Fast Weight Loss Diet

The idea of losing weight on your own is very popular. But having a strong support network may help you overcome the hurdles and add fun to your new lifestyle. Think back to important life changes that you have made. Perhaps you have gotten married, changed jobs, moved to a new town, had a baby or lost a loved one. In each of these situations, you have probably accepted the support of other people, which likely was of significant help as you adjusted to your new situation. Launching a healthy-weight program is just another time of great change in your life. Getting support for your efforts - whether through a friend, a trained professional or a group of fellow travelers on the path to a healthy weight - can ultimately mean the difference between your success and failure. Support can be emotional - a shoulder to lean on when you feel discouraged. In addition, it can be practical - someone to watch the kids while you exercise. This kind of support can provide the encouragement you need to get out and exercise on days when your favorite TV show seems like a better option. In fact, one study found that people who had the support of friends were less likely to drop out of a weight-control program and more likely to maintain their weight loss over a six-month period than were people without such support. Some people fare better with professional support, such as from a dietitian or personal trainer. Others prefer personal support from friends and family members. Some combine professional and personal support. For some, a professionally led group proves helpful. If you do join a group, keep in mind that what you will get out of it will be in proportion to what you put into it. If you participate rather than just listen, you are more likely to reap the rewards of the group’s encouragement and empathy. If you are someone who prefers to work alone and not ask for help, that is OK. Do whatever works, but keep in mind that different approaches fit different needs. The best motivation for weight loss comes from inside. It certainly helps, however, to have someone in your corner. For many, the more the merrier. Here are some suggestions to build and maintain your weight-loss support network:

§ Stay in touch. Answer phone calls and letters to stay in touch with reality

§ Just say yes. Accept invitations to events, even if it feels awkward and difficult at first. Sometimes it is hard not to eat something very good at the restaurant or at a special event.

§ Be a supportive friend. Explain to your friends and family how important their support is to you. Remind them that you will gladly support them in decisions that they feel strongly about. It is crucial that everybody is behind you when you are preparing to do that.

§ Learn to say no. Saying no to people or social commitments that you do not enjoy will free up your time for friends and activities that you do enjoy. You have to do it politely, but very decided.

§ Take the lead. Do not wait to be invited somewhere. Take the initiative and call someone to come with you, to support and just to talk about everything.

§ Practice forgiveness. Set aside past differences and approach relationships with a clean slate.

§ Join in. Take part in community organizations, neighborhood events, local exercise classes or family get-together. At the beginning can be difficult, but, in time, you will learn how to behave or how to simply socialize without interfering in your program!

§ Start talking. Strike up a conversation with the person next to you at a local gathering. You could be introducing yourself to a new friend.

§ Be considerate. Talk about things that other people are interested in and be an alert listener. Sometimes, you feel that you are the most important person, with the process you are in, but it is not right. Everybody is important in certain situations.

§ Keep trying. Do not give up on existing relationships.

§ Be a recruiter. Explain the benefits of losing weight to others. Encourage your family members to join you in your efforts to eat healthier and exercise regularly. You will have to prepare everybody for this long process, you will need patience and strong arguments in order to present to you family what is important for you in some moment or in general.

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Permanent weight loss can be a challenge. These 20 ideas can help you right now!

Weight maintenance is much like weight loss. The principles are essentially the same: Eat healthy foods, control your portion sizes and exercise regularly. And to keep the pounds off permanently, you need to incorporate the new, healthy behaviors into your routine so that they become a natural part of your daily life.

Here are 20 ideas to reinforce your healthy lifestyle and to keep you committed to permanent weight loss.

