There are few men (okay maybe a few) and women around who won’t admit to the fact that they need to shed a few pounds. Unfortunately, almost as quickly as the desire to lose the weight comes; life barrels in with birthday parties, gatherings, family meals and dinners that consist of steering your way through a curvy driveway and ordering “a home cooked meal” through a microphone! Life leaves little room for the kind of diet and exercise regime necessary to truly take away the pounds that age and stress seem to place directly in the most undesirable of places. And this says nothing about the meticulous weight that inches its way on to a woman with every pregnancy. Before you know it, you look in the mirror one day and realize with aghast that you are definitely by all modern meanings of the word…fat! As depressing as it feels to be on of those adults you swore you would never turn in to, you have! The worst part is that this extra weight takes its toll emotionally and physically!
There are several ways to approach losing weight. What many people do is try the quick fix first. This usually consists of taking specialized pills, supplements or even prescriptions that pretty much barrage your system with a total lack of desire for food. So as you starve without realizing it you do lose water weight and even inches around the waste. Unfortunately this method causes atrophy of muscle tissue which looks even more horrendous than cellulite. The other down side is that eventually your body picks up a resistance to the effect of all these stimulant type weight loss tools and your appetite and fat will return ten fold. Essentially, if you are looking or involved in a quick fix- you are not addressing your weight issue from the right angle and will always end up right back where you started from and quite possibly with more health worries from the medications.
The second approach to losing weight is to dive in head first paying no mind to the depth of the water. You eat right, work out regularly or at least every chance you get and spend so much energy counting calories, carbs, tweaking your diet and running in place on a treadmill that little else fits into your life. Then, you get tired of trying so hard and realize quite unequivocally that this all or nothing attitude doesn’t fit in with real life either. When neither of these two approaches seem to work; depression sets in which is always cured while eating candy corn and chocolate iced donuts! Vicious circle!
Essentially, if you want to lose real weight and keep it off you must start slowly, set reasonable goals, have reasonable expectations and start a new life routine that can coincide with your life. This doesn’t mean you have to join a gym, order specially prepared food from some program, take endless pills or do anything really but relax, use your head when it comes to portion sizes and incorporate exercise into your life. Anyone will tell you that in order to lose weight you must consume less calories than you burn. The easiest fix is to start eating 5 times a day and eating a portion size that is no bigger than your fist balled up. No soda, coffee, alcohol or anything besides water for at least one month. Drink at least half your body weight in ounces of water. For instance if you weigh 150 commit to 75 ounces of water a day! Water is by far the easiest to come by and most effective weight loss tool and the average overweight person can lose anywhere from 5-8 pounds per week for the first month or so. It won’t take long before you realize that losing weight never felt so good!
The next thing to do is to replace your eating habits with something else. If you eat Oreo’s and milk very evening before bed; don’t! Brush your teeth instead. The trick is to change your life habits as they relate to eating. What’s left is often the most difficult part for some people and that is exercise. Exercise doesn’t have to be some intense workout or entail purchasing special equipment! You can walk around your house, take the stairs, start parking further away from the entrance of the store, put some stamina in your house work or use your lunch break to take a brisk walk. If your kids are in dance, softball or any other activity- use that time wisely and for yourself. You don’t have to sit by and gab with friends and can instead use this free moment for exercise! After a few weeks you will easily be eating better and finding new ways to exercise and no doubt losing weight.
Losing weight is by no means easy but it can be possible no matter what. One of the problems with humans being thinking beings is that when we don’t like something either about the world or ourselves we spend all of our time thinking about it. When we are fat and want to lose weight it consumes all of our thoughts and makes us feel bad. When we diet all we think about is food because we are trying to get ourselves to not think about it! If you change your mind you really can change your life and this is absolutely true with weight loss. Begin thinking about being satisfied after eating and enjoying your new state of health. STAY AWAY FROM THE SCALE (except for maybe once every 10 days) and use your thoughts to guide you toward more exercise and healthier food choices. Think about your new body or about pulling those jeans out of the closet that you haven’t been able to wear in years. Watch out for those “friends” who will be jealous and will intentionally try to sabotage your diet and prove to your self that you can use restraint when it comes to food. Spouses do this as well; so keep your eyes open and realize that when people start antagonizing your diet or your effort it is probably most definitely working!
The decision to finally start losing weight is not a tough one to make but it is a tough one to thoroughly commit to. Give your self a break! You can go on a diet, lose weight and change your body and still enjoy a cupcake every once in a while. Here’s the thing…food is not the enemy when it comes to losing weight; we are only our own enemy. The fat on our thighs, hips, stomachs or elsewhere is really a result of our minds and whether you are man or woman; you have to alter your mind a bit in order to lose weight permanently and experience HEALTH; which ultimately should and must be your goal!
