While this guide is meant to provide you with the information you need to lose weight, it is highly recommend that you consult a physician before you begin any form of physical activity or follow any of the suggestions in this manual.
If you have any side effects as a result of the following information, consult a physician immediately.I, Susan Jones has strived to be as accurate and complete as possible in the creation of this publication, notwithstanding the fact that I do not warrant or represent at any time that the contents within are accurate due to the rapidly changing nature of the Internet.
In practical advice books, like anything else in life, there are no guarantees of income made. Readers are cautioned to reply on their own judgment about their individual circumstances to act accordingly.
This book is not intended for use as a source of legal, business, accounting or financial advice. All readers are advised to seek services of competent professionals in legal, business, accounting, and finance field.
Perceived slights of specific people or organizations are unintentional.You are encouraged to print this book.
Important: It’s truly my desire to help YOU achieve your weight loss goals. Much time and research has been taken to compose this ebook for your long-term benefits. I encourage you to retain as much information from this e-book in order to achieve maximum results. PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE EBOOK IN ORDER FOR YOU TO GAIN MIND-BLOWING RESULTS!!!
There was a time in this world when the need to lose weight was completely ignored. People ate very well, but they worked hard to make up for it. They woke up early in the morning and then began in a long day’s work. This work was mostly physical “hands on” labor. Folks worked on fields digging, sowing, and harvesting. They tilled they soil, rode horses, worked on farms and ranches. The end result was they could afford to eat almost anything they wanted in whatever quantities they wanted.
But that was many years ago, and life styles have changed. Most of us have sedentary jobs that demand little or no exercise at all. As a result, weight gain has become a major concern for almost every city dweller.
Why Do You Want To Lose Weight?Seems like an obvious question doesn’t it? Scratch beneath the surface and you will find your true motivation that will keep you dedicated until you achieve your goal.
What do you hope to get out of this program?Why do you want to lose weight?
Is it simply because it was on your New Year's resolution list of goals to achieve?
Is it for a reunion you’ll be attending?
Is it for a holiday?
Is it to fit into your old clothes or perhaps a slinky little outfit you want to get into?
I know it’s difficult but these days it seems that you can’t turn a magazine page or change a channel without seeing an emaciated, skinny teenager touted as being the image we should all aspire to.
The media images we are fed are false ideals, this is certainly not how regular people look neither should we be forced into a mould to achieve it.We are all different and the world is a richer place for it. Just because we may not be 100 pounds, leggy and 5 feet 11 doesn’t mean that we are not beautiful.
Just because we don’t fit into that template of what is deemed beautiful by an industry obsessed with perfection does not mean that we are incapable of ourselves being beautiful and looking our best.
If you are carrying excess weight, losing some of that weight will peel back the layers and reveal your true physical beauty lying hidden beneath. You will unearth your beauty like chiseling away at a magnificent Michelangelo sculpture, pound by pound.
You are your own masterpiece.
So let’s get back to the reason why you want to lose the weight. Sure you want to look great, that’s a given but why else?
Whatever the reason, it has to be one based on something more impacting then just wanting to lose a few pounds because of an event or for the sake of fitting into something.
Sometimes we lose weight for the wrong reasons. Sometimes we have the misfortune of being on the wrong diets and are given incorrect information vital to our weight loss success.
You need a more compelling reason to stick with your program because let’s face it, times get difficult when you’re tired, hungry, depressed or bored and you see the chocolate cake staring back at you screaming your name.
Every cell in your body is telling you to eat the cake; every fiber of your being is trying to sway you from your purpose. Tell me, at this point, do you have a strong enough reason to prevent you from eating that cake?
Probably not, the draw of the cake is far stronger than the appeal of the reunion or the size 0 outfit and let me tell you why.It’s because the cake is right there. The reality is right there in front of you in plain sight and everything else, all of your weight loss goals, the reunion, the outfit, the
- fill in the blank goal becomes just a faint whisper in the background by comparison.
Why? Because you thought you could suppress all of those years of conditioning in one week. Your body is stronger than you think. That’s not to say that you can’t lose weight, you absolutely can you just have to work with your body and not against it.
