But don’t worry! We have the relief for you. Follow the following alternative methods to calorie counting. These methods do not promote calorie counting in the strictest sense of the term but these are alternative ways which will let you know whether you are consuming the right amount of food or not.

- Measuring the potions of food

Every time you eat something, try to ‘feel’ how much portion each food group should constitute your diet. You don’t need to measure the calories but instinctively try to feel whether a certain portion of food is apt or not. For instance, one serving of fruits would mean half cup of fruits; and one serving of grains would be ½ cup of brown rice.

Like this you can figure out how many serving per day would total the requisite calorie count for you. For instance, generally, it is suggested that women should have 1200 calories per day so you need to calculate how many servings will total to 1200 calories and then divide the serving in relation to each meal for consumption. Initially you may have to measure the amount of servings each meal but slowly you will get a hang of it and then start judging by just ‘seeing’ the food serving.

- Gauging real hunger

For people who have nominal appetite, it is very easy for them to lose weight provided they eat food only when they feel real hunger. Of course, it is also a fact that distinguishing between real and false hunger is difficult; sometimes we eat just for the sake of it, like binge eating. To know whether you are really hungry or not, create a measuring scale in which zero level would denote you are not hungry at all and 10 levels would denote you are starving.

Therefore, before you eat anything anytime, try to gauge the level of your hunger. If you scale the hunger at level 7 and below then it is best advised to hold off eating for a while. Wait until you are absolutely starving.

Most importantly, remember that the importance of the above process depends on 3 things. They are enumerated below:

1. Awareness with signs of physical hunger

Until you are aware what the physical signs of real hunger are, it is difficult for you to use the gauge scale. Different ways or signals like feeling hollow in the stomach, shakiness, weakness, and headache are some examples. You need to tune your body into understanding these signals. Without learning to decipher these signals, you will nevertheless eat anytime even when the hunger is not real and in the process increase your weight.

2. Honesty to avoid temptation

It takes discipline to stick to commitments. If you are not honest with yourself, you will only cheat yourself and gain weight. For instance, suppose you are feeling emotionally drained and you convince your mind that you are really hungry and also that you need to have something fast to soothe your battered emotions. Now this is like playing a trick – you are being dishonest with yourself. Instead try to stick to your commitments and eat only when you are physically hungry.

3. Eat in modest portions

Sometimes when we are starving, we tend to overeat. This tendency to overeat is detrimental for our health. Therefore, we suggest that you do not wait too long, that is, starve yourself until you are ravenous. As said earlier, tune your body into realizing when you are moderately hungry or into realizing when your body is requesting for food. This way you will find it easier to keep a check on food portions.

Even though this ‘clean your plate’ diktat was undertaken with the best of intentions by your parents, it may have unknowingly reinforced the habit of overeating. Out of fear of punishment, you might have actually started to eat more than you should, just because the food was placed on the plate and there was no way of refusing.

If you are a victim to this problem, it is time that you change this and imbibe more healthy eating habits. Below we have given some helpful strategies to help you turn the rule to your advantage.

Strategy One – Switch to a Smaller Plate

Start eating food in portions. In other words, don’t take a big dinner plate and just stuff every food item on it. Instead take a soup bowl for one serving of soup or take a small plate for dessert serving. Like this, repeat with other food items as well.

Nevertheless, if you are uncertain or uncomfortable with the above method, you can buy those segmented plates that have compartments for three or four foods. Such plates are measured to serve one portion of food so there is no scare of overeating.

Strategy Two – Eat As Much Vegetable As You Can

If you have problem following the first strategy, then carry on using your big dinner plate but stuff it with only delicious vegetables. Start your everyday menu with a dollop of vegetables and then continue with having complex carbohydrates and proteins. This will help you to keep the calories under control and also make your stomach feel satisfied.

