Where Do I Start?
You want to lose weight but you've never been successful. Losing weight is a commitment to stop what your doing now and change your plan. I weighed about 180 pounds in high school and that's good for a kid 6 foot tall. After about 10 years in the workforce and at the age of 32, I still weighed 173 to 178. In those days I was working construction jobs, very physical. Now 30 years have gone by and I still weigh 177 pounds. Now though I have to work at it.
It's not like I never had a weight problem, at one point I was 220+ pounds. I owned a restaurant for more than 5 years and my weight inched up and I didn't really realize it. I was in my 30's and gaining weight didn't bother me. I could still run, swim and play basketball. I still had energy. After I passed 40, then I noticed myself getting sluggish. I knew I had to lose weight, the extra weight was affecting my performance. I joined a health club, started to play racket ball and use a rowing machine. I was going everyday but I had a hard time loosing more than 10 pounds.
The problem I had is that I was very active and it increased my appetite. I thought the extra activity alone would make me loose weight, but the exercise increased my food intake so I never lost. At the time I didn't realize what was happening. All this was going on in the early 1980's and the information we have today is so much better it's easy for me to see that I wasted a lot of time and money. For several years I was getting nowhere. My workout routine was on and off. I did lose some weight during the 80's but I was still around 200 pounds and not happy about it. I started to realize it was my diet more than the workout. Yes, you have to do some exercise but 30 minutes a day in the morning is enough to jump start your body. Food was the problem.
Many people just don't understand that losing weight will become automatic once you get on the right diet. Healthy foods, not the lack of food or skipping meals but just eating the right foods will give you new found energy that you forgot you had. The energy to get moving again and that extra activity will burn more calories and the body fat will begin to melt away.
This won't happen overnight, but changing your diet and eating healthy foods will have an almost immediate impact on the amount of energy you have everyday. It only takes a couple of weeks at the most and you'll feel the difference. The healthy diet has many more benefits like you won't be getting sick any more, you won't have to take vitamin supplements. You'll sleep better and getting more sleep will help you lose weight. You can also save a lot of money by cutting out vitamin pills and other supplements and spend your money on fresh foods. You can do a search "powerhouse fruit and vegetables" to get a complete list and more info but in short: Watercress, Chinese cabbage, chard and beet greens are among the most nutrient-dense "powerhouse" vegetables, packing a huge dose of vitamins and minerals into every calorie. That's important if your trying to lose weight because you still have to count calories.
At the same time, don't expect to receive huge amounts of nutrition from raspberries, tangerines, garlic or onions, the findings suggest.
National nutrition guidelines emphasize consumption of powerhouse fruits and vegetables, which are strongly associated with reduced risk of chronic disease like cancer.
But until now, the study author noted, nutritional value of veggies hasn't been ranked in a way that would show which best qualify as nutrient-dense powerhouse foods.
Higher-ranking foods in this study provide more nutrients per calories. The scores may help focus consumers on their daily energy needs, and how best to get the most nutrients from their foods. The rankings provide clarity on the nutrient quality of the different foods and may aid in the selection of more nutrient-dense items within the powerhouse group.
The study calculated the nutrition contained in 47 fruits and veggies, finding that all but six met the criteria as a powerhouse food.
Cruciferae and dark green leafy vegetables dominate the top 10. They are, in order, watercress, Chinese cabbage, chard and beet greens, followed by spinach, chicory, leaf lettuce, parsley, romaine lettuce and collard greens.
All the top vegetables contain high levels of B vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin K, iron, riboflavin, niacin and folate -- nutrients that help protect people against cancer and heart disease, the researcher noted.
These have a lot of the B-vitamins and a lot of fiber in the leaves. If you think about plants, that's where they store their nutrients. Those green leafy vegetables have a lot of minerals and vitamins and fiber in those leaves, and very few calories. These make the perfect food for dieters.
People who chop off the leafy part of vegetables such as celery, carrots or beets are actually cutting away some very good nutrients.
The six fruits and vegetables that didn't make the list as powerhouse foods are raspberries, tangerines, cranberries, garlic, onions and blueberries. While all contain vitamins and minerals, they are not densely packed with important nutrients, the study said. The full list is published June 5 in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease or you can find the list online.
Folks will get good nutrition from the powerhouse veggies whether they eat them raw or cook them, as long as they don't boil them.
