If you’re thinking of changing to a vegetarian diet, how do you start? Do you just start shopping in the produce aisle of the grocery store? You might have some anxiety attached to this change as well, and this is understandable.

Try to think of this as adding to your dietary habits, rather than a drastic change. If your diet has consistently included red meat, perhaps you can start substituting other foods for the red meat. Or eliminate the most processed and high-fat meats first, such as bacon and hamburgers. Certainly try to eliminate fast food burgers, which have such a high fat and sodium content. If you think you’ll miss the taste of bacon in the morning, try substituting a turkey or vegetable-based bacon substitute. It won’t be the same, but you won’t be giving up the foods you’re used to all at once.

If you’ve had a health scare and feel the need to change everything at once, make sure you include a lot of variety in the foods you buy as you begin to discover new flavors and textures that you’ll like to replace the ones you’re used to eating. If you don’t need to make a dramatic change all at once, you’ll have a much greater chance of long-term success if you take it slow.

Reduce the amount of red meat that you eat on a weekly basis, even if it means substituting pasta with marinara sauce for meat just one night a week. Increase the amounts of fruits and vegetables you eat. Start with raw vegetables at night before dinner so you’re not so hungry when you get to the main meal. Start reversing the proportions of meat and vegetables and make meat a side dish, with vegetables and grains your main course.

We’re creatures of habit and resistant to change. This is why so many diets fail, because we make drastic changes to facilitate dramatic results, quickly. This is a decision and a change you want to make for a lifetime. Make it a natural and gradual change and you can look forward to many more years of healthy living.

Tags: Bacon Substitute, Burgers, Creatures Of Habit, Dietary Habits, Dramatic Change, Dramatic Results, Drastic Change, Drastic Changes, Eating Habits, Fruits And Vegetables, Grocery Store, Hamburgers, Health Scare, Healthy Diet, New Flavors, Produce Aisle, Raw Vegetables, Red Meat, Side Dish, Sodium Content, Term Success, Vegetarian Diet —

Perhaps you saw it coming for quite a while, and knew it would get to this point. Or, maybe you looked in the mirror one day and all of a sudden realized just how much weight you have put on over the years. Chances are good that the second scenario is more likely. Most of us don’t want to be overweight. And while we may have a few clues as to how we got here, it still comes as somewhat of a shock. Either way, you have finally made the decision to shed those extra pounds once and for all, and you want to lose weight fast.

Hold on! That is an admirable goal, but you need to step back for a moment and put things into perspective. To put it another way, you need to be realistic and specific. How much weight you want to lose and how quickly will play a bog role in which diet and exercise program you choose.

You still have to be realistic though. If you want to lose 20 pounds in 2 weeks, then you’re not going to have much luck. Not only that, but any diet that makes such promises is most likely lying at best, or bad for your health at worst. It simply isn’t safe to lose that much weight, except for a few rare exceptions, and only if you are doing so under the guidance of a qualified medical professional.

Most experts agree that losing 1 or 2 pounds per week is safe and effective. However, you may be able to bump that up to 5 pounds in the first week in some cases. For most people, 1 to 2 pounds is ideal. It’s not only relatively easy, but you will be more likely to stay on such a diet. If you have a choice between losing 20 pounds over two months, only to regain it; or losing 1 pound per week over the course of 6 months, but keeping it off forever, which one would you choose.

The good news is that you don’t really have to choose. You can still lose the 20 pounds, but if you take the right approach, you will be able to keep it off. It’s all about a simple formula: 3,500 calories is equivalent to 1 pound of body weight. That means if you take in 500 calories less per day for a week, you will lose 1 pound. Or, if you burn off an extra 500 calories per day, you will lose a pound.

So, here’s the real “secret” to lose weight fast: do both! Take in 500 calories less and burn off an extra 500 calories. That’s 1,000 calories per day in your favor. That’s a loss of 2 pounds per week, or just over 100 pounds in a year’s time. And the best part it is that it won’t be nearly as hard as if you were depriving yourself, and that means you will be able to keep the weight off for good.

Tags: Admirable Goal, Calories, Diet, Exercise Program, Formula 3, Guidance, Health, Healthy Diet, Lose 20 Pounds, Lose Weight, Losing Weight, Mirror, Perspective, Promises, Rare Exceptions, Shock —

Exercising with a stability ball is a great way to lose belly fat. A stability ball will cost about $30 and you can get them from most sporting stores. A stability ball may be just what you need to get that flat stomach you have dreamed of. Working out with a stability ball will give you twice the muscle fibers in your stomach than if you work out doing regular crunches without a ball. This has been researched at Sacramento State University in California.

