Category - Healthy Tips

Examples Of Good Carb Foods To Add To Your Diet

Example good carb foods

Have you been avoiding carbs like the bubonic plague? Well, guess what? You don’t have to. Various weight loss programs have been demonizing carbohydrates for years. Yet the truth is that not all carbs are bad for your dieting efforts. Want some examples of good carb foods to add to your diet? Check out the highlighted options below!

Fruits Full of Antioxidants

Vibrant fruits are full of vitamins and healthy antioxidants. So it’s a real shame to hear that some people actually go out of their way to avoid eating them—especially when there’s no real reason to justify doing so. Fruits eaten in its raw form won’t do you any harm. It’s only when you start juicing the fruits that you will encounter a great spike to your blood sugar level. Therefore, steer clear of over the counter fruit juices and smoothies. But feel free to treat yourself to some fresh fruit. They are the healthiest dessert options.

Green Leafy Vegetables

When it comes to vegetables, just about anything green is good for you. Spinach and kale are especially known for their nutritious properties. Therefore, don’t be afraid to eat your veggies! They’re part of a healthy diet for preventing diabetes. Remember, Greens are great, eat lots.

Fresh Veggies in all Colors

Forget about eating rainbow Skittles. If you really want to “taste the rainbow”, then you should sample different types of vegetables. The roughage found in veggies help to keep you full and regular. Hence, they should be a part of your healthy diet. Try this for a month.  Every week, try a different kind of vegetable.  One, you have never eaten before.  You may find a few new favorites.

Satiating Beans

Looking for the ultimate example of good carbs to add to your diet? Look no further than the dried beans aisle of your local supermarket. Beans are low glycemic. Therefore, they don’t affect your insulin level. Plus they are full of protein. They’ll keep you feeling satiated for hours after you have finished eating.  Besides, bean are so versatile, you can eat them with almost anything.

Fluffy Brown Rice

Beans are mighty good on their own, but they’re even better with a bowl of brown rice. Unlike white rice, brown rice is full of fiber. So there’s no reason for you to fear eating this filling carbohydrate. When you eat beans and brown rice together, they form the perfect protein.

Whole Grain Pasta

Being a healthy eater doesn’t mean you have to give up on eating spaghetti and other tasty pasta dishes. It only means you need to opt for the whole grain variety. And with the right sauce, whole grain pasta can be just as good as the not-so-healthy kind you might have grown up eating.  Pasta Primavera(pasta with slightly cooked fresh vegetables) is a wonderful and lo-cal dinner.

Again, Carbaholics Anonymous would like to take the time to thank everyone for there support.  As you know Carbaholics Anonymous is fighting against Obesity, and Diabetes.  We believe we can win this fight with everyones help.  Carbaholics Anonymous  would also like to thank everyone for asking great questions.  We promise to get to everyones email in due time.

Metabolism Boosting Foods

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Ways of living and work schedules have changed to a great extent in the modern world. With these changes, the working of the body is also affected in many ways and the most important problem is the deteriorating changes in the metabolism system of individuals. It is a process that converts food into fuel and also helps to burn that fuel efficiently with the help of a complex network of enzymes and hormones.

The metabolism system is affected by various reasons like body mass, sex and age. Heredity too makes a difference. Hence the best way to increase the rate is to follow a diet chart & eat metabolic enhancing foods that helps to stay fit and slim. Metabolism boosting foods can be divided into 3 categories like fruits, vegetables and meat proteins.

Fruits: Fruits that lower insulin levels in the body and are rich in fibers that help to burn calories are grapefruits and apples. These are fiber-rich and low-fat fruits and you feel full for longer hours thereby boosting up the metabolism process to break the elements in these fruits.

Vegetables: Vegetables that speed up metabolism are spinach, that is a great source of vitamin C, potassium, anti-oxidants etc; jalapenos burn extra calories for a long time and that speeds up both the heart and metabolism rate. Beans too are great for increasing metabolism as they are low fat and packed with proteins and fibers and hence the body has to burn a lot of calories to process the foods. Calcium present in Broccoli acts as a metabolic trigger and the vitamin C helps to absorb more calcium for healthier bones and eyes.

