I’m somewhat of a health addict. I say somewhat because I don’t always make the best food choices. but I really do try. I’ve never had a weight problem, but I’m also a tad weight obsessed. Why? It’s probably because I know how accessible unhealthy foods are and the older I become, the easier I can gain weight. I’m a label reader; I’ve always been. It’s a great habit and one I’m not likely to break.

Naturally for me, the warmer the weather, the better food choices I make probably due to the fact of wanting to eat lighter meals with fresh fruits and raw vegetables and, of course, drinking loads of water.

With the warm weather on its way, here are seven tips on making better choices so you can look and feel good in your summer wardrobe. That’s an incentive on its own…wanting to look good in shorts, sleeveless tops, and bikini maybe…right?

1. When I go out to eat, my first choice is a salad with protein. What some people fail to understand is a salad is not necessarily healthier than a plate of fries because of the salad dressing and whatever ingredient is in there such as cheese, but there’s a work around to that and that’s making requests such as salad dressing on the side and opting out or substituting certain ingredients if possible. Don’t be shy; ask.

2. Not everyone can eat what they choose because of food allergies or whatnot, but the main thing is being fully aware of what you’re putting in your mouth. If you’re watching TV or reading a book, this could lead to mindless snacking. It’s okay if you’re eating grapes or cherry tomatoes, but it’s different if you’re munching on crackers. If you’re not eating it from a bowl, how many times have you put your hand in the box?

3. You can eat all the right foods, but you still have to exercise so kick start your metabolism and use your energy, not store it.

4. Don’t skip meals. Some people think if you skip a meal, you can eat more at the next meal. Yeah, you’ll definitely eat more to gain weight and you’ll make unhealthy choices because now your body is craving for food. Not only that, your blood sugar will drop and you’ll find the quickest thing to eat and you’ll eat lots of it.

5. Stock your fridge with fruits and vegetables for the reason to prevent what will happen when you skip a meal. If you don’t have junk food in your house, then you won’t make bad choices.

6. At the beginning, it will help to count calories. You can find a calorie counter online or you can go to MyFitnessPal.com to download the app to help you lose or maintain your ideal weight.

7. Grow your own vegetables and herbs. It’s never too late to make small changes and develop new healthy eating habits. You owe it to yourself and to your family to make better choices so you all can live and enjoy life to its fullest.

Sophia McIntyre is a work at home Freelance Writer, Ghostwriter and Internet Marketer. She is passionate about leading and living a healthy life. Her health blog, Healthy Perspectives is where you can learn more about making healthier choices, living, and maintaining a well-balanced lifestyle.

Working out multiple times a week is a good way to stay fit, lose weight, and stay healthy. While that’s a challenge to do some weeks, during the summer is even more challenging. If your family is anything like mine you travel a few weekends a month. Our oldest son works so we’re only able to go once every three weeks, which makes our time away valuable. We usually leave Thursday early evening or Friday morning so working out is an even bigger challenge.

I have found a way to get a workout in no matter what time we leave and quite possibly no matter where we go. The solution… we go hiking or take family walks. While it may not be as hard of a workout as what you’d get at the gym, it’s still a workout. I look at it this way… it’s better than nothing. We like to go to the lake and the mountain so both places offer you the ability to take walks. Depending on how old your children are and where you go, you may be able to sneak in a walk with your spouse only which will be even nicer.

The important thing to remember when you’re trying to exercise regularly is it doesn’t matter where you go as long as you do what you can to get one in at least one or two times while you’re away. It doesn’t have to be a full blown workout if you can’t make it happen; a family walk will work just fine. You’ll find the family time will be nice and you’ll get the exercise in you need to stay on track with your fitness plan.

Today is the first day of spring and there is no time like the present to take care of yourself. Nobody else is going to do it for you and you don’t then who will? Nobody!! So it’s important you find time to do it each week or you may find the end result won’t be one you want to face.

There are three important things you should do multiple times a week so you stay fit, healthy, and in control over your body. You can skip these occasionally, but the more times you skip the better chance you have of giving them up all together and that’s not the right thing to do. You need to be there for yourself and your family, so it’s vital you find a way to make these happen each week.

1. Eating Healthy

Not only is this important for yourself, but it’s important for your family as well. There are so many greasy, fatty, and processed foods on the market today that are doing our bodies more harm than good, so it’s best to do what you can to eliminate them. The best way to remember what is good and what is not good is to remember this little saying. “If it doesn’t have a mama or grow in the ground, you shouldn’t eat it.” Foods like macaroni and cheese from a box, boxed diet food, potato chips, and sweets are not good for you. Consider fruits, vegetables, ground turkey, and sweet potatoes instead.

