Weight Loss, a lifestyle choice achievable by the power of self will.

 HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT.
This is my personal view built on personal ideas. It works for me.

The plain truth is that we are not stupid, we all know how to lose weight. There is
no miracle cure, no overnight sensation, no morning after pill, as the times we live
in would love to have you believe. They want you to believe this so money can be
made out of misery year on year with amazing new breakthrough diets.
As I said, we are not stupid, but somewhat lazy and glad of the excuses bandied
about what is actually a simple truth.

You would not expect a major operation to be folllowed by a training session the
next morning, followed by discharge in the afternoon, and work the next day,
these things take time to overcome, a gradual recuperation period.

I think we all accept that is pretty much of a fact, yet we seem to think that
weight loss from a grim start weight is achievable overnight with no attendant
dangers if we rush our attempt using dangerous techniques.

The plain truth is that to lose weight you have to take less calories in than you
are burning off. End of story. Period.

In order to do this we might like to exercise more as this speeds up our
sluggish and near terminal metabolism towards a semblance of its old self.

Tell me if Im losing you at any stage here, but I am assuming you are all
intelligent enough to be with me so far.

There is only one major obstacle to this being a life changing revelation.
The obstacle is you, and that is a large obstacle.

Insidious advertising does not help much either.

The problem is your body, your triggers, your impulses and your mind set.
There is also the question of duration. Many can adopt a new regime for
days, weeks or even months at a time, but making this into a permanent
change is also a huge problem, especially given that advertising wants
you to do it EVERY year, not just once. There is little money in your
just doing it once, for people whose job it is to sell you on diets.

The Atkins diet seemingly defied the odds, and propounded you could
eat as much as you liked and eat yourself slim. It seemed calories in
were meaningless, that they would disappear without exercise or
effort. That calories in versus calories out was wrong.
It appears now that the fact that high protein foods contain less calories
than carbohydrates, pound for pound, coupled with the fact that in most
cases high protein foods trigger the body into saying, now hold on here
Im already full up with food, does in fact follow the age old principle
of calories in must be less than calories out.

I would question whether it is necessary to be swimming in fat and not
just grilled or poached or boiled, as I see the main benefit being in the
eating of high protein in exchange for high carbohydrate, that is my
own deduction from the data available to date.

This high protein being a lower calorific value and a trigger to being
full and damping down pangs of screaming appetite, must surely be
the basis of a simple dieting plan. Let us investigate other known
benificial tools for us to diet and choose for ourselves our own
method from the resulting possibilities, as contrary to what
advertisers would have you believe there is no set way for a whole
nation of slimmers.

It also is seemingly true that leaving a thirty minute gap between
courses actually means you often do not want the next course, as
apparantly the body takes about fifteen to twenty minutes to tell
you you are full after a main course. You want a dessert or a sweet
as it is different, and most of us have a sweet tooth, but your body
probably does not need it. You would not eat your main course
twice, but a sweet is appealing. If you leave it twenty minutes, chances
are you will not need it, as the better Restaurants will allow.
Perhaps this is why we are sometimes rushed to order in lesser
establishments.

Obviously also there has to be a set amount of calories per day that
is a pseudo upper limit for that day, depending on hieght, structure, age,
and exercise regime, otherwise we would be eating the right things in
inordinately large amounts.

There has to be a balance.

Below is a list of what I would say are the most salient points to note.
1. Exercise increases metabolism.
2. A faster metabolism burns more calories.
3. Substitution of high protein for carbohydrates works.
4. Our metabolism is fastest in the morning, slowest late at night.
5. Food eaten early will burn up quicker than food eaten later.
6. Leaving a thirty minute gap after a course may save a course.
7. Small portions over a day put on less weight than the same
weight of the same food in say three sittings.
8. Weight watchers type unit watching works if followed.
9. Eating after seven pm accumulates fat due to slow metabolism.
10. A large obstaclee is our sweet tooth for chocolate, cakes, sweets
biscuits, and desserts.
11. Few of us take in enough water per day, though it makes up eighty
per cent of our being, and is important in releasing toxins.

These seem pretty obvious statements, but we can glean our own weight loss
plan for the future just using these simple ingredients.

I have evolved my own method, which I will endeavour to explain to you, not
as a follow this this is the way, but as a this is how I used the above information
to help me in my own way, as no doubt you are clever enough to adapt it to your
own way. This is where many weight loss programs fall down. They make it seem
insurmountably hard to achieve without their patronisingly know all ideas
and cures and proclamations.

I was in computing when it first started, and programming was nowhere near
as difficult as people would have had you believe, but you hardly tell your
customers that when you are charging the earth for your services.
You make it seem difficult, almost a guru type thing, so clients will not worry
too much over the cost.

It seems this way to me with slimming. Certain companies would have it deemed
almost an insurmountable obstacle without help and guidance, which of course
you pay for willingly, believing it to be of benefit, and like all things having
a healthy self doubt in your own ability, unless you are the Prime Minister.

