If it's just a bit of moral support
you're after, there are also links
to the most popular weight loss forums.
Getting Started on your Weight loss Journey
We all know that in order to lose weight,
we need to eat less and exercise more, but
while this sounds easy it can be very difficult.
If it's difficult for you, you are not alone.
The good news is that there is plenty of
information, help and support
for you if you are trying to lead a healthier lifestyle and achieve
a weight loss goal.
The most common problems a lot of people
face when deciding to lose weight are where
and how to start, how to get more information and where to get
help and support they need to not only achieve
weight loss and reach their target weight,
but also stay there and not put all the
weight back on at a later date.
On the question about where to start, the
answer needn't be a difficult one.
If you don't currently exercise regularly, start by walking a
small distance every other day and after
a few weeks start walking a small distance
everyday.
The distance you walk initially needn't
be far at all. The important thing here
is getting into a routine and establishing
a new habit, not what you do and how much
of it you do each day.
If you prefer bike riding or swimming or
doing yoga, pilates, weight training, kickboxing,
spin classes, aerobics, bodypump, or whatever,
it doesn't matter as long as you get into
the habit of doing something everyday.
Worried about doing it alone? Don't be, there are plenty of other
people in the same boat and it shouldn't
be difficult for you to find a friend or
someone you know who would like to start
exercising too.
Having someone to exercise with regularly
will help keep you motivated and stick with
it. One number one weight loss tip is to
find a friend to exercise with.
Build up your exercise intensity slowly
After a little while, what at first was
difficult will become gradually easier
and eventually easy to do.
When this happens, you can start to exercise
longer and harder to burn off even more
extra calories, but you must get your body
and mind conditioned to regular (daily)
exercise first.
The biggest mistake people make when starting to exercise is
that they exercise too hard to begin with.
If you work too hard too soon, you stand the risk of injury and
quitting prematurely because it's all too
hard.
Changing your diet
As well as exercising each day, it is important
that you start to eat less calories if you
are to successfully lose weight and keep
it off.
In order to eat less calories, there are
two things you can do; eat smaller portions
of the foods you do now, or eat other foods
that contain less calories than those you're
eating now.
Generally a combination of these strategies
works best because A) When we completely
change the foods we eat we end up coming
back to our favourite foods (this is the
main reason diets don't usually work) and
B) When we substitute some of the foods
we're eating for lower calories foods we
retain a balance that we can live with for
longer while still enjoying the foods we
like and we will bring about weight loss
more quickly, which is usually what everybody
wants.
Avoiding Excuses
One of the greatest barriers to weight loss success for many
people is having excuses for not exercising
or changing our diet.
Common excuses for not exercising include;
I'm too busy to exercise (I don't have any
time), I can't afford to exercise (it's
to expensive to hire a personal trainer or
join the gym, or do Pilates or Yoga, or
buy a treadmill, exercise bike or bicycle,
etc, etc, etc), and I don't know how or what to do.
But as they say, "where there's a will, there's a way" and nothing
could be truer than when it comes to exercising
and dieting.
If you think you are too busy to exercise
regularly, for example, combine exercise
with other things you do, like catching
up with family and friends.
If you can't afford to buy a treadmill,
hire a personal trainer, join the local
gym, do Pilates or Yoga classes, visit a
dietitian, or whatever, fine. Start walking
around the block. This doesn't cost a cent.
If you don't know what to do, read books,
magazines or visit websites with the information
that you need or talk to people who do know.
Join a group of like-minded people
This is another one of our top tips for successfully losing weight.
A group of like-minded people might be on
an internet weight loss forum, or they might
be a walking club, or cycling club, or a
local Weight Watchers meeting group.
You might even consider forming your own
little support network and invite others
who share the same weight loss goals that
you do.
Get some professional help
At some point, it pays to get professional help, even if it is
only for a short time.
For example, if you want to learn new ways
to spice up your exercise routine, or you
want some extra motivation, or you want
to exercise with new people, it makes sense
to hire a personal trainer or take out a
3 month gym membership, or buy yourself
a pack of ten Yoga or Pilates Class vouchers,
or join your local swimming pool and take
some swimming lessons, or if you want to
change your diet, visit a dietitian and
get them to help you plan out a new menu
plan.
The thing to remember here is that you don't
need to pay for these professional services
indefinately, just for a short period until
you learn what to do for yourself.
Other ways to change your diet might include
joining Weight Watchers, doing Jenny Craig,
visiting SureSlim
or Ultra Lite, or getting your meals prepared and delivered by
Lite'N Easy.
Even in these cases, it doesn't need to
be forever, it might just be to get yourself
out of a weight loss plateau.
Just trying meal replacement shakes, like
Celebrity Slim for example, for a little
while to get you started might also be an
option.
The most important thing about weight loss
is, that we are all different and what works
for you might not work for me and vice versa.
We need to find what works for us. And what works for us today,
may not work for us again in 12 months time.
We just need to keep trying and must always
have some momentum towards achieving our
weight loss goals.
Of course, for some of us the right way
to lose weight may be extreme and may involve
things like weight loss surgery, the most
popular form of which at the moment is lap-band
surgery.
Whatever way is right for you, never give
up looking for it and striving towards your
ideal weight.
To assist you in getting the help you need, you'll find links
below and to the left for everything from
weight loss articles to healthy recipes,
weight loss forums to weight loss programs
and from dietitians to personal trainers,
yoga classes and Pilates classes and more.
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