1. First of all, I began to “BALANCE” my food intake with my level of activity. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt in life, then it’s that one cannot fight against the laws of nature. It’s a law of nature that energy within the human body will either be consumed through activity or stored as fat through inactivity. So if you consume food, energy is generated within your body as the food is digested which needs to be consumed through activity of some kind if you do not wish for it to be stacked away as fat.

2. Secondly, I became more “RESPONSIBLE” in my choices of foods I eat. I have learnt to consider things like fat, sugar content and the like in foods, all of which calls for greater body activity to consume the energy liberated through the digestion of these foods.

3. Thirdly, I started engaging in REGULAR ACTIVITY, nothing extreme, but scheduled. Some days I’ll go for a half hour walk and other days I may feel more like cycling. I may even just take the dog for a walk on the beach, but the secret lies therein that you do something active everyday for at least 15 to 30 minutes.

4. Finally, I STOPPED CHASING every diet or weight loss program that looked promising. I selected one that I have researched and found to be established upon healthy principles, and I advise you do the same. There are some good diet and weight loss products available to choose from and a little research will allow you to make an informed choice.

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You will be pleasantly amazed, like many others before you, at how simple, yet unbelievably effective this program is and you really have nothing to lose….except weight. There is no hoopla associated with this system. You’ll find that it’s brief and to the point. In close, I trust that this information has been of use to you and wish you all the best with your weight loss endeavors.

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Impaired Learning and Cognitive Development

Numerous studies by the International Institute of Health, Harvard Medical School and many others have proven that a poor diet and lack of exercise not only lead to childhood obesity, but also severely impair a childs cognitive learning skills and development.

According to a May 2008 study by the Mayo Clinic, the reason your child may not be doing as well in school could be caused by a poor diet rather than lack of school effort.

Children who ate a diet consisting of predominantly fresh fruits and vegetables, lean proteins and complex carbs scored significantly higher on intelligence and cognitive skills tests than their peers who had diets steeped in refined sugars and saturated fats.

Unlike adults, children’s brains are still developing. This means it is critical that they get the healthy diet they need now, before it’s too late. Probably the longest-lasting and hardest-to-repair consequence of childhood obesity in America will be the subsequent learning impairments rooted in this national malaise.

Major Physical Health Problems

Barring any serious heart of lung problems, any 10-year-old child should be able to run the length of a soccer field without running out of breath or experiencing chest pains. The obesity endemic in children is leading to a generation with a number of serious physical impairments ranging from knee and joint problems to diabetes to heart and lung problems.

According to the Surgeon General, over 300,000 Americas will die from obesity-related illnesses and health problems. If childhood obesity isn’t slowed down by intentional lifestyle changes, that number will only increase.

Financial Implications

In 2000, the annual cost of excess weight to the U.S. was just under $117 billion in health care costs and lost productivity. Not only are the health consequences of childhood obesity bad for the individual, they could also be potentially financially crippling for the country.

What is The Solution

The fundamental reason behind the critical level of childhood obesity in Americas is simple – children are just eating too much non-nutritious “food” and not making the time for sufficient exercise to burn off excess calories. Over the decades, the fundamental needs of people have not really changed, but our habits have.

As a country, we need to begin teaching our children about healthy eating patterns, bringing regular exercise back into the school curriculum, encouraging parents to turn off the television and putting the cover back on the cookie jar.

To help maintain a healthy weight we need to eat foods that contain more complex carbohydrates (like vegetables, cereals etc) and individuals who are overweight usually have diets that are high in fat. Being able to interpret what these studies tell us about which factors contribute to weight loss is crucial when creating a weight loss program. One of the best ways to lose weight quickly is to adopt a low GI diet where you’re very careful about the carbohydrates you eat each day, but don’t worry too much about the other foods. You still need to make sure you don’t overeat, by keeping your portion sizes down, and make sure you get the right combination of healthy and nutritious foods which are also low in saturated fats.

Chances are there are habits that contributed to the weight gain and the weight gradually crept up over time rather than overnight. As it took so long for the weight to creep up, it will also take time to lose weight in a healthy fashion. People who don’t understand the balance between eating healthily, ensuring you get lots of water, exercising and making sure they get enough sleep are easy prey to the “weight loss gurus” pushing the current fad diet, weight loss pill or quick weight loss tips. It’s not hard to find these fad or celebrity weight loss plans and diet pills. Because we’ve been brought up to want and expect everything delivered to us yesterday, it’s very easy to believe that there indeed magic weight loss pills to take the weight off very quickly, than to conceive that we have power to change our lives and live healthier longer lives where being overweight and unhealthy is the thing of the past.

