Time for Exercise

Lots of people would rather diet than exercise. The trouble with this is that if you aren’t exercising, you aren’t burning off the old fat as fast, and you certainly aren’t building muscles.

But sometimes this can also mean that you don’t want to increase the exercise you already do. Maybe you have a basic routine, but you don’t want to do more. Yet you still want to lose weight.

It can happen.

It’s just not going to be easy.

I can tell from personal experience that cutting calories doesn’t always do as much as you might hope. It’s definitely a slow process. Most people in my family, myself included, have cut out soda except for special occasions, yet no one has noticed any weight loss from it over two years. It can be very frustrating.

Most people these day say to cut the white carbs. That means no white rice, white bread, potatoes, breading on your food, cereal, and most pasta. Some feel you can have whole grain versions when available of these kinds of foods, since they do at least have more nutritional value. But if you pay attention to the glycemic index, they aren’t so good, especially anything that includes any sort of sugar early on the ingredients label.
Cutting out as much soda, juice, coffee and other drinks that have significant calories also helps. Let your calories come from food when possible.

You’ll also need to keep yourself to the healthiest possible foods. Lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and legumes, lean meats. Use herbs instead of salt or oil for flavoring.

Every day, make sure you’re getting enough calories to keep your energy up even as you keep to the healthier calories. If you’re eating nothing but low calorie vegetables, you run the risk of having too little energy, and you won’t want to stick to it.

Then there’s the fun day. Eat what you want day. Gorge day. Call it what you want, you eat what you want one day a week. This helps to keep your metabolism up, from what I’ve read.

Good meats include boneless, skinless chicken breasts, turkey and tuna (and other fish). Eggs are also a good choice.

If you want to get serious about weight loss, there are a few great titles out there to help:

The Ultimate Weight Solution, The 7 Keys to Weight Loss Freedom by Dr. Phil
The New Glucose Revolution

Keep in mind that not every diet works for every person. You often have to experiment to find the right diet for you. There is certainly something to the fact that you need to take in fewer calories than you expend in order to lose weight, and some people need only remember that. Others will do better with something a little more organized.

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