1. Exercise 30 to 60 minutes each day. If time is limited, exercise for several brief periods throughout the day - for example, three 10-minute sessions rather than one 30-minute session.
2. Eat three healthy meals during the day, including a good breakfast. Skipping meals causes increased hunger and may lead to excessive snacking.
3. Focus on fruits and vegetables. Top off your morning cereal with sliced strawberries or bananas. Stir berries or peaches in yogurt or cottage cheese. Liven up your sandwiches with vegetables, such as tomato, lettuce, onion, peppers and cucumber.
4. Weigh yourself regularly. Monitoring your weight can tell you whether your efforts are working and can help you detect small weight gains before they become even larger.
5. Don’t keep comfort foods in the house. If you tend to eat high-fat, high-calorie foods when you’re upset or depressed or bored, don’t keep them around. Availability of food is one of the strongest factors in determining how much a person eats.
6. Plan a family activity. Get the family together to go for a bike ride, play disc golf or kick the ball around in the yard.
7. Eat healthy foods first. Eat foods that are healthy and low in calories first so that when it comes time to enjoy your favorites - sweets or junk food, for example - you won’t be so hungry.
8. Pay attention to portions. Serve meals already dished onto plates instead of placing serving bowls on the table. Take slightly less than what you think you’ll eat. You can always have seconds, if really necessary.
9. Create opportunities to be active. Wash your car at home instead of going to the car wash. Bike or walk to the store. Participate in your kid’s activities at the playground or park.
10. Sit down together for family meals. Avoid eating in front of the television. TV viewing strongly affects how much and what people eat.
11. See what you eat. Eating directly from a container gives you no sense of how much you’re eating. Seeing food on a plate or in a bowl keeps you aware of how much you’re eating.
12. Vary your activities. Regularly change your activity routine to avoid exercise burnout. Walk a couple of days, swim another and go for a bike ride on the weekend. Seek out new activities - karate, ballroom dancing, cross-country skiing, tennis or Pilates.
13. De-stress your day. Stress can cause you to eat more. Develop strategies that can help you relax when you find yourself becoming stressed. Exercise, deep breathing, muscle relaxation techniques and even a good laugh can ease stress.
14. Eat at home. People eat more food in restaurants than at home. Limit how often you eat at restaurants. If you do eat out, decide what and how much you’re going to eat before you start and have the rest boxed to go.
15. Plan healthy snacks. The best snacks include fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low-fat dairy products. Fruit smoothies, sliced fresh fruit and yogurt, whole-grain crackers, and carrot and celery sticks with peanut butter are all good choices.
16. Start your day with a high-fiber breakfast cereal, such as bran flakes, shredded wheat or oatmeal. Opt for cereals with “bran” or “fiber” in the name. Or add a few tablespoons of unprocessed wheat bran to your favorite cereal.
17. Walk for 10 minutes over your lunch hour or get up a few minutes earlier in the morning and go for a short walk.
18. Plan a week’s worth of meals at a time. Make a detailed grocery list to eliminate last-minute trips to the grocery store and impulse buys.
19. Look for a distraction when you’re fighting a craving. Call a friend, put on music and dance or exercise, clean the house, pull weeds in your garden, or run an errand. When your mind is occupied with something else, the cravings quickly go away.
20. Reward yourself. Losing weight and keeping the pounds off is a major accomplishment. Celebrate your success with nonfood rewards, such as new clothes or an outing with friends.

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1. Mistake: Gulping Down Extra Calories

Do you start each morning with a couple glasses of orange juice? How about a nice coffee drink at work? Was that you hitting the vending machine for a sports drink at the gym?

If this sounds familiar, take note: What you drink can be as important to weight loss as what you eat.

Some beverages provide as many calories as a full plate of food. Liquid calories don’t make you feel as satisfied as food, and many beverages bring no nutritional benefit. Even if you were to drink 1,500 calories of beverages a day, you would still feel hungry and then overeat. The solutions to cut Liquid Calories!

Just say no to the following: soft drinks and other sweetened canned and bottled drinks; flavored and sweetened coffee beverages, such as cappuccinos, lattes and frozen coffee; sweetened tea (hot or iced); and smoothies.

While juice is healthier than all these choices, whole fruit is preferable to a glass of juice; it has fewer calories and more fiber. Water and herbal tea (without adding sugar) are ideal replacements for high-calorie beverages.

2. Mistake: Depriving Yourself

So, you’ve sworn to lose weight this time around. You go into your pantry and remove all your favorite fattening foods. You make a sweep of the fridge and all bad foods make their way to the trash can. You do okay for a few days.

Then … at 8 pm one lonely Thursday, night you are ravishing. You head to the nearest service station and buy all your favorite chips and candy bars. Then you eat them all by midnight.

While this exact scenario may not happen to you, it may sound slightly familiar.

No matter how resolved we are to lose weight, it is in our nature to desire treats we are accustomed to eating. Whether your weakness is a bag of popcorn when you watch a movie or a bowl of ice cream before bed, you will eventually get the urge to indulge no matter how well those first few days go. What is the solution? Giving in a little.

Giving up the foods you enjoy is a surefire way to set yourself up for failure. It’s like a form of torture: Everyone else can eat the things you love while you can’t even taste them. How is that going to help you stick to your diet? It will not.

Allow yourself a special treat every now and then. Keep your portion sizes in check and you can still have your favorite foods in moderation.

When it gets tough, try to focus on other things; do not dwell on what you cannot have … thought of all the delicious, nutritious foods you can have.

