"lose weight" news and stories

It's a constant battle for celebrities to stay fit and look good on camera, and in Hollywood, even non-celebrities feel pressured to slim down. Some celebrities take their dieting too far, but others, like Janet Jackson, have lost weight and stayed healthy with the help of Fresh Dining.

The company offers prepared gourmet meals that are delivered straight to your door (before 6 am) in the Los Angeles area. Their menu is based around a plan of lean proteins, fresh fruits, vegetables, good fats, and low glycemic carbs, and an all organic option is available as well. Each day includes three meals, a snack and dessert and a total of 1000 to 1400 calories. A sample menu includes cranberry and walnut oatmeal, Chinese chicken salad, grilled filet mignon with chipotle butter and veggies, shrimp cocktail (as a snack) and blueberry crumble for dessert.

The LA Times described it as "as fabulous as anything you'll have in pricey restaurants" and their other press has been equally glowing. With prices that start around $40 a day, it isn't something that has to be limited to celebs, either.

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Dessert is unquestionably the bane of many people’s day. Many desserts are fattening, calorific and simply unhealthy. Portion sizes are huge and it is difficult to limit yourself to only a part of what you are served – especially if it all tastes so good. Lower fat desserts, baked goods in particular, have an equally bad reputation, as many people believe them to be rubbery, dry, dense and flavorless.

There are many desserts that are lower in fat or in calories that still taste great, though it is true that some baked goods will be changed for the worse without butter or sugar, so don’t just leave them out when you’re cooking. Sarah, the author of Baking 911 has tons of tips and well-tested recipes for low fat baking and desserts. Diet-Blog also has a few suggestions for easy and delicious desserts.

Don’t automatically assume that you can never eat crème brûlée again if you want to have a healthier lifestyle. You can still indulge sometimes, but make healthier choices with your everyday treats. Sorbets and gelato are good alternatives to ice cream. Try having low fat milk in your hot chocolate and top it with a marshmallow, not whipped cream.

If you had the baked brie appetizer and a deep dish pizza for dinner, you should probably skip dessert. But being healthy doesn’t mean that it dessert is never an option, nor does it mean that you can’t enjoy great flavors and delicious food.

In some ways, it is easier to have a healthy dinner than either breakfast or lunch. You probably aren’t as pressed for time in the evening as you are in the morning and there is no “peer pressure” from the office environment to tempt you. The goal is not to avoid foods you love, just to make sure you are still allowed by your cardiologist to enjoy them in a few years. The biggest risk is that you might be tempted to stuff yourself silly at dinner, particularly if you missed a meal at work. Try to eat something at meal times, even if you have to substitute a meal with some healthy snacking.
When eating out, you can follow the same tips you applied at lunch, choosing leaner main courses and lower calorie sides and dressings when you’re looking for a healthy meal.

It is pointless to always try to resist snacking between meals. Sometimes you’re just hungry. The best plan is to have healthy snacks available and to try to cut down the fat and or calories on your favorites.
At restaurants, choose a main dish before you order an appetizer. If the portions are large or your dish is very rich, you may want to skip it entirely. If your main dish is healthy, do not beat yourself up if you decide to have a small cup of creamy soup or a handful of onion rings. The main thing to remember is that your whole meal should be fairly balanced, with richer and leaner elements. Portion control fatty and fried foods.
At home or at work, fruits and vegetables make great snacks, along with healthy dips like sweetened or spiced yogurt, hummus or salsa. Balance your favorite cheesy dip with some veggies, not just chips. You do not have to give up your favorite snacks to stay healthy, though. To use nachos as an example, you can choose tortilla chips with no trans-fats and eat the nachos with plenty of fresh salsa. If you know of a reduced fat cheese that you like, use it, but otherwise try to cut back on the cheese or forgo it entirely every once in a while.
When you body is sufficiently hungry, you should listen to it. Ignoring your body’s signals will cause you to overindulge at your next meal. Just try not to listen when it tells you that it wants chili cheese fries after you’ve just finished lunch.

A healthy lunch can be one of the hardest meals to achieve because most people eat lunch out. Most restaurants offer potato chips, French fries or other fattening sides with their lunch offerings, even if the main dishes are fairly healthy, not to mention that the portion sizes will most likely be larger than anything you would prepare yourself. The best thing you can do to make sure you have a healthy lunch is to bring one from home.

A home-packed lunch can include the same sandwich and chips that you could have purchased, but with you controlling the portion sizes. If you find that you either don’t have time to prepare a lunch or forget to do so on a regular basis, make sure to pack up some dinner leftovers in small containers to bring in to the office with you.

Here are som tips for a healthier, sandwich-including lunch: