8 Ideas to Make Your Home Help in Your Weight Loss Goals

Home:
A time to relax, to be with your family, and, unfortunately, a trigger for straying from your weight-loss goals. It’s all too easy to grab a “convenience” snack or sit on the couch for hours on end, watching television or surfing the ‘net. Here are eight ways for you to make your home help, not hurt, your progress:

A Remote Remote:

If you tend to watch television to relax, move the remote so that you must physically get up to retrieve it to change the channel.  






Clean Sweep:

Get rid of all non-nutritious snacks: sodium and calorie-laden chips, candy bars, or whatever your vice may be. If it’s not present, and you would have to actually leave your home to go get it, chances are you will elect to do without.



  Replace:

That junk food with healthy options so when you do need a snack, you have alternatives. Some good choices are string cheese, ham and low-cal cheese wrapped in a lettuce leaf, ricotta cheese with bit of almond extract mixed in and topped with a few slivered almonds, yogurt, and of course, fresh fruit.  






Keep a Food Journal:

Make sure you write down everything you eat. Don’t beat yourself up if you have something that isn’t exactly healthy. Your long-term eating over time is what is important. When you can see the history of the good choices you made, you’ll feel better about your eating in general.




Small plates:

Will help you control your portions. Avoid bigger plates to control you portion size.

 

Walk Your Dog:

 Most dogs are more than happy to go for a walk, oh, a hundred times a day. Do yourself and your dog a favor and get outside. If you don’t have a dog, go for a walk anyway.


 

Get the Family Involved:

If you can afford it, gaming systems like the Wii and Kinect offer a wide variety of games, from tennis, to bowling, to boxing, aerobics and more, that are fun and guaranteed to get everyone on their feet and fit!

WII

  XBOX Kinetic




Keep Your Exercise Equipment Out:

Keep it in your view. It’s a gentle reminder that that extra fifteen minutes might be put to better use than another snack.

Five Foods That Help You Sleep

1. Cherries

Fresh and dried cherries are one of the only natural food sources of melatonin, the chemical that controls the body's internal clock to regulate sleep. Researchers who tested tart cherries and found high levels of melatonin recommend eating them an hour before bedtime or before a trip when you want to sleep on the plane.

2. Bananas



Potassium and magnesium are natural muscle relaxants, and bananas are a good source of both. They also contain the amino acid L-tryptophan, which gets converted to 5-HTP in the brain. The 5-HTP in
turn is converted to serotonin (a relaxing neurotransmitter) and melatonin.

3. Toast



Carbohydrate-rich foods trigger insulin production, which induces sleep by speeding up the release of tryptophan and serotonin, two brain chemicals that relax you and send you to sleep..

4. Oatmeal

Like toast, a bowl of oatmeal triggers a rise in blood sugar, which in turn triggers insulin production and the release of sleep-inducing brain chemicals. Oats are also rich in melatonin, which many people take as a sleep aid.

5. Warm milk


Like bananas, milk contains the amino acid L-tryptophan, which turns to 5-HTP and releases relaxing serotonin. It's also high in calcium, which promotes sleep.