The newest product of the ocean that can help you discover how to eat healthy is algae.  And there’s a very easy way of eating right with algae that has been proven to lead to healthy weight loss.  The method might surprise you. 

You have probably heard of getting fiber from a water-based drink rather than from diet food.  This is exactly how participants in a study took in the good nutrition from a specific type of algae.  No, they did not stir strings of algae into their glasses of water.  The most beneficial component of the seaweed – the fiber itself – was removed and made into a drink.

All the participants in this study were obese and all were placed on lower-calorie healthy diets.  The difference was that half of the subjects drank the algae fiber drink, and the others consumed a placebo drink on a regular basis.  The people who got extra good nutrition from the algae were further along their way to healthy weight loss than the ones who did not.

If you can find an algae fiber drink at your grocery store, that’s great.  And if you can make algae a part of your healthy eating plan in ways that work for you, you will see the effects of eating right.

Most importantly, remember that good nutrition, like fiber, is what you need for healthy weight loss.

For the average person, especially someone who is just starting to navigate the world of healthy diets, a motivational tool can be very handy for providing inspiration and encouragement.

Here’s an idea that is simple to make and can be personalized by you.  

Chart your progress in all the different areas that you are working on.  For healthy eating, you might chart how many times per day you resisted snacks like donuts and potato chips.  Healthy weight loss can be shown by pounds lost or weight measurements.  Minutes spent exercising each day, or amounts of resistance in weight training, might be used to chart exercise progress.

When thinking about your healthy weight loss goals, set long-term goals as well as progress benchmarks along the way.  Meeting each short-term goal will affirm your ability to achieve what you set out to do.  And slipping up every once in awhile won’t seem like a failure when you look at the overall upward trend of the progress line.

Learning to live a healthy weight loss lifestyle is all about continuing to make progress and constantly learning how to eat healthy and exercise better.  Put your healthy eating and exercise progress on display with a motivational progress chart.

But if you’re doing too much of a past-time that is enjoyed by many Americans, including all your families and friends, then progress from healthy diets might come to a halt.

So what is the activity that is powerful enough to override an entire regimen of healthy meals?

Sitting.

Sitting around at work, sitting around with your kids, sitting around watching TV, sitting around paying bills and shopping online… it all takes up a good chunk of our days.  50 years ago, when there was less reason to sit and be virtually still all day, there was less prevalence of diabetes and obesity.

People spent a lot more time moving around, whether they knew anything about good nutrition or not.  And they weren’t at the gym 2 hours a night.  They engaged in the non-exercise activity that was described in the last post.  Even standing up and walking across the room to change the channel or volume on the TV was more than we do today.

Your cells change when you sit or lay down for an extended period of time.  They become more susceptible to fat development.

Along with knowing how to eat healthy, you must be willing to do what you can to fight the stagnation effect that might set you back.  If you have an office job, get up and walk around as much as possible, and take movement breaks to do small exercises every once in awhile.  While you’re watching your favorite show, get up and move during commercials.

Whatever you do, move more all day long and enjoy the healthy weight loss effects. 

Have you read this eye opening report about fish oil that a colleague and I created?  The information will enlighten you and may even shock you!

Truly healthy weight loss diets that are effective are exactly the opposite.  The more time you invest into following the guidelines, the better your outcome will be.  This is especially true of the exercise component of healthy diets.  Keep reading to find out why.

The dozens of choices you make every single day about how active you will be during standard activities has a bigger influence on your body composition than the frequency of your trips to the gym each week.

In other words, the people who have an exercise program of working out several times a week, but spend the rest of their leisure time relaxing on the couch, find healthy weight loss and general well-being harder to achieve than the folks who don’t have a workout regimen.

The secret is that the latter group stays active all day long, the way our bodies are meant to be used.

This seemingly deceptive concept is backed up by research.  The study really focused on the distinction between two different types of activity: exercise, where you are purposely moving your body in order to attain results such as building muscle or increasing endurance, and non-exercise, where you are still active but doing so to achieve other needs on a daily basis.  Exercise activity would be participating in a kickboxing class, and non-exercise activity would be walking around 8 hours a day at work.

Next time you visit, you can find out what exactly it is about non-exercise activity that gets you closer to your healthy weight loss goals.

You might feel like you’ll never know how to eat healthy enough or exercise the right way to achieve your goals, but the truth is that YOU can do it.

Willpower is a very strong force in healthy diets.  It must be practiced in order to be improved.  Luckily, there are ways to set yourself up for success in this part of your new healthy lifestyle.

You should eventually get to the point where you have enough willpower to keep eating right when you’re around food that’s bad for you.  But, if this is hard, or you’re a beginner when it comes to healthy meals, make it easy on yourself.

Instead of agreeing to go to the Chinese buffet with a friend and vowing to stick to whatever diet food is offered, just don’t go.  When you choose a restaurant with healthier alternatives, or you stay away from food-related activities altogether, you set yourself up for success every single time.

Now think about this:

Researchers found that people with more self-control actually did not spend as much time fretting over the suppression of desires as people with less self-control.  Once you learn how to do it, it gets easier.

Another way to set yourself up for success is to take advantage of your strong moments.  When you’re calm, stress-free, happy, and optimistic, remind yourself of your goals and what you need to do to commit to healthy eating and exercise during the harder times.

