For many of you struggling with food and weight issues, you may be identifying your entire self-worth according to some number on the scale. This is both unfortunate and unproductive since one of the biggest lessons I learned in managing to shed my own unwanted pounds AND keep them off, was that the end results are so much more meaningful than just the number on the scale. The number is just that, a number. It has no meaning except for the meaning you yourself attach to it.
When you lose your excess weight, you will not only be physically lighter according to the number on the scale, you will also feel lighter mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
Carrying around lots of extra weight is a burden in more ways than one. It weighs you down physically in that it adds extra pressure on your joints and you can't move around as easily as you'd like. It also increases a long list of weight-related health risks such as diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, sleeping disorders, breathing disorders, arthritis, some forms of cancer and more. This can impede on your ability to enjoy your favourite activities to the fullest such as gardening or playing with your grandchildren. The problem is that you get so used to functioning with your excess weight that you don't even know how much better, easier and fulfilling these activities can be without all the excess weight. How can you know if you've never experienced it? Or maybe you've experienced it in the past, but it's been so long that you don't even remember.
A great example is a client I had who at her heaviest weight decided to join a running group. It was extremely difficult for her to keep up and I remember her telling me how her husband would laugh at how she'd come home with her face beet red. She had trouble breathing, all her joints would hurt and it was just too difficult. After a short while, she decided to give it up. However, in working with her we decided that while she was changing her eating habits, she would also gradually increase her activity levels and maintain a more active lifestyle. Over time she lost more than 60 pounds and decided to re-join her running group. From eating properly and being more physically active over many months, all of a sudden she was not only able to keep up with the group, but lead the way. The confidence and reassurance that this gave her was astounding and just motivated her that much more to continue on with her healthy eating and positive living habits. Her weight loss allowed her to "lighten up" on so many more levels than just the scale. Freeing herself of all that excess weight allowed her to experience greater joy and light in her life. The dark cloud of her excess weight had lifted for good.
Too much excess weight can impact your level of self-confidence and make you more self-conscious in your appearance which can weigh you down mentally, emotionally and spiritually. All this to say is that if your weight is getting you down and you want to get your weight down instead, then know that it will help you to lighten up in more ways than one as well. Yes, you will be lighter according to the scale, but you will also walk taller, feel proud of your accomplishments, increase your self-confidence, boost your energy and have a greater sense of control over your eating, your lifestyle and your own quality of life. Just like the lady I described, your new found confidence will propel you to try new things, challenge yourself and take more risks than you ever would have dreamed before. You will lighten up in your life both personally and professionally reaching outside of your comfort zone that your excess weight can so easily keep you trapped in. When you learn to "lighten up" on all levels, your whole outlook on life will change. It is a powerful transformation that can happen for you too, one bite at a time.
Roslyn Franken is the author of The A List: 9 Guiding Principles for Healthy Eating and Positive Living, a self-help book inspired by the author's own experiences as a cancer survivor who has also overcome her own food, weight and lifestyle issues.
Roslyn now helps others lighten up the excess weight weighing down their lives, whether on their hips, in their hearts, or between their ears, for a life of greater health and happiness. She offers a personalized counseling program and professional speaking services. She counsels clients by telephone and email across North America who are ready to build a healthy and positive lifestyle maintainable for a lifetime.
Roslyn also inspires and motivates corporate and community group audiences toward the practices of healthy eating and positive living through her professional speaking services.
To purchase The A List book and for more information on Roslyn Franken's personalized counseling and professional speaking services please visit Roslyn online at http://www.roslynfranken.com Be sure to get your FREE 6 Secrets for Less Stress when you visit her site.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Roslyn_Franken
Monday, July 28, 2008
6 Tips for Burning Fat Quickly and Losing Weight
So you want to lose weight and burn fat? If you're sick and tired of struggling to burn off those wobbly bits, these 6 little tips will help you get on board the ship to a healthier, fitter and more attractive body.
1- Think about what you eat. Critically think about whether that burger or French fry is really something your body needs. You are a human being with a strong, powerful and intelligent brain, use it, don't just eat something for the sake of it.
2- Be careful with what you eat. With a lot of meals, including healthy salads, they can be covered in unhealthy sauces, garnishes or oily dressings which really add up calories quickly. So watch carefully everything you eat, especially if it's prepared by someone else and you don't know what has gone into it.
