On Being Fat

KATHLEEN BROOKS

I am fat. This fact cannot be disputed.

I am also intelligent, educated and successful. To look at me, one might never guess that I am a successful director at a large corporation or that I gave up a child for adoption or that I survived kidney failure and a lifesaving kidney transplant. You probably also would not guess that I speak Arabic and was an interpreter on an archaeology dig in Syria. Would you guess I have been married twice and that I was an accomplished athlete? I have many stories, but because I am fat, you may never know these things about me.

You see, I, like many others like me, endure one of the few remaining acceptable forms of discrimination. Some people may judge me by the way I look and assume that I am stupid, lazy or that I eat chips and ice cream all day. They may also assume I don’t care about myself. They only see the fat. They treat me differently than they treat thinner, more attractive women. I know this because I wasn’t always fat. I, too, was oblivious to fat people and even shared some of these cruel misjudgments toward them. When I resided in a different body, I didn’t know how different my life would be and how different I would feel about myself in a fat body.

My transformation has been remarkable. I went from being a confident, fun, smart and beautiful woman to a fearful and shy resemblance of my former self. I am somehow falling into my dutiful place in the world, trying not to been seen and feeling ashamed of me.

Now, don’t get me wrong; I don’t want to be fat. I want to feel the way I used to feel. I am on a constant diet and trying every new one that comes along. I watch the weight loss shows and fantasize. I exercise with a personal trainer; I obsess over food and how many calories there are. I get creative with vegetables and eat a ton of them. I get discouraged and pick myself up again. But since my transplant and the steroids I take to keep my body from rejecting my new kidney, I can’t seem to lose the weight that I put on since that life-saving surgery. But losing weight is not what this is about.

I am amazed at how inferior I feel now. I feel invisible. People avoid eye contact with me. I am often treated rudely or dismissed. I live in daily fear that my weight will be the thing that results in my long list of fears, which now rule my every thought. I fear things like being let go from my job because “I don’t represent the company well,” or of never finding a man to love me again because I am no longer attractive. I wonder if people are embarrassed to be seen with me. I fear that someone might say something horrible to me like, “stay away from the donuts, fat a**,” or complain loudly that they have to sit next to me on the airplane... again. And yes, the big one, will I die young because of the fat on my body?

Will anyone know the amazing life I have lived and the person that I used to be? Will they know the adventures I have had and people I have met? Amazing experiences like riding horseback Saturday mornings at the Giza pyramids when living in Cairo; being interrogated at gunpoint in Syria; living in Yemen; moving to Egypt as a 13-year-old American; living with lupus, and raising a son by myself. I fear the answer to my questions is no. Just like others that are discriminated against for the color of their skin, many people dismiss me or are rude when they see me in this body. They don’t want to know me because they assume that I am something different than I am. The key difference is there are laws and social pressure against racial discrimination (which is still far too prevalent!). Discriminating against fat people is still socially acceptable, and in fact, it is done all the time.

My dream, of course, is to lose some weight. But, if I continue to be unsuccessful, will I ever been seen and acknowledged again the way I used to be? Will anyone step back and see me, want to know me, or will they just continue to see that I am fat?

Source:- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathleen-brooks/being-fat_b_6097544.html

A Beginner’s Guide To Getting In Shape

Thank you Steve!

==============

You woke up today and looked in the mirror.

And you said to yourself, “Gosh darnit (or #$^@  $#@$@%), I’m going to get in shape!”

Just one problem – you don’t quite know HOW.

It’s okay; we’ve all been there.   This might be the first, tenth, or the fiftieth time you’ve tried to lose weight and get healthy.  Sure, things didn’t work last time, or the time before that, or even the time before that…”but things are going to be different THIS time,” right?

So you hop on the internet, search “how to lose weight,” and see 7.8 billion websites that promise you fast results with minimal effort.  You get overwhelmed, intimidated, and then go back to playing Modern Warfare 3 or Hello Kitty 2: Island Adventure.

Somehow, you stumbled across Nerd Fitness…which means there is hope for you yet 

By the end of this article, you’re going to know exactly how to get in shape.

Get your act together

First and foremost, if you suck at life…it’s time to stop.

