by AJ Farro

Drizzled with heart-healthy extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkling of nutrient-rich flax seeds, your computer can be a crunchy, yet tasty part of your fat loss diet.  Wait a minute, that didn't come out right.  Let's try that again.

In a study conducted by the Center for Health Research at Kaiser Permanente, the August 2009 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine reported that using your computer to track what you eat can help you double your weight loss.  

The study showed that participants who tracked what they consumed throughout the day lost twice as much weight as those who didn't keep records.  Writing down what they ate encouraged them to eat fewer calories.  Plus, they were able to identify how extra calories were sneaking into their diets.  

Keeping a computer food diary  

Record keeping doesn't need to be complex.  Carry a small notebook or even a slip of paper in your pocket or purse.  Each time you eat or drink something, write down what was consumed and its portion size.  Then once a day enter it into your food diary on the computer.  

Food tips  

Put down the soda and reach for plain water, tea or coffee.  Eliminate sugar or cream to keep the calories low.  Flavor drinks with slices of lemon, lime, or orange or a sprinkling of cinnamon or nutmeg.  

Eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables.  Instead of reaching for those nutrient-low 100-calorie snack packs found in the grocery store snack isle, eat a piece of high fiber, nutrient-rich fruit or nibble on raw veggies like cauliflower, broccoli, rutabaga or carrots.  The fiber will also help you feel fuller, longer.  

If you must eat meat, eat lean white meat chicken or turkey or fish.  Did you know that vegetables like beans contain high amounts of protein, too?  

Exercise tips  

Skip the expensive gym membership.  Save time and money by increasing your activity with simple changes during the day.

• Take the stairs instead of the elevator.
• Park a little farther from the office or store.
• Instead of reading the paper or that romance novel on breaks, take a walk.
• Get up during commercials on TV and do a few reps with dumbbells or elastic resistance bands.
• Walk the dog or with family members or neighbors.  

Resources for doubling your weight loss

Create a food diary:  Diet Power weight loss tracking software can be used with any diet or exercise program.  There's no need to memorize calories in food or calories burned for an exercise.  Diet Power's database is stuffed with the nutritional information of thousands of foods and activities.  It's like having your own personal nutrtion coach.  Just select the item from the database and enter the portion you ate.  Diet Power will give you the calories, fat, vitamins, minerals, and macro-nutrient information.  You can also track your activity and Diet Power will tell you how many calories you've burned.  Create a diet plan by entering a few stats like your weight, height, and age.  Tell the software how much weight you want to lose and by when.  Every day after filling out your food and activity diary, the computer program will tell you how you're doing.  If you got off track, Diet Power will tell you want you need to get back into alignment.  Maybe you need to get more Vitamin C, go lighter on the fat, or walk a little longer.  You can download the software right now and try it out for free for 15 days.  No credit card needed.  After 15 days it just stops working.  If you like it, then make a one-time purchase to get the registration key to unlock the software to keep using it.

Elastic resistance bands:  If you thought doubling your weight loss just by using a food diary was cool, try adding some resistance strength training to your weight loss plan.  By strengthening your muscles, you'll make them more efficient at burning calories.  Did you know that muscles burn three times more calories than fat cells?  I recommend Bodylastics resistance bands.  They're like having an entire home gym system in a bag.  The bands are very light weight, but don't underestimate their power.  They come with complete exercise manual that's grouped by muscle group.  That makes it easy to design specific workouts.  The reason I like these bands so much is because they have clips on the ends and that allows you to clip multiple bands onto the handles for customized resistance.  So when curling for 15 reps becomes too easy, just up the resistance a little.  You can download a free 1-page Bodylastics quick-reference resistance band chart that will show you how to combine the bands.