Beating The Battle Of The Bulge

There is huge media focus on obesity and excess weight with certain tabloid "newspapers" crowing with glee if a celebrity is seen with an ounce of fat on them. This leads to more and more people become obsessed with their weight and how they look.

It is estimated that there are over 1.2 billion people across the world who struggle with their weight and diet. In the USA alone an estimated 93 million Americans are classified as clinically obese.

Losing weight can be a very daunting task. It requires discipline and perseverance in order to get the weight off and to keep it off.

The tendency is to go on a crash diet to be able to get rid of that excess weight, which is just not an effective long term strategy. To achieve permanent weight loss the answer is to change your lifestyle rather than just diet.

Firstly, you need to determine if you have a real need to lose weight. Does obesity run in your family? Are you even over weight? I know from experience as a clinical hypnotist that many people believe they are overweight and obese when they are not.

Secondly, look at your eating patterns. Do you eat healthily or not? Do you eat regularly or late at night? Do you starve yourself? Permanent weight loss is possible if you adjust your eating patterns to ones that support your weight loss goals.

You will need to have a plan too. Think of your weight loss plan as a road map from your current destination to where you want to be. Choose the food you are going to eat, what changes you need to make to your eating habits and what physical exercise you need to take. You may also want to seek some external help from a dietitian, clinical hypnotist or personal trainer.

Your plan needs to be ambitious but not overly ambitious. It has to challenge you so that you feel you are achieving something and seeing results, but not so ambitious that it seems impossible to you. Losing a pound a week is a good target to aim for initially.

You will face challenges and temptations along the way and you can't give up when you encounter them. There will be days when you choose to give in to temptation, and other days when you are strong. Just be consistent and be kind to yourself.

Reducing your intake of fatty foods is also something that will help you win the battle of the bulge. It helps not only with your weight but with your health as excess fat contributes to a number of other health problems.

I mentioned above the need for physical exercise. This is the key component of weight loss that the vast majority of people skip. It is vital if you want to achieve permanent weight loss. You don't need to kill yourself in a gym, just integrate exercise into your everyday life. Simple ways to do this are go for a brisk walk at lunch time, take the stairs instead of the elevator and so on. Experiment with different forms of exercise and find the one that works best for you.

With the hundreds of diets on the market, you can find yourself caught like a rabbit in the headlights, unsure of which diet is right for you. Any diet will work so long as it involves reducing your calorie intake and increasing your level of exercise.

women weight loss secrets