My own method is as follows.
You may well view this as a dont try this at home.

a. Find out your calorie or unit allowance per day for your hieght age and frame,
Your GP will assist in this, or Weight watchers type meetings can
be joined locally or over the internet. This is important to allow
yourself treats now and then, which are necessary in any regime.
This is a bit like knowing how much you have to spend for a week
and not going over weekwise, probably a bad example in the era of
credit cards and loans.

b. Do a simple exercise which takes little time morning noon and night.
For me twenty sit ups is fine, and helps to hold in my stomach,
but you could walk up and down stairs, or do simple step ups.

c. Eat a decent breakfast, preferably high protein, minimal fat and minimal
carbohydrate, grilled poached or boiled as opposed to fried.
I go for eggs, bacon and sausage with high meat content.

d. Do not eat anything else for thirty minutes, if desperate drink water.

e. Remember, the longer the day goes on the less your metabolism burns food.
Basically eating late is bad news eating early is good, besides which you
need breakfast to get through the day, as in break fast.

f. I find lunchtime I only want something light, but try eating high protein where
I can. Often I eat pilchards, sardines or salmon, not only for high protein
but for oils good for the joints, which are creaking more.

g. I tend to carry a small bottle of water with me at all times in the car, or out
walking, as it fills a gap other things might fill.

h. Evening meals are a dangerous time for me, as I tend to convince myself I
did more exercise than I actually did, and deserve a treat. Now I try
also to keep to high protein, as in lean meat, vegetables and fruit. I
have tended to cut down on potatoes and bread in favour of high
protein, which seems odd at first But soon becomes more enjoyable
and more varied. I think we tend to eat what we have always been
used to eating, almost out of habit.

i. Your sweet tooth should be allowed within the confines of your calorific
and units plan, as it is no use supressing what you like in a lifelong
lifestyle plan, it will always surface in the end, probably explode.
Better to appease your demons than shut a lid on them.
If you cannot do this in moderation then you will just stay fat,
and there is no point in trying to change. There is after all an
element of will power involved here. You only cheat yourself.

I found that cutting out cakes, sweets, sugar, biscuits for a while at the very start helped
me to feel in control from the word go, and more easily assess what I could eat without
their distraction. I eat them sparingly now and then now, but to start with it was useful.

I only ever now eat up until I feel full, I eat what I need, not what I would like.

Generally speaking we know what we should be eating and what we should be doing,
but doing it is quite another matter, not helped by the food chain stores and diet
gurus making it seem tantamount to impossible, or at the very least difficult.
This is simply just not so, if you use common sense it is achievable.

following these simple guidelines will at least give you some foundations on which
to base your own regime to suit your own unique situation. There are at least some
concrete facts here on how to go about it in a sensible way for yourself.

Obviously age comes into the equation, as Im in my fifties now it is harder to
Lose weight as my metabolism is a little slower, but too often this is used as an
excuse as correspondingly it is often true that as we get older we need less
calories to achieve what we do on a day to day basis, and in any event you
can always tailor your suit to suit your cloth calorie wise, at any age.

The best help is your own will power and determination, and the long term goals
of more energy, better appearance, less strain on the joints and back and heart,
more self confidence and greater fitness, and the great boost to pride of feeling
more vibrant and more attractive. It is an upward spiral, instead of an out
of control downward spiral which saps your self confidence and esteem.
It is not a wish to look like waif thin role models bearing no semblance to
reality, but more a sensible healthy lifestyle gateway to energy and
fitness and happiness. These go hand in hand, as the fitter and
less fat you get, the higher the serotonin levels and the greater
the feeling of happiness.

You have it in your own power to do this for yourself, it is not unachievable,
or supreme effort, or an endless struggle, as adverts would have you believe.
It is an eminently achievable long term goal to be achieved once by a
conscious change of lifestyle, a gradual recuperation after the operation,
a new life in a new way with a new happiness achieved by your own
common sense and willpower ONCE. All the guilt and hardship and
super methods to help you slim are to produce one result, the spending
of money on others to do something for you, preferably EVERY YEAR
with a new method and a new fad and more money down the drain.

You can do this yourself. You do not need anyone telling you how to diet,
it is all there for every one of us to read, it is just taking control of your
own destiny which seems difficult, and is made to seem doubly difficult by those with
vested interests in selling you slimming plans.

I make no money whatsoever in publishing this article free in ezines
or letting you read it on the internet here. It is to help people take
Control of their own destiny and future, and hopefully we will all benefit
in the long run and have more time and energy to enjoy life.

Best of luck in your quest.

Malcolm Pugh March 2004.

http://www.stiffsteiffs.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk the new site everyone is talking about.
http://www.stiffsteiffs.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/mcqueen.htm the new escaping bear.
http://www.stiffsteiffs.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/elliot.htm the new compensation culture

About the Author

originally a Civil Engineer. moved to systems programming. now very idle.

 Malcolm James Pugh

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