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Natural Weight Loss

For the first time in my life I have lost weight. I had been trying to lose weight for years and had tried every diet under the sun. I tried Atkins, which was great till I ate a bowl of cereal. I tried so many different diets that I sort of went through a sort of numb period. I sort of gave up and my weight hit a whopping 297 pounds and that is when something had to give. I grew tired of hiding behind all of my clothes and despite the fact my husband said I looked fine, I did not feel fine. When I almost hit 300 pounds I decided to throw away all of the weight loss nonsense and knew I had to lose weight naturally.

Most websites will tell you there is some magic pill or some simple 12 minute exercise that you could do just 3 times a week…but we know better and we know that none of that is true. I received my inspiration for natural weight loss by watching The Biggest Loser. It was on that show that I realized that it was all about calories in, and calories out. I even received that thing they wear on their arm in The Biggest Loser, which is called The BodyBugg. I have written over 50 articles about The BodyBugg (Click here to see the articles) and it is the greatest thing ever invented for weight loss. I am not going to write about why, because i am tired of writing about that thing the players wear on The Biggest Loser. What I do want to discuss is how my weight loss is all attributed to natural weight loss techniques. I have listed the three not so easy steps below.

Get enough sleep- Most people do not realize how important getting a good night sleep is to a person trying to lose weight. Without a decent night of sleep your body just does not perform as well as it should because it just isn’t. When you are tired you have less “ooommmmfffff” to get out and exercise. Let desire to spend the time preparing healthy foods and when you are tired you just have less will power to resist all of the goodies that end up in front of your mouth. If sleeping isn’t a natural way to lose weight…..what is?
Exercise- When I first started to lose weight going to the health club or taking a long walk was a horrible thing to do. I hated going, I hated being there and I could not wait until it was time to leave. Exercise and me was a four letter word. Somewhere along the way I stopped exercising to lose eight and just started to do it because I realized that it was something that was just overall healthy for me. I no longer go to the health club to lose weight, I go to just help myself be healthy. My stress is lower, my cholesterol levels plummeted and I am no longer in line to ever have Type – II diabetes. Exercise is as natural as a person can get when looking for natural weight loss.
Eat better- Notice I said eat better, I did not say eat like a rabbit. When I first started my weigh loss journey in the world of dieting, I thought it was all about salad and other forms of rabbit food. I tried to eat what I thought to be healthy but after just a few weeks I grew bored and gave up. After each and every weight loss attempt I went right back to the behaviour that got me fat in the first place. I have learned that the best way to lose weight naturally is well…..to eat. I have since learned that to lose weight naturally I need to just make beater choices. I committed myself to understanding why smaller meals every 4 hours was better. I learned about the power of protein in defeating hunger. I learned how bad even diet soda is for a person. I have learned that I never drink my calories. This subject is too broad so lets just say I educated myself and now I am in a lifetime course because the true weight loss never really ends, it becomes a way of life.

I have learned that losing weight is not rocket science and the best way to lose weight is the natural way. I try not to lose no more than 1.5 to 2 pounds a week because I have learned that it is a much more natural amount to lose every week. The small numbers still add up over time and by losing it slowly, it takes longer for me to put it back on if I have a bad day. My only negative thing I have to say about my natural method of weight loss is that I never did anything to stop all of the skin from sagging. I did not do anything about all of the nasty cellulite and now although I am thinner, I do not like what I see. Although the view is not as bad as being obese. I just wish I prepared myself better for the physical aspect of losing weight. But then I guess that is a matter for another article and it is tired and I think I am going to call it a night.

In closing, weight loss is not impossible and it can happen. Once you get your mind on track you will look back and wonder why you made such a big thing about it at all. Weight loss is something you can do and if you pay attention you will be able to achieve natural weight loss also. Weight loss is not only possible, it can start right here and right now. You just have to make the first step and our mind will allow your body to do the rest. All ideas began in the imagination and if you can imagine yourself thin, you will soon learn that you can lose the weight and start your own weight loss journey.

Good Luck and God Bless!

