Losing weight is the objective of millions of men, women and children throughout the developed world today. Obesity is a major and fast-growing epidemic and because of this weight loss has become more important now than ever before. This is not only for reasons of vanity, which may have been true in the past, but for real and sometimes life-threatening reasons of health. All gender groups and nearly all age groups have a growing trend of increased average weight.
Perhaps to make matters worse, we are constantly bombarded with images of beauty and perfection in newspapers, magazines and on our screens. These images of gorgeous, thin, perfect people often do not reflect reality and the subjects of the pictures and images are normal, spotty, ordinary people just like the rest of us. They have the advantage of having their photos retouched and manipulated by Photoshop experts who can miraculously make blemishes vanish, make legs longer and wobbly bits melt away into thin air.
If you want to be serious about losing weight, these days it is thought to be more in the mind than anywhere else. You have to get yourself into the right frame of mind first and then tackle the problem. First, have a good, long, realistic look at your own lifestyle. When do you eat? Do you comfort-eat? When do you exercise? Make a list of everything you eat for one day.
Many women have the preconception that it must be their hormones, or they are genetically predisposed to being larger because they are ‘big boned’ or they have slow metabolisms. This may indeed be the case. If you have a thyroid deficiency then your body will not be able to metabolize your food as efficiently and you will easily build up fat in your cells. This should be checked out immediately by your physician or nurse. However, it is more likely that it is not the case. If you spend one week religiously writing down every food item that goes into your mouth, then make a guess of the calories that this involves, you will see where your weight gain comes from. Even two hundred extra calories a day mean that you will gain a pound nearly every two weeks. That is just eating your normal diet that you eat, if you are only two hundred calories over your daily requirement, you will gain weight. Many people are well over two hundred calories a day.
After seeing how many calories you eat a day, have a look at when you eat and what you eat. Apart from your normal meals, when is it that you have extra food? When we eat extra food apart from our meals, that usually means snacks and there are not many low calorie snacks around! Crisps, chocolate, ice creams, bun, muffins – they all have way more calories than any one ever realizes. Do you eat when you are bored? When you are watching TV?
Try to cut down on all these extra calories and try to find other things to do while you are watching television. Some people take up a hobby. Then, rather than shoveling empty calories into their mouths while they are just sitting, they keep their hands occupied and the weight just falls off!
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