This is Part One in a Four-Part Series on how to eat to lose weight and build your metabolism. We will also look at how combining foods can work together to help you lose weight. In addition, how eating more, not less, will speed your metabolism back up to burn that unwanted fat.

Diets are never fun, and they always seem to have a negative conation. Therefore, instead of saying, “I\’m going on a diet”. Now we say, I\’m changing the way I eat, I\’m eating healthier, I\’m working on toning my body, building up lean muscle, etc…

As a middle-age person who gave up dieting long ago, I have finally decided it was time for a body make-over I thought I would share with you some of the excellent information I have come across during my search of how to eat healthier and lose weight at the same time. You do need to realize some of the ideas are going to seem quite hard at first, because as human beings we get into our habits, and as we all know, habits is a tough cycle to try and change.

The number one thing- well, I guess there are really two number ones\’ that are going to be the hardest for me to change; one is giving up salt. I do love salt on my food, especially vegetables, like collard greens and cabbage- I couldn\’t have imagined eating them without loads of salt. However, I did, and you know something? It really wasn\’t too bad- but it also wasn\’t as good. Luckily, there are alternatives you can buy to give your greens a flavor close to salt, without the water retention of sodium. Mrs. Dash comes to mind, as well as the one I\’m using, No Salt, it\’s absolutely 100% sodium free and the taste is pretty good.

Sodium makes your body retain a lot of water. Getting rid of the water in your system is important, because when you rid water, you eliminate fat. If food is pre-packaged, then nine out of ten times, it is loaded with sodium. Start paying attention to the labels on pre-packaged food; you will be shocked at the huge amounts of sodium. It\’s no wonder America has a High Blood Pressure problem!

That leads me straight into my number two, number one: Diet Soda. As much as it pains me to say this, diet soda is not only filled with sodium, which makes you retain water, but new scientific tests are coming out more and more everyday, describing how the artificial sweetener also makes us gain weight. I urge you to research this further, as I am just touching on the subject here. Artificial Sweetener seems to change the way our bodies metabolize sweets. It actually changes chemicals in our brain, causing our body to store fat and slow our metabolism. Therefore, it seems my favorite drink, diet soda, is a two-edged sword.

Continue on To Part Two, where we will look at Carbohydrates and Proteins.

Tracey Criswell Wilson is an author on http://www.Writing.Com/
which is a site for Creative Writing. Many of Tracey\’s writings can be found on this interactive site.