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I Want To Lose Weight

Quite often I have heard many people tell me, and I quote…”I want to lose weight.” What I have learned is that there are many people that make the statement, but there are really only a minority of people that are willing to make the sustained effort to make weight loss a personal reality. I will further make the statement that I too spent many years in that minority group and was quietly ashamed after I fully understood what weight loss was all about. I had said for over 20 years “I want to lose weight’ and was amazed at what happened after I admitted to myself… that I really did not want weight loss badly enough.

I tried to lose weight from that moment, way back in 1984, when my uniform for work (USMC) started to get a bit snug around the waist. I tried to watch what I was eating and I continued to exercise, but over the years, my weight loss attempts were less than exemplary. The process of gaining weight was a slow and steady “event” that only was self-realized after I looked in the mirror (of emotional personal reflection) and asked myself what the hell had happened to me? I used to be fit and trim and then all of a sudden (25 years later) I was this 297 pounds of flab leaving the doctor’s office. I held in my hand a litany of illnesses and prescriptions that somehow forced me to realize that I was not going to be The Biggest Loser. I was destined to be a big, fat and really sick person until I died a slow and meaningless death, unless I made some type of change. I walked out of that office that day and was awoken to the fact that I not only wanted to lose weight, but needed to lose weight.

Did my NEED make the want more important?

I was in work yesterday (big box retail) and was behind the customer service desk when this really overweight lady rolled up on one of those electric powered carts, and asked me a question. For a few moments I saw her lips moving and did not hear one word she was saying because the entire time she was there, I was preoccupied in the thought that if she would only get up and move…she would live longer. Sadly to say, for the preservation of my job, I had to be politicaly correct and could not tell her that her butt was hanging over the seat cushions so badly that the last thing she needed to be doing was driving around the store. I wanted to embrace her and tell her to get up and move because the very fact she was not moving was what was killing her! In that brief moment I could visualize her telling her friends “I want to lose weight” and yet I knew that she had said it for so long… that it had become a meaningless and hollow statement.

Why do I write this? Why am I so rude? Shouldn’t I be more understanding? Shouldn’t I be more compassionate to her “needs?” Shouldn’t I be more delicate in this article?

NO!

I behaved during my encounter with the lady in the cart. I pointed her in the right direction and she tootled her way down the main aisle. I had to be politically correct for her, since I need my job. That was then, and this is now, and this blog is where you came because you too had uttered the mental and verbal statement that “I want to lose weight.” If you feel as strongly as I did about my obesity and have endured that mind blinding question as long as I did, then it is time you wake up to the fact that it is time to put an end to lip service and make weight loss a reality. What you do not realize is that losing weight does not have to be a life-time or unending endeavor.

I “tried” to lose weight for so long that I wrongly assumed that weight loss was this process that was going to be a life-time event. I thought I would forever be on a lifetime of dieting and that all of the food fun was going to be sucked out of my life. Looking back on it all, that was the subconscious thought that was holding me back and it was just plain wrong. What I did not realize was that if I really wanted to lose weight, the only thing I had to do was focus that desire and push it to the top of my thoughts, for the duration of the event called dieting. I had to make that statement a reality and that reality of dieting really did not have to last for the rest of my life.

I wanted to lose weight for well over 25 years and failed. Once I buckled down in my desire, I was able to make the weight loss a reality in less than 6 months! What I failed to realize during those 25 years was that I did not have to give up pizza and gyros and beer and pretzels and soda and tacos and…… forever. I only had to allow the desire to lose weight be the paramount desire for 5.5 months and once the weight was gone, it all became about maintenance. Looking back on myself I now understand that losing my weight was more about simply re-booting my body than having to be on a diet.

If you want to lose weight, that is great. Sadly enough I must ask you how long have you wanted to lose weight? How long have you wanted to lose weight and yet gained weight? The question I am asking is how bad do you really want to lose weight? If you wanted it badly enough why can’t you just let it happen instead of trying to force it to make it happen? If you really wanted to lose weight aren’t you mentally strong enough to make it a reality? Push aside all of your excuses and dig down deep into the core of the issue, if you have been overweight for years.