Meats: Animal proteins like turkey is a great metabolism booster as it is rich in protein and the body has to burn a lot of calories to break it down. Soy proteins and unsweetened soymilk are good boosters and so are hot peppers and oatmeals. Yogurt is a protein-rich natural food and requires great energy to process it and the pro-biotic features of yogurt regulates the digestive tract.

Other aids: Among the other effective foods that help to speed up the metabolic system of the body is small quantity of almonds, cinnamon, green tea and soups. They keep you full for longer hours and use more calories to break down the ingredients to be used by the body.

Recent studies and researches say that drinking plenty of water is a great way to increase metabolism level. Hence there is nothing to worry about the fat and the sugar level now. Follow a regular food chart and you are sure to benefit from it.

Thank you for choosing Carbaholisanonymous as your go to site.  We will continue to bring information concerning health issues and healthier lifestyles.

How To Motivate Yourself Into Healthy Eating Habits

motivate yourself for healthy eating habits

People often ask me how to get started with a weight loss program by developing healthy eating habits and keep at it so they continue to eat nutritious food. From my own experience, I can tell you that no matter how health-conscious one may be, it is always difficult to remain on an entirely nutritious diet all the time, without variation. Despite that, I still can give you some tips that actually work (and you can take my word on this!) if you have difficulty in getting motivated to begin eating healthy food. So, here it is..

Make a large and comprehensive goal and break it down to smaller and measurable ones.This will help you achieve your daily motivational levels. For instance, you may want to eat a salad and soup for lunch every day, and eat five bowls of fruit through the day. Space it out so that you want to reach out for it, and yes, don’t forget to drink plenty of water each day too.

Ensure that your goals are realistic and achievable: Set your goals right and you will reach your success milestone soon enough. Any unattainable goals will only make you fail at your plan miserably. So, don’t make weight loss your focus, for instance, but think in the long term by creating sensible eating patterns which you will continue with lifelong.

Success doesn’t happen overnight: Understand and accept that you can’t achieve your goals overnight. However, working at it honestly will get you there. By making some changes in your day-to-day routine, you can become fit in the weeks to come.

Maintain a food diary. By maintaining a food diary, you can track just what you eat and when you see that you’ve eaten some of the forbidden stuff, you can knock it out completely. Writing down your goals and assessing them regularly is motivational for you.

Don’t eat processed food. Whether you’re looking for a meal or a snack, choose a healthy option like fruit, hummus, cottage cheese or non-fat Greek yogurt. You can also try baked tofu or look up cook books for something new and nutritious.

Find a food buddy. Team up with a close friend and tell him or her whatever you’ve eaten through the day. Hold each other responsible for eating healthy food without straying into junk food. When you find someone with a similar goal, it can improve your chances of reaching success. Whenever you feel down and out or think it’s not working out, your buddy will provide that extra support you need to pick yourself up and continue.

Snack every three hours. This keeps your metabolism running and also makes sure you don’t get ravenous and end up eating whatever is in sight when you get home from work. Instead, eat nutritious food like nuts, brown rice, fresh fruits and vegetables and granola bars. These foods help you stay committed to your goals.

Throw out all foods that tempt you to overeat. Cakes, pastries, junk food and pre-packaged snacks should be kept miles away from you. So, if you have some of these in your home, give them to someone or put them away in a cupboard that’s difficult for you to access. If you can’t reach it, you can’t eat it.

Take a healthy snack with you. If you’re going to be out of your home for more than a couple of hours, take a healthy snack along. This could be an apple or a couple of bananas, tomatoes or carrots or nut bars. If you must eat tempting foods, go slow on them. If you completely knock out your favorite foods from your diet, you’re going to cheat on yourself and eat it anyway. Instead, if you do feel like eating some of these favorites, do so, but in small quantities.

If you’re dining out, check the menu. Before you go out to dine, check out the menu of the restaurant in question. Decide on a few healthy options so that you aren’t tempted to eat anything else.  Be persistent and patient. If you do eat a heavy meal, sure you need to feel guilty about it.

