Do you have tips for healthy living/weight loss?

[Jasmine.]

We are looking for stories, tips and recipes for the best way to start the New Year.

Know a great juice fast? Drink water every day? Post it below.

The best 25 tips for healthy living will show up in our January feature.

[Zurie]

Beware a "diet". Just thinking of a diet makes you hungry. Best tip, if not the most popular: eat more or less as normal, except for this:

Drop the "white stuff": rice, pasta, potatoes, bread, cereals and all sweet things, even fruits (or have it in small quantities!) And cut down on portions.

Eat healthy, natural proteins such as eggs for breakfast (no cereals or bread, try some low-carb crackerbread). A light lunch such as a large salad with some kind of meat or cheese in it.

A normal dinner with meat, poultry or fish, but leave the rice, pasta, potatoes and yellow veggies for a while. Eat lots of freshly-steamed green veggies.

Season foods well: nothing should be bland. Eat some natural fats (butter, olive oil, some fat rind on a chop), which will prevent hunger. You cannot cut carbs PLUS fats, as you'll get too hungry. Fats don't make fat except in large quantities!

Vinaigrette salad dressings, mustard, a little mayo, and bbq sauces fine, a glass or 2 of wine fine, tea and coffee fine, just no sugar.

After a few weeks, try quinoa instead of rice, baby potatoes instead of large, starchy ones.

[Dib's]

Know your body type. What I mean by this is I can't eat bread, pasta, rice or potatoes without gaining weight. My wretched sister on the other hand can eat a loaf of bread slathered in melty butter and not gain an ounce. So, I know what to avoid or eat in "limited" amounts.

Water. Drink it. Try drinking 1 fluid cup of water 10 minutes before you eat a full meal, and another with your meal. One, it will fill you up a little (it's not a miracle) and two it will hydrate any concentraded food you eat (meat, rice, pasta, potato, bread) which will make it easier to digest, allowing your system to pull "the good while passing the bad".

Learn how to cook from scratch. Pre-made meals, boxed foods (rice-a-roni, mac n' cheese) will doom any "diet".

Dead food vs Live food. Think of your plate as a clock broken down into quarters. The first quarter (12 o'clock to 3 o'clock) is dead food. That could be meat, or a potato, or rice or pasta. The other 3 quarters should contain "live food". A salad portion and steamed or fresh veggies.

Graze through out the day. Eat a smaller breakfast, have a small handfull of nuts later in the morning, eat a smaller lunch,...........Smaller meals with healthy snacks will train your body to want less while your eating more (a frozen nutty bar does not count as a snack )

Low fat usually means more sugar.

Never drink soda, regular or diet. If it's your addiction, kick it.

One glass (that's one fluid cup or 8 oz) of 100% no sugar added or fresh fruit juice a day. "Eat" your fruit juice after that, and in limited amounts.

Chew, chew, chew, chew your food well. This will slow down the "shovel effect" while eating, you will feel fuller while eating less, and your digestion will thank you.

If you have a craving that's considered a no-no, go for it anyway.
IN LIMITED amounts. If ice cream is your thing and you know you can't have a gallon in the freezer without snarfing it down in 2 sittings, buy single serving amounts. Same goes for potato chips or whatever your personel "poison" is. If you don't give in from time to time you really will go insane, and you really will go on a binge. So give youself permission to cheat now and again-get it out of your system, so to speak. Again, IN LIMITED AMOUNTS.

Walk. If you don't do anything else get off your butt and walk at least a mile a day. That's about 15 minutes a day. You can work it into your schedule. Walking around the office or the retail store doesn't count when I say walk. You need at least one mile of non stop walking to get your body warmed up and your organs moving.

Don't expect results after one week. As your body drops fat it builds muscle. Chart your results by 2 week intervals, and understand that as your body gets into the groove of your change of life that the results pick up speed as you go along, like a ball rolling down a hill.

Set goals and be reasonable. I wanted to drop weight 2 summers ago. I had a favorite pair of jeans I wanted to wear "well". So, I removed a picture in my bedroom and hung up my jeans so I would see them every day. I pinned photos of my husband and I on them, my kids......knowing that not only would I look great in them, I'd live longer to enjoy what really counts.

[Debbwl]

Eat lots of green leafies, drop the white stuff (rice, flour, potato, sugar and mayo) and never get to hungry by eating all day (5-6 times). Oh and watch your fat intake and eat lots of whole grains as well as fresh raw fruits and veggies.

Educate yourself on nutrition, be honest with yourself and make it a life style change not a diet after all who likes to diet.

[~Laury~]

One thing that helped me was remembering I didn't add the weight overnight and it won't come off overnight. If I adjust what I'm eating and add the exercise my doctor suggests, it will come off and stay off.
If you have medical problems, get your medical professionals helping you determine what weight would be best and what exercises will be best.

[Saralaya]

I lost 50 pounds after being diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. After learning what foods are better for me than others; from a Registered Dietician (a Certified Diabetic Educator) and discovering how different food affected my blood sugar.... the BIGGEST thing that helped me (and still does) can be summed up in two words:

Portion Control

I was surprised to learn exactly what 1/4 of a cup of something looks like...or 1/2 a cup.....and so on... With some things I found that my portions were too large and some I found they were too small! There are still many things that I measure out and that helps a lot.

So that's my best tip.... portion control!

[Jacqueline in KY]

My best tip for anyone wanting to live a healthier life style is to exercise, both aerobic and strength training. Aerobic is good for the heart and will help you lose pounds but it doesn't do a lot to get off the fat. Most people don't realize that there is a difference in how to get off pounds and how to get off fat. We have what is called Visceral Fat and that is the fat that surrounds our organs, that is one of the main areas we need to lose from, but if you don't lower your percentage of total body fat, not total body weight you are not really getting any healthier.

I also go along with Zurie on the word diet, some people freak out when they hear that word. I like to say I am trying to make life style changes because we need to actually make a change in our life style to accommodate a healthier diet.

[Jacqueline in KY]

Jacqueline in KY wrote:
My best tip for anyone wanting to live a healthier life style is to exercise, both aerobic and strength training. Aerobic is good for the heart and will help you lose pounds but it doesn't do a lot to get off the fat. Most people don't realize that there is a difference in how to get off pounds and how to get off fat. We have what is called Visceral Fat and that is the fat that surrounds our organs, that is one of the main areas we need to lose from, but if you don't lower your percentage of total body fat, not total body weight you are not really getting any healthier.

I also go along with Zurie on the word diet, some people freak out when they hear that word. I like to say I am trying to make life style changes because we need to actually make a change in our life style to accommodate a healthier diet.

I made a mistake in what I said here, up on futher research, I have learned that walking and aerobic exercises will get the fat off, it just takes a lot longer than it does with strength training. Sorry for any confusion I may have caused.

[Karyl Lee]

Think about your food options and where you'll be throughout the day before you leave the house, and make plans to deal with your needs, not just "wing it"--or you might end up eating wings!
Generally speaking, home cooked and prepared food will serve you better than almost any restaurant meal, unless that is an unusual restaurant. Most portions will be larger than you'd eat on your own.