There are literally hundreds of diet plans, programs, groups, pills and organizations that all promise significant weight loss. They use celebrities or spokespeople to advertise their products, all in the hope of luring desperate and unsuspecting people to whatever it is that they have to offer. The reality is that permanent and long lasting weight loss will not come from a pill or a fancy diet or diet program, or from some special food that you get delivered to your house however often. Permanent and lasting weight loss and maintenance comes from changing the way you live and learning to develop new habits and patterns of thinking.
Permanent weight loss that leads to the improvement or eradication of health problems is something that must involve an overall lifestyle change. Rather than thinking of a "diet" as a way to lose weight, a wiser approach would be one in which the lifestyle change is seen as a way to live a healthier life. Here is a look at some of the things that will need to change in order to lose weight and keep it off.
*The importance of what you eat -
In the past, people believed that diets could be successful by nothing more than counting calories. We now realize that the types of food one eats are also important. Complex carbohydrates are full of vitamins and minerals, but they are also excellent sources of fiber. Complex carbohydrates consist of most vegetables, fruits, grains and legumes. Fiber gives the body the feeling of fullness that can be helpful in preventing overeating.
Getting adequate protein is also essential. Without adequate protein, our brains don't function properly and our bodies lack energy. We are unable to do the things we need to do to stay healthy and fit. Lean meats, skinless poultry and fish are ideal sources of protein, as are beans, cheese (in moderation,) eggs (egg whites are the real protein source in eggs,) and tofu and other soy based products.
*What you drink -
It's easy to grab a coffee or a soda to quench your thirst. A single can of regular soda has 150 calories and 10 tablespoons of sugar in it. What people don't realize is that the surge of energy you get from that soda will wear off quickly, leaving you hungry and cranky. If you're at work, you may head for the vending machine where the choices are most likely junk foods. If you're at home, there's no telling what you'll eat.
Plain coffee has no calories, and is fine in moderation. Soda has no nutritional value and amounts to nothing more than wasted
calories. Sugar free sodas are a bit better in the calorie department, but studies have found that people who drink large amounts of diet sodas tend to be heavier because the soda encourages them to eat more. Juice drinks are full of sugar and very little real ingredients so they amount to empty calories as well.
Tea is said to be a good source of antioxidants. If you can drink tea without adding sugar or sweetener, it can be a good choice when you want a change from plain old water. Sports drinks and flavored waters aren't calorie free and the diet ones are made with the very artificial sweeteners that are used in diet sodas. Unsweetened flavored waters can be a good choice if it encourages you to drink more water because water will fill you up and help encourage you to eat less.
*Exercise -
Exercise is an essential part of the lifestyle changes that are needed for weight loss. Regular exercise helps to stabilize the metabolism, is known to be helpful for preventing over eating, and the most obvious benefit of burning calories. It isn't possible to lose weight without reducing the amount of calories you consume or being sufficiently active that you can burn off calories that aren't needed for essential bodily functions. It is also known that exercise can improve the quality of sleep, and when people sleep well, they are more inclined to be physically active.
*Adequate sleep -
Researchers are determining that people who don't get adequate rest tend to have more health problems, be more overweight, less likely to heat a healthy diet or get proper exercise. It is thought that one of the reasons that this might be true is because people who are exhausted don't have the energy to exercise, so they lead a more sedentary lifestyle, and lack of activity is very likely to cause or contribute to weight gain.
The lifestyle changes that are necessary for weight loss may seem difficult to incorporate into daily life at first. As you get more used to paying attention to what it is that you eat, how much you eat, when you eat and what you drink, you'll develop habits that will make it possible for you to continue to eat in a healthy matter without so much thought. Simple things like doing the bulk of your grocery shopping in the outer or peripheral aisles as opposed to the center isles, not shopping when you're hungry, tired or bogged down with kids will help you make more sensible food purchases.
When you do your grocery shopping, make sure that you've planned meals ahead and made a list to include all of the ingredients you'll need to prepare those meals. Make an effort to confine your grocery shopping to one trip a week. Those additional trips inevitably result in additional purchases, and they usually aren't healthy or low calorie foods.
Changing a lifestyle of bad habits won't happen overnight, and it will require patience and perseverance. You must be committed to making the changes and to sticking with the program you've embarked on, but that commitment will make the process easier and as you see results, you'll be more inspired to continue doing what you've been doing to achieve those results.