Losing Weight the Smart Way!

         Seems that everyone you see these days wants to lose weight.  90% of the magazines on the shelf offer quick weight loss if you just follow their plan.  This strategy may sell magazines but will offer you no real help in the weight loss battle.  Online you will find many "quick weight loss" options but there again, these don't work.  Usually, you will end up with more weight instead of less.  So, what do you do?  First of all, don't spend your money on the magazines and ignore the web.  In order to lose weight the smart way you have to implement some strategies. 

1.  Eat sensibly - avoid all the fad diets.  These won't work and if you do manage to lose some weight you will gain it all back and then some.  Eat 3 sensible meals daily - add lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.  Limit your portion size.  Also limit fats and high fat foods, sugar, all sodas (even diet), and alcohol.  Whatever you do ---stay away from artificial sweeteners (except stevia)!

2.  Exercise daily - Get up and move!  Dance to the radio, walk, don't just be a couch potato.  Incorporate muscle-strengthening exercises in your routine.  Remember, muscle weighs more than fat and you don't want to lose muscle.  If you are building muscle you might actually gain weight, but are toning up and getting firmer! Yeah!!!

3.  Reshape your eating behaviors - Watch yourself - become aware of your eating patterns.  What is causing you to overeat?  Try to avoid emotional situations or social situations that will cause you to overeat.  No one likes change so don't expect your behaviors to change overnight.  Try replacing one unhealthy food with one healthy food each day, before you know it you will have made the change and hardly noticed it. 

4.  Keep a journal - Write down everything you eat, nibble on, (yes, just a taste counts).  Anything that passes your lips, drinks, food, candy, whatever - write it down.  You may be surprised at just how much food you are consuming. Now write down how much you exercise - how far you walk, etc.  Get a pedometer and aim for 10,000 steps (5 miles) a day.  Start slow and build up.  A normal person usually walks about 2,000 steps a day; increase that by 500 a day, soon you will be to the 10,000 mark.

5.  Get moral support - The buddy system is great, a workout buddy will motivate you.  There are many professionals available to help you also.  Coaches, psychologist, personal trainers, or if nothing else, pop in a DVD.  There are some great workout DVD's out there. 

There is no magic bullet that can take the weight off of you - you have to have willpower to not raise that fork to your mouth and to get up and move.  Although there are no magic bullets there are some supplements that can assist you in your journey to the skinny you.  First of all, you need a really good multivitamin; you must make sure you are getting proper nutrition.  Thyroid and adrenal gland treatment needs to be added as well.

The latest diet fad is the use of human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG), which is a hormone produced during pregnancy.  You are to only consume 500 calories a day and take this supplement.  Of course, you cannot remain healthy on 500 calories a day and your body will go into starvation mode and you will have more problems than you want. But, I have found a homeopathic formula similar to the hCG, which seems to work very well.  You don't have to cut your calories dangerously low to lose weight.  I am trying it out now and will let you know my results - so far, I'm impressed. 

So, get moving, eat healthy, and stay strong!!!!!