Strategy Three – Have One Dish at a Time

Rather than piling your dinner plate with everything available on the menu, it is best to eat the dishes one – by – one. Take one serving first; eat it, and then move on to the next item. By doing this, you limit yourself from overeating. How? Earlier, when the plate was filled, you had the urge of finishing everything even if your stomach said otherwise but with the ‘have one dish at a time’ criteria, you control your overeating easily. You will know how much to eat and when to shop.

Always start with a serving of vegetables, then some meat or beans, and then some grains. Have foods that are lower in calories.

See?? It’s very simple and easy to follow. Apply these strategies one-by-one and see the difference it makes to your eating habits and as a result, your weight loss goal improves too.

Following we have included three empowering and proven tips for weight loss that will also keep you inspired for long:

Proven Weight Loss Tip 01 – Let Other Know About Your Goal

Are other people aware of your weight loss goal? A large percentage of people have the tendency of not disclosing their weight loss plan to others like friends and colleagues. Why? This is because we are afraid to become social embarrassment when we ‘fail’ in our weight loss venture. Another reason is the fear of criticism. For instance, you cheat on your diet and tell about it to your friends, you are then afraid of their reaction and how they are going to reprimand you.

Whatever the reason maybe, you are tempted to remain quite. But do yourself a big favor – tell your closest ones that you plan to lose X amount of weight in X period of time.

Why should you do this?

For their support and advices! You can request them to monitor the changes and also monitor whether you are following the diet devotedly or not. They can check with your every alternate week. Believe me; you are going to love this support and trust from them. In return, you are going to feel motivated and confident to remain on the correct weight loss track.

Proven Weight Loss Tip 02 – Make Weight Loss a Fun Challenge

The more you crib and complain about weight loss – how much time you need to spend or why you are not getting faster results – the more you are going to get frustrated and ultimately give up losing weight.

Instead motivate yourself into thinking that the entire journey of losing weight is a fun and challenging activity that you must go through at any cost. Try to put in your best effort. Everything depends upon your attitude. Your attitude impacts your physical well being. KNOW intrinsically that you are going to be successful no matter what. Think positive and you will see positive changes while losing weight. Get rid of any kind of pessimism and imbue yourself with confidence and optimism.

Proven Weight Loss Tip 03 – Consider Each Day a New Beginning

Monotony is a big disadvantage of weight loss regimes. After certain time, most of us feel bored and frustrated. To curb this attitude, you should consider each day a new beginning. Don’t think about what happened yesterday or what the future holds for you. Don’t keep thinking about following a diet forever. Instead take one day at a time; go through this particular day with the all the diets and exercises, and start tomorrow afresh.

Tell yourself that TODAY you are going to make all the necessary efforts to work up the way for weight loss. Maintain a healthy lifestyle always. If you deviate from the weight loss workout or eat something that your should not have then don’t beat yourself up about it. Mistakes happen! Forget about it and promise yourself that such a thing will not happen again. Always give yourself opportunity to start anew.

Always remember that losing weight is all about synchronizing your mind to the importance of weight loss. Overcoming bad habits and building new habit requires time and patience. If possible, print these weight loss success tips to keep them handy.

Pat yourself everyday for at least TRYING to lose weight. Not many people would do that ever.

Here we have detailed some foods and beverages that you need to stay away from seriously when you are trying to lose weight.

Avoid Sweetened and Caffeinated Beverages

Did you know that the jumbo sized fancy lattes and the sweet flavored coffees that one buys at the donut shops and gourmet coffee shops contains a huge amount of sugar, fat grams and calories? Experts’ opinions are divided over the topic of caffeine and its role in weight loss. Some of the experts believe that caffeine elements helps in boosting the metabolism which will help in lose more weight but another group of experts believe that the same caffeine elements stimulates the production of insulin when you consume it and thereby, doing more harm than good. The essential thing is that you do not really need caffeine in order to lose weight therefore, it is only sensible to keep away from caffeine most of the time.