I know it.  You know it.  Even your mom knows it (she called me).

So let’s get started.  Think back to the last time(s) you tried to get in shape and lose weight.  How successful were you?  What made you fall off the wagon?  Congratulations, you already know what “get in shape” method doesn’t work for you.

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  Unless you’re insane, don’t try to get in shape the same way you did last time…it’ AIN’T gonna work!  If you counted calories, ran on a treadmill, did kickboxing, tried starving yourself, or whatever, and you’re not happy with the results, it’s time to try something new.

May I recommend the Nerd Fitness method of success: the Triforce of Winning!  Well, I just came up with that title, but now that’s what I’ll call it henceforth.  If you want to succeed at changing your life, you need three things:

• Education: know HOW to get in shape
• Inspiration: know WHY you’re getting in shape
• Support: having others help you along the way to get in shape

If you can successfully combine these three crucial pieces, then you’ll
defeat Ganon and save Hyrule have a fightin’ chance at getting in the best damn shape of your life.

Education

1) If you made some New Year’s Resolutions for 2012,make sure they don’t suck.  Be incredibly specific with your goals so that you can actively plan what steps are needed to achieve those goals.  Alternatively, if you somebody that NEVER succeeds at your goals, instead try making a new habit every 30 days…put the focus on the habit and not the goal.

Whichever method you decide, it’s important to be deliberate in your actions:

• If you are setting goals – be SUPER SPECIFIC, write them down, and plan them out.
• If you are making new habits – add them to your calendar, set phone alarms or alerts, and do them EVERY DAY.
• Understand that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and Optimus Prime didn’t transform in one move.  This is NOT a diet, or a quick fix, but a LIFESTYLE CHANGE.  Don’t expect overnight results, or abs in two weeks.  Slow, steady progress.

2) Identify your kryptonite.  If you tried to get in shape in the past and failed, it’s important to know WHY.  Did you get sick and give up after a few days?  Did you go on vacation and say “why bother?”  Maybe you just got bored?  If you sucked at getting in shape last time, educate yourself on the hurdles and kryptonite that made you suck, and work on either avoiding those pitfalls or develop methods to deal with them.

3) Clean up your diet.  Believe it or not, 80% of your success when it comes to getting healthy will depend on your diet – unless you are running marathons on a daily basis, you cannot outrun your fork, and you can’t out-train a bad diet.  I honestly cannot stress the importance of this enough.  Whether you want to count calories, cut out certain foods, or attempt a new diet all together, this is the most important step you can take:

• Start here: How to eat healthy – yes, it’s a long read.  But it covers the basics and teaches you what to eat and not to eat.
• The Beginner’s guide to the Paleo Diet – my preferred diet of choice.  Not for everybody, but it works.
• Short on money?  How to eat healthy without breaking the bank. 

Now, most people suck at eating better because they try to make TOO many changes at once, their stomach freaks out and they run back to their comfort foods.  My advice?  Pick one food change every few weeks, and stick with it.  Whether it’s eating less calories per day, drinking one less soda, eating more vegetables or cooking your own meal once a week…small changes can lead to big successes in the long run.

4) Find an activity that makes you happy, and do it all of the time.  Do you like to run?  Awesome, do that (just do it right).  Do you like to lift weights?  Awesome, make sure your workouts don’t suck.   Maybe you like yoga, or dodgeball, or Ultimate Frisbee, or rock climbing, or whatever!  If you tell me that “I don’t like to exercise,” then you just haven’t found the activity that makes you happy yet.

We’re genetically designed to be active.  If you don’t like to move, then it’s time to try new things until you find something that you DO like.  Sign up for a new class, join your company’s running club for a day, try out something in your basement or living room, just keep trying new stuff until you find something that you like.  And then do it as often as you can.

Remember, your diet is 80% of your success or failure.   Exercising regularly will help you build muscle, strengthen your heart, lose weight, increase your endurance, stamina, and/or flexibility.  On top of that, regular exercise keeps your mind thinking healthy, which in turn will keep your stomach thinking healthy, which will cause your mouth to want to continue eating healthy foods.  It’s the circle of life, sucka.