Fresh, you have 100 percent of the vitamins and minerals. When you cook it, you might lose a small percentage, but it's not significant.
Boiling, however, can drain veggies of B-vitamins, vitamin C and other nutrients. Cooks who choose to boil spinach or collard greens should save the nutrient-rich water, either including a little with each serving or re-using the water in sauces or soups.
Vegetables are carbs and grains are carbs and carbs should be the biggest part of your diet with protein only about 20 or 25 percent of your diet. Grains need to be whole grain like some breads or oatmeal but the other carbs should come from veggies. Carbs can be the biggest problem with your diet. The wrong carbs will turn to fat almost instantly. Think about what your eating and how long it takes you to lose fat.
Diet is a big part of losing weight but you have to exercise.
You can’t maintain your goal weight without exercise. I know I talked about exercise and diet working together to reach your goals. Both exercise and diet will have to be a part of your life forever. I’ll explain before I lose all my readers. At first a person will try too hard to lose weight. Cut out meals, over exercise and then is happy or not that he or she lost 5 pounds that week.
If you’re truly going to be a thinner person for the rest of your life, then do things in moderation. Don’t do the 800 calorie diet and 2 hours in the gym every day, you’ll never stay with it. Instead do moderate exercise and a diet of good foods and keep this up every day.
This is where your doctor will help. If you need to lost 20 pounds or more you need to see a doctor. If you don’t have a doctor now, find a doctor that can advise you in weight loss. But be careful your doctor isn’t just selling diet pills. There might be some extreme cases there diet pills are needed, but I never used pills and I would try all other opinions before I would take pills. I have heard of people having bad side-effects. All of us have our own conditions. We are all a different age and in different stages of fitness. I am thin by most standards but I’d like to lose 2 or 3 inches in my waist. My doctor says not to lose weight, I’m thin enough. But when he says thin, he just doesn’t want a 65 year old man 6 feet tall to weigh less than 175. O.K., I understand, but he will agree that belly fat isn’t good for me. So my exercise program will be different then a man 40, 5’6” and 180pounds.
Some of us don't start to do something about their weight problems until their doctor scares them into action. You need an expert to tailor your exercise and diet to you. A person who doesn’t exercise can’t just start from scratch and do 1 hour a day on a trend mill. It might be too hard for your heart unless someone gives you the proper speed for your age and condition.
I read about an insurance company whose name I can’t remember gave office workers the option to get another desk to use part of the day, which would attach to a trend mill. So you could actually stand up on the trend mill and work at this desk at the same time. I know it sounds crazy, how could you maintain a rapid speed if you were on the phone or using the laptop. It wasn’t about speed, the people in the test walked a slow to normal speed while working and did that usually in the mornings about 3 or 4 hours, and then if possible an hour or so after lunch. There was some diet attached to this, but it was not emphasized. These people after 3 months noticed their waists were smaller, for some 3 inches or so. No one really talked about all the weight they lost, but about the inches they lost. One man said he had to buy all new pants. Others said that the trend mill at the desk and the time they spent on the trend mill kept them from snacking. Not consciously, it kept them busier and they just didn’t think about food. So the extra activity, ever though it wasn’t strenuous, was an increase from their normal routine. That increase burned the extra calories that helped them achieve their goals.
The problem of being overweight isn't a North American problem. People living in a cold climate in a big city were there’s not much chance for outdoor activities in the winter are prone to have an inactive winter. I remember when I lived in Chicago. Long cold winters actually change your lifestyle for 4 or 5 months. That's long enough to change you permanently. Our lifestyle sets us up to fail. We eat our main meal after we get home at night and spend the rest of the evening inactive. Actually, in most countries the main meal is eaten earlier in the day and then followed by more work and more walking then we do.
We can live a healthier lifestyle if we choose to. You have the power to change. If you’re someone who can’t do it by yourself get someone to do this with you. Be cautious of your friends who have a problem but choose not to do anything about it or choose not to admit it. You can’t push your new lifestyle on someone else. Just don’t let them influence you. After you start to show real results they’ll become interested in how you did it.
