As strange as it may sound, some foods actually help you to lose weight. They require so much work eating and digesting them that they will cause your body to burn calories just processing them. Most of them are high in fiber or have properties that make them unique in the way that the body processes them.

There are also foods that are so full of nutrients compared to their fat or caloric content that they make excellent choices when you are trying to lose or maintain weight. Although there are many more, I chose to highlight 10 of my top tasty foods for losing weight.

Apples
An apple a day will help to keep you healthy and strong. High in fiber and antioxidants, vitamins and good taste, an apple will help to curb your appetite if eaten before a meal.

Oranges
So sweet and juicy, who can resist the King of Vitamin C? Eating oranges takes a lot of work and time, and is full of potassium and antioxidants.

Carrots
Excellent for eye health, carrots are very low in calories. High in beta carotene and vitamins B and C and K, it is a dense vegetable that requires a lot of chewing when eaten raw, thus being one of the foods that helps you to lose weight.

Tomatoes
Full of antioxidants like lycopene and vitamin C, tomatoes aid in digestion and are perfect when paired with red meat.

Parmesan Cheese
An excellent source of protein and calcium, parmesan is lower in fat than most cheeses and its long aging process means that it breaks down easily in the body because it is literally pre-digested.

Nuts
A good source of protein, nuts are a healthy and low calorie way to add healthy amino acids to just about anything that you eat. It only takes a handful to turn a cup of yogurt into a devilish delight.

Oatmeal
Containing both soluble and insoluble fiber, oatmeal is low in fat and calories and aids in digestion. This cholesterol-lowering super food, is a great choice for breakfast or snack. Also tastes great when sprinkled on yogurt or eaten with fruit.

Cottage Cheese
A great source of calcium and protein, cottage cheese can be eaten with fruit for optimum taste and nutrition. Easy to digest and low in calories, it’s great as a breakfast dish or mid-morning snack.

Fish
Baked or broiled, fish is an excellent source of protein and provides a satisfying meal for at any time of the day. Pair with veggies and a slice of whole grain bread for a well-rounded meal that is low in fat and calories.

Chicken
Baked or broiled, that’s my motto. Remove the skin from the chicken and rub the meat with olive oil before cooking. If you find it too dry, you can cook with the skin on but remove before eating.

Salad Greens
High in fiber and vitamins, salads can be a wonderful way to help you control your weight. Substitute a half of an avocado, sliced or chopped and a half tomato in place of salad dressing. Use the natural juice from the tomato and the creaminess of the avocado and you’ll cut down on much of the calories and fat associated with some gourmet salads.

Kathy thought about food constantly. Since quitting drinking, it seemed Kathy’s appetite had increased significantly. She ate healthy food and always included fruits and vegetables with her meals, so she told herself the food was good for her. However, if a little was good, a whole lot was better when it came to the way Kathy had been eating. It had been that way with alcohol, too. She drank way too much and couldn’t seem to quit when she got started. That’s why she quit drinking. Now she had started to wonder if she had replaced one addiction with another. Was food becoming Kathy’s drug of choice?

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At every party or get together, Kathy seemed compelled to try every type of food at the gathering. She often found herself milling about the buffet table and realized that she was more interested in the food that was being served than she was about what she was going to wear. A far difference from the way she had been in the past. But Kathy didn’t want to return to her old ways of drinking in an effort to fight her food addiction. She needed help and support.

What’s the difference between normal food craving and food addiction? While we all have cravings for our favorite foods now and then, an excessive and constant interest in food may indicate a problem. Ask yourself these ten questions to determine if you are addicted to food.

1. Do you think about food a majority of your waking hours?
2. Do you use food as a means of comforting yourself?
3. When you go to a party do you find yourself lingering around the buffet table most of the night?
4. Do you hide food or eat food secretly?
5. Do you sometimes feel ashamed of the way that you eat?
6. When you eat do you feel elated?
7. Do you continue to eat past the point of satisfaction?
8. Do you have an addictive personality?
9. Has it ever been determined that you were addicted to any other stimulant?
10. Is there any certain food that you must have every day?

There are several options that are available to treat food addiction. Doctors including psychologists can help as well as nutritionists, counselors, or eating disorder specialists. There are group support programs such as Overeaters Anonymous that have meetings in different areas and also online.

Drinking at least 8 glasses of water each day will help to curb your appetite and cleanse your body of toxins. Begin exercising gradually and aim for at least 30 minutes of exercise each day. Try to stay active as much as is physically healthy for your body type. This will give your mind something else to be preoccupied with instead of eating.

