Every healthy diet should include salad. I love my salads and even have my own salad bowl just for me. I choose the greens with the darkest coloring. Kale or spinach are even better than romaine or or iceberg lettuce, because they have even better nutritional value. Iceberg and romaine lettuce are great salad choices when it comes to calories – both have less than 10 calories per cup of fresh leaves. However, romaine lettuce is probably the better choice when it comes down to all the other nutrients.Romaine lettuces has darker green leaves, and generally, the deeper the color, the better the nutrition. Romaine lettuce has more of a B vitamin called folate, more vitamin K, and more lutein (an antioxidant related to vitamin A).
So remember to eat your salad. Its always a great start to any meal or make it your go to meal. Fresh, fast, nourishing and satisfying to all. Remember to mix it up and get creative. Add fruit, vegetable, nuts, lean protein and all different spices and never get bored.

Successful dieting depends on the type of foods that we eat. So much of what we put into our body is just junk food. Very little nutritional value and many times way too high in fat, sugar and salt.

Take inventory of what is in your cupboards and pantry. What foods are you feeding your body? Write down everything that you are presently eating as a regular part of your diet.

1. Begin replacing high calorie foods with ones that are lower in calories. For example, drink fat-free milk instead of whole milk and water with a twist of lemon rather than high calorie, high sugar content, soft drinks. Eat an extra spoonful of vegetables at dinner instead of another slice of meat. Choose sliced fresh fruit for snacks instead of chips. Little changes like these make a big difference in your caloric intake.

2. Serve smaller portions. Resist the urge to fill your plate from rim to rim. Serve up slightly less than what you think you’ll eat. You can always have seconds, if you are still hungry.

3. Never eat from a container or bag. You need to see what you are eating in order to get a sense of how much you’re eating. Seeing food on a plate or in a bowl is much more appetizing and easier for you to realize when you’re full and satisfied.

4. Be sure to check food labels for the serving size and number of calories per serving.

5. Stop eating as soon as you feel full. Don’t take another bit past that full feeling. Remember, your next meal is only a few hours away.
If you enjoy counting calories, a fitness journal is a great place to calculate the number of calories that you eat at each meal. Be sure to include all the condiments, snacks and drinks that you have throughout the day, too. Stay tuned for additional posts about how keeping a journal can be your key to successful weight loss. Fitness4Her, a diet and exercise program developed exclusively for women shares all the secrets of losing weight, gaining weight and looking your very best.

Calories are not a bad thing – in fact calories are the way we get our energy from food. Your body has an insatiable appetite for energy and uses the calories from food to keep functioning. Energy from calories fuels all of your body’s actions; much like gasoline powers your car.

Foods that contain calories are the main sources of energy for your body. Carbohydrates, fats and proteins are the types of nutrients that your body needs for energy. The calories you eat are either converted to physical energy or stored within your body as fat. It all depends on how active you are and how many calories that you burn versus the number of calories that you eat. If you eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight.

Cutting calories doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, it might be as simple as swapping certain foods or trimming the size of your servings. You would be surprised at how much weight can be lost by cutting out those soft drinks or trading the giant latte for a regular sized coffee.

However, cutting calories isn’t the only way to make eating healthier. A diet that restricts calories may not be the best diet for your needs. It’s important that your diet be something that you can live with and that will sustain your body for living. You must make sure that any diet includes the necessary nutrients needed.

Now, unlike many of the other diets, my Fitness4Her diet is not primarily about calorie counting, but more what you eat and how much you consume. I believe portion control is a major factor in controlling your weight and I believe that eating a well balanced diet is important to a woman’s health and fitness.

Dieting is not a fad; it is a way of life. Stop counting calories and start eating healthy for the rest of your life, beginning today. A diet and exercise program designed exclusively for women, Fitness4Her will help you get started.

For most of us, there is some sort of awakening that causes us to make a significant change in the way we eat. Whether it is a health issue or that we want to gain or lose weight, we start looking at what we are eating as the possible starting point of our transformation. We are convinced that this time it will be different.

How many times have you started a diet, only to have it fail? Some of us even lose weight for a while but then “fall off the wagon” and retreat to our old ways. It’s hard to break free of former habits and adapt to a new way of thinking. But that’s exactly what it takes to successfully lose weight. It requires a conspiracy of the mind and body. Your old way of doing things must change, you can’t indulge in sugary foods and fat-laden comfort foods if you really want to make a permanent change in your weight.

Now that’s not saying that you can’t have a treat every now and then, but if your past eating ways have included a milk shake every day, you know that type of eating behavior has got to change. You may have to gradually taper back from eating sugary or fatty foods. But by making a decision each and every day to cut back or cut out certain foods, you are positioning yourself for success.

Actively thinking about the choices that you make engages your mind to take ownership of this whole concept of dieting. This is the only way that you can succeed. The way that you think about dieting and exercising, whether you approach it with trepidation or with enthusiasm, can be real factors that determine your success.

Planning your daily or weekly foods will keep the connection between mind and body. Impulse foods can wreck your diet plan in just a few meals. Eating 5 to 6 smaller meals every day will ensure that you are never hungry and will keep you from making choices based on your sugar level or hormone fluctuation.

If you are really serious about your diet, consider keeping a journal of your daily foods and exercise. It has been proven that people who write everything they eat, drink and all of their daily activities in a journal have a greater chance of success than those who do not. It’s a great way to stay accountable to yourself and after all that’s what dieting is all about.

For women’s fitness and health it is recommended that you eat protein at every meal. That’s because your body depends on protein-rich foods to help it build muscle and replenish every cell in your body. That includes all of the organs, your bones, muscles, nails, skin and hair. Protein is essential to our health and livelihood.

Protein is an essential nutrient that builds lean, healthy muscle, beautiful skin, lustrous hair, as well as vital internal organs. Consisting of chains of amino acid, including the essential amino acids, which we depend on our diet to supply, as our bodies do not produce these essential amino acids. Without sufficient protein, our bodies won’t be able to work as well as they should. For example, a compromised immune system can result from a deficiency in protein. However, most of our protein sources are also high in fat so finding the right balance and eating enough protein for a healthy body can sometimes be challenging.

Reaching the recommended daily allowance for your body doesn’t require a lot of food. But, if you do want to indulge on protein, choose foods derived from plants, such as peanuts and tofu, rather than animal products, such as cheese and meat that are higher in fat content. Remember that portion control is always the key to healthy eating, even when you’re eating your favorite foods.

Below are some common foods and the amount of protein contained in each depending on the serving size. The amount of protein you need daily depends on your age, gender, weight and level of activity.

1 cup skim milk = 8 grams

1 egg = 6 grams

½ cup cottage cheese = 14 grams

1 slice bacon = 21 grams

1 oz of peanuts = 7 grams

6 oz of tofu = 12 grams

3 oz of sirloin steak = 26 grams

¼ lb hamburger patty = 28 grams

1 oz American cheese = 6 grams