If you’re even a little bit sensible, you would know that the best way to a healthy and disease-free life is to eat right, get enough exercise into your routine, be more active, and try and remain free from stress. The trouble is, we are so used to eating what we like and when we like that it becomes really hard when we’re forced to switch to healthier food habits because of illness or poor health. Change, even when it is for the better, is extremely difficult. So it makes more sense to introduce it gradually into your life, little by little so that you hardly realize you are making the change. Switching over to a healthy diet is easy if you just follow the below advice:

• Reduce your sugar intake: Sugar is responsible for a host of ills, including diabetes and obesity. You don’t have to cut it out of your life altogether; it’s enough if you reduce the amount you eat. Use one spoon where you used to use two, and if you must have your coffee or juice with two or more spoons, try and reduce the number of coffees or juices you drink.
• Cut back on the oil: Oil, especially the unsaturated kind, is responsible for increasing your bad cholesterol and giving you heartburn. Eat grilled instead of fried foods (they taste just as good), and use a spray can rather than a spoon when you’re sautéing food.
• Eat a fruit a day: Fruits are full of vitamins and other nutrients, and the more brightly colored they are, the better they are for your health. Make it a point to eat at least one fruit a day, in some form. Buy fruits that are in season to minimize your expenses and also increase your variety. If you don’t like to eat fruit, at least drink it up as juice.
• Switch to low-fat options: Most of your favorite food comes in low fat varieties that are both tasty and low on calories. Make the switch before you are beset by obesity and other diet and lifestyle related diseases.
• Share temptation: You will be tempted to eat ice cream, pastries and other food items that are definitely not good for your health, and although it makes sense to tell yourself to stay true to your diet, restricting yourself too much only makes you binge when you lose control. It’s better to limit yourself to eating your favorite food once in a while, and it’s best if you share it with a friend so that your portion is limited.

We eat to live, not live to eat. Keeping that in mind every time we’re tempted to have our way with food will keep you on the right track to a healthy diet and a disease-free life.

This article is written by Kat Sanders, who regularly blogs on the topic of x ray technician salary at her blog The X-Ray Vision-aries Blog. She welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: katsanders25@gmail.com.

I’ve just been on holiday (that’s “vacation” to US readers) for the last week … enjoying long walks, castles, and various bumpy bus rides in Northumberland (north-east of England). Oh, and enjoying rather a lot of cake and ice-cream…

It’s back into sensible eating this week, and sometimes a dose of encouragement and inspiration can help me get over that end-of-holiday feeling. So I was delighted to find out that The Office Diet has been included on a list of “Top 50 Incredibly Inspiring Weight-Loss Blogs“.

If your motivation’s at a bit of a low ebb, why not check out some of the other great blogs on that list?

Fitness for those of us chained to our desks seems to be a big topic at the moment. Hot on the heels of the Desk Exercises For Office Workers from Adam Steer, another blog has published a wonderful compilation of sites that offer various tips aimed at keeping office workers healthy:

50 Simple Techniques for Staying Fit Whilst Stuck At Your Desk

(I was very flattered to see that The Office Diet comes in at number 3 on the list!)

This is a guest post from Katie Wilson, reminding us why getting to, and maintaining, a healthy weight is important for so much more than just how we look.

We all know that maintain a sensible weight is good for your overall health and well-being. Often, however, people put sensibility aside when it comes to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. What follows is a brief list of reasons why it’s crucial for good health to maintain a sensible weight.

Cardiovascular Complications

Extra weight puts extra strain on your heart, which can lead to all sorts of cardiovascular complications. Obesity can lead to heart disease and related problems like heart attacks. Taking care of your heart for the long run requires that you maintain a sensible weight and adopt a healthy lifestyle in order to prevent dire complications down the road. Rather than waiting for problems to arise, be proactive and take charge of your weight.

Diabetes and Related Complications

Obesity can contribute to the development of diabetes, which can ultimately be a debilitating disease if not properly managed. Managing diabetes, however, may not be in your future if you begin to take care of yourself and make the proper changes in diet and lifestyle now. Complications from diabetes can be very serious, including coma, loss of sight, amputation of limbs, and early death. Manage your lifestyle now so that these complications won’t be something for you to worry about down the road.

High Blood Pressure

Carrying around more weight puts more stress on your circulatory system and can ultimately lead to high blood pressure. Complications related to high blood pressure can be quite serious, but getting rid of extra weight will help ensure that your system isn’t trying to deal with the excess amounts of fluid required for a larger and heavier body. Reducing weight will ultimately help put you on the right track for a healthier body overall, along with lower blood pressure.

Stroke

Obesity can lead to higher fatty deposits in the arteries, including the arteries in the brain. This environment makes strokes something that is far more likely than if you were at your ideal body weight. Working on adopting a sensible diet, healthier activities, and decreasing weight will help safeguard you against complications like strokes.

This post was contributed by Katie Wilson, who writes about the top nursing programs. She welcomes your feedback at KatieWilson06 at gmail.com

Just a quick post today. Adam Steer from the Better is Better blog has a  list of mobility exercises for office workers. If you spend most of your day at your desk, in front of the computer, these are some good ways to limber up.

You might also enjoy an article from About.com – Best Stretches For Office Workers.

