Manage Your Weight.
It seems these days that almost everyone
has a weight issue, some want to lose weight, some want to gain weight while
others just want to maintain the weight they've got without having to resort to
excessive exercise or a strict diet.
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In fact terms like weight loss, diet
plans, how to lose weight, how to lose weight fast, diet, lose weight and how
to lose belly fat are amongst the most searched terms on Google and most other
search engines.
If you consider, as many people do, that
your body is like some kind of engine then you must consider that your body
will perform better for longer if it is given the right fuel, after all you
wouldn't put diesel oil in a petrol engine would you?
In the [sometimes dim and distant] past
the only foods that were readily available were those you grew, gathered or
caught yourself.
There were no processed foods, no packaged
meat, no fruit and vegetables that had been placed into a cold store for weeks
or months before they got to your table.
You went into your garden and picked the
vegetables you wanted for the day; you went fishing or hunting for your meat.
These activities did two things, not only
did they provide good fresh, healthy, nutritious food for you and your family
to eat but they also gave you the exercise you needed to maintain a healthy
body.
These days more and more families see both
the husband and wife working outside the home and so the whole dynamics of
eating, exercise and nutrition have changed.
Fast foods have become an accepted "staple"
in many people's lives, taking the kids to MacDonalds at the end of a busy day
has almost became the norm and let’s face it, after a hard day at the office or
on the tools who wants to go home and cook?
Even if you do eat at home, these days the
average home cooked meal is so laden with artificial preservatives, saturated
fats and the like that our bodies are starving for the ingredients that they
need and overflowing with the ingredients that they don't need.
Because our bodies aren't getting the nutrition
they need our brain tells us that we must put more in, increase the amount of
"good stuff" but without considering that with some of that
"good stuff" comes a whole truckload of food that really is not good
for us at all.
Often the problem lies right there.
In order for our bodies to get all the
nutrition it needs we have to consume much more in total than we otherwise
would if our food was fresh and additive free.
To exaggerate, if our food is, for
example, fifty percent nutritious and fifty percent "filler" then we
have to consume twice as much as if we were getting one hundred percent
nutritious food.
This imbalance in our food intake results
in any number of "problems" with our health.
Weight problems [both too much and also
too little weight], skin problems, tiredness, disease, and overall poor health
are often the result and although this problem has reached epidemic
proportions, we can reverse the effects of poor diet in our own lives if we
truly want to.
"Garbage In - Garbage Out."
While this phrase may have been coined for
the computer industry, it's very relevant when it comes to our own body.
Every moment that we are alive, our body
is busy manufacturing the chemicals, fluids, proteins, and tissues that are
required to keep us healthy.
Food, or rather the nutrition that is
derived from food, is what the body depends upon to handle all of these tasks.
Everything we eat is used, stored, or
discarded by the body.
The body's particular dietary needs can
vary widely depending upon what's going on inside and outside of us at any
particular time.
Our body makes decisions on whether to
burn carbs or fat based upon our immediate energy needs, how long it has been
since our last meal, and the general condition of our health.
The body burns fuel in a very specific
order.
Alcohol is burned first because our bodies
have no way to store it for later use, protein is burned next, then
carbohydrates and finally fat.
Because fat is consumed last, and the
average person has a diet which is rich in fat, our bodies store the fat away
to be used at a future time.
How is this fat stored?
You guessed it; it's stored as fatty
tissue and that's why we call being overweight "fat".
All of this overabundance of fat which is
stored in our bodies not only affects our appearance but also has a significant
effect on our overall health.
Study after study has shown that excess
fat in our diets are directly linked to these medical conditions:
- ·
Increased risk of
developing certain cancers.
- ·
Increased risk of
arterial and heart disease due to elevated cholesterol levels.
- ·
Increased risk of stroke.
- ·
Increased risk of
Diabetes.
- ·
Increased risk of Liver
disease
and it has a direct impact on the body's
immune system.
It is just plain common sense for us to
avoid these unnecessary health risks by reducing the amount of fat that we
consume every day.
It's no comfort to know that you're not
the only one to struggle with weight issues.
Despite the claims that are made almost
daily through the media and other sources there is no wonder diet that will
work for everyone, no magic pill or easy solution to weight loss or weight
control in general.
If you want really, really quick weight
loss you'll have remove a limb, cut off a leg with a chain saw or perhaps just
not eat at all for a week or two, that will work but it's a bit extreme!
While nothing works for everybody, there
is something that will work for you, the challenge is to find it, identify it,
and stick to it.
Appetite control works but for some people
controlling their appetite may be extremely difficult.
Other weight loss programs try to tackle
the problem by delving into the emotional issues behind food (these are the
total lifestyle body makeovers, whose techniques include keeping a food journal
and coming to terms with one's body image).
Others address the problem by introducing
or removing certain foods in one's diet that are said to either trigger or
suppress the appetite.
Still others, like diet pills, act as
appetite suppressants.
Other programs rely on nutritional
substitutes, like heavy shakes that make one feel full and provide adequate
vitamins and minerals, while reducing calories.
For others, it's not appetite that's
problematic; it's the kind of food they eat.
Certain diet programs give very
strict diet regimens that promote weight loss, because of the way the body
digests the food.
Some are short-term, meant to shed pounds over a limited
period of time; others are long-term lifestyle changes.
The success of these
diet programs depend largely on the person's weight loss goals and level of
commitment.
Needless to say, if you just want to drop a dress size for your
wedding, you may not be ready to go into something long-term but if you have
health problems, and need to control cholesterol levels, then a short-term
solution would not be very effective.
Other weight loss programs are closely
tied with exercise routines.
Of course, not all exercise regimens will appeal
to an individual; some would find yoga interesting, while others would prefer
something like belly dancing.
The idea is that one picks what is most
interesting to them-the more fun and enjoyment they derive from a routine, the
more likely they will stick to it.
The mistake that many people make is that
they don't consider their own lifestyle or personality when they try a diet or
exercise regimen; they go with what everyone else is doing, or jump on the
weight loss bandwagon on the premise that it worked for so-and-so.
While it's
okay to experiment with different regimens (wouldn't hurt to try anything
once), ultimately it is a search to find what is personally appealing.
Another secret to maintaining a diet or
exercise regimen is to have very clear and realistic goals.
"Be thin"
is too general to be meaningful; pinpoint a number, and a date:
"Lose 15
pounds by September."
And to avoid discouragement, that goal must be
humanly achievable and should never compromise your health.
If a diet
makes you dizzy, or radically affects your ability to be fully alert and
functional, then stop immediately.
Luckily there is a wide variety of weight
loss regimens, there's bound to be one that will help you meet your goals and
match your lifestyle.