Make your health a priority in your life. Don’t allow an addiction to food or any other substance rule your existence. Seek professional help, if you need it and find a support team that will be there when you want some encouragement.

A diet rich in vitamins and nutrients, based on a five meal a day plan may help you to lose weight and break your unhealthy food addiction. The Fitness4Her Diet is based on healthy eating habits that allow you to love food and enjoy eating while preparing your meals with less salt, saturated fat, cholesterol and sugar.

Have you ever heard a pastry call your name? You know like when you are minding your own business, and then there it is, all sweet and pretty and you can hear it calling to you. You try to turn away and walk the other direction, but it gets louder, calling for you like a lost friend. This is when it takes willpower to resist that tempting treat.

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Sometimes you just can’t resist and before you know it, you have stuffed the entire sweet pasty into your mouth, licking your fingers to get the last bite. Afterwards, you might feel guilty and wonder where the heck all that willpower took off to.

Why is our self-control so strong at times and weak at others. Contrary to what you may have come to believe, willpower is not dependent on psychological strength alone. Many physical factors play a role in our ability to summon up the willpower to resist things. Whether it be foods we eat or money we spend impulsively, physiological factors such as brain chemistry and hormones can interfere with our willpower.

Therefore stop beating yourself up, for not having the willpower to resist something that tastes good. There are ways to reinforce your willpower so it will be ready when you need it.

You see, the truth is, each of us only has a certain amount of self-control. That’s right, it is not endless. If you try to exert it in too many areas at once, you will run out and end up standing there at the doughnut box, cramming doughnuts into your mouth.

Think of willpower like the gas in your car. Each time you resist something tempting you use some of your willpower gas up. The more things you are forced to resist the emptier your tank becomes. The best thing to do is to focus your willpower where it will work the best for you.

In order to make it easier to resist sweet foods, keep your blood sugar levels even. You can easily do this by eating five meals a day, smaller amounts or nutrient rich foods, which will keep your blood sugar from dipping and causing you to reach for something sweet.

Another important thing to remember in order to keep your willpower in check is to be careful of over dieting. Eating too little not only depletes glucose levels, it also slows the production of leptin, a hormone made by fat cells to regulate your appetite. If these levels go to low or plummet too fast, your appetite will increase and bring on binging.

Getting enough sleep is also a principal factor in maintaining your willpower. Research shows that getting less than six hours of sleep decreases decision-making and appetite. Sleep deprivation is linked to obesity. The levels of the hormone ghrelin increase when you don’t get enough sleep and this hormone can bring on a hunger and craving that you’ll probably find nearly impossible to resist.

That’s why living healthy by eating foods that have sound nutritional value and getting an adequate amount of shut-eye is so important. Regular exercise also plays an important role in holding down your hunger so that you make wise choices for your meals.

Sometimes when you feel your willpower slump, a nice walk will help you to get fortified again. The physical activity helps to take your mind off the temptation and the endorphins from exercising give you an excited and energetic feeling that usually replaces the need to binge. If however, you still want something to eat, try to choose something more nutritious, but if you have your eye on something sweet, go ahead and indulge and be done with it.

Fitness4Her is a diet that is based on healthy eating spread over five meals a day instead of two. Portion control and a balanced diet are the keys to reducing your caloric intake without having to constantly count calories. Plus by making sure you eat a balanced diet, you won’t have to be afraid that you aren’t getting all the vitamins and nutrients that you need.

The second part of the program is the exercise. My 30 Minutes To A New You Exercise Plan advocates aerobic activity three days a week. That’s any activity that raises your heart rate. It can be as simple as walking to as complicated as mountain climbing. What’s important is that you keep your body moving daily.

Even if your job requires you to live a sedentary life while at work, regular exercise will help to alleviate the effects of sitting in front of a computer all day. Plus it helps to break up the boredom of sitting still for long hours at a time.

My program alternates each day from cardio to weight training or resistance training. If you check the Member’s Exercise section you will find exercise routines from my program. Each routine is designed to last for at least 30 minutes and that’s all it takes to get in shape and stay fit.

The third part of the program is the journal. I believe that maintaining a fitness journal is a chief factor in your weight loss endeavor. All three of these areas of my program play a crucial part in helping to preserve your willpower.

As stated above, sleep is crucial to your cognitive abilities but also plays a big part in your overall health. For women especially, a lack of sleep can cause many health problems.

The fact that you are reading this article is proof that you are ready to make changes in your life and your health. Be kind to yourself, celebrate life, make a plan to eat healthy, find time for exercise and allow yourself time for affirmations daily.

