Spring is coming (believe it or not!). And it’s clearance time! Time to rid your body of a multitude of winter sins. But let’s pause a minute… We live in a “feel good” society. One of the most fundamental ways of feeling good is eating. We eat during mealtimes, after school, work, before bed, and during TV. We feel good by eating, and when we’re not feeling good, we think about eating!

Back to the story…suddenly it’s time to get in shape, which means give up feeling good, which is threatening. So you begin that little voice, “Ooh, is this going to be a struggle. I love food, hate exercise and besides…nothing works!” So you allow yourself to ignore the situation for awhile. But now it’s time to end the wait to control weight. A few suggestions might help. Here’s the SKINNY on burning fat:
You are HOW you eat. In today’s, “quick-fix” society, people want answers more than methodology. Control is nice, but if it involves work, they will gladly sell it for the magic “pill” that controls life for them; that produces results. And weight control is no exception. Many people believe that weight loss is simply a function of what they eat. The “work” happens inside, out of their control and often, their awareness. But HOW you eat– the time of day, the process of food selection, preparation and storage, the number of places in which eating occurs, portion size and what else happens while you are eating– plays a significant role in weight control. Generally, weight control is maximized with habits that include: eating in only one place at home and doing nothing else at that time; shopping only after eating, preparing one portion of food at a time, returning the rest to storage, minimizing snacks after 9 p.m., preceding a meal or snack with a glass of water and scraping leftovers into the garbage.

1. Low-Calorie diets give you a slim chance of losing fat. Although logically, calorie reduction and weight loss seem like a marriage made in heaven, there’s trouble in paradise. After an extended period of time on a low-calorie diet, your metabolism reacts to this would-be famine by slowing down in order to minimize weight loss. This will increase your hunger and, since maintaining a very low-calorie diet for an extended period is unlikely, you will probably resume eating higher calorie foods. And your body, however, still in famine-mode, will begin storing fat again. The result is that too often, dieting with a low-calorie regime can lead to an increase in body fat and reduction in lean body mass after returning to higher calorie foods. A possible solution to this dilemma incorporates HOW you eat with WHAT you eat. Rather than severely reducing your caloric intake, redistribute those calories throughout the day by changing a few eating habits. Eat early, as the body is more efficient at storing fat in the evening. Eat smaller portions and more frequently. Eating less, more often stabilizes insulin at lower levels in the bloodstream, reducing the likelihood of fat storage. Another strategy that has been successful in discouraging fat storage is the maintenance of a 40-30-30% diet of carbohydrates, proteins and fats, respectively.
2. What you say is what you get. Children receive innumerable messages about food from parents, friends and the media. The messages associate various foods with reducing stress, performing well and “feeling good.” Unfortunately, many of these food messages favor the consumption of foods—particularly carbohydrates—that lead to weight problems. In addition, we bolster these food messages with internal messages that maintain weight problems: “Diets never work on me”, “Everything I eat goes right to my ___(waist, legs, buttocks)”, “One piece of candy now won’t make that much difference. Besides, I can always exercise…tomorrow.” What you say is what you get. If you want to get something else, say something different!
3. Try one more helping. There are dietary supplements that, combined with slow, steady aerobic exercise and some of the aforementioned considerations, have frequently been successful at facilitating fat-burning, body shaping and toning, in relatively little time. Further information, about these products, is available upon request. Digest these points, weigh your options, and go for it!