Women articles online

By: Fracka Future

Movie stars. Loved by many, hated by some and the envy of all those around them, but how do they do it?

Perfect bodies, fit and trim.
Effortless rapid weight loss.
They fit in the smallest of clothes.

It’s enough to make your sick. So what is their secret?

Lots of cash to hire a personal trainer?
A personal chef to cook their food?

Yes, that can definitely help, but it is really a double edged sword. Tons of cash can also mean, who cares if you flake on your personal trainer. You can afford to pay and not go or just find a new one. A personal chef is great, but who says you won’t ask them to make you something rich and delicious? After getting your own personal chef, who would only want carrots and celery?

Have you guessed their secret weapon? Did you know that most of the movie stars don’t even know about it? They have it, they feel its effects, but they haven’t harnessed its power. In fact, it is why many turn to illegal drugs. Some of the drugs are just for getting a high to escape and others are specifically for losing weight. Both work, both are illegal and both kill you. Not a good option.

So, what is their secret weapon that is leading them to their fantastic bodies? It’s accountability to their fans. They have millions and millions of people always scrutinizing them. Every extra pound or inch gets noticed and their career is on the line. The public is fickle. They can be on top of the world one day and totally invisible and out of work the next.

Accountability is why so many celebrity diets work for the celebrity. It’s not the diet, it’s the millions of fans watching their every move. If they are successful, they are loved by millions, if they fail, they are ridiculed on every tabloid. With motivation like that, who couldn’t have a fit and trim body.

You too can harness the secret weight loss weapon of celebrities, without all the baggage that goes along with being a celebrity. Being in the public eye also creates an enormous amount of stress, which directly interferes with weight loss, not to mention, leads many down the path of destruction.

By being accountable, you can get the same motivation movie stars use to lose the weight and get that dream body. By building a team of friends around you, who are supporting you on your weight loss goal, you are no longer alone. When you win, your friends win and they get to join in the fun by cheering you along. Not to mention, you will be inspiring them to realize their dream body as well. Stop trying to lose weight alone and get an accountability team around you to insure your success.

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By: Richard Lindo

What is diet free weight loss?
Diet free weight loss is an all natural, all safe way program design
To help anyone at any level lose weight quickly and easily.

Who can benefit from diet free weight loss?
Anyone who interested in losing weight and getting in shape, it doesn’t matter your age, size or shape anyone can get involved and succeed in this program.

How can diet free weight loss help you?
Diet free weight loss will give you all the necessary steps and instructions for you to do in order to reach your goals quickly and easily. Diet free weight loss don’t require that you take any drugs, pills, or to go on any crazy starvation diet.

When will you begin to see results?
Individuals using the diet free weight loss program results vary, because we all do not have the same body type or the same genetic make up.

Why you must try the diet free weight loss program?
Because you have nothing to lose, except for the weight…… (laugh)

If you are very serious in looking better, getting into shape and feeling great, then it’s up to you to take action now and begin your diet free weight loss program Today!

http://www.lindo-internet-success-center.com

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By: Croif

Dieting is not always easy. In fact, it can prove a tough challenge for many people. So here’s a little guide to avoiding things that could make you lose control and start eating. Avoid them like plague if you wish to succeed.

1. Don’t rush into the toughest diet you can find.
This is a common mistake. Many people decide in a moment of desperation to follow a super-strict diet and fail. Don’t rush into a diet that may be too strict for you. If you don’t have any dieting experience and are not 100 percent sure you can stick with the diet, then choose something else.

2. Don’t lose touch with reality.
You can’t realistically expect things to happen over night. When choosing your goal, start small, but be prepared to go far. If you hear someone saying that he lost a large number of pounds in a short time, don’t make it your goal to match his performance. diet results are different from one person to another.

3. Don’t go to the gym too often
Another common mistake is to use the enthusiasm of the first days to hit the gym every day. This won’t help you at all. Your body needs time to heal and expand the muscle mass after each training session and going to the gym every day interferes with this natural process. Besides, a week of non-stop training could never offset ten or twenty years of couch potato lifestyle.