Now, if you want specific direction on weight lifting, weight loss, or running, I’ve offered a few premium resources on Nerd Fitness.  Yes, they cost money, but they work.  These guides have helped hundreds upon hundreds of NF readers transform their lives.  Each guide comes with specific workout plans depending on your fitness level, video demonstration of exercises, and more…they all come with 1-year, 100% money-back guarantees as well.

• Rebel Fitness Guide: a fitness guide for beginners who want specific diet and exercise advice.
• Rebel Strength Guide: a guide for people looking to build strength and muscle, either bulking up or slimming down
• Rebel Running Guide: a guide for new runners who want to have fun while AVOIDING INJURY

If you want to buy more than one guide, email me at Steve@NerdFitness.com for combo pricing.

If you’re more of a do-it-yourself kind of person, you can build your own workout, or get started with a free resource like my Angry Birds workout.  The important thing is to GET STARTED, and then try to get better each time.

5) Put it all together:  These are the steps you can take today:

• Determine your goals or habits you want to establish.  Write them down and hang them up.
• Determine why you sucked in the past and how you can avoid it in the future.
• Start cleaning up your diet in whatever method works best for you.
• Pick an activity that makes you happy, and do it.  A lot.

Inspiration

WHY do you want to get in shape?  What is your reason for wanting to do so? Do you want to get in shape to…

• Impress a cute coworker?
• Win a weight loss competition at work?
• Eventually play with your newborn son?
• Grow old with your significant other?
• Prove everybody wrong who said “you can’t do it?”

Have a freaking reason, friend!  Write it down, hang it up in your bedroom, have a calendar alert pop up every day, whatever.  But keep that reason for wanting a better life at the front of your mind at all times.

Many people get inspired by reading success stories of folks like them.  Luckily for you, we have lots of those stories on Nerd Fitness with many more to come:

• Saint: 60 pounds overweight to 6-pack abs
• Tony: 4 months, 46 pounds lost.
• Staci: Your new favorite superhero
• 6-Week Success Stories
• Jessica: How Nerd Fitness gave me superpowers

Maybe success stories aren’t your thing; completely understandable. Maybe you like to get your inspiration from slightly nerdier sources like archaeologists, hobbits, Link, assassins, jedi, or the One.

Or maybe you’re a video fan!  Well then, videos like this and this will make you want to run through walls.

Like to read? Try this one.

Here’s the deal: It will never be easy.  Unless you have motivation to succeed, and can find inspiration to push through the crappy days, you will give up at the first sign of resistance.

I’m a nice guy, so I crammed all of the inspiration you’ll ever need into one place.  You’re welcome.

Support

Last but not least, you need support.

Yes, I understand its kind of fun to be an army of one: the lone ranger trying to succeed against insurmountable odds….but it’s not necessary.

Once you decide to get in shape, want to know the best way to guarantee success?  Make it public.  Tell all of your friends, start a blog, and/or inform your co-workers and ask them to keep you accountable!  Unless you like being called a quitter, you’ll probably think twice about skipping out on your workouts.

Maybe your word isn’t your bond, and you need a different kind of motivation and support to succeed. Try money.  My buddy Saint said he would pay his friends $500 if he didn’t get in absolutely incredible shape for his wedding six months down the road.  Saint didn’t have $500 to lose, so he decided instead to just get in great shape…and it worked.

Build your own Jedi Council – find people who are stronger than you and work out with them, or faster than you and run with them, or more educated than you and ask them questions.  These are people that you can turn to when you need advice or help.  If you don’t know anybody in real life, keep reading…

Find a workout buddy!  There are going to be days when you want to sleep in and skip your workout.  There will be afternoons following a crappy day of work where all you want to do is play Halo.  Find somebody who’s at a similar level of fitness as you, and work out with them!  He/she will push you on days when you’re dragging, and vice versa.  You can inspire and support each other, feed off of each other’s success, and offer up tough love when the complaining gets too much (and yes, there will be complaining).

Now, let’s say you’re the ONE person in your group of friends that wants to get in shape.  Or you’re the only person in your office who doesn’t stuff his face every day.   Maybe you don’t have anybody to turn to for support or advice…

We’ve got you covered. 

