohydrate intake after lunch time

4. Complete at least 45 minutes of cardio exercise 4 days a week.

5.Calisthenics (Push ups, crunches, pull ups, squats, jump rope) at least 3 days a week.

6.Take a multivitamins

7.Add Green tea to your diet. (Brewed or supplement)

8.Sauna bath (15-20 minutes each session)

9.Get rid of the added stress

10. SLEEP…..6-8 hours a day. Too much sleep may also cause weight gain.

WEIGHT LOSS

When you lose weight quickly, many times you’re losing water weight versus fat. Therefore, once you lose the weight by this method, you may gain it back again. If you want to keep the weight off, you have to plan on waiting it out until you reach your goal. So, you must alter your behavior and change your lifestyle in order for this to work. You can’t expect to maintain your weight once you lose it if you don’t effect a change in the way you eat or how you exercise during the day.

CHANGE CAN BE HEALTHY

A permanent weight loss solution then can only be realized by changing the types of foods you eat and the kinds of exercise you partake in on a daily basis. If your pantry and refrigerator are currently stocked with such items as white bread, sugary foods, caloric beverages, chips, fried food, red meat and processed meats like bologna, then you’re going to have to make some changes in the way you eat.

SOME OF THE BEST WEIGHT LOSS FOODS

Some of the best weight loss foods you can eat are asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, kidney beans, lentils, carrots, collards, kale, lambs quarter, chicken, fish, grapefruit, apricots, apples, tangerines, lemons, lettuce, mustard greens, okra, peppers, radishes, tomatoes, turnip greens, oat bran, rice bran and rye.

EAT ALL THE VEGETABLES YOU WANT

Most vegetables you eat can stand up to the test of time and will assist you in losing weight. The same holds true for fruits if you eat them in moderation. When it comes to grains, oat bran, rice bran and rye are all three grains that will take weight off and keep it off too.

A BALANCED EATING LIFESTYLE

If you maintain a healthy pattern of eating and keep your portion size in control, you won’t have to count calories and will be able to lose weight and keep it off . So, stick with controlled picks such as fruits, vegetables, oats and brown rice, bran, rye, wheat, and legumes (especially lentils and kidney beans). The fiber content of most of these foods keeps one feeling full while providing a minimum amount of calories.

THIN FOR LIFE

Since you’re reducing your calories by eliminating junk foods, red and processed meats, sugary snacks and fried foods, you’ll feel more energized as you’ll be exchanging these foods with foods that cleanse the system and significantly reduce your overall daily caloric intake.  Combine this reduction in your calorie consumption with an increased amount of exercise and you’ll be putting the wheels in motion so you can stay thin for life. Plus you don’t have to go through a strenuous exercise routine for you to gain any measurable benefits. Research has shown that exercising a couple times a day at 30-minute intervals can be just as effective as one long exercise session. If you make it a practice to walk at least 30 minutes per day, this is usually adequate enough for you to lose weight and keep it off permanently.

OPTIMUM WEIGHT LOSS

If you want to lose a pound then, you have to burn 3500 calories or one pound of body weight. Therefore, reducing your calories and increasing your activity is the best way to lose weight. Aerobic activity is good for burning calories as well as reducing your cholesterol, increasing your lung power, improving the condition of your skin and strengthening your heart and cardiovascular system. Nonetheless, if you incorporate weight or resistance training in your exercise routine, you will speed up your metabolism and continue to burn calories throughout the day. Therefore, it’s good to combine aerobic and anaerobic exercises in your dietary and fitness plan for optimum weight loss.

Rules of Weight Loss

To lose one pound of fat, you must burn approximately 3500 calories over and above what you already burn doing daily activities. That sounds like a lot of calories and you certainly wouldn’t want to try to burn 3500 calories in one day. However, by taking it step-by-step, you can determine just what you need to do each day to burn or cut out those extra calories. Below is a step by step process for getting started.

1. Calculate your BMR (basal metabolic rate). Your BMRis what your body needs to maintain normal functions like breathing and digestion. This is the minimum number of calories you need to eat each day. Keep in mind that no calculator will be 100% accurate, so you may need to adjust these numbers as you go along.
2. Calculate your activity level. Use a calorie calculatorto 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)

The secret to losing weight:

-Cut the junk foods
-Intake fewer calories
-Reduce Sugar Intake
-Reduce Sodium Consumption
-Cut back on on complex carbohydrates
-Drink plenty of water (eight 8 ounces a day)
-Engage in physical activity at least 30 minutes a day
-Remove the stress from your life

Although this may seem like alot but it is actually very simple. Foods that are low in calories, sugars, and sodium are idea for daily food intake. Foods such as fruits, green vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains ,nuts and seeds tends to put your metabolism into full blast. When we remove extra sugar from our food intake our blood sugar levels stay normal and allows the liver to conduct its primary job (burning fat). When loosing weight it is also important to watch out for the sodium intake. A surplus in sodium stores in our body as water weight. The average amount of sodium that we should intake daily is no more the 1500mg. Foods that are high in sodium are sodas, fried foods, added salt, and frozen dinners. Be sure to check the nutrition labels for sodium amounts when grocery shopping, you may be surprised how fast the sodium amount rises quick throughout the day.

A major way of removing the access fat cells is cutting back on the complex carbohydrates. White breads, white rice, pasta, and flavored cereals.(Remember if its white, its not right). Instead it is ok to result to whole wheat products instead; wheat bread, whole wheat pasta, brown rice,and whole grain cereals. When we intake complex carbohydrates it is then digested into our bodies as sugar and then the excess is stored into fat cells.

Engaging in physical activity at least 30 minutes a day allows the body to burns the fat cells away. Exercising also promotes perspiration which helps to unclog our skin pours for healthier skin, opens our blood vessels for increase blood flow, and helps to unclog blocked arteries which can lead to health issues.

Regular exercise has been proven to help:

Reduce stress
Ward off anxiety and feelings of depression
Boost self-esteem
Improve sleep

Throwing out the junk foods:

A friend of mine was so concerned that she was not eating as healthy as she could be; so she invited me into her kitchen to examine some of the foods she had stored in her pantry and refrigerator. During my analysis I threw out the whole milk, white bread, butter, sodas, the container of sugar, cookies, candy, potato chips and frozen dinners. She was somewhat upset that these foods were being thrown away due to the money she had spent on them but it was time for her to realize those foods were affecting her health tremendously. We then took a trip to the local grocery and replaced the foods with more healthier selections such as fat free milk, wheat thin crackers, water, diet soda, wheat bread and so on. This was a major change for her but she knew that it would be better for her health which was most important. A week later she called me and told me that she was down 4 pounds!! All she did was changed the way she was eating, going from a unhealthy eating situation to a more nutritional way of eating.

My advice to you:

Just as my friend dropped 4 pounds in only one week by changing her food selection you too can do the same. Get motivated today to throw out the junk the same way I did for my friend. If you feel that wasting money isn’t necessary, offer the foods to a family member or a friend. It is time to take control of your weight and most importantly your HEALTH.

Please comment if you would like a list of foods to purchase to start and make your lifestyle change. There will be more post to come in the future; so be sure to “Subscribe” to stay updated.