Having said that, think of a worthwhile purpose to lose the weight if you haven’t done so before.Something like:
* I want to lose weight because I want to gain a healthy respect for my body * I want to lose weight because I want to live longer for my family
* I want to lose weight because I want to enjoy life more by doing the things that my weight restricts me from doing
* I want to lose weight because I want to feel great about myself and my appearance
* I want to lose weight because I want to travel and enjoy all that life has to offer me
* I want to lose weight to have the strength and energy I need to enjoy life like having the energy to chase my children
* I want to lose weight so that I can be an active participant in my own life and not just a spectator
Now it’s your turn. Something compelling. Something deeper than your usual New Year weight loss resolution. Something that will keep you grounded and anchored to your purpose. That way the lure of the cake is no match for wanting to watch your loved ones grow up around you, it won’t even come close.
Take your time and think of something that is truly worthy of you and you will stick with it like glue.So why do I think you should lose weight? Because you are worth it and you deserve to have a full and truly wonderful life, having the energy to fulfill that is a requirement.
So get to it, think of your compelling purpose. Think of a dozen, the more the better.It’s not about the hour glass figure or the perfectly sculpted and toned body. It’s more about staying fit and remaining healthy to ensure a long, disease free life. Everyone knows those extra pounds just spell illness and disease.
Other Reasons Why You May Want To Lose WeightNo doubt a big reason why you want to lose weight is linked to your physical appearance. This scratches far below the surface than just wanting to lose weight to fit into something or simply hating the way your thighs look.
Excess weight can impact on self esteem. No one wants to be obese because it has so many negative connotations in our society.
Because we believe we are not attractive and appealing to others can make us rethink our own self worth and value. This can lead to social and emotional problems and distort the way we perceive ourselves as well as how we interact with others.
This can become a vicious cycle within itself where we eat because of how we feel to medicate the pain yet often end up feeling worse along with gaining even more weight. The cycle continues.
Does Your Weight Have Emotional Control Over You?Psychologists are aware of the emotional effect weight can have on self esteem but the remaining medical world is just starting to wake up to this fact.
Find out if weight gain has an emotional effect on you. Some brief questions.
Are you conscious of your physical appearance when you are out in public?
Are you comfortable with looking at yourself in the mirror or do you avoid it?
Are you concerned with what others think of your body?
Do you feel that the only way you can truly be happy is to change the physical things you don’t like about yourself?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions then it’s possible that your weight has an emotional influence over you. Your appearance shouldn’t keep you unhappy. Your appearance really should be the icing on the cake to the person you are within.
You have the power to do something about it. You can either continue to live with it or do something about it.The fact that you are here says a lot about you and proves that you are willing to take action. I congratulate you for that and know you will find answers here. Just remember this book aims to re-educate you and unlearn all of the bad habits you may have picked up over the years. It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen. You are about to experience some life changing truths so just stay with it and absorb as much as you can.
Health IssuesA big motivation for wanting to lose the weight could also be for health reasons. You don’t have to be a genius to figure out that we are living in an obese nation. We are suffering in epic proportions from diseases our ancestors 100 years ago had never even heard of.
You know the effects that carrying excess weight can have on the body even in your joints and your lower back but we often forget what impact this is having to our internal organs.
Did you know that excess abdominal fat is the most dangerous type of fat to have? This is because this is most active of them all.The fat is packed around your intestines, your liver and heart and interferes with the way those organs work. This fat secretes chemicals and hormones that inhibit proper function of those vital organs. It is also an indicator of Type II diabetes and heart disease.
For women if your waist is more than 35 inches at the belly button and for men if is more than 40 inches than you lie within the high risk category of heart disease, diabetes, blood pressure and stroke and must lose weight.
Excess fat in the body causes the arteries in your heart to become clogged which raises your blood pressure to force the blood to your organs. Having just an extra 30 excess pounds forces your heart to work twice as hard to do the same job it did when you were just 30 pounds lighter.
