Thank You For Visiting Our Blog, FEEL BETTER AND LIVE LONGER!

The purpose of our blog is to share what we have learned about nutrition, weight loss, fitness, and health, in order to help you find ways to feel better and live longer. It is amazing how much our diet and lifestyle affect our health and well-being.

Did you know that you can reduce your risk and even prevent many diseases and health conditions simply by making some changes to your diet? Check back often for valuable tips and information.

HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT & KEEP IT OFF:

For the first time in my life I have found weight loss success. During my adult life I have tried dozens and dozens of so-called "diets" and none of them worked over the long-haul. Oh, I was able to lose weight with some of them, but once I went off of the "diet" I quickly gained back all of my weight (plus some).

I have finally learned that losing weight has to be a lifestyle change, not a temporary fix. Crash diets and all the other crazy diets will not only cause you to fail, they are harmful to your health. To lose weight and keep it off you must NOT go on a "diet." What? Why? Because we all consider a "diet" a temporary thing. For example, how many times have you said, "Oh, I will go on this low-fat diet until I lose 20 pounds." Okay, what happens after you lose the 20 pounds? Or you simply give up? You go back to your old habits and gain that 20 pounds back.

The only way you will ever be successful at losing weight, with the added benefit of improving your health, is to make healthy changes that you can live with for the rest of your life. Period. Not for a week, a month or 3 months, but for life. For me, my initial goal was to lower my cholesterol level. I had to have a blood test for my insurance coverage and my cholesterol level had to be lower than the previous year's levels or I would have to pay a much higher premium. Well, that was a pretty good incentive for me make some positive changes.

I sat down and figured out what I needed to do. I knew I had to change the way I ate and I knew I had to exercise in some form or other every day. So, I made a list and I stuck to it. It was difficult at first. To make matters worse, I am a compulsive eater. However, as the days went by, it became much easier because my body stopped craving sweets and processed foods. For the first time in my life, I was never tempted to binge because I never felt deprived.

Use the list below and make whatever changes you need to make in order for it to work for you. FYI, my cholesterol level dropped 65 points after 7 weeks, and my triglycerides dropped 70 points! Another benefit that I hadn't planned on was that after being an insomniac since my teen-age years, I now sleep like a baby every night!

MY LIST FOR WEIGHT LOSS SUCESS:

1. Avoid "white" Foods & Processed Foods. These foods have no nutritional value and are "empty" calories. Sweets, anything made with white flour,and anything that comes in a package with a long list of ingredients. Always read the food labels. Stay away from those long lists of ingredients. The longer the list, the more chemicals and additives are present. These are extremely toxic to your body.

2. Drink Lots of Water. Water keeps your body's organs hydrated and flushes out unhealthy toxins. It helps to fill you up and reduces your urge to over-eat.

3. Eat a Healthy Breakfast. Instead of coffee and donuts, try fruit, yogurt, grains like oatmeal or whole grain toast, and lean protein. NEVER skip breakfast. By eating a large, healthy meal when you get up in the morning, your metabolism will "rev up" and you will not be hungry by mid-morning. If you skip breakfast, your body will go into starvation mode and store calories in your body as FAT, yes FAT! So do yourself a big favor and eat breakfast.

4. Reduce Your Stress Level. So many of us live with too much stress. Stress lowers your immune system, making it easier to get sick. It also makes us lethargic, tired, and depressed. There are a lot of simple things you can do and a lot of ways to feel better about yourself and your life. Take a long, hot bath, read a book, listen to music, get a massage. Do something nice for yourself. Giving yourself something to look forward to is a tremendous mental incentive.

5. Move! Oh my gosh! There are so many ways to incorporate movement into your day, even at work. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Get up every hour and walk around your floor, your hallway or your desk. Park your car in the farthest space from where you need to be. Walk or bike to work. Skate, dance, golf, jump rope, clean house, play tag. The best exercise you can do is to walk. Try to take a walk every day! The more you move, the more your metabolism will be your friend. (I walk 3 miles every day whether it is raining, snowing or freezing.)

Diets Don't Work!

6:20 AM  , , , , ,  No comments

When you hear the word “diet” does it bring immediate thoughts of failure? How many times have you gone on diets, only to fail miserably? Could it be that “diets” just don’t work? There, I’ve said it. DIETS DON’T WORK. Why?

If you go on a “diet” you are only setting yourself up for another round of failure. Never use that word. If you need to lose weight and become healthier, instead of going on yet another diet, you must make changes to your entire lifestyle or you will never be successful.

Making changes to your lifestyle is not just about changing how you eat, it is about your attitudes, your feelings, and your knowledge about what is healthy and what is not. It is about how much physical activity you get and whether or not you really want to improve your life.

WHY DIETS DON’T WORK.

Eating can be an addiction for many. Unfortunately, you can't give up eating the way a smoker can give up cigarettes. Think about how difficult it would be to try to give up smoking but be forced to smoke three a day.  You would probably decide that you might as well enjoy them every time the urge hits.

Unfortunately, you must eat in order to survive. This means that if food is a problem in your life, you must find a healthier attitude towards food. This is where diets fail. Diets do nothing to change how we view food. “Diets” are about deprivation. No one wants to feel deprived.

Even worse, we punish ourselves when we slip up along the straight and very narrow pathways upon which our diets place us. This means that we are going to wallow in guilt over every little misstep we make until we give up all together and decide to over indulge once again and ignore the guilt all together.


HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL.

To have real success you must make lifestyle changes. This is the only way you can shed unwanted pounds without experiencing the guilt that so many dieters go through each and every step of the way with their diets. Set new goals for yourself. Keep them aggressive but realistic for fitness, dropping pounds, and eating healthy foods.

Change your way of eating. Then change the way you see food and you will experience amazing changes in your attitudes toward your health, your body, and your fitness level. As the pounds begin to drop off, you will experience more energy and less pain when exercising. This will help keep you motivated.

KEEP IT STEADY.

Long-term weight loss goals are challenging. Take it one day at a time and begin again the next day. This means that even if you fall completely "off the wagon" today, you can start over tomorrow. The key to success is to stay the course more days than not and learning moderation and balance when it comes to straying from the straight and narrow.

There are many ways to fail when it comes to dieting. There is no way to fail, however, when you are making positive changes in your life that are getting positive results. It may take weeks or months to reach your goal. As long as you are making steady and continuous efforts and progress, you are doing wonderful things for your health.

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