Nursing burns off the stored fat reserves the body pockets during pregnancy.  The upper arms, belly area, upper thighs, and buttocks are the most common areas a woman’s body deposits fat for breast milk. Breast feeding can consume up to 800 calories per day alone!  A new mother will probably still feel hungry a lot when nursing, just like when she was pregnant.  Just remember the body is burning calories making that good milk, which also is, by the way, the very best complete food for a newborn baby.  Mother can lose weight while she is giving the very best to baby!

Breastfeeding helps the uterus shrink back to its original size.  This occurs as the hormone oxytocin is released during nursing.  Oxytocin also protects against postpartum hemorrhage.   Studies show that nursing moms are less likely to develop breast cancer, and cancers of the reproductive system.  Nursing lowers the risk of postpartum depression, and is a natural stress reliever.  Breast feeding is a totally natural method of birth control, with no periods!  If a woman is nursing exclusively, she is usually safe from pregnancy for 6 months.  Starving to lose weight after baby is born is not healthy at all, compared to the above benefits!

It is true that sleeping less, eating less, and not eating as healthy when Mom is busy with the new baby can be unhealthy.  This can be deterred by keeping easy to grab nutritional snacks around.  Eating a little junk food now and then is fine.  It’s all about balance.  Consuming quality proteins and good carbohydrates like brown rice and whole grain breads is helpful.  A Mother has to drink lots of water when she is nursing too.  This is another great way to achieve overall body health and aids in losing weight.  Getting out of the house for walks and pushing the stroller while getting fresh air and exercise is one more easy way to lose weight with the new baby!

Neither of the extremes is good when you are on a diet.  This means it is not good to totally deprive yourself of everything labeled as ‘bad’.  It is not good either to eat a whole bag of cookies or a quart of ice cream.  Healthy means balance and moderation, not total elimination of ‘bad’ foods.  Most unhealthy foods only become so when we eat too much of them!  Swinging back and forth between starving yourself, then pigging out, will not get you anywhere in the long run.  Go ahead and eat that cookie, but limit yourself to 4, instead of 12!

The truth is there are plenty of choices for those who are looking for satisfying diet desserts.  Most all of our favorite ingredients for desserts are available in low fat or reduced sugar choices.  If you love cream cheese, there is a low-fat version available at the grocery store.   Turbinado sugar is raw sugar taken from sugar cane and pressed or crystallized.  For example, if you love banana pudding in the summer, you can make this recipe by using reduced fat vanilla wafers, sugar-free vanilla pudding, 2% milk, and bananas.  If that sounds too bland, go ahead and use the regular pudding mix and use skim milk to make it.  Balance is about some give and take!

During digestion, the human body normally makes sugar from processing carbohydrates in the foods we eat.  Glucose is present in many fruits and vegetables.  You will be surprised as you cut down on sugar, you will begin to taste it where it occurs naturally in fruits.   The problem is that there is so much added sugar in processed foods.   Knowing where to look for it and eliminate it is the key.  Here’s a totally sugar-free dessert to try.  Slice up and mix together bananas, watermelon, cantaloupe, and strawberries.  Add grapes and blueberries.  Mix and chill.  Serve in frosted glass dessert cups for a touch of extra cool.  Enjoy!

Parents are guilty of setting unhealthy examples in their diets to their children.  We can’t blame it all on advertising.  Let your children know that a fast food kid’s meal is ok once in a while, but not every night!  Many parents are rushed, don’t want to cook, or aren’t even home.  Children are left with easy to prepare foods or plain processed junk in sacks or containers.  The trouble with all of these ‘empty’ calories is that it usually results in perpetual hunger.  Nothing is as satisfying to the body as a home cooked meal.  Parents need to make more of an effort to cook, at least one healthy meal a day.

Once you have a child, educate yourself from day one as to the dietary requirements a child needs.  Little children need more fat for brain development, up to about age five.  They should drink whole milk.  After that, 2% is fine for their diets.  It is easy for kids to overload on dairy products.  They need it, but make sure they aren’t consuming three containers of that drinkable yogurt a day.  Learn about the food groups, and feed your kids the right balance of fruits, veggies, dairy, and meat daily.  Save the snacking and fast foods for the weekends.

Too many kids today sit in virtual worlds in front of TVs, computer monitors, and hand-held video game devices.  This is another reason why childhood obesity is epidemic.  They don’t have enough balance in their daily schedules.  Limit their time in front of monitors, and make sure they are running, playing, and getting exercise.  Once again, be the example.  Go on a bike ride with the kids.  For hydration when exercising, use frozen fruit juice mixed with water, not bottled drinks.  As you improve your family’s activities and diets, you will notice big changes in your health also.

Perhaps many who are dieting would be more successful if they approached it from a totally different perspective.  This means, think about healthy dieting as a way of life.  It should be a daily thing.  It should not be something horrible you have to do for a short amount of time.  More than likely if you are dieting and starving yourself to lose weight, you will gain it right back after you quit dieting.  This is because of a simple fact of life.  Moderation and balance is the key.  Too many dieters swing between extremes, instead of learning self-control.

