How to Lose Weight NOW!

"Six in every 10 Americans are overweight."

New statistics reveal that a startling 64.5% of American adults, or more than 120 million people, are overweight or obese. The numbers probably will mean an explosion of diabetes and heart disease cases if things don't improve, top U.S. obesity experts say.

How about your kids, childhood obesity running out of control.

• 4% overweight 1982 | 16% overweight 1994

• 25% of all white children overweight 2001

• 33% African American and Hispanic children overweight 2001

• Hospital costs associated with childhood obesity rising from $35 Million (1979) to $127 Million (1999)

Ouch! Are you one of the six out of every ten? How about your child is their weight out of control?

I know I know dieting sounds so much easier than it is, you have probably tried a diet, two, or maybe even fifteen just to gain all the weight back within the year. It seems like a never-ending endeavor. And sadly most of the popular diets out there tend to only aid in this cycle due to the fact that they rarely address the many variables that lead to weight gain in the first place.

Luckily, research has identified some of the best strategies to help increase your chances of stopping the yo-yo dieting and losing the weight once and for all. Why not make a commitment to change your life and your families' life today.

Top strategies to help you regain control of your weight and your life:

1. Exercise and Weight Training

Alright, we have all heard this one before but it can't be said enough exercise is likely the single most important predictor of whether you will succeed with your long term weight loss. Really it is! Of course, for exercise to be helpful you need to do a minimum of five 30-minute sessions per week. Here are a few suggestions for those of you still trying to figure out what kind of exercise you can tolerate :

• Try walking with a friend or your pet

• join a community sports team,

• join a hiking club,

• trying some classes at your local gym.

• work in the yard

• go for a bike ride

• wash and wax the car

• try a little gardening

• try something new like Yoga

• dance

2. Keep a Food Diary

"Recording your daily intake (time of day, foods, amounts, and emotions) increases awareness. And if you are an emotional eater (eating related to feeling states, not in response to hunger), you need to become more aware of your thoughts, feelings, and behavior patterns. It's harder to fool yourself about what you are eating and why, when you see it in black and white. If you are accurate, you will identify trouble times, patterns and situations. Problem solve around these areas to ensure success."

3. "Stay Focused on Being Healthy, Not on Becoming Thin

Many people become more successful at long-term weight loss when their motivation changes from wanting to be thinner to wanting to be healthier. Change your mindset to think about selecting foods that will help your body's health rather than worrying about foods that will affect your body's weight. The Food Pyramid offers a basic outline of the types and amounts of food you should eat each day to give your body the nutrients it needs for optimal health."

4. Confront Your Issues

"Emotional baggage poses a huge obstacle to achieving weight wellness. Your weight may be sending you a message to pay attention, and until you do, you will continue to use food and weight as a way to avoid or escape. It is difficult to face the pain, but unless you know what you are running from, you can't overcome it. However, you needn't do it alone. Therapy is a good place to work on these issues and learn how to cope more effectively, rather than using food to push the feelings down."

5. Watch Your Stress Level

"Yes, stress can make you fat! When we are under stress, our adrenal glands boost their output of cortisol, our natural "stress hormone" that allows our bodies to adapt to stress. Although cortisol is an important and necessary hormone, too much cortisol can interfere with our bodies' metabolism. Cortisol (as well as the synthetic forms of cortisone) causes weight gain, a rise in blood pressure, an increase in insulin levels, cholesterol, and can even lead to diabetes. Chronic stress can therefore lead to weight gain through the over activity of the adrenal glands. Stress reduction techniques such as exercise, meditation, yoga and breathing exercises will help to reduce the levels of cortisol and will help promote weight loss."

6. Be Positive

"Do you have a harsh inner critic? If so, negative self-talk (also called "internal dialogue") could be responsible for a large part of your problems. Instead, treat yourself with dignity, and talk to yourself with respect. Work on reducing negative thought patterns by replacing them with realistically positive ones. Restructuring negative ways of thinking is the central focus of Cognitive Therapy, a highly effective approach geared toward changing a person's thoughts, feelings and behavior."

7. Clean up your social network

"Sift out the saboteurs from the supporters. Reduce or eliminate your involvement with those who tend to undermine your efforts. Supportive people will cheer you on, give you constructive guidance, provide accurate information, and be there for you emotionally. Know whom you can go to for what, and when. Also, and perhaps most important, be a good friend to yourself."

8. Join a Support Group

"A big key in long-term weight control comes from receiving encouragement and support from others. You can check to see if groups such as Weight Watchers offer programs and resources in your areas. You may also wish to check with your local hospital to see if their registered dietitian conducts group weight loss programs."

