Tips to cook in a healthier way without missing the good taste!

Hi guys I know it's been a while I didn't post and many of you are waiting for a new post! I hope you enjoy this one, as I think it's very useful for everyone, man and woman! We love food, but it has to be healthy and low in calories, without missing the taste and the smell!! Yummy let's eat! ;) but let's also lose some weight and gain health!

1-     Use 1 teaspoon of oil for cooking or better use oil spray, but never poor the oil directly on the pan without measuring the quantity. This will help avoid pouring a huge quantity, don’t forget every teaspoon of oil has 45 kcal, so if you add oil without counting you can pour easily 300, 500 kcal without noticing.

2-     Frying is the worst way to cook, always opt for grilling, boiling, baking in oven and always vary the way you cook so you and your family never get bored. So if today you boiled the potato, then during the weekend you can grill it. You can vary the shape also, so if one day you grill oval slices of potato, another day you can cut them like French fries, use some oil spray and put in oven! Sometimes cook sweet potato instead of regular potato which is full of fiber if with skin and full of vitamin A anti-cancer food!

3-     So always vary the shape and way you cook, even if it’s the same food for example like we said for potato. Another example is pasta. You have a million types of pasta so if this week you cooked spaghetti, next time do tagliatelle or penne for example, you have tricolor fusilli pasta too, and you should change so you never get bored.

4-     Use tomato sauce instead of white sauce. Use light crème fraiche instead of full fat, but 1 box not 2. Use low fat milk or yogurt instead of full fat to make the sauce. Never use butter, or if you insist, use the light one, good for the heart with omega 3, and just 1 teaspoon.

5-     Increase the consumption of fiber when cooking: use whole wheat rice and pasta, whole wheat flour instead of white. Grill the potato or sweet potato with the skin. Use whole wheat, burghul, couscous. You can add flaxseeds too to increase the consumption of fiber, remembering that fibers help you feel full, lose weight and decrease heart disease risk among other benefits.

6-     Vary your salads and fruits too! Everyday eat a different salad and different fruits so you will eat from the different kinds of vitamins and antioxidants that fruits and vegetables has to offer us, the most important is to vary the colors always! Red, yellow, green, purple, all give a different vitamin and antioxidant! Also change the way you cut your veggies so for example if today you cut your carrots in slices tomorrow shred it!

7-     Use all kinds of spices and herbs; they will add taste to your food and no calories! Reduce salt quantities and increase onions, garlic, tomato, mushrooms, bell peppers, oregano, paprika, curry, saffron, 7 spices, cinnamon, rosemary, ginger, basil, curcuma and more, all of them bring a health benefit to your body they are full of antioxidants!

8-     Use specific pans to cook that are stainless steel, those that don’t make you lose vitamins and those that don’t allow food to stick!

9-     It is better to cut the greens and fruits in big sizes to avoid vitamin and antioxidant loss! Also, better to cut with hands than with knife!

10-  When you remove food from the freezer, don’t let it cool in the room, either: cool it in the fridge, or under cold water, or in the microwave to avoid bacteria

Samia Khoury Dietitian

     

How to prepare your body for pregnancy!

Attention all ladies who want to become a mom one day! Here are some tips to prepare your body for a healthy and easy pregnancy!

Whether you’re a teenager dreaming to have a baby or an already married woman planning to have a baby someday, these recommendations are useful for you regardless of your age to prepare you for the big day. These recommendations will pacify your fear of pregnancy and delivery and prepare your body for an easier pregnancy and lesser pain delivery! So follow them and enjoy an easy and healthy pregnancy and delivery!

1) Lose the extra weight: if you are overweight, start planning to lose weight, and if needed, seek the help of a dietitian.  Being overweight during pregnancy increases the risk of developing gestational diabetes, hypertension and varize. Accumulation of fat happens easily during pregnancy and being overweight will lead to a tough final stage of pregnancy. The best solution is to lose weight before becoming pregnant and make sure you are in your ideal body weight range.

2) Stop smoking: When you stop smoking you have better chances to become pregnant. Some studies even show that smoking decreases male fertility!! Men also benefit from this recommendation! Smoking increases the risk of premature delivery, complications during pregnancy, babies with low weight and sudden death syndrome in the babies! What is worse is that this affects, to some extent, passive smoker, so stay away from smoking in public places!