2. Exercise

Exercise is the best way to lose weight, stay fit, and build muscle. It’s something we should try to do five days a week, but three days a week is better than nothing. You can exercise at home, outside, or at the gym. It doesn’t matter where you go as long as you do the exercise multiple times a week. Of course, the more you do, the better off you’ll be, but that’s not to say two or three times a week won’t help, because it will.

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All it takes is a few days of not working out to get off track and then you’re going to struggle to get back on track again. When you can prevent the struggle from happening you’ll be better off in the long run. You can do this even while on vacation. Here are a few tips to help you find ways to stay fit and exercise while on vacation.

1. Plan activities that require walking. These can be activities that are within walking distance of your hotel. If that’s not possible, you can plan activities that require a lot of walking. The zoo, carnival, and the river walk are just a few of the things you can do while walking around and getting exercise while on vacation.
2. If you plan to visit attractions, whenever possible walk instead of taking the elevator or a bus ride. While this may not always be possible, if you plan to do one a day or one every other day you’ll be doing well.
3. If the hotel or campground you stay at has a swimming pool, plan to spend an hour or two each day swimming as a family. In the summer when it’s hot it’ll get you out of the heat and you’ll have fun at the same time.
4. Some places give you the ability to rent bicycles and give you directions to trails and places to ride. This is a good way to get exercise and take adventures to new places while on vacation.
5. Scuba diving, swimming with the dolphins, boogie boarding, wave pools to surf, and snorkeling are just a few of the activities you can do when you visit the ocean or a water park.
6. Walks on the beach, the river, or hiking trails are a great way to get exercise and keep the family occupied at the same time. Almost every summer vacation spot offers activities outdoors that are fun, adventurous, and they give you exercise at the same time.

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When you’re trying to lose weight eating can be one of your hardest challenges to overcome. It’s really hard to eliminate the bad foods and eat only the good foods, but if you don’t do it, it won’t work. You don’t have to completely eliminating the bad foods, but you need to keep them to a minimum and only have them every once in a while.

One of the hardest things for people to decide when they need to lose weight is should they go on a diet or change their eating habits and eat right? It’s not an easy decision to make, but it’s one you must determine or you’ll find you won’t lose weight. You may have to try several different things before you find the right one, but once you do, you need to stay with it.

The difference between dieting and eating right may not be as different as you may think, but it’s possible what you get out of a diet may be just what you need to reach success. It’s also possible you may struggle with a diet and find it’s just not for you.

When you do a diet like Weight Watcher’s or Body by Vi it’s possible you may have the ambition and the will to follow what they tell you to do and make it work for you. You’ll have to change the way you eat and eat what the diet you choose to be on tells you to eat and when you do, you’ll find you’ll lose the weight.

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Losing holiday weight can be a struggle, but it’s not an impossible task to accomplish. Really it’s not any harder to lose holiday weight than it is to lose weight gained from having a baby or lack of exercise. Weight is weight and it comes off the same way, no matter how it was put on in the first place.

There are two methods you can do to help you lose your holiday weight. You can use one or the other or both if you choose, but it’s important to use them so you lose the weight.

1. Diet

Changing the way you eat is hard to do, but it’s the only way you’ll lose weight. It doesn’t mean you must eat vegetables all the time, but you do need to eliminate some of the sweets and starchy foods. It’s also important to portion eat. When you do this you won’t overeat and that’ll help you to eat better. If you find it’s hard to know what to eat and what not to eat, you may need to consider a diet to help you lose weight. There are a number of different diets to choose from, so you’ll want to check them out and decide what will fit your budget and likes.

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If your children eat at home, did you know that their health is in your hands? Maybe you’ve never thought of it that way in terms of cooking healthy? However, it’s true! You actually have a say in how they eat while they’re at home. You have the option of cooking as healthy as possible.

A lot of moms think that if you give your kids a daily multivitamin and they (at least) eat 3 good meals every day, then they are healthy…Wrong!

You need to remember that certain foods affect the heart and health. By putting forth the effort and creativity, you can actually make better and healthier choices for the heart and over-all health. By simply knowing what kinds of foods and meals to prepare, you are making that first step to cooking smart for your family and also help protect them from heart diseases. Starting to make (even simple) better food choices can lead to a healthier lifestyle for YOU and your whole family.

What are some things you can do and what are the foods you can prepare that will take care of your family’s heart and basic health?