Excess blood pressure damages the blood vessels in your kidneys and can cause them to fail. High blood pressure is also linked with blindness caused from burst and bleeding blood vessels in the backs of the eyes.
High blood pressure can also cause weakened blood vessels to burst and bleed on the brain causing a stroke. Blood clots can also become lodged within narrowed arteries also causing a stroke.
Diabetes causes the blood to thicken which raises the risk of blood clots forming resulting in strokes and heart attacks from your already thickened arterial walls.So, as you can see being overweight can cause a cascade effect on our health, it affects everything. Each organ relies upon the other to work effectively to keep us well. Throw any one of those off balance and it affects everything.
The simplest solution is to just lose the weight. We seem to think that having a little less cake or cutting back on saturated fats is a death sentence but not nearly as deadly as the one that plays havoc with our bodies when we choose to eat that foods that put us there.
In a medical trial to test the long term effects of excess weight on individuals, a study of around 600 people was conducted over a 14 year period. The results revealed that participants who were ‘overweight’ had a 34% greater chance of heart failure than someone at their ideal weight. Participants who were obese had a massive 104% increase in risk of heart failure over someone at their ideal weight.
The Difference Between Being Overweight And Obese
So what is the difference between being overweight and being obese?
It is the BMI (Body Mass Index) that differentiates between the two whereby it is the weight above what is generally considered to be a healthy ideal weight for a specific height.
For example:For adults whose BMI is between the range of 25 and 30 are considered to be overweight
For adults whose BMI is greater than 30 are considered to obese.
You can determine your BMI be going here:
http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/
Sobering isn’t it? The fact that carrying even a little excess weight can have detrimental effects on our health is mind blowing and you don’t even have to be morbidly obese for that to happen.
Most medical professionals consider someone who is 5% to 15% above their ideal weight to be considered as overweight whereas people who are 20% to 30% above their ideal weight are considered to be obese, anything above 30% and you fall into the range of being morbidly obese.
So what weight should you be? Find out your ideal weight for your height by going here:http://www.halls.md/ideal-weight/body.htm
There is no motivation quite like knowing the health risks associated with excess weight. By now you will know which category you lie within and now you can lose the weight for more than just looking nice in a pair of jeans but to extend your life expectancy and increase your quality and enjoyment of life.
How Did You Get Here?How did you get to this moment of realization that something had to happen?
You had that moment right?, the a-ha moment that wakes you out of your slumber of denial. For whatever reason that brought you to this point, I congratulate you. Because you have recognized it you can take action and do something about it.
How did you get to this point in your life? How did you gain the weight in the first place? It is important to address the issue so that you can be made conscious of it and avoid being undone by it in future.
Did you start eating more?Did you eat more of the wrong foods? – sometimes just eating more empty calories can increase weight. In fact, most obese people don’t eat more than their slimmer counterparts. It’s what they eat that’s causing them to gain weight.
Did your exercise patterns change?Did you eat out of boredom?
Are you an emotional eater?
You need to think about it. Really study and examine how you eat, what is the thought that leads to the action?
Why We Eat
We are creatures of habit. We have amassed lots of habits that have been developed over the years that sometimes become subconscious.
We are not aware of the things we do until we purposely take notice of them. For instance, observing the thought that leads to the action of us reaching for the cookie. What was the thought? Were we feeling upset? distressed? depressed?, angry?
If you find you want to reach for the jar of cookies, catch yourself in that moment. Examine your thinking. How are you feeling? What state of mind are you in? What is your mood? Disrupt your pattern by forming a new one.
Rather than indulging your craving, count back slowly from 100. With each number you find yourself wanting the cookies less and less. This is because you are disrupting your usual pattern of behavior and consciously replacing it with a new one. You’ll find that after 100 that cookie won’t be as tempting as it was.
Emotional eating can also extend to happiness too. Childhood habits can see us overindulge for doing something good which can spill into adulthood where we treat ourselves with food for rewards. This is fine as long as it’s periodically.
There are ways to treat yourself other than eating. Why not get your nails or you hair done? Why not treat yourself to a nice hot bath and a facial? Why not have a healthy lunch with the boys or the girls? There are other rewarding ways to treat yourself that are not based around tempting treats. It’s just a matter of thinking a little outside the square and replacing old habits with new and healthier ones.
