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5 Diet Plan Saving Tips !

Guilty and frustrated from cheating on your diet plan? These diet plan saving tips will keep you on track!

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It’s nine thirty at night and you have followed your new diet plan perfectly to a tee all day. A pizza advertisement comes on the commercial break of your favorite show and you notice it is close to your next mealtime.
Up to the kitchen you go to eat your next meal. When in the fridge pulling out your nicelyprepared diet plan meal, you notice some left over Fettuccini Alfredo your wife or roommate brought home. Sure looks good you think as you catch a little bit of saliva about to drip on your shirt!

“Just a little taste won’t hurt my diet plan,” you justify…

“ I’ve stuck to my diet plan all day……”

A little taste and before you know it you tell yourself the extra carbs and calories will be a good boost to your workout tomorrow!

An hour later your gut is stretching and Indigestion plagues you from cheating on your diet plan!!

“I should have stuck to my diet plan!” is going through your head as you lay down to have nightmares of a fat ass! “Tomorrow I’ll stick to my diet plan “, you chant in your head!But you fall from your diet plan only a day or two later!

The occasional stray from your diet plan can really add up!And billboards,tv’s, radios and people are everywhere pushing fast foods and junk to sabotage your diet plan!

Here are five diet plan saving tips to arm yourself against the onslaught of the Cheating War!

Diet Plan Tip #1 – Eat Slowly – Take your time when you sit down to eat.

The chances you will stuff yourself or overeat diminish and you will reach the point of satiety much more quickly if you eat slowly!

The more you are satisfied with what you have eaten the less likely you will continue to think of food. That chocolate Black Forest cake won’t be as tempting either!

Diet Plan Tip #2 – Have Delicious Meals That Fit Your Meal Plan Prepared Ahead Of Time.

Having meals prepared ahead of time makes it convenient to eat according to a plan and on schedule.

You can make it more convenient to stick to your diet plan than it is to eat that bag of candy by having your diet plan meals prepared and available when it is time to eat– and when you gethungry.

Diet Plan Tip #3 – Get Used To Eating For Your Purpose Instead Of For Your Taste Buds.

Satisfying your taste buds when you get the urge to gorge down a Big Mac will never develop a healthy, lean, muscular physique! Keep in mind you are eating to develop a lean, healthy muscular physique every time you open your mouth! The temporary taste satisfaction of a jelly-filled donut will be gone real fast but the empty calories you just devoured can defeat a whole day’s worth of bodybuilding effort!

Diet Plan Tip #4 – Be creative with your cooking to make sticking to your diet enjoyable.

Ideally, with proper preparation and some reciperesearch you can create delicious mouth watering meals that meet your diet plan criteria. Learn to cook. Employ spices from other parts of the world. India and China are twocountries with interesting choices to really spice up your diet plan. When you don’t have to force feed yourself with your nose plugged the chances are much higher you can stick to your diet plan more easily!

Diet Plan Tip #5 – Drink Water.

Drinking water between meals can help to reduce your hunger pains temporarily by giving a sense of fullness. For those of you that sabotage your diet plan munching here and there,keeping a water bottle with you wherever you go can really help.Just sip away when its oral satisfaction rather than hunger driving you.

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Some foods make my arthritis worse… is it my imagination?

For centuries, the effects of food on arthritis symptoms have been discussed both in the scientific literature as well as in lay writings. Food allergy has been reported to play a role particularly in RA.

In a study published in 1980, 22 patients with RA consumed a diet that excluded common allergens. Twenty patients (91%) experienced an improvement in symptoms, and 19 found that specific foods repeatedly exacerbated their symptoms. The mean time on the elimination diet before improvement occurred was 10 days, and the longest time was 18 days. The mean number of food sensitivities per patient was 2.5; the most common symptom-provoking foods were grains, milk, nuts, beef, and egg. (Hicklin JA, McEwen LM, Morgan JE. The effect of diet in rheumatoid arthritis. Clin Allergy 1980;10:463.)

