We all know the familiar story; you go through your teenage years and
are quite active, maybe you play a little sport on weekends. Because of
your high activity level and age your metabolism is also high so your
weight is not a problem. Unfortunately this makes you complacent and
you develop a taste for fatty junk food. You develop a habit of
unhealthy eating because your metabolism helps you burn off most of the
calories from the junk food and so the negative effects remain
unnoticed.
As you move into adulthood your priorities change and you give up
sports and focus more on work and social activities such as parties and
drinking. You notice that you have some extra body fat but by now
you've programmed your lifestyle habits into your subconscious and
weight loss is still not a major concern. As you get to your 30's or
40's however you have a considerable amount of body fat and you start
to see the health problems associated with your unhealthy lifestyle.
What you have unwittingly done in your life to date is set the snowball
effect in motion, accumulating all the little unhealthy lifestyle
habits along the way until the snowball has not only gained speed but
has also become bigger year after year, and so have you. Like a large
snowball rolling down a mountain, your health and body fat appear to be
out of control and unstoppable.
The Good News
The good news is that you can use the snowball effect in a way to
achieve health and weight loss by making incremental improvements to
your lifestyle across multiple areas. This will cause your new weight
loss snowball to grow and gather speed and lead you back to health. The
most important thing to realize is that while you may not see immediate
results from the slight changes to your lifestyle, the combination of
incremental improvements across multiple lifestyle areas over time will
achieve the weight loss you're looking for.
Here is a list of things you can do to start your new weight loss snowball rolling:
1. Get Active - To burn off some of the body fat and strengthen your
heart you need to do some form of exercise. A good starting point is
walking as it is a low impact, low risk activity. Start out with a
short walk at first and aim to walk farther and for longer each time.
Once you have improved your fitness a little incorporate some star
jumps, perhaps stop half way through your walk and do some star jumps
and then complete your walk.
2. Eat Healthier - Gradually replace high fat and high sugar foods with
healthier alternatives. First start with perhaps one meal a day and
progress from there. After a while you will be more accustomed to
healthy food and will make better food choices.
3. Eat Smaller Meals - It is better to have more frequent small meals
than three large meals, so try cutting down your portion sizes and have
a piece of fruit between meals.
4. Cut out Sugar Drinks - Eliminate soda drinks from your diet as they
wreak havoc with your blood sugar, add body fat, and interfere with
your hormonal system.
5. Reduce Alcohol - Alcohol has the same effects as soda drinks on your
body so try to reduce your consumption as much as possible.
6. Drink lots of Water - Water helps eliminate all the body's
byproducts and is needed to flush the body of the waste associated with
weight loss. It also helps give you that full feeling so sip a glass of
water when eating.
7. Get Plenty of Sleep - It has been noted that a large proportion of
the people who get inadequate sleep are overweight. This can be
attributed in part to the effect that sleep deprivation has on the
body's hormonal system among other things.
8. Eat Slower - Most westerners eat way too fast, which leads to poor
digestion and overeating. Eat slower and savor your food and you will
feel fuller on less food.
There is no quick fix when it comes to weight loss, but if you make
gradual improvements across a number of areas, the combined effect will
put the brakes on the obesity snowball and have your weight loss
snowball rolling before you know it.
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