It’s hard if you are trying to lose weight and you feel like you’ve tried everything. You did Jenny Craig, you went to Weight Watchers meetings, and now you don’t know what to do. Everyone out there says it’s easier to have a support system that is there for you. You might need someone telling you their weight loss story, giving you a list of foods to buy at the grocery store and tracking your fitness progress.

Well, not everyone has a friend to do this, and most of us can’t afford a private dietician or personal trainer pushing us along. That is why many people today rely on weight loss websites. It can be difficult to justify paying for any of these services because you don’t exactly see where this money is going to. You aren’t going to meetings in person, and you are often still paying for your own groceries.

So how realistic is this? I did a two-week trial of Sensei for Weight Loss and was pretty impressed. Personally, I am not a dieting person. I have never really dieted, and I believe more in a healthy lifestyle. I have always been interested in eating healthy and staying fit, so I was interested in what advice this site had to offer me.

Sensei allows you to choose all of your own settings and set a personal weight loss goal. You can pick from a few different healthy meal plans, like Mediterranean or a low-carb plan. You can set your fitness level and goals too. You are even given suggested exercises to change up your routine. My favorite part was that you can enter your current diet and include any foods you dislike. For instance, I do not eat red meat and dislike eggs but eat them in baked goods (I think it read my mind).

The site does give a lot of choices for meals, and I think it gives the most realistic and likeable ingredients I’ve seen on a site. All the recipes are easy to make, and they incorporated foods I actually like and eat all the time!

Sensei sends a weekly grocery list of all the foods from your meal planner for the week. It will be so specific to say 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 cup broccoli, etc.  I really liked how organized the list was, but part of me wished it were super-human. Don’t they know if I’m on the Mediterranean Diet I still have an entire bottle of  olive oil left over from last week? I guess the whole point of cooking for yourself is to go through your cabinets and see what you’ve got before going to the store.

The only other downside I saw was that you have to choose a meal-plan, and sometimes you don’t want Mediterranean food for every meal of the week. I wish the weekly meal plans had more variation, but you are able to change your settings if desired. Besides that, Sensei seems like your own personal nutritionist and fitness coach in your home. Yes, $15/month is a lot to pay a website, but think of how much you’re saving compared to other programs. Over $800 on Jenny Craig? Sensei  sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

For more tips from Sensei, click here for their 10 Tips to Help Lose Weight.

When you think of the 4th of July, like most people, you probably think, “Barbecue!”  Well, that’s not a bad thing, but so often, the only things people are ‘cueing are the opposite of heart-healthy and good-for-you foods.  Well, I found a great recipe for Avocado Soybean Veggie Burgers that we’re going to try for my niece, who happens to be a vegetarian.  All of us are going to have them, but that 23-year-old is the inspiration for the rest of us in the family.

Another thing many of us think of at summer holiday time is dessert, which happens to be my favorite “meal!”  That’s why, in trying to keep with our healthy-eating-for-the-4th theme, we’re going to make this yummy-sounding Cinnamon Banana Walnut Cake.  It’s not a barbecue without dessert, so we figured it could at least be better for us than most.

One of the most fun parts about cooking for holidays is involving my 2 1/2-year old son.  He just loves to cook, both in his pretend kitchen and for real with Mommy and Daddy.  For a recent family gathering, we made this awesome, Easy-Peasy Fruit Salad, and it was a huge hit!  My brother-in-law, who doesn’t even like fruit salad, loved it, and we had none to take home with us!  My son and I are making it again for tonight’s festivities, and I’m betting it will be a hit once again.

Hope everyone has a safe, happy Independence Day!

While family members of mine have tried Atkins and felt justified in consuming little more than steak and cottage cheese, I have cringed at the thought. Eating high-cholesterol red meat every day is just not healthy, especially when it means cutting out colorful fruits and vegetables. While I am not a vegetarian, I do go meatless around 3 times/week and eat fish at least once/week. This way, I eat plenty of vegetables and my grocery bill is MUCH lower. I am always playing around with the idea of going full meatless for environmental reasons, which is why this most recent diet caught my eye.