Which sounds healthier?  Eating bags of chips, cookies, ice cream, and junk today, then tomorrow eating nothing but salads all day to make up for it?  It would be far better to learn how to combine all of your favorite foods into a menu.  Go ahead and have that French bread pizza for lunch, but make something at home from scratch with fresh veggies for supper, like chicken stir fry.  Limit yourself to a dessert once a day, not after every meal.  Go for an evening walk with the dog to burn off some extra calories and firm your muscles.  Dieting is often times harder than we make it!

It is still ok to eat at your favorite restaurant too, just limit your visit to once a week.  As you make small changes each day towards healthy dieting, it will become a way of life.  If you try to make big changes all at once, it usually results in failure.  The goal seems too impossible to achieve, and probably is.  Figuratively speaking, taking one step up a mountain each day is easier than running up it all at once.  Your unhealthy eating habits were not formed overnight, and neither will the healthy changes and routines.  Small successes will become bigger ones.  Set realistic goals when you are dieting for lifelong results!

Many times, a healthy recipe consists of how the food is cooked, not what the food actually is.  Ingredients play an important role also.  If you are making Mexican food, and using refried beans, look at the labels before buying.  Avoid those made with lard.  Or better yet, learn to make your own refried beans, which are tastier and healthier than canned ones by far!  Using low fat cheese and milk in your cooking will reduce your fat intake.  Certainly incorporate the best quality lean meats into your diet plan.  Purchase from your local meat market, where selections are fresh and contain no added coloring or preservatives.

Oils are another thing to consider when cooking healthier meals.  Study oils, butters, and similar products.  You may be better off using real butter than some of the chemically made substitutes that are on store shelves!  Just as our bodies need some sugars, they also need some fats.  Like sugars, there are good and bad fats.  Again, this will take some study on your part.  Much butter is available with omega 3 fats added, which are very healthy for you.  Your diet plan will become a process as your learn ways to eat healthier.  This will naturally transfer over to your recipes.

Food that is cooked in healthy ways tastes better.  This in turn supplies your body with more energy and needed nutrients.  Using live foods versus dead foods in recipes is another popular diet topic.  It is essential that your diet plan contains mostly live foods.  Live foods are fresh, like the vegetables and produce you buy at the farmer’s market or store.  Frozen fresh is the next best choice.  Canned is ok, better than nothing at all.  Processed foods, like frozen microwave dinners and oven-ready dishes have tons of added preservatives, sugars, and salt.  Your body has to deal with everything you put into it, so choose live, healthy ingredients!

As you change your eating and exercise habits, balance is important to remember.  Don’t just focus on the scale.  Take a break for a week from the scale.  Or, don’t weigh every day.  Weigh at the same time for consist results, but also weigh at different times for learning purposes.   Weighing first thing in the morning when you are not clothed before a shower is helpful.  You are likely to weigh your most at the end of the day.  You may lose your motivation based on what the scale says.  Weight loss tips will prepare you for this.  Don’t let it deter you!

One of the best among weight loss tips is to consider how your clothes are fitting.  Are they looser?  When is the last time you got out the measuring tape?  Inches can be a far better indicator of how much unwanted fat you are losing.  The chest, waist, hip, thigh, and upper arm are good places to regularly measure.  Once again, for the sake of avoiding extremes, don’t measure every day!  Measuring once a week or twice a month is sufficient.  Always remember that muscle weighs more than fat!  Are you gaining inches as a result of weight-lifting?  Take all of these factors into consideration.

There are other miscellaneous weight loss tips to remember.  Drinking lots of liquids before weighing will transfer into more pounds on the scale.  A woman’s monthly cycle can result in weight fluctuations by as much as 5 pounds either way.  At least we have the choice today to have a scale in the privacy of our homes.  Up until the 1940’s, scales were only available in certain areas.  These were huge novelty vending machines that were automatic penny scales.  To weigh or not to weigh?  That is the question.  Do what translates into positive motivation for you.

Sometimes those who want to lose weight need the support of a group.  This is a great way to learn about successful weight loss techniques, and learn new habits.  Any popular weight control program is familiar with the myths of dieting.  One of the first things a group may teach you is not to skip breakfast, or any meal.  A big misnomer is that starving or skipping meals helps you lose weight.  Quite the opposite is true!  Starving slows down your metabolism, and may cause your body to take protein out of your muscles.  It can lead to unhealthy imbalances in your blood sugar levels.  Your diet plans should always include all meals, and even snacks.

Your major organs, especially your brain, need glucose to operate correctly.  Starving your body means starving your vital organs from fuel they need to function!  Another myth is that snacking is bad.  Of course it can be, depending on the snack.  Healthy snacking is always good, however.  It keeps your metabolism running and helps your blood glucose stay level.  Snacking is also a great way to make sure you are getting all your fruit and vegetable servings per day.  It also helps to prevent overeating later!  Learning to control your portions is one of the best truths that you can use in your diet plans.

