If you want to lose some weight, I know one sure-fire method.
First thing in the morning, every morning--stand in front of a
mirror and jog in place for one hour. I guarantee you'll lose
weight--probably a lot of weight.
Yeah, I know, not too many people can do this--and it would be terribly boring if you could.
Fortunately, there's a million better ways to lose weight. And then
again, it all boils to one central truth. The only real way to really
lose weight is to consistently burn off more calories during the day
than you consume.
If you want to keep if off though, it's best to lose weight gradually over a
long period of time. Starving yourself on some stupid diet or jogging in place for an hour
every morning might result in tremendous short term results. But sooner
or later you'll go back to your old habits--and subsequently back to your old fat self.
The people I know who have successfully lost weight and maintained their new weight have one thing in common. They
count calories.
Counting calories is the only way to really know if you are making
progress and it has an added benefit. When you count calories you
learn a tremendous amount of good things about the foods you eat, and about the exercises you do or don't do.
You suddenly have a
consciousness that keeps you from over-indulging and keeps you jogging, or swimming, or whatever.
When it comes to counting calories there are a number of good, free
calorie trackers you can use on your computer or smart phone.
One of the best, non-commercial services is caloriecount from
About.com, the url is http://caloriecount.about.com Once you set up your
account, which is a bit time consuming but worth it, you can keep track
of the calories you consume daily through the food log and also keep track of
the calories you burn through the activity log. There is also a nifty nutrition report which will tell you what
percentage of the food you eat is fat, carbohydrates, or protein.
What I like best about the About.com site are the online support groups
you can join, and the associated blogs and information sites. It's really a complete program.
I also like the simple calorie counter widget from LabPixies which I
have added to my iGoogle health page. Totally intuitive and easy
to use...you can find it at http://www.labpixies.com It also works on
personalized Yahoo pages and there is a really cool toolbar you can
download to add to your browser. All for free.
One of the best commercial services is FitDay, http://www.fitday.com
which several of my friends use. It has all the features of the
About.com site and for some people it is more user friendly. However,
unless you purchase the "premium" service for $64.95 a year, you find
yourself bombarded with messages to buy things.
There are also several iPhone apps for this.
Whichever one you might choose, I think that just by counting calories
you'll soon find yourself on a workable path to reduce or maintain body
weight. The details about what you eat or how you exercise will
follow.
Counting calories is the first step.
To read more of Dave's posting, go to: www.my-wellness-coach.com