Most diets are doomed to failure because they do not show you how to create a balance within your body. Diets fail because some are designed towards making the promoter or some company money instead of producing a weight loss product or system that will truly aid a person to lose weight.

It’s well known that people who are overweight are at increased risk of diseases and other serious health conditions due to obesity. Eating high levels of saturated fat is one of the major reasons for unneeded body fat.

People have been taught for far too long that they need to drastically reduce their food intake or watch every last calorie to be able to lose weight. Believe it or not our bodies are very proficient when it has to manage weight assuming that we give them what is needed it needs to stay healthy – such as proper amounts of sleep, plenty of water, wholesome and nutritious foods, and some regular physical exercise.

Getting rid of those extra pounds is not just about calorie counting, you also need to avoid eating in excess. Moderate portions of healthy foods are vital to losing weight. It’s also important that you get plenty of exercise. Our bodies were made to move!

The basis of the zone diet is a ratio of calories from carbohydrates, proteins, and fats all of 40 to 30 to 30. Some nonscientific studies done by various television shows have shown that the diet can indeed produce reasonable weight-loss. In fact, many of these nonscientific studies show that people gain muscle mass while losing weight on the zone diet. Many of the people in these studies also reported that of all the low carbohydrate diets, the zone diet was easiest to fit into an everyday lifestyle.

The zone in zone diet refers to a hormone balance in which insulin levels are perfect, glucagen levels are perfect, and thus the body releases various anti-inflammatory chemicals similar to aspirin but without side effects. In addition, claims Sears, the natural anti-inflammatories help with heart health. Another benefit of the zone diet is that once the human body is in this hormonal balance it becomes more efficient and stops storing excess calories as fat. Thus, with no fat stored, and with stored fat used as energy, the body loses weight. Later Sears added a Omega three and Omega six fatty acids to the diet, through such supplements as pharmaceutical fish oils.

A typical zone diet meal was described by its creator in the following manner. In every meal eat enough protein to fit in the palm of your hand, as many non-starchy raw vegetables as you can take, just enough carbohydrates to maintain mental clarity, and just enough oils to stop hunger.

This zone diet has a famous weight loss case in its files, that of the man who weighed over 1200 pounds. After two years on the zone diet he lost nearly 1/3 of that weight, all that after trying everything he could think of including liposuction that had nearly been fatal. The man’s current diet consists of 2000 calories broken up into six meals per day. It includes egg white omelets, fresh salads, chicken, fish, and other healthy foods mandated by the zone diet.

Give the zone diet a try, but be careful.

Atkins, in his Atkins Diet, believed prevailing theories about weight gain were all wrong. First, he dismissed the idea that saturated fats were bad. Instead it was carbohydrates that led to the weight problems Americans have. Atkins held that our obsession with fat actually worsened the problem. He pointed to all the low-fat foods that were high in carbohydrates. That meant people on a diet often ate foods that were worse than they normally ate.

The Atkins diet shifts the focus. By cutting out carbohydrates people would burn stored body fats. Lose the fat lose the weight. It’s not just a matter of eating less. Dr. Atkins held that your diet could actually help you burn calories. The Atkins diet supposedly burned an extra 950 calories everyday. But the claims were not true.

Dr. Atkins also touted the positive influence this Atkins diet could have on people with type 2 diabetes. As opposed to type 1 diabetes, type 2 is often closely associated with diet and people who weigh too much. So in general any diet that helps decrease weight will help address type 2 diabetes. But the Atkins diet is also low in carbohydrates, which must be avoided with type 2 diabetes regardless of caloric intake, so by means of this aspect of the diet Atkins claimed those who suffer type 2 diabetes would no longer need medication such as insulin. The medical world, in general, disagrees with Atkins on this point. They agree lower carbohydrates help with type 2 diabetes, but there is no proof that carbohydrates cause the disease.

What steps does one take to follow the Atkins diet? It follows four phases – induction, ongoing weight loss, pre-maintenance and lifetime maintenance. Here is an overview of the most important phase – Induction.

The Induction phase is the most difficult phase of the Atkins diet. Atkins is flexible as to the time period ? but recommends two weeks. During this phase carbohydrates are severely limited ? only up to 20 grams per day. The goal is to enter a fat burning metabolic phase called ketosis when the body, starved of glucose, will begin converting stored fat into fatty acids needed to power the body. weight loss during this phase can be extreme ? some Atkins followers reported losses of 5-10 pounds a week.

