Getting to a Healthy Weight

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 This is an article I found on a medical website that explains what I believe is the right way to lose weight. Changing your lifestyle is the right way to get to a healthy weight.



A healthy lifestyle means:

Eating healthy foods. This includes fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. If you eat meat and dairy foods, choose lean meats and low-fat dairy foods most of the time, that also means not eating too much sugar, fat, or fast foods. You can still have dessert and treats now and then. The goal is moderation.
“Physical activity” doesn’t have to mean regular visits to the gym or running marathons. There are lots of other ways to fit activity into your life.

Weight gain is a big concern for many people who want to quit smoking. And it’s more of a health risk to keep smoking than it is to gain a few extra pounds when you quit. Drink only moderate amounts of alcohol. That’s up to two alcoholic drinks a day for men, and one drink a day for women. Many people find that eating is their way of managing stress. If you have a lot of stress in your life, it can be hard to focus on making healthy changes to your lifestyle. Becoming more active and improving your eating habits are the two main ways to reach a healthy weight.

First, change your thinking

If you need to make some lifestyle changes to get to a healthy weight, you’ll have more success if you first change the way you think about certain things:

Don’t compare yourself to others. Healthy bodies come in all shapes and sizes. Our culture focuses much too much on thinness, and thinness is just not realistic or natural for most of us. Yet we feel bad when we can’t achieve such an unrealistic body size. Body size isn’t as important as being healthy.

Pay attention to how hungry or how full you feel. When you eat, pay attention to why you’re eating and how much you’re eating.

Forget about dieting. Dieting rarely works over the long term.

Decide that you’re going to improve your health instead of deciding to go on a diet. For example, you may want to:

Become more fit.
Lower your blood pressure.
Lower your sugar (if you have diabetes).
Lower your cholesterol.
Raise your HDL (good ).
How do you change your lifestyle?

Making any kind of change in the way you live your daily life is like being on a path. The path leads to success. Here are the first steps on that path:

1. Have your own reasons for making a change

2. Set goals you can reach

3. Measure how your health has improved

Before you make lifestyle changes, ask your doctor to check your cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and blood sugar.

Research shows that you can improve your health by losing as little as

5% to 10% of your weight. Here’s what that means:

Have your cholesterol and blood sugar checked again after you have lost 5% to 10% of your weight or in 3 to 6 months. You can also check your blood pressure and blood sugar at home.

5% of 150 lb (68 kg) is 7.5 lb (3 kg), and 10% is 15 lb (7 kg).

5% of 200 lb (91 kg) is 10 lb (4.5 kg), and 10% is 20 lb (9 kg).

5% of 250 lb (113 kg) is 12.5 lb (6 kg), and 10% is 25 lb (11 kg).

Blood sugar levels can tell you whether your lifestyle changes or weight loss are helping to control your diabetes.

Cholesterol and triglyceride levels can tell you whether your lifestyle changes or weight loss are lowering your risk for disease.

Blood pressure can tell you whether your lifestyle changes or weight loss are lowering your risk for heart disease and stroke.

Another way to measure improvements is to look for changes in your fitness level. For example, are you able to walk longer and on more days than when you started? Can you climb a flight of stairs without getting as tired or out of breath? Do you have better strength and muscle tone? Do you have more energy?

4. Prepare for slip-ups. If you have outdoor exercise planned and the weather is bad you need a backup plan for indoors like a DVD exercise film. All I’m saying is “Don’t blow off your plan because it’s not convenient or the weather’s bad.

Deciding to lose weight is a serious and very conscious undertaking. The people who don’t 

reach their goals are those that haven’t thought it thru. They haven’t made the commitment and maybe they don’t realize the sacrifice.
Making the change to live healthy is the only way you’ll lose weight and keep it off.

Follow me on X or Twitter @gertsraymo70369 to get a link to my latest posts.

If you want to lose your body fat 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 $3.99. 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 first book at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 



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