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a. Find out your calorie or unit allowance per day for your hieght age and frame, Your GP will assist in this, or Weight watchers type meetings can be joined locally or over
internet. This is important to allow yourself treats now and then, which are necessary in any regime. This is a bit like knowing how much you have to spend for a week and not going over weekwise, probably a bad example in era of credit cards and loans.
b. Do a simple exercise which takes little time morning noon and night. For me twenty sit ups is fine, and helps to hold in my stomach, but you could walk up and down stairs, or do simple step ups.
c. Eat a decent breakfast, preferably high protein, minimal fat and minimal carbohydrate, grilled poached or boiled as opposed to fried. I go for eggs, bacon and sausage with high meat content.
d. Do not eat anything else for thirty minutes, if desperate drink water.
e. Remember, longer day goes on less your metabolism burns food. Basically eating late is bad news eating early is good, besides which you need breakfast to get through day, as in break fast. f. I find lunchtime I only want something light, but try eating high protein where I can. Often I eat pilchards, sardines or salmon, not only for high protein but for oils good for joints, which are creaking more.
g. I tend to carry a small bottle of water with me at all times in car, or out walking, as it fills a gap other things might fill.
h. Evening meals are a dangerous time for me, as I tend to convince myself I did more exercise than I actually did, and deserve a treat. Now I try also to keep to high protein, as in lean meat, vegetables and fruit. I have tended to cut down on potatoes and bread in favour of high protein, which seems odd at first But soon becomes more enjoyable and more varied. I think we tend to eat what we have always been used to eating, almost out of habit. i. Your sweet tooth should be allowed within confines of your calorific and units plan, as it is no use supressing what you like in a lifelong lifestyle plan, it will always surface in end, probably explode. Better to appease your demons than shut a lid on them. If you cannot do this in moderation then you will just stay fat, and there is no point in trying to change. There is after all an element of will power involved here. You only cheat yourself.
I found that cutting out cakes, sweets, sugar, biscuits for a while at very start helped me to feel in control from word go, and more easily assess what I could eat without their distraction. I eat them sparingly now and then now, but to start with it was useful.
I only ever now eat up until I feel full, I eat what I need, not what I would like.
Generally speaking we know what we should be eating and what we should be doing, but doing it is quite another matter, not helped by food chain stores and diet gurus making it seem tantamount to impossible, or at very least difficult. This is simply just not so, if you use common sense it is achievable.
following these simple guidelines will at least give you some foundations on which to base your own regime to suit your own unique situation. There are at least some concrete facts here on how to go about it in a sensible way for yourself.
Obviously age comes into equation, as Im in my fifties now it is harder to Lose weight as my metabolism is a little slower, but too often this is used as an excuse as correspondingly it is often true that as we get older we need less calories to achieve what we do on a day to day basis, and in any event you can always tailor your suit to suit your cloth calorie wise, at any age.
The best help is your own will power and determination, and long term goals of more energy, better appearance, less strain on joints and back and heart, more self confidence and greater fitness, and great boost to pride of feeling more vibrant and more attractive. It is an upward spiral, instead of an out of control downward spiral which saps your self confidence and esteem. It is not a wish to look like waif thin role models bearing no semblance to reality, but more a sensible healthy lifestyle gateway to energy and fitness and happiness. These go hand in hand, as fitter and less fat you get, higher serotonin levels and greater feeling of happiness.
You have it in your own power to do this for yourself, it is not unachievable, or supreme effort, or an endless struggle, as adverts would have you believe. It is an eminently achievable long term goal to be achieved once by a conscious change of lifestyle, a gradual recuperation after operation, a new life in a new way with a new happiness achieved by your own common sense and willpower ONCE. All guilt and hardship and super methods to help you slim are to produce one result, spending of money on others to do something for you, preferably EVERY YEAR with a new method and a new fad and more money down drain. You can do this yourself. You do not need anyone telling you how to diet, it is all there for every one of us to read, it is just taking control of your own destiny which seems difficult, and is made to seem doubly difficult by those with vested interests in selling you slimming plans.
I make no money whatsoever in publishing this article free in ezines or letting you read it on internet here. It is to help people take Control of their own destiny and future, and hopefully we will all benefit in long run and have more time and energy to enjoy life.
Best of luck in your quest.
Malcolm Pugh March 2004.
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originally a Civil Engineer. moved to systems programming. now very idle.
