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Healthy weight loss

Diets come, diets go! Here my Healthy Weight Loss section gives you valuable information to put into practice for the long term, not just a week. In addition to the articles below, check out the following free downloadable fact sheets:

And take a look at my Everyday Diet Secrets Motivator pack. It will help you to reaffirm your goals and  overcome those times when your willpower drops.

The mindfulness of yoga can help weight loss

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woman-doing-yoga-160-wideAdding yoga practice to an existing weight loss regime (including commercial ones such as Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers) can increase its effectiveness according to Dr Alan Kristal, associate head of the Cancer Prevention Program in the Public Health Sciences Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre. Mindfulness, not exercise, is the key, says Dr Kristal. He believes that the mindfulness that results from regular yoga practice is responsible for this phenomena.

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Soft drink warning

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Trying to eat light and cut back on sugar? Here's how to do it without losing out on flavour and pleasure. Soft drinks, juices, flavoured mineral waters, fruit-based drinks and sports drinks are the major source of sugar in all age groups, according to CSIRO who analysed the Australian diet for sugar intake. Collectively these drinks supply 30 per cent of the added sugar adults consume but as much as 47 per cent in teenage boys who have a sweet tooth and are the biggest consumers of sugar.

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Light foods - do they support your weight loss efforts?

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lite-food-lable‘Light' or ‘lite' foods seem to be the answer to our diet prayers. You eat - and enjoy - the same food but you end up consuming less fat and fewer kilojoules (calories). To a dieter (and I'm always watching what I eat), it sounds just perfect!

When light foods first started appearing on our supermarket shelves way back in the 1990s, they were quite simple. They had less fat than the regular version, but the drop in fat was one you almost couldn't notice unless you compared the two versions mouthful by mouthful.

 

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Meal replacements for weight loss

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People often ask me about meal replacement shakes (Biggest Loser, Kicstart, Optifast, Celebrity Slim, Betty Baxter, Tony Ferguson, Cambridge Diet) to aid weight loss. Are they safe? How long can you use them? Are you missing out on anything?

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7 darn good reasons to eat slow

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Everything in our lives is fast - fast cars, fast trains, fast lanes, fast money, fast broadband and of course fast food. There's lunch on the run, dinner in under 30 minutes, 2-minute noodles, take-away to grab and run. Life is rushed and stressful. When we finally grab a moment to eat, we bolt it down as quickly as we can. And multi-tasking whilst eating is the norm - we munch a sandwich at our desk, catch up with the news over dinner or read the paper over coffee and a muffin.

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7 diet secrets that are staring you in the face

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apple-- tape- measure_smllLosing weight is never easy. It takes time, patience and know-how.

But if you can adopt these simple diet secrets, you're on the way to better eating habits and a healthier shape.

 

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Want to lose weight? Drink water before a meal

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woman-drinking-glass-water"Drink lots of water" has always been standard diet advice. I thought the reason was simply kilojoule subtraction - replace soft drink, juice or alcohol with water and you save kilojoules. And it can be a considerable saving. Drink 600ml water in place of a 600ml Coke ‘buddy' (now the most popular single serve size at supermarkets) and you cut back on 1080 kilojoules (258 calories).

 

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Top 10 weight loss secrets of highly-successful 'losers'

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The secret of successful weight loss is the creation of habits that help - not hinder - you achieve your weight loss goals. Motivation may get you started, but it's habits that keeps you going. If you always bolt a meal down as if it were your last, that's a habit that sets you up to overeat more than you probably need. Doesn't matter whether it's low-kilojoule salad or high-fat tiramisu, eating fast is not a habit to cultivate (another good reason not to buy fast food which is often eaten fast).

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Don’t scuttle healthy weight loss with super-sized portions

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Whether you're at a local café, fast food outlet or supermarket, I bet you've noticed how big the portion sizes of food have become.I'm talking about whopper-sized burgers, buckets of juice, pizza that no-one can finish, huge choc chip cookies and raisin toast so thick that you're eating the equivalent to two slices of regular bread.

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10 tips to help you shed fat

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Fat or weight? Today nutritionists talk of "losing fat" rather than of "losing weight". This is because your aim is to shed body fat, not fluid or lean muscle, as commonly happens if you fast or embark on a strict diet. Yes, the weight comes off, but most of it is fluid which is quickly regained once the diet is over.

You don't want to lose muscle either as it is metabolically active (unlike fat) and is responsible for keeping your body's metabolism set high, so you can burn off more kilojoules (calories).

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Counting carbs for healthy weight loss

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spaghetti-a-starchy-carbohydrateFuel for the body or fattening stodge? Confused about carbs and weight loss? How helpful are bread, rice, potatoes and pasta in a diet? Should you eat less of them if you want to lose weight? Read on to find out the truth about carbohydrates.

 

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The soup diet – can you lose weight on it?

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vegetable-soup-for-weight-lossEvery winter or so, the soup diet reappears. One winter, it was part of the infamous "Kickstart Diet" made famous by a television current affairs program. Another winter a few years ago, it was big as the "Cabbage Soup Diet" - the only difference being that the soup contained lots of shredded cabbage.

 

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Boost your metabolism for healthy weight loss

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active-bladersMany people complain they can’t lose weight simply because they have a “slow metabolism”. Is this fact or fallacy, and can you do anything to speed it up? Here’s the real story.

 

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Assess your weight

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Here are the two most often-used ways to assess your weight - the Body Mass Index (BMI) and the waist circumference, which is used as the basis of the current 'Measure Up' campaign run by the Australian government.

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Fad diets - false promises and magic bullets

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Many people turn to fad diets either in desperation or looking for a quick-fix to their weight loss problems. In this article I'll show you why the only "diet" you need is a healthy eating plan and why fad diets in general are counter-productive. Take a look!

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A balanced diet - my 90:10 rule

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Balanced eating means just that, balancing the must haves and the like to haves. And that means allowing yourself the odd treat or comfort food.

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