3- Control your cravings! Virtually everything that is sweet has higher calorie levels than something that is savoury. It's a human instinct to have cravings for sweet foods, if you have to satisfy your desire, eat natural sugars such as honey, rather than processed chocolates or candy. Remember every time you indulge, all those calories are going straight to your hip, thighs or stomach!
4- Eat regularly and eat often. Try to be consistent with your eating times, so your body gets into an eating routine, so aim to eat at defined times of the day to build a regular eating schedule. This is especially important if you have young children, who need a consistent routine more than you. If you miss your eating time, you'll find yourself craving snacks and you'll be more likely to indulge in unhealthy foods.
5- Are you really hungry? Or are you just eating to fight off boredom or for some other reason? Rate your hunger on a scale of 1-10, if you're not over 7, you're snacking, eat only when you're hungry and at your scheduled meal and break times. If you are going to a party, try to avoid stuffing yourself with 'party' snacks, go for the more filling healthy alternatives and if you're not sure they'll be any, eat before you arrive. It's OK to treat yourself every now and again, but a big binge will ruin your week.
6- Stop the unhealthy snacks between meal times, if you get genuinely hungry eat some fruit or any healthy alternative. If you have to travel a lot with your work this can be difficult, so you must plan ahead and take healthy foods with you to snack on. The biggest problem with most junk snack foods is that they rarely fill you up, and are stuffed full of salt, fat and calories.
So there you have it, 6 quick strategies you can take and start using today to start losing weight and burning of a few extra pounds. There are a lot of things involved in losing weight and getting in to better shape, and having a healthier diet and good nutrition is just one aspect. But when combined with a fitness training program you'll quickly start to melt off the pounds.
New Free Fat Burning Course - How To Burn Of Fat Fast ...And How To Repeat The Process For The Rest Of Your Life. To get access now, for free visit: http://howtoburnfat.co.uk
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ian_Jones
1- Think about what you eat. Critically think about whether that burger or French fry is really something your body needs. You are a human being with a strong, powerful and intelligent brain, use it, don't just eat something for the sake of it.
2- Be careful with what you eat. With a lot of meals, including healthy salads, they can be covered in unhealthy sauces, garnishes or oily dressings which really add up calories quickly. So watch carefully everything you eat, especially if it's prepared by someone else and you don't know what has gone into it.
3- Control your cravings! Virtually everything that is sweet has higher calorie levels than something that is savoury. It's a human instinct to have cravings for sweet foods, if you have to satisfy your desire, eat natural sugars such as honey, rather than processed chocolates or candy. Remember every time you indulge, all those calories are going straight to your hip, thighs or stomach!
4- Eat regularly and eat often. Try to be consistent with your eating times, so your body gets into an eating routine, so aim to eat at defined times of the day to build a regular eating schedule. This is especially important if you have young children, who need a consistent routine more than you. If you miss your eating time, you'll find yourself craving snacks and you'll be more likely to indulge in unhealthy foods.
5- Are you really hungry? Or are you just eating to fight off boredom or for some other reason? Rate your hunger on a scale of 1-10, if you're not over 7, you're snacking, eat only when you're hungry and at your scheduled meal and break times. If you are going to a party, try to avoid stuffing yourself with 'party' snacks, go for the more filling healthy alternatives and if you're not sure they'll be any, eat before you arrive. It's OK to treat yourself every now and again, but a big binge will ruin your week.
6- Stop the unhealthy snacks between meal times, if you get genuinely hungry eat some fruit or any healthy alternative. If you have to travel a lot with your work this can be difficult, so you must plan ahead and take healthy foods with you to snack on. The biggest problem with most junk snack foods is that they rarely fill you up, and are stuffed full of salt, fat and calories.
So there you have it, 6 quick strategies you can take and start using today to start losing weight and burning of a few extra pounds. There are a lot of things involved in losing weight and getting in to better shape, and having a healthier diet and good nutrition is just one aspect. But when combined with a fitness training program you'll quickly start to melt off the pounds.
New Free Fat Burning Course - How To Burn Of Fat Fast ...And How To Repeat The Process For The Rest Of Your Life. To get access now, for free visit: http://howtoburnfat.co.uk
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ian_Jones
Weight Loss and Diets—What plan is best?
Fad diets come and go with new versions out every week. Many of them are big on promises and small on delivery. So what's a person to do? I for one have spent way too much money on the latest greatest diet plans over the years.