Learning the ideal carbohydrate levels for weight losing and for day to day intake after the weight loss ends are the purposes of the final three phases in the Atkins diet. Millions of people are still losing weight on this diet ? but beware the dangers of taking in too much fat.

Jenny Craig calls itself one of the largest weight management companies in the entire world. It has a simple formula for weight loss — good nutrition and basic activities. It’s a well-known formula for weight loss and healthy living used throughout the fitness world. The Jenny Craig diet doesn’t only seek to help people lose weight, it seeks to establish a long term lifestyle for healthy living. In this sense it’s much more than a fad diet.

The Jenny Craig diet has had a number of celebrity spokespeople. One of the most famous was Kristie Alley, former star of Cheers, who also appeared in some Star Trek movies. She became the spokesperson in 2005, and people were startled to see how much weight she gained since her days on Cheers. Her work for Jenny Craig came after she had ballooned to over 200 pounds, and appeared in a comedy documentary called Fat Actress. As of November of 2006 she claimed to have lost 75 pounds in the Jenny Craig diet. A number of people questioned whether Kristie really lost weight while on the diet.

The Jenny Craig diet program includes one-on-one counseling session with consultants. These are not certified professional nutritionists nor are they health professionals. Jenny Craig trains them in turn only for the position. The way the Jenny Craig diet works is this. Members join, then select from a number of different plans each of which comes with a set of prepackaged food. The entire menu is preplanned and includes items from the company’s line of over 75 frozen foods and dry foods, to which people add store-bought items such as dairy products and vegetables. Later in the diet, clients can create their own menus selected from a set of Jenny Craig foods. Finally for half the week or more meals no longer include these Jenny Craig foods.

The website Web M.D. tested the Jenny Craig diet to determine if it was worthwhile, and a healthy way for people to lose weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Most of the staff found the food tasty, comparable to frozen food items found in most grocery stores, and indicated that the diet was a good way to lose weight quickly over the short-term. So give the Jenny Craig diet a try.

The most known form of the Mediterranean diet was created in the mid-1990s by a Harvard health professor named Walter Willett. The diet calls for regular physical activity, along with abundant plant food, fresh fruit as a dessert, olive oil, dairy products, fish and poultry, up to four eggs each week, red meat in small amounts, and wine. The fat in this diet is controlled, only up to 35% of calories, saturated fat at less than 8% of total calories. It’s considered a low-fat high dietary fiber diet. It has been around since 1945 when the version of the Mediterranean diet was first published Ancel Keyes who lived in Italy. But it did not become popular until the 1990s.

One of the main features of the Mediterranean diet is its use of olive oil instead of the animal fats used typically in American diets. Olive oil is known to lower cholesterol levels in the blood, as well as blood sugar and blood pressure. Studies show that olive oil helps prevent ulcers and is an effective treatment for certain types of ulcers, as well as important for preventing cancer. Red wine also adds to the mix in that it contains elements with antioxidant properties.

The Mediterranean diet is really a series of diets partially recommended by the American Heart Association. The one part of the Mediterranean diet that the American Heart Association doesn’t like is a high percentage of calories from fat. The heart association points to the growing problem of obesity in countries around the Mediterranean basin, which is a serious health concern. However, the American Heart Association doesn’t like the fact that most of the fat in the Mediterranean diet comes from olive oil, mono saturated fat, that doesn’t raise cholesterol. That’s a good thing for heart health, but healthier hearts in the Mediterranean areas may be more due to increased physical activity rather than strictly to diet.

A lot of information on various forms of the Mediterranean diet can be found on the Internet. Start with a search on Google.

Originally the grapefruit diet was an Atkins style diet that added one half grapefruit before each meal. There was no cheating on this diet ? only three meals a day and no in between meals snacks. The diet claimed that people could lose 10 pounds in 10 days, or 5 pounds in five days. It is also commonly claimed that a dieter might not lose any weight on the first four days but then 5 pounds would magically drop off on the fifth day. It was based on the claim that grapefruit contains fat burning enzymes, something that has never been proven.

In 2004 a scientific study determined that it is possible that the grapefruit diet helps people lose weight. Participants in the study lost 3.6 pounds on average in a 12 week span, eating one half grapefruit before each meal. Those who drank the serving of grapefruit juice at each meal lost just slightly less weight in the same period of time. Many of the participants lost more than 10 pounds in 12 weeks. The doctor who conducted the study found that the grapefruit diet seems to reduce levels of insulin. However, all the participants slightly enhanced their exercise programs, which may account for the lost weight.