The Nerd Fitness community: a persistently amazing, always inspiring, never judgmental group of people who want nothing more than to help you succeed.  I have never been more excited to be part of a community.

This 100% free community has almost 4,000 members, hundreds of successful w00ts, and we’re rapidly approaching our 100,000th post.

Dominate life

Today starts a new 6-week challenge in the Nerd Fitness community.

It’s pretty damn simple: pick a few goals that you hope to accomplish in the next six weeks and then start working towards them.  We’ll pick a winner at the end of the challenge – along the way you’ll make new friends, challenge each other with mini contests, and more.

You can even try out the latest features just added to the boards: blogs!  Yup, you can start writing your own articles and keeping track of your stuff right on the site – workouts, food intake, whatever floats your boat.

So, come join us.

Educate yourself, find your inspiration, and create your support group. 

Sucking at life stops here.  Welcome to the Rebellion.

Any questions?

-Steve

Source:- http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2012/01/03/get-in-shape/

LOVE YOUR BODY

The new year should be a time for positivity and celebration, but too often that gets lost in negative messaging designed to make you feel like a load of crap. 

"Diet! Eat less! Join a gym! Survive on juice/tea/kale alone!" Corporations and media alike seem determined to spread self-hate disguised as discipline, ambition and health-consciousness. It's all about the New You. Never mind the perfectly good old you. 

Tired of the ubiquitous body-shaming that rears its ugly head each January, we decided to change the conversation and create the Love Your Body Issue. It features an inspiring and diverse mix of Torontonians willing to bare (almost) all for the camera to promote body positivity. In these pages you'll find stories of tragedy, growth, transformation and acceptance alongside compelling photos of brave subjects representing an array of shapes, sizes, abilities, orientations, genders and colours. 

On the surface, 2015 seemed like a pretty good year for diversity. Jourdan Dunn became the first model of colour to cover Vogue UK in 12 years. Beauty and fashion brands tapped older women like Joan Didion, Joni Mitchell and Iris Apfel to star in ad campaigns. Caitlyn Jenner debuted on the cover of Vanity Fair, accepted Glamour's Woman Of The Year Award and the ESPY Arthur Ashe Courage Award. The United States Supreme Court ruled states must allow same-sex marriage. 

Genderless dressing exploded on the scene, and major brands did away with separate male and female styles. The ROM's exhibition of local designer Izzy Camilleri's IZ Adaptive line for people in wheelchairs was honoured by the prestigious Costume Society of America. 

However, The Fashion Spot's diversity report still calls out fall 2015's runways as 80 per cent white and spring 2016's as 77.6 per cent white. Every single actress on the Hollywood Reporter's Roundtable cover was white, a fact the mag justified by saying there were "no minority actresses in genuine contention for an Oscar this year." 

Kylie Jenner inexplicably posed on the cover of Interview Magazine in a gold-plated wheelchair. Pope Francis compared trans people to nuclear weapons, and trans people are still being murdered and assaulted at historic rates. Let's not even delve into the wacko racist world of Donald Trump and his supporters. 

Obviously, we still have a lot of work to do. Perhaps instead of resolving to improve our bodies in 2016, we should resolve to change our attitudes when it comes to diversity. 

Photos by Tanja-Tiziana

Source:- https://nowtoronto.com/lifestyle/the-2016-body-issue/love-your-body/

Stay Off The Sad Step

Why 2016 is the year to stop weighing yourself on the scales

Hands up if you've ever come out of the gym feeling awesome after a great workout, gone into the changing room and jumped on the scales only to be left feeling deflated by the number staring back at you? We've all been there, but I'm going to explain why it's time to ditch the scales once and for all.

One of the biggest challenges when it comes to health and fitness is motivation and there’s no bigger motivational killer than scales. I call scales the ‘sad step’, because they will almost always leave you feeling disappointed.

But the truth is, when it comes to hitting your health and fitness goals, the sad step is the worst measure of success you can possible get and it’s time you threw them out the window. Because no matter how hard you train, or how well you eat, the scales cannot measure some of the most important things when it comes your body, health and wellbeing. 