Eliminating carbohydrates is another bad diet myth to follow.  Your body needs good carbohydrates every day to function optimally!  Just make sure your diet plans include healthy carbs that fill you up, like whole grain breads and pastas.  The body burns these for fuel that is converted into energy.  Many times you can uncover diet myths by thinking what the polar opposite of the myth is.  Fad diets are just that.  They come and go, and many times you end up gaining back more weight than you originally lost.

The way we abuse foods by eating too much or too little of them is what causes the harm to our bodies.  It is our excesses that cause the destruction.  When losing weight, keep in mind that starving yourself is just as bad as eating junk.  Make sure that you are truly feeding your body. Consume nutritionally balanced fresh foods and proteins.  How our bodies convert food into energy is possible with the proper vitamins and minerals.  If they are not present, food can be stored as body fat instead of burned and used correctly by the body.

For example, a healthy thyroid is very important to how our body’s metabolism works.  This directly involves whether we are burning calories too quickly, or not fast enough.  Low thyroid can make your metabolism too slow.  Low metabolism results in weight gain, feelings of sluggishness, sleeping too much, and low energy.  Hyper thyroid can make you too thin, and cause an irregular heartbeat, tremors, and irritability.  Your thyroid also regulates your hormones.  Another popular weight loss subject is how hormones play a role in healthy weight maintenance!  Vital nutrients for your thyroid should not be sacrificed when losing weight.

All vitamins and minerals are important to ingest when you are losing weight.  The B vitamins and the mineral Zinc are essential for proper thyroid function.  B vitamins are vital to the health of our brains, and in turn our mental health.  Confusion, anxiety, and depression can result when we are not consuming adequate amounts of nutrients.  Dieting is stressful, and stress further depletes the B vitamins.  Another significant function of the B vitamins is enabling our bodies to convert the foods we eat into energy.  Losing weight should be a valuable learning experience that will influence your health for life!  Continue to read more about the important role of vitamins and minerals when dieting.

Older kids may be happier to eat leftovers for breakfast.  Many parents find it is easier to let the child eat something, even if it is not traditional breakfast food.  It is still better than nothing.  Also try to avoid labeling foods ‘good’, ‘bad’, or ‘off-limits’.  Letting kids be involved in making lunches helps interest in good nutrition and provides a learning opportunity.  There are many great alternatives for healthy kid’s lunches.  Sandwiches, salads, and soups are always popular.  Use eggs, tuna, grilled items, stir-fry, Mexican dishes, pizza, cheeses, chicken, and beef.  Obesity becomes less likely if your child is educated about nutrition.

Many times kids are starving right after school, so make sure they eat something healthy and not just junk.  Healthy snacks are really important for kids to help them maintain energy.  It is also a great way to ensure they are getting enough fruits and veggies each day.  Make sure to give kids a couple of choices of snacks.  This can help cut down on boredom and add variety.  It also decreases the possibility of arguing or forcing them to eat it because ‘it’s good for them’.  Water is best between snacks and meals.  Everybody needs adequate water to avoid obesity.

Juice and milk can be consumed to the point that children won’t have a good appetite for their meals.  This is especially true for toddlers who still have a bottle or sippy cup.  All children’s diets should consist of a balance between whole grains, vegetables, fruit, lean meats, and low-fat dairy products.  Most teenagers go through a stage where they eat a lot of junk, like items with high salt and sugar content, but this usually passes.  One thing that for sure staves off obesity is serving and eating a good nutritionally balanced family supper together each night.

If counting calories works for you, then you should do it.  If it seems too stressful, impossible, and makes you want to give up on losing weight, then don’t do it.  Before dieting if your menus consisted mainly of high-caloric junk foods, counting calories can add a great jump start to your diet.  It will show you what a big difference there is between some foods.  Sometimes the way a food is made, and not the food itself is high in calories.  The education you gain in counting calories will help you over a lifetime.  After you become familiar with the caloric contents in most of the foods you eat, you may find that you no longer need to count calories to achieve weight loss.

Many people achieve weight loss without ever counting calories.  Many times there are just too many variables to obtain accurate counts.  You may start adding up the calories that your burn every day, according to your body weight.  What about your individual metabolism?  Also, a body keeps burning fat long after a regular work out.  Then, you must consider the amount of calories for each activity you engage in daily.  Sleeping, watching TV, walking, swimming, bicycling, jogging, and doing housework all burn different amounts of calories.  The list is endless.  Eating even burns calories!

Baked snacks are less caloric and healthier than fried snacks.  A plain lean hamburger without a bun is excellent for weight loss.  A bacon double cheeseburger on a white bun with Swiss cheese is high in cholesterol and calories!  It may motivate you to see that fruit and vegetables are all relatively low in calories, and you can seemingly keep eating tons of them, and not rack up huge numbers.  Realizing that favorite fast food item has more than half the calories that you need in one day can be humbling and shock you into reality.  The key is to use calorie counting to make informed decisions about what you consume.