Avoid Foods that Have High Sodium Content

Foods that contain high amount of sodium are harmful as it obstructs the weight loss process. Why? Sodium rich foods make your body retain water and when you body is bloated with water; it will show on the weighing scale numbers! The weight won’t go down as quickly as you want. Nutritionists recommend that the daily allowance of sodium content in food should not exceed 2400 milligrams. One of the easiest ways to reduce sodium content is to avoid adding extra salt in food. Another way is to read the sodium content prepackaged foods. You will be surprised to know the harm it causes with excessive amount of sodium!

Avoid Foods that Are Pre-Packaged

Though pre-packaged foods ‘supposedly’ make our life easier but it is the germinating point of several kinds of health problems; one of them being weight gain. The pre-packaged processed foods are not only bereft of essential health nutrients but also filled with simple carbohydrates, fats, sugar, sodium, and calories. They also contain preservatives. If your food habit is dependant on packaged foods, its time you got rid of them! They will make you unhealthy and soil whatsoever chances of losing weight. You must remember that real food comes from the Mother Nature and not from the manufacturer’s conveyor belt. No doubt, the packaged foods taste real good but you need to draw a limit somewhere. Eating them once every month or every few months is fine, but a daily or regular dose of processed foods should be a complete no – no!

Avoid the Consumption of Fatty Dairy Products

Up to a limit, the dairy products are beneficial for health. Dairy products contain fat and if you continue to have fatty dairy products like cheese, milk and yogurt, you are seriously sabotaging your own health, unknowingly. These days, the dairy products are available in two versions – the fatty ones and the low fat ones. Opt for the low fat version and remove a substantial amount of fat grams from your diet day – by – day.

Avoid the Consumption of Alcohol

Any kind of alcohol brand contains heavy amount of calories that can completely ruin any kind of weight loss motive you are aiming for. Doctors say that moderate amount of alcohol consumption is beneficial for the health but if you are trying to lose weight then its better to completely forego any alcohol. If you find this difficult, then the only way is to avoid getting into situations that demands or rather tempts alcohol consumption. For instance, refuse going to a friend’s or office party if there will be alcohol or cut out partying every night. Do anything that will aid you in reducing alcohol.

Here are the 10 important reasons for doing so:

1. Visceral Fat

Belly fat that you see is just the outer / surface fat. What you should be really worried about is the hidden fat, the visceral fat. These fats store themselves deep in the body and around the internal organs which if not taken care of can lead to dangerous diseases later on.

2. High Blood Pressure Levels

Obese people are prone to suffering from high blood pressure. The frequency of high blood pressure attacks increase when you have belly fat. Uncontrolled high blood pressure can lead to a higher risk of stroke and heart attack.

3. Increase in Cholesterol and Triglycerides

Belly fat increases the risk of developing bad cholesterol which undoubtedly increases the risk of heart attacks and stroke.

4. Development of Type II Diabetes

People who have belly fat and not doing anything to reduce it can experience higher level of insulin. If care is still not taken then the person can develop insulin resistance and later on, there is visible onset of Type II diabetes and once you get diabetes, there is no permanent cure for it.

The above were life threatening reasons. Now we will see some less life threatening reasons, the list continues:

5. “Uncomfortable” Comfort

Yes, comfort is not always “comfortable” when you have layers of fat protruding from the mid – section. This is because when you have a big beer belly then it is not easy to move around and do regular tasks like tying the shoelaces or squeezing in behind the driver’s wheel, restaurant booths, and seatbelts designed for “normal” waistline.

6. Loss of Breath

Excess fat on the abdomen affects the lungs and diaphragm because you feel short of breath. The lungs cannot expand fully as it would do normally. If you can just lose bout 10% to 20% of the belly fat, it will have a huge impact on your breathing and your general well being.

7. Difficulty in Shopping

When you have belly fat, you cannot even indulge the best pastime – shopping! Why? This is because your clothing expenses suddenly shoot up as you need to buy clothes that will accommodate the abdomen. Searching for plus size clothes is time consuming also. Sometimes you have to travel farther in search of stores with clothes that you need. In other words, a complete waste of time and money!

