If you are losing, trying to lose, or think you need to lose, weight, you are probably as sick as I am of those "easy" and "quick" diet tips that NEVER work!
The following tips are neither quick nor easy. They are tough, uncomfortable, and demanding (but they work).
1. Don't Eat.
On a permanent basis, that obviously doesn't make sense unless you have a secret death wish. On a temporary basis, it is worth considering. Just like the recovering alcoholic who takes it one day at a time, not eating for "just today" becomes do-able, once in a while. If you can convince yourself that you can have anything you want to eat, tomorrow, not eating becomes a viable alternative for today. On an even shorter-term basis, delaying a planned meal for a few hours can be useful if you stick to what you had planned to eat and don't wolf everything in sight to "make up" for your temporary deprivation. A decrease in the total caloric intake for the day, the week, the month, is the over-riding goal.
2. Get Your Body Moving.
We all know that activity is necessary to burn up our own fat. Exercise can be tedious, boring, and interferes with getting everything done in our time-starved lives. Those who love exercise, spending hours at the gym or training for marathons, don't have a weight problem like the rest of us couch potatoes. So how do we find the time and the motivation to incorporate some physical movement into our lives? If we don't have the time or the opportunity for exercise sessions (work, commuting, kids, chores), we can sneak activity breaks into stolen moments of time throughout the day. Reset your alarm 15 minutes earlier and perform calisthenics - jumping jacks, killer exercises, sit ups, jump rope - while the coffee brews. Sneak 5 to 10 minutes every few hours during the work day to walk around the building, perform isometrics at your desk, or run up and down the stairs. 5 to 10 minute mini-workouts scattered throughout your usual schedule can add up to an hour or two of activity bursts per day, significantly boosting the equation of calories in vs. calories out that leads to increased weight loss.
3. Eliminate "Kicking it up a notch."
While "BAM!!" spicing up our food is pleasurable and fun, it also increases our intake of calories because our food is so good that our taste buds are in a constant state of excitement. To lose weight consistently, we need to become disinterested in food to the greatest extent possible. Let's face the fact that carrot and celery sticks are never going to make our mouths water; a cup of yogurt, cottage cheese, sauerkraut, or tuna is okay but will never lead to the pure delight of a divine bowl of jambalaya, pasta, a dripping cheeseburger, or a sizzling pizza. We need to limit the excitement in our lives to non-eating activities and keep our food in the boring, tedious range so that we can limit our involvement, enjoyment, and delight in eating. The less we look forward to our meals, the less we will eat which is our goal.
4. Practice positive visualization.
Use props to help you "see" yourself thin so that your weight loss goals become a tangible, vital part of your everyday life. Instead of the latest "Who done it?" mystery novel, read clothes catalogs before going to bed. The airbrushed perfection of the Victoria's Secret and Banana Republic models may be difficult for you to emulate but they do encourage your dreaming of an attractive physical appearance. A mental vision of yourself as model-thin is a technique to pull up every time you are faced with food during the day and bolsters your "won't" power for declining edibles you know you don't need. This technique doesn't work as well for men but encourage the male in your life to emulate their favorite sports figures. Watch movies and television not with an eye to escaping from yourself and your humdrum world but as a peep into a world you intend to inhabit. Visualize yourself as the hero or heroine of your favorite shows: can you even imagine a fat caped crusader, an overweight vamp, or an obese romantic lead? Maintain a clear vision of yourself as slender, sexy, and fit and you have something to help you through the tempting, alluring, almost-impossible-to-resist times in your daily life. It is that mental image of your future self that can encourage you to "just say no" to the immediate delights surrounding you.
