Healthy Weight Loss Part 1

diet-timeLosing weight is your main goal, but there are plenty of ways that you can lose weight which may be unhealthy or worse, teach you nothing about keeping the weight off. Right now you may not be able to see past your own goal of dropping the weight, but more important than losing weight, is doing it in a way that is both healthy and safe. The key to losing weight and keeping it off in a healthy manner is to change your end goal. While losing weight is obviously the ultimate goal, doing it in a way that doesn’t harm your body is more important. Losing weight, in recent history, has become more about looking good, rather than feeling good, leading many to experiment with fad diets that don’t work, and in some instances cause permanent health problems.

On your journey to a healthy lifestyle, you’ve probably encountered dozens of diets that promise quick weight loss with minimal exercise by eliminating certain food groups. The legend of the magic diet is just that, a legend. The healthiest way for you to lose weight and get fit is to make small, incremental changes to your lifestyle and dieting behavior. Before we get to that however, you have to change what the word ‘diet’ means to you. Diet shouldn’t be a four-letter word, or an activity that you engage in a week before you need to fit in that little black dress, or your favorite leather jacket. Your diet isn’t just a temporary way of eating; it’s a lifestyle, and the only way you will have healthy weight loss is if you change your diet.

From this moment on, you have to think of dieting as simply a part of life, not a quick solution for a special occasion. Dieting doesn’t have to be synonymous with depriving yourself of some of the tasty treats you enjoy. By learning how to enjoy food in moderation, you won’t be forced to eliminate (some) food you love from your diet. As the rate of obese Americans continues to grow, the market becomes flooded with unhealthy diets with no scientific facts to support them. These diets prey on your busy schedule and your desire for a quick fix by promising quick weight loss without changing your behavior.

Before you scoff and roll your eyes, consider this; not so long ago, many people believed that eliminating carbohydrates from your diet would help you lose weight. Common knowledge became “carbs make you fat”, but that myth has recently debunked. While this diet has some components of truth to it, the key to a happy and healthy life isn’t eliminating potatoes, rice, and pasta – a major source of energy- or any other food group for that matter. If you are having difficulty with weight loss, it is advised that you cut down on carbohydrates, not eliminate them altogether. Any diet that you encounter that advises you to go against what you know is true (even if you don’t adhere to that truth), is unhealthy and probably unsafe.

The one secret that many people don’t know about to help them lose weight is a healthy diet and regular exercise. From the moment you begin school, you are forced to participate in the torturous activity known as physical education, or P.E. While at the time, you probably thought this was a class made up just to torture your teenage body, you should now realize that if we had all paid more attention then, our bodies wouldn’t suffer for it now. During P.E. class there was no special diet, no magic cure; just good, old-fashioned exercise. You were in great shape then, not just because you were young, but because you received fifty minutes of exercise five days a week. When you feel discouraged, think about how great that fifty minutes made you feel once you stopped complaining about it, and vow to find a way to get regular exercise.

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