4. Don’t get hard on calories.
We all know that cutting down on calories is one of the building blocks of all diets, but you have to be careful about it. Cut down on too many calories and your body will start storing anything it possibly can. This is not a good way to lose weight.

5. Don’t skip meals.
Some people think that skipping one or two meals could help them lose weight faster. They don’t understand that dieting is all about eating the right food and not starving yourself.

6. Don’t check the bathroom scales everyday.
Everybody is eager to see the confirmation of his or her efforts in the shape of lost pounds, but you should not let this drive you to checking your weight everyday. The daily fluctuations of your weight will soon have you depressed and ready to quit dieting. And this is something you want to avoid.

7. Don’t let emotions drive you.
Aside from the eagerness that drives people to check their weight every day, there are other emotions that influence dieting. If you know you’re used to reaching out for ice-cream or snacks when you are bored, frustrated or angry, then you should deal with these issues and not allow them to come between you and your purpose.

8. Don’t refuse to seek help.
Not everyone was born with iron will and nerves of steel. If you need advice or help, don’t hesitate to ask it from your friends or from professionals. Don’t try to solve all problems by yourself.

9. Don’t deny yourself your favourite foods.
Treats are a great way of raising your willpower and determination. diets are just food control methods, not prisons. So what if you eat something forbidden once in a while, especially if that food is a favourite of yours? If such treats are not frequent, then they will make no difference in the long run.

10. Don’t rely on your willpower alone
Use your head as well. If you wish to know how much you eat, then write everything down and analyze the list for things that should not be there. Sometimes hunger creeps up on you and make you eat something you shouldn’t. Be honest with yourself and keep a clear head.

Source: www.weight-loss-diet-nutrition.net
Article published and promoted with Article Submitter

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By: Mark Petersen

In your pursuit of a leaner body, you know doubt utilized a bathroom scale to chronicle your progress. However, you may have been doing yourself a grave disservice. As you know, a scale measures how much weight you have lost, but it will never tell you where this weight was lost from. This is where the problem lies. When dieting, your combined weight loss could potentially come from fat loss, water loss, or muscle loss. Obviously, the former is what we all want to achieve, and the latter two are what we need to try and avoid whenever dieting. Unfortunately, many of the fad diets claiming rapid weight loss are often achieving this at the expense of water loss and/or muscle loss. Generally speaking, if you are losing greater than two pounds per week you are likely losing muscle as well.

The best way to monitor your progress when embarking on a new diet is to measure your body fat percentage and your lean body mass. Lean body mass is your weight excluding fat. Lean body mass includes bone, muscle, and other fat free tissues with the majority of this being muscle. By measuring these two items, you will be able to determine how much fat you are losing and whether or not you are losing any muscle. The simplest way to measure your body fat percentage is through skinfold testing. If you know a personal trainer or other fitness professional in your area, they will likely be able to take these measurements for you. However, self skinfold testing is available with the use of the “Accu-Mesure”, which can by found easily online.

Once you have determined your body fat percentage, you are ready to calculate your fat weight and lean body mass. To calculate your fat weight, multiply your total weight by your body fat percentage. Remember to convert your body fat percentage to decimal form before multiplying. I.e. 11% body fat would be converted to .11 Once you have calculated your pounds of fat, subtract your pounds of fat from your total weight in pounds, which will give you your lean body mass.

Armed with these simple equations, you will be able to track your weight loss much more accurately than by simply using a scale alone. You will know exactly where your weight loss is coming from, so you can quickly make adjustments to your caloric intake to maximize your results. For example, if your lean body mass decreases and your body fat decreases, this should tell you there is to much of a calorie deficit and you should increase your daily calorie intake slightly to prevent the loss in lean body mass. Whenever you’re on a calorie restricted diet, some loss in lean body mass and therefore muscle is hard to avoid. However, this loss in lean body mass should be limited to a few tenths of a pound per week. Initially, when first starting a diet program, you will likely notice a larger drop in lean body mass due to water loss. Don’t get alarmed by this. An obvious downward trend in your lean body mass over time is definitely a concern.