Things the sad step CANNOT measure:

• Your fitness levels
• Your energy levels
• Your strength
• Changes in your body composition
• Your sense of achievement 
• Your confidence
• Your happiness 

On Cycle Two of my 90 Day SSS Plan, it’s all about gaining lean muscle, so the number on the scales is completely irrelevant. It’s all about burning fat as well as adding lean mass to your body. 

I’ve had clients who have completely transformed their bodies over 90 days and yet the scales have only dropped by 2lb. In some cases, your body can be burning fat while the scales are going up! This can be hard for some people to comprehend because we’ve become so used to measuring our bodies on the sad step. But if your training and eating right, those extra numbers on the scales do not mean you are gaining extra fat. You will actually be building lean muscle. Also when you consume carbohydrates they are stored in the liver and muscles as glycogen and more glycogen means more water in the body which can equal outrageous gains on the scales.

I hear stories all the time from my clients who wake up and weigh themselves every single morning. More often than not, this leads to instant negative feelings and this can set the mood for the rest of the day. It’s massively disheartening and can kill your motivation. This isn't the way to live and that’s why I encourage all my clients to use progress pictures rather than the sad step to measure there success.

When you start any new fitness programme, take photos of yourself and repeat this at the end of each month. If you work hard, stay motivated and are consistent with your training and nutrition, you will see positive changes in your body that the scales will never show.

Progress photos are also more reliable than the mirror, because our minds can play tricks on us, especially when we’re feeling low, and tell us that we are not making progress.

So I say throw away your scales or hit them really hard with a hammer. Focus on yourself and your journey to getting fitter and stronger. You ARE making progress everyday and you are melting fat even when the sad step tell you otherwise. So be consistent, work hard and don't give up. Fat loss is a journey not a race.

For more information and to see some of the awesome transformations from people on the 90 Day SSS Plan, visit my website at www.thebodycoach.co.uk

You can also follow me on social media at any of the links below:

Facebook: The Body Coach

Instagram: @thebodycoach

Twitter: @thebodycoach 

Pinterest: The Body Coach

YouTube: TheBodyCoachTV

Source:- http://www.thebodycoach.co.uk/blog/stay_off_the_sad_step:_why_2016_is_the_year_to_stop_weighing_yourself_on_the_scales_28.html

New Year Resolution To Lose Weight? Ditch The Fad Diets, say experts

 How to get in shape - and stay that wayPhotograph: Chris Radburn/PA Wire Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA

After the culinary excesses of the festive season, it is no surprise that one of the most common New Year resolutions is to lose weight. And while reaching a healthy weight can take commitment and willpower, there are some tried and tested approaches that should make the task easier.

There is no doubt that people with an optimum body weight live longer and have healthier lives. Overweight or obese people are more likely to develop diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, osteoporosis, and experience fertility problems. They die younger too. Body mass index is not a perfect measure, particularly for heavy people who are lean and muscular, but it works for much of the population. The healthiest BMIs range from 22.5 to 25. When it reaches 30 to 35, life expectancy falls by two to four years. A BMI from 40 to 45 typically shortens life by eight to 10 years. Many deaths in overweight people are the result of vascular disease.

How long do people keep their New Year resolutions?

Read more

Aisling Pigott, a spokeswoman for the British Dietetic Association, says many people allow themselves to binge over Christmas on the promise that they will fast in the new year. Unsurprisingly, this is not the best way to start, she says. “People need to think about moderation all the time. Weight loss involves adjusting lifestyle, diet and calorie intake, whilst overcoming the psychological barriers too.”

Psychology is a major factor to be wrestled with, but using positive terms can help. Do not to frame the goal of losing weight in negative language, says Pigott, because that only increases the cravings. Instead of “cutting out” this food, and “never again” having that food, look forward to enjoying a healthy routine, one with boundaries on some foods. “You will feel far less hard done by,” says Pigott.

The first goal should be to stabilise eating patterns. For people who eat as and when they can, that means imposing some order, and having more consistent meal times. Having a proper meal routine helps to keep hunger under control. Once mealtimes fall into a regular pattern, look at reducing portion sizes, and how often the menu includes takeaways and treats such as cakes and chocolate. Do not see food as the enemy. “A lot of people who try to lose weight tell me they absolutely hate eating. Food becomes a stressful experience because they feel out of control,” Pigott says. “Try to enjoy it again. Turn off the television and pay attention to what’s going into your mouth.”