3) Moderate your drinking intake: If you are someone who consumes lots of alcohol, start learning to moderate your intake so you can easily stop drinking when you become pregnant. Alcohol and babies don’t go well together since alcohol can also affect a baby’s weight and can cause serious problems like cardiac diseases, problems with uterine fetal growth and even problems in cerebral development!

4) Change the quality of food you eat: if you are one of those people who diet on fast foods, sweets, and drink lots of high sugar juices and soft drinks, and don’t eat homemade foods, you probably lack most of the nutrients you need to become pregnant and to have a healthy and easy pregnancy! By the way eating healthy increases the chances of becoming pregnant! That includes 5 meals a day: breakfast, lunch, diner, and snacks between main meals composed of whole wheat complex carbohydrates, low fat protein sources, beans and cereals, raw walnuts and almonds, fruits and vegetables, low-fat milk and derivatives, in the right quantities.

When you start nourishing your body, you will provide it with vital reserves of nutrients like iron, calcium and folic acid (vit B9) among other nutrients. Those are crucial from the very beginning for the creation of the baby.

·         Iron:

You’ll need a lot of iron to create the volume of blood of your baby. Make sure you have a good iron stock before becoming pregnant by consuming iron-rich food sources like meat, poultry, fish, beans and dark green leaves, along with a vitamin C food source to ensure better iron absorption (like kiwi, bell peppers, orange, broccoli etc…)

·         Calcium:

Start consuming 3 portions of low fat milk and its derivatives daily & white beans and sardines weekly for a good stock of calcium to guarantee a good skeleton for your baby and a good heart function for yourself during pregnancy and delivery.

·         Folic Acid (vitamin b9):

It is important to consume folic acid daily 3 month prior to pregnancy to avoid the risk of neural tube defect in your baby and a premature birth. Found in spinach, walnuts, almonds, melon, broccolis, beets, egg, avocado

Also avoid consumption of fried food, fatty and sugary foods. They will make you gain unwanted excess weight and will rob important vitamins and minerals needed by your body!

5) Exercising: Swimming, aerobics and walking are important for an easy pregnancy and for an easy delivery. You would gain less weight, strengthen the body for childbirth and also reduce anxiety.

Physical activity before pregnancy will:

- Increase the chances of a normal and fast delivery without complications and without pain because the mother will have a better muscular and cardio respiratory resistance

- improve the hormonal and body changes during pregnancy without pain and anxiety

- avoid blood pressure and high blood sugar

- reduce stress

- help you get back to your initial weight before pregnancy

- help you have more balance to adapt to your new weight

- good for your heart and lungs decreasing dizziness, bloating, varize and tiredness as well as pain in hands and feet

Physical activity will help also during delivery. How?

- Increases your energy levels and you’ll be ready for the energy you need to push the baby out

- You become resistant and more tolerant to pain due to the production of endorphins, a natural analgesic produced by the body

- Avoids complications after delivery like urinary infections

These are a few examples how exercising and a healthy eating pattern can help you have an easy pregnancy and delivery without pain, fear, overweight and other complications.

Samia Khoury Dietitian
Online Diet Consultation available wherever you live

www.samiakhoury.com
Email: samia.khoury@gmail.com
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Include foods full of water in your menus and stop feeling hungry !!!

It's amazing how certain fruits and vegetables contain so much fluid in their composition!

These foods have low energy density, i.e. they increase the volume of your diet without adding calories!! And this increasing of the volume makes you feel full ! Isn't that amazing? Feeling full without adding too much calories!! That's a dream coming true to all of us who like to stay full but don't want to gain weight!

A nice way to make the most of the vegetables that have lots of water in their composition like cucumber, lettuce, tomato, celery, carrots, watercress, cauliflower, zucchini,  is to add them to recipes originally more fattening: you can make a Zucchini quiche, for example, alone it will not increase a lot your calorie intake, rather than a quiche stuffed with bacon, you know ;)

Fruits like pineapple, pear, apple, melon, watermelon, banana, mango are also rich in water, include them in your diet but in small quantities because they also contain their natural sugar, and in large quantities will make you gain weight. Eat 2 or 3 per day, it's enough.