8. Loss of Energy

When you have normal weight, you are bursting with energy. When you have belly fat, the usual energy deteriorates and you feel fatigued more than usual. You feel all the energy draining out of you and there is also the emotional impact of feeling unattractive. Slowly your work life and personal life suffers.

9. Increases Aches and Pains

Excess weight on the abdomen increases pressure on the abdomen. You must be aware that the abdomen muscles are responsible for keeping the body upright because they help the back muscles so if you put pressure on the abdomen, the back muscles will suffer as well. The strain will result in back pain, aches, and pain in other parts like the knee, feet, and hips.

10. Lack of Confidence

When you are fit and slim, you naturally feel more confident. There is no worrying with showing over your well toned abs and neither have you to shop for baggy shirts to hide the gut. You can wear anything and you feel great. All these feelings alternate when you have a bulging abdomen! Slim and toned belly makes you feel good about yourself. Medically, slim and toned belly increases your longevity and you are safe from the risk of suffering from serious diseases.

We hope that these reasons will prove to be motivating enough for you to get ready and start losing all the belly fat.

Here we have given 5 simple tips that will help you make grocery shopping excursions much less stressful.

Tip 1 – Plan Shopping Ahead of Schedule

Rather than grocery shopping daily, prepare a list in advance for the next week and go shopping. Include all the food items you would need and most importantly, do not deviate from the list. Of course, there can be last minute purchases but first try to make a list for the week. Slowly, when you get into the mode, it will be easy for you to know what you need in a particular week.

Tip 2 – Don’t Go Shopping Empty Stomach

It is easy to get tempted to buy something to eat while you are shopping. You think, ‘what can one pastry make difference’, but it does! So, what you do is have something in advance. It can be a smoothie, fruit, sandwich or a bowl of salad – anything healthy that will make you feel full; this way you won’t do binge eating while shopping.

Tip 3 – Remain In the Store Perimeter

In most stores around the country, you will see that the healthy foods are located near the outside edges. The foods could be meat, bread, sea food, dairy, vegetables, and fruits. All the other things are located on the inside, and that is where the main danger lies. Even if you need to buy something from the ‘inside’, just walk in, locate it, and put it in the shopping basket. No need of looking here and there; it only deviates the mind.

Tip 4 – Look What You Are Buying!

Before buying any foods, read the labels. It is essential to be careful when you are buying packaged and processed foods. When you are reading the label, take note of fiber grams, carbohydrate grams, calories, fat grams and the amount of sodium it contains. Products that contain a lot of sugar, unhealthy fats (saturated fats or trans fatty acids) and sodium should be completely avoided. They are very harmful for your system.

Tip 5 – Don’t Bring Any Extra Cash

When you go for shopping, carry only that much cash that you need to buy the goods on your list; otherwise, there will be a tendency to overspend. Yes, knowing the actual total cost of the food items may not be known in advance but one can always have an estimate in mind. Some of the supermarkets have online websites so; a good thing to do would be to check out the food item costs in advance. Carry only cash – leave the checkbook, credit cards and debit cards at home. Just use the cash you have brought, it will prevent overspending to a large extent.

In fact, not only for dieting purpose, these tips will help you in maintaining a proper food budget. With constant practice, it will become a habit not to overspend. Don’t buy goods that you will regret consuming later on.

Vegetable Barley Soup

Prepare either vegetable, beef or chicken broth. Then in a cooking pot, pour enough broth to just cover half of the pot.

What else do you need? 1 glove of chopped garlic, ½ cups finely chopped onion and ½ cup pf pearl barley. Add all these ingredients in the simmering cooking pot. Mix well and bring the mixture to a boil then lower the gas flame and let the soup simmer for an hour. Check occasionally.

When the soup is simmering, prepare the vegetables. You can select any vegetable of your choice such as carrots, cauliflower, mushrooms, potatoes, corn, green beans, sweet potatoes, beans and others. If you would like to make this a non – vegetarian barley soup then add chunks of beef, chicken or shrimp otherwise use the vegetables and cut into medium sized cubes.

Add these vegetables in the cooking pot and let it simmer for another hour or two, or until the barley and vegetables are soft.