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 Photograph: PM Images/Getty Images

There is more to losing weight than cutting down on calories. Look at overall lifestyle to see what small changes can be made straight away and built on over time. But make each commitment realistic and achievable. That could mean walking or cycling to the shops one day instead of driving, hopping off the bus a stop or two early once a week, and doing without that extra portion of potatoes or pudding. Start small and then build.

The new year will see an explosion in fad diets, but Pigott warns against them all. Diets are often hard to maintain in the long run and can even lead to weight gain if people do not change their lifestyle and behaviour, she says. “For me, anything that isn’t a lifestyle change is not an appropriate weight loss strategy.”

Tim Spector, author of The Diet Myth and professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, went vegetarian when he wanted to lose 10kg some years back. The move cut out nearly all processed food – gone were the bacon, sausages and frozen lasagnes. It meant he ate a wider range of fruit and vegetables and had to get inventive at meal times. That, he says, was good for his gut microbiome, the unseen community of bugs that live in our digestive tracts.

Gut microbes seem to have a bearing on bodyweight, along with plenty of other aspects of human biology, such as the immune system and even mood. In one landmark study, researchers took gut bacteria from human twins, in which one was obese and the other slim. The scientists transferred the bugs into mice and watched them grow. Mice that received gut bugs from the overweight twin grew fat, but those that received bacteria from the slim twin stayed a healthy weight.

Spector advocates eating for a diverse microbiome, and that means a good variety of vegetables. Slim people, he says, typically have a more diverse community of bugs in their guts, suggesting that some strains play a role in controlling body weight.

“The first thing is to decide what you want to lose, have some attainable goal, and kickstart the process in a feasible way,” Spector says. “There isn’t a one-size-fits-all diet.”

 Source:- http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/dec/31/new-year-resolution-to-lose-weight-ditch-fad-diets
                                                                 

15 Ways To Lose 10 Pounds Without Exercising

Ever have those days where you just don't feel like working out? (See: Netflix auto-play and bad weather.) Of course you do. You're human. But when you're on a mission to lose weight, shedding those extra pounds requires some serious gym time, right? Wrong. We turned to the experts for ways to lose weight without breaking a sweat on the treadmill, so you can maintain your sanity—and your beloved Netflix dates. You're welcome.

Pack in the protein. "Protein requires 25 percent more energy to digest than carbs, so it's possible to cut your calorie intake without eating less food," says California-based personal trainer Jamie Sullivan. Your body has to work harder to digest a salmon filet than it does a bowl of pasta, meaning you can get away with a few extra bites of that perfectly cooked fish while the noodles could do a number on your waistline. Eating protein also causes your body to release a hormone called leptin, which makes you feel fuller so you eat less later. Check out some of our healthy protein recipes and get cookin'.

Stay hydrated—with salt water. When it comes to H20, salt is not the enemy. "Water needs electrolytes like sodium, potassium, and chloride to be best absorbed," says Jenny Westerkamp, an R.D. in Chicago, which explains why they're added to popular sports drinks. She recommends adding a pinch of Celtic sea salt or real salt (unrefined and unbleached) to your water before chugging. "The electrolytes in the salt will push water into the cells where they need to be, rather than letting the water get flushed out, causing you to go to the bathroom every other minute." You'll notice a spike in energy after staying hydrated, too, and you'll be less likely to give in to cravings which are even harder to avoid when you're running on empty.

Don't skip meals. Your mom taught it to you when you were little, and now you're teaching it to your kiddos, but are you doing it yourself? You better be. Otherwise, "you'll end up snacking on the wrong food or eating too much at the next meal," says Shoshana Werber, R.D. Keep some healthy snacks around to keep your belly happy in between meals—we like these for when stress starts to take over.

Find yourself fidgeting? Embrace it. You can call it NEAT, or non-exercise activity thermogenesis. "It's energy that we expend on everything we do besides sleep, eat, and exercise," says Werber. "NEAT-related activities can speed up your metabolism and burn calories." Things like walking while you talk on the phone, cleaning, fidgeting, and dancing while you cook (come on, we know we aren't the only ones) all count.