However, be practical and ensure that your next few meals are healthy. You also need to learn patience. You might be losing weight consistently for some time, and then you reach a plateau. Don’t give up when this happens, but persevere. Do something different, if you like. Perhaps a little walking might help with fitness if not weight loss.

Set up a maintenance strategy. You may be successful in eating healthy and actually losing weight. But the problem you encounter now is to keep the weight off. How do you do it? First of all, remember that eating nutritious food isn’t a short-term measure, it’s a lifelong habit.       However, if you cannot keep the weight off, speak to a dietician to create a diet chart for you. This will help you continue to eat healthy even after you knock off the desired weight.

Lastly, give yourself a reward: Only dieters know just how hard it is to achieve the smallest of weight loss. So, when you do lose some weight, you need to reward yourself. Such rewards give you the urge to keep at it. Gift yourself a pair of jeans, a new hair cut or a massage.

These few tips are sure to give you some tips on being motivated enough to develop healthy eating habits by eating healthy foods and keeping the habit. As I said at the outset, there may be days when you don’t want to eat nutritious food but something tasty, even if it isn’t healthy. Don’t worry about those odd moments. It’s what you do for the most of the time that matters because that’s what gives you results.

20 Magnetic Ways For Motivation To Lose Weight And Exercise

how to keep your motivation level up for fat loss and exercise.

Exercise, as you know, is loaded with benefits for you. I know that too but often work and family pressures take you over and you push your exercise time into a corner until you have enough time and a mindset for it. That’s just it. You don’t need the time to exercise. You need the right mindset or attitude to exercise. Once you develop this, you can get up or get off that couch and get going to exercise. Factors that prevent you from exercising: Perhaps, you’ve hurt yourself while exercising in the past and you don’t want to repeat that episode. Other reasons people cite for not exercising are:

 You don’t have the time to exercise, due to your work and family commitments.

 You’re embarrassed to wear exercise gear and walk into a gym where everyone else is in

good shape.

 You don’t have the money to spend on a gym or to buy gym equipment.

 You’re cooped up at home due to bad weather.

 Gyms are so ultra-modern that you feel intimidated by the equipment there

You get bored by the dull routines of your gym.

 You’re tired and don’t have the energy for it.

You probably use some of these excuses to stay away from exercising. But here are ways by which you can make time for exercise, however busy you may be:

How to stay motivated to exercise:

Below Are Few Points To Keep Your Motivation To Lose Weight And Exercise:

 #1: Get moving–stop leading a sedentary life: Leading a sedentary life isn’t healthy, say doctors. That’s because it could be the prime cause of several medical conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, cancer and Type 2         diabetes. So, if your health is high up on your agenda, get moving. Get out of your old and unhealthy lifestyle habits and think ahead. Think of what good health can do for you if you just put in your minimum effort. A little exercise and a dash of good nutritious food are just right.

#2: Fix a time for exercise: This time should be non-negotiable. This means that no matter what happens, you will devote it solely to exercise. While you exercise, be sure not to take calls, listen to the music on your headphones or do anything that could distract you from your task of exercising.

 #3: Start early in the morning: By exercising first thing in the morning, you do two things: You give it the importance and time it deserves, and you don’t find other things to do “after” which you hope to exercise. Stop saying, “I’ll exercise once I finish this,” because that won’t happen.

 #4: Be reasonable, be realistic: First-time dieters and exercisers want to show the world that with a little bit of discipline, they can achieve the impossible. Don’t fall into that trap as it’s short-lived. When you’re so hard on your body, you can’t sustain the momentum and you stop what you could have continued, with just a little leniency. Your road to fitness may be paved with the best of intentions, but accept small failures and late starts to success, but carry on relentlessly.

 #5: Get into your exercise gear: Once you’re in it, you won’t want to do anything else but exercise. That means that everything else is to be put on the backburner until you finish your workout. Motivation to exercise means just this kind of attitude. So, go ahead and adopt it.

 #6: Track your progress, celebrate each victory: Plot your progress and when you make significant progress in your fitness regimen, write it down, as it can be a big boost to you. Any small victory can be celebrated, can’t it?

 #7: Deal with setbacks as they happen: Life isn’t perfect, so why should your exercise and diet regimen be? You’re sure to come across busy times when you can’t exercise. Or, you might have to go out of town on work or you may fall ill. Be prepared for such days and make up in the way you can.

