Here are 12 easy ways to increase your daily activity without even working up a major sweat. Which ones could you try?

Dance and dress. Energize first thing in the a.m. While you’re getting dressed for school, crank up the tunes in your room and dance like nobody’s watching. (They aren’t.)

Burn some calories before the bus. Don’t just stand there waiting for the school bus to arrive. Rock, sway, move from side to side, or pace. Any motion burns calories. For a bonus, use your backpack as a weight to do some arm curls.

Walk the lot. Drive to school? Pick a parking spot a little bit farther from the door than you usually would. Each week park farther and farther away. You’ll walk more steps, and your car will be less likely to get dings.

Stealth strengthening. Walking through the hallways at school, get in a few minutes of core muscle work on the sly. Pull your belly button in, roll your shoulders back, and breathe in and out deeply. It’s one way to look good in seconds.

Straighten and stretch. At your locker or in the bathroom, s-t-r-e-t-c-h! Lace your hands together with palms facing out. Straighten your arms and hold for 10 seconds. Relax, and then repeat a couple of times.

Talk eye-to-eye. After school, give your thumbs a break. Skip texting with your best friend. Instead talk face-to-face while you go for a walk together. The bonus round? Try going a day text-free.

Do abs during ads. Challenge your sibling or friend to a contest during a TV commercial break. See who can do the most crunches or sit-ups, or who can race upstairs and back the fastest.

Relay chores. Sneak in more steps while doing chores. Head upstairs and get the trash from one room, then back downstairs to take it outside to the garbage can. Then go back upstairs and get the trash from a different room and take it outside. Time yourself and see if you can go faster each week.

Stand up. Stand up while on your phone or watching TV instead of lying down or sitting on the couch or bed. (Yes, it’s that simple.) To mix it up, strike a yoga pose or do a stretch or squat every few minutes, or every time your friend or one of the actors says a certain word.

Play with kids. Don’t take the word “babysitting” literally. When you’re watching kids, be active. Play tag with them, climb on the playground equipment, and challenge them to a jumping jack contest.

Caloric clean-up. Vacuum, organize your closet, wash the car, or mow the grass. Yeah, they’re chores, but they’re active ones — and can burn around 200 calories an hour.

Play to sweat. Go with video games that get you moving, like Just Dance, Rock Band, Shaun White’s Skateboarding, Sports Active, or Wii Fit. Or make other games more active by standing while you play.

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We may malign the salt shaker, but sodium plays an important role in the body. It’s essential for fluid balance, muscle strength, and nerve function. But most of us get too much. U.S. guidelines call for less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day — about 1 teaspoon of table salt. And roughly half of Americans should drop to 1,500 milligrams per day. Surprisingly, most of our salt intake is hidden in the foods we buy at the grocery store.

Frozen Dinners They’re quick. They’re easy. And they’re loaded with sodium. A 5-oz. frozen turkey and gravy dinner packs 787 mg. of sodium. Tip: A “lighter” version may have less salt, but it’s no guarantee. Read the labels to be sure. It’s possible that “lighter” refers to fat only.

Ready-to-Eat Cereals They seem safe enough, right? Look closer. Some brands of corn flakes have up to 266 mg of sodium per cup. Some brands of raisin bran have up to 342 mg of sodium per cup. Tip: Puffed rice and puffed wheat are sodium free. Mix half of your favorite cereal with half of a sodium-free choice. Or look for companies that make low-sodium cereals.

Vegetable Juices Veggie drinks are a healthy way to get your 5-a-day, but they’re not always a smart choice if you’re watching your sodium. One cup of vegetable juice cocktail contains 653 mg of sodium. Tip: Many brands make a low-sodium version of vegetable juice.

Canned Vegetables While a handy substitute for fresh, canned veggies are typically laden with preservatives or sauces and seasonings that add extra sodium. A cup of canned cream-style corn contains 730 mg of sodium. Tips: Rinse vegetables thoroughly, or buy canned ones labeled “no salt added,” and add your own, in moderation. Or check the freezer section where you may have more luck finding an unsalted choice.