I used Medifast to make weight loss a reality in my life. I lost over 115 pounds and it just happened by sticking with the program. I am nothing special. I am no great role model. I am just someone that realized one day that I had not wanted to lose weight badly enough. It was not until I understood the concept that weight loss does not have to be a “forever” event. It just had to simply be an event that I held onto… until it happened. Once it happened I went back and celebrated with the foods I love, with the understanding that I simply had to be careful. I eat whatever I like these days and although I love pizza, and eat it, I understand that if the weight starts to return… the period of time I need to “reboot” is much, much shorter.

I will NEVER go back to being overweight again.

My closing question to you is what will YOU do? You do not have to use Medifast, just because it worked for Sue and myself. Our Story does not have to be your story. My closing question is simply how badly do you want to lose weight? Will you really do something about it, or will you simply ride down the aisle on your elecrtic cart, into a future of obesity related illnesses that has the statistical probability of killing you long before you need to die?

The clock is ticking and it will never stop ticking, but how many more ticks does the clock have left for you… before someone else says “they should have lost weight!” as they are standing over your casket?

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Over 40 and Over Weight

The doctor told me that I was over weight and that did not really phase me much anymore because I had heard it for so long. I was about 45 years old and I had been overweight for years and yet at this meeting with my doctor he just looked at me and said that if I did not lose weight I would be a type 2 diabetic in about 6 months. When he said that I was stunned, but not because of what he had told me, but because of how casual of a conversation it had become for the doctor. I am not railing against the doctor, quite the contrary. I was dismayed and humbled by the cold stark reality of what he was telling me. He told me flat out…”you will be a diabetic” and then continued on with some other unremembered conversation.

What I took away from that meeting was that becoming a diabetic was going to be in my life soon if I continued to ignore the warnings. I decided it was time to do something. The sad part about the entire experience is that “becoming a diabetic” is becoming more and more common. The casual tone of the doctor is what bit me in the consciousness that made me go out and lose weight. I was in my mid forties and thought I was about 60 pounds over weight. (Reality it was 115 pounds) and I was really in not that good of physical shape.

You really do not know me and I sure as heck do not know you, but for this one brief instant in time let me tell you that if you are 1oo pounds, or more overweight, then you are in a serious risk of many, many diseases and health risks. So many that I will not even bother to list them on this brief rant against obesity.If you are sitting there let me ask you one more question before you go?

What is your BMI? (Click Here to reveal you BMI)

Once you have obtained your healthy BMI from the chart I am guessing that you think the BMI is way off and you never have to lose that much weight? You rationalize to yourself why you do not think that the BMI is what you think it to be. You may even mention the name of a person you know to prove the BMI is too low for you ever achieve.

My only respnse to your denial of the validity of the BMI chart to be a symptom of the problem that you are indeed overweight to the morbid degree? Since I have given up trying to convince those that believe nothing…I want you to know one thing.

I was overweight and headed to be a diabetic, if I did not lose weight.

I started Medifast and I lost 112 pounds.

The stuff works!

Period!

I am over trying to convince people because people will only do what they want to do… and Medifast and weight loss are really no different. I have started people on Medifast that were diabetic, and for the first month they lost an amazing amount of weight. One man (Stephen) even reduced his insulin does significantly on a daily basis. He was doing great and then yet I saw him in the break room eating powdered donuts and drinking a full sugar Coke! I asked him why he was still not trying and he shrugged his shoulders in an an apathetic motion that really was just an outward manifestation of his overall desire. The point I have learned is that if a person wants to lose weight and is willing to do what it takes, they will lose weight. Being over 40 years of age really only makes it a tad bit more difficult. Being overweight and over the age of 40 really should not stop a person from losing weight because it really is just an excuse to not do anything.

I was over 40 and I struggled with my weight for years. Heck…I still sort of struggle because I love to eat. The only difference is that I “rebooted” my body by losing 115 pounds and now I just manage that loss. Since I am now approaching 50 years old I am more keen than ever on the benefits of Medifast. You can check out more of our story and more of our (Sue and I) beliefs at our blog FatExcusesBeGone.com.

Whatever you decide to do I only hope you decide to do something before you are stricken by an obesity related illness. Being over 40 and overweight does not make one excuse the other!