Why not take a quick break from your desk right now?

One of my fellow bloggers over on Diet Blog, Mike Howard, has recently released an ebook called “12 Permanent Fat Loss Strategies”.

I snagged a copy myself and was very impressed: like all Mike’s writing on diet and exercise, it’s very thorough, informative and goes into a lot of depth considering it’s completely free. Mike doesn’t assume any expert knowledge, and his advice is aimed at everyday folks like you and me – not top athletes.

You can grab the ebook from the Core Concepts‘ website: just pop in your name and email address, and it’ll be delivered straight to your inbox. (For those who’re a bit wary of giving their email address out, I can tell you that Mike is a lovely guy – he definitely won’t be selling your details to any spammers!)

If you enjoy the ebook, you’ll want to check out Mike’s blog too: Winning The Losing Battle. His tagline is “Cutting-edge, timely and interesting information and opinion in the deeply confusing world of fat loss and optimum health” – which strikes me as something the internet could do with a lot more of!

Drew Harvey, the guy behind the fantastic blog Diet Tired, has emailed me so I can let you all know about “The Ultimate Calorie, Carb and Fat Guide” (there’s a screenshot of it on the Diet Tired Free Tools page).

It’s a fantastic printable resource that lets you see at a glance the calories, fat and carbs in standard portion sizes of a huge range of common foods.

One of the best features of it, for me, is that calories, fat grams and carb grams are given by portion size rather than by 100g or 1 ounce – much more convenient.

The two-page guide also gives you useful information on eyeballing portion sizes, and on how many calories you should be eating.

I’ve bought a good few diet guides and similar over the years, and this has to be one of the neatest ones I’ve seen – very compact, nicely laid out, and beautifully designed.

Best of all, it’s free – Drew informs me that all you need to do is sign up for the RSS or email feed from Diet Tired, and you’ll get a link to download it in the first post that comes through.

If you’ve been reading The Office Diet for a while, you probably know that I write regularly on Diet Blog too.

I’ve recently started writing for the excellent website You On A Diet – I’ve been a fan of their site for a while (you’ll notice they’re in the blogroll down on the bottom left!) Here’s the first two posts I’ve had published there:

• Five Higher-Calorie Healthy Foods That You Should Be Eating
• Don’t Let a Tight Wallet Mean An Expanding Waist

Hope you enjoy reading them!

How’s your January been? Most of my resolutions were related to my work and study, but I did manage to go to two “Legs, Bums and Tums” classes at my gym (and I have the aching muscles to prove it!)

Today and tomorrow are your last chance to get my Dieting Basics ebook for just $4. The special offer has been popular all January – so don’t miss out on it. (I’ll be putting the price back up to $12 on Sunday 1st Feb.) The ebook has eighty-eight pages of great advice, along with some gorgeous (and funny) photos, and lots of tips, tricks and information. If you buy it and you don’t find it helpful, no problem – just drop me an email (ali@theofficediet.com) and I’ll refund your money straight away.

You can download a free sample of the ebook here, or you can read more about the contents here.

But if you’re in a hurry, just grab it straight away:

I was getting changed at the gym, and overheard one woman saying to another:

“I’m constantly hungry. But it’s working.”

(She was a slim woman, certainly not someone who needed to lose weight.)
I wanted to say to all The Office Diet’s readers that it is NOT okay for a diet to leave you feeling hungry all the time. Healthy eating never means starving yourself: you need enough food to keep your body healthy and fit. It’s especially important to eat enough when you’re exercising.

How Much Is Too Little?

Nutritionists recommend not dropping below 1,000 calories per day as an absolute minimum (and many say 1,100). If you’re tall or male, your minimum is likely to be significantly higher than this. It’s always a good idea to have a chat with your doctor before going on a diet, to find out what’s right for you. If you don’t want to visit your doctor, you can work out your recommended daily calorie intake yourself.

Those are figures if you’re not exercising: if you’re doing a daily gym session or an hour’s walk, you’ll ned to add at least 200 – 300 calories to fuel your body through the activity.

Is Hunger Bad Or Good?

Many of us (myself included) are prone to eating when we’re not hungry. If you’ve been overweight for a while, you might find that you need to get used to the sensation of hunger again. It’s normal and good to feel hungry before a meal, and I personally enjoy my food a lot more when I’ve got an appetite for it!

Many dieticians advise thinking of your hunger on a scale of 1 – 10, where 1 is “absolutely stuffed” and 10 is “starving”. You should eat when your hunger level is about 7, and stop when you’re at about a 3.

Hunger becomes a bad thing when you’re feeling hungry hours before a scheduled meal or snack. If you eat breakfast at seven thirty and you’re feeling hungry at nine, you’re not eating enough. Don’t suffer through hours of hunger pangs – have a healthy snack instead.

Persistent hunger tends to make you irritable, unable to focus and tired: it’s not good for you, or for your work. If you’re feeling hungry on your calorie allowance, try adding an extra 150 – 200 calories per day. You’ll lose weight a little more slowly, but you’ll be far more likely to stick to it long-term.

Don’t forget that the Dieting Basics ebook is just $4 until the end of January – grab your copy now, the price will be going back up to $12 on February 1st!