It is beyond the scope of this article to discuss proper nutrition and how to calculate daily caloric needs for weight loss; however, I will mention a simple formula that can be utilized to get you in the ballpark if you have average or better body fat percentages. To calculate your total daily calories needed for fat loss, multiply your total weight by 12-13. This will give you a good starting point. I will also mention that spreading your calories out over 5-6 meals per day with each meal consisting of approximately 55% complex carbohydrate, 30% lean protein, and 15% fat will give you the best chance of permanent fat loss. Obviously, these percentages may not work for everyone, but they are a great place to start. If you want to maintain your hard earned muscle, it is also imperative you maintain a weight lifting routine, while dieting.

I hope this information will help you achieve all your weight loss goals and help you understand exactly how your nutrition and diet program is affecting your body. There is certainly still a place for the bathroom scale, but unless you’re also measuring the items above, you will never fully realize the affect of your diet program and reaching your full potential may be difficult. I wish you the best of luck.

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By: Rebecca Prescott

The Glycemic Index (GI) is a way of rating carbohydrate foods according to how quickly the carbohydrates are broken down into glucose, and thus how quickly that glucose enters the bloodstream. The reasoning behind this is that carbohydrates that enter the bloodstream quickly raise blood sugar levels rapidly, causing a spike in energy, that is followed by a drop after the effects of insulin are triggered.

Insulin is one of the hormones that help regulate blood sugar levels, and tries to keep them stable. When too much glucose enters the bloodstream at a time, the body reacts by releasing insulin to remove some of that glucose back out of the blood and into our cells. Its simply a way of keeping the balance. However the effect is that when all the glucose we just ate, in the form of carbohydrates, is removed from the bloodstream, we feel tired and hungry, often craving more carbohydrates. Thus a cycle is created, where we eat more than really necessary.

Carbohydrate containing foods are rated from a scale of 1 to 100. A score of 100 is the highest, and this is akin to eating glucose in its pure form. A score of 55 or lower means a food is classified as having a low glycemic index. Thus, it theoretically breaks down in the body more slowly.

I write theoretically, because the picture is a little more complicated than that. For example, fat lowers the GI of foods. Potato crisps have a lower GI than do oven roasted jacket potatoes. However, that does not mean that potato crisps are a better choice, in terms of nutritional and fat content. So, it’s important to look at the whole equation when considering meal choices and the glycemic index.

Some suggestions for using the glycemic index in terms of one’s diet is to balance a high glycemic index food in a meal with a low one. And try to make more low or mid range GI choices than high.

Other factors that can affect a food’s glycemic index, beyond its GI rating, are the amount of food eaten. Chocolate has a low GI, but it is 30% fat. And any excess nutrients, whether they are fat, protein or carbohydrates, will be stored in the body as fat. So eating too much of low GI foods that are high in calories is not going to help with weight loss.

Another issue when considering using the GI of food, is that the time of day we eat a food may also impact its effect on blood sugar levels. This is because the GI rating given to a food is based on fasting. So, for example, we fast at night - meaning we are asleep and thus not eating for a period of hours. A food thus eaten in the morning may more accurately reflect the GI given to it than at other times of the day, when we haven’t been fasting.

Yet the GI does have benefits. One study on obese young adults found that a low glycemic index diet was associated with a reduction in the risk factors associated with heart disease, when compared to similar children with a low fat diet. Both groups lost weight, and kept it off, which is good news for dieters! And the researchers suggested that a low glycemic index diet may not lower metabolism as much compared to low fat diets. This is important for dieters as it means they would feel less cold, tired and hungry, and as a result, would find it easier to stick with the changes made during the diet period.

The GI should not be used in isolation. Both common sense and other food guidelines, like avoiding excess fat and salt,and making sure foods are full of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, should still be used with the glycemic index.

