Did I get your attention? I purposely titled this post, “How to Lose Weight: Fast and Easy?” because I know if you’re looking for this kind of information, you could very well go to the wrong place. I’m here to tell you the truth: there is no SAFE way to lose weight fast nor easily. You can, however, lose weight at a steady pace and keep it off. Here’s how.
If you live in America, you need to know that you live in a weight-obsessed culture, with a food industry that creates a hostile environment for your plans to maintain a healthy diet, a fit body, and a weight meant for your height, age, and genetics.
Here’s the opening excerpt from my upcoming eBook, “Video Nurse: 50 Weight Loss Tips for Busy People”. It will be available to order by Paypal for just $5, and comes with an attractive cover and title page, perfect for giving as a gift. Download it as a PDF, or make a printed copy to keep by your desk.
Here’s the excerpt:
According to present statistics available at the time of this writing, obesity rates in the U.S. may be finally leveling off, but the rates are still high. No state passed the Healthy People 2010 Guidelines for 15% or less obese people http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/index.html. Our food supplies continue to cater to a market that is willing to buy cheap food to keep our mouths entertained, while the number of preventable diseases and deaths related to complications of obesity continue to soar along with our health care bills.
Whenever instituting a change that doesn’t provide an immediate measurable outcome, consider giving yourself a non-food reward for good behavior to help encourage the repetition of that behavior. I suggest that reward to be something other than food because I feel that food shouldn’t be used as punishment or reward. An example of a non-food reward: put a dime in a jar for each time you complete a particular tip on the list below. At the end of fifty days, you’d have five dollars if you did just one tip (or put in a dollar per day as your list grows); you’d have $250 if you did all fifty tips for fifty days at a dime a piece (although some tips will only be done once or twice). At the end of fifty days, use that money for something healthy for yourself to enjoy.
The eBook contains fifty tips I have discussed with clients over the years who were either recommended by their doctor to reduce their weight, or had personal health goals of which weight loss was a reasonable part of their treatment. Every client who did what I asked them to do lost weight. Whether they put the weight back on depends on whether they understood the lifestyle change involved in weight management, or their vision was temporary in nature.
The only real way to lose weight and keep it off is to eat less calories than you burn on a daily basis, and to use both smart nutrition and exercise/movement to create an environment where the body can thrive. There are no short cuts. There is no magic bullet. Even diet pills that encourage faster weight loss have side effects that may be intolerable, such as fatty, loose stools if you have too much fat in your diet. Diet shakes and protein shakes can help you lose weight, but they do not do the work for you to shape up those muscles, such as swimming, jogging, and resistance training.
You may have reached the time where you “get real” with your health goals, and you are ready to do the work to achieve your best life physically, emotionally, spiritually, and relationally. I hope you’ll check out my work at Seattle DirectCounseling, or my eBook of weight loss tips, to help you on your way.