 #8: Don’t let those perfect figures give you a complex: If you work out at the gym, you’re sure to come across women with flat stomachs and perfect figures. Don’t let them give you a complex. But believe that one day very soon, you too will be like them.

 #9: Get yourself a mentor: One more tip that works wonders for someone wanting to stay the course in fitness is to get yourself a mentor. This person will advise you through his years of mentorship to people interested in fitness. Listen to his story, ask him how he started out, what or who motivated him, and how he continued and reached this level of a mentor. Learn what you can from his story and have his picture before you each morning when you wake up. Keep telling yourself that you want to be like him and let his successes excite you to achieve as much as you can. He may also be able to give you some tips that could change your attitude to exercise and keep you motivated and upbeat.

 #10: Ask your family and friends to encourage you: Ask your sister, brother, parents, spouse and gym friends to encourage you to remain committed to your goals.

 #11: Enjoy it: Don’t see your fitness program as a chore. Instead, do something that you enjoy. How about skipping, aerobics, Zumba or jumping the trampoline? Whatever seems like fun to you is what you should take up as a means of staying fit.

 #12: Develop small exercise modules: Instead of devoting an hour or two to exercise each day, you can retain your interest in it by breaking it up into 20 minute modules. This will be easier for you to commit to and can be as effective as one long workout.

 #13: Make it possible to exercise: You may be eternally busy or unwell or whatever, do all that you can to make time for exercise. Put the phone off the hook, turn on the telly, shut the outside world out of your life and devote that time only to exercise. Exercise by watching fitness programs on TV or buy yourself some DVDs, but exercise at least five days a week, at least, if more is not possible.

 #14: Come out of the shadow of your bad experiences: True, any bad experiences you’ve had are bound to deter you from exercising again. Now, your need for exercise is to remain fit for the rest of your life and be able to enjoy living. So, forget that you weren’t athletic when everyone else you knew was and rewrite your fitness goals to include exercising all over again.

 #15: Read a book on exercise: If you read a book on exercising, written by an expert, it will motivate you to get moving and stay on course. It will also urge you to create a healthy diet plan for yourself and make you responsible for your efforts.

 #16: Exercise with positive affirmations: Here, you must remember to keep telling yourself that you love to exercise, and you’re really a very active person. Keep boosting your self-image when making your affirmations as they should always be positive to give you positive results.

Diet control:

 #18: Drink a lot of liquids: If you don’t drink enough water, you’ll soon be dehydrated and tired. So, ensure that you drink one liter of water every day to stay motivated to your exercise regimen and physically fit too.

 #19: Increase your intake of fruits and vegetables: These foods, along with foods rich in proteins, give you increased physical and mental energy. With this extra energy, you can have much higher concentration and motivational levels.

 #20: Reduce your intake of sugar and caffeine: Sugar and caffeine sap your energy levels after they are processed by your body. If you have too much of caffeine, it could cause anxiety and lower your concentration and motivation levels. Instead, drink green tea which has lesser amounts of caffeine, and is healthy too, overall.

These are some tips that I can vouch for that WORK in keeping your motivation to lose weight and exercise as well as keeping yourself healthy and fit! So, if you’re serious about making your workouts part of your life, go ahead and try these out.

Basic Steps For Starting Exercise Regime

Motivation to start exercising

Why does the mention of the word ‘exercise’ always end up with a grimace or a scowl? Why is it always attractive to see the effects of exercise on models and celebs but we never want to incorporate that one good habit in our lives? After all, what is so negative about a habit like exercise that has only positive results for you?

You might have noticed, as I have, that it’s easy to plan your exercise regime as something to do in future, but you can’t get out of bed each day and actually do it. However, if you’re one of those easily motivated kind of people who’s waiting for a particular day (say, Monday) or date (1st, 15th, etc to begin, you might show great enthusiasm to get fit until you have to actually prove it.
Suddenly, all that enthusiasm fizzles out and you’re like anyone else.

So, why do we need to be motivated?