Here are the rules for the grapefruit diet:

- Eight 8 ounce glasses of water each day, this is a must.
- Eat only until you are full at each meal.
- Eat everything listed for each meal, do not skip foods, they are specifically formulated to help burn fat.
- Grapefruit is a catalyst that starts fat burning. Do not change the amount of grapefruit.
- Drink only up to 1 cup of coffee at meals.
- Never eat between meals.
- Butter can be used.
- Do not eat desserts, breads, white vegetables, or sweet potatoes.
- Eat any amount of meat, salad and vegetables to make you full.
- It’s important to eat into you’re full because the more you eat the more we will lose.
- Follow the diet for 12 days, skip two days, then start again.
- Eat one half grapefruit, or drink 18 ounce glass of grapefruit, with each meal.

Now you can go try the grapefruit diet.

Ian Smith, the fat smash diet author, has quite a resume. He graduated from Harvard, is a medical contributor to the view television program, a medical columnist for men’s health magazine, and sits on the Board of Directors of the American Council on exercise. He also happened to be the head judge on celebrity fit club, a show that was designed around his book and fat smash diet plan.

The fat smash diet is separated into four phases designed to smash bad habits and create new healthy habits. These phases are:

One ? detox: This is a nine day period on the fat smash diet during which the body and mind are purged of impurities, and during which Dr. Smith claims people can lose anywhere from 6 to 10 pounds. This phase includes some strange but ineffective suggestions such as weighing yourself in the nude and being photographed in a bathing suit.

Two ? foundation: This is a three-week phase of the fat smash diet during which many foods removed in the detox phase are re-added to the diet. These include the 3 ounces of meat or seafood, and is based on portion control rather than calorie count.

Three ? construction: This a four-week phase is a time during which the dieter creates an eating plan that incorporates foods they enjoy. These foods can include desserts, pasta, bread, and many other foods restricted another types of diets such as the Atkins diet. In the fat smash diet moderation is the key.

Four ? Temple: This is the portion of the fat smash diet that lasts the rest of your life. Dr. Smith refers to the work done in the other three phases as the Temple, which must be maintained with continued diligence in moderation achieved through self-control.

Fat smash diet has both good and bad aspects. The initial 6 to 10 pound weight loss is really due to severe calorie cutting which can be dangerous. In addition the nine day detox is considered unhealthy by many health experts. But many of the general principles of the fat smash diet are good ones ? including exercise and moderation in all foods eaten.

The first of the South Beach diet recipes to examine is chicken Marcela. This one begins with a pound of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, adds an onion, a cup of mushroom slices, 3 tablespoons of olive oil, half cup of dry Marcela wine, 2 tablespoons of minced parsley, and chicken broth. Pound chicken between two pieces of waxed paper, then season it with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a skillet and add the chicken, cook it until it’s done. Cook onions and mushrooms until they’re soft, then add the wine and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. If you need more liquid at this point add a little bit of the broth. Now pour the sauce and vegetables over the chicken, and the recipe is complete. This will serve four, and has only 3 g of carbohydrates with 336 total calories.

Another of the terrific South Beach diet recipes takes us to the east, in Thailand. This is Thai style chicken salad. It includes a pound of cooked chicken breasts sliced thinly, 3 cups shredded Napa cabbage, 3 cups peeled jicama cut into strips, a sweet red pepper, some mint, some cilantro, and a dressing made with Thai fish sauce. It’s very simple to make ? mix together the salad ingredients, mix together dressing ingredients, then toss them together. It makes four servings and has 8 g of carbohydrates in 297 total calories. It really looks delicious.

How about south of the border with South Beach at recipes? This recipe for fajitas includes a soy sauce, a recommendation from a cook in a Mexican restaurant. ½ to 2 pounds of skirt steak or chicken is cut into strips, combined with a medium onion, two bell peppers, quarter cup of soy sauce, ¼ cup of wine juice, 1 teaspoon of chili powder, and 2 tablespoons of oil. Combine all the liquid ingredients, added to the meat strips to marinade for about 30 minutes. Then cook on a skillet or grill, the meat first and then the vegetables. This serves five, has 4.5 g of carbohydrates in a total of 307 calories per serving.

With the right South Beach diet recipes, it’s like not even being on a diet.