You’re not alone. Eating when we are tired is one of the biggest derailers of diets and weight loss efforts. You can stay as strong as you want all morning, but by the afternoon…well, it’s a different story. Read my article on Suite101.com for some solutions that might very well help you over the hump—and keep those pounds falling off.

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Protein pancakes make it worth getting up in the mornings. These little weight loss breakfast goodies break the plus 30 gram protein mark (possibly even 40 grams) and are my fave!

The recipe? Since I’m not really good in the kitchen I tend to improvise a bit here and there. But the basics are:

• 1/3 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 tsp baking powder (sometimes I put more for extra fluffiness)
• 1/4 to 1/3rd scoop vanilla protein powder (I use egg protein powder since I can’t digest whey or soy)
• 1 packet Stevia
• 1/3 cup pure egg whites (I buy the kind with only egg whites – no other ingredients)

Throw together in blender (I use my old Magic Bullet – works fabulously).

Let sit to thicken a bit while you heat griddle, then cook ‘em up (sometimes I make several small ones, sometimes one bigger one).

Add a thin layer of peanut butter, a few spoonfuls of cottage cheese and some berries. And you, my friend, now have a healthy, substantial breakfast filled with protein and fiber. If you’re about to head out to exercise and have a craving for sweets, you can add just a very few 70% or above chocolate chips to satisfy your chocolate tooth.

(If you’re pressed for time you can prepare all the dry ingredients the evening before and just add the egg whites and cook in the a.m.. Or use less baking powder and make a thin “roll up” pancake that you can eat in the car. Want more? Sign up for my free newsletter – where weight loss is made to fit into your busy life.)

Enjoy! And onward.

~Helen

You don’t have to suffer for weight loss and fitness results, but you do—at some point—have to pay the piper and buckle down. Nothing in life is free, and nothing good in life comes without some sacrifice.

Live your life as your own champion by making a commitment and sticking to it. It’s worth a little sacrifice to be able to face yourself.

~Onward

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Weight loss can be easy, but it’s also easy to make mistakes that will wreck your plans for a healthier body. See if you are making these common mistakes, fix them, and watch your efforts to lose weight reignite. “Bullet proof” yourself with these tips from my column “The Fit Life.”

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(Written for LA’s the Place.)

The 5 Weight Loss Mistakes Your Are Making Right Now

They might not be deadly sins, but there are five mistakes easily made when trying to lose weight. Some of these might seem like common sense, but you might also be surprised how many of these weight loss follies you are currently making.  Ready to see where you stand?

5. Skimping on Meals

Contrary to what we commonly believe, “starving ourselves thin” can actually stall your weight loss efforts.

When you eat too few calories your body thinks it’s starving and goes into “fat conservation mode” instead of “fat burning mode”. The smart machine that it is, your body knows something is up when you drastically cut calories and begins to slow your metabolism. The less you eat, the less you burn and the less weight you lose.

The solution: Eat a minimal number of calories to keep your metabolism going. Unless medically supervised, the generally recognized safe lower limits are 1,200 calories per day for women and 1800 calories per day for men. Don’t fear gaining weight if your metabolism has slowed down. A few weeks of “proper” amounts of food will get your body back on track.

4. Skipping Meals

Do you eat two or three meals a day and wonder why you’re not losing weight? You’re not alone. Another common weight loss mistake is not eating often enough.  Not eating regularly can not only slow down your metabolism, but also leave you feeling so starved you’re more likely to reach for those donuts or the bag of chips.

The solution: Eating five or so times per day (three smaller meals and two to three healthy snacks) keeps your metabolism running smoothly. It also stabilizes your blood sugars, which helps you stay alert, gives you more energy and puts you in a better mood.

3. Not Skipping at All

Many people ignore a main key to weight loss: Exercise. Any time you diet you inevitably lose some muscle. Muscle uses more calories per pound than fat does as you go about even your basic daily activities, You go on a diet, you lose weight, you lose muscle, you burn fewer calories, you gain weight.

The solution: Find a way—any way—to fit exercise into your day. 10 minutes here and 10 minutes there are better than nothing, and it all adds up. The most important way to keep your metabolism up? Strength training. Whether you lift weights, work with kettlebells, exercise tubing, strenuous yoga, or machines, firming up those muscles will not only help you lose weight, but will also keep the weight off.

2. Scratching Favorite Foods Off Your List

For the very short term it’s entirely possible to cut out your favorite foods or drink, but in the long run eliminating everything you like from your diet will lead to certain weight loss failure. Never indulging will leave you feeling deprived, causing you to binge or go off your diet.

The Solution: Moderation. Eat a healthy diet 85% of the time, and allow 15% for “less than perfect” foods. (I don’t use the word “bad” to describe foods as no foods are truly bad… it’s all in how you use them.) Try to put some balance into your life and let yourself live every now and then—just don’t overdo it. If the weight is not coming off, then be a bit stricter and schedule in less frequent indulgence. Eat to live—don’t live to eat—but also take a moment to enjoy.

1. Not sleeping enough.

Not getting those pesky zzzzs can really affect your waistline. Watch your food and exercise all you want, but if you regularly don’t sleep enough you are asking for weight loss trouble. The hormone that makes you feel full takes a dive when  you are sleep-deprived, while the hormone that tells you to eat ramps up. What does that spell? Hunger… and difficulty adhering to your plan to lose weight.

The solution: Try going to bed earlier. The sleep you get before midnight is more important than the sleep after, so try to get to bed a bit earlier. See if you can clock an extra 30 minutes every night for a week and then bump it up to an hour. If you’re not sleeping enough, that extra hour can really make a difference in your weight loss.

There you have it—five common mistakes with five simple solutions. Try to incorporate these into you daily life, step-by-step, and watch those pounds melt away.

We all say, “Someday.”

Someday we will lose weight. Someday we will take control of our lives. Someday we will get healthier, stop smoking, exercise, eat more veggies, play with our kids, go to the beach, ride our bikes.

“Someday” will never come unless you make it.

Will you make today your “someday?” Or will you wait?

~Onward

What are you willing to give up to lose weight? Think about it for a second.

Are you willing to give up that second serving of food, the chocolate chip cookie, the extra glass of wine, the 15 minutes of sleep, or the 1 hour of television?

What is being fit and healthy worth to you?

There is no magic in weight loss. You can’t have your cake and be thin, too. You have to pick and choose – what you want and what you are willing to give up to get it. You don’t have to give up everything “fun,” but you’ll need to set priorities and decide what’s important. Otherwise, we go nowhere.

Onward.

~Helen

I, too, feel the bloat, so here are some of my previous blog posts on weight loss resolutions and staying with it. Time to read my own work, he he. Enjoy…and have a great, brand-spankin’ new year!

Sticking to Weight Loss Resolutions

Keeping Weight Loss Resolutions – The Beginning

Keeping Weight Loss Resolutions – Sticking With It

New Year’s Weight Loss Resolutions

The secret to weight loss is summed up by this one quote above: You’ve got to want it badly enough. Period.

This Holiday season is the perfect time to see how badly you really want it. Instead of eating with abandoned at every Holiday function, ask yourself one simple little question before you reach for that extra serving: “How badly do I want it?” If you take more cookies than you should, then you’ve learned a valuable truth: You don’t want it badly enough. And there’s nothing wrong with that. When you are ready, when you really want it more than anything else, you will succeed. That’s what happened to me – and how I lost 80 pounds. I wanted to be healthy and fit…more than anything else.

Do you?

Onward.

~Helen