If a friend tells me they've lost a lot of weight on a diet and says how great it is I try it, only to find myself bloated, tired, grumpy or hungry all of the time. Then another friend will recommend a different diet and I'm right there, ready to try that one too.
It seems what works for one person, doesn't necessarily work for another. But short of spending a fortune on diet plans, how do you know what will work best for you?
Well for starters, you put your wallet away and take a common sense approach to the problem. Basically, there are three and only three diet versions out there. They have different names and different menu types, but they all fall into one of these three categories.
1. The Low Fat Diet. This would include most of your calorie counting diets, Weight Watchers, DASH and the Ornish diet. These diets reduce calories and the amount of fat you take in; which is a very sound plan. But remember, there are only three types of food - proteins, fats and carbohydrates. When you reduce the fat in a diet, you have to raise one or both of the other two types of food. And because raising the amount of protein usually raises the fat level too, most low-fat diets are high in carbohydrates.
2. The Low Carbohydrate Diet. This diet would include diets such as the Atkins Diet and The South Beach Diet. These diets increase the amount of protein you take in and lower the carbohydrates. But just like the Low Fat Diet, when you reduce the amount of one type food from a diet, you are going to raise another. When you reduce the amount of carbohydrates in your diet, you usually end up with more fat.
3. And the third type diet is something in between. We'll call it a T'ween diet. This type diet includes the Mediterranean Diet, the G.I. Diet (Glycemic Index Diet), the Idiot Proof Diet and the Zone Diet. These diets reduce the amount of fat in the diet and get rid of simple carbohydrates while replacing them with fewer, but more complex carbohydrates.
And while it would be tempting to make a blanket statement that the T'ween diet would come closer to being the perfect diet for most people (and I do believe these diets are better for more dieters than the other two), not all dieters respond the same to all diets.
So if you're ready to find the last diet you'll ever need, you need to first decide which of these three diet versions is best for your body type. But once again, how do you determine what type is best for you?
If you'd like to know how to determine the right diet version for your body type, go to Top10-Diets.com. We have answers for all your weight loss and diet concerns.
B.J.Gordey is the owner of Top10-Diets and editor of the Top 10 Diet's Blog.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=B.J._Gordey
If a friend tells me they've lost a lot of weight on a diet and says how great it is I try it, only to find myself bloated, tired, grumpy or hungry all of the time. Then another friend will recommend a different diet and I'm right there, ready to try that one too.
It seems what works for one person, doesn't necessarily work for another. But short of spending a fortune on diet plans, how do you know what will work best for you?
Well for starters, you put your wallet away and take a common sense approach to the problem. Basically, there are three and only three diet versions out there. They have different names and different menu types, but they all fall into one of these three categories.
1. The Low Fat Diet. This would include most of your calorie counting diets, Weight Watchers, DASH and the Ornish diet. These diets reduce calories and the amount of fat you take in; which is a very sound plan. But remember, there are only three types of food - proteins, fats and carbohydrates. When you reduce the fat in a diet, you have to raise one or both of the other two types of food. And because raising the amount of protein usually raises the fat level too, most low-fat diets are high in carbohydrates.
2. The Low Carbohydrate Diet. This diet would include diets such as the Atkins Diet and The South Beach Diet. These diets increase the amount of protein you take in and lower the carbohydrates. But just like the Low Fat Diet, when you reduce the amount of one type food from a diet, you are going to raise another. When you reduce the amount of carbohydrates in your diet, you usually end up with more fat.
3. And the third type diet is something in between. We'll call it a T'ween diet. This type diet includes the Mediterranean Diet, the G.I. Diet (Glycemic Index Diet), the Idiot Proof Diet and the Zone Diet. These diets reduce the amount of fat in the diet and get rid of simple carbohydrates while replacing them with fewer, but more complex carbohydrates.
And while it would be tempting to make a blanket statement that the T'ween diet would come closer to being the perfect diet for most people (and I do believe these diets are better for more dieters than the other two), not all dieters respond the same to all diets.
So if you're ready to find the last diet you'll ever need, you need to first decide which of these three diet versions is best for your body type. But once again, how do you determine what type is best for you?
If you'd like to know how to determine the right diet version for your body type, go to Top10-Diets.com. We have answers for all your weight loss and diet concerns.
B.J.Gordey is the owner of Top10-Diets and editor of the Top 10 Diet's Blog.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=B.J._Gordey
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