Tag Archives: diet

Lose weight without getting hungry

“I really need to lose weight but I hate feeling hungry nearly all the time,” I suppose this has to be one of the most common statements, made by people who follow many of the so called fad diets. If your diet leaves your stomach rumbling every hour on the hour, your body is telling you it’s time to make a change. I used to believe losing weight meant starving yourself. It took me a a very long time to accept the fact that I could actually eat heartily and still drop a few pounds in weight.

The times I spent starving myself in the name of losing weight were miserable. When I did manage to shed a few pounds, I would sadly put it all back on, in a matter of weeks. Sometimes I’d even gain a few extra pounds. Now that’s what I call depressing!

What I learned through many years of research (trial and error) is that when you follow a healthy eating plan, you can eat until you’re full, and still see amazing weight loss results.

What Are Healthy Foods?

Healthy foods are not created in factory’s where food is processed to death. If the food is dried, dehydrated, canned, frozen or filled with ingredients you can’t pronounce. I suggest that you stay away from it. Some good examples of healthy foods include fresh fish, naturally raised meats, legumes, seeds, organic poultry, organic eggs, raw nuts, along with fresh fruit and vegetables.

There’s nothing more miserable than having to deal with hunger pangs all day. If your meals aren’t satisfying your nutritional needs, this is exactly what’s going to happen. Here are some tricks to make your meals more filling:

Add a source of good quality protein and a source healthy fat (yes, fat) to each of your meals. Doing this should make your meals more appetizing and curbs the hunger. Sources of healthy protein include natural meats, organic whole eggs, organic poultry and fish. Sources of healthy fat include avocados, fish, beans, raw nuts, coconut oil and olive oil.

Fill your plate with veggies. They help to divide your plate into three sections, and fill the larger section with veggies. Leave the other two sections for meat and other foods. Veggies are full of fiber, so they expand in the stomach, digest more slowly so keeping you full longer. Try eating green leafs such as cabbage, spinach, broccoli which are rich in magnesium. (at least 57% of the US population does not meet the US RDA for dietary intake of magnesium)

Drink a glass of bottled water before each meal and throughout the day. This will help you feel full faster and reduce hunger.

Examples of Healthy, Filling Meals and Snacks

At Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs, 1/3 cup of oatmeal with cinnamon and a small pear.

Snack: 1 medium apple, 1 cup of cucumber slices and 1 oz of raw nuts.

For Lunch: 4 oz ground turkey, 1/2 cup of cooked brown rice, 8 oz carrot sticks, and a small green salad with vinegar and olive oil dressing.

Snack: 2 tablespoons of almond butter, 2 slices of rye crisp bread and 8 oz of celery sticks.

For Dinner: 5 oz boiled halibut steak, 1/2 cup of green beans sauteed in garlic, small baked sweet potato and a small green salad with apple cider vinegar and olive oil dressing.

Diet plans that leave you hungry all the time (or even some of the time) are useless, why are you making life so miserable. Why not ditch the diet altogether and eat healthy instead? If you do it this way, you can eat delicious, filling foods and still lose weight.

Why not check out Mike Geary’s Fat Burning Kitchen Program for more great advice and recipes.

Flat Six Pack Abdominals, Lean Stomach

My friend Mike Geary told me about an interview he did with a fitness professional from NYC, non other than certified personal trainer, Geovanni Derice. In it he reveals some of the hardest hitting strategies for getting rid of stubborn stomach fat to uncover those flat six pack abdominals that everyone wants.

“GD: Welcome Mike to our 4-ever-Toned Fitness Journal. For those people who do not know you, please tell us a few things about yourself, and how you can help our readers with their fitness, health and fat loss.

MG: Thanks for having me on, Geo. Well, to go back a little, I have been heavily involved in fitness and sports for about 17 years now, ever since I was a teenager. I got involved in sports in high school which got me interested in strength training and conditioning.