The need for motivation or something that makes us do a task that’s good for us is paramount for those launching out on exercise. If you’re motivated to exercise, it means you have a final goal in mind towards which you’re working out. If you need to lose 20 pounds, that’s enough motivation to begin exercising or if you want to look your best for a particular event where you want to make an impression, that’s a really huge motivation. Perhaps, you just want to stay well and healthy, that’s a pretty good goal too.

Instead of dithering and waiting for an opportunity to exercise, it’s time you pull up your shoe laces and get going to the gym or to the park where you intend exercising. You have to make yourself want to exercise if it’s not happening naturally. So, force the motivation to start exercising or create it, but don’t wait for Santa to gift it to you, because it won’t happen that way.

And yes, age is not a deterrent for anyone wanting to exercise and stay fit. So, there you are. Get out of home, into your tracks and off to a flying start. A healthy life is right round the corner, where are you?

Is exercise important? You bet it is!

For some, just the idea of having a shapely or muscular figure with a few months of exercise is enough to excite them, and the same is the case with me. In fact, just deciding to exercise makes me as happy as I would be if I had lost all that extra flab. The problem is seeing it through until you lose all those magical pounds.

Why don’t you exercise? There are several reasons why people like you and me desist from exercising and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Some of the prime reasons not to exercise are lack of time due to family, school or work pressures; or the absence of a gym nearby, slim free time slot in the mornings, lack of room to exercise at home and an absence of a walking path in a nearby park.

People also cite health conditions such as arthritis and diabetes that would, they say, be dangerous to their health.

To all such people, I would like to say that these obstacles in your paths are insignificant and completely surmountable. All you need is a mindset to solve these niggling problems and set you up for success in fitness.
So, what do you need to make exercise work for you?

In a word, motivation to starting exercise! This is the inspiration or the extra energy that pushes you towards exercising. How can we make this happen? You’ll be happy to know that there are certain ways by which you can be inspired to exercise, such as:

  • Set exercise goals: If you decide that you need to lose 20 pounds by December, then you’ve got a goal to work for. That may be a larger goal. To achieve it, you might like to set smaller daily or weekly goals. This could be something like deciding to walk for 30 minutes 5 days a week or for 15 minutes after lunch. Small achievable goals are easy to fulfill, so why not start with them?
  • Prepare to exercise: You can’t swing your legs out of bed and begin to exercise. You need to dress appropriately for it, take a water bottle and towel along in your gym bag, etc. Make things easy for you early in the morning, so there’s no getting out of exercising.
  • Make a habit of exercising: For success in anything, you need to do it every day, no matter what. Exercise should be part of your daily routine, so chalk out a particular time slot for it each day and work the rest of your day around it. I used to treat exercise as something I could give up if I had something more important to do. Don’t do that because a break in schedule sends you back to square 1.
  • A post-you photo of a very slim and toned you: A futuristic picture of you with 20 pounds or more lost will be extremely motivational to you. Just imagine, a slimmer you that you never thought possible could be true if you just worked at it. Now, let this creative visualization work on you.
  • Include exercise into your daily chores: According to studies, the effects of exercise can be seen in different aspects of your life and health. So, if you make a habit of doing gardening, raking the leaves in your yard, or walking to the department store and back, vacuuming the floor on a regular basis, you will pick up in overall health and fitness. You can prove this by having more stamina than others around you and be able to climb inclines and uphill roads easily.
  • Don’t be too rigid about your goals: Though you may push yourself every day to achieve your big and small goals, yet on some days this is perhaps not possible. If you’re a student who’s just finished a set of exams, it might be difficult to walk for an hour because you’re very tired. In such cases, do as much as you can, but don’t skip your exercise routine.
  • Be committed to your goals: Exercising to lead a healthy life is a commitment you need to make to yourself each day. Only then will you stay on course. One way of doing this is to make a note of all that you want to achieve each day before you begin exercising. Keep reminding yourself of your goals through the day, so there’s no chance of bunking them.
  • Thank yourself for small goal achievements: Keep the energy going in you until you achieve all your goals and your larger one. For this, as you achieve your small goals, thank yourself by giving yourself a small reward. Perhaps, a healthy snack or a pair of better running shoes or something like that.