Simple Tips for Losing Weight Naturally

Walking can help you lose weight, and it’s not just because of the exercise. In a study by scientists at the U. of Exeter, chocolate lovers who were asked to take a brisk 15-minute treadmill walk before beginning work snacked on only half as much chocolate as study participants who were allowed to skip the walk and rest instead.
In an earlier study by the same group, a 15-minute walk was found to significantly reduce chocolate cravings.

You can read more about the walk to eat less chocolate and kill the chocolate cravings studies on the ScienceDaily web site.

Relevance to Natural Weight Loss:

Weight Loss Tip: Get up and take a brisk 15 minute walk before your usual chocolate craving time. If walking isn’t convenient, try a different exercise. And remember, just trying not to think about chocolate doesn’t work.

Tzatziki is a delicious and versatile low-calorie dip. Use it to provide some counter-temptation to all of that holiday junk food. Here’s a very simple recipe.

Tzatziki (Cucumber Yogurt Dip or Sauce)

Peel a cucumber and cut it in half lengthwise. Remove the seeds by scraping out the center portion of the cucumber with a spoon. Grate the cucumber and press it with a paper towel to remove the extra liquid. Mix the grated cucumber with 2 cups plain Greek yogurt, 1 tablespoon fresh dill or mint (or 1/3 tablespoon dry dill weed or mint), 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice, 1 tablespoon olive oil (optional), and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Chill for 2 hours before serving. Serves 6.

Serve generously alongside almost any hot dish or use as a spread or vegetable dip. You can make this recipe even more flavorful by adding a finely minced or crushed clove of garlic. To make a salad dressing, use regular yogurt instead of Greek yogurt.

Relevance to Natural Weight Loss:

Weight Loss Tip: This recipe is so good you will just want to keep eating. Eat away! Eat it as a snack or as half a meal, or use it as a low-calorie substitute for other dips and toppings.

Find more simple weight loss tips and recipes in this top-rated ebook at Amazon.

Trying to suppress thoughts of a craved food can cause you to eat even more of it at the first opportunity. That’s what St. George’s University of London researchers concluded after observing 116 chocolate-tasting female undergraduates. The women had been divided into three groups. One group was told to think about anything but chocolate for five minutes, another group was told to think about only chocolate, and the third group was told to think about whatever they wanted. Later, when the women were asked to compare two brands of chocolate in a taste test, the group of thought suppressors took a few extra bites…just to be sure.

You can read more about the just-don’t-think-about-it study on NCBI’s web site.

Relevance to Natural Weight Loss:

Weight Loss Tip: Instead of trying to suppress thoughts of food you are craving, use this visualization trick.

In a study of nearly 5,000 US adults, researchers found that those who took more breaks from sitting tended to have smaller waists. The link between more breaks and a smaller waist was significant even after taking into account total time sitting and daily exercise habits. Several recent studies have shown that sitting is generally bad for your health. This study gives hope that a few more breaks during the day may help to counteract some the negative consequences of all of that desk time. Dr Genevieve Healy, the University of Queensland researcher who led the study, said: “Our research showed that even small changes, which could be as little as standing up for one minute, might help to lower this health risk.”

You can read more about sitting study on The European Society of Cardiology’s web site.

Relevance to Natural Weight Loss:

Weight Loss Tip: Make a goal of standing up to stretch or walk around once or twice an hour. You might also try standing up whenever you take a phone call, or moving the trash bin away from your desk so you will have to get up and walk to it. (Hey, I can do that right now!)

Greek or strained yogurt is a thick, rich, creamy yogurt that can be eaten alone or used in recipes as a low-calorie, high-protein substitute for sour cream or cream cheese. Use it to make dips, spreads, cheesecake, sauces, etc. It’s easy to make Greek yogurt using plain low-fat yogurt.

Easy Greek Yogurt

Line a strainer or colander with a layer of cheesecloth or coffee filters. Add plain home made low-fat yogurt (or any plain low-fat yogurt without added stabilizers). Let the liquid drain for at least two hours.

That’s it! You have now Greek yogurt. You can also use the drained liquid (whey) as a nutritious substitute for water in many recipes.

Relevance to Natural Weight Loss:

Weight Loss Tip: Use Greek yogurt as a low-calorie substitute in recipes that call for cream cheese or sour cream.