At that point, once I started feeling more energetic, then getting stronger, and looking better, I was instantly hooked for life. I’m now 33 years old and I’m still addicted to the way living a healthy and fit lifestyle, makes me feel energetic, confident, and youthful on a daily basis.

I decided earlier in my 20’s that I wanted to make the commitment to help other people experience the excitement of being fit, and getting themselves in the best shape that they can. Since we’ve reached a tragic epidemic of obesity, heart disease, fatigue, diabetes, cancer, depression, etc. That’s why I decided to became a fitness professional. It just gives me such a buzz to help others, who have been struggling for years to get into shape, and to show them that it can be done, and how it can be a fun process.

I’ve expanded over the years from just reaching local individuals with personal training, into being able to help people all over the globe achieve their fitness goals thanks to the internet. I hope that my passion for fitness, helps to inspire people to take action, and improve how they look at life.

GD: Mike, one question is: there are so many things out there as to what works and what does not work… if you had to pick the 3 things that work time and time again to get flat lean abs, what else would they be?

MG: The first and most important thing to get under control, in order to lose your abdominal obesity and get flat six pack abdominals is cleaning up your diet. Exercise is important, but your diet is more important when it comes to losing body fat so that you can see your abs.

There’s so much confusion these days about what a healthy diet that promotes fat loss really is. After all, we are constantly bombarded by conflicting messages in the media about what is healthy, and you have all of these gimmicky diet books about various diets too many to mention. There’s so much conflicting info, that the average consumer doesn’t even know where to start when it comes to eating for fat loss.

The second thing that works, is to focus on the intensity of your workouts and focus on working the body as a whole in order to get the best metabolic response to lose that stubborn stomach fat.

For you to get lean, the workouts should have a high intensity, with short rest periods, working the largest muscle groups of the body, instead of trying to isolate specific small muscles like the biceps, triceps, or calves.

For the third thing, let’s talk about actually training the abs specifically. When it comes to training the abs. I always recommend forgetting about the crunches and situps for the most part. They are OK for someone who is really unfit, but most people that already have some training under their belt need a much better stimulus for their abs than doing crunches. Although crunches are one of the abs exercises that actually provide the least amount of resistance. Just remember that resistance is what develops and tones the muscles.

I provide a wealth of great abs exercises in my book, but one of the highest resistance exercises for the abs, is hanging leg raises (but NOT the way you see most people at the gym doing them). The key to doing these and actually working the hell out of your abs is to curl your pelvis up as you raise your legs. Most people don’t ever do it the right way. To be truthfully honest with you, the majority of people cannot do this to begin with, but I provide some strategies in my book how to progress to doing these correctly.

GD: Where are most people going wrong when it comes to developing the coveted “6 pack abs”?

MG: Well Geo, I know this sounds funny to most people, but the MAIN thing that people are doing wrong to get those flat six pack abs is… are you ready for this?

They spend entirely too much time focusing on training their abs! WAY too much time spent on abs exercises. Crazy, but that’s the truth.

Remember, having a flat and visible six pack of abs is all about getting down to a low body fat percentage.For you to do that, your workouts must focus on stimulating a fat burning hormonal environment in your body, and thus increasing your metabolic rate. That is not going to happen when you focus too much time training a small muscle group like the abs.

Instead, you must use the majority of your time focusing on training the largest muscle groups of the body like the legs, back, and chest. That’s what stimulates your metabolism and the fat burning hormones that will get you truly lean and sporting a flat six pack!

GD: Which exercises do you rate as the top exercises that people need to do if they are to get maximum definition with their midsection?

MG: When it comes to developing the abs themselves, I again refer to any kinds of hanging abs exercises, as well as some good floor abs exercises like lying leg thrusts. All these routines are described as well as illustrated in my book mentioned below.

However, maximum definition in the abs and midsection comes from losing body fat, the most effective exercises featured in my program for that one goal. Various forms of swings and snatches (unique dumbbell or kettle bell exercises that almost nobody ever does), squats, dead lifts, lunges, step-ups, clean & presses, mountain climbers, sprinting, and other full body exercises and calisthenics. If you desire great looking flat abs, focus on the above methods instead of focusing so much on training the abs directly!

