Weight Management For Health - Four Principles
Knowledge, Patience, Activity, and Motivation are the most important principles when talking about weight management for good health.
Knowledge
We all know that America has an obesity problem amongst its people and those that choose to live there. The facts speak for themselves.Foreigners and others who come to the United States often gain 20 pounds within 3 years of living here.
Most informed people know that the USDA Food Pyramid is outdated and has been manipulated by the profit-minded food industry for years to inspire people to eat more food, not less. We know that sugar-free, low-fat, low-calorie, processed foods deprive our bodies of essential nutrients needed for good health. We know the eating dishes such as plates, flatware and drinking glasses are way over-sized and encourage us to eat more.
The old line to children about finishing everything on their plates because "there are people in other countries who are starving" has taken on a newly ominous meaning with these giant dishes. Knowledgeable people can easily see that a single-person plate in 95% of the restaurants in the United States is the same size as most group serving dishes in countries like Japan and Korea. Homes in the United States contain super-sized dishes.
An exchange-student from Japan sat down to supper with her host family and wasn't eating any of the food that was placed before her and looked perplexed that everyone in her host family was happily eating away. When asked why she wasn't eating, she shyly said that she wasn't used to eating from the group serving dishes. Her host went to the kitchen and returned with a smaller saucer plate and she seemed satisfied with the 1/3 portions she served herself from her old plate.
Most people know that preparing meals for a family takes work and with the necessity to survive financially, a working married couple, or a single Mom or Dad,just doesn't have the time to prepare foods for the children and to wash dishes etc. so 'fast-food' eateries become the quick escape route and time-saver for many families.
Being aware of these facts, we can begin to understand the importance of the next principle of healthy weight loss.
Patience
Patience is a great virtue. Understanding the importance of patience is crucial to starting any type of weight management system. How interesting it is that overweight people can blithely take 10 years putting on an extra 50 pounds and yet look in the mirror one day and decide to go on a diet, choose their diet, then expect to lose 20 pounds in a month. If they haven't lost the weight, then it must be because the diet didn't work. In that case, they look for another miracle fat burner that will allow them to lose 15 pounds in two weeks.
It is important for anyone on a diet to remember to give weight loss a chance to succeed. In order to do that, dieters need to expect that a good healthy weight loss per week is perhaps 1-2 pounds. That's all. The best diet management plans will encourage you to set a goal of 1-2 pounds a week. Why? Because it's healthy weight loss that can be maintained. If you need to lose 50 pounds, expect it to take at least 30-35 weeks - that's 8+ months. If you cannot discipline yourself to stay on the diet for 8-9 months, then you perhaps need a counselor or trainer who can help you and encourage you to stay the path.
Activity
If you are pursuing a weight loss program and your goal is to lose 50 pounds or 100 pounds or whatever, it is important to keep active. Movement, walking fast or leisurely, biking, jogging, climbing stairs instead of taking an elevator, bowling, standing instead of sitting, gardening, digging, etc - all of these activities are important to speed up your weight loss program and will help you maintain it after you've reached your weight goals. Nothing can substitute for activity and movement. Take fat burners and other energy enhancers to make you feel like doing something active. 'Activity' doesn't mean sitting and doing a crossword puzzle or Sudoku or sitting and playing a PS3 video game. It may involve playing a Wii sports game if you stand up and move. Movement is the key to weight maintenance. Tai Chi is excellent, Yoga classes are excellent choices and if those are too expensive, then how about walking around your block 2 or 3 times a day? or up and down your street? or around the mall? or at the beach?
Motivation
Motivation is crucial to maintaining a weight-loss program. People around us who derisively tell us we are too fat or are getting fat may in fact be doing us a favor if we are unaware of how we look. Those who are depressed or who are suffering from a type of clinical depression may need to see a counselor who may be able to help. Weight loss managers always tell us to establish a weight-loss goal or goals to help motivate us. Writing down your goals and posting them on the refrigerator or bathroom mirror is always a good idea. By doing that, you will keep your dreams alive and therefore your priorities will be more focused.
A trainer may also help a lot. Someone who pushes you to try harder or do another set of push-ups or sit-ups or who shows you another way to do an exercise always makes things interesting and a little different.
One other question to be aware of is how you react to certain situations. By knowing this, you may be able to rid yourself of these destructive reactions to situations. For example, how do you react to good news? Do you celebrate and party and go out to a good restaurant and stuff yourself with your favorite foods as a reward to yourself for the 'good' that happened to you?
When something bad happens or bad news comes - like a pink slip on your desk or in your mailbox or a broken relationship - how do you react? Do you feel sorry for yourself and go immediately to the fridge to 'binge' or sit and watch tv all day - never going out or even answering the phone? How do you react when there's 'no news' or worry in your life? Once you understand these triggers and your reactions to them, you'll have a much easier time managing your weight control program.
Now you know what the pros know. Pick a diet and go for it with resolve and discipline and watch yourself succeed.
