2 Steps to Weight Loss
Start these
2 steps to
weight loss today!
1.
Make a
Real Decision To Do Whatever it Takes to Lose Weight!
Well, you finally decided, again, to lose weight, but is that ALL you
need to
do? Of course not. It didn't the last 17 times did
it?
To be successful this time, you need to decide things in advance like
how you are going to go about it, how long you will give a program to
work, how much time you have to commit to it, how much difficulty you
are going to tolerate, and so on.
Sadly, many people do not
realize that in order to have a successful weight loss program, they
have to decide to do whatever is necessary...for however
long it takes...and stick with it.
You see, that's the real decision...to keep at it until the job is
done.
That's where so many people go wrong. Somewhere in the back
of their minds, they assume that "the weight loss program", the "diet
pill", or the "diet"itself is going to somehow lose weight for them!
Here's some
news. Weight loss is like any other life changing decision.
Let me ask you a question. If you decided today to change
careers in order to make a better life for
yourself and your family, for example, which would be the wisest
decision?
Should you go to the library and read a book on
that new career and somehow try to get started, or should you go to the
local university and take some courses on the subject?
If you decide to go to the university or community college, you are
going to have to not only take a few courses, but attend classes, do
homework, take some tests, and probably get a few
wrong answers as well. But, after a period of time, you would
acquire the
knowledge you need to be successful, and make your way through the
required steps to be
able to interview for a job in the field you are interested
in.
If you choose to take the do-it-yourself road, you are going
to have
to go back to the library, check out some more books, start studying,
and perhaps even take some quizzes in those books, work out some
problems, and...eventually...go out in the world and start trying to
start your new career.
Whatever choice you take, whether you are going from being a housewife
to
becoming an accountant, from being an accountant to becoming a sales
professional...or if you are beginning a
weight loss, health, or fitness program, achieving the final result
you truly desire will take time and effort. If you are
choosing to do this
yourself, you are possibly going to make several mistakes along the way
which will delay achieving your goal.
However, if
you keep
working at it, you will get there eventually.
If you study on your own, will you eventually become a Certified Public
Accountant? Possibly not, but,in the long run, it depends on
your dedication
and ability to persevere.
It's going to be the same with
weight loss...or becoming a millionaire. You might not wind
up looking like a body
builder or fashion model, or being the richest person on the planet,
but you can certainly lose weight and get
healthy, or amass a small fortune, but it will not happen overnight, so
you must be completely prepared to
make the effort and allow for the time required.
Anything less is simply preparing for failure.
2.
Start Today!
There are really just two major factors involved in weight
loss.
All
kinds of studies have shown this simple fact time and again.
Even the
manufacturers of all those weight
loss products and diet pills, as well as the
doctors who perform weight loss surgery, admit that their products or
plans will not work anywhere near as well without these factors.
Quite
simply, the two factors are activity (exercise) and nutrition.
In order to lose weight most effectively, you will eventually have to
modify
your present lifestyle in such a way that you are getting a lot more exercise
than
you are now, and you will have to eat a lot differently than you do
now. As pointed out earlier, in order to be successful, you
will have to take the time and make the effort to
learn how to do these things, AND you will STILL have to make that
decision
we mentioned earlier and stick with it!
HOWEVER............
As with so many things that are new to us, at first, you will perhaps
know very little about what you should be
doing and how to do it most efficiently and effectively. To
tell the truth, a great many people try to do too much too soon, and
expect to get
too much too soon. As a result, they either overextend
themselves, sometimes to
the point of physical injury, or they give up because they don't get
the results they thought they would get!
First of all, don't be disheartened if the weight does not disappear
overnight. The fat did not arrive in 24 hours, seven days, or
three months, and it will not go away that rapidly
either!
If you do what you are supposed to do, however, it WILL go
away sooner or later.
Second, you must realize that your body has to make more adjustments
than simply
"losing weight"...actually, losing fat! It has to re-route
blood vessels, repair and replace
muscle tissue, ramp up hormone production, improve the circulatory and
respiratory systems, and perform a wide range of other tasks as
well.
In the process of getting all this done, the weight loss process may
take a
little time to become evident.
EXAMPLE:
When people begin exercising to lose weight, they often do NOT notice
an immediate weight loss. In fact, many will notice a WEIGHT
GAIN!
