Your Fat Loss Resolution

With the New Year just a couple of weeks ago it is very likely that many of you will already have given up on your New Years Resolutions. Perhaps you resolution was to lose weight, but the recent cold weather just wasn’t conducive to going on a diet and walking to work just wasn’t an option!

New Year's Resolutions can be viewed in the same light as goal setting, where the achievement or otherwise is generally measured in success or failure. Personally I don’t consider this to be very helpful and would therefore be more inclined to avoid any resolutions or goals rather than risk the feeling of failure if I don’t manage to stick to them.

However, recently I read an article on goal setting that had more of an appeal for me, the reason being it made it seems more achievable.

This is the message I took from that article:-

“YOU MUST DO SOMETHING EVERY SINGLE DAY TOWARDS ACCOMPLISHING YOUR GOAL.”

It doesn’t matter how big or how small this effort has to be. It just has to be SOMETHING. So every day that passes in your life you will incrementally be closer to getting everything you want. It’s a simple, yet powerful concept.

What I particularly like about this concept is that you can take one day at a time. I am a firm believer in “living in the present moment” and this concept allows me to do just that.

If, for example, your goal is to lose weight, then each day you can do something towards that weight loss goal. It maybe something as simple as walking instead of taking the car or maybe increasing the amount of fruit and vegetables in your diet.

For some people who need to lose weight, the prospect of having to lose “2 stone before Easter” can be a real stumbling block. When we are faced with such a difficult time limited goal it often seems so overwhelming that it’s much easier to just put off starting it until another day. And of course, only too often, that day never comes.

So it is worth remembering that if you want to improve your health or lose weight you must be taking an action every single day that contributes towards your ultimate goal. But the important thing to remember is that you goal for that day is just to do one or two things towards your ultimate goal. So each day you manage to achieve that smaller goal you will experience success. If, for what ever reason, you don’t manage to achieve that smaller goal, don’t despair, you can try again tomorrow

Try not to let a single day go by when you aren’t making at least SOME incremental progress towards your fat loss goal or resolution and you will discover over time that it will undoubtedly change your life for the better.

Achieve your goal now the easy way, taking one step at a time using my tips for losing weight .

Lose Weight by Eating Right for Your Body Type

It is now more widely accepted that there are certainly body types that find losing body fat more difficult than other body types. So what exactly are these body types and which type finds losing body fat so difficlut and why?

Back in the 1940's, an American psychologist called Dr. William H Sheldon, became interested in the study of human body types. He devoted his life to observing how body types were related to temperaments. As a result of his research, Sheldon developed a system to classify the body types. He called it SOMATOTYPING.

Sheldon identified three distinct body types:

1. Mesomorphs - are the genetically gifted types who are lean, muscular and naturally athletic.
2. Endomorphs - are the fat retainers. They have a round body shape and large joints (they are "big boned") and they often have great difficulty losing body fat.
3. Ectomorphs - these types are the lean, skinny types. They are usually very thin and bony, with fast metabolisms and extremely low body fat.

The endomorph body type is the slimmer's nightmare. However it is not impossible for endomorphs to lose weight if they are prepared to follow the guidelines.

Luckily there are many techniques an endomorph can use to increase their ability lose weight, including adjustments to their training program. Training is similar to nutrition, if you train the wrong way for your body type, you will not get the results you were hoping for.

Endomorphs will only fall short of their weight loss goals if they fail to adjust their program according to their genetics. They can lose weight provided they stick to the rules of their diet plan and adhere to the correct exercise regime

Endomorphs tend to be carbohydrate intolerant and so they need to remove processed and refined carbs from their diet. This is particularly true of white sugar and white flour products, as they rapidly converts them into body fat. The endomorph would be advised to follow a diet which provided between no more than 30-40% carbohydrates and 20-30 % fats and 40% protein.

Once they have started on this dietary regime it is important to fine tune the ratios to ensure that they are achieving their desired goals and losing body fat.

Fat Loss is All in The Mind

There is nothing more annoying than somebody telling you your problems are all in the mind. It can make you feel like some kind of freak who is imagining their problems. However when it comes to weight loss there is probably more truth in this statement than you might realise.

One of the main problems with being overweight is that you are blatantly aware that you are overweight. Your clothes don't fit, you don't look your best and you start to think and act like a fat person. Consequently you eat like a fat person and you exercise like a fat person.

Please understand that doesn't mean that it is all in your imagination, but it does mean that your mind is ruling your body. Have you ever heard of the Law of Attraction? The Law of Attraction says that you attract to yourself what you think about. So if you are constantly thinking about being fat and being unable to lose weight then that is exactly what you get.

There is also a saying "if you do what you've always done you'll get what you've always got". So if you want to Law of Attraction to work for you you have to change the way you think about yourself. Think yourself thin. It may sound far fetched, but if you think thin you will be more likely to eat and exercise like a thin person and in doing so you will attract the weight loss you so desire

So when I say Fat loss is all in the mind, perhaps you can now see how the power of thought can work against you. It is up to you to change the way you think about yourself and hopefully this fat loss secret will give you the kick start you need.

The Obesity Epidemic

It's true. We are in the midst of an obesity epidemic, which, despite the information and help available, is growing at an alarming rate. The mountain of information available on weight loss and healthy eating doesn't seem to be having any impact on this escalating trend

Dr Jaap Seidell of the International Obesity Task force, has confirmed that the incidence of obesity is on the rise throughout the world making it one of the fastest developing public health concerns. The World Health organization has described it as a "world wide" epidemic. It's estimated that around 250 million people worldwide are obese. This is particularly prevalent in the US where over one third of the adult population are obese and one in seven children and adolescents are obese.

Many people have become yo yo dieters. They lose weight only to put it back on again time after time, they can even put more weight on than before. Their weight is gradually creeping up higher and higher and they don't know what to do about it.

Sadly weight loss yoyo-ers are on the increase. Basically your body has become confused. Originally your body had a set point, a weight that was the norm for you. With repeated weight loss followed by weight gain your body is constantly changing that set point until it is at a higher rate than you would like it to be. It can then be very difficult to attain the weight loss you so desire. Your body plateaus and any further weight loss seems like an impossibility. This is often the time when the dieter becomes frustrated and gives up

If you want to re regulate your set point it is important to realize that you are going to have to be far more persistent in your approach to weight loss. Sustaining your weight loss, can become increasingly difficult mainly because your adrenal glands have become exhausted. Very often when you have been on a weight loss diet month after month, perhaps not following the most sensible diet, maybe cutting calories or missing meals your body is constantly in a fight or flight state. This will inevitably leave you tired. People will often turn to stimulants such as tea, coffee, and diet drinks as a pick me up to compensate for their energy deficient diet. Unfortunately this just activates the sympathetic nervous system to release more stress hormones which in turn requires more stimulants and so the cycle goes on and weight loss becomes less and less likely. It becomes a self defeating prophecy and more often than not the dieter is completely unaware of the effect their eating/drinking habits are having on their weight loss regime

Anyone who has been on a poorly regulated weight loss diet will inevitably have lost some muscle as well as fat. As muscle burns energy this can be detrimental to your weight loss regime. Decreased muscle mass means a lower metabolic rate. This in turn means less fat burning will take place. As you can see it can so easily turn into a vicious circle and the yo yo dieter strikes again!

For more information on healthy weight loss - you can head over to my Squidoo Lenses