3. Mistake: Believing Your Genes are to Blame

You look in the mirror and you see your mom. It is not her hair or even her eyes. It is your body. In addition, there is nothing you can do about it. After all, it is hereditary.

And now, what is the Solution: Get Real!

Genes do play a role in some cases of obesity. Often you will see family members who share the same body type. But for many of us, the most important factor in weight loss is calories in vs. calories out … how many calories we eat and how much exercise we get. All of that in order to lose some weight.

Even if family members are heavy, there are steps you can take so that you do not share their fate. Working out and strength-training will build muscle and give your metabolism a boost, both of which will help you head off the propensity for weight gain your genes might bring.

4. Mistake: Meal Skipping

It only stands to reason: If the key to losing weight is cutting calories then why not cut a bunch at once by skipping a meal?

If you skip meals when you are trying to lose weight, you are doing yourself more harm than good.

Meal skipping can cause your metabolism to nosedive. That will set you up for sluggish calorie burning all day long and ravenous hunger (and as a result, overeating) at night. An after all, what is the solution? Don’t Be a Skipper!

Most meal-skippers forgo breakfast. It seems to be the easiest meal to do without. But in reality, breakfast may influence weight loss more than any other meal!

If you aren’t hungry first thing in the morning, have something small. Do you actually forget to eat in the AM hustle and bustle? Set an alarm to go off some time after you normally rise to remind you to stop, take a breath … and eat.

5. Mistake: Giving in to a Food-Pusher

You have met her. She pushes doughnuts on unsuspecting office mates. She brings cupcakes for the book group while only tasting the icing herself. She hands you the takeout menu when you have already told her you brought a brown bag.

Who is she? She’s a pusher! A food pusher, that is. In addition, boy, they are hard to resist if you are missing the food they’re encouraging you to eat. What is the solution? Put Yourself First!

Whether office baked goods temptress or the well-meaning Mom who suggests seconds of her best dishes, some people just refuse to take “no” as an answer. They probably don’t even realize they are making your weight loss efforts that much harder.

You may have to distance yourself from the “pusher” for the time being. Sometimes it’s better for all parties concerned.

6. Mistake: Giving Up On Losing Weight Your Way

Sometimes, telling your friends and family you are on a diet can actually backfire. If they don’t understand your diet or think they know a better way to lose weight, it can lead to unwelcome input or even arguments. You get to the point that you want to throw in the towel. What is the solution? Keep it Under Wraps!

Only you know what works for you. So keep doing what works for you.

There is no rule that says you have to tell friends or family that you’re trying to lose weight. Weight is a personal issue. It is your prerogative to keep it that way.

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Society often paints the picture of the happy, jolly overweight person but is this a true picture? Evidence is emerging that people who are obese suffer from depression more often than their thinner counterparts.

A study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry showed that obese people suffer from anxiety and depression 25% more than those of normal weight, although, interestingly enough, they were also 25% less likely to abuse drugs or alcohol than those of lesser weight.

If obesity is associated with depression, what causes the obese individual to be depressed? The logical conclusion might be that they’re depressed over society’s reaction to their obesity. In other words, the reality of being overweight causes the depression. On the other hand, could obesity and depression be caused by some mysterious biochemical pathway that gives rise to both conditions? This may be a real possibility. There’s evidence to suggest that obesity and depression may be related in a true physiological sense.

The portions of the brain that control obesity are located in the area of the brain that regulates the interaction between the hypothalamus and pituitary. The pituitary gland receives direction from the hypothalamus with regard to how much of certain types of hormones to produce. The pituitary gland under the direction of the hypothalamus is responsible for producing the “stress hormone” known as cortisol which is also correlated with causing abdominal obesity. Thus high levels of cortisol could cause both obesity and, possibly, symptoms of depression and other mood changes.

One study perform in mice showed that there are certain mice that lack the genetic capability of producing leptin, a hormone produced by fat cells that’s known to suppress appetite. When scientists looked closer at this gene, known as “ob”, they found that slight variations in the gene structure produced mood changes in the mice ranging from depression to anxiety. It’s thought that this gene may not only have an effect on appetite and food intake but also on mood.

On the other hand, it’s a known that a negative body image can be linked to a poor self esteem and even frank symptoms of depression. Plus, persons who suffer from obesity often have other health problems which may contribute to their depressive symptoms. Other experts have suggested that the obese person’s constant attempts at dieting may bring on the depression they frequently experience.

Could obesity and depression be the product of the same biological pathways? Only time and further research will answer this intriguing question.

By: Daniel Bell

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