References:
1. Australian Healthy Food, November 2005
2. nutraingredients.com/news/ng.asp?id=66151
3. nutraingredients.com/news/ng.asp?id=60035

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By: Mike Geary

I had the pleasure of being interviewed recently by a fitness professional from NYC, Geovanni Derice, of 4evertoned.com. The interview is below and I think you’re going to like it…I reveal some of the hardest hitting strategies for getting rid of body fat to uncover those six pack abs that everyone wants.

“GD: Welcome Mike Geary to 4everToned’s Fitness Journal. For those who do not know you, please tell us a few things about yourself.

MG: Thanks for having me, Geo. Well, to go back a little, I have been heavily involved in fitness and sports for about 15 years now, ever since I was a teenager. Being involved in sports in high school got me interested in strength training and conditioning. At that point, once I started feeling more energetic, getting stronger, and looking better, I was instantly hooked for life. I’m 30 now and still addicted to the way living a healthy and fit lifestyle makes me feel energetic, confident, strong, and youthful on a daily basis. I decided earlier in my 20’s that I wanted to make the commitment to help other people experience the excitement of being fit and getting in the best shape of their lives, especially since we’ve reached an epidemic of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, depression, etc. That’s why I became a fitness professional. It just gives me so much satisfaction to help others, who have struggled for years to get in good shape, and show them that it can be done, and it can be fun in the process. I’ve expanded over the years from just reaching local individuals with personal training, into being able to help people all over the globe achieve their fitness goals with the reach of the internet. I only hope that my passion for fitness inspires people to take action and improve how they look and feel for life.

GD: Now Mike, there’s so many things out there as to what works and what does not work…if you had to pick 3 things that work time and time again to get flat abs, what would they be?

MG: The first and most important thing to get control of in order to get flat abs is cleaning up your diet. Exercise is important, but your diet is king when it comes to losing body fat so that you can see your abs. There’s so much confusion these days about what a healthy diet that promotes fat loss really is…after all, we are bombarded by conflicting messages in the media about what is healthy and what is not, and you have all of these gimmicky diet books about low carb, low fat, high protein, vegetarian, fasting, atkins, south beach, liquid diets, and hundreds more. There’s so much conflicting info, that the average consumer doesn’t even know where to start when it comes to eating for fat loss.

The second thing that works time and time again, is to focus on the intensity of your workouts and focus on working the body as a whole in order to get the best metabolic response to lose that stubborn body fat. In order to really get lean, the workouts should have a high intensity, with short rest periods, working the largest muscle groups of the body, instead of trying to isolate specific small muscles like the biceps, triceps, or calves.

For the third thing, let’s talk about actually training the abs specifically. When it comes to training the abs, if you want real results, I always recommend forgetting about the crunches and situps for the most part. They are ok for someone that is really deconditioned, but most people that already have some training under their belt need a much better stimulus for their abs than crunches. Crunches are one of the abs exercises that actually provide the least amount of resistance, and remember that resistance is what develops and tones the muscles. I provide a ton of great abs exercises in my book, but one of THE highest resistance exercises for the abs, is hanging leg raises (but NOT the way you see most people at the gym doing them). The key to doing these and actually working the hell out of your abs is to curl your pelvis up as you raise your legs. Almost nobody ever does this right. To be honest, the majority of people cannot do this at first, but I provide some strategies in my book as to how to progress to doing these correctly.

GD: What are people doing wrong when it comes to developing the coveted “6 pack abs”?

MG: Well Geo, I know this sounds funny to most people, but the MAIN thing that people are doing wrong to get those 6 pack abs is…are you ready for this? They spend entirely too much time focusing on training their abs! Sounds crazy, but it’s true. Remember, having a visible six pack of abs is all about getting down to a low body fat percentage. In order to do that, your workouts must focus on stimulating a fat burning hormonal environment in your body, and increasing your metabolic rate. That just does not happen when you focus too much time training a small muscle group like the abs. Instead, you must use the majority of your time focusing on training the largest muscle groups of the body like the legs, back, and chest. That’s what stimulates your metabolism and the fat burning hormones that will get you truly lean and sporting a sixxer!

GD: Which exercises are the top exercises that people need to do if they are to get maximum defintion with their midsection?