Researchers at Harvard University conducted a study in which they tracked the weight and eating habits of 120,877 adults over a 20-year period. They found that study participants who increased their consumption of yogurt tended to lose weight, while those who decreased their consumption of yogurt tended to gain weight. Although the reason for yogurt’s association with weight loss is not entirely clear, it is likely that people who increase their yogurt consumption use yogurt to replace higher-calorie foods or foods that are less satisfying. Read more about the diet and weight loss study on Harvard’s website.

You can make rich low-fat yogurt yourself. It’s really quite simple. Try the recipe below.

Easy Home Made Yogurt Recipe

This recipe has five short steps:

1. Stir ¾ cup non-fat dry milk into 2 quarts 1% milk.
2. Heat it to 180°F.
3. Let it cool to 120°F.
4. Stir ¼ cup plain low-fat yogurt into the milk as a starter.
5. Keep the milk warm for at least 3 hours.

It’s probably easiest to heat the milk in a double boiler or in a glass bowl in a microwave. If you prefer, you can heat the milk in a heavy pan over medium heat, but you will need to stir it constantly to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Any brand of plain yogurt should work for the starter as long as it has “live, active cultures” in the list of ingredients. Use a container of yogurt that hasn’t been previously opened, and check its expiration date. Also make sure that anything that touches the cooled milk or yogurt starter has been freshly washed so as not to introduce foreign bacteria or enzymes that might interfere with the yogurt-making process.

To keep the milk warm (Step 5), put it in a container with a lid and place it in a picnic cooler. Add hot tap water (110-120°) to the cooler to surround the milk and help keep it warm. To become yogurt, the milk must stay above 100° for about 3 hours. The longer it’s kept warm, the tangier and firmer the yogurt will be.

When the yogurt is done, you may see whey, a yellowish liquid, separating out. That’s normal for yogurt that doesn’t have added stabilizers.

Save ¼ cup of the newly made yogurt to use as a starter for the next batch. For best results, use the starter within a couple of weeks. If you don’t like the texture of your first batch of yogurt, try it again using a different brand of yogurt as a starter.

Makes about 12 servings.

Relevance to Natural Weight Loss:

Weight Loss Tip: Eat lots of yogurt. Make your own to save money and avoid the added ingredients in commercial yogurt.

Find more simple weight loss tips and recipes in this top-rated ebook at Amazon.

THE GIVEAWAY IS OVER

AND THE WINNING ENTRY, selected at random (thanks to random.org) from all qualifying entries, is #213, Ann. Congratulations, Ann. You will be receiving a $25 Amazon.com gift card by email. The winner of the $50 card, if any, is yet to be determined. Thank you all for your help!

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Help me choose a title for my new book, for a chance to win a $25 or $50 Amazon.com Gift Card.

Anyone 18+ may enter, worldwide. One entry per person. Contest ends October 12, 2011, 1:00 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.

THERE ARE 3 WAYS TO ENTER

1. Learn about the book by reading the book’s INTRODUCTION and CONTENTS below, then think of a title or subtitle that will make people want to read the book. Leave a comment with your suggested title or subtitle.

OR

2. Leave a comment telling me your favorite title and subtitle from the BEST TITLE OPTIONS and BEST SUBTITLE OPTIONS lists at the bottom of the page.

OR

3. Follow on Facebook (facebook.com/weightlossbook) or Twitter (DrStanSpencer), or tweet or like this page, and leave a comment saying that you did so.

You can do 2 or all 3 of these to double or triple your chances of winning.

The winner of the $25 Amazon.com gift card will be selected at random from all qualifying entries.

If I use your uniquely suggested title as the basis for the my book title, I will send you a $50 Amazon.com gift card and also acknowledge you in the book.

Be sure to provide your email address. It will be used only to contact you regarding this giveaway.

Thanks for your help, and good luck!

BOOK INTRODUCTION

This is not a diet book. You can lose weight on almost any diet. But diets end, and when they do, the weight returns.

This book is about natural, lasting weight loss. Natural weight loss simply consists of undoing the situations, habits, and thought patterns that have caused you to gain weight in the first place. If you make those changes permanent, your weight loss will be permanent also. That’s it. You don’t need supplements, specially formulated shakes, drugs, surgery, fancy exercise equipment, or any other weight loss product.

Hundreds of scientific studies relevant to natural weight loss have been conducted over the past few years. This book takes the most useful information from those studies and presents it simply, cutting through diet hype and weight loss myths to provide scientifically supported facts and practical advice for lasting weight loss.