9. Plan your foods and prepare for meals.

Learn about high-yield nutrition and portion control, and plan meals accordingly. Prepare meals when you have time (over the weekend, the night before), so you are not making choices at the last minute, when you are hungry or pressed for time and more likely to behave impulsively. If you are eating for health and to satisfy hunger, you will not crave food to make up for nutritional deficiencies.

• Watch Your Portions -With the advent of "super-size" meals and increasingly huge portions at restaurants, our concept of normal serving sizes is a distant memory. Be mindful of the amounts of food you consume at a sitting. When necessary, divide your food in half and ask for a take home bag. It is all too easy to be a "plate cleaner" even when served enormous portions. Learn to pay attention to your hunger level and stop eating when you feel comfortably full, not stuffed.

• Keep trigger foods out of your environment - trigger foods are those foods that are ones that you usually overeat; they are often high in fat and sugar or salt. In the effort to achieve weight wellness, understand that it does not make you stronger to resist temptation - you simply overwhelm your coping resources. If you have trigger foods around, throw them out and keep them out. Replace those foods with a variety of highly nutritious foods that take some time to prepare. Delay impulses to eat (especially trigger foods) when you are not hungry, and ride out cravings. If the deprivation of something you miss having is going to set you up for a binge, better to purchase a small amount if possible, or buy it, put a portion you intend to eat on a plate, throw out the rest (where you absolutely cannot retrieve it, or destroy it by mixing it with garbage like coffee grounds or something yucky), and then eat what you had set aside. Better to waste a bit of food than to wear it (and continue to endanger your health).

"Slow Down. Did you ever notice that thin people take an awfully long time to eat their food? Eating slowly is one method that can help take off pounds. That's because from the time you begin eating it takes the brain 20 minutes to start signaling feelings of fullness. Fast eaters often eat beyond their true level of fullness before the 20 minute signal has had a chance to set in. The amount of calories consumed before you begin to feel full can vary significantly depending on how quickly you eat. So slow down, take smaller bites and enjoy and savor every tasty morsel."

• "Eat more fiber - OK, what's so new about fiber? Could there possibly be new discoveries about the effects of fiber on weight loss and metabolism? The answer is yes. We've known for quite some time that a high fiber diet provides more of a feeling of "fullness" and can therefore reduce appetite. We also know that foods that are high in fiber are also generally low in calories, so a high fiber diet often means a lower calorie diet. But what we've just recently discovered is that fiber slows down the body's absorption of sugar. The slower the body absorbs sugar, the less of the heavyweight hormone insulin your body makes. The less insulin (to a point), the better the body's metabolism and the less weight gain. So fiber actually helps the body's metabolism and can promote weight loss by helping to maintain lower insulin levels."

• Eat Breakfast - "Eating in the morning will kick-start your metabolism. Eat when you need the fuel. Your metabolism is higher in the morning than in the evening, so calories eaten earlier in the day are burned faster than those eaten later. As you are resting in the evening, your need for calories is decreased, and you will also sleep better if your stomach isn't full. Your body will be freed up to do other maintenance and repair work at night if it does not have to be busy with digestion."

• Think Water -"When you first feel a pang of hunger, don't reach for the regular sugary carbo snack, instead, reach for an 8 oz. glass of clean water. This will suppress the feeling of hunger, which is often mistaken when the body really wants water anyway." Make sure you drink at least 8 glasses of water each day.

• "Eat lots of fresh fruits between meals and the best time to eat fruit is either 20 minutes before a meal or midway between meals as it help regulate your blood sugar and cravings."

• "Eat fresh vegetables with every lunch and evening meal. When you are selecting the main course always try to avoid mixing proteins (meats) with starches (breads and potatoes)."

• "Don't wait till you're starving to eat as this will only encourage binging. Be sure to have a snack of veggies with you between meals and drink water, which will help avert feelings of starvation and cravings."

"Most adults need 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep per night. Proper rest is a priority for weight management (and a number of other purposes), as people commonly overeat due to sleep deprivation. With sufficient sleep, not only will you be less stressed, and therefore be less likely to crave foods, you will be more able to resist food cravings."

Remember before beginning any diet or fitness program; consult your physician just to get the thumbs up.

Are you a Smoker? Have you thought about quitting? Learn tips and techniques that can help guide you to finally letting go of smoking. How to Quit Smoking Guide

Want to build a Healthy Livng Plan?

http://www.thedietchannel.com/weightloss.htm

http://www.cognitive-therapy-associates.com/top-ten-weight-loss-tips.php

http://www.ultraprevention.com/tools/top_ten_for_fuccessful_weight_loss.htm

http://www.healthyyounaturally.com/products/weightloss/top10tips_healthy_weightloss.htm

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