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Give up the Diet
By: Gary Matthews
If you're thinking of going on a diet to lose those extra pounds think again. Long-term weight control through dieting is near impossible, for the simple reason is that diets promote only short term solutions not long term. After dieting you’ll certainly look lighter on the scales, but in most cases this is because you've dumped a few pounds of body fluid and muscle, and not because you've lost any significant amounts of body fat. One of the main reasons diets don't work is because they sendthe body into starvation mode - a survival mechanism for times when humans faced periods of famine. Cutting back on our energy intake causes the body to lower its metabolicrate, which reduces its ability to burn fat. At the same time, hunger signals increase and we quickly start to crave high energy foods loaded with fats and sugars - the exactfoods we are trying to do without!!! Alarmingly, research has shown that repeated dieting actuallymakes it harder to lose weight and easier to put it on!! This is because when you dump the diet and return to normaleating habits, the drop in metabolic rate caused by the dietmeans that your old eating habits actually represent an excessin calories. Not only do you regain the fat stores just lost,but you may even gain a bit extra. "Five more reasons to stop dieting" · Diets sap energy - Too little food means not enough energy for physical activity. · Diets lower your metabolism - Dieting causes your body to conserve energy, making results harder to achieve. · Diets are unhealthy - A cycle of rapid weight loss followed by weight gain can lead to a loss of lean tissue from your body and calcium from your bones. It also strips the body of essential vitamins and minerals. · Diets make food the enemy - Food provides nourishment and comfort. Diets can make you afraid to eat, depriving you of one of life's pleasures. · Diets cheat your confidence - Going from one failed · diet to the next can leave you feeling depressed and · create a cycle in which guilt battles against food. Regular physical activity and a healthy, balanced diet aren't as glamorous as the quick fixes, but they do get better results. Start with one extra exercise session and one less fatty takeaway meal per week, and gradually work towards a lifelong plan for achieving your best weight. If you change the way you eat or exercise to lose weight, ask yourself this question. Can I see myself sticking to this routine for life!! If the answer is "no" then its time to change what you're doing. Any healthy weight loss plan should include the following: · A wide variety of foods. · Regular and enjoyable exercise. · Enough filling foods to avoid constant hunger. · At least 1200 calories a day. · Flexibility for treat foods and social occasions. · A realistic goal of your best weight (not necessarily your lowest weight.) Fact A realistic weight loss is around one to two pounds per week. Fast weight losses are not fat loss but glycogen and water. If you lose weight quickly then you will probable return back to the weight at which you started as quickly as it was lost. Fiction · Weight loss is quick and simple. · Exercise is not necessary. · Certain exercises can spot reduce. · Carbohydrates (for example, bread, potatoes, rice, and pasta) are fattening. So the way to lose body fat and maintain muscle or increase it is to have a food program for life and more energy output. Increase the amount of fruits, vegetables, non-fat dairy products, whole grains and beans that you eat. Eliminate calorie-dense foods such as cookies, sugary desserts, chips, fries, pizza, candies, crackers etc. Research on people who have successfully lost a lot of weight and kept it off long term, shows that the vast majority succeeded by consuming a low fat diet high in fibre coupled with strength training and cardiovascular activity. These are the basics you'll need to aim for. A sound weight loss eating plan should: · Be nutritionally sound, providing all the nutrients you need. · Never promise fast weight losses. · Offer an eating plan based on real food. · Allow you to eat out. · Avoid expensive meal plans, products and supplements. · Not avoid carbohydrate foods, e.g. bread, rice, pasta, cereals and potatoes. · Make gradual dietary changes. · Provide knowledge. · Allow you to eat all foods · Recommend physical activity. Fat calories are more fattening than carbohydrate calories. Your body can easily convert the fat you eat in food into body fat, so to lose weight you need to cut down on fats and foods that contain it. Consider the following steps to reduce fat in your diet. · Use skimmed or skimmed milk in drinks, cooking and on cereals. · Buy a non - stick frying pan. · Buy a cheese slicer · Cut the visible fat from meat. · Eat very little pastry. · Learn how to read a food label. · Substitute low fat yoghurt for cream. · Remove the skin from chicken and turkey. · Eat fruit as snacks rather than eating chocolate and biscuits. · Eat fewer burgers and sausages. Gary Matthews is a fitness trainer from "down under" who has been coaching clients from athletes to bodybuilders for two decades. You may contact Gary directly at gary@maximumfitness.com and visit his website at http://www.maximumfitness.com. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
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How to Benefit from the Mind-Body Connection
(excerpt)
You are about to gain insight into the
mind-body connection. The number of
people who truly understand these principles on our
planet are relatively few.
There is an undeniable connection between our minds and
bodies, you can learn
to use this fact to your benefit.
Dr. Bernie Siegel, author of "Love, Medicine and
Miracles" was once a
distraught cancer surgeon until he
began to understand the greater principles
of the mind-
body connection. He felt dragged down by the artificial
barriers
that existed between patient and doctor, and the
helplessness he often felt as
a result of his inability
to effectively serve those patients. Eventually, those
barriers
were disintegrated by Dr. Siegel's recognition
and growing understanding of the
mind-body connection and
how it could serve his patients and himself.
Dr. Siegel, or Bernie as he began to have his patients
refer to him, had some
startling realizations as a cancer surgeon. He found that
there were actually
quite a few people in the world that successfully beat
the statistics on cancer
survival. He began to recognize that a patient's ability
to defeat something as
serious as cancer had to do with the patient's mind and
attitude about their
disease.
If you would like to see the rest of
this article, please go here:
http://www.tobeinformed.com/repository/mind-body.html
copyright 2004 - David Snape
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