Lose Weight Easily For Good

By Author: Amanda Ollier
Total Articles: 1
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Losing weight is one of the most common things that people want to do, regardless of their age, sex or background. Unfortunately, as most of them soon discover, there is no magic formula to make the pounds disappear overnight. Whilst fad diets might work short term, in most cases the weight will creep back. The truth is, that whilst the equation is simple - burn more calories than you consume and you'll lose weight - long term weight loss calls for determination and commitment to a healthy diet and exercise plan. Even then, it takes longer than most of us would like, to drop those extra pounds. So, what can you do to lose weight easily, without unduly suffering in the process?

Tip #1 Set Realistic Goals
If you start just about anything in life with unrealistic expectations, the chances are that without a good dose of luck, you will not have achieved your aim. Weight loss is no exception. If you start a new exercise regime or diet, or both, and expect to lose incredible amounts of weight in no time, then I would bet money that you probably won't. The problem with this is that when that happens, it creates ...
... lots of negative emotions. Disappointment that it's not working leads onto disappointment with yourself for not having reached your goal. This chips away at your resolve, decreasing your motivation and worst of all, makes you think that you can't lose weight. If one thing is sure to defeat you from the start, it is the belief that you can't do it. You will unconsciously go out of your way to prove yourself right and fail. This knocks your self esteem so that when you begin your next diet, you have even less belief that you will succeed, and guess what? Unless you change your mindset you will fail again.
The key here is to remember that all journeys start with a single step, and every dieter that lost 100 pounds lost one pound first. Expect to lose just one or two pounds a week for healthy, sustainable weight loss. Why set yourself up to fail? Make your goal realistic and set yourself milestones along the way, that you can achieve. That way, as you pass each marker, your confidence will grow. That confidence in yourself translates into an improved level of self esteem, which will give you the motivation to continue towards your goal and to succeed.

Tip #2 Think About Who You Tell You Are On a Diet

Making the decision to lose weight can be exciting and liberating, that decision is after all the first step. As human beings we love to share excitement and so we go off and tell everyone we know about our latest, greatest plan. The trouble is, that for myriad reasons, this is often the first chink in our armour. Having told the world you are on a low fat diet, think about how you will feel when they see you have a sneaky bar of chocolate? Whilst in reality they may not think anything at all, you will mind read what you think they might be thinking and it won't be good. Cue the next wave of negative emotions. Now you feel guilty that you cheated yourself and imagine that your friends are thinking unpleasant things about you "she's too greedy to lose weight", "he's failed again, I knew he would" etc. The only thing you can guarantee is that none of this will help your frame of mind and that in turn will sabotage your weight loss efforts.
The key here really, is that less is more. Tell those closest to you for reasons discussed in point 4, but otherwise keep your dieting to yourself. You will probably enjoy the sensation of taking back control of your life and think how great it will feel, when people notice that you have lost weight, because they can see it and not because you told them you were on another diet...

Tip #3 Avoid Dangerous Eating Restrictions

To be successful in every sense of the word, a diet must be healthy. This means balanced and nutritionally sound and if you eliminate a whole food group, fast for long periods, or restrict your diet too severely in any way, your diet is unlikely to be either. An unbalanced diet will always bring side effects with it, which can range from inconvenient, and unpleasant, like a headache or halitosis, to much more serious such as kidney damage or decreased bone density.
As well as health risks, an overly restrictive diet is most easily self sabotaged. If every day feels like a fight and you are permanently hungry, or having to deny yourself something, your motivation is going to be severely challenged and you are more likely to give up.
Eat a well balanced diet and allow yourself little treats along the way. Cut down your portion size not your range of foods. That way you are much more likely to lose weight initially, which will give you the necessary motivation to stick to your diet for longer. There are some foods which actually burn fat so include them in your diet too for an extra boost.

Tip #4 Get Your Home Team On Side!

Now, whilst you don't want to tell all and sundry that you are going on a diet, or starting a healthy eating plan, it really does help if you have the support of your nearest and dearest. Tell those who shop for food for you, or who might like to spoil you with edible treats and those who eat at home with you. Ask them to respect your new choice and not put temptation in your way. Explain that it's important to you to improve the way you look and feel and that you would really value their support. You may well find that they will join you in your new way of eating at some point, but don't force them as it will lead to resentment on either your part or theirs.
Finally ask them to keep their own indulgences to themselves and that if they wish to continue to eat the things you are no longer going to, to do so somewhere else. It sounds silly perhaps, but there is a lot of truth in the saying 'out of sight out of mind.' If you can't see it, you are less likely to crave it.
Once they see you are serious they will either support you whole heartedly, or shut up once they see their attempts to divert you are not going to work. People are funny and often those we think will want to help us, actually don't. That's not to say that they will overtly go out of their way to ruin your diet, but just as you have issues about how you look and fit in to the world, so do they and you changing can be unsettling for them.

Tip #5 Exercise

Sensible, sustainable weight loss takes time, fact. However, if you include a fat burning exercise routine with your diet, you will see quicker results. It comes down to that equation again, calories in versus calories out; the bigger number wins every time. Increasing the amount you exercise even a little also has other benefits. You will almost immediately have more energy and sleep better, and feel better about yourself. This will again help increase your motivation to keep to your weight loss plan, which will in turn increase your weight loss! It's like a snowball, the more you lose, the better you feel, the more motivated you are to continue, the more you lose and so on...

If you follow these 5 steps, you will be putting yourself in the best possible position for success and are pretty much guaranteed to get results quickly and easily. If you would like to speed things up with handy dieting secrets and some really targeted exercises, click on the links in the text above which will take you through to a site with gender specific tips. Good luck!