The Diet Secrets

Diet and exercise are always the best ways to achieve the body you’ve always dreamed of.  Unfortunately, both do take time for their effects to show through.

One of the important things to remember when you’re losing weight is that not only will your behavior (towards food and exercise) need to change but so does your self-image.  The more you see yourself as becoming healthier, sexier and slimmer by the day, the more you’re likely to continue with your new way of living.

Looking leaner is an important aspect of a self-image makeover - if you look in the mirror and see a better version of yourself each time, wouldn’t it just encourage you to keep pushing on?  To start looking leaner while still in the process of losing the weight, dressing slimmer should help you do the trick.  When it comes to clothing to look more fit, here are a few tips:

1. Dark colors

It’s been said time and again, so we’ll just repeat it.  Black makes you look thinner so if the color’s appropriate, bask in it.  Actually, any dark shade will do - and it makes sense to vary your daily outfits - although black is the most slimming.

2. Monochromatic dressing

The trick to donning dark clothing is to wear a single color from head to toe.  Two colors can break the slimming effect while a lighter color on the bottom will make you look stouter on the lower half.  Keep it monochrome - that’s direct from many fashion editors’ playbooks.

3. Choice Cuts

Some types of clothing will work better for that slimming look.  As a rule, any skirt you wear should be longer than its width.  If it’s a wide skirt, it better reach down to your ankles or it will make you look wide.  Avoid pleats as much as possible.  For jackets, chuck out anything bulky.  For pants, choose well-cut pairs with straight legs.  Stay away from flares and other wide-bottom numbers - they add pounds to your overall look.

4. Shades Of The Same Color

If monochrome dressing is a little unappetizing for your fashion sense, try mixing shades of the same color.  It’s not as bland, but should facilitate the same slimming effect.

Gwyneth has been known to do detox diets every once in a while, the most controversial  of which was probably last year’s Master Cleanse diet which she practiced in the spring.  For 2009, she started the year with a less demanding but similarly detoxifying diet, created especially for her by her dietician Alejandro Junger.

Paltrow’s current cleansing diet is much less severe and includes taking in real food.  Her meal program consists of plenty of fruits and vegetables (throughout the day) but also include tastier choices like smoothies, chicken teriyaki and steamed salmon (on later days, though).

The cleansing program consists of a 7-day menu and need only be done for that duration.  As a detox method, many doctors agree that this is healthier than most others offered on the diet scene.  The diet focuses on whole organic foods which creates massive benefits to the liver, including broccoli, cabbage, radish, arugula, bok choy and other peppery vegetables.

Additionally, it encourages mild exercises to help facilitate the detoxification, including gentle yoga and light treadmill work.  Sweating is essential to the system (since sweat eliminates plenty of toxins) which can be achieved via the prescribed exercises or by spending time in a sauna.

It looks like Gwyneth has finally found a more sustainable whole body cleansing diet that should prove less controversial than her previous travails.

The 5-Factor Fitness is a high-profile diet book from renowned trainer Harley Pasternak.  Known as the official trainer to stars like Halle Barry, Orlando Bloom and Eva Mendes, he condenses his years of experience into this book, which aims to retool dieters into the proper ways of achieving and maintaining a healthy body.

Dieting Is Hard

The book works on the premise that people leave diets and revert to their unhealthy lifestyles due to the unrealistic restrictions most diets require.  With stringent requirements on fat, carbs and other common food choices, keeping up a diet while trying to balance your social and work life can turn into a complicated exercise in diplomacy and self-restraint.  As a result, most dieters look forward to ending the diet and resuming their normal lives instead of staying healthy.

An Easier Way

Pasternak offers an easier way on 5-Factor Fitness, with a fitness regime that takes only 25 minutes a day and a diet plan that entails frequent meals to help you maintain a consistent blood sugar level.  The eventual goal is to have a diet and exercise plan that you can fit into your day without causing strain to any other part of your life.

The diet consists of small but healthy meal choices that focus on high fiber food choices, complex carbs, lean protein, good fats and whole grains.Recipes featured in the book are all easy to make, with most requiring no more than a 5-minute prep time.

Where the book really sets itself apart are the sections on how to maintain your diet even in difficult situations.  Everything from how to choose meals when dining out to emotional eating situations to enjoying yourself during parties get discussed, with sensible advice on the exact things you need to do to keep your diet in order.

All in all, 5-Factor Fitness offers a sensible diet and exercise program, along with very useful advice that you can use even when you decide to follow a different diet or fitness regime.

As far as my celebrity trivia knowledge goes, Angelina Jolie and Claire Danes are neither friends nor close acquaintances. Yet, they both do share an admiration for the Volumetrics Eating Plan.

Devised by Barbara Rolls, a professor of nutritional science, the Volumetrics Diet is an eating plan hinged upon the common sense idea of stacking up on low-calorie food choices that manage to leave you full. As a result, you satiate your hunger without consuming high amounts of calories.

Dieters performing the Volumetrics eating system base their choices on an Energy Density (ED) Index created by Barbara herself. Food that fall on the low scale of the index should facilitate fullness while packing on limited calories. Items that are high in water content make up the bulk of the prescribed food choices that include soups, fruits and vegetables.

Unlike many diets, it doesn’t eschew important nutritional components such as carbohydrates nor does it encourage deprivation. Dieters under the program, in fact, typically eat more food than portion-controlled dieters yet, according to one year-long research, lost significantly more weight in the process.

You can learn more about the diet via Barbara Rolls’ Volumetrics book, where she lists 125 delicious recipes for low-ED food choices that should help trim you into shape. She also picks out normal food most people are likely eating and shows how to replace them with low-calorie alternatives without giving up their sumptuous taste.