If you are not familiar with the benefit of affirmations, read my blogs in the Affirmations section. They give you the positive self talk that you need to accomplish your goals, lead a happier life and prepare yourself for the challenges of the day.

When it comes to weight loss, you’ll need to use your willpower wisely. If you turn down too many things, you might run out of power and eat something even worse. For best results, follow the advice above, eat healthy, get plenty of exercise and confess to your fitness journal all of your temptations.

Tell us about your own weight loss efforts by leaving a comment below:

Are you guilty of any of these bad eating behaviors?

1. Your meals regularly come out of a carton, a package, or over the deli counter.

2. You almost never eat alone: TV, the Internet, phone, or your favorite magazine is there for nearly every meal.

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3. You find it next to impossible to walk away from free food, even if you’re not hungry – including all-you-can-eat buffets, supermarket sample tables, and those “taste me” booths at flea markets.

4. You spend more time feeling guilty about what you ate than the time it took to prepare it.

5. You eat when you’re hungry and continue eating once you are full.

6. You eat when you’re sad, mad, hurt, annoyed, irritated and even when you’re happy.

7. Your happy eating is followed by more guilt.

If you are reading this and thinking, “That’s me,” you may have fallen prey to one or more unhealthy eating styles or lifestyle habits that can get in the way of losing weight.

Sometimes, destructive eating patterns are easy to notice, such as when you turn to food every time you’re facing a problem. But often, the cues are so subtle you don’t even notice what’s happening.

Habits once formed by the brain, require very little cognitive thinking. The brain creates a quick path for the behavior to follow and doesn’t trouble itself to focus on that area anymore. That’s why until you really come face-to-face about your behavior, you don’t even notice that they exist.

So while you might recognize that you overeat when you’re very upset, you might not realize how much you eat or the types of food you choose to eat.

Behavior Patterns That Are Hard To Break

While eating styles are as individual as we are, some researchers believe they can be grouped into just a handful of behavior patterns. Many of these patterns, once discovered are much easier to break.

Some of the behavior patterns that wreak havoc on your weight loss attempts can be found below:
Food Fretting: You’re overly concerned with what you eat, and have a negative relationship with food. You feel guilty about everything that you put in your mouth and spend an hour worrying about what you ate and condemning yourself for eating it.

Mult-Tasking and Snacking: You almost always eat while doing something else — like watching TV, answering email or even cooking. You barely taste your food, because your mind is preoccupied with your tasks. All of these factors can lead to overeating.

Emotional Distress Eating: You turn to food not only during life’s traumatic moments, but anytime you feel stressed, anxious, or a little upset.

Fast Foodie Fiend: It seems as if you are “hooked”on or addicted to processed and convenience foods, and you gulp them down fast!

Solo Dining: You use food to fill a social void – and the more often you eat alone, the more you eat. Without active conversation, you will usually eat more than you would if eating with someone else. However, some people actually eat less or not at all, which is worse.

Unappetizing Atmosphere: You eat behind the wheel, at your desk, or standing up in front of the refrigerator. This keeps you from concentrating on what you’re eating, and makes it more likely you’ll overeat. You need to make eating a celebratory time, use nice china or plates, use candlelight to add ambience to your dinner hour.

Sensory Disregard: Mealtime is hectic, and you disconnect entirely from the eating experience. This leads to eating without thinking, and that usually means overeating. If your mind is on cleaning the kitchen rather than eating your meal, you just won’t enjoy it. Chances are, you’ll gobble your food, or lose your appetite during the meal, in either case, many times, the real down side is that you return to the kitchen later for high calorie snacks.

It’s times like these, when a fitness journal can help to bring about success. It brings you face-to-face with what you are eating, when you are eating, how much you are eating, and all the feelings in between.

The best way to get positive results from your fitness journal is not only writing down what you ate, but how much you ate, where you were when you ate it, the time of day it was, why you ate it, if you were alone or with someone else, and, most importantly, what else you were doing while you were eating.

After one to two weeks of journaling your food habits, you should begin to see a pattern emerge.

Your Eating Style
Figuring out your eating style is important in helping you to make better choices. Armed with the pattern you have been able to determine by using your fitness journal, you can begin to make changes so that you eat healthier.

Much of the way we eat is just habit and habits can be broken. It just takes willpower and brainpower to put those changes into effect.

Each week, make a meal plan for the upcoming week and purchase all the foods that you will need from your grocer. This will keep you from being forced to eat quick foods, when you already have a meal planned.

Choose foods that you enjoy but try to make better choices in terms of fat, sugar and sodium content. Don’t try to restrict your diet too severely or quickly unless advised by your physician. The object is to adapt to new eating styles that you can live with for the rest of your life.