GD: When it comes to diet Mike, people really have tried millions of ways to get one thing and that is fat loss. What do you recommend to your clients, to lose body fat and keep it off?

MG: I have included a fully comprehensive discussion of this topic in my book, which makes up almost half of the book. The most important thing to achieve is that your diet is as natural, and as unprocessed as is possible. It almost always comes back to the over processing of food that makes it unhealthy, and it will wreck your metabolism and hormone balance in your body.

For example, why would you want to eat refined grains, if you can eat whole grains (even better are sprouted grains, as I usually recommend limiting grain foods overall for best results).

Why eat all that disgusting refined sugar that causes weight gain, when you can get natural sources of sugar from a high nutrient whole food like fruit. Why do we eat highly processed, refined, and hydrogenated vegetable oils (these are THE worst thing in the modern diet), when we can eat natural sources of healthy fats like nuts, avocados, fish, eggs, coconut milk, even organically raised meat.

The point here is to not fall for some quick gimmick like extremely low carbs (although I do believe in a fairly reduced carb intake as that is a big problem for most people), low fat, super high protein, or any other combination that has you focusing on one macro nutrient compared to another.

Your body needs all macro nutrients to thrive and obtain a variety of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, etc. Cutting out an entire food group out just works against what your body needs. I go into more detail on this vitally important topic towards losing body fat (especially that stubborn stomach fat) for life in my book.

GD: Thank you very much Mike for taking the time to share with us all of this great information.

I hope you enjoyed reading this interview and got several useful bits of info to get you motivated and started on showing off your flat abs shortly. If you have not already got a copy, be sure to pick up a copy of Mikes Truth about Six Pack Abs Ebook, and discover for yourself the entire system he developed for ridding yourself of that extra abdominal fat for good!

Six Pack Abs

Exercise after eating

Exercising after eating a meal can help promote weight loss by boosting hormones that suppress appetite, say UK scientists.

These hormones can help active people feel less hungry immediately after exercise. This carries through to their next meal, experiments have suggested.

Even when they had bigger meals, sporty people gained fewer calories, overall because they burned off more.

The University of Surrey and Imperial College London research paper is published in the Journal of Endocrinology.

Exercise may affect people’s appetite, helping them to lose weight.

According to researcher Dr Denise Robertson:

Twelve volunteers were fed the exact same breakfast.

An hour later, six of them worked out for an hour, on an exercise bike while the other six volunteers sat quietly.

Both groups were left for another hour, and then allowed to eat as much as they liked.

Not surprisingly, the people who exercised burned more calories than those who sat quietly, 492 kcal compared to 197 kcal.

When they were given the chance to eat afterwards, the people who had exercised had a tendency to eat more, 913 kcal versus to 762 kcal.

However, when the amount of energy the volunteers burned during exercise was taken into account, the sporty people took in fewer calories overall – 421 kcal compared to 565 kcal for the inactive group.

Levels of hormones called PYY, GLP-1 and PP, which tell the brain when the stomach is full, increased during and immediately after exercise. So is this saying that exercise after eating is the way to go.

Volunteers also commented on how they felt less hungry during this time.

Researcher Dr Denise Robertson said: “In the past we have been concerned that, although exercise burns energy, people subsequently ate more after working out. This would cancel out any possible weight reduction effects of exercise”.

“But our research shows that exercise may alter people’s appetite to help them lose weight and prevent further weight gain as part of a healthy, balanced lifestyle.”

Experts recommend people do at least 30 minutes of physical activity, at least five or more days a week.

‘Significant contribution’

Dr Ian Campbell, medical director of the charity Weight Concern, said: “This is an interesting study. Patients often report that they feel increased hunger and eat more after exercise.

“What this study shows is that, although total calorific intake is greater, the net result, because of the exercise taken, is a reduction in the net energy balance.