1. The number 1 tip to start off with is to first, start eating healthy. Did you know that 3 large meals is not as healthy as 5 small ones? Eating well-balanced 5 meals per day including plenty of protein, vegetables, fruit and fiber is key for proper nutrition and metabolism. Eating often (in small amounts) helps fuel a healthy metabolism. Where as, If you eat 3 large meals per day, you are more inclined to over indulge, and thus leads to obesity.

2. Less Fat. Start baking, broiling or grilling versus frying various meats. Just doing this one simple thing will substantially cut down on fat. Thus, by using these cooking methods instead of frying will be much better for your family’s hearts and yours of course.

3. When frying foods, use a good non-stick skillet with cooking spray and not oil. Frying in oil adds a lot of fat and just isn’t good for you.

4. Watch your salt intake. It’s best to not even use salt when cooking. You can always use salt at the table. However of course, it’s bad for you. Too much of it can result in a higher blood pressure, swells you up, can cause stomach cancer, can weaken the bones and more. Opt for Mrs. Dash, onion, garlic and lemon juice for seasonings.

5. Choose lean cuts of meat. Poultry and pork are both sources of protein. However, you certainly want to choose the leaner cuts of pork. Trim off all the access fat before cooking. When cooking pork, the leaner types are pork loin and center loin.

With poultry, always choose white meat. It has a lot less fat than the dark meat.

When cooking beef, you need to choose flank, sirloin, tenderloin, rib, and ground chuck. The healthier cuts of meat are of course so much better for your heart health.

6. Watch the dairy in your diet. Most of the dairy in our food is loaded with calcium, which of course is good for us. However, a lot of dairy products are high in fat. Opt for using no-fat skim milk or no-fat buttermil products instead of whole milk or full-cream milk. For yogurts, opt for low-fat or fat-free. I absolutely love most any kind of cheese, although some cheeses are extra high in fat. Try and use cottage cheese or parmesan for less fat.

Remember These Tips Below When Choosing and Preparing Food For Your Family

Whole grain breads
Whole grain pasta
Whole grain crackers
Low sugar cereals
Real fruit
Low sugar ice cream
Lots of water

Try and get your family involved in the meal preparations. This will instill healthy habits in your children in regards to eating smart for optimal, good health.

Encourage your family to engage in some kind of activity at least 3 times per week. This too helps keep the body healthy and strong, and also heart disease free.

Tammy is a passionate blogger and grandmother. She offers free grandparenting articles, tips, recipes, giveaways and much more, along with many more healthy lifestyle topics.

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Losing weight is not an easy thing to do for anyone. The lifestyle change you must make is one that you’ll find will be a problem no matter what you do. The adjustments you must make will prove to be the hardest you’ll have to go through, but if you stand strong and do what you need to do, you can make it happen.

While eating right is an important lifestyle change you must make when you want to lose weight, it’s not the only one you must make. A major lifestyle change that must be made before you begin to see a weight loss is exercise. While it’s not easy to make these changes, doing nothing will make you fail. Failure isn’t an option in my book, so here are some tips that really helped me to reach success.

1. Finding a friend to workout with will make it easier to get it done. Going by yourself is not easy to do, but when you have someone to encourage you to go, you’ll find it’ll be easier to go each time. Working out with your spouse or family member will also help because you know they’ll tell you the truth and they won’t be afraid to encourage you to workout.

2. Joining a gym is a good way to make it happen. If you’ve tried to work out on your own at home, you know how hard it can be to have the motivation you need to make it happen each day. If you don’t have the motivation, you may not have what it takes to do the workout each day. When you join the gym you’ll pay money each month for it, so you’ll have the motivation you need to do the workouts.

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Last month I came back from my Hawaii vacation and didn’t gain a pound. Strangely, I lost a pound. I’m not on any diet and I don’t need to lose weight, but I strive to eat well and live healthy.

If you have been working on losing weight, it’s easy to fall off the wagon when you’re on vacation. Yes, you’re going on vacation, but your diet doesn’t have to.

Here are five helpful tips to avoid weight gain while on vacation.

Planning
Research your vacation spot and look for accommodations that have a kitchen or kitchenette so you can prepare your own meals. Knowing a bit about your vacation destination will help greatly. I visited Hawaii and it’s an expensive place to live and visit. It was an easy decision for us to make our own evening meals and dine out about three or four times during the 10 days we were there. Lunch time was a bit different, but we found quaint eateries that were inexpensive. You can certainly pack lunches and snacks before you set out for your days of adventure.