Resist the temptation to grab a quick bite at a fast food joint. Although those places do offer some nutritionally sound menu items, when you drive through the window, chances are you are getting fried foods that are easy to eat from a bag.

There are many sins, or mistakes that can lead to unhealthy eating habits, but the good news is, all of these habits can be broken and changed for the better. It takes commitment to make changes but the rewards are worth

Start a discussion by leaving a comment:

Who said that eating 3 meals a day was the right way to eat? This custom was created by the conventions of our society, not by the natural demands of our bodies. Nature dictates that when our bodies need food, we feel hunger. But by forcing ourselves to wait to eat, we tend to consume more calories in those three meals a day than we would if we ate 5 smaller meals.
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When we eat our full recommended daily calories in just three meals a day, we are loading up for the long haul, and we’ll tire out quicker than if we were to spread out our calorie intake throughout the day. Think of is this way, calories are our bodies fuel, but when we have to travel long distances without a steady supply of fuel, we’ll always be thinking about how much further we can go before we hit empty, and before you know it, you’re ravenous and you’ve eaten everything in sight.

When you spread your calorie intake into five smaller meals a day, you create a steady stream of energy that can keep you going without that drag you feel in between meals. It can increase your metabolism and help you burn more calories throughout your day keeping your energy levels at a constant, instead of irregular highs and lows. This is because it regulates and stabilizes your blood sugar and insulin levels. When your blood sugar levels spike, this can signal your body that it’s time to start storing fat and can cause your energy levels to basically crash leaving you tired and ineffective during your day.

Switching to five meals a day can even help you lose weight because it can curb your cravings by keeping you full and not thinking about your next meal. However, there is a right way and a wrong way to switch from three meals a day to five meals a day.

Planning is essential to your success. It’s not just about eating five meals a day, it’s about eating the right meals. If you don’t plan ahead, you’re liable to select junk food that really provides empty calories and no real energy benefit. If you’re at work, keep a couple of emergency options in your desk in case you forget to plan appropriately. Some ideas for food options include mixed nuts, fruits like an apple or a banana, a half a sandwich, or some cut up vegetables like carrots.

Go slowly. Don’t expect to just jump from three meals to five meals. Start off slow and gradually increase the meals you eat. Start with eating four meals a day and do this until it has become a routine. Then, transition to five meals a day. Remember, you’re not eating more food. You are simply decreasing the amount of food you eat at each meal and increasing the times of day you eat.

Learn portion control. This is key to successfully making this transition without gaining weight. When you switch to five meals a day, you have to remember that you can’t eat the same big dinner or lunch that you used to when you ate three meals a day. Smaller portions spread out throughout the day are what you need to focus on. A general rule you can follow is to keep your portions about the size of your fist.

Split your meals. An easy way to transition yourself to five meals a day is to split your current meals. If you usually have oatmeal and a banana for breakfast, eat the oatmeal and save the banana for a couple hours later. If you have a sub for lunch, split the sub in half and eat half for lunch and half a couple hours later. Get the idea?

Remember to eat breakfast. A lot of people tend to skip this very important meal of the day. However, you need to remember that your body has just gone without food for more than eight hours, and now you’re asking it to get moving on your day. Do yourself and your body a favor and stop and fuel up before you start your day. Try to eat within an hour of getting up. This will tell your body it’s time to crank up your energy levels and help you have a much better morning.

Don’t wait too long to eat. This is a huge contributor to gaining weight. When we pass the point of no return, it doesn’t matter what we eat, as long as we get it in our stomachs and get it in fast. Set yourself to a schedule and eat before you are starving. If you know you are going to be out for a long period of time, pack yourself a snack. This way you have something to hold you over and you won’t be tempted to stop at the closest fast food restaurant.

If you go out to eat, get a doggie bag. Just because you are eating five meals a day does not mean you have to avoid going out to eat. With just a little extra planning and some self control, you can enjoy your favorite places. If you can, check the menu ahead of time. Most restaurants have their menus online for you to view. Pick out something to eat when you are not hungry. This way you can make sure you select something healthy. When you get to the restaurant, leave the menu on the table. Don’t be tempted to look at it. You already know what you want. If you start perusing the menu, you might be tempted to change your mind and opt for something that is far from healthy. Also, don’t eat the whole meal. This part might be hard, so it may help you to visually divide the meal on your plate, or ask for a box before you start eating so you can set aside a portion for later.

Ultimately, eating five meals a day instead of three can help you increase your metabolism and even help you lose weight. However, it takes self control and commitment to succeed with this meal plan. Make sure you plan ahead and gradually make this transition.

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