Extra Tips for Success
You're starting the ITG Diet, or have been on it for a little while. You're learning something new about foods, nutrition, and how your body reacts to the foods you eat by gaining, maintaining, or losing weight. You can really feel when you have a bad day, and you know when you're doing well because the clothes get looser and your energy levels increase.
There are many tips and tricks that we teach during the initial consultation for new ITG dieters. Some may become new habits for life, and others will be helpful ways to combat hunger, help you stop yourself from overeating, and general tips to stay successful while on all Steps of the ITG Diet Plan.
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Throughout the holidays, many of us tend to overindulge on so many different types of foods, especially ones high in calories and carbs. There are also occasions when some of us may stress-eat (sometimes because of those holidays!) When we overdo it and eat too much sugar, we tend to get tired, feel uncomfortably full and bloated, or even disappointed and angry with ourselves for letting those foods get the better of us. But can we gain weight by cheating on our diet in just a single day?
Back in the days before I lost my weight and changed my habits with ITG, I wasn't a big believer in using supplements as part of a healthy diet and lifestyle. Rightfully so, as I had done a lot of research on the quality of over-the-counter supplements in vitamin shops and drugstores. Since supplements aren't regulated by the FDA, there can be ingredient and quality issues; you aren't always getting what you think. For example, some protein supplements do indeed contain protein, but that protein was absorbed and utilized by animals, and not humans. There are other supplements that have been tested off the shelves and they contain nothing but dried and ground grass and weeds, with no benefit whatsoever to the human body. Other supplements contain nutrients, but not in the levels listed on the bottle. However, when I started with ITG and learned the importance of proper supplementation, good manufacturing practices (GMP), and medical grade quality ingredients, my eyes were opened as to what a good supplement can do for the body. Want to know my favorite supplements? Keep reading!
If you’re like one of many people we speak to each day who wants to start the ITG Diet Plan, but you exercise quite frequently and are worried about your routine, then this information is for you!
We know this time of year is full of holiday cheer, and holiday cookies, and holiday cakes, and cocktails... the list goes on! How do you make it through without indulging, or if you are in Step 3, overindulging in those sugary filled little treats?
Even those of us with the strongest willpower seem to have periodic lapses in judgement when it comes to indulging in snacks and junk foods. American reliance on these processed foods is a big reason for the obesity epidemic today. It seems scary to realize that we depend on foods with no good nutritional value to get us through everyday life. We then find ourselves craving more and more of those foods just to feel better, even if the feelings only last a short time with the rush of sugar in our systems. Ultimately, these foods affect our health in a negative way. Why is it so hard to give up junk food and fight the urge of salty and sugary cravings?
Cauliflower has been gaining quite a following recently! A couple years ago when I was on the ITG Diet Plan, my cravings for pizza and rice were satisfied with the substitution of cauliflower. I began buying heads of cauliflower to try recipes in the ITG Recipe Section: Cauliflower Flat Bread Pizza, Cauliflower Fried Rice, and Buffalo Cauliflower, among others. I still to this day use this versatile veggie long after I reached my goal weight, especially since I never felt weighed down or "puffy" after eating several cups of it, which tends to happen with regular rice and dough!
Everyone these days seems to be so busy between careers, school, kids, and so many other things. One of the problems I usually faced as so many others do is that I sacrificed my diet for convenience of ready to eat foods from the store, fast food dining and restaurants. Even when I cooked for myself, I used items chock full of carbs and unhealthy ingredients instead of sticking with the basics. How could I pull off cooking for myself when I started the ITG Diet so that it would be easy for me to stick with?
Have you hit a plateau in your weight loss? Do you feel like you’re doing everything right to lose weight and it’s just not working? At ITG, occasionally some of our dieters will have a rough week. They know when they’ve cheated with the carbs, but if they’re not cheating, the typical problem is usually they’re not drinking enough water. The coaches here at ITG Diet always tell our dieters, “Water, water, water!” If you are experiencing times when your weight doesn’t seem to budge, make sure you look at your water intake and increase it as necessary depending on activity level and even during hotter weather.