Eat lots vegetables and drink lots of water and herbal teas, between meals to keep yourself full, so you ll not overeat, snack, and won't gain weight!

Hope this tip will help you stop feeling constantly hungry !!!

Best!

Samia Khoury Dietitian

Tips to help you start a diet!

Hola everyone!

Here are 7 things you MUST know and do to start your diet and win the battle over the scale!

1- Control your stress to avoid eating compulsively (by Praying, by doing relaxation massages, etc...I have a post in another page you can look for a whole article on how to de-stress)

2- Maintain a food diary: Everyday write what you are eating, it will help you realize how much you eat and will help you in portion control

3- Find support: your family, your friends, look for a dietitian, a sport trainer, your colleagues at work: we're all here to help you achieve your goals. We're all ready, are you?

4- Get yourself busy: stay busy busy busy so you won't have time to think of food! walk, read, play, work, call a friend, clean the house, go out to the mall, do a charity action, go to the mass, etc...

5- Hoover your house from sweets and all the yummy stuff! That's for sure a first step to do!!! You need to get out of your sight all the things you love to eat and that make you gain weight like chips, mixed nuts, juices, alcohol, butter, sweets, etc...and keep your house full of fruits and vegetables from all the different colors!!!

6- When you eat out: Always order from the light menu and save 500-1000 calories each time! Don't order a desert or if you insist, share it with 2 or 3 persons!

7- If you go to a party, wedding, barbecue... before leaving home have a snack like a fruit, a few toasts with low fat cheese, a closed handful of nuts for example; they may take a long time to serve and you'll be hungry like a lion and eat everything you see in front of you. Before you start eating in these places, first see what they have and select what you actually want to eat, without overdoing it. It is very important to scan all the buffet and then select so you avoid eating more than what you should. Take it this way: It not the last time you will be invited, so no need to abuse! :)

Yalla now you are ready to start a diet! :)

Samia Khoury Dietitian

How to gain weight?

Yeah I know J you must be smiling if you are someone who actually wants to lose weight J

The thing is…so many people suffer because they want to gain weight, so they also deserve a few tips to boost their mood and motivate them to actually do something about their shape!

So if you need to gain weight, you need to be very patient! You need to eat more than what you burn, so every 7700 kcal you eat more you can gain 1 kg. I know, maybe you don’t have a big appetite and it sounds a lot to you, but maybe you are someone who eats a lot and don’t gain a gram either….many people would say you are lucky because it means you have a very high metabolism, which also means you need to drink and eat way more than your high metabolism!

The golden rule is to eat 3 main meals and 3 snacks, each separated by 3 hours!

The main meals should be composed of a carbohydrate source (pasta, rice, bread, potato, beans, and peas) and a protein source (meat, chicken, fish, turkey, egg, cheese) and vegetables, and a fruit.

The snacks can be composed of 2 or 3 of the followings: low fat milk, juices, low fat ice cream, chocolate, cereal bars, walnuts and almonds and cajou, dried fruits, a homemade desert, a low fat milkshake, honey, avocado, jam

Important note: It’s not because you need to gain weight that you need to eat bad quality of food. So ban fried food and very sugary sweets, as well as saturated and trans fats like in whole milk and derivatives, chips, butter, cookies etc…Choose low fat milk and low fat cheeses to preserve your heart health

It’s important to gain weight in a healthy and safe way!

Strength muscle exercises are a must and must be followed by a calculated diet with the right amount of foods to increase weight without missing any of the nutrients your body needs! Don’t forget to drink lots of water too!

Be patient, you can’t gain more than 0.5 kg or max 1 kg per week, otherwise you will be gaining fat only and not muscle. The purpose of a balanced diet is to gain weight from muscle source with the help of strength training and a balanced diet composed of whole wheat carbohydrates, lean protein and low fat in the right quantities. If needed, seek the help of a dietitian and a trainer, and soon you will see your body with a whole new shape! And HEALTHY above all!

Samia Khoury Dietitian

How to accelerate weight loss?

You want the truth? The only one? The quickest way to lose weight is not cheating on the diet...

When you cheat on the diet, let's say you consume a meal with pizza fries desert and they add up to more than 3000 calories...you need to know that each 3500 cal you eat more than what you burn or more than what the dietitian prescribed to you to lose weight, you will gain 0.5 kg.