“Dieting is never easy. Increased physical activity is an essential part of any weight management programme, not just to expend more calories but also, as we see here, to help control our appetite too.”

Dr John McAvoy, a GP with a special interest in obesity, said the study was a “significant contribution to understanding the complex mechanisms of energy balance”.

“It will be of greater interest to the pharmaceutical industry, than to the general public at this stage, for the simple reason that most people view exercising so soon after eating as akin to putting your fingers down your throat,” he added.

“For exercise to contribute to weight control it should be sustainable over the long term and enjoyment remains a critical factor to this end.”

Ref:

Effects of exercise on gut peptides, energy intake and appetite
Catia Martins, Linda M Morgan, Stephen R Bloom1 and M Denise Robertson

Journal of Endocrinology (2007) 193, 251-258 DOI: 10.1677/JOE-06-0030

Eat Potatoes White Foods – for a Leaner-Body?

I think it about time we started a little discussion about carbohydrates… and in particular, “white foods” including potatoes. One reason I wanted to talk about this is because so many health and fitness professionals trash talk potatoes about being a bad carbohydrate choice because of the high glycemic index. Some people are saying such ridiculous things as “avoid any and all white carbohydrates”.

Now while I agree that white bread and refined white sugar are two of the worst things we can be feeding our bodies. I don’t believe in avoiding any and all “white carbohydrates”.

Believe it or not “White Foods” aren’t always the enemy.

It’s true that colourful foods are great, but it is also a big mistake to specifically avoid white foods! There are plenty of white foods that have specific nutrients that are hard to find elsewhere. Let’s take a look at a few examples…

Onions and Garlic

What about onions and garlic? They are both white and they are chock full of protective phytonutrients, vitamins, and trace minerals that aren’t easy to find elsewhere in a normal diet… such nutrients as allicin, quercetin (an important flavonoid), chromium, and other unique anti-inflammatory nutrients.

Cauliflowers

Here is another example of something white, that is great for you is cauliflower. Cauliflower is full of vitamin C, trace elements, fiber, and special compounds such as glucosinolates and thiocyanates, which are abundant in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, kale and cabbage. One little-known fact is that some of the compounds in cruciferous vegetables help to counteract other estrogenic compounds in our food supply and environment and can help prevent excess belly fat. So eat up that cauliflower!

Mushrooms

Not many people realize this, but even white mushrooms have high levels of unique nutrients and antioxidants. Ordinary white mushrooms are high in antioxidants called polyphenols and ergothioneine.

Potatoes

Now that also leads us to another example – white potatoes. Many health professionals claim that potatoes are a bad carbohydrate because they are thought to have a high glycemic index. If you’ve read my Truth about Six Pack Abs book, you will understand that glycemic index is not necessarily the most important factor in choosing your carbohydrates.

While making the assumption that most low glycemic index carbohydrate choices will help you lose body fat easier than high glycemic index choices, it is not all that it’s cracked out to be. There are many other factors that determine how your body will react-to and process the carbohydrates you ingest, such as glycemic load and also how you combine the high GI food with other foods.

For example, using glycemic load as an example… it is known that watermelons have quite a high glycemic index. However, the glycemic level of a normal serving of watermelon is just way too low for your body to start packing on body fat just because you ate a high glycemic index fruit. You would have to eat such an enormous quantity of watermelon just to get enough grams of carbohydrates to have any negative glycemic effect, that’s just not logical.

Not to mention that watermelon is also a great source of vitamins, minerals, and lycopene. There’s just no reason to avoid it simply because it has a high GI. The point that I am trying to get across is… candy bars, cupcakes, and donuts etc make you fat. Not because they contain fat but because of all the added sugar… NOT watermelons, carrots or potatoes… French fries excluded of course.

Also, as i mentioned, food combinations are important in how your body processes the carbohydrates and the associated blood sugar and insulin response you receive. e.g if you mix a high glycemic index carbohydrate with an extra source of fiber, and healthy fats, or even certain proteins, effect of the increased blood sugar and glycemic response will be slowed down considerably by the way you combined the food. I talk in great detail about this topic in my book.