So to sum this up a combination of exercise and diet will equal weight lose. And from the example above of the office workers who did the treadmill test at work, It doesn’t take strenuous exercise to lose weight. The trick is to increase your activity. They did it by walking. That’s the easiest form of exercise and what most doctors will say is the best form of exercise. Anyone can walk and all you need are a good pair of walking shoes.
It's not like I never had a weight problem, at one point I was 220+ pounds. I owned a restaurant for more than 5 years and my weight inched up and I didn't really realize it. I was in my 30's and gaining weight didn't bother me. I could still run, swim and play basketball. I still had energy. After I passed 40, then I noticed myself getting sluggish. I knew I had to lose weight, the extra weight was affecting my performance. I joined a health club, started to play racket ball and use a rowing machine. I was going everyday but I had a hard time loosing more than 10 pounds.
The problem I had is that I was very active and it increased my appetite. I thought the extra activity alone would make me loose weight, but the exercise increased my food intake so I never lost. At the time I didn't realize what was happening. All this was going on in the early 1980's and the information we have today is so much better it's easy for me to see that I wasted a lot of time and money. For several years I was getting nowhere. My workout routine was on and off. I did lose some weight during the 80's but I was still around 200 pounds and not happy about it. I started to realize it was my diet more than the workout. Yes, you have to do some exercise but 30 minutes a day in the morning is enough to jump start your body. Food was the problem.
Many people just don't understand that losing weight will become automatic once you get on the right diet. Healthy foods, not the lack of food or skipping meals but just eating the right foods will give you new found energy that you forgot you had. The energy to get moving again and that extra activity will burn more calories and the body fat will begin to melt away.
This won't happen overnight, but changing your diet and eating healthy foods will have an almost immediate impact on the amount of energy you have everyday. It only takes a couple of weeks at the most and you'll feel the difference. The healthy diet has many more benefits like you won't be getting sick any more, you won't have to take vitamin supplements. You'll sleep better and getting more sleep will help you lose weight. You can also save a lot of money by cutting out vitamin pills and other supplements and spend your money on fresh foods. You can do a search "powerhouse fruit and vegetables" to get a complete list and more info but in short: Watercress, Chinese cabbage, chard and beet greens are among the most nutrient-dense "powerhouse" vegetables, packing a huge dose of vitamins and minerals into every calorie. That's important if your trying to lose weight because you still have to count calories.
At the same time, don't expect to receive huge amounts of nutrition from raspberries, tangerines, garlic or onions, the findings suggest.
National nutrition guidelines emphasize consumption of powerhouse fruits and vegetables, which are strongly associated with reduced risk of chronic disease like cancer.
But until now, the study author noted, nutritional value of veggies hasn't been ranked in a way that would show which best qualify as nutrient-dense powerhouse foods.
Higher-ranking foods in this study provide more nutrients per calories. The scores may help focus consumers on their daily energy needs, and how best to get the most nutrients from their foods. The rankings provide clarity on the nutrient quality of the different foods and may aid in the selection of more nutrient-dense items within the powerhouse group.
The study calculated the nutrition contained in 47 fruits and veggies, finding that all but six met the criteria as a powerhouse food.
Cruciferae and dark green leafy vegetables dominate the top 10. They are, in order, watercress, Chinese cabbage, chard and beet greens, followed by spinach, chicory, leaf lettuce, parsley, romaine lettuce and collard greens.
All the top vegetables contain high levels of B vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin K, iron, riboflavin, niacin and folate -- nutrients that help protect people against cancer and heart disease, the researcher noted.
These have a lot of the B-vitamins and a lot of fiber in the leaves. If you think about plants, that's where they store their nutrients. Those green leafy vegetables have a lot of minerals and vitamins and fiber in those leaves, and very few calories. These make the perfect food for dieters.
People who chop off the leafy part of vegetables such as celery, carrots or beets are actually cutting away some very good nutrients.
The six fruits and vegetables that didn't make the list as powerhouse foods are raspberries, tangerines, cranberries, garlic, onions and blueberries. While all contain vitamins and minerals, they are not densely packed with important nutrients, the study said. The full list is published June 5 in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease or you can find the list online.
Folks will get good nutrition from the powerhouse veggies whether they eat them raw or cook them, as long as they don't boil them.
Fresh, you have 100 percent of the vitamins and minerals. When you cook it, you might lose a small percentage, but it's not significant.
