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Posts Tagged ‘dieting’

So you’ve made the resolution that THIS is the year you’re going to lose weight and get in the best shape of your life. You’re not going to settle for second best – you’re going to achieve that dream body you’ve always wanted.

Great news – this is actually the best time to make that commitment. Why? Because you can take advantage of the powerful momentum and energy a New Year brings to achieve your weight loss dreams.

But there’s nothing worse than committing to lose weight, only to get lost among the 5 gazillion diets out there. It can get confusing – you may end up wasting a lot of money and effort. You may end up wondering which diet is really the BEST diet for you.

You may even end up feeling so frustrated that you give up on your dream of becoming slim and healthy. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

In order to have rapid weight loss success, you have to find the best diet for you (a.k.a. the diet that will speed you towards your dream body at lightning pace). There are millions of diets – but only a few that are best for you and your lifestyle.

The best diet for you will have the 3 key features listed below. Choose your diet with these 3 key features in mind and you’re already halfway to your weight loss dreams.

#1 Proven Success Rate

Are there before and after pictures of people who have lost weight with that particular diet? Are there customer testimonials? Have there been independent studies done on the diet’s success rate?

The diet you choose doesn’t have to have all three of these but try to find at least some kind of proven success rate before choosing that particular program.

Finding a diet with a proven success rate not only lets you know that the diet works but it also helps give you the confidence that the diet will work FOR YOU.

Confidence is one of the most underrated factors in a successful weight loss program. If you’ve tried and failed with diets before you especially need that extra boost of confidence to carry you through the more difficult times in the diet. By reminding yourself that this diet has been proven to work – you’ll be able to keep going and reach your weight loss goals.

A related feature that gets extra points is if the diet has been recommended by an expert or a physician. Again this boosts your confidence that the diet is safe and effective.

#2 Affordable

Losing weight should not cost you thousands of dollars (unless we’re talking about surgery here and that’s an entirely different article). The best diet will be affordable for the average person.

If the diet costs too much, be very suspicious and look elsewhere. There are too many shady diets out there and as a consumer, it pays to be cautious.

I’ll give you an example of what I mean:

A close friend of mine went to a well-known weight loss clinic in our area and was told she had to pay the yearly fees up front (around $1000 NOT including food). They also told her she had to buy their food in bulk (like $500 for a year’s worth of chocolate).

When the chocolate gave her heart palpitations and she had to take it back, they told her it was non-refundable. She was out the money for the chocolate. Plus, she feels she can’t leave the program because she’s paid the yearly fees (which, you guessed it, are also non-refundable).

She unfortunately made the mistake of ignoring her instincts and paying way too much money for a diet program. If you notice you’re being asked for hefty fees right out of the gate, warning lights should be flashing in your mind.

Now on the other hand, the best diet WILL cost you something. It actually is better if you put some cash on the table for your diet program. Why? Because when we invest in something we’re more likely to stick with it. When we invest in something we are more likely to follow through and get the results we want.

For example I did a liver detox several months ago. I’m not really into liver detoxing but I read an article and figured I’d try it.

The detox kit cost me a whopping $50 and when I opened the instructions they told me I had to give up junk food for two weeks. In any other universe I would have laughed and simply forgotten about detoxing my liver. But because I’d shelled out $50, I was invested – I decided that I hopefully wouldn’t starve from lack of junk food over two weeks and suffered through it.

If I’d gotten the detox kit for free there’s no way I would have followed those instructions. But because I was invested, I followed through and now have a healthier liver thanking me for it.

So when searching for the best diet, putting out some money on yourself and your dreams of a better body is actually a healthy thing. Just keep in mind that you shouldn’t have to spend thousands of dollars on it.

#3 Compatible with Your Tastes and Lifestyle

This is THE most crucial step however it’s the one where most people go wrong. When choosing a diet, they simply pick one and go, without considering if it is compatible with their tastes and lifestyle.

For example, if you hate feeling deprived or empty you might want to choose a program that lets you eat many times during the day so you don’t feel hungry. If you get bored easily you want a diet program that gives you tremendous variety and flexibility. If you don’t do a lot of cooking or food preparation, you’ll want to look at a program where the food is pre-made for you.

Diets are like cars – there are hundreds of different models out there, each with their own unique features. And they can get you where you want to go. But your personality might gel better with certain features than others.

Dieting is hard enough. Don’t make it harder on yourself by choosing a diet not compatible with who you are. Setting yourself up for success will also guarantee that you’ll stick it out until you reach your goal.
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Part 1.

On the last count the word ‘diet’ produced in excess of 157 million web pages of diet plans, pills, potions and dieting tips from health institutions, diet companies, nutritional professionals and otherwise – from all over the world. And yet we are approaching the peak of an obesity epidemic which is causing untold mental misery and depression, aside from the ever increasing debilitating diseases being linked to those overweight or obese. With such an abundance of information available – how can this be?