Groceries
If you can find a farmer’s market around your vacation spot, buy some fresh fruits and vegetables as they are cheaper than going to a supermarket. They are great snacks while you’re on the go or relaxing in your hotel room.

If there’s a Costco in your area, buy nuts and dried fruits, but be careful of the sugar content. Depending on how long you’re staying and if you have a kitchen, you can buy your meats and other food items. What we did was plan what meals we could have. If you think buying bulk is too much, it’s not considering you can make different meals out of one item. For example, we bought hamburger patties for burgers and for spaghetti. We didn’t, but you could also make tacos or sloppy joes.

Beverages
When you’re on vacation, it’s nice to indulge in some alcoholic or non-alcoholic tropical drinks or foreign beer and wine, but they all have calories and some have more than others. You’ve heard it before all in moderation. Drinking alcohol or iced coffees causes dehydration so water is absolutely the best drink and it has 0 calories. We bought bottled water after we went through airport security and kept the bottles so we could refill them whenever we went out. It also saved us money from buying bottled water each time. Plus, water helps you lose weight by making you feel full.

Exercise
Activities such as swimming, snorkeling, wave jumping, boogie boarding, body surfing, walking, golfing, tennis, dancing, and hiking are all calorie burners. If you want to bring up your heart rate, go for a run, or use the hotel’s amenities like the exercise room or drop in a Zumba class.

Dining Out
If you’re eating out the whole trip, then you’ll have to make a conscious effort and make wise decisions on what you’re eating. Don’t starve yourself on vacation by missing meals because this will lead to overindulging and overeating on your next meal. Healthy snacks are important for in-between meals so when you actually sit down for a meal, you’re not going to end up ordering the fattest and juiciest burger with the bottomless fries.

Start with a garden salad and choose a vinaigrette dressing or if you prefer a creamy dressing order it on the side. You can choose a salad entree and add chicken to it. I’ve noticed in the States, the food portions are bigger than in Canada so you can share meals.

Choose baked, steamed or grilled instead of deep fried. Don’t be afraid to make requests or ask for substitutes for your meal. You just have to ask your server and if they can’t substitute, then you can tell them not to put it on your plate.

You don’t have to blow your diet out of the water on vacation. Don’t change your mindset and make excuses because you’re on vacation. You can eat right, make good decisions and come home the same weight as when you left or maybe even lose a pound or two.

Now, you can instantly download this Special Report in PDF on Healthy Weight Loss Success. It’s absolutely FREE!

Sophia McIntyre is an Internet Marketer and Ghostwriter. She’s passionate about leading and living a healthy life. Her health blog, Healthy Perspectives is where you can learn more about making healthier choices, living, and maintaining a well-balanced lifestyle.

The benefits of walking are two-fold! Have you ever really thought about them?

Brisk activity is excellent for the heart, brain, muscles, blood flow, digestive tract, and many, many other things. A brisk walk every day is just a nice healthy thing that you choose to do for yourself and your over-all health. Even just walking at a normal pace is highly beneficial.

Walking does a body good at any age and it’s never, ever too late to start doing it on a daily basis.

Warning Tip: Of course if it’s summer time and the temperature is in the triple digits (right now for us), or even 85 and above, one should use caution. This goes double for the elderly. You could walk in the very early morning hours or in late evening to avoid the heat and sun.

You could also invest in a good treadmill and do the walking indoors.

Another Tip: Before you start on a walking regimen, always do light stretching exercises before and after. This decreases the risk of any injuries.

Below are the 30 benefits of walking.

(You are encouraged to add to this list by comments. However, please don’t post spam)

I’m looking for real, additional benefits of walking to be added to the list.

Weight Control
Improves Blood Pressure
Reduces Stress and Anxiety
Decreases Depression
Releases feel-good endorphins
Good for the heart
Good for muscles
Improves blood flow
Aids with a healthy digestive tract
Improves memory brain cells
Helps melt abdominal fat
Walking is good for your bones
Walking helps prevents type 2 diabetes
Walking reduces the risk of breast and colon cancer
Walking improves fitness
Burns calories
Improves sex life
Helps skin complexion and glow
Reduces stroke risk.
Improves sleep
Gives you more energy
Improves self esteem
Helps heal and good for your joints
Helps socialize with friends and family
Helps to diminish the cabin fever feeling
Helps you catch some rays
Helps Arthritis
Walking is anti aging
Improves your mood
Improves sense of balance and focus

Can you add to this list?

You can find more articles and tips by Tammy at Grandparenting Articles and Tips