Perceived Failure

A lot of people go through life failing at things not because of anything that has to do with them but rather current path they are following. Take jobs for example. Some people will feel like it was their fault after they have studied years for a career only to find out for some reason it didn't work out. They may well have put everything they had into it. Sometimes a person just isn't cut out for a certain job, even though they still might be interested in it.

The same thing can be applied to and said of diets. You might carefully research a certain approach to weight loss for literally hours and it might make total sense to you. But what happens when you fail? Either one of two things has happened. Firstly, be honest with yourself and ask if you really did give it a good try. If your answer is a definite yes to this question then reason is probably number two - it just wasn't right approach to you.

Natural Laws vs. Feelings

Even though natural laws have certain cause and effect characteristics to them we must realize that we as human beings have feelings, desires, likes, dislikes, cravings and ability to reason. As an example, take a rag doused with gasoline that has a match thrown onto it. Whether rag likes it or not, it will burn. But say it could reason and also take action and it decided that it didn't like to be consumed. Then either consciously or subconsciously, rag would try to prevent this change from happening. The mind is a very powerful tool and you would be amazed at power it has over your body if it isn't 100% in favor of a certain approach.

Sometimes, a person may not even be able to adequately put into words why they don't like something. On occasion, people may rely on intuition. Like when you have a bad feeling about something...you can't explain it, but something about a particular situation, thing or person just bothers or upsets you for some reason. Only to find out later that you were right. The same can be applied to a particular nutritional approach.

Being lost in midst of all of these variables is not a hard thing at all. There is sooo much knowledge and guidelines out there that sometimes we don't know how to put it all together. Well today you are in luck!

Before we get into this let me make one thing clear! You are doing right thing! It is virtually impossible to know everything there is to know about diet and exercise. If everyone waited until they knew everything in order to get started no one would get started. What we first need to do is to construct a plan. Our plan will be simplified but will be enough to get you on right track.

1. Set your goal(s).

If you don't know what you want or what you are doing you will be less likely to get where you want to go. You also will not have same determination as you could have. If you don't have a picture of what you want in your mind you will be less motivated. Here are some sample questions you can ask yourself. How much weight do I want to lose? What exactly do I want to look like? Do I want a smaller waist? Do I want bigger arms? What measurements am I looking for? What sort of time frame am I looking at?

When you have done this it doesn't hurt to write your answers down to some of these questions as a reference for later. We as human beings can forget easily! Also, if you have to, record some of your current statistics that relate to your questions like measurements or your weight for example. Then you will have something to compare to and your results can be measured more effectively. Motivation aside, some will even take photographs of themselves. They are also great for motivation as well. In future I will include articles on motivation.

2. Start to construct your menu along with quantities.

For some this is hard part since they don't know how much or how little food to take. I will help you and give you a few sample formulas. The most accurate guideline that I have found (and actually have used) over years is to multiply your current bodyweight by 10. That's how many calories you should be taking in for day. Also remember that your true weight is when you get up without any clothes on. So if you weigh 165 pounds for example you would be able to take in 1650 calories a day. Try it!