Boredom EatingIf you find yourself reaching for that tempting delicious high fat food because you have nothing else to do, why not call a friend for a chat? Why not take up a sport and meet up with your friends instead? Guaranteed you’ll have so much fun you won’t even be thinking about junk food.
Mistaken HungerIt should be a healthy appetite that drives us to eat. When our energy needs replenishing because we’ve depleted our energy stores our appetite signals for us to eat. It is a simple biological reflex. We get hungry, we eat. Sometimes our hunger is more psychological than physical and thinking our body is hungry, we feed it.
If you have eaten your last meal within the past 2 hours more often than not it will be thirst which your body can sometimes interpret as hunger. If you know you have just had your last meal within a short timeframe ago, why not try drinking a glass of water then waiting 30 minutes for the brain to register it. If you are still hungry after this time period then have a light snack.
Sometimes we eat out of boredom. If you find yourself sitting around and instinctively reaching for the fridge or the pantry, catch yourself. It’s all about replacing bad habits with good ones because that is what will make your weight loss a permanent success. It goes far deeper than losing weight for the sake of it but rather arming you with the tools to make sure you really succeed this time.
Why we need a permanent solution is because we are reprogramming ourselves and our attitude towards our food. Look at this way, it took years to form these habits and it will take a little time to break them and create newer healthier habits in its place.
Nothing is more apparent then when we eliminate all of our favorite foods at once. Our body goes into shock, tries to override our good intentions and sabotages our efforts. Another diet bites the dust simply because we weren’t aware of how we conditioned our bodies over the years.
Our bodies are marvelous pieces of machinery and will stop at nothing to preserve us at all costs. That means that if we drastically reduce our food intake our body will shut down our metabolism to force us to eat. When we do, we binge and gain back all the lost pounds we fought so hard to lose. Don’t hate your body for that, it is just doing what comes naturally.
So how do we get around this? Work in alignment with your body. Introduce changes gradually. Don’t shock your body or it will thwart your best intentions to lose weight.
Follow these tips below and watch those extra pounds melt away.Tip # 1
Drink plenty of water. Water is not just way to flush out toxins. If you have more water in your body you will generally feel healthier and more fit. It also helps you feel full, so you don't have the urge to eat so much. And water has no calories at all.
Tip # 2
Start your day with a glass of water. It’s a wonderful way to start you day. A glass of water lubricates your insides. You can still have your morning cup of tea, but have it after a glass of water.
Tip # 3
Drink a glass of water before you eat each meal. Water takes up space in your stomach, so you feel fuller without eating as much.
Have another glass of water while you are having your meal. Again this is another way of making yourself full. Instead of drinking it all at once, take a sip after each bite of food. It will help the food settle and you'll feel full faster.
Tip # 5
Stay away from sweetened bottle drinks, especially sodas. They are full of sugar and calories.
Tip # 6
Include foods that contain more water, like tomatoes and watermelons. They contain 90 - 95 % water, so feast on them as much as you like. They fill you up without adding pounds.
Tip # 7
Eat fresh fruit instead of drinking fruit juice. Juice is often sweetened with sugar, but fresh fruit has natural sugars. When you eat fruit, you are taking in a lot of fiber, which the body needs, and fruit is an excellent source of vitamins.
Tip # 8
If you have a craving for fruit juice, try making your own. There are lots of juicing machines on the market.
Tip # 9
Choose fresh fruit instead of processed fruit. Processed and canned fruit does not have as much fiber as fresh fruit and processed and canned fruit is nearly always sweetened with sugar.
Tip # 10
Increase your fiber intake. Your body needs a lot of fiber, so try to include it in your diet. Eat as many fruits and vegetables as you can.
Tip # 11
Eat lots of vegetables. Leafy green vegetables are the best. Include a salad in you meal plan everyday.
Tip # 12
Eat intelligently. Choose your foods wisely. Instead of grabbing chips or candy bars, grab a fruit or vegetable.
