Posts Tagged ‘Lose Weight’

Be the Weight You Want and Stay There | Reflections on 2008

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

After being online for a year, I began thinking about this blog.  What is my theme?  What is my purpose? Who do I write it for?

Well, first of all “be the weight you want” means two things.  One is that you can be slimmer – you do not have to be as heavy as you are.  Second is that you can choose your weight goal.  You do not have to choose a weight from some sort of chart  that tells you your ‘ideal’ weight.  You will know when you are at your ideal weight. You will feel healthy, stronger, and have more energy.  “And Stay There? ” Well, what is the use of losing the weight if you are going to put it right back  on.

I guess the main reason I write these posts is to share with other people like me – men or women – what I have learned through my life experiences and situations and also what I have learned about weight loss.  I didn’t just put weight on.  I became very depressed in my life, my marriage to an alcoholic.  I went from 100 lbs to 130 lbs over 5 years (and had two children during that time).  After my divorce, I was able to lose back down to 105 lbs.

Then I found myself in a marriage with a very controlling person.  He was very adamant that his wife not put on weight.  My way of rebellion was to slip out and eat Mexican foods and anything else.  When events happened to end the marriage, I again fell into depression.  I felt like I was a total failure in my life in every aspect of my life.  Eating was enjoyable and made me ‘feel’ better.  Going on with life, my social life became eating out with friends.  Year after year my weight went up.  I would ‘diet’ once in a while and lose some weight, then put it back on plus.

When I found myself feeling weak and tired all the time with no ambition or energy, I finally made a huge step.  I got on a program where I buy the food from them, it is portioned correctly, has the correct nutrients, and has the correct calories.  This is what worked for me.  But more than that, I met with a mentor once a week to weigh in and  talk. I had to realise and BELIEVE that I deserve to be healthy, and slim.  That I have the ability to lose the weight.  That I need to change my relationship with  food and my view of myself.

One of the first things I had to change was my ’self-talk’.  I had to stop downgrading myself.  When things disappointed me, I could not beat myself black and blue over it (verbally).  Then I had to realize that the amount of food I was eating was the correct food to keep my body healthy.  It contained everything my  body needed during the day.  Next, I had to start realizing why I was  ‘hungry’ when I felt hungry.  Was I sad, angry, excited, bored, nervous, etc?  Or maybe even thirsty.  Besides changing habits, I needed to find alternate ways to deal with these emotions.

Who is this blog for?  It is for anyone who can learn from it.  Since I weight 200% of what they say my ‘ideal’ weight is, I guess it would be  for seriously overweight people who do not have a medical reason for their weight problem – and maybe even for them also.  It would be for the people who share my emotional eating patterns, for the people whose self-image and self-worth is bad and skewed, for the people who eat to socialize, and for the people who have tried to lose weight unsuccessfully.

If anyone reads a post and a light bulb goes on “Hey, that is true for me.  I can change that”, then this blog has fulfilled its purpose.

I hope that you will browse through the site index.  There is a lot of good content – real content – that might help you or someone you care about.

Please, feel free to leave a comment.

 Be the Weight You Want and Stay There | Reflections on 2008
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How to Use Supplements to Be the Weight You Want

Saturday, January 24th, 2009

Have you been watching, listening, or reading the ads, stories, and TV talk shows about how this miracle pill or that miracle pill will make you lose your weight so you can be the weight you want? Hogwash!!! There is no supplement nor pill that will MAKE you lose weight, unless it is an addictive drug of some sort – probably illegal and definitely unhealthy.

A supplement is exactly what it says – it supplements, or helps, you on your weight loss journey. It does not lose the weight for you, it simply helps you to lose it by causing your body to burn more calories for a short time, or helping you to feel full without eating as many calories. If you don’t DIET – that is have a meal plan or eating plan AND keep your calories down, but not below 1200 calories a day – you will not lose weight, at least not very much.

So what use are supplements? One type of supplement is vitamins and minerals. In todays culture, we do not get the proper amount of vitamins and minerals we need. Two such examples are Zinc and Chromium. Zinc has to be taken with the proper amount of copper, and chromium should be taken as Chromium picolinate for the body to absorb the chromium. These are not weight loss supplements per say, but they are minerals our body needs to work the way it is meant too and have been found to affect the body’s ability to shed unneeded pounds.

Even with vitamins and minerals, and even with some herbs, we will not lose and be the weight we want simply by taking a pill.  Besides the eating plan mentioned above and in many of my other posts, we also need to exercise.  It takes exercise over and above our normal daily activity to burn the extra calories and thus lose weight and lose it quicker.

About FAST – if it took you years to put the weight on, how can you expect to lose it in a couple months?  Most women take more than that to return to their pre-pregnancy weight after  having a baby.   Dieting and exercise are the only way to lose weight unless you have surgery to take the fat out, liposuction, or staple your stomach, or put a band around your stomach (all operations).  Even with the surgeries, you have to change your lifestyle of eating and of exercise to succeed in losing and keeping the weight off.

Another type of weight loss supplement helps with HUNGER by giving you a full feeling.  Our mothers and grandmothers used water, celery, and carrots to do the same thing.   Water fills the stomach, making it feel fuller while also providing the daily intake of water you need, and not adding any calories to your daily intake.  Celery and carrots provide chewing, fiber, and vitamins needed adding very few calories to you daily intake.  This is assuming the hunger is caused physically, and not emotionally.

There are some types of plants and herbs which help ’suppress’ your appetite – helping you to avoid binges mostly.  How well they work depends on the individual.  I was reading last month about a cactus Caralluma fimbriata, a succulent cactus from India, which is available as an appetite suppressant. Caralluma Burn is similar to Hoodra, but it is in a pill form and easier to take.  It has a free trial and a 90 day money back guarantee.  Also, when you sign up for the free trial, you get access to a great site with personalized eating plans and exercise plans.  I did sign up for the free trial offer.  It has lived up to all its claims and frankly for me it works better than Hoodra.   I  have been able to let go of my evening snacking, which is my biggest obstacle.  Also, I have more energy to get up and exercise.  That alone will give a boost to my weight loss journey.

To wrap up, supplements can help you on your weight loss program – the key word being help.  You still have to change your eating and activity habits along with your mindset to succeed in your journey to the weight you want and stay there.

 How to Use Supplements to Be the Weight You Want
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