This
is perfectly normal and should not upset you!
Why is that?
Well, exercise builds lean muscle mass.
Quite often, someone will be adding lean muscle mass (which takes up
less space
than fat) at a faster rate than they are burning fat. If they
are
very overweight, they may not be able to observe any positive change at
all. If they are less overweight, however, they may be able
to observe that clothes are getting looser, even though the scale says
they are gaining weight. After all, lean muscle takes up a
lot less room than fat, and trading even a few pounds of fat for muscle
can result in some loose clothing and perhaps a need for a shopping
trip to purchase some smaller clothes!
This is
just one simple example of why you must have the faith that the
program will work, the dedication to stick with it even when you are
not getting immediate reward or results, and why you really need to
educate yourself about how weight loss really works.
After all, can you imagine the chagrin and total frustration
experienced by someone
who has been working hard and watching what they eat only to step on
the scale and see that they have GAINED WEIGHT instead of losing it...
....UNLESS
THEY KNOW THAT IT IS A PERFECTLY NORMAL RESULT OF THEIR WEIGHT LOSS
PROGRAM?
There are a hundred, heck, maybe even a thousand, little things to
learn about weight loss in order to get
the most benefit and achieve the most rapid results...which will NEVER
be fast
enough for most people. You cannot learn all these things
overnight,
and trying to do too much too fast in the hopes of accomplishing a lot
real fast cannot only be detrimental to the weight loss program itself,
but can
cause people to quit for various reasons which I have written about
elsewhere...and can possibly cause injury, and even DEATH!
However, before you do have a chance to learn all the tips and tricks,
you CAN get up out
of that chair, take the dog for a short walk (daily), and make a few
more healthy decisions about what you are going to put in your
mouth.
You know this stuff already!
After all,
should you eat one piece of apple pie, or two?
Should you eat
apple pie, or an apple?
I bet you got both those answers
right.
Now, before you run out and get all those books from the library and
start trying
out all the exercise programs, let me give you one last piece of
advice.
Many of those people wrote those books based on their
personal experiences and knowledge, but they do not know you from Adam
or Eve. While their basic premise may be right, their
particular diet or exercise program may not be right for you.
As you learn, you will find that you will probably have to modify WHAT
you learn so that it fits you.
Also, you may read in one of those books that you should be doing X
number of a particular
exercise, so many times a week. If you are just starting out,
it is highly probable that at
first you simply cannot do that!
Don't even try to, unless you know
that you are in pretty good shape.
No matter how they word
it, they are really only giving you a target to shoot at.
Odds are
that at first you will not be able to hit the mark, at least not with
regularity, until you have gotten a little more experience.
Keeping the target analogy going, if you decided to learn how to shoot
a bow and arrow, you
would not expect to be able to hit the bulls eye time after time right
from the start, would you? In fact, if someone tried really
hard on the
first day, I can guarantee that many people would not even be able to
draw the bow on the second day, and would have given up on archery by
the end of the week.
Well, that's the same thing that happens to people who throw themselves
into
diets and exercise programs without the knowledge, preparation, and
willingness to stick with it necessary for success.
Just start small. Learn the tricks. Make small
adjustments as you learn, and grow as a weight loss expert, and you
will soon see the results you were willing to wait for.
See, two small steps to weight loss really can make all the difference.
ABOUT THE
AUTHOR:
Donovan Baldwin is a 66-year-old bodybuilder, freelance writer,
certified optician, and Internet marketer currently living in the
Dallas - Fort Worth area. A University Of West Florida alumnus (1973) with
a BA in accounting, he has been a member of Mensa and has held several
managerial and supervisory positions throughout his career. After
retiring from the U. S. Army in 1995, with 21 years of service, he
became interested in Internet marketing and developed various online
businesses. He has been writing poetry, articles, and essays for over
40 years, and now frequently publishes original articles on his own
websites and for use by other webmasters.
He has an online store of various health
supplements which can be found at http://nodiet4me.com/health_products/.
=======================
Like this
article?
You have permission to post this article on your
website,
on your blog, or in your ezine as long as you
post it entirely
as written, including the About the
Author section and all
links.
P. S. If you want to learn about why Diets Don't Work,
please click here.
If you want to learn how to burn fat, a great book to read is Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle by Tom
Venuto
|
|