Here are three great lose belly fat exercises for beginners to get you started.

1. Sit on the stability ball and put your hands on the ball for balance. You can also place your hands behind your head which is a better strength exercise but is a little more difficult. Begin to roll your hips slowly in a circle toward the right. Start off making small circles and as you become more comfortable and confident with the exercise you can make larger circles. Do 10 to 20 circles and then repeat the exercise making circles to the left. This exercise works the muscles of the stomach making it a great exercise to help lose belly fat.

2. This exercise is called the Seated March. Sit on the ball with your back straight and your stomach pulled in. Lift first your right foot and then the left foot in a slow march. As you become more comfortable with this exercise try lifting your knees higher and march faster. When you become really confident with the exercise you can add a bounce on the ball in time with your marching. Continue with the seated march exercise for around 2 minutes.

3. This last exercise is called the Seated Balance. Once again sit on the ball with your back straight and your tummy pulled in. If you are a beginner then place your hands on the ball for balance, if you are confident enough you can put your hands behind your head. Lift your right foot off the floor and hold it in the air for about 5 seconds. Lower your foot and then lift the left foot and hold it in the air for 5 seconds. Repeat these moves 5 to 10 times while making sure that you continue to have your back straight and your tummy pulled in.

These three exercises have you sitting on the stability ball. These are great exercises if you are a beginner to using the stability ball but as you gain confidence you can introduce more exercises, some of which will have you starting from the floor, your knees or even lying on top of the ball.

Stability balls usually come with a manual that will include a number of different exercises with illustrations so you can see exactly how to do them and what benefit you will gain from them.

There are different size balls available and you should choose the size based on your height. If you are less than 5’1 then you should get an 18 inch ball. If you are between 5’1 and 5’8 you should get a 22 inch ball. If you are over 5’8 then you will need a 26 inch ball.

Stability balls really are a great way to lose belly fat and you will soon feel good with your new flat tummy.

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If you haven’t been eating a vegetarian diet for years, and want to make the shift, it’s best to do so gradually, in stages. A good way to start is to eliminate red meat and substitute fish or poultry for the red meat you’ve been eating. While it’s not eating more vegetarian, you’re at least eliminating the biggest offender in disease-enhancing foods, red meat.

After you’ve successfully eliminated red meat, then start reducing the amount of poultry you eat. While it’s not as bad for you as red meat, because it’s not as high in fat, it’s still meat that’s been raised on a farm in terrible, cramped and inhumane conditions. Poultry is so laden with growth hormones and antibiotics that’s it’s nothing like a chicken or turkey that we might have hunted for food centuries ago. Chickens are raised in horrible conditions, overfed and then slaughtered.

In the grand scheme of things, it’s just as detrimental to our physical and spiritual health as eating red meat. It’s also fairly easy to eliminate poultry from our diets because let’s face it – it’s like eating wood pulp, it’s so tasteless. All the antibiotics and abnormal living conditions have processed any natural flavor that poultry ever had in the first place.

Add more fish and seafood, if you’re not quite ready to replace poultry with grains and vegetables and legumes yet. While there is risk in eating fish and seafood, because of the high levels of mercury they contain, it’s a better alternative to poultry and red meat. This may be as far as you ever get in moving towards vegetarianism, or at least eliminating meat from your diet. Give yourself time to get used to this. You won’t miss poultry for a minute.

We usually eat chicken and chicken breasts because it’s lower in fat and calories, but it’s also lower in any kind of nutritional value. When we’re not getting essential proteins and vitamins, we’re still starving our bodies, regardless of how healthy we think we’re being. Eliminating poultry is one of the most positive steps you can take towards a healthy diet and a healthy planet.

Tags: Antibiotics, Calories, Chicken Breasts, Chickens, Easy Diets, Eating Habits, Fish And Seafood, Fruits And Vegetables, Grains, Grand Scheme Of Things, Growth Hormones, Healthy Diet, Horrible Conditions, Inhumane Conditions, Legumes, Natural Flavor, Nutritional Value, Poultry, Red Meat, Scheme Of Things, Spiritual Health, Vegetarian Diet, Vegetarianism, Vitamins And Minerals, Wood Pulp —