Boiling, however, can drain veggies of B-vitamins, vitamin C and other nutrients. Cooks who choose to boil spinach or collard greens should save the nutrient-rich water, either including a little with each serving or re-using the water in sauces or soups.
Vegetables are carbs and grains are carbs and carbs should be the biggest part of your diet with protein only about 20 or 25 percent of your diet. Grains need to be whole grain like some breads or oatmeal but the other carbs should come from veggies. Carbs can be the biggest problem with your diet. The wrong carbs will turn to fat almost instantly. Think about what your eating and how long it takes you to lose fat.
Diet is a big part of losing weight but you have to exercise.
You can’t maintain your goal weight without exercise. I know I talked about exercise and diet working together to reach your goals. Both exercise and diet will have to be a part of your life forever. I’ll explain before I lose all my readers. At first a person will try too hard to lose weight. Cut out meals, over exercise and then is happy or not that he or she lost 5 pounds that week.
If you’re truly going to be a thinner person for the rest of your life, then do things in moderation. Don’t do the 800 calorie diet and 2 hours in the gym every day, you’ll never stay with it. Instead do moderate exercise and a diet of good foods and keep this up every day.
This is where your doctor will help. If you need to lost 20 pounds or more you need to see a doctor. If you don’t have a doctor now, find a doctor that can advise you in weight loss. But be careful your doctor isn’t just selling diet pills. There might be some extreme cases there diet pills are needed, but I never used pills and I would try all other opinions before I would take pills. I have heard of people having bad side-effects. All of us have our own conditions. We are all a different age and in different stages of fitness. I am thin by most standards but I’d like to lose 2 or 3 inches in my waist. My doctor says not to lose weight, I’m thin enough. But when he says thin, he just doesn’t want a 65 year old man 6 feet tall to weigh less than 175. O.K., I understand, but he will agree that belly fat isn’t good for me. So my exercise program will be different then a man 40, 5’6” and 180pounds.
Some of us don't start to do something about their weight problems until their doctor scares them into action. You need an expert to tailor your exercise and diet to you. A person who doesn’t exercise can’t just start from scratch and do 1 hour a day on a trend mill. It might be too hard for your heart unless someone gives you the proper speed for your age and condition.
I read about an insurance company whose name I can’t remember gave office workers the option to get another desk to use part of the day, which would attach to a trend mill. So you could actually stand up on the trend mill and work at this desk at the same time. I know it sounds crazy, how could you maintain a rapid speed if you were on the phone or using the laptop. It wasn’t about speed, the people in the test walked a slow to normal speed while working and did that usually in the mornings about 3 or 4 hours, and then if possible an hour or so after lunch. There was some diet attached to this, but it was not emphasized. These people after 3 months noticed their waists were smaller, for some 3 inches or so. No one really talked about all the weight they lost, but about the inches they lost. One man said he had to buy all new pants. Others said that the trend mill at the desk and the time they spent on the trend mill kept them from snacking. Not consciously, it kept them busier and they just didn’t think about food. So the extra activity, ever though it wasn’t strenuous, was an increase from their normal routine. That increase burned the extra calories that helped them achieve their goals.
The problem of being overweight isn't a North American problem. People living in a cold climate in a big city were there’s not much chance for outdoor activities in the winter are prone to have an inactive winter. I remember when I lived in Chicago. Long cold winters actually change your lifestyle for 4 or 5 months. That's long enough to change you permanently. Our lifestyle sets us up to fail. We eat our main meal after we get home at night and spend the rest of the evening inactive. Actually, in most countries the main meal is eaten earlier in the day and then followed by more work and more walking then we do.
We can live a healthier lifestyle if we choose to. You have the power to change. If you’re someone who can’t do it by yourself get someone to do this with you. Be cautious of your friends who have a problem but choose not to do anything about it or choose not to admit it. You can’t push your new lifestyle on someone else. Just don’t let them influence you. After you start to show real results they’ll become interested in how you did it.
So to sum this up a combination of exercise and diet will equal weight lose. And from the example above of the office workers who did the treadmill test at work, It doesn’t take strenuous exercise to lose weight. The trick is to increase your activity. They did it by walking. That’s the easiest form of exercise and what most doctors will say is the best form of exercise. Anyone can walk and all you need are a good pair of walking shoes.
If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books.
There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.
My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.
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