Packaged Deli Meats One look at the sodium content in packaged meats should stop you in your tracks. Beef or pork salami (2 slices) can pack 604 mg of sodium. Tip: Be a label reader. There’s no way around it — different brands and different meats have differing amounts of sodium. And beware: a “healthier” packaged meat may actually have more sodium than its higher-fat counterpart. Some brands have meats with 50% less sodium.

It’s a warm comfort food on a cold day, but look out — soups are typically loaded with sodium. For instance, a cup of chicken noodle soup (canned) contains as much as 1,106 mg of sodium. Tips: Look for reduced-sodium versions of your favorites. And always check the label — you might find that one brand’s “Healthy” version actually has less sodium than the “25% Less Sodium” variety.

Marinades and Flavorings Notoriously high-sodium offenders include Teriyaki sauce (1 tablespoon) which contains 690 mg of sodium, and soy sauce (1 tablespoon), which may contain up to 1,000 mg of sodium. Tips: Even “lower-sodium” soy sauce packs a wallop, so use sparingly. Go for vinegar and lemon juice to enhance flavor — they naturally have less sodium. And try orange or pineapple juice as a base for meat marinades.

Spaghetti Sauce Half a cup of spaghetti sauce may pack 610 mg of sodium — and that amount barely coats a helping of pasta. Tip: Look for “no salt added” versions of your favorite pasta sauces.

Read more at: Webmd.com

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It’s the New Year, and when you make your resolution to lose weight, will it be something you can actually do? Or will it simply be wishful thinking?

Trying to lose weight is no fun at all. It’s just too hard. Why not have an easier time. Remember, there is a psychological side to dieting and weight loss, and it’s the side that has the most power to bring about weight-loss success.

Losing the weight is never just about food. Any woman with a weight problem knows this in her heart of hearts. Being a success at losing weight requires much more than a food plan. What matters most is preparation, thought, planning, and commitment to making personal changes that last.

The old formula, diet + exercise = weight loss, is clearly not working. On any given day 45% of women are dieting, but still 62% of women from 20 to 74 are overweight. Some experts in the field of weight loss say weight-loss diets don’t work, but it is not the actual diet that doesn’t work. More often than not, it is the woman herself who can’t work the diet very well.

Why do so many women fail at losing weight? It is because their firmly established habits and usual ways of thinking and feeling are still operating. You can’t drag along your old ways of doing things and expect a new result. If you’ve been a failure at losing weight in the past, and you truly want to succeed, you need to make significant changes.

Losing the weight permanently always means going through a process of personal change. The psychological research on personal change shows that people never accomplish behavior changes instantly. Giving up a behavior such as overeating means a woman needs to self-reflect, plan carefully, create ways to overcome obstacles, and learn how to accept slips and still be able to move forward. Doing these things may sound hard, but when a woman sets her mind to it, it’s much easier than trying to diet without doing this basic change work.

So, let’s say you are a woman who really wants to lose weight. And let’s say you want to keep it off for good so you don’t need to go through the losing-gaining-losing-gaining cycle over and over again. How do you do it?

According to Drs. James Prochaska, John Norcross, and Carlo DiClemente, experts in how people change unwanted behaviors, you can’t simply expect yourself to snap into action and be successful. You need to prepare for the actions you will take, and anticipate the challenges these actions will bring. In other words, if you just jump into the next weight-loss diet plan without getting yourself ready to do it, you will most likely fail.

One of the most important ways to prepare is to set goals. Setting reachable goals for yourself takes you from merely wishing to lose weight, to being committed to losing the weight. Research on goal-setting shows there are different kinds of goals you need to set. Of course, there is the long-term goal, “I want to lose 30 pounds.” Or, “I want to be a size 6.” But there are also important short-term goals, such as “Tomorrow I will start thinking about which weight-loss diet plan would fit me best.” Or, “This week I will note down three things each day that are interfering with my decision to lose the weight.” Or, “ I will research ways that people use to keep up their diet motivation.”

