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Shape Up! 4-Alternative Weight Loss Solutions
I am embarrassed to admit how many different commercial weight loss programs I've tried. I don't know about you, but after a while I grow tired of talking heads touting empty promises. None of them helped me look the way I think I should and most of them left me agonizing over eating the same foods over and over. What's a body to do? In this article I've outline a few different ideas that I've found to really work. Ideas I continue to come back to again and again. Whether you need to lose a few pounds or are looking for a healthy lifestyle change, these 4 solutions will help get you started. Solution #1: Use Creative Visualization Creative visualization a great way to bring about lifestyle change. "Seeing" yourself thinner is one of the most successful ways to decrease your body size and improve body image. Guided imagery works by training your mind to stimulate changes within your body. This can be accomplished using a few of my favorite tools: Affirmations: Using affirmations will train your mind by stating or affirming your intentions. It will retrain your thinking toward positive thoughts. When I use affirmations, I like to use positive statements such as these: MY BODY IS BEAUTIFUL! I LOVE MY BODY! To increase their effectiveness, I write these messages to myself on an index card or piece of paper and carry them with me. I review them several times throughout the day. Tapes: If you are an auditory person, you will love the guided imagery and weight loss tapes available from Health Journeys ( http://www.healthjourneys.com ). Their positive learning tapes will walk you through the thought process of building a stronger, leaner body. Books: One of my favorite positive affirmation books is Love Your Body! By Louise L. Hay. Inside this book, Louise has created affirmations for you. If you read through them each day you are sure to reap the rewards of loving your body. Solution #2 Try An Herbal Wrap If you need to lose a few extra pounds, you may want to try an herbal wrap. Herbal wraps help the body lose water and inches. You can get a wrap from your favorite salon however, they tend to be expensive. It's just as easy to give yourself a spa treatment at home. Herbal wrap products are everywhere. If you'd like to get a wrap but prefer the privacy of your own home, check out: http://www.slenderwrap.com Some of the benefits of herbal wraps include:
Solution #3 Stop When You Are Full In her book Appetites, Geneen Roth gives us a simple outline to manage portion control. Her two major mantras are: take time to eat and stop when you are full. These are both shape-shifting ideas. To some people, including myself, food is a friend. Therefore the tendency to overeat stems out of emotion; food provides comfort and security. Others are in a hurry. Food and the need to eat are just obstacles that get in the way. In effort to break free from these unhealthy behaviors, ask yourself several questions: Am I enjoying what I am eating? Do I eat standing up or on the run? Do I continue to eat even after I know I am full? Next, begin to carve out time to eat and enjoy food with friends or family. Or to take time to enjoy a nourishing meal even if you are alone. Eat to the point of being full, then stop. Most of the time, weight loss can be easily stimulated through portion control. Solution #4 Keep a Food Journal In addition to the aforementioned, it may be wise for you to keep a food journal. By tracking what you eat every day, you hold yourself accountable for everything you place in your mouth. It's simple to start. Record everything you eat for a week and document your weight each week. At the end of the week take inventory of yourself. Have you gained weight? Lost? Remained the same? If you are gaining weight, simply cut back on your refined sugars (sweets) and heavy carbs like white rice or white potatoes. For these, substitute brown rice or sweet potatoes instead. Track your habits for a second week. When you've reached the point in your eating program where your weight remains the same, you will need only consume a few less calories (or burn a few extra during exercise) each week to lose weight. Keep in mind: in order to lose weight, your body needs to burn more calories than it consumes. First, find your melting point, then adjust your portion control and exercise program accordingly. In Conclusion: With just a few adjustments and an enjoyment of food ? recognizing its beauty for nourishing your body - you can shift your focus from frustration to enjoyment. Give these alternatives to weight loss a try. Your health and your waist line will thank you for it. About The Author Laura M. Turner is a Certified Personal Trainer and Sr. Editor of the The New Body News and Wellness Letter. Increase your healthy I.Q. Sign up for free: www.new-body-news.com
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Record Your Meals To Lose Weight Are you one of the many people who feel frustrated because you think you eat well and exercise regularly, but you just can't seem to lose weight? If so, a food journal is a great tool to help you reach your weight loss goals. It will help to determine any patterns in your eating habits, it will force you to be accountable for what you eat, and it will help you to see where you are consuming your "hidden" calories. Low-Carb Diets: Are You Losing More than Weight? The average American eats about twice as much protein than what they require. Some people, in the pursuit of thinness, are going on low-carb diets and are eating up to four times the protein their body needs. Protein deficiency is certainly not a problem in America. So exactly how much protein do you really need? Much less than you think. Help! My Kids are Overweight! If you have recently found yourself fretting over your child's waistline, you are not alone. The youth of today are fatter than ever before, and parents are starting to panic. Why are our kids so big, and what should we do about it? Half of our Nation is Overweight! Experts say obesity will overtake smoking as the biggest health problem of the decade. They are predicting a quarter of the population will be suffering from weight related diabetes by 2013. How to Buy Chocolate Then Forget to Eat It Some Say I'm Strange. I Prefer to Think of Myself as Resourceful Meet the New Look Ronald McDonald In a global television commercial just launched (10 June 2005), Ronald McDonald energetically