5 Best Ways to Lose Weight

1. Do not overeat. Food is good but only to a certain amount. Eating the right amount of food is a very hard challenge. You need to educate yourself to eat the right food at the right time. Always think that you are eating for a purpose. It’s to fuel your body so you have energy to do what needs to be done. You are not eating to enjoy food; you are eating because you need food.

2. Exercise – Move. Moving will make you lose weight. Other people never like the thought of exercising. Think of something you like to do such as dancing, hiking, biking, martial arts, stretching. If you have a toddler, you have so many ways to exercise and enjoy at the same time. Play with your toddler and do the same thing they are doing, you will be surprise how it will work for you. It’s the best bonding moment too.

Lose Weight

3. Drink water- Water works wonder. Not just for weight loss but health wise in general. Ideally you need to drink half of your weight in pounds number of oz in water. Let’s say you weigh 140lbs, ideally you are supposed to drink 70oz of water a day or more but not more than 120oz, more helpful hints. Try to have a glass of water beside you every time and drink every hour or two hours. Keeps you hydrated and may help you not think of food as much.

4. Set a realistic goal and be consistent about reaching it. To avoid getting disappointed set a realistic goal. Remember that losing weight is a lifestyle change not a temporary. Do not feel obligated to lose weight very soon coz it will put a pressure on you. Make small changes every day and be consistent with it. The weight will started to lose when you started living the right way. Try not to concentrate with numbers or figures. Set your ideal weight but do not set when you want to be there, start your changes and be consistent with reaching it.

5. Be stable emotionally. Be happy. Sleep right. Sleeping has a big impact with your emotion. Trying to get a good amount of sleep every night will help you concentrate with your goal for the next day. If you feel light and bubbly, it’s very easy to be happy. Start your day with a morning prayer, meet yourself in the bathroom with a smile and have a very optimistic day ahead of you.

Now you get a paper and right a promise to yourself. First write your goal. Let’s say my goal is to reach my ideal weight of _______lbs. Do not set when you want to be at your ideal weight to avoid pressure so we can concentrate with it.

Next is making a list of good food you may eat without guilt such as your favorite fruits or vegetables. Make also list of your favorite food that you know you can only eat in moderation, or better make them your cheat food. A food you can eat when you’ve reach certain small goal. The idea is knowing the food you like so you can still enjoy eating.

Lastly make an appointment with yourself. Set 30 minutes every day to move or 1 ½ hours three times a week whichever is applicable to you. This is a time you allotted to meet your goal. Losing weight is a job you need to take seriously. Do something good to feel good about yourself. Everything will start in you. Be kind to yourself.

Soultravelers3 Take an Extended Vacation: The Challenges and Rewards of the Extended Family Vacation

In Part I of this interview, Jeanne talked about their decision to take a family sabbatical vacation and some of the benefits for their daughter. Here she discusses some of the unique challenges and amazing experiences from their travels.

Q: What is the hardest part of being on a lengthy sabbatical with a child?

What is the hardest part of being on a lengthy sabbatical with a child

There are very few downsides, that i can think of. Some people might not like the extended time together, day in and day out, but we thrive on it and it is one of the biggest benefits in our way of thinking since childhood passes so fast. We are especially grateful for the time our daughter has with her father and how much easier life is with a young child, when both parents are around full time.

We adults do not get to linger at museums the way we might if we were just a couple, more helpful hints, we find ways around this often by taking turns. Dealing with English books and her two musical instruments are probably the biggest challenges, but we have managed to find ways around that as well. We were really missing English libraries, but then went to Ireland, UK and Scandinavia this year where we went to many and got our fill again! We also love online libraries which helps so much in non-English speaking countries.

Being away from relatives and friends is a downside, although we have found we are even closer now with our blog and talk almost daily with family via the internet and through free webcam calls using Skype. We also use Skype for her piano lessons even though her teacher is on another continent.

Our child is very outgoing and makes friends almost instantly with people of every age and despite language differences. Still, I do think a consistency and time for building solid friendships is important. That is why we travel for 6 or 7 months and remain in one area for 5 or 6 months. I just made this system up, but it works really well.

Q: What is your favorite memory of your travels?

What is your favorite memory of your travels

There are so very many favorite memories that it is very hard to pick one. I guess it would have to be our unnique expereince in the Sahara. Our 6 year old daughter rode into the orange dunes of the Sahara on a camel to play a violin for 60 Berber nomad children who had never seen a violin and live without running water. They were so excited by her visit and were clapping and singing French songs as she arrived.It was like a scene out of a movie and here we are just an ordinary family. They all loved playing together afterwards in the nearby oasis and we bought a nutritious snack for all of them.

The people there were so special and the Sahara is exceedingly beautiful, so that added to our overnight camel trek into the Sahara had to be our most cherished memory. We enjoyed getting to know a Berber family, visiting their house made from the earth and watching how they bake their bread in a community oven. The people live on almost nothing, but are so generous and pure hearted.

Q: What Advice Would You Give Others who would like to go on an extended travel experience such as yours?

Go for it, you will never regret it. Time flies by so fast with children, start saving and planning now for a trip of a lifetime. It is much easier and less expensive than most people realize. We live large on only 25, 000 dollars a year, despite spending most of our time so far in “expensive” Europe. If there is a will, there is a way. We found that travel is not really expensive, maintaining stuff is.

We love traveling by RV and renting places by the month off season, which really saves money.We actually live on much less traveling the world than we did living at home. We have lots of how-to information on our website and I encourage you to read all the information out there on taking sabbaticals and doing extended travel.

Q: What was Your Favorite Destination so far?

Gee, that is such a hard question because we have been to so many places that we have just loved that i do not think I could narrow it down to just one. Can I pick a few favorite destinations? We have become very attached to Spain since we have spent the most time there, speak the language and it is such a beautiful and diverse country with a culture that is nurturing for families. We adore all the festivals too and might even eventually settle down someday in Spain.

What was Your Favorite Destination so far

We also loved Croatia, Santorini, Capaddocia, much of France and Italy, Sweden, Turkey and Morocco. If I have to pick just one, I would have to say our experience in the Sahara and Fez in Morocco. We love the luxury, comfort and beauty of France, italy and Sweden, but the exotic travel in Morocco and Turkey was so thrilling that we want to do more of that! We had no idea that exotic travel could be so wonderful and educational for families.