Month: April 2013

Almost all of us have been on a diet sometime in their life; I know I have.  It is hard to decide which diet plan to suffer through. The first question is, which one will work for you and how hard do you have to work to make it work? Basically most of us are lazy when it comes to losing weight and we want the fastest and easiest diet plan we can find.

Sticking to a diet is hard to do. On most ‘normal’ diets you won’t get hungry. By normal I mean you eat 3 meals a day with a couple of snacks during the day and you have to drink tons of water, that is what really fills you up. You may slush around all day but you won’t get hungry.

There are many diet plans. There are the 300 pages or more diet books and there are the diet groups that meet at least once a week. Then there are some that will have meals delivered right to your door. The basic plan in these diets is each day eat 3 healthy meals, have a couple of snacks, and drink lots of water. Next you have the diet pills that come with a diet plan, 3 meals, a couple of snacks, and lots of water, plus a pill or 2 each day.

Let us not forget the fad diets, the cabbage soup diet, the boiled egg diet, the grapefruit diet, just to name a few. These diets don’t last long, you either give up or pass out. Oh yeah, you do lose weight with these diets, but you also gain it back in a hurry, plus some.

So if you are thinking about starting a diet plan, choose carefully. Frankly in my opinion, one of the ones that meets once a week is the best. Like the challenges hosted by WAVES for Weight Loss. You get the support of all the rest of the group, you get to meet new people, and you get some new ideas for meals. These kinds of diets teach you how to live with a food plan, not a diet, but a way of life.

So until you decide which diet plan you think you can best follow, try to eat 3 healthy meals, a couple of snacks, and drink a lot of water each day. Get the support you need and find out what programs worked for those in the challenge. I have had great success with both My Herbal Plan and the WAVES Take Shape Plan. The wonderful thing is at WAVES, you are taught how to lose weight and then transition to a whole foods diet that will keep you slim for life!

As someone who helps people lose weight and improve fitness by changing their habits and behaviors, I’d like to take a closer look at the subject of attitude. After all, it’s attitude that determines whether you drag yourself off the couch and out the door for an invigorating walk, or spend the afternoon watching TV. Whether it’s to enhance your life, or save your life, to a very large degree, it is attitude that determines where you end up.

If you would like a good example of how attitude can overcome a real downer of an experience, consider Kelly Luckett of Decatur, Georgia.  She ran 26.2 miles, as the third ever female amputee to compete in the Boston Marathon. That’s 26.2 miles folks…in six hours, twenty minutes and two seconds. Ms. Luckett had the choice to either succumb to her disability or live life fully.  She chose to not only live, but to strive for excellence and the result was outstanding.

With the list of things I have to do today, I have a “pretty good reason” to stay hunched over my desk until dinnertime, but I guess I have just motivated myself to haul up the anchor and take my protesting body out for a run. It’s all about living!

Most of us understand the reasons for our poor physical fitness and the answer to losing weight.  We have read volumes on diet and exercise, but it is our attitude that prevents us from doing what needs to be done.

Tips to “Boost” Your Attitude:

1.  One way to develop a powerfully positive attitude, even if you don’t feel that way, is to behave as if you do.  To that end, planning your actions and anticipating setbacks, in advance, is essential. Schedule workouts on your calendar.  Making an important appointment with yourself, in writing, carries more weight than just the vague intention to do something.  Schedule for first thing in the morning because research shows that people who exercise before the business day begins are most likely to stick with it.

2.  A little bit of something is better than nothing.  Regardless of how short you are on time or how blah you’re feeling, commit to just five or ten minutes.  Every little bit helps and, almost always, once you get going, your energy picks up and you have a great workout.

3.  Be flexible.  A change of plans is not an excuse to do nothing.   If you usually exercise in the gym, and you’re out of town, go for a jog.  If you forgot your running shoes, go for a brisk walk. Honor your commitment to your exercise appointment.

4.  When possible, join your spouse or a workout partner.  It’s a lot less easy to cop out if someone else is depending on you.

5.  Know that God wants you to succeed!

“Be Strong… Be Lean” ~ Howard McGarity

Many people get their water from fruits, such as apples, watermelons and berries. One piece of fruit, depending on the size, can count for as much as half of a glass of water. The added benefit of fruit is that in addition to helping to hydrate you, fruit can add healthy amounts of vitamins and minerals to your core diet.

Fruit also fills the stomach and energizes you. Because fruit contains very few calories, it is a good food to fill up on. However, fruit does contain fructose, which is a type of sugar. Fructose will spike the level of sugar in your blood stream, which will give you energy. Yet, if that energy is not consumed readily, the fructose will turn to fat (if only a small amount of it.)

So, enjoy your fruits, just do it in moderation!