5. Eliminate snacking.
The traditional "three squares a day" eating pattern was based on breakfast, lunch, and dinner as the primary meals of the day. Today, it is not just our meals that have led to our national overweight, it is our between-meal snacking that has fostered the epidemic of obesity. Have you noticed that there always seems to be food available? Everywhere we turn, there is something to eat: potato chips, nuts, cake, ice cream, tortillas, chicken wings, Doritos (Saddam's favorite) and a myriad of salty, spicy, salivation-inducing snacks that have nothing to do with our need to eat to survive and everything to do with our overweight. If we can eliminate these between meal boosts and concentrate on three (two is better) meals a day, we can start to bring our weight in line with our goals. Our tendency is to nibble throughout the day - a sprinkling of this, a handful of that, and an eye-hand-mouth combination that results in our 24/7 intake of something. Its allure is incontrovertible: the salty, spicy, or sweet aftermath of their ingestion lingers long on the tongue and the memory (and even longer on the hips).
Virginia Bola is a licensed psychologist and an admitted diet fanatic. She specializes in therapeutic reframing and the effects of attitudes and motivation on individual goals. The author of The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, and a free ezine, The Worker's Edge, she recently published a psychologically-based weight control e-workbook, "Diet with an Attitude" which develops mental skills towards the goal of permanent weight control.
She can be reached at http://www.dietwithanattitude.com
She provides support and guidance in use of the workbook through her regular blog, http://www.dietwithanattitude.com
shuttle from O'Hare Orland Park .. Lockport Chicago limo O’HareIf you've been on a low carb diet for any... Read More
If you have been dieting and haven't lost weight, stop!... Read More
My name is Greg Ryan. I am a high profile... Read More
Fifteen years ago the doctor's suggested that we eat pasta... Read More
Are you considering a low carb diet? If so you... Read More
As we look around at the current generation of children,... Read More
What is ephedra? Ephedra, which is also known as Ma... Read More
According to the American Obesity Association, an astounding 64.5 percent... Read More
A healthy pregnancy almost always involves weight gain. But now... Read More
I recently received the following email:Q. Five weeks ago, I... Read More
Some (not so) Silly Diet Tips and Why They're NotAt... Read More
Many women want to be slim. Maybe you're one of... Read More
Diet is one of the most controversial subjects around. Bring... Read More
One thing I really must say at the outset of... Read More
For the past several years one subject has been coming... Read More
Any dietary plan on the market has some portion of... Read More
Individuals who are interested in bariatric surgery need to be... Read More
Information About Weight Training Routines For BeginnersSo you need to... Read More
Breaking Down Cravings One at a TimeI know you've heard... Read More
To upgrade the current software in your brain you can... Read More
Many people think obesity means that a person is overweight,... Read More
When was the last time you focused so much on... Read More
The rediscovery of the wealth of the wonder drug Hoodia... Read More
Mindfulness is all about paying attention. It's amazing what can... Read More
Why We Start Diets on MondayThe biggest problem with any... Read More
Lincoln Town Car rentals Addison ..The loss of fat comes from fat cells all over... Read More
There have been many diets and weight loss plans that... Read More
Two basic approaches to losing weight; one approach is correct... Read More
Weight loss from exercise can be achieved by walking, running,... Read More
The words I read made me furious. There it was,... Read More
If anyone knows anything about fitness, it's that a low... Read More
One of the worst things you can hear in life... Read More
This Article was originally Published in The July 2004 Issue... Read More
"Life is like a box of chocolates," drawled Forrest Gump.Metaphors... Read More
Building a Perfect Body for Body Perfect Fitness and Health... Read More
Have you ever stopped to calculate how much time you... Read More
Self-acceptance and body love can be tough concepts to grasp... Read More
Why have I allowed myself to get into this shape?... Read More
The best way to lose weight is by consuming fewer... Read More
As a woman, your body is very complex. Throughout every... Read More
I really like Dr. Phil, so I wanted to like... Read More
FINDING THE PERFECT DIETArriving at the Perfect Diet is no... Read More
Have you heard about it lately? Everywhere you look, women... Read More
Atkins Nutritionals filed for bankruptcy at the beginning of August... Read More
One of the biggest scams ever successfully pulled on the... Read More
Fat Loss Tip #1) Train With WeightsWorking out with weights... Read More
1. Drink 8-10 glasses of water each dayOkay, for many... Read More
In order to lose weight, your body must burn more... Read More
It's easy to lose sight of our goals, "Do I... Read More
In my fitness consulting business, I get the opportunity to... Read More
Weight Loss |