Why do we continue to support an industry that delivers no more than a 5% long-term success rate? How about because the $30 billion dollar weight loss industry is selling what we want, namely promises of instant, easy and quick weight reduction.
That reason is we expect weight loss to be like everything else in our society, namely, almost instant. While we have instant entertainment, fast food and information on the Web, our bodies are organic and physical. While all this instant delivery puts us in the mindset that losing 10 - 20 or more pounds is simply a matter of taking a pill or changing a diet temporarily, our physical nature works against that from happening.
The human body is focused on self-preservation. Serious dieting can be recognized by our body as starvation which in turn puts it into a sustained self-preservation mode. Bodies will lower their metabolism to maintain and protect existing energy reserves stored in fat. This means that a radical diet is not the way to lose weight.
So let's try and get past the instant Society mindset and realize that losing weight is a long term goal. It took time to gain all that weight, and it will take time to lose it. More importantly, it will take a lifetime to continue to maintain a healthy weight. The one key to learn how to lose weight is to not get discouraged and realize that losing weight is not a month long effort only.
You can help yourself to lose weight by changing your lifestyle, one minor step at a time.
For example
1. Look long term. Once a diet is selected, there are times when all of us will just decide not to follow the plan. This doesn't mean failure! Tomorrow's a new day and another opportunity to make good food and lifestyle decisions
2. Add some activity into your daily routine. Wash the car by hand, do the vacuuming or gardening yourself. Find ways to become more active in the course of the day. This may mean taking the stairs instead of an elevator or parking farther away when going to the store. All these ideas take almost no time but it can increase activity, and that's a good thing.
3. Stop obsessing about weight. Okay, your fat. Obsessing and worrying about some extra poundage is not going to make it go away. Everyone's weight fluctuates on a daily basis and weighing in all the time can damage your positive outlook about losing weight. It's easy to get discouraged when your weight goes up, because you've made the extra effort to drink additional water. Weigh yourself once a week, and other than that, stay off the scale
4. Learn to like water. Not for swimming or flushing or bathing but drinking. Experts agree that a healthy body needs at least 64 ounces of water a day. If you absolutely cannot handle drinking plain water, go to the supermarket to pick up food flavorings. These are small bottles of flavor usually kept in the baking aisle and can be used to flavor your water without adding calories.
Remember that the key to how to lose weight is to realize that losing weight is a long term proposition. It's only by making those minor changes and adjustments in your routine daily can you expect to not only lose weight and keep it off permanently