Tip # 13
Watch what you eat. Sometimes the garnishes can be richer than the food itself. Accompaniments can be very rich too.
Control your sweet tooth. Sweets generally mean calories. You don't have to cut sweets out of your diet completely, but eat them in moderation. Every sweet you put in your mouth adds fat cells to your body.
Tip # 15
Develop a meal schedule and stick to it. Try to have food at fixed times of the day. You can stretch these times by half an hour, but anything more is going to affect your eating pattern.
Tip # 16
Eat only when you are hungry. Some of us have a tendency to eat whenever we see food.
Tip # 17
Quit snacking between meals. The main problem with most snacks and junk food is, they are usually less filling and contain a lot of fat and calories.
Snack on vegetables if you have to snack.
Tip # 19
Go easy on tea and coffee. Tea and coffee are harmless by themselves, but when you add cream and sugar they become fattening. Having a cup of tea or coffee with cream and sugar is as bad as having a piece of chocolate cake.
Tip # 20
Drink black tea/coffee. Black tea or coffee can actually be good for you. But personally I would like to recommend tea rather than coffee. The caffeine in the coffee is not really good for you because it is an alkaloid and can affect other functions of your body like the metabolism.
Tip # 21
Count the calories as you eat. Check the label of any packaged product for the number of calories and the serving size. For unpackaged food, buy a calorie counting book.
Tip # 22
If you consume more calories than you should one day, add a bit of extra physical activity to your routine for the following day.
Tip # 23
Stay away from fried foods. The oil used for frying penetrates into the food and adds unwanted calories.
Do not skip meals. The worst thing you can do while watching your weight is skip a meal. It has just the opposite effect of what you want. You need to have at least three regular meals every day.
Tip # 25
Fresh vegetables are better than cooked or canned vegetables. Try to eat your vegetables raw. When you cook them, you are removing nearly half the vitamins.
Tip # 26
One egg a day. It's best if you reduce your egg intake to three a week. If you're in the habit of eating eggs everyday, limit your eggs to one a day maximum.
Make chocolates a luxury and not a routine.
Tip # 28
Choose a variety of foods from all food groups every day. In addition to helping you lose weight, it also helps your body fight deficiency diseases. Change the foods you eat each day so you do not get bored of your diet.
Very limited or no alcoholic beverages.
Tip # 30
Try to have breakfast within one hour of waking up, so your body can charge itself with the energy it needs for the day. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but it does not mean that it should be the most filling meal of the day.
Tip # 31
50% - 55% of your diet should be carbohydrates. It is a myth that you should try and avoid carbohydrates when you are on a diet. Carbohydrates are an instant source of energy.
Tip # 32
25% - 30% of your diet should be proteins. Protein is an active part of keeping your body healthy.
Fats should only be 15% - 20 % of your diet
Tip # 34
Try and adopt a vegetarian style diet. A vegetarian diet is healthy, but research has shown it often is missing vital minerals that come from eating meat. If you try a vegetarian diet, allow yourself to eat meat on the weekends.
Choose white meat rather than red. White meat, which includes fish and fowl, is healthier than red meat.
Tip # 36
High Fiber multigrain breads are better than white breads. Multigrain breads allow you to increase your fiber and protein intake.
Tip # 37
Reduce your intake of pork. Pork is not something that can help you to lose weight. So the lesser pork you eat the better chances you have of losing weight. And remember that pork includes the pork products as well, things like bacon, ham and sausages.
Tip # 38
Limit your sugar intake. Use sugar substitutes to sweeten your food. They are just as sweetening, but not fattening.
Tip # 39
Graze 5 to 6 times a day. Instead of sticking to just three meals a day, try grazing. Grazing means having 5 or 6 smaller meals instead of three large meals. It is an excellent way of having smaller quantities of food.
Tip # 40
Eat cheat food occasionally, but only for flavor. There are many foods you need to avoid in your diet, but you may have an undying craving for them. Do not avoid them altogether. Indulge in them once in a while, but only in moderation. Don't use them to fill up, but simply to fill a craving. Enjoy the flavor.