Another important method of preparing yourself to lose weight is to plan. Careful planning for the steps you will take makes goals reachable, whether they are short-term or long-term goals. Dr. Peter Gollwitzer of New York University has shown that setting a goal is important, but having a plan to implement that goal is essential. Otherwise, the goal remains just an intention, and can’t be put into action. Plans to get to your goal can be written or thought, but they need to have as their basis “If this happens, then I will do that.” Or, “When this obstacle presents itself, I will overcome it by doing such and such.” Plans that include details like these are a clear roadmap to goal, and help people feel much more capable of getting there.

So, first of all, a woman who wants to lose weight needs to be prepared. Then she needs to be able to stick to her weight-loss plan, which calls for ongoing motivation. Exactly how do you keep up your motivation when the weight-loss process takes time? The best way is to establish a series of small goals along the way to the big weight-loss goal. Each small goal achieved is a mini-success. Lots of small successes add up and greatly strengthen motivation and commitment.

Here’s a perfect example of a small goal that has a lot of power: Getting right back on your food plan after you fall off. Research by Dr. G. Alan Marlatt at the University of Washington shows the best way to recover from a lapse in behavior is to think of it as caused by something outside yourself. Dr. Marlatt cautions that if your attitude toward a cheat is that it’s due to some unfixable personality characteristic, it will be much harder to face it and move on. You might say to yourself, “See, I knew I didn’t have it in me”, or “I’m much too unreliable”, or “I’m a total failure.” However, if you attribute the cause of the cheat to the situation you were in at the time, you can forgive yourself much more easily. The result is that you can figure out what went wrong in the situation so it won’t happen again. Then you are very likely to get right back to your regimen.

One of the most serious problems women have with regard to weight control is that they don’t know how to keep the weight off once they’ve lost it. Gaining weight back can be heartbreaking for a woman who has achieved a hard-won weight loss. But you can work on how to make such an important change stay in place.

The research figures show that only about twenty percent of people who lose weight will actually keep it off. That means that eighty percent of people who reach a weight-loss goal will not be able to maintain the weight loss. It is all too common for people to regain the weight they’ve lost, and sometimes gain back even more than they’ve lost.

The central them of weight-loss maintenance: There is still work to be done. It’s not simply over because you got to that magic number on the scale. You need to keep up with all the behavioral-change aids and supports you used during the active losing stage. You need to keep investigating your habits, your thoughts, and your feelings. You need to stay aware of your environment. You still need to enlist support from significant people around you. You need to keep in mind that lapses are a natural part of life from which you can move on. Maintaining is a process, just like losing the weight was.

Losing weight permanently is very achievable. But just going on another diet won’t do the trick. Don’t do it the hard way, by constantly having to fight against yourself. Pave the way by preparing, planning, trying things out, learning as you go, and allowing for whatever time it takes to make real personal change. That’s the way to make losing weight and keeping it off much easier.

This year put some teeth into your New Years resolution. Discard the old formula: Weight Loss = Dieting + Exercise. The new formula: Weight Loss = Psyching Your Diet to make lasting personal change (with a dash of good dieting thrown in.)

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Choosing the right and healthy weight loss diet plan not require some research on how effective the weight loss plan is in helping you attain your weight loss goal in good time but also whether the plan is one that leads to long term weight loss. healthy weight loss diet plan should be the aim of many dieters but not many know how to know a healthy weight loss diet plan. This article will help you determine which weight loss plan is a healthy weight loss diet plan and which is not.

The best and healthy weight loss diet plan should be those that will change you the way you think about foods, it should be one that helps you make healthy choices that will leading to losing weight. Any one trying or thinking of losing weight should look the way of any weight loss plan that deals with reeducation, balanced diet and healthy weight loss exercise. Any plan that deals with such factors as mentioned above would not only help you to lose weight but also help you keep it off and stay healthy, which means you can lose weight and still be making the right choices.