Back to my point that white potatoes are actually a healthy carbohydrate as long as you eat them in the right form… with the entire skin, and please don’t ruin them by deep frying them into french fries either! French fries or Chips whatever you want to call them, are one of the most evil things ever invented for your health, but only because we ruin them by soaking them in a scorching bath of trans fats in the deep fryer from the hydrogenated oils that are typically used.

Will eating 8 potatoes per day make you fatter? of course not.

On the subject of potatoes not being bad after all, I don’t remember where I read this, but I saw a study that had participants eat at least 7-9 whole potatoes per day for several weeks.
At the end of the study, the potato eaters had consistently lost weight! I’d venture a guess that the reason the people lost weight is that they were probably so full from eating all of those potatoes. They consumed less calories than normal! An average sized potato has about 100-120 calories, and I can imagine you’d be constantly full from eating 7-9 potatoes each day.

I would never recommend going to those extremes, but my point is that an occasional potato is not going to affect your efforts to get leaner, especially if you combine it with some other fibrous vegetables, and maybe a healthy fat, and some protein. Let me share with you one of my favorite recipes for you to try, using potatoes.

Mikes’s Lean-Body Potato Side Dish

* Desired quantity of baby potatoes (I like to use this mixture I found recently at a health food store… it is a mixture of white, red, yellow, and purple baby potatoes)

* 1 red pepper

* 1 green pepper

* 1 yellow pepper

* 1 or 2 onions

* a couple cloves of garlic, finely chopped

* 1 or 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil and / or coconut oil

* a little salt and pepper to taste (I like using a sea salt instead of normal commercial salt)

Cut the baby potatoes into smaller pieces and place in a steamer until soft all the way through. Slice up the peppers and onions into strips and add with the chopped garlic into a pan with the olive oil. Slowly fry the peppers, onions, and garlic until tender, and then add the steamed baby potatoes. Mix together and serve. Its is a delicious and healthy side dish that goes great with chicken or red meat.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little topic today about potatoes, healthy carbohydrates, glycemic index, and my healthy potato recipe idea!

Mike Geary

Certified Personal Trainer

Certified Nutrition Specialist

Truth about Abs

The sad truth about most protein powders

If you’ve ever been near a health food store, or even a supermarket, you should know first-hand that there is no shortage of protein powders available today. In an effort to easily increase your daily protein intake, you’ve probably been tempted to buy one, or more of these (or maybe you already have) and made them a part of your fat burning diet plan.

But there’s a problem…

Until now, there has not been a protein powder that I felt confident about recommending, to you or even taking myself (there may be 1 or 2 on the market. But they’re either ridiculously expensive or taste downright awful).

1) – Most protein powders are sweetened with artificial sweeteners. If your protein powder lists aspartame or sucralose as the sweetener…throw it out. These sweeteners are downright dangerous and toxic to your body. They seriously hinder your fat burning efforts. Instead of helping you burn fat by increasing your protein intake, these artificially sweetened protein powders prevent you from losing fat by overwhelming your body with harmful toxins. Throw it away now, – in the bin!

2) – Most protein powders use a low quality source of whey, they are processing it at high temperatures. This method of manufacture completely denatures the protein and decreases the protein value (making it kind of pointless and a waste to take at that point). For commercial reasons it is extremely difficult to find out exactly how your protein powder has been processed.

Well Prograde Nutrition have finally done it. They have finally formulated a Protein Powder that is not only delicious, but one that is sweetened with Stevia (a completely natural sweetener), and that they have only used the highest quality, cold processed whey.

The best thing about the people at Prograde is that they listen! Myself and many other fitness authors that I truly respect were downright honest with them and told them frankly we would not recommend any protein powder with artificial sweeteners in it! Guess what happened? They actually listened and spent months formulating this new product.

This is as much great news for me as it is for you. If I have a protein option that’s going to be easier than scrambling eggs for breakfast or making a full post workout meal, Then I’ll take it! With this new protein powder, I’m going to be able to maintain my current protein intake in a much easier way.