Did you happen to watch Super Bowl LI? Did you stick around for halftime? Lady Gaga put on a great show, jumping off the stadium roof, dancing, changing costumes... all while singing live in front of millions. She trained for months to be able to put on this 15 minute non-stop spectacle. And then on Monday, the stories about her body started coming in... 
The holidays are upon us once again, and ‘tis the season to enjoy spending time with family and friends. There are work parties, family parties, school parties, and so much more going on throughout the month to keep track of. The problem with the holiday parties? Keeping track of all the food you may eat along the way. How can you make sure that the overabundant temptations of candy, cakes, snacks, and wine at each get together won’t derail your diet?
We’ve seen it time and again: men put on a few extra pounds, and whenever they feel like it, they lose them just as fast. Sometimes, they barely have to be motivated to drop the pounds or even seem like they’re trying. Women, on the other hand, tend to take more time and have a slower rate of weight loss than the opposite sex. There are few reasons why men lose weight much faster than women.
Have you noticed the size of dinner plates at restaurants or even in your home these days? If you happen to have a set of china passed down from a grandmother, take a look at the plate sizes. They have drastically gotten bigger over the years! Obesity didn’t seem to be such a problem back when your grandmother was cooking healthy, home-made meals for the family. The American obesity problem stems from eating the wrong foods in large quantities…on big dinner plates. Here are some tips to help lose weight by making some simple changes in the way you eat your meals.
Today is Fat Tuesday! I’m sure we all wish it could be called Skinny Tuesday...but that’s no reason to fall off the wagon and crash your diet! Mardi Gras is known for the festivities, the beads, and especially the food and drinks.
I have tried several different methods to lose extra pounds over the years. Like many of you, I have changed my behaviors, eating habits, and joined gyms in order to look and, more importantly, feel better and healthier. Even when I thought as though I was doing everything right, something usually seemed a bit off for me. I still felt tired during the day and not as mentally sharp as I should have been. I wasn’t always motivated to get to the gym. I didn’t understand why I was living such a healthy lifestyle and my weight loss would hit a brick wall here and there. Why was I developing these negative feelings when everything I had read or seen told me I would be so much healthier and feel so much better if I followed a few simple steps?
Olive oil is full of heart-healthy unsaturated fats. Heart disease risk can decrease when using a monounsaturated olive oil instead of saturated fats, like lard. When frying foods with olive oil, the process may take away the health benefits of the oil when it forms other less healthy types of fats, which usually takes places in restaurant and commercial kitchens rather than typical home cooking.
It’s been three months since I started on the ITG Diet. Back at the end of August, I weighed 217 pounds, had a 36 inch waist, and felt generally unhealthy overall. I didn’t eat well, sleep well, and my body didn’t feel so great day to day. I was getting tired of buying large shirts and wearing baggy clothes all the time; nothing seemed to fit right on me. I didn’t feel good about myself or the way I looked anymore. There were many times I would glance at my reflection in a store window or a mirror and think to myself, “who is this guy? What happened to the old me?”
It’s 9am Friday, and today is my check-in day. I just stepped off the TANITA scale in the office and I’m holding off on looking at the little slip of paper that the scale prints. It gives you a read-out of your weight, calculates body water and fat percentages, bone mass, visceral fat (the kind that wraps like a band around your organs and can be hard to get rid of), and BMI. After a less than perfect week, I was really hoping I had turned things around and made some progress this time.
During the second week of my ITG Diet I didn’t lose as much as I was planning on. I was down 1.2 lbs in 6 days. It’s still a loss, yes, but I could have done much better than that. Even though I stuck to the diet just about every day, I went out and had a few items I shouldn’t have eaten over the weekend. I also did not drink nearly enough water, and I found myself not feeling very hungry and skipping some meals altogether. I was out late over the weekend, which threw my entire meal schedule off. On Friday, Tina (wellness coach at ITG Diet) and I talked about the upcoming weekend and how hard it is to be at home or go out and stick to a plan at the same time…boy, did I experience it! We are kind of lucky here at the office…you see, during the week while we’re working at the ITG Diet office, we are a great support system to each other. We have veggies for snacks, we talk about healthy food and recipes all day, and of course no one is bringing Burger King or pizza in to the office for their lunch break! During our days off, we all need to find that same motivation and have a plan in place.