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Body Mass Index (BMI) Chart For Adults

In America today many people have become overweight or obese for many reasons. Most Americans today no longer turn to a BMI chart to see if they are overweight, they turn to it to discover just how much overweight they have become. Many of those American refer to what is called a BMI chart

to see how overweight they are and how much weight they need to lose. The information a BMI chart provides is the very same information used to sell a person life insurance.The information that comes from a person plugging in their personal information will yield how long a person can be expected to live and what health issues statistically pop up when they are overweight. We are very blunt here at I Choose Thin so let’s cut to the nitty gritty. If you are overweight then there is statistical evidence that describes how short your life will be cut short because of how much you are overweight. The BMI chart will be able to tell you if you are normal, overweight, obese or morbidly obese. The term morbidly obese refers to the fact that your death can occur much sooner than if you were not overweight. If you are morbidly obese then it is suggested you either lose weight or get your affairs in order so the children and/or spouse will not have to deal with all the issues that crop up upon a premature, but statically expected death. Since insurance companies put their money in the information a BMI chart provides, you too should put some attention to your BMI chart information. Below is an explanation of what a BMI chart is and how it works. Below is an actual BMI chart that adheres to government standards in the United States of America.

The way a BMI chart works is really very simple. It takes two pieces of your information and combines them to yield a result. Two simple measures, body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference, provide useful estimates of overweight, obesity, and body fat distribution.

Health care providers also use BMI and waist circumference measures to assess a person’s risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, or other health problems. This fact sheet tells you how to measure your BMI and waist circumference, and what these measures mean for your health.

BMI measures your weight in relation to your height, and it is closely associated with measures of body fat. You can calculate your BMI using this formula.

For example, for someone who is 5 feet, 7 inches tall and weighs 220 pounds, the calculation would look like this:

A BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 is considered to be in the healthy range. A person with a BMI of 25 to 29.9 is considered overweight, and a person with a BMI of 30 or more is considered obese.

You can also find your weight group on the chart below. The chart applies to all adults. The higher weights in the healthy range apply to people with more muscle and bone, such as men. Even within the healthy range, weight gain could increase your risk for health problems.

Because BMI does not show the difference between fat and muscle, it does not always accurately predict when weight could lead to health problems. For example, someone with a lot of muscle (such as a body builder) may have a BMI in the overweight or obese range, but still be healthy and have little risk of developing diabetes or having a heart attack.

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Quitting Smoking and Losing Weight

I received an email from someone this morning that I never met before. By the end of the letter I was in the presence of a friend who wanted to quit smoking and was afraid she was going to gain weight. I read about her hopes and dreams of what she wanted to accomplish and it was great to hear about her newfound desire to start a healthier lifestyle.

I want everyone to know that what she is accomplishing in her three smoke free days is fabulous. She has quit for three days. The next part of the letter was where I wanted to reach out and hug her and ask her to stop being so critical about herself. She was telling me the wonderful things she has recently accomplished and I could sense the well deserved pride in her achievements. What did worry me was the fact that she gave herself little credit for what she had done. She HAD quit smoking for 3 days. She HAD started an exercise program. I felt as if she was pinning her achievements on something that was to occur in the future and she bypassed the here and now. She was not giving herself the well deserved pat on the back she needed for starting the healthy choices she had recently accomplished.

How often do we all do this?

How often do we look in the mirror and only are critical of what we see? I exercise and then think it was not hard enough. I eat healthier foods and I then am critical that maybe I ate too much. I look in the mirror and all too often I only see a reflection that is too critical of what is inside the body that is only a vessel that carries my spirit. We all need to stop and we all need to take a moment to live in the moment. We need to stop looking at the clock and waiting for 5 o’clock. We need to stop being so unloving about ourselves and the little accomplishments we make on a daily basis.

So yes Margaret, I am proud of you and I know that if you can only use your mind to harness that infinitely powerful spirit you will not only be able to quit smoking but you will be able to lose the weight and be the person you really see in the mirror. Because that critical reflection is really not you, it is only the outward manifestation of what you allow to be.

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