In a later study, 53 patients with RA were randomly assigned to consume a diet that excluded common allergens, or their usual diet (control group) for six weeks. After one week, the patients on the exclusion diet began reintroducing one food at a time; any foods producing symptoms were removed from the diet. The hypoallergenic diet group fared significantly better than the control group for each of 13 different parameters of disease activity. The patients in the control group then underwent the same elimination-and-challenge procedure that the diet group had, and experienced similar, though somewhat less impressive, improvements (Darlington LG, Ramsey NW, Mansfield JR. Placebo-controlled, blind study of dietary manipulation therapy in rheumatoid arthritis. Lancet 1986;1:236-238).

Long-term follow-up of 100 patients who underwent dietary therapy in this study revealed that one-third remained well on diet alone, without any medication, for up to 7.5 years after starting treatment (Darlington LG, Ramsey NW. Diets for rheumatoid arthritis. Lancet 1991;338:1209).

While the possibility of placebo effect needs to be considered, the long-term benefit experienced by these patients is noteworthy. Also, while there was some weight loss noted in the treated patients, there was no significant correlation between weight loss and clinical improvement in RA symptoms.

In another double-blind controlled study, 94 patients with RA were randomized to one of two diets for four weeks, followed by a return to their usual diets for another four weeks. One diet (“allergen free”) was free of common allergens, additives and preservatives. The other diet (“low allergen”) was similar to the allergen-free diet, but contained milk allergens and azo dyes. Seventy-eight patients completed the study. The effects of food elimination and re-challenge varied considerably among patients. Nine patients (11.5% of the total; 6 in the allergen-free group, 3 in the low-allergen group) had a favorable response to the elimination diet, followed by marked disease flare during re-challenge. In these patients, subjective improvements were confirmed by improvements in objective parameters of disease activity (Van de Laar MA, van der Korst JK. Food intolerance in rheumatoid arthritis. I. A double blind, controlled trial of the clinical effects of elimination of milk allergens and azo dyes. Ann Rheum Dis 1992;51:298-302). The small number of patients exhibiting changes is an argument against significant benefits associated with a diet manipulation. Nonetheless it appears that there is a subset of patients for whom diet is an important component of their symptom complex.

A smaller study looked at eleven RA patients. Two of the 11 RA patients showed a favorable response to an elimination diet and experienced worsening after eating offending foods. In that study, the elimination diet did not exclude certain common allergens (wheat, corn, egg whites, sugar, and coffee). It could be argued that the response rate would have been higher if the elimination diet had been more restrictive (Panush RS, Carter RL, Katz P, et al. Diet therapy for rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Rheum 1983;26:462-471). Small numbers in this study make comprehensive validation impossible.

These studies seem to imply that avoidance of allergenic foods might benefit a subset of patients with RA, although the proportion of patients responding to dietary change varies a lot from one study to the next. The difference in response rates may be related in part to the patient populations studied. Some authorities feel that younger patients (under the age of 40) with less aggressive RA respond best to avoidance of allergens. Older patients and those with relatively severe RA may not respond to dietary manipulation as well. The divergent results in published studies may also be explained in part by strictness of dietary restriction and/or compliance. Finally, RA is a spectrum of diseases; not all therapies work for all patients. This divergence of effect has been noted even with biologic therapies.

The possibility of food allergies accounting for RA symptoms makes the use of food allergy testing a viable weapon in the arsenal of the clinical rheumatologist. In our clinic we use food allergy testing in patients where symptoms don’t seem to respond to conventional therapies.

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What is Dukan Diet and its side-effects?