Here are a few of my favorite Prograde Protein Powder Recipes. I will be making regularly with my new batch of Protein powder:

Pina Colada Protein Shake

Ingredients

  • 8 oz. water
  • 4 oz coconut milk
  • 4 ice cubes
  • 3 scoops vanilla protein powder
  • 1/3 cup Pineapple chunks

Mix all ingredients in the blender.

The ideas and recipes for protein shakes are endless. I use either water or coconut milk but you can also use almond milk or rice milk if you’d like. It’s time to get creative, and add a variety of fruits, raw nuts and nut butters for a delicious breakfast, or meal replacement any time of the day.

Easy Protein Oatmeal

Ingredients

  • 1/3 cup oatmeal (dry)
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 scoop protein powder

Cook 1/3 cup dry oatmeal in 1 cup of water. Next mix 1 scoop of protein powder with a little amount of water, in a separate bowl, until it becomes thick. Add the powder and water mixture to the oatmeal. (oats contain beta glucan which are crucial compounds to help the body stay healthy)1 Top it with fresh fruit or raw nuts and enjoy!

To save time, I make several servings of oatmeal at once and keep it in the refrigerator for the next few days. In the morning, I scoop out 1 serving (1 heaping cup full) and heat it up on the stove top. This saves me a few minutes in the morning (every second counts, especially if you add them all up)

Protein Pancakes

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup oats
  • 1/2 cup Cottage Cheese (if you can tolerant dairy foods)
  • 4-5 egg whites (I don’t like to throw away quality yokes, its wasting good nutrition. So I save them for other recipes, or to add to my next meal. I tried to make this recipe with whole eggs and it doesn’t work as well.)
  • 1 scoop protein powder (vanilla)

Blend all ingredients until the mixture has a batter consistency. Then pour into a frying pan like normal pancakes. I use butter to cook these.

You can add your own items for flavoring… for example

Mix in 1/2 cup blueberries after blending (Blueberry pancakes). Or try adding half a banana before blending for banana flavored pancakes. I also like to add apple sauce, cinnamon and a dab of honey.

These are really easy to make ahead of time, so you can have a nice protein heavy breakfast without a lot of morning preparation.

You can read more on this subject in Mike Geary’s ebook, the Truth about Six Pack Abs.

Ref: [1] Super foods: Beta Glucans..

The realities of fat burning foods

It’s time for a quick trick that will help you safely lose 10 pounds in a short space of time. But first let’s talk about a serious health problem – weight gain with aging. Here is some truths about fat burning foods.
Did you know that runners between the ages of 18 and 50 gain weight at the same rate regardless of the number of miles run per week. The average is 3.3 pounds every 10 years…for a runner. Weight gain as you age is inevitable.

It’s part diet, part exercise, and part gravity. If runners can’t keep weight off by running, what are the rest of us supposed to do? Since we can’t turn off gravity, we going to have to work on the other two.
I have a simple solution that will help you start losing weight safely and naturally. I use it every day. Something to do with healthy eating.

We have a common enemy, everyone that is. That common enemy is processed foods and their condiments. The amount of junk in the form of added sugar in today’s factory-made food, adds to our waistlines, and our western world obesity problem. Life could be so different if we dieted with healthy foods.

It’s one of the reasons I am so passionate about healthy eating.

Let me ask you 3 simple questions:

1. Do you struggle to add green vegetables to your diet?, add some Broccoli, it goes with just about any meal.

2. Do you add unhealthy condiments to veggies? Ketchup, yuk read the ingredients

3. Do you want to lose weight eating healthy food that tastes great?, add a side salad with a little Olive oil

Did you answer “Yes” to any of these questions?

If so, I have a simple solution for you.

And, it’s the exact same solution I use.

Find out exactly what I’m talking about here.

Imagine what it would feel like to lose 5 pounds, 10, 20 pounds.