MG: When it comes to developing the abs themselves, I again refer to any kinds of hanging abs exercises, as well as some good floor exercises like lying leg thrusts (all described and illustrated in my book). However, maximum definition in the midsection comes from losing bodyfat, and the most effective exercises featured in my program for that goal are various forms of swings and snatches (unique dumbbell or kettlebell exercises that almost nobody ever does in normal gyms), squats, deadlifts, lunges, step-ups, clean & presses, mountain climbers, sprinting, and other full body exercises and calisthenics. If you want great looking abs, focus on those instead of focusing so much on training the abs directly!

GD: When it comes to diet Mike, people really have tried millions of ways to get one thing…and that is fat loss. What recommendations have you used to successfully help your clients lose fat and keep it off?

MG: I have included a fully comprehensive discussion of this topic in my book, which accounts for almost half of the book, but I’ll try to make some nice simple generalizations to get people started on the right path immediately. The most important thing is that your diet is as natural and unprocessed as possible. It almost always comes back to the overprocessing of food that makes it unhealthy, and makes it totally wreck your metabolism and hormone balance in your body. For example, why eat refined grains, when you can eat whole grains. Why eat refined sugar, when you can get natural sources of sugar from a high nutrient whole food like fruit. Why eat highly processed, refined, and hydrogenated vegetable oils (these are THE worst thing in the modern diet), when you can eat natural sources of healthy fats like nuts, avocados, fish, eggs, coconut milk, organically raised meat, and so forth. The point is to not fall for some gimmick like low carbs, low fat, high protein, or any other combination that has you focusing on one macronutrient vs. another. Your body needs all macronutrients to thrive and obtain a variety of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, etc. Trying to cut an entire food group out just works against what your body needs. I get into much more detail on this vitally important topic towards losing body fat for life in my book.

GD: Thank you very much Mike for sharing with us all of this great information. For more info on Mike Geary and his internationally popular Truth about Six Pack Abs book, please be sure to visit his site below. Remember 6-7 weeks from now, summer will be here, and if you wait until then, I’m afraid to tell you, but it will be too late!”

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By: Samantha Sailor

Myth 1: Eliminating fat from your diet will help to lose weight faster.

Fact: Many people think that if they cut fat from their daily nutrition, it’ll be helpful for faster weight loss. But take a look on fat-free or low-fat products, such as cookies and ice-cream, which are very high in calories. Do you think it is better solution? You can also gain extra pounds if you eat huge quantities of low-fat, carbohydrate-rich foods like pasta or white bread. Always check the calorie content of low-fat meals, especially for products like cakes, ice-cream, crisps, cookies. Don’t be surprised when you’ll find that there’s little difference in calorie content compared to standard products.

Myth 2: Crash dieting makes to lose weight faster

Fact: It can be true in the shot term, but later you’ll gain pounds as fast as you lose them. Remember, losing weight over the long term (for ex., 2-4 pounds per month) burns off, but crash diet not only reduces fat, but also attenuates muscles and tissue.

Myth 3: Stop eating after 8 p.m.

Fact: Many people believe that eating in the evening makes their body to store fat and try to stop eating after 6 p.m. It can be true if you eat more calorie foods than you’ve burned during the day.
Try to plan your daily nutrition and always leave enough calories for dinner.

Myth 4: Nuts are fattening

Fact: In fact, nuts are high in calories and fat, but they also are full of vitamins, fiber, protein, minerals and they keep blood sugar steady. More to say, it’s much better to consume handful of nuts instead eating sweets. It means that there is no reason to stop eating nuts, just pay attention on the amount of them.

Myth 5: Foods like grapefruit, celery, apple vinegar and cabbage soup burn fat

Fact: There are no foods that can burn fat. It’s believed that products that contain caffeine may speed up metabolism, but they can’t burn fat.

Myth 6: Use honey instead of sugar

Fact: It’s known that honey contain 75% of sugar and it’s also higher in calories. Take a look – 1 tsp of honey contains 25 calories while 1 tsp of sugar has only 