Everyone hates dieting and diets. As soon as there is talk of 'no pain, no gain,' you cringe. You know that anyone embarking on a diet plan to lose weight is not going to have a good time of it. It's all about sacrificing for the greater good and making some drastic lifestyle changes. Essentially you are no longer allowed to enjoy food and you have a long road of self punishment ahead.
It's no wonder most dieters fail. Most often you'll see some short term results, but nothing that will last in the long run. Oh sure, there are always some wild success stories about someone who lost 50 pounds in 3 weeks. I guarantee you that this is the exception and not the rule. Amazing success stories are what sells the fad diets to the masses. Weight loss and dieting is a multi-billion dollar industry. It's always interesting to see how some self appointed weight loss guru thinks you should punish yourself so that they can make some quick money.
I'm going to give you some great tips for losing weight without having to suffer for it. I'm putting these tips out there for anyone that wants them because they are all based on common sense. It's not about some fancy plan and there's really no pain involved. Since it's so simple, there's nothing to patent or special foods that I can sell you. There's also no need for membership fees, books, videos, etc. that I'm asking you to shell out your hard earned money for.
It's easy and you'll be successful at it if you take the time to apply the key principles. I picked up all of my knowledge over time from reading and personal experience. I've been able to whittle it down to some very simple truths. This is after all the whole idea here at Cutting Through the Hype.
Without further ado, here are the tips:
1. Set a goal. No matter what the undertaking is, it's always best to set a goal right at the beginning so you have something to aim for and you can decide on a plan of attack. If your goal is to lose a large amount of weight, then you may want to consider setting some incremental goals to achieve along the way. It's much easier to tackle a large problem if you can break it down into smaller, manageable mini goals. These mini goals should be acknowledged and celebrated in an effort to build momentum towards your main goal.
2. Water, water and more water. You need to drink more water. Have a glass or bottle of water on hand at all times. This is usually easier for people that work in an office environment where water can be kept and can be easily accessed throughout the day. Water is the life source of our bodies. We need it to live, but it also gives us energy which will make us more productive at work and in our down time. Water flushes our system of toxins and increases the rate at which your body metabolizes fat. So many people misinterpret dehydration as hunger and it's an easy mistake to make considering that even though your body is thirsty the signal it gives off is hunger. In that case, drink more. One good gauge of the state of our hydration, is the colour of our urine. The aim is to keep urine colour pale yellow (and sometimes even colourless) throughout the course of the day. If your urine is a darker yellow, then take another swig of water. You need to drink more water. I can't emphasize that enough.
3. Small meals more often. Consider a waitress working a 12-hour day at an eat in restaurant. She will most likely be really busy during the breakfast, lunch and dinner rushes. Now also consider customer satisfaction. It's going to be much easier for the waitress to provide better service between the rushes than when she has to juggle too many tables at once. Think of your metabolism the same way. If you eat a large meal, your body will have to work extra hard to digest the food. You know those large family gatherings where you gorge yourself silly and want to lie down on the couch afterwards? That's your body working really hard all at once and you metabolism has to work overtime to keep up. Your system is also not processing this food efficiently since it was hit with all that food at once.
The normal convention is to eat 3 meals a day. This should be considered a minimum. You should be taking that same amount of food from those 3 meals and spreading it out over 5 meals. This just makes sense. That way your body is always working on digesting a manageable amount of food. Kick start your metabolism with a good breakfast and then keep that momentum going throughout the day right until dinner. In most instances, dinner portions are too large and you don't need a second helping. You want to reach a point where you are comfortably full and not feeling like you need to pop a button or loosen a belt. If you're worried about hunger pangs during the night then refer to step 2 which should help avoid this problem. When I adopted this method, the easiest thing for me to do was to break up what I was bringing to work for lunch and making smaller snacks out of it. I use small portions of my lunch as a pre-lunch and post-lunch snack.
I like to relate people's habits to their workday because for most of us there is an established routine. This eating routine and always having water on hand are some things that may be more difficult to apply in our off work hours and weekends, but it's nevertheless important to make a conscious effort to follow these principles.
4. Only eat when you are hungry. So far I've made no mention of fasting or cutting out the bad foods. This step is really no different, but this is where you really need to listen to your body to make steps 2 and 3 effective. Now that you are properly hydrated the feelings of hunger that you will experience are more likely signs that you need to eat some food. This step is really simple, but it bears repeating: Only eat when you are hungry. More than that, only eat enough food to get you to your next meal. Ideally, you want to feel a little hungry before each meal. The hard part is that you have to ignore cravings and only address actual hunger.
5. Speeding up the process. There isn't really a step 5. Steps 2 to 4 are all that you need to lose weight initially. If you want to speed up the process then doing some exercise will help. I always suggest that you start off slow if you are not in good physical condition. Whatever exercise you do make sure that it is something that you can enjoy. Life is too short to punish yourself. Find some friends with similar interests and do some activity together.
That's it. It's that simple. Try out these principles and let me know how you do. I always enjoy hearing a good success story.
What started me on this journey of learning about my body many years ago was that I was working as an assembly line worker in an industrial plant. The work that I was doing was not very rewarding, but it was manually intensive and I was in the best shape of my life. A promotion came along and I was transferred to work in the office of the company. The problem was that I was still eating the same amount of food as if I were still on the assembly line, but not doing nearly as much physical activity. The obvious consequence was that I started to get a little squishy around the midsection.
Truthfully, I managed to gain enough weight that some love handles started to really show and my clothes started to fit a little too snugly. Since I was pretty sure that my clothes had not shrunk, I decided to do something about it and I came up with the principles outlined above. The weight melted off fairly quickly without much real effort. At the time I was not doing any real physical activity,but the weight still came off. As things change in my life, I listen to my body and make sure it gets what it needs. You should do the same.
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