‘Diet and exercise’ are the only two words, OK three, you need to remember if you’re looking to lose weight or just have better general health.

There’s been much written how the American and Western diet is totally out of balance. Too much bad stuff – like sugars, fat and salt. Even too much good stuff – like carbohydrates. Just too many calories coursing through our bodies.

Also with exercise, our lifestyle generally doesn’t require us to move our bodies much. We sit for long hours at our desks, on the couch, in front of the computer, in the car. You get the picture.

Here we’ll look at Diet And Exercise strategies, such as low GI diet and  that will help you lose pounds and live a healthier, more energetic life.

Diet  – eat to lose weight
We’ve been led to believe that losing weight is all about eating less. It is. And it isn’t.

There’s no better way to lose weight or gain health than by eating. It’s just what you eat that matters. Healthy meals mean healthy you.

No surprises but if you really, really want to lose those pounds then you simply must eat much less sugary, fatty and salty foods. There’s lots of reasons why but take my word for it, foods rich in these are poor for your health. And the leading causes of weight-gain and obesity. An effective diet and exercise plan aims to gradually reduce your sugar and salt and fat intake.

OK but I did promise something about eating when dieting.

The best diet and nutrition idea is to look for foods that fill you up. If I’m less hungry I tend to eat less, especially snacks. If I eat less, I lose weight. No great revelations there.
Low GI foods are the best guide I find for hunger satisfying meals. There’s plenty about the supermarket so start your education next time your there.

There are some foods that you can pretty much eat as much as you like in a diet and exercise plan. It’s vegetables. Green vegetables are especially good but makes sure you get other colors as well.

Exorcise your fat with exercise
Get it out of your body by moving more. There’s two ways to burn calories through exercise. Incidental exercise and planned exercise.

Incidental exercise is moving around in your daily life. Walking to the station. Climbing stairs to the cinema. Cleaning the house. If your mindful of this type of exercise and do more of it you can burn 10% to 15% of your daily calorie intake. Without even really trying. See, diet and exercise doesn’t have to be rocket science.
Just do a little more of this incidental movement  – get off the bus or train one stop early. Do some weeding in the garden. Walk to the shops. Just take a nice walk with family or friends.

You might find adding more low GI foods and high protein foods will help give you the sustained energy to exercise more.

Planned exercise. To really trim down and change your body shape you’ve got to make exercising a part of your week.
I recommend you take it gradually. First few weeks just half an hour jog/walk and a few push-ups and sit-ups.
It won’t take long before you start really looking forward to your exercise. It’s then you’ll get creative with the exercises and maybe target parts of your body that you really want to change.

With anything related to diet and exercise you’ve just got to get started. Start small and keep it going. Before long you’ll notice changes to your energy levels and your body shape. It’s these changes that will keep your diet and exercise on track.

Enjoy!

Ahh, one of my favourites topics – the Balanced Diet. It’s the key to good nutrition and the key to losing weight. No two ways about it. There’s no better way than through healthy meals to be overall healthy and trim.

Which only leaves the question “how?”. What is a Balanced Diet? How do I get one?

It’s a diet where you eat a wide range of healthy foods and drinks in proportion. Some foods you can eat to your heart’s, or stomach’s, content, others you must almost eliminate. Let’s get straight into it and look at these extremes now.

Eat more of these healthy foods
Vegetables. Fresh vegetables are probably the best thing you can eat. Especially green ones. They say seven serves a day is key. That’s a lot especially if you don’t eat much now. (We’ll look at strategies to eat better later in this article).

Fruit. Not my favorite things in the world. I still have to really remind myself to have an apple or mandarin or banana but I I always feel good about myself when I do. I find fruit is a great way to satisfy my sugar cravings. May not always completely satisfy them but certainly reduces my cravings and that’s a good thing.

Eat less of these. Much less.
We simply eat too much of everything. Maybe with the exception of healthy foods. We certainly eat too much of the bad stuff. We even eat too much of some good stuff. A good, healthy, trim diet also means eating less of everything – good or bad.

Obvious bad stuff. You guessed it, sugary, fatty, salty foods. This doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the occasional donut or soft drink. It just means you’ve seriously got to reduce the amount you have.

Not so obvious stuff. Carbs – great things, no doubt. We all need them for energy. It’s just we get way too many of them in our diet. Less carbs is a great way to a lose weight. Fix your diet by increasing your fiber and protein levels.

Looking to lose weight
A Balanced Diet rich in healthy foods will get you there. And keep you there. It was a revelation to me that the best way to lose pounds is to eat. I thought it was not to eat. I’d much rather eat thanks.
I’ve found the best way to lose weight is not to feel full. If my hunger is satisfied I’m much less likely to snack. Snacking, as we all know, is the friend of fat.
I find low GI foods are good for the feel full factor and good nutrition. Check them out.

Also healthy foods rich in fiber or protein are also nutritious ways to feel full for longer.
I think the immediate thought for many people, me included, is that a Balanced Diet requires a major change in your life. Diet and exercise isn’t always easy to achieve in a busy life. Completely eat different foods and if it tastes good it must not be good for me. For some people that’s true. I should know because my diet has been out of balance for as long as I can remember.
Having said that,great nutrition is a long-term life project.

Going cold turkey on an ‘imbalanced’ diet is not the right approach for most of us. You can keep it going for a while but temptation will raise its ugly head. In fact, temptation usually has a beautiful head. Like the head on a cold glass of beer. Or the head of frothy cream on a chocolate shake. Enough already!

The way to a Balanced Diet is take it one day at a time. One meal at a time. Be gentle but firm on yourself. Keep reminding yourself that this is a life goal.
It’s not easy to get your diet right. But it’s certainly achievable if you take your time and do it gradually.

Won’t be long before you start to notice differences. Maybe you may misplace a few pounds…don’t go looking for them, OK?!? Your Balanced Diet may have introduced you to new, healthy foods that you now crave. Rather crave good stuff than sweets.

Enjoy!