If there is a fitness component to it, then it should.

Our last discussion was about how to eat healthy if breakfast makes you hungry for the rest of the morning.  What about being hungry after you work out?  Should this be happening if you eat well-portioned healthy meals throughout the day?  And when you do get hungry, should you stick to your healthy eating plans and wait until your next meal or snack?  Or should you grab something that will stop your stomach from growling? 

First of all, it is okay if you feel like you haven’t eaten in days on your way home from the gym.  In fact, it makes a lot of sense when you consider how much work your body does and the amount of energy it expends while exercising. 

It not only needs good nutrition to replace what has been depleted, but eating right following a workout can add some major benefits to healthy diets.

The post-workout drink mix from Prograde is a great place to start if you don’t know how to eat healthy after exercising.  It gives you the right amounts of carbs and protein to extend your energy, build lean muscle, prevent muscle soreness, and continue burning calories.

You will get hungry with the right healthy eating and workout routine, so arm yourself with good nutrition that satisfies your hunger and gives your body exactly what it needs after exercising.

PS:  Read this short article on which vegetables you should be eating that actually help you to burn fat.  Just click the image below to start reading.

The question is: should healthy meals be nixed in the morning, in order to save on calories for the first part of the day?

Without calories, there is no good nutrition, so this strategy goes against what we know about how to eat healthy.

Breakfast, and the fact that it makes you hungry, is an important component of healthy weight loss.    Your body wants to get to work burning fat when you start your day, but it needs a little help to do the dirty work for you.  A breakfast comprised of the right diet food is the kick-start your metabolism needs to get up and running.

Healthy meals at breakfast must be portioned correctly and contain good nutrition that keeps you full and energized.  Protein and fiber are the nutrients that can get you through those hungry hours without ruining any progress you’ve made with healthy diets.

Breakfast is a perfectly acceptable time to have a meal replacement shake, like Prograde’s Lean.  Whatever gets you to the next healthy meal or snack without being too large or unhealthy is more beneficial than skipping breakfast.

Hunger shouldn’t steer you into fad diets or lead you to believe that you’re ruining healthy diets.  It should remind you to use the healthy weight loss tip of eating an appropriate breakfast.

But this only happens when you think negative thoughts about your healthy eating and exercise plans.

Thinking positively, on the other hand, actually helps you achieve healthy weight loss goals.

Whether you need an attitude adjustment for eating, exercise, or the progress you’re making, look below for suggestions. 

Healthy eating
Make a list of the foods that have so much good nutrition that you are encouraged to eat them as much as possible.  Naming off what you’re not allowed to have will only make you want it more.

Healthy exercise
Instead of telling yourself you have to go to the gym every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, see how much exercise time you can get in this week.  Remember, walking across parking lots and other quick efforts throughout the day count because every little bit helps!  Then, next week, see if you can beat yourself by adding on more time. 

Healthy progress
Progress is progress.  Any accomplishment is worth being proud of.  Tallying up all the things you haven’t improved yet, or the temporary failures you have experienced, is counterproductive.  When you are thinking positive, you are well on your way to healthy weight loss.

Have you read this eye opening report about fish oil that a colleague and I created?  The information will enlighten you and may even shock you!

Your thoughts about healthy weight loss might change after you learn about one man’s fight for a healthier life.  He lost 130 pounds in 6 months and did it all by switching to healthy meals and exercising.

The great lesson in his story is that he started with baby steps.  He went from barely being able to get himself around to exercising by slowly pushing a shopping cart up and down aisles.  Eventually, he got to the point where he could walk, and even run, miles.

If we have goals for healthy diets, it does not matter where we start from.  We will reach them when we put forth the right effort.

Another lesson we can learn from this man is that change is inevitable when it comes to healthy weight loss diets.  We cannot keep everything in our life the way it is and expect to get different results.

He took drastic steps in areas of his life that some of us would claim are untouchable, like our jobs, for the sole purpose of supporting healthy eating habits.  He knew his health was the most important component of his life and that everything else must follow suit with eating right and being active.

Do what you know is necessary and you will get the healthy weight loss that you’ve been wishing for, too.

It won’t do anything to your healthy weight loss plans.

Thoughts like these can easily steer your healthy eating off course.  Those times when you’re faced with something that is most definitely not diet food but you have a little anyway… they add up.

Healthy diets don’t mean you eat vegetables and water 24 hours a day.  But they do require you to put some thought into how to eat healthy. 

Think of all the different times throughout the week that you might nibble on something extra, something above and beyond your healthy meals, just because you want a little taste.  There are free samples at grocery stores, scraps while cooking, goodies at get-togethers, favors set out at an office, and of course appetizers, bread, and loaded side salads at restaurants.

Before you protest, it needs to be said that not all of the “extras” you encounter are bad for you.

The problem lies in the number of times you nibble.  I bet these instances don’t get counted throughout the day or week, and when you get to the end, you have no real estimate of how much extra you have eaten.

If you were accidentally eating more spinach than you were aware of, this wouldn’t be a problem.  But most other food does not have the good nutrition that spinach does.

Keep in mind that only 500 extra calories per day adds up to an extra pound of weight gain after just a few weeks.

Stop nibbling and start enjoying truly healthy diets.

PS:  Read this short article on which vegetables you should be eating that actually help you to burn fat.  Just click the image below to start reading.