The soup is extremely filling!

Now let’s roll onto the desert. We have:

Baked apples

Baked apples are the favorites with people on diet. Read the process below.

Buy 6 baking apples. Usually the Granny smith, Golden Delicious and Rome Beauty are considered good variety of apples for baking only. Wash the apples properly and remove the cores but take care to leave at least ½ inch of flesh in the bottom for base formation. Take a sharp knife and slit the peel slightly at the outer middle circumference. This way you can cook the apples without splitting the skin.

When the apples are ready, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Clean the baking dish with a cloth and place the apples side by side; leave space between apples. Now you need to make the filling to pour into the core. Just mix ¼ cup of walnuts and ¼ cup of raisins. Then place spoonful of mixture into the apple core and sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg powder on top.

For baking, pour a cup of hot water in the baking dish. The water should be enough to cover all the apples bases. Now bake this for at least 45 to 50 minutes or till the apples are tender. After it cooks, the baking dish out and let it cool it for some time.

This is not the only recipe to make baked apple. There are several variations of this recipe. You can search online for the recipes. Baked apples are low in calorie content and completely safe for dieters.

After finishing your dinner, its time for:

Spiced Tea

There is no other beverage to sip in cool weather than a hot cup of tea, better if it’s spiced. Buy tea filter bags or mesh tea ball if you want to make your own special spiced tea flavor. In extremely hot water, add a tablespoon of loose tea and then a pinch of any of the dried herbs listed – nutmeg, cloves, ginger, mint, cinnamon and others. You can add mixture of spices and herbs also if you are definitely sure of the combination. Now let the tea seep in hot water for few minutes. After the water turns golden, strain the loose leaves or leave it in the cup. To sweeten tea, you can add artificial sweeteners or go natural with organic stevia.

If you want to do away with straining then buy tea bags. If you want a warm apple cider feel to the tea then add a tablespoon of apple juice or add a slice of lemon for extra zing.

This is your complete meal on a cool evening. Have your fill without gaining any calories!

Let’s find out!

Negative calorie is actually the rate at which the body processes the food. It means that when your body requires more energy to digest food as compared to the energy you spent in ingesting them is called negative calorie.

For instance, water – it does not have any calories but the body has expanded its store of energy in order to absorb the water and process it. Therefore, digesting water will be source for negative calorie as you have burned more calories than you originally had consumed. Getting my point?

Apply the same concept to your regular foods, especially those that have really low word count. When we consume food and the body begins its digestive process to absorb all the essential nutrients, the body is also expending a large amount of energy every second to keep the vital functions of the body running such as blood circulation, respiration, and heart beat.

Adding negative calorie foods into your diet on regular basis is not a bad idea. But don’t depend on negative calorie foods only thinking they will help you lose weight faster. Negative calorie foods contain rich source of other beneficial nutrients. Having these foods will make you feel satisfied and you won’t feel hungry for a long time.

Wondering what type of foods have negative calorie? Here they are: lettuce, apples. Cabbage, beets, asparagus, blueberries, celery, broccoli, radishes, cauliflower, cantaloupe, papaya, lemon, green beans, carrot, cranberries, prunes, tomatoes, eggplant, cucumber, grapefruit, zucchini, garlic, endive, onion, spinach, pineapple, raspberries, turnip, strawberries, and tangerines.

The best way to consume these food varieties is to include them in a balanced diet. Don’t have any particular food in exclusivity because the body needs other nutrients too. Take note that though these foods have low calorie count, they still have calories and therefore, eating them in excessive amounts will be a disadvantage. Also, you might feel sick if you keep on eating the same food time and again.

Use these foods to your optimum advantage. Combine them with other healthy nutrient foods and enjoy negative calories!

Moreover, we remain under the misconception that exercise means enduring painful workout routines just to lose some pounds.

In fact, a large number of people spend thousand of dollars in buying gym equipments and memberships for their homes but ultimately the equipments are reduced to the position of clothing racks and finally, they land up in the store room.

