A lot of articles and books out there will tell you that a religious exercise regimen and a hardcore diet plan are the keys to sure weight loss. What they don’t tell you, though, is that there are little strategies you can employ to cut down and manage your weight. These tricks might sound a bit funny or strange at first, but you probably won’t be complaining once you step on the bathroom scale afterwards.

1. Take a picture. Of your food, that is. While this activity is usually reserved for food critics at a new restaurant, having a visual log of your eating history will go a long way in helping you keep tabs on what you eat. It’s harder to forget that cake you had after lunch if there’s an icing-heavy photo of it in all its high-resolution glory on your camera.

2. Fix your playlist. Believe it or not, studies have found that rock music has an unusual tendency to increase people’s appetites. Take out all the Nirvana and The Clash tracks when you’re eating, even if it means listening to Britney Spears or Miley Cyrus. It’ll be good for you (though maybe not for your reputation with the neighbors).

3. Change your plates. No, don’t go to a buffet. When you’re eating your meals at home (or anywhere else, for that matter), try to use small- to medium-sized plates. The play on proportions will trick your brain into thinking that you’re eating more than you really are. It’ll also be useful for tricking your date into thinking that he or she is eating more than you paid for.

4. Sit down! If you’re planning to ingest anything, find the nearest table and take a seat. Eating while in a standing position distracts your brain away from how much is going down your gut.

5. Use a plate. It’s more than just table manners. Eating from a plate, bowl or any other table service gives you a measurement of how much you’ve eaten so far. At any rate, it’ll sound better than just using ‘handfuls’ to measure how much you’ve eaten from the chips bag.

6. Gross yourself out. Whenever you’re feeling the urge to eat, you’ll probably need something stronger than your weight goals to resist the temptation. Whether it’s the memory of the smell of that sewer under repair in the summer heat or the roadkill you passed on the interstate, prepare a small array of things to help dissuade your stomach.

7. Focus! This is another concentration thing. When you’re eating at the table, lay the newspaper aside, keep the remote control out of sight and just focus on your eating. Getting caught between boredom and focusing entirely on what you’re chewing will give you a better idea of how much you’ve eaten. Don’t despair; you can always get that new episode of House on TiVo after you’re done eating.

8. Slow down. Like trying to watch YouTube on a dial-up connection, it takes a while for the stomach to tell your brain that you’re eating and that you’re not starving anymore. Take your time – at least 20 minutes – to finish your meal. You never know, you might end up eating less than you planned.

9. Get small clothes. Seeing clothes in your closet that are just a little too small to fit you will give you a concrete and easily measurable goal to work toward. Besides, few goals offer the same satisfaction as looking great in that form-fitting pair of denims.

10. Set a date with your thin friend. Even if he or she isn’t the type to comment on your weight, you’ll inevitably compare yourself to your more diet-conscious colleague. There’s even a good chance that you’ll get the same Caesar salad as he or she does for lunch. Talk about good influences.

Perhaps the best thing about these wacky methods is that they don’t involve any expenses (save for maybe a small plate or two). If you’re the kind who can’t afford a gym membership or doesn’t have the patience for weird diets, this is the kind of weight loss you’ll enjoy.

These days, everyone wants to be in great shape and look drop dead gorgeous. But people hardly know the secret of the weight loss mantra- the true identification of their diet charts! With the new range of blood group diets identified, it is never too tough to shed those extra pounds. You just need to cut in your regular intake of calories and put in a bit of more of exercise to lose weight. When your body finds that it cannot generate the required energy from consumed food, it will automatically start to burn the fat deposits in your body.

People with different blood groups respond differently to the variety of nutrition. In fact, proteins from pulses that we generally consider to be very nutritious for everyone have been found to cause damage to some people.

Recent researches have analyzed the most suitable food chart for the blood groups by which O blood group people are meat eaters, people from A blood group are vegetarians. Blood group types B are omnivores while AB people can enjoy balanced diets.

Blood Group O: People having the O group of blood should refrain from having high levels of carbohydrates and dairy products. Proteins obtained from fishes and meat are extremely beneficial to them. Since people from the O group are more prone to having blood clots, they should exercise regularly.

Blood Group A: If you happen to belong to this line of people, you should abstain from meat and dairy products. Loads of vegetables and fish should comprise your ideal diet chart. Because this group is said to have risks of contracting cardio vascular diseases and diabetes, it is suggested that mild exercises should supplement the diet chart.

Blood Group B: People of the B group of blood should not consume much of chicken, bacon, corn, lentils and wheat. Else, a balanced diet with loads of meat, vegetables, fruits and dairy suits them the best. Being prone to heart diseases along with everyday diseases, they should exercise in moderate amounts.

Blood Group AB: The modern mixture of blood types A and B- people with blood group AB have a rather weak digestive system. They should preferably stick to vegetarian diets avoiding chicken, beef, pork and substituting them with dairy products and seafood. Calming exercises produce best results for this group of people.

So what are you waiting for? Get you own blood group diet and lose weight like you have never imagined!!

A lot of books make it seem like it’s so easy to get going with a weight loss program. While it’s not so hard to start a program, sticking with it until the end is another story altogether.

Most weight loss programs will give almost immediate results. Because of the changes to your diet or lifestyle, your body (and your weighing scale) will start showing the fruits of your labors almost immediately. After the period of quick weight loss, though, you’ll notice that the process begins slowing down. After a while, you’ll notice the weight loss coming in at a dead crawl.

It is usually at that slow point when a good number of dieters and weight loss program adherents ‘lose faith,’ so to speak. The plateau, as it’s called, is a point in time or period wherein the standard program stops giving you the results it once did. Plateaus are potentially dangerous to your weight loss program because it’s a very demoralizing time, and it’s when the most number of people drop their diets altogether.

You’ll experience the same thing if you work out regularly at the gym. You’ll feel that your workouts simply aren’t as effective or exciting as they once were. It’s a problem that’s both mental and physical. The mental aspect comes from boredom, plain and simple. Exercises and diets are both repetitive by nature and, done for a long enough span of time, it seems twice as difficult to do the same amount of work because of the tedium.

At the same time, it’s also a physical issue. Remember that the human body is very quick to adapt and grow. Once it gets used to the load or weight of a workout, or to the reduced nutrition of a diet, it begins adjusting operations to suit those activities, effectively negating their effects.

Stay tuned and watch out for the next post for tips on how to deal with plateaus in your weight loss program.