The trend is unforgiving and is second only to smoking in terms of the cause of self-inflicted premature loss of life, but left to its own devices within the next five years obesity is sure to take the number one slot. Mother Nature is ruthless in her approach to life, in that she only allows the fittest to survive and the trend we see today is her reaction to the effects of a diet that is clearly not suited to the well-being of the human body and mind. We only have to stop, take a step in back and look around us to see that there is one hell of a serious problem. There is no need for statistics, reports or media news to tell us such. It’s clear that we as individuals have to make a change in what we do if we have any intention to reverse the current obesity trend. The ultimate responsibility lies with each and every one of us to act for the benefit of ourselves.

We have to accept the fact that the grocery industry is a host of contradiction in that it sells both dietary products along side the very products that cause us to be overweight or obese in the first instance. This is so obvious in our supermarkets today. It has become human nature that profit has a higher weighting than human health, and this is evident in many industries around the world, and is far from unique within dieting circles. We must also bear in mind the diet companies, whilst they portray an air of interest and concern, in reality they are totally dependent on your failure to diet for their very own business survival. If they were good at what they do – their businesses would surely fail. So who can we trust aside from ourselves. The evidence is clear -there is no debate.

We may have one reprieve but it will be sometime in the future, but not now. Science and technology is getting nearer and nearer to the possibility of a wonder drug with the ever-increasing understanding of the human genotype and genetic engineering. But in reality, who would ever wish or want to be dependent on diet drugs, potentially an ongoing daily basis, simply because of a lack of understanding about the relationship between the food our body has been designed for, and the food we eat. Why is it, we knowingly overeat when we know it is bad for us and that we are doing harm to ourselves? Why is it, that the only time we choose to ignore our food is the time when we are eating it!

So, is it a psychological thing, a physical thing or is it both?

In order to answer this we must first look at the change in our diet over the last 50 years. Consumption trends of refined carbohydrates such as sugar has risen dramatically, but at the same time the consumption of fats and proteins has remained reasonably stable. Saturated fats has indeed become and still is a problem although thankfully now overall consumption of saturated fats has dropped slightly, but still remains an issue.

Many studies particularly those associated with research in how the Atkins diet worked revealed that the effect of refined carbohydrates and fats both have a form of addiction associated with them. Studies have shown that refined sugars have the effect of playing havoc with the fine balance of maintaining the level of glucose in the bloodstream. This in turn has a detrimental effect on our hormonal activity, such as insulin and glucagon which are both responsible for maintaining the level of glucose to its normal level following a ‘surge’ intake of refined carbohydrates in our diet. These acceptable levels of glucose in the bloodstream are maintained at surprisingly narrow margins.

Refined sugars therefore induces excessive hormonal activity in its attempt to restore homeostasis. These unnatural ‘swings’ in hormonal activity often cause differing mood swings from that of being happy and content to being sad, on edge, and even feelings of anxiety or panic. Prolonged exposure to these hormonal swings can often lead to the whole process becoming less effective and subsequently diabetes can be the end result.
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Have you lost weight in the past only to regain it a short time later? Have you followed every diet including Atkins, South Beach, the Drinking Man’s diet, the Peanut Butter diet, or even the Chocolate Diet? All of these diets work, and none of them work, meaning you can and probably do lose weight on any of them, but you won’t keep it off. Why not? Because the day will come when the diet is over and you’re right back to your regular routine; the same routine that got you fat in the first place.

In the past diets carried a warning not to stay on them longer than the prescribed period; usually two weeks, some a mere three days. Today’s popular diets are attempting to style themselves as lifestyle choices, but this isn’t working either. People want to be able to eat a sandwich now and then. They want the burger and the bun! Strive for balance choosing foods you prefer, and you’ll have a better chance at lasting weight loss success.

Small Changes: Big Answer to Weight Loss Blues

Start today, and work one day at a time making one or two small changes such as switching to the calorie-free soft drinks then weaning yourself down to two or less a day (if you drink more than that now of course). Changes don’t have to be drastic. In fact trying to make drastic changes in your lifestyle never works because while you may be happy in the beginning, you slowly grow miserable toward the end. In fact, that’s the problem right there: you anticipate an end.
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Before many Australians recently, a devastating story unfolded on a popular current affairs program. We watched with compassion as the fattest man in Australia told of his most recent, serious attempt to lose weight. Approximately 12 months earlier and weighing close to 300 kilos, he under went life threatening surgery to lose weight.

I doubt there would have been one person watching not moved by this man’s depression and plight. Despite undergoing the surgery, today he could barely get through each day, both physically and mentally. He shared with us his sense of hopelessness and wanting to end it all.

It was not only his size that was causing his depression. He had to deal with a heart broken by disappointment.

You see, the surgery had been a success.

He soon lost well over 50 kilos post operation and he and his family rejoiced. But then the unthinkable happened.

The weight came back. Today he weighs well over 300 kilos – more than before the surgery.

This is an extreme case, but nonetheless raises a question that so many people continue to battle with.

After a diet, why does the weight come back so quickly?

To answer this we need to understand how much energy a body requires. For each pound you weigh, each day you need 12 calories to maintain your body weight. If you weigh 120 pounds you will need 120 x 12 calories, that is, 1440 calories per day to maintain that body weight. If you eat or drink more calories than your body requires, the excess energy is stored as fat. It takes 3,600 excess calories to make one pound of fat.

In this example, if your typical daily calorific intake is 2000 calories, in around 30 days you would put on between 4-5 pounds of fat!
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