Have you experienced similar situation?

Probably, yes! Well, you have nothing to worry about. What you need is an exercise routine that you will love to do rather than loathe! When you love doing something, you devote more time and effort in achieving its purpose. And that’s what we are suggesting! Custom make an exercise regime just for YOU and you will be happy following it.

So, how do you go about this? Pick up pen and paper, and write down the things you would like to do. Move beyond the traditional forms of exercise like walking and jogging, instead focus on something unique like you are comfortable doing gardening, shopping, house cleaning and organizing.

After the list is ready, choose five activities that you love doing most and devote at least 60 minutes daily in doing them. Of course, you can increase the time but let the activities not get too strenuous for you to handle. The exercises of high intensity can be done for 30 minutes in the beginning and the frequency increased as you build more stamina.

Also, it is not necessary to do the activities or exercises at a stretch. Suppose you have made your dinner and you have spare 15 minutes before having dinner. You can utilize this time in gardening.

Similarly, include smaller segments of exercises frequently like climbing mall stairs in speed or walking an extra 10 minutes while shopping. Initially, these activities may sound not much effective but when you consider them as a whole, it does make an impact!

Continue these activities daily and measure your efforts at the end of the week. You will be surprised by the amount of physical activity you are doing in the whole week.

Finally, if you still want to follow ‘traditional exercises’, include innovations or tactics that will inspire you to do the exercises and not give you a feeling of irritation.

For instance, download your favorite music in MP3 player and carry it along daily while walking or running, or hang a $20 bill from the ceiling and promise ourself completing a fixed number of push-ups, the money will be yours.

The more you enjoy your exercises; it is more likely to see its results and enjoy the benefits.

1. Pleasure Eating

Sometimes people eat because they do not know of other ways to make them feel happy. They overeat to forget their painful circumstances or the stress of handling life’s problems. Eating gives them a sense of pleasure and temporary relief from the more troubling situations of life.

You should realize that this is not the ideal way of dealing with problems. Overeating will only cause serious health problems later on. Find other ways to make yourself feel good.

It is imperative to say ‘no’ to overeating. Take time out for yourself when feelings stressed or indulge in hobbies but do not overeat to forget your sorrows. It does not help!

Amazingly, when you take the reign in your hands to make yourself happy, the urge for emotional overeating automatically subsides.

2. Overeating Due to Stress

Stress is a plague in modern lifestyle. There are countless stories of people overeating to calm their nerves and sadly, if you are among them, you are a stress eater. Though we tackle with stress daily, only a handful of us are aware of the techniques to manage stress successfully.

There are no formulas for dealing with stress. It takes a little bit of time and devotion to manage stress. Change your habits to a more positive one and you will see the difference in your life.

How to tackle stress:

- reduce your work pressure in the current job; if not possible, then switch jobs

- hire domestic help for household chores

- devote time to yourself, most importantly

Stress has become an integral part of our life. Rather than trying to eliminate it, make some changes or adjustments in your lifestyle and then you can focus more positively in managing stress.

Research other ways of dealing with stress. The more you learn to relax and let go, its better for you.

3. The Eating Competition / Race

Often we tend to overeat because others are eating the same thing! Its called the “I don’t want to left out” syndrome – apply this on other aspects of life like career but not regarding food.

We feel that if others are eating a particular cuisine and we are not, we feel left out and think that opportunity to have this won’t come again. Thus to maximize on the situation, we eat to our fill even though you might not have been hungry at all!

There should not be rush for eating or it is not compulsory to eat wherever you are. If you are at home, keep the food in refrigerator for later or if you are at party, you can bring a ‘doggy bag’ for later.

Food is not running away anywhere. You have your entire life to enjoy variety of cuisines rather than hog in on any opportunity when sumptuous dishes are in front! Give a break! Control your emotional overeating impulses and you will just be fine!

Apart from these, there are other possible reasons for overeating. Think about them and look for remedial measures or combating strategies. To change old overeating habits, you should have the determination!