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Home
My Story
Are You Overweight?
A Scientific Look at Fat
What Doesn't Work
How to Lose Weight
Motivation
Excuses Excuses
Nutrition
Exercise
The Mind Body Connection
A Healthy Lifestyle
My Support Group
My Weight Loss Workbook
| | How
to Lose Weight
The scientific principles behind
losing weight are simple; just reduce calories consumption (diet) and
increase calorie burning (exercise). However, actually losing weight is something quite
different. According to many, many, many of the books I've read, you
need to:
- Get Motivated!
The best way to get motivated is to start a journal. Write about
your feelings, your frustrations, and your goals. With a journal
you can also track your progress to encourage you to keep going.
Learn about the benefits of living with a healthy weight.
Research medical information, psychological effects, lifestyle
changes, and anything else that inspires you. Finally, cut out
your excuses. If you have an excuse that is currently keeping
you from getting involved with a weight loss program, find a way over,
under, around, or through it. Just remember what it will cost
you if you don't.
- Practice Good Nutrition
You can't lose weight by eating unhealthy food, restricting
important food groups, skipping meals, or using fad diets and still
build good health. You must eat 3 to 6 meals per day without
exceeding your limit of calories and fat grams, and those meals should
consist of foods that are highly nutritious.
Your body is a biochemical machine and
needs the correct fuel, much the same way your car is designed for a
specific type of fuel. The better the fuel, the better the
performance. In fact, everything in your body can be traced back to
nutrition.
Bad nutrition can
cause emotional instability, inability to effectively handle stress,
fatigue, dizziness, and almost any other negative symptom you can think
of. It also increases your chance of getting ill and having a longer
recovery. Plus, on a vanity perspective, bad nutrition can increase
wrinkles, make you more susceptible to bruising, cause skin discoloration
and bad breath, and can even result in brittle hair and nails.
When losing weight,
try to cut down your calories to a reasonable level, but don't deprive
yourself of good nutrition. You should always have all of the
vitamins and minerals that you need (and no you can't just live off of one
multi-vitamin everyday).
- Exercise
You might be able to lose weight with nutrition alone, but you
won't be able to keep it off unless you starve yourself forever or
take up exercising. Exercise should be well rounded like your
diet, consisting of stretching, cardio vascular exercise, and strength
training.
Your biochemical machine (a.k.a. body), like all machines, needs maintenance. When you
maintain your body, you can push it further, longer, and harder whenever
you need the boost. Also, how this perfectly balanced system can
perform (such as in Olympians) is always an amazing feat.
Exercise helps us to connect
our mind and body. It has been shown that exercise helps to reduce stress
and thus increase relaxation. It will help you sleep better.
It will help you realize when you are hungry and when you are not, and it
will let you know if it wants fruit or a cookie.
Of course, we cannot neglect the
ultimate reason of why most people exercise: to lose weight!
Yes, it's true. Exercise burns calories, and if you exercise
correctly, some of those calories will be from fat. Plus, the more
you exercise, the more you raise your metabolism. You'll actually
increase the amount of fat that you burn while you're sleeping, watching
television, or driving. Without exercise, your metabolic rate will
decline.
- Change your lifestyle.
When we only focus on exercise and nutrition, we neglect some of
the most important aspects of having a healthy lifestyle. A
healthy lifestyle is vibrant, energetic, and involved. No matter
how much you diet and exercise, if you spend the rest of your day
sitting behind a desk or in front of the television, you aren't
getting the full experience of your weight loss journey. After all,
the goal of weight loss is to get healthy, and the purpose of getting
healthy is to have a full life. If you're not playing with the
kids, wrestling with the dog, exploring the outdoors, and fulfilling
your dreams you're not reaping the benefits of good health.
- Find a support group.
Having a support group can help you realize that you are not alone
on this journey. There are many people who are trying to lose
weight, and most of them are struggling and achieving just as you
are. Sometimes this support group only has to be one
understanding person, but it's best to get support from someone who is
walking in your shoes. Find a buddy who is also trying to lose
weight and team up. Try to choose a person you will see on a
daily basis, so you can exercise together and look out for each
other. If you don't have someone you can meet up with daily,
look for a local support group. This can be a group of people
who meet at the community center or a group a people who talk to each
other on line.
- Document you progress.
The key to realizing how much you have done and how far you've
progressed is to keep track of where you've been. It's always
easiest when you can see this in black and white on paper. This
is why you should keep weekly logs of your activities and thoughts.
Ok, so I've done most of that, but I'm
still fat. I think there's got to be more to it.
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