I remember when I started eating healthy, and lost my first 10 pounds… what an amazing feeling.

– It felt amazing to put on my jeans without struggling.

– The people around me started making comments about how fantastic I looked.

– I was ever so excited about heading to the beach with the family.

Its alright, it’s not your fault. The processed foods that we have been force-fed with for so many years have made it virtually impossible to keep the weight off.
You can read more ideas and tips like the ones above in Mike Geary’s ebook the Fat Burning Kitchen which is packed full of nutrition advice, and healthy lifestyle.

Does juicing provide nutrition when dieting

Juicing works – of course it does:

Apart from the fact that juiced fruits and vegetables have very low calories and no fat (just make sure you make them yourselves), they are loaded with a variety of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and enzymes that help your body to perform at its best. Our bodies spend a lot of time trying to detoxify, repair and protect cells. When we are undernourished our bodies go into protection mode and store fat for survival. But, when your body is functioning at its peak condition and getting all the nourishment it needs, it can focus energy on fat loss. Juicing delivers a concentrated healthy cocktail straight into your body. No extra effort is needed to break down the juice and so it is absorbed quickly and starts working magic immediately.

Keys to weight-loss success while juicing:

Juicing vegetables and herbs while reducing fruit. Yes, of course fruit makes it taste so delicious. Yes, fruit sugar is healthier than refined table sugar… but it’s still sugar and will still cause spikes in your insulin and if your body cannot clear those sugars out, they will convert to fat stores. Also, watch how many carrots you use, believe it or not they have a lot of sugar as well.

Save juicing fruits for before and after your workouts. For the same reason as above, when you work out your body becomes primed for using glucose.

Skip snacking and start juicing. It seems that people always get hungry between meals. The solution to avoid binging on things you probably shouldn’t be eating before dinner, is to juice up a big green glass of nutritional goodness. Hopefully the liquid will tide you over until your next meal, or at least it will get your brain thinking about health-conscious snacks.

Snack while juicing. Not on cheese and crackers or anything man-made but on the vegetables you are getting ready to juice. Sometimes our brains like chewing and feeling food in our mouths and stomach’s, so give it that satisfaction while nurturing you.

Healthy habits don’t end with juicing. Whether you are having 1 juice a day or 5, remember that beyond your glass jar, you need to be eating healthy all day long. It defeats the purpose of juicing for weight loss when you eat a big bowl of sugary cereal for breakfast, pizza for lunch, and burgers for dinner.
Fill up on fresh juice before meals or going out. Even though juice is digested quickly, you will soon feel hungry again. Your hunger may be quenched by the nutrients more than the feeling of full.

Alternate your veggetables. Two ways that this works: you don’t get bored and you get a variety of nutrients.

Add some barley grass powder, spirulina, chia seeds, avocado, or olive oil. Healthy fats and fibers are not only good for you, but will keep you fuller longer. Have you seen my article on Coconut oil. Try some.
No one wants to diet, or spend their time with someone who is dieting, who has a big hungry monster in their stomach.

Create lasting habits:

Remember juicing for weight loss is not a diet. It is the basis for a much healthy lifestyle. If you are taking the time to clean, chop and juice fresh fruits and vegetables then you should be making time to prepare and cook healthy homemade meals.

Some people like to test the water with one glass of juice slowly adding more as they feel necessary. If you prefer to start the day with a balanced, nutrition-rich eating regime, you will find that having at least one glass of vegetable juice per day will make it easier to reach your weight loss goals in the long run. Have you thought of replacing your morning, afternoon, snacks with a juice, then you are well on your way!

Why not see what advice, Mike Geary has to offer on such foods whilst dieting in his fat loss program.

In the mean time why not try.

Morning-time: 1 beet, 1 pink lady apple, 1 small slice of ginger

Before dinner: 4 tomatoes, 2 green onions, ½ green pepper, 2 carrots, 2 celery ribs, Handful of parsley, 1 peeled lemon

Before bed: 2 cucumbers, 4 romaine lettuce leaves, Handful of mint