And they add up so quickly, you'll never believe it! Sometimes you think: "but it's nothing, I just nibbled on a handful of mixed nuts, and the other day I ate a slice of cake, it was the birthday of my friend, and you know one night we were sitting and everybody was eating, so I shared with them a pack of chips"...all that believe me will add up and interfere with your weight loss

so if you keep on cheating, today this, and in 4 days ice cream, the other day biscuits and chocolates, they will add up, and you will slow your weight loss.

Be strict, follow strictly your diet, and once a week or every 10 days alllow yourself with a meal you enjoy, either salty or sweet, but anything more will slow your weight loss, and you will get mad for not seeing good results on the scale or with measurements and will probably want to stop dieting, and stopping the diet is never the solution, because you will again want to lose weight in a few months or the year after, and will face the same problem

Decide now that you want to face this diet today, and have the body you always wished for, and keep a good health!

And I am here to help you face it!

Cheers!

Samia Khoury Dietitian

Exercises to Shape your arms!

Many of my clients ask me:” Samia what can I do to have firm arms with a beautiful shape?” So I thought sharing this series of exercises will be a good and illustrated answer! J Do them regularly and see quick results!

It says you can start with a weight of 1 kg and step by step increase the weight according to how easy the previous weight becomes

Do 3 series of each exercise with 15 repetitions each while keeping your abs contracted!

1. For the Biceps muscles

Standing, your legs are parallel and semi-bent, your arms are initially at your sides, holding weights with your palms facing forward. Bend one arm at a time towards the shoulder and return to starting position.

2. For the shoulders

Standing, your legs are parallel, with arms at your sides, your hands holding the weights. Raise your arms sideways aligning with your shoulder and return to the starting position

3. For the “tchau” (Byebye) muscle

Your legs are semi-bent, your arms are stretched above your head and your hands are holding the weight. Bend your elbows 90 degrees and slowly return to starting position. Keep your arms slightly bent.

4. For the Fist :

 Now you are sitting. Rest your forearm on a flat surface, leaving only your hand without support. Hold a weight with your palm facing up. Bend your wrist and back. Repeat with the palm down. Do the same with the other hand.

Translated from:  http://mdemulher.abril.com.br/dieta/reportagem/atividade-fisica/exercicios-definir-bracos-609379.shtml

Samia Khoury Dietitian

Feed your Skin healthy food and see it young and beautiful

Our skin reflects what is going on inside of our bodies. For that reason we should pay special attention to both the external and internal needs of our skin. Healthy skin can be obtained by using appropriate skin care products, but these can be used to remedy the effects of too much sun exposure, lack of sleep, pollution, the Air Conditioner and even stress. Starting to feed your skin from inside and abstaining from alcohol and smoking can take you a long way towards having healthier skin.

You should know that your skin is constantly under attack by free radicals − causing wrinkles and other signs of aging. The existence of these enemies is sometimes not avoidable and you can combat them by consuming antioxidant food sources on a daily basis!

So which vitamins and minerals in foods do you need to keep your skin healthy and looking its best? (Most of them, by the way, are also antioxidants)

-         Vitamins A (in most yellow-orange fruits and dark green leafs), Vit B (and particularly biotin in eggs, oatmeal, banana), Vit C (strawberry, bell peppers, broccoli, citrus fruits) and Vit E (in nuts, oils, seeds). It is important to know that Vit C helps in collagen formation which gives elasticity to your skin and acts like a natural lifting agent!

-          Minerals Selenium (whole-grain cereals, seafood, garlic and eggs.) and zinc (oysters, lean meat and poultry)

-         Omega 3 (in flaxseed, salmon, sardines and mackerel)

-         Polyphénols (like grape seeds and red wine)

So you could choose foods containing these vitamins and minerals and include them in your daily diet, for example: 10 strawberries, 4 walnuts, 1 table spoon of olive oil, 1 table spoon of oat or flaxseeds, and 2 or 3 carrots per day!

Following the healthy way includes eating the right foods to nourish your skin coupled with regular physical exercises to ensure good blood circulation, good sleep, and the use of day creams and make up with solar protection will protect your skin from being damaged and would combat aging! A toast to a beautiful healthy skin coming from the inside to the outside!