Get more ZZZs. "If you're tired and up late, you're more prone to late-night snacking, which often causes weight gain," says Weber. "Lack of sleep impacts your hunger and fullness hormones—ghrelin and leptin—making it more difficult to lose weight." Put those chips back on the shelf, girl. It's midnight.

Write it down. Keeping a food journal forces you to look at the foods you're eating on a daily basis. "You'll be much more honest with yourself about what and how much you're actually eating," says Werber. And science backs it up: A recent survey from the weight-loss app Lose It! found that users who logged their daily eats lost more weight than those who didn't. Think about it: You'll actually want to eat healthier because writing, "12 cookies" and "18 chocolate squares" in the same journal entry is just not ideal, while writing "oven-roasted salmon with broccoli and wild rice, plus two squares of dark chocolate for dessert" sounds way more satisfying—and something to be proud of.

Limit those cooking shows. New research reveals women who steal recipes from them weigh more than those who don't. Copy these yummy meal ideas instead, and maybe just watch your favorite shows for the thrill of the cooking competition (we're looking at you, Bobby Flay).

Stop weighing yourself. Research shows it can backfire when weight loss is your goal. If you get too wrapped up in the number of pounds you still have to shed, you can get discouraged and be tempted to give up altogether. Just focus on having healthier behaviors—and use your clothes or weekly selfies as a guide if you need one—and the weight loss will follow.

Get social. Speaking of selfies, don't be afraid to show them to your friends. And yeah, we know your instinct is to give some major eye roll when scrolling through an abdomen-filled Instagram feed, but try to refrain.  Studies show that celebrating your clean eats and workout commitments on social media can actually promote weight loss because the support you'll get from those around you will motivate you to keep it up. So go on and click "post" already.

Mix in some matcha. We're talking about the powdered green tea that's been popular in Japan for quite some time now, and is now making waves in the U.S. A study found that it contains extremely high amounts of epigallocatechin gallate, or EGCG, which helps stop the growth of fat cells. Matcha is also loaded with these health benefits, so get ready to go green.

Go public. Researchers have found that public commuters have less body fat than those who drive, probably because of the extra walking and standing that's required when you take a train or a bus. It's not rocket science, but hey, it works. And those bills you save in gas? All a bonus.

Branch out with berries. A new study found that camu camu, an Amazonian berry, contains about 2,000 milligrams of vitamin C in just 3.5 ounces of fruit and can help lower blood sugar. When your blood sugar is too high, you need more insulin to metabolize the food you eat, and insulin stops your body from using stored fat as energy, says Westerkamp. In other words, higher blood sugar = more insulin = stored fat sticking around for waytoo long. Unfortunately, you won't find fresh camu camu berries at your local grocery store, but you can purchase them as a raw powder—perfect for mixing into smoothies—online or at natural health food stores.

Update your iPhone. If you haven't yet taken advantage of Apple's new Health app on iOS 8, it's time to start. You can track your daily activity, what you eat, how well you sleep, and tons of other health stats. Think of it as an easy way to stay on top of your weight-loss goals without buying yet another activity tracker. (We love 'em, but a girl can only have so many.)

Go nuts for nuts. Studies have shown that a diet high in nuts results in greater weight loss, and now scientists are finding the benefits go even further. New research found that peanuts can improve vascular health, while almonds can reduce belly fat and your risk of heart disease. Snack on a handful in the afternoon, or toss 'em in your salad for some extra healthy crunch.

Make your goals realistic. Do we all want to have Jennifer Aniston's body tomorrow? Obviously. Is it likely? Probably not. So instead of resorting to a crash-and-burn diet—which you know is going to fail before you even start it, so why waste the time—incorporate healthy tweaks to your routine one at a time. Research shows that it can help make a habit stick, and it can prevent you from feeling overwhelmed by a ton of change. Try swapping your canola oil for the coconut kind when you cook one week, and once you're used to that, replace a white starch with a green veggie at every meal. Look at that—pounds are peeling off without you going crazy in the process.

Source:- http://www.redbookmag.com/body/health-fitness/tips/a21256/lose-10-pounds-without-exercising/