Recently, Professor David Jenkins from the University of Toronto, has proposed the idea of an Atkins diet for vegetarians. The Eco-Atkins diet relies on vegetable proteins, rather than animal proteins. In a study conducted by Jenkins, those on the diet lost about 1 pound/week, which is not staggering, but also showed a significant decrease in blood cholesterol. Eating vegetarian more often also has a clear-cut environmental advantage. According to a recent United Nations report, livestock production is one of the central factors in global warming, accounting for 18% of all green house gas emissions, more than all the cars and SUV’s of the world combined.

Those on Eco-Atkins primarily eat vegetable protein from soy, nuts and grains, and also eat soluble fiber such as oats and fresh fruit. Healthy fats such as avocado, olive oil and almonds are also an important part of the diet.

What do you think? Would you give it a try?

Living in Dublin, Ireland currently, I often miss all things American. Oprah’s magazine, O, is carried in our local bookstore so I occasionally pick up a copy. I’ve never really watched her show, but I do like the magazine. Unlike many women’s magazines, this magazine has really great stories and practical articles, such as financial advice. Very little of the magazine is devoted to BUY THIS BUY THAT, if you know what I mean. This month’s cover was also covered in puppies, so I HAD to buy it.

In the issue was a very interesting weight loss article by Martha Beck, which claims you can break your obsession with food and relax the weight off. Instead of focusing on food deprivation through dieting, which causes part of your brain to release stress hormones, the individual trying to lose weight must first undergo some psychological training. Beck cites a study going on through the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy school of psychology (ACT), which showed that people undergoing this training where more successful in losing weight. Basically, the idea is that you break the mental loop which makes you stress-out and obsess about food, and in turn discourage your body from storing more and more fat.

Check it out here! What do you think? Can someone lose weight through psychology alone?

I completely understand the motivation to engage in “detox” for periods of time, to reboot your system and start again with a more healthy way of life. Living in Ireland, I’ve done this with alcohol (obviously, haha) and sugar. Neither are particularly healthy, and I like the idea of erasing something from my diet for a period of time and slowly re-introducing in more moderate, healthy amounts. It’s a way of breaking unhealthy habits. I have never completely given up animal products (iron and protein are very important to your health) or bread. I don’t think it’s realistic or healthy to completely food categories from your diet. In addition, you will occasionally find sugar and/or alcohol in your cuisine at restaurants, and this shouldn’t mean you never eat out.

I was reading this post on a 5-week ayurvedic detox, in which the participant gave up caffeine, alcohol, animal products, sugar (at this point, not too bad), yeast (no bread at all then?) and sex (WHAT?!?!). This is definitely an example of going too far. Five weeks is a long time to go without any yeast or animal products, as many nutritionists would recommend eating red meat at least once per month for the iron.  I can imagine this left very little energy for exercise. In addition, isn’t (safe) sex an almost universally agreed-upon benefit for your health, not to mention its CENTRAL importance to your relationship? Sex is some some measure of exercise at the very least. I know that my partner would be deeply hurt on an emotional level if I even considered something like this.

What do you think? Is there any reason this is a good idea? I’m ready to be wrong!

Neatorama.com published their list of the 10 Craziest diets in history. It’s pretty thorough, however there are few that aren’t on there that I would recommend — basically anything involving starving yourself and/or not exercising, such as Juice Fasting or the Maple Syrup Diet.

Here’s  their list:

The Chewing Diet – Must chew each bite 32 times in 30 seconds and then let the food just trickle down your throat. Be prepared to never be asked out on a date again.

The Tapeworm Diet – Translate this one literally.  Yep, it’s for real.

The Sleeping Beauty Diet – If you’re asleep, you’re not eating. That is, unless you’re a sleep-eater.