Samia Khoury Dietitian

The difficulties and the joys of winning the war against the scale!

After all, reaching the desired weight is a victory!

The success of any weight loss program depends extremely on family support. In fact, people who live with you often unconsciously ruin your plan to change bad habits. Maybe It is your mother who prepares a chocolate cake, or your boyfriend/girlfriend who brings you a box of chocolates, or your husband/wife that wants you to share a bottle of beer…they don’t do it with a bad intention, believe me!

The problem is that food has different values ​​and meanings. It can be a used as a meaning to please or get together. That is why it seems so hard to stand firm when your favorite aunt ensures that eating “just a bite” will not make you fat ...

The solution in this case is to be honest. Clarify to them your goal. Ask everyone to cooperate with you, stimulate change and encourage your progress.
Or if they can’t help, at least, ask them not to ruin your diet!

Remember to tell everyone that during the diet the house has to be free of sweets - especially those representing the greatest temptation for you. The idea is that at the end of the diet, you re-educated yourself how to eat and you are now able to eat “just a bite "... But at the beginning of the diet, the best strategy might be not risking it so just keep the temptations out of your sight!

If you still cannot resist a chocolate, then you don’t have to buy it!

Once your goal is conquered, another key factor is the maintenance period. That new weight you have achieved is not yet "a part of you". Your metabolism will keep for a while the "memory" of your previous weight.

The point is that your body maintains characteristics of its ancestors. Hence, your body faces the loss of weight as a health threat and tends to store as much energy (read fat) to compensate for the loss.

You need to be patient and allow some time for your body to adapt to the new reality. Therefore, when you reach the desired weight, do not stop practicing the healthy lifestyle you adopted during weight loss

Important note: the maintenance period should be proportional to the number of kg lost. For example: if you lost 1 kg, to maintain it you must control for 1 month. If you lost 10 kg, the maintenance should last 10 months to help your body adapt to your new weight, otherwise very quickly you’ll regain all, or more than before

Anyway always remember that to get to the desired weight is a victory!

The goal is to change your bad habits and take a new attitude towards your health. Of course you will be allowed a few meals and snacks outside diet, but when you learn to deal with the excess, everything will be under control! Think about it!

Take every minute as a learning experience that will accompany you for life.
Wish you all the Success!

Translated from: http://www.emex.com.br/mulher/mulher/id/1082/r/as-dificuldades-e-as-delicias-de-vencer-a-guerra-contra-a-balanca

I particularly LOVED to share this post with you guys because it simply says everything I keep saying everyday to my clients and it’s exactly the way it works for diet and maintenance! It’s just a question of you deciding what you want, and then the rest we can work on it easily with a bit of patience and constant motivation! You can do it! Let’s do it!

ps: Just for some of you who lost motivation when reading that maintenance needs that much time: Think like this ---> is it better to keep the excess weight you have, and each year start again dieting and stopping and regaining all, or is it better to think well "now I am 30 or 40 or 50"- whatever your age is - if you do a proper diet with a proper maintenance even if it sounds long, think:" I can start start a whole new life when I am 31 or 41 or 51"

Samia Khoury Dietitian

Are you a Red Hot Chilli Pepper person?

Adding ½ teaspoon of chilli pepper (spicy ones) to your meals can help you lose weight. According to a study published in Physiology & Behavior by scientists from Purdue University, USA, capsaicin Capsaicin, a substrate of spicy chilli peppers, reduces appetite and increases caloric expenditure!!!

"We found that consuming red chilli pepper helps people to eat less and burn more calories after meals,” says Richard Mattes, the study coordinator. "This is even more effective in individuals who do not regularly consume these kind of peppers."

Previous research has encouraged consumption of capsaicin as a supplement. But according to Mattes’ team, ingesting the pepper in the natural form optimizes the effects on the diet. "The burning in the mouth” effect is responsible for raising the temperature of the body which burns more calories and controls appetite, "he says.

Frequency - According to the study, those who ate the chili a few times a week were less hungry, especially for fatty foods, salty or sweet. "This suggests that the stimulus when it is not familiar to the body has a more powerful effect. But when it becomes a routine, its efficiency is reduced, "says Mattes.

