Patrick Henry once said, "I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I have no way of judging the future but by the past." Fortunately for us, there are millions of people who have gone before us attempting to lose fat and/or weight, each with varying degrees of success. We can learn from their collective experiences and gain enlightenment, or insight, into our own weight loss plans.
Over the next several paragraphs we're going to review things that have been reported as "weight loss mistakes". Take some time to read each one and compare/contrast them with your own personal weight loss plan.
Weight loss and fat loss success is the result of making the right adjustments and living with them. Quite possibly some of the adjustments you've made may need to be reconsidered.
Mistake #1: Expecting to lose weight too quickly. We've talked about this in earlier issues. We can spend years messing up relationships and expect them to be healed or repaired after sincerely saying, "I'm sorry." What is it about humans that we think that things should be a certain way just because we want it to be? It takes years to get out of shape and overweight. It will take a long time to lose the weight and get back into shape. Patience is a key to making life-long changes for the better.
Mistake #2: Adopting a plan that is not sustainable over the course of your lifetime. This mistake is two-fold in nature. The first aspect is creating a habit that is unreasonable to continue long term. Some examples would be the tabloid diets you read about in the line at the grocery store. Grapefruit diets, cabbage diets, chicken soup diets. We need variety in our lives. Thinking that we can forego that variety forever is a recipe for failure. The second aspect is thinking that the lifestyle that we are adopting is only short term and that we'll go back to our previous lifestyle when our weight is gone. Our previous lifestyle IS the problem; the new lifestyle is the solution. We need to adopt a lifestyle that will become, literally, a style of life for us.
Mistake #3: Neglecting to be quantity-conscious. This is really a huge issue. At every meal we need to scrutinize the amount of food we serve ourselves and limit ourselves to a single serving. If we put too much food on our plate, chances are we're going to eat it... whether we need it or not. Using smaller plates make it easier to avoid serving up too much food. Don't let someone else serve for you. Make sure you serve yourself so that you can control the quantity.
Mistake #4: Choosing the wrong places to eat out. Eating out is the "mine field" in the battle of the bulge. Every step you take needs to be measured and selected carefully. If you select a fast-food restaurant, make sure they have low calorie options available. A grilled chicken sandwich without mayonnaise, or a salad with a very light dressing and water can be a safe fast-food meal. Treating yourself to the "mega-burger" dripping with sauce and a small diet soda can set you back an entire week or two. Avoid a buffet or smorgasbord. It's human nature to overeat at one of those places. Enough said?
Mistake #5: Avoiding eating breakfast. Your body's metabolism goes to sleep at night when you sleep. While the alarm clock may wake you up, it is breakfast that wakes up your metabolism. It's easy to justify skipping breakfast if you think only about total calories over the course of a day. Unfortunately, what you burn is as important as what you eat, especially when you have excess fat to burn. Keep your furnace burning from morning to night by spreading the day's calories out over the course of the entire day.
Mistake #6: Being unaware of what you are eating. Be familiar with the ingredients and the way your food is prepared. A fried chicken breast, skin on, breaded and fried can yield about eleven grams of fat. The same chicken breast with the skin removed and no breading - but still fried - yields only two and a half grams of fat. The battered breast has about 220 calories, while the non-battered skinless version has less than 100. That's an amazing difference! Over two times the number of calories and four times the amount of fat!
Mistake #7: Making candy and snack foods a part of your hospitality. Bowls of M&M's are my personal weakness. I used to work in an office where my administrative assistant would keep bags of the variegated nuggets of pleasure ready. Every pass by her desk was rewarded with another handful of the miniature waistline destroyers. In retrospect, I can visualize a change taking place in my own physique. Make sure you aren't subverting your own attempts to control what you eat. Even seemingly innocuous snack foods can cause a world of damage. Try to keep fresh fruit available. Apples, bananas, oranges, pears, peaches and others are typically available nearly year around.
Mistake #8: Relying upon "fat free foods". A common mistake is to assume that "fat free" means that the item is good for you, healthy, or low in calories. Fat free simply means that there is no fat. Fat is usually pleasant in taste and adds a nice texture to food. If it has been removed, pause for a second to consider what has been put in its place. Is the fat replacement high in calories? Is it a chemical? Will my body be able to metabolize it?
