March 2010
Cook More - Order More - Lose Weight
March 28, 2010 by Dianne Orwig
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If you are attempting to lose weight, you’re probably working pretty hard at eating less food. For many, this typically means cooking or preparing smaller portions or ordering smaller meals when dining out. While it seems logical to cook less and order less in an attempt to get a handle on your love handles, the fact is, doing just the opposite is really the way to go.
Order More Not Less - Let’s say you’re out with friends and you order a nice lean steak, baked potato and some steamed broccoli. This is a very balanced meal of protein, carbohydrate and green vegetable - add a little salsa or spray butter to your potato, a little salt and pepper, and you’ve got the perfect meal… with the exception, of course, of the size.
Because restaurants notoriously serve 2 to 4 helpings in an average dinner plate, you may be tempted to share your entree with a friend to avoid eating too much. Certainly this is one strategy but, as I see it, if you’ve gone to the trouble of ordering a clean, healthy meal, why not share it with yourself instead? As soon as your meal arrives, box up half of it and – vooala! - you have your next meal; delicious, nutritious and made to order!
This is a trick I always use when traveling. I make sure that my room is equipped with a small refrigerator and I always order more than I need. Boxing up half of each meal ensures that I always have an approved meal waiting for me whenever I need it.
Cooking More = Losing More – Below is a very simple and healthy recipe for tuna salad. As you will see, whenever preparing any healthy recipe, I make much more than I need. (The way I see it, it takes the same amount of time to make 1 serving as it does to make 6.) This saves time and guarantees that I will have plenty of good, healthy food available for later.
Place three large vacuum bags of tuna into a large bowl.
Add ¼ of low fat mayo (actually you can get away with the real stuff since this recipes divides into 6 servings), 1 heaping tablespoon of prepared mustard, ¼ cup of sweet relish, 1 tablespoon of chopped jalapeños (optional)
Add salt & pepper to taste
Boil up some Orzo pasta (or any other type of pasta you like)
Then divide both the tuna salad and cooked pasta into separate, portion controlled containers. (Keeping your pasta and tuna separate will help them stay fresh longer - combining the two will cause each to go bad much faster - so keep them separate until you get ready to serve.)
Now you have 6 healthy, portion-controlled meals, 1 for now and 5 more to eat in the next few days.
A good policy is to leave room in your protein container so, when you get ready to eat, you can simply toss your carb in and enjoy – less dishes to clean later on!
This meal, by the way, is great with a little hot sauce on top!
So, the moral of the story is, cook more, order more, eat small, eat often, and lose weight you will!
About the Author:
Dianne Orwig is a success coach, motivational speaker, fitness trainer, and founder of LivingFit Online™, a fitness program that has helped thousands of men and women completely transform their bodies and live healthier, happier lives though her less-is-better approach.
For more information on how you can get better results in less time and with less effort than you ever thought possible, visit http:/
(c) Copyright - Dianne Orwig. All Rights Reserved Worldwide
Get More Sleep, Lose More Weight
March 17, 2010 by Dianne Orwig
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With all the hoopla about this special diet pill and that specific exercise program, it’s not surprising that many of us are completely confused about what it really takes to drop a pant size or two.
Of course, diet and exercise are, understandably, the big box-office draw of the fitness industry, but here is a tiny fact that only peeks its head out of the clouds every once in a while: If you don’t get enough sleep, what you do in the gym and in the kitchen might not make that much difference – even if you work really hard and stick to your diet like glue.
It’s hard to believe that something as sedentary as sleep could actually be one of the best, most overlooked diet aids around, but the proof has been out there for years.
Findings presented during the 2006 American Thoracic Society International Conference revealed the results of one of the largest studies to track the effects of sleep habits on weight gain over time. The 16 year long study, which included more than 70,000 participants, showed that women who slept 5 hours per night were 32% more likely to gain weight (33 pounds on average) and 15% were more likely to become obese, when compared with those who slept 7 hours a night.
In the study, it was found that even among women who eat less, those who slept less still gained weight over time. Lead researcher Sanjay Patel, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH explains, "Prior studies have shown that after just a few days of sleep restriction, the hormones that control appetite cause people to become hungrier, so we thought that women who slept less might eat more," Patel says. "But, in fact, they ate less. That suggests that appetite and diet are not accounting for the weight gain in women who sleep less."
While the evidence was clear – sleeping less has a direct effect on the ability to lose weight – the reasons behind this phenomenon are still unclear. A range of possibilities are thought to be responsible - from insulin regulation to an over abundance of the stress hormone, cortisol.
But, the real question isn’t so much “why” but “how?” How does one go about getting more sleep? Experience has taught me that sleep habits are often as hard, if not harder, to re-tool than eating and exercise habits. The following are a few of my favorite ways to go about getting more Zzz’s:
Change Your Ritual – One of the best ways to change a habit is to start by changing the environment surrounding the habit. Try ending your evening with a relaxing soak. Turn the TV off, listen to soothing music, or read something inspirational. Change a few things each week – adding to your new routine until you have a solid “getting ready for bed” ritual. This will prompt your brain to begin winding down even if it is not your usual bedtime.
Add 30 Minutes at a Time – If you’re accustomed to crawling into bed at 11:30pm, make an intentional effort to start making it 11:00pm. Once you have accomplished this three nights in a row, try moving it to 10:30pm and so on, until you are spending a full 7 to 8 hours in bed. Work on getting to bed earlier first, then work on getting to sleep. Eventually, your body will adjust to the change and you will fall asleep more easily.