Translated from: http://veja.abril.com.br/noticia/saude/pimenta-reduz-o-apetite-e-aumenta-queima-calorica

I want to add that some for people who cannot eat spicy foods  -- people with high acidity reflux in stomach or bloating, please avoid. There are many other tricks and tips to lose weight without harming your system!

Samia Khoury Dietitian

Series of exercises to have a firm buttocks and legs!

In a previous post I showed you some exercises you can do to have a firm tummy. Hope you are practicing them and for those who didn’t see that post, just go a bit back and you’ll find it. If you are following or looking forward to start a low-calorie diet and a balanced eating pattern, exercising is a must to see perfect results! Here are some great exercises for a beautiful buttocks and envious legs!

Do 3 series of 20 repetitions for each of the 4 exercises. In 4 weeks you will start noticing an amazing difference in your body!

1. Standing, legs are parallel and apart, one ahead of the other and holding a pair of dumbbells of 2 to 3 kg. With the back foot positioned on bended tip, bend both legs until touching the knee on the ground.  When you finish this series, repeat with the other leg.

Good for: posterior part of the legs and buttock

2. With knee and elbows on the floor and weights in your legs of 2 to 5 kg. Raise the bent leg, 90 °, with the foot toward the ceiling, and go back down. When you finish this series, repeat with the other leg

Good for: Buttock

3. Lying on the side with weight on your feet of 2-4 kg. Keep the leg that is on the floor half bent and lift the other leg the maximum you can. Then bend the knee of the lifted leg and bring it in the direction of the arm resting on the floor

Good for: Hips

4. Standing, legsare parallel and apart, holding a pair of dumbbells of 2 to 3 kg. squat down until the dumbbells touch the floor.

Good for: Legs and buttock


http://mdemulher.abril.com.br/dieta/reportagem/atividade-fisica/exercicios-bumbum-pernas-durinhos-623476.shtml

Samia Khoury Dietitian

Fun activities you can do during the week end to burn some calories off !

So you are not the kind of person who likes to join a gym or exercise at home, but you know the benefits of physical activity. Well here are some activities you can do and enjoy while burning off some calories to lose or maintain your weight!

1)      Walk in the mall

2)      Play with your kids

3)      Walk the dog out

4)      Play soccer in the park with friends

5)      Play tennis with a friend

6)      Go horse back riding with your partner or friends

7)      Swim in the sea with a friend or partner

8)      Dance in a party instead of just sit eat or drink

9)      Bicycling with a bunch of friends

10)  Hiking with a group of people

No more excuses now to stay sedentary and accumulate fat, stress and all sorts of diseases! Any activity counts!

Samia Khoury Dietitian

Feeling stressed? Here are 10 simple steps to help de-stress!!

Hi everyone. Nowadays stress is everywhere in our lives and that not only directly leads to dreadful diseases but also to overeating which also leads to many diseases. Please read and work day by day on each point to slowly start de-stressing and in turn compulsively eat less, lose weight, improve your overall health and be in a good mood.

The below is an excerpt from HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL:

There is no shortage of angst-inducing news these days: natural disasters, economic woes, political unrest. Add to this backdrop stresses in our personal lives, layoffs, illnesses, money woes, temper tantrums, and traffic jams, and it is clear that stressful situations are constant and inevitable.

Just as serious as the stressors themselves are the adverse effects stress can have on your emotional and physical health. Many well-respected studies link stress to heart disease and stroke — the No. 1 and No. 3 causes of death, respectively, in the United States. Stress is also implicated in a host of other ailments such as depression and anxiety, chronic lower respiratory diseases, asthma flare-ups, rheumatoid arthritis, and gastrointestinal problems.

Stress is not all bad. Your perception of a real or imagined threat can spark the stress response, which prepares the body to fight or flee. That swift reflex was encoded in you for survival. Thanks to the stress response, you might suddenly jump out of the path of a speeding car or flee from a burning house. But when your stress response is evoked repeatedly, your body experiences unnecessary wear and tear — such as high blood pressure — that can lead to poor health.

Even if you only have a few minutes to spare, the stress-busting suggestions described below can make your days calmer, if not easier.