CONTENTS

1. Why the Weight?
2. How It Adds Up
3. Myths
4. Why Diets Fail
5. Eat Less (Without Going Hungry)
6. Be Active (Without Wasting Time)
7. Boost Your Metabolism (Without Drugs)
8. Emotional Eating (And How to Quit)
9. Beat Temptation (With Minimal Willpower)

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BEST TITLE OPTIONS (SO FAR)

1. This is Not a Diet Book:
2. Diet Free:
3. Fat Loss Facts:
4. Weight No More:
5. Start from Scratch:
6. Slim:
7. Thin:
8. The Non-Diet:
9. Simply Slim:
10. The Skinny on Thin:
11. No More Diets!
12. Slim for Life:
13. Naturally Thin:
14. Fast Track to Naturally Slim:
15: Natural Weight Loss Buffet:
16: Healthful Thinking:
17: Slim Thinking:
18: Thin Thinking:
19: Weight Not, Want Not:
20: Super Easy Weight Loss:

BEST SUBTITLE OPTIONS (SO FAR)

A. The Totally Natural Weight Loss Solution
B. The Universal Science-based Guide to Natural Weight Loss
C. The Simple Science of Natural, Lasting Weight Loss
D. A Science-based Guide to Lasting Weight Loss
E. How to Lose Weight When Diets Fail
F. The Fad-Free Guide to Permanent Weight Loss
G. The Myth-busting Guide to Natural, Lasting Weight Loss
H. Naturally Slim Lifestyle Choices for Lasting Weight Loss
I. The Essential Secrets of Permanent Weight Loss
J. Why Diets Fail, and How You Can Succeed
K. Beyond Dieting to a Healthier, Happier Lifestyle
L. Manual for a Thin Lifestyle
M. How to Lose Weight Naturally and Permanently.
N. The No-Diet, No-Tears Guide to Natural, Permanent Weight Loss
O. The Natural Alternative to Dieting

Thanks to Contestgirl, Blog Giveaway Directory, and Contest Guide for helping to promote this giveaway.

Going it alone doesn’t always work. SparkPeople is an online healthy-living and weight loss community. (No, this is not a paid endorsement.) It’s sort of cross between Facebook, Blogger, Weight Watchers, and WebMD. I joined a couple of months ago. You can see my profile here. The amazing thing about SparkPeople is that it has so much good stuff to choose from—all free. It has an impressive collection of sound information on nutrition, fitness, general healthy living, and motivation. It has official message boards where you can get help from dietitians and trainers, plus user-initiated discussion groups based on shared interests or health conditions. I have joined “Living Healthy in Our 40s,” “Bloggers,” and “Science, Engineering, and Math Enthusiasts.” It’s easy to keep a blog, and to friend, follow, and message other users. There are weight loss and fitness plans and many more tools for planning and tracking your weight loss, exercise, and nutrition efforts. There’s much more, but I’ve just started exploring the site. If you are a member, tell me what you like about SparkPeople.

Relevance to Natural Weight Loss:

Weight Loss Tip: If you think you could benefit from community support, reliable nutrition and fitness information, or online tools, give SparkPeople a try. If you join or are already a member, send me a SparkMail message and and say “hi.”

Analyzing lifestyle data from over 11,000 people, researchers at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, found that each hour of television watched reduces life expectancy for Australians by about 22 minutes. Television viewing was particularly associated with cardiovascular disease. Results are expected to be similar for other countries with similar lifestyle habits.

The strong link between television and early death is believed to be due to the generally poor lifestyle habits of chronic television viewers, including lack of exercise and poor eating habits.

You can find a summary of the study on television viewing and life expectancy on the British Journal of Sports Medicine web site.

Relevance to Natural Weight Loss:

Weight Loss Tip: Pull yourself away from the TV and do something physical, or, if you want to watch television without paying for it with bits of your life, do it snack-free and while riding an exercise bike.

THE GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED:
AND THE WINNER, selected at random (thanks to Random.org) from among the qualifying entries, is SHELL HOLLAND, who will receive a $25 Amazon.com gift card. Thanks everybody for entering, and for your feedback on the author photo. Come back soon (follow on facebook or twitter) for an even bigger giveaway!

The photos with the most votes were #1 and #6, with #7 and #5 not far behind.

THE GIVEAWAY WAS:
Vote on an author photo for Fat Loss Facts, for a chance to win a $25 Amazon.com gift card. Thanks, and good luck!