Wear Ear Plugs – Second only to stress and worry, the number one cause of sleepless nights is noise – specifically snoring. If this is a problem for you, consider using one of the many disposable ear plugs that are available at most drug stores. My favorite (I find them the most comfortable) are Flent brand “Quiet! Please” noise reducing foam ear plugs. I’ve used them for many years and have heard from more than a few folks that wearing ear plugs at night not only help them sleep better –it's saved a few marriages to boot!
Listen To Meditation CDs – Find a good quality meditation or relaxation CD that will help you relax and wind down. These are also great to have by your bedside if you happen to wake up during the night with your mind racing about this and that. They serve as a great tool to get your mind off the stress so you can drift back to sleep. Use flat stereo ear buds (the type designed for sleeping) to get the best results. I recommend using recordings that contain the sounds of rain, ocean waves or white noise only, and save guided, spoken recordings for daytime meditations.
So, in an effort to lose those stubborn love handles, while you count your calories and count the minutes ticking away on the treadmill, make sure to count on getting a few more hours shut eye as well. Your body, mind and spirit will be all the better for it!
About the Author:
Dianne Orwig is a success coach, motivational speaker, fitness trainer, and founder of LivingFit Online™, a fitness program that has helped thousands of men and women completely transform their bodies and live healthier, happier lives though her less-is-better approach.
For more information on how you can get better results in less time and with less effort than you ever thought possible, visit http:/
(c) Copyright - Dianne Orwig. All Rights Reserved Worldwide
Want To Lose Weight? Maybe It's Time To Try Something Different
March 7, 2010 by Dianne Orwig
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No doubt you’ve heard a thousand times over that, if you want to lose weight, you have to be consistent. You have to have a routine and you’ve got to stick to it, no matter what.
While it’s true that consistency is King and commitment is Queen when it comes to getting fit, here is a little known exception to that rule: Deferring from your regular fitness routine can, in fact, be just the thing you need if you’ve hit a wall or your scale starts moving in the wrong direction.
The alternative most folks choose when they hit a plateau is to “take it up a notch” by working harder, longer, heavier, or faster, or, they move to near starvation in an effort to squeeze the body fat off. But here’s some good news. None of that is necessary if you know what you are doing. Here are 3 ways you can switch just a few things around and shift your results into high gear:
The Difference is in The Difference - The human body is one of the most adaptable machines on planet earth. How else do you explain the diverse environments in which we exist? With this in mind, it’s easy to understand why, once you become acclimated to something new, both your mind and body can become comfortable, or you might even say, complacent. When you have physically grown accustomed to a consistent amount of calories or a consistent exercise routine (this typically happens 5 to 7 weeks into a steady fitness regimen) your body will often kick into BTDT (“Been There Done That”) mode. When this happens, you might be moving along at a nice, even clip, getting all of your workouts in and eating like a runway model and then, suddenly, without warning, the scale comes to a screeching halt.
A Different Drill – When your body gets to the point where it is no longer impressed with your flat bench press or the 12 sets of 50 squats you’ve been performing, rather than trying to pound it into submission with longer, harder workouts, try instead to switch exercises. If you’ve been using free weights, switch to machines for a while. If you’ve been doing nothing but circuit training at the gym, try moving to body-weight exercises like counter push-ups or stadiums. When you ask the body to move through a different plane of motion, no matter how slight the difference, it can cause the muscle to tap in on fibers that have not been called upon before. Simply changing to a different piece of equipment or exercise method, even at a lighter weight, can produce that nice feeling of fatigue and soreness you’ve been missing – much easier than adding more weight or more reps.
A Different Diet – If your scale has all but stalled out, rather than eating less and less food, a better approach (and one that will yield much better return with a lot less pain) is to change either the timing, portions or combinations of foods you eat. If you tend to skip breakfast, eat very light all day and then eat your largest meal in the evening, try doing just the opposite. Eat your largest meal first thing in the morning, then consistently down size throughout the day. Ideally, of course, to get the best results from your nutrition plan, all of your meals should be about the same size (a little larger than your clinched fist,) contain an equal portion of protein and carbohydrates, and should be spread out evenly throughout the day (about every 2-1/2 to 3 hours.) But, again, if you have been doing this consistently and are no longer getting the results you want, it’s time to try something new.
A Different Dream – Using a goal picture or creating a vision board is one of the most powerful ways to wake up your focus and keep it there. Unfortunately, after a few weeks, if you are still looking at the same images, no matter how inspirational they once were, they won’t serve much purpose unless you continue to have a strong, positive, emotional response to them. If the vision of your dream has faded (and the excitement of changing has moved in the same direction) it’s time to find some new images or phrases that inspire you. Another way to wake up your inspiration is to begin carefully and methodically charting your progress on paper. Set new goals, make a calendar of daily and weekly achievements, and reward yourself by checking them off as you go along. While most people focus on the action part of fitness - sweat, work, pain, resistance, denial and deprivation - the true key to long-term success comes with changing your vision and your vocabulary. Get in the habit of talking about the DREAM as opposed to the struggle. Ultimately, it’s how you view your world and communicate with yourself that makes all the difference in the world.
About the Author:
Dianne Orwig is a success coach, motivational speaker, fitness trainer, and founder of LivingFit Online™, a fitness program that has helped thousands of men and women completely transform their bodies and live healthier, happier lives though her less-works-better approach.
For more information on how you can get better results in less time and with less effort than you ever thought possible, visit http:/
(c) Copyright - Dianne Orwig. All Rights Reserved Worldwide