If you look deep in all of the US Government info on the internet you can find gems of information. I am not exactly where I found this first but a couple of weeks ago I found the Small Steps site that is targeted at adults and teens to get them in better shape and to improve their fitness. Here is just a few of the tips

1.     Add lettuce, tomato, onion, and cucumber to sandwiches
2.     Add vegetables like bell peppers, broccoli, spinach, mushrooms or tomatoes to your egg or egg white omelet
3.     Ask a friend to exercise with you
4.     Ask for more vegetable toppings (like mushrooms, peppers, and onions and less cheese on your pizza
5.     Ask for salad dressing on the side
6.     At sandwich shops, ask for leaner cuts and smaller amounts of roast beef, turkey, or ham; extra lettuce and tomato; and whole-wheat, oatmeal, or rye bread Read the rest of this entry »

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Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

My wife is an on again off again Weight Watchers addict. I say that in just a joking way because we both know that she loves Weight Watchers but if she sees some shiny new other idea or gets discouraged for a couple of weeks then she will drop Weight Watchers and move on, but only for a while.

I have written about Weight Watchers a lot of times before and even have a Weight Watchers blog that I do not pay as much attention to as much as I used to but the fact is that for many reasons Weight Watchers seems to work really well for lots of people. There are lots of reasons why Weight Watchers works for my wife and the same reasons pull her away from it.

What is good about diet programs

Portion Control – Portion control is the most important thing with any diet. People generally eat too much and having a way to see how much you really should eat makes a big difference.

Food portioning – Weight Watchers has a point system that will say that a hamburger is 10 points and apple is 1 point. How are you going to portion out your 25-35 points a day? Probably by eating more of the right foods that are lower points.

Don’t miss the important thing – the food calendar thingy that every Weight Watchers person has on their kitchen counter makes you mark off your milk and fruits and water for the day. This leads to one of the most important reasons that organized diet centers work.

Accountability – You need to be accountable to yourself and if you are writing it down and having to answer to yourself every day and every week as to why you had something bad and congradulate yourself on all the things that you did right then you are going to be far more successful then beating yourself up for wanting to eat cake. With Weight Watchers there are also weekly meetings where you can talk about what works and what doesn’t and this seems to hel pa lot of people as well.

Do you need Weight Watchers?

You do not need Weight Watchers to be successful. Knowing the above rules and having the right diet principles will give you everything that you need. Millions of people may be overweight but millions of people also lose weight and this in itself proves that it can be done by everyone.

What Weight Watchers and other diet programs are is a bit of a crutch. They help you to stay focussed and to do all of the above. This is a great thing as most people after a few days on a diet lack the consistency and after just a couple more weeks fall off of their diet entirely.

Whether you join Weght Watchers, or Jenny Craig, or LA Fitness or any others great. I believe though that if you come to this blog daily I can help you to stay on track by giving tips and motivation to keep your head in the right place to stay on your diet.

As someone that follows the ebb and flow of diets I get a chance to see a lot of diets as well as the reports as to whether they work or not.

Over the last few years there have been probably 100 diets released on an unsuspecting public, some gain traction and others don’t but the big diets over the last few years have been Atkins, The Zone Diet, LA Weight Loss, Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig. Most of the diets have not been successful for the vast number of people but two diets have stood out, sort of.

Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers have been the most successful diets over the last few years mostly because of the marketing that they do. Weight Watchers has the Duchess of York and Jenny Craig has had Kirstie Alley and now Valerie Bertenelli as spokespeople. Everyone loves to follow famous people and these famous people have lost weight so why not listen to the success and follow it.

Actually both Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig have been successful as diets the diets are balances with three meals and a couple of snacks and not extreme for high protein or low fat. Mostly Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers are middle of the road type diets that work for most anyone.

The sad thing about these successful diets are the lack of losses that people have seen on them. The average person will lose 10 to 15 pounds in a year on either Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig but the bulk of the weight lost on any organized diet is the fact that there is some kind of accountability in both of these diets. Read the rest of this entry »