rides a bike. He deftly shoots hoops with basketball megastar Yao Ming. He even snowboards like a pro. Tips for Effective Weight Loss Weight Loss tips The Secret Key To Permanent Weight Loss! With this key, I GUARANTEE YOU WILL LOSE ALL THE WEIGHT YOUR EVER WANTED TOO! Five Tips for Easy Weight Loss! Weight loss is a hot topic among people today, especially considering the fact that more than half of us are overweight. As we get older we often get busier, and before we know it, find ourselves in the prime of our lives and packing a few extra pounds. With so little extra time in our lives it is impractical to join the latest diet fad or commit to sweating in the gym for hours at a time. Are we all destined to grow outward with each passing year, or is there a simple way for us to reclaim our healthy figures? If you struggle with your own battle of the bulge read on for five sure-fire ways to drop a few of those unwanted pounds, and more importantly learn how you can prevent packing them in the first place! Weight Loss, Exercise, and New Years Resolutions ? Why They Dont Work? We have all set them, and we will revisit them again around January 1st. For some reason each year we feel it will be different this time around - only to forget the new gym membership, new clothes and new found inspiration about six weeks into the year. Compulsive Eating Signs Compulsive eating is characterized mainly by periods of impulsive bingeing or continuous eating. Purging (vomiting or laxatives) are not present, but there may be intervals of repetitive diets or fasts. Body weight can range from normal to severe obesity. Compulsive eating is a behavior driven by desire to reduce anxiety rather than by feelings of hunger. Obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors reduce anxiety and distress, but they create a self-perpetuating cycle. The eating activity provides temporary relief, but it is followed by further distress in the form of guilt, shame, and disgust. This often leads to a vicious cycle of binge eating and depression. Compulsive eating can be a behavior used to fill a void, suppress uncomfortable emotions, cope with problems or to create a state of numbness to everything that is going on. Triggers can be anxiety, depression, stress, boredom or loneliness, dieting, and low self-esteem. Cruisin to Lose Recently, I won a family cruise on the Regis and Kelly talk show. For a person whose business is fitness that is a good news, bad news dilemma. Statistically, an average of 5 lbs. per person is gained on a cruise. The camera adds about 10 lbs. The Truth About Diet Myths How do we know what we know? Often, our knowledge comes from through repetition and stories. In childhood, we call them fairy tales or bedtime stories. They amuse or entertain and have with the occasional moral lesson. However, as adults these stories or myths can be harmful when we start making decisions based on their often inaccurate information. Close Kept Secrets to Weight Loss Lesson #14 You know what is so amazing? We get to keep learning how to improve ourselves. Each day brings a new opportunity for us to practice unconditional love, especially of ourselves. Loving your body is demonstrating unconditional love. Think what your body does for you each day. Staying Toned After Weight Loss Staying Toned After Weight Loss----------------------------------------Following significant weight loss, it is vital to have an exercise routine to keep your muscles firm and help to tighten the skin. One of the biggest drawbacks to significant weight loss is the flabby skin that is visible that often can take months to disappear. Resistance Training First; Fat Burning Second for Weight Loss Most men and women that I have trained over the years that were interested in weight loss, before meeting me their routine always included the bike or treadmill for 15-20 minutes or so, then proceeding on to the weights for some resistance training. Approximately one out of ten did both, and most either did one or the other. What's worse is most people watch other people work-out, and they simply incorporate other people's routine into their own. What they don't realize is one person's routine may not be good for the other. Also, who's to say the person they copied is doing the exercise properly. Fact is, for weight loss and muscle tone you must first exercise with resistance weight followed by a 20-45 minute fat- burning session. Why? When working out with resistance using weights, during the movement your body will mostly rely on sugars (stored glycogen in the muscles) for energy, therefore after a 20-30 minute session your sugars have been depleted causing a decrease in the fat-inhibiting hormone insulin. Now, when you begin your fat-burning session it will be much quicker for your body to deplete your muscle glycogen stores, making it possible for your body to use stored fat for energy in as little as six minutes! Since your insulin levels are low, your body will turn to fat for energy instead of carbohydrates. Also, by working first with resistance weight it increases blood flow dramatically, therefore increasing the concentrations of noradrenaline and adrenaline in the blood. Both are hormones that contribute to the removal of fatty acids out of adipocytes (fat cells). Close Kept Secrets to Weight Loss Lesson #3 Whew! So how did you do on that last lesson? Have you been practicing? There was a lot of content to take in and absorb, and practicing the techniques as well. I wanted to make sure I included it all so you could see it from start to finish. Why Do You Say You Want To Lose Weight? How many of your New Year's resolution start out with "I want to lose x amount of pounds" as if just saying it were some kind of magic mantra. Obesity & Weight Management Is a Social Issue Much has been written about obesity and globesity. Obesity is perhaps the biggest drain on any nations economic resources with a mind-boggling costs to which researchers are yet to put a final figure. But the estimates run into trillions of dollars across the world. Health Care Costs ? Can Your Diet Control Them? One of the most talked about topics in any political and social circle is the rising costs of health care. Some say the health insurance companies are to blame, while others point the finger at medical malpractice lawsuits. We may or may not ever come up with the right answers to this query, and we might just be talking in circles.
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