The Vision Diet – With the aid of some unfortunate looking blue sunglasses, the goal is to make your food look unappealing.  No one has even attempted to scientifically prove this one in the slightest.

Wash Away Diet – Using a specific kind of soap made with seaweed, scrub away the pounds as the seaweed penetrates skin and breaks down fat. Again, science is not friends with this diet.

Ear Stapling – Allegedly, stapling the inner ear for 6 weeks to three months will suppress your appetite.  But at the same time, you’ll be the dummy with the staple in your ear. Do not attempt at home.

The Cotton Ball Diet – Popular with ballerinas, the consumption of cotton balls takes up space in the stomach without adding many calories.  This truly is crazy.

The Blood Type Diet – Eat based off foods that support your blood type.This could backfire however if you’re a type B, as the diet recommends lots of dairy intake, and you happen to be lactose intolerant.

The Hallelujah Diet – Follow the diet recommendations of the Old Testament.  Thousands of years ago, people were skinny…because they were starving!

The Caveman Diet – Similar to the Hallelujah Diet, only going even further back in history.  Basically you’re going vegan here, so enjoy the nuts and roots.

A diet that requires a commitment of about 3 minutes per day and allows you to eat whatever you want and still help you lose weight. Sound too good to be true? Well according to Michael Dow, creator of The Pen and Paper Diet, it isn’t. The Pen and Paper Diet is an easy plan that requires dieters to write down everything they eat and keep a log of how many calories they consume. Once they are used to maintaining a journal, The Paper and Pen Diet book will help determine an appropriate calorie budget for their weight loss goals. Dieters are then encouraged to try healthy foods and exercise, but are still permitted to eat whatever they want, as long as they stay within their calorie budget. Dow believes that making small changes – lowering your calorie intake a little bit at a time – is a realistic way for most people to lose weight.

Interested in learning more about The Pen and Paper Diet? Click here.

By now I thought I’d heard them all – vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian, but now there’s fruitarians?  Yep, a fruitarian is someone who believes in fruitarianism, eating only organic fruits, and sometimes seeds and nuts. Unlike vegan and vegetarian counterparts, fruitarians do not have to be 100% on par with their diet to still be considered a practicing fruitarian, instead they range from 50 to 75% all fruit diets. The overall concept behind fruitarians is that they do not eat anything that kills the plant when it is consumed. Avocados, tomatoes, zucchini (it’s a fruit!), apples, bananas, coconuts and eggplants are all examples of things a fruitarian can eat. Broccoli, spinach and asparagus are examples of things a fruitarian can not eat.  Many fruitarians believe their diet is the natural, human diet that Adam and Eve consumed in the Garden of Eden, while others are just aiming to avoid unnecessary killing at all costs.

While the fruitarian diet can increase a loss in weight, The Health Promotion Program at Columbia University has found that a fruitarian diet can lead to deficiencies in calcium, zinc, vitamin D, protein, most B vitamins, iron and necessary fatty acids.

What do you think? Is the fruitarian diet worth it and could you ever follow such dietary restrictions or is the Frutarian diet just a bunch of nonsense?

There are so many diets out there, it’s virtually impossible to determine which ones are worth pursuing and which ones are just fads. Part of what FaveDiets hopes to do for our readers is boil the diets down to the basics, so you can determine quickly whether a diet is right for you.

I recently read up on The Step Diet, and was impressed by the easy-to-follow plan that ANYONE can do. The basic idea is that you set a goal of walking 10,000 steps per day and cut all your meal portions by 1/4. It doesn’t matter what kind of physical shape you’re in, the plan allows you to start with small step goals and increase slowly. What I like most about this diet is you don’t necessarily have to set a lot of extra time aside to exercise. You can take the stairs at work instead of the elevator or park a little further away from a store or restaurant to get in a few extra steps. You can also mix up your routine with running, cycling or other aerobics, which can be converted into steps using the guide in the step diet book. If you’re interested in starting up the step diet, you can learn more here.