Travel and Leisure

Everyone has his or her favorite weight loss tip to pass along to anyone who will listen or pay. The question is, DOES IT REALLY WORK? Bet you have heard some doozies! Me too.

Most people's favorite has to be the Ice Crème Diet! Can you imagine losing weight by eating all the ice crème you want?! Great work if you can get it! Another all time favorite is the pickles diet. Eat just pickles.... And lose weight. Of course you do increase your salt intake by a 1000-fold too, which is definitely not good for you. The all protein diet is very popular also. The problem with it is that your body is using up muscle mass along with the fat. Not too good for the heart and internal organs. Or maybe your diet guru wants you try a pill. Pills are nice. They are easy and convenient; and it gives you someone to blame if your weight loss attempt doesn't work.

If you really, truly, honestly want to lose weight there is no one single thing you can do. It takes work. Hard work! It takes a series of steps, lifestyle changes, healthy living choices, and a roadmap of how to get there.

Every journey starts with a single step. Your first step is to want weight loss and a change in your health and vitality. Studies show that you can improve your health by losing as little as 10 to 20 pounds, or 5 to 10 percent of your body weight. This may help improve many of the problems linked to being overweight, such as high blood pressure and diabetes. Think of all the things you still want to do... and the things that are important to you like family, travel, leisure activities, career, relationships, etc. Wouldn't all those things be improved with a slimmer and healthier you?

Take the time and be all you can be. Weight loss and healthy living is not a one time, quick fix. It is a journey, a lifestyle change for the better. It is the way to get out of the endless circle of diets, emotion ups and downs, craving food for comfort not sustenance, self fulfilled failures, and self-loathing. You do not have to stay on this treadmill to nowhere.

The second step is research. Read all you can. Fortunately nowadays you can have the information of the world at your fingertips on the Internet. Look past the ads and claims to the substance of the message. Most of the "plans" have verbiage like: eat a reduced-calorie diet, eating a balanced diet and getting regular exercise, exercise program needed, and watch your fat intake. You can learn to eat right, exercise, and watch your calories without buying a book, taking a pill, or buying prepared food from a diet vendor. It shouldn't cost you to learn to take control of your life. If you give the control to someone else by following blindly their path, you will forever have to continue to pay them for what they provide you.

The third step is action. You can hope that change will come to you, or you can work towards it. You can learn to do it yourself so that you are in control of your health and fitness future. Go on; take the action now to change your health, life, and future!

Take care of yourself and love yourself.

Frances Lewis