Stay off Yo-Yo Dieting

Yo-Yo diets are not only a bad way to lose weight but also cause diverse health problems to any one on them, both physically and emotionally. Any one on Yo-Yo diets should know that any weight lost through this method will be regained and even more in the nearest future. You should also know that whenever you lose weight and you regained it back you are teaching your body how to fail and sending a wrong message to your brain – telling your brain to adapt to failure. It is always advisable to adopt the best weight loss tips available so as to prepare yourself for a lifelong weight loss diet plan that is healthy and successful. Make this lifestyle change the permanent one through sensible choices and positive tactics.

Psychological Reasons

The best weight loss tips are those which are seen to be successful. Any dieter who is seeing the required result is most likely to continue whatever created the results in the first place.Psychological aspect of weight loss is as important as the physical aspect of a weight loss plan. The aim or goal of healthy eating and a change in life style over a long time should be the result of any weight loss plan that is selected and implemented by the dieter. You can always use supplements to start but your main aim should be to make healthy choices all the time.

Implement a New and healthy Lifestyle for a long term weight loss plan, the new regimen and a change in your eating will also lead to a change your thoughts about life in general. You are certain to keep off the weight because you are now wiser and are now making better choices when it comes to food and exercise and some other activities which you enjoy. If you learn how not to return to your old ways of eating, activity levels and other bad life styles you will maintain the your ideal weight levels and never get fat again. These life styles if maintain for a very long time will will become the norm, even without thinking about the choices you are making.

The above weight loss tips are one of the many Healthy Weight Loss Diet Plans available to help those who want to lose weight and live a healthy lifestyle. The key to healthy weight loss is getting Healthy Weight Loss Diet Plan and stick to it and also make healthy eating habit a part of your daily lifestyle.

Exercise regularly. Learn to forgive yourself if you skip one of your daily routine but make sure you don’t quit. And most importantly expect success. Success will not be achieved instantly but if you persist, you would get there. All these things will help you to take the weight off and keep it off for a lifetime. When the new way of living and eating becomes the norm, then you will never again need to go on a diet.
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When it comes to health and fitness, 95% of dieters fail and less than 15% of Americans exercise on a daily basis. Why is this? You can scour the entire Earth, Internet, all the magazines, DVDs, diet/exercise books for the best information and so-called fitness or weight management secrets. However, with all this information and resources available why does it seem that people just don’t get it and haven’t achieved all their goals. We really don’t need any more diet and exercise information. Everything you need to know you already know. The hard part I think is in the application – that is applying what you have learned and know.

The key to achieving your goals is really “mental”. Success is created in the mind first. All the fancy exercises, workout plans, pills, 30 min DVDs, or diets will not overpower a poor misguided mindset. All the best exercises we know already. All the best foods we know already. You have to change your belief system, attitude, and expectation’s about healthy living. There are no quick fixes or special exercises that will magically give you the body you desire. You didn’t just wake up overweight or obese one day. Your current body and current fitness level is the result of the choices you have made in the past, which are directly related to your thoughts, beliefs, and most importantly “practice” of healthy living. Now there are of some us who are fighting genetic, hormonal, and other limitations that make things more difficult, but lifestyle trumps all.

The process of changing your mindset begins by creating new thoughts, attitudes, and habits that point you in the right direction of the results you desire. Success is a direction – not a destination. Stop focusing so much on the results and focus on the actual steps and the process that lead to the results. Your workout in the gym is just the beginning of the process. Once you leave the gym you must continue to perform and do the things that are necessary to achieve the results. The work isn’t over after the cool down and stretch. You will not be able to out exercise the bad habits and behaviors. This simply does not work. It only leads to frustration and slow results.

So as I stated above focus more on the daily process. Its about winning the daily battles that lead to winning the war. Your not going to be able to go through this process without changing something. Mostly likely it will be something you are resistance to change, but this is part of the process. Becoming more aware of your food choices and where you can squeeze in more physical activity is the key.

Bottom line is you have to think, eat, live, and walk like the healthy and fit person you are and want to be. Do this and watch the magic take place.

Knowing is not enough; We must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do. ~ Bruce Lee.

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