This article gives pertinent information about Dukan Diet and its side-effects

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Pierre Dukan, a French doctor and nutritionist, challenged with the case of obesity started to look for alternative ways in curing the illness. After 20 years of thorough research he published in the year 2000, a book called, “Je ne sais pas maigrir” or translated as, “I don’t know how to get slimmer.” It gained the best-seller in France after a year it has been published.
It was made a hit in UK when Kate Middleton, now the duchess of Cambridge, tried the Dukan Diet before her marriage to the beloved Prince William, she reportedly claimed a loss of two dress sizes. It also allegedly claimed to help five million French. The book is also gaining fame in the US in the year 2011 when actress/singer, Jennifer Lopez, lost pounds after her pregnancy by following this diet.
Dukan Diet: What is it? How does this work?
Dukan Diet is similar to the famous Atkins diet. Atkins and Dukan are much alike in terms of non-intake of carbs initially and do not require portion control or counting calorie consumptions. In Atkins, it requires net carbohydrate intakes and unlike Dukan, it suggests a daily intake of oats, increase water consumption and 20 minutes of everyday brisk walking. Dukan Diet adopts four phases namely: Attack, Cruise, Consolidation and Stabilization.
Four Phases of the Dukan Diet
Attack: In this starter phase, the dieter is only allowed take protein rich foods that are exquisitely low in fat. Dr. Dukan provided 72-item list of foods to be eaten, it excludes pork, lamb, poultry products and cheeses. Food should always be cooked but without adding any fat to it, it best to cook in grilling or roasting. It also requires you to eat 1 ½ tbsp. oat bran & 1.5 liters of water per day. This phase should be followed around 2-7 days or more. Results from this initial phase within 5 days may result in 4-7 lbs. loss. This phase promotes quick loss of weight since it is strictly based on a protein-only diet.
Cruise: Cruise, the second to the fourth phase of the Dukan diet scheme. During this phase dieters who were only allowed to eat protein-only foods can now alternate a 28-items of non-starchy vegetables. They may take attack phase diet for today and take non-starchy veggie diet for tomorrow, and so this phase must go on by alternating these two types of diet each day. This phase may last long enough as much as you want by reaching your desired weight and assuring 2 pounds per week loss.
Consolidation: As one achieves the desired weight, one has to go the next phase called Consolidation, this is the maintenance phase of this diet scheme where you have to prevent putting back excess pounds. The plan in this phase is less strict compared to the first two phases. During this phase you are permitted to eat protein-only and veggie diet along with a piece of low-sugar fruit, 2 slices of whole grain bread and a portion of hard cheese. In this phase you are allowed to have 1-2 serving of starchy foods and one celebration meal per week. The phase of consolidation does not expect to loss off pounds but rather it is steadily the maintenance process.
Stabilization: Stabilization is the final phase and a life-long phase of the diet scheme. In here maintenance of the life-changing diet may be a challenging and tempting. During this portion of the scheme, one is already permitted to allow any food intake that a person wants and by also sticking to the diet rule in the consolidation phase. As Pierre Dukan suggest, that staying on the phase 1 rule once a week and eat whatever you like for the rest of the week lowers the chances of regaining weight.
Pros and Cons of Dukan Diet
Pros: The fast results of this diet scheme is beneficially rewarding and motivating. It allows you to have protein and veggie meal plan diets and does not require you to count off your calorie intakes.
Cons: It is highly restrictive and can exclude healthy foods. Dieters can experience side-effects such as symptoms of headaches, nausea, lethargy, irritable and loss of concentration. Dieters may acquire halitosis (bad breath), metallic tasting mouth and strong smell in their urines. For those people who have problems with their kidneys and liver are not advised to follow this diet plan. It is not also recommended for pregnant and nursing mothers.

Views and Opinions by Health Experts on the Dukan Diet
There are lots of critics in this diet plan. Due to the restrictive type scheme of this diet, some fruits, grains and nuts which are healthy and have high amounts of vitamins and minerals that are vital to the nutrition of the body are eliminated. Keri Gans of American Dietetic Association, said that the lost amount of multivitamins that should be acquired from those restricted foods are not compensated in the Dukan diet. Experts have also criticized that experiencing such side-effects may not be healthy at all.

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