Mistake #9: Dressing up the "right" foods with the "wrong" things. The classic example is the salad. The seemingly innocent plate of assorted greens couldn't possibly do any damage. Ah, but then we blanket it with mayonnaise or oil-based dressings, cheese, croutons, or bacon bits, and voila... we have created a monster. Salads are not the only well-intentioned meals that can stick around longer than we have planned. Low calorie sandwiches can become high-fat meals with the addition of only a modest amount of mayonnaise. A tablespoon of "light" mayonnaise can have as much as FIVE grams of fat!
Mistake #10: Not eating enough. This mistake is saved for last for a reason. Most of us are not in this category. We are not talking about skipping breakfast here; we are talking about starvation diets. This insidious type of dieting is both dangerous and counterproductive. The person using this method will typically see a quick loss of mostly water weight and get the feeling that they are doing the right thing. Unfortunately, the health risks are very severe. This kind of dieting can bring on cardiac damage, gout, gallstones, anemia and not only that... it actually slows your metabolism. When the starvation dieter finally gives up, the weight typically comes back with a vengeance!
Hopefully we've touched on something that you can identify in your routine that needs to be adjusted or, at the very least, contemplated. Mistakes can be rather helpful, as long as we're not making them ourselves!
Michael Callen is the author of the Weekly Weightloss Tips Newsletter (ccwebgroup.com/tips) and the Chief Technology Officer for http://www.wellnesspartners.com, an online retailer of dozens of health and wellness products such as http://www.wellnesspartners.com, http://www.wellnesspartners.com, and Green Tea Extract.
Elk Grove (east OF 53) car service from Midway .. Lockport Chicago limo O’HareI am Dr Patrick Flanagan, and this is the latest... Read More
What is cellulite? Ask a doctor and he will probably... Read More
Weight Loss Red Flag GuideDespite claims to the contrary, there... Read More
Remember there's more to you than meets the eye. You've... Read More
Be Prepared. For the Boy Scouts it means you are... Read More
Looking to lose weight quickly? The good news is that... Read More
We, as a society, are always trying to lose weight.... Read More
You have probably heard the old myth, that you should... Read More
So many people are talking about how slow their metabolism... Read More
Obesity is a disease that affects approximately 60 million people... Read More
It has been 15 years since I was diagnosed with... Read More
A distorted body image is one of the symptoms that... Read More
You are not a kid any more and becoming a... Read More
The Government of the Australian state of Victoria has started... Read More
Franchised Business Models and American Diets could be at odds.... Read More
Weight loss can be one of the most difficult things... Read More
Flip through a magazine, scan a newspaper, or channel surf... Read More
1. The lower the calories eaten per day, the harder... Read More
Gastric bypass patients often find themselves regaining weight soon after... Read More
Only if you're trying to fool the scale on a... Read More
Did you say there's a way I can eat what... Read More
There are as many reasons you've given yourself to eat... Read More
Just because you're working hard, doesn't mean that you're working... Read More
Diet and Exercise. They are the inseparable twins that are... Read More
Many of us have tried losing weight in the past... Read More
Green Oaks limo rental ..There is only one way to lose weightThere really is... Read More
Many individuals these days, male or female, young or old,... Read More
Losing weight is a tough and demanding task for most... Read More
Think for a moment about the highest mountain you ever... Read More
Temporary weight loss is easy!You simply starve yourself on the... Read More
Although many patients have few problems after bariatric surgery, there... Read More
Diet and Exercise. They are the inseparable twins that are... Read More
I want to talk to you about cows and what... Read More
Many people are under the impression that gastric bypass surgery... Read More
A Little Help With Some Difficult terms ------------------------------------------ Aerobic... Read More
We all know that losing weight and improving your overall... Read More
Studies show that most Americans are fifteen percent fatter today... Read More
Body temperature is the result of your body generating and... Read More
To lose weight and keep it off you need an... Read More
Why is it so hard to lose weight and keep... Read More
IntroductionObesity is the most common health problem facing children today.... Read More
Are you someone who has, in the past, been on... Read More
Why was the FDA trying to hide the facts about... Read More
Yes, my healthy diet has at times suffered at the... Read More
Did you know that less than 2% of dieters lose... Read More
Gastric-bypass surgery is only the first step many morbidly obese... Read More
The Atkins Diet Seems To Never Go AwayFad diets come... Read More
Obesity is quickly becoming the number one health issue confronting... Read More
Okay, so you've read some of these articles, done your... Read More
(But What You Need to Know if You Want to... Read More
Weight Loss |