Take the sting out of 10 common stressors

Sometimes just thinking about embarking on a program of stress control can be stressful. Rather than freeze in your tracks, start small and bask in the glow of your successes. Give yourself a week to focus on practical solutions that could help you cope with just one stumbling block or source of stress in your life. Pick a problem, and see if these suggestions work for you.

1) Frequently late? Apply time management principles. Consider your priorities (be sure to include time for yourself) and delegate or discard unnecessary tasks. Map out your day, segment by segment, setting aside time for different tasks, such as writing or phone calls. If you are overly optimistic about travel time, consistently give yourself an extra 15 minutes or more to get to your destinations. If lateness stems from dragging your heels, consider the underlying issue. Are you anxious about what will happen after you get to work or to a social event, for example? Or maybe you’re trying to jam too many tasks into too little time.

2) Often angry or irritated? Consider the weight of cognitive distortions. Are you magnifying a problem, leaping to conclusions, or applying emotional reasoning? Take the time to stop, breathe, reflect, and choose.

3) Unsure of your ability to do something? Don’t try to go it alone. If the problem is work, talk to a co-worker or supportive boss. Ask a knowledgeable friend or call the local library or an organization that can supply the information you need. Write down other ways that you might get the answers or skills you need. Turn to CDs, books, or classes, for example, if you need a little tutoring. This works equally well when you’re learning relaxation response techniques, too.

4) Overextended? Clear the deck of at least one time-consuming household task by hiring help. If you can, hire a housecleaning service, shop for groceries through the Internet, convene a family meeting to consider who can take on certain jobs, or barter with or pay teens for work around the house and yard. Consider what is truly essential and important to you and what might take a backseat right now.

5) Not enough time for stress relief? Try mini-relaxations. Or make a commitment to yourself to pare down your schedule for just one week so you can practice evoking the relaxation response every day. Slowing down to pay attention to just one task or pleasure at hand is an excellent method of stress relief.

6) Feeling unbearably tense? Try massage, a hot bath, mini-relaxations, a body scan, or a mindful walk. Practically any exercise — a brisk walk, a quick run, a sprint up and down the stairs — will help, too. Done regularly, exercise wards off tension, as do relaxation response techniques.

7) Frequently feel pessimistic? Remind yourself of the value of learned optimism: a more joyful life and, quite possibly, better health. Practice deflating cognitive distortions. Rent funny movies and read amusing books. Create a mental list of reasons you have to feel grateful. If the list seems too short, consider beefing up your social network and adding creative, productive, and leisure pursuits to your life.

8) Upset by conflicts with others? State your needs or distress directly, avoiding “you always” or “you never” zingers. Say, “I feel _____ when you _____.” “I would really appreciate it if you could _____.” “I need some help setting priorities. What needs to be done first and what should I tackle later?” If conflicts are a significant source of distress for you, consider taking a class on assertiveness training.

9) Worn out or burned out? Focus on self-nurturing. Carve out time to practice relaxation response techniques or at least indulge in mini-relaxations. Care for your body by eating good, healthy food and for your heart by seeking out others. Give thought to creative, productive, and leisure activities. Consider your priorities in life: is it worth feeling this way, or is another path open to you? If you want help, consider what kind would be best. Do you want a particular task at work to be taken off your hands? Do you want to do it at a later date? Do you need someone with particular expertise to assist you?

10) Feeling lonely? Connect with others. Even little connections — a brief conversation in line at the grocery store, an exchange about local goings-on with a neighbor, a question for a colleague — can help melt the ice within you. It may embolden you, too, to seek more opportunities to connect. Be a volunteer. Attend religious or community functions. Suggest coffee with an acquaintance. Call a friend or relative you miss. Take an interesting class. If a social phobia, low self-esteem, or depression is dampening your desire to reach out, seek help. The world is a kinder, more wondrous place when you share its pleasures and burdens.

I often suggest to my clients to take one task at a time, and while doing one task don't think of the million other tasks you still have to finish. Believe me this will save you from a big stress! I also tell them like in tip 7 to create and write down everyday a few positive things about yourself. Everyday when you wake up write something you like about you, this is really great for raising self-esteem and starting a good day!

And I want to add 2 more suggestions: 1 is to SMILE even if you don't want to, the movement of smiling will make you feel better and 2 which is the most effective of all in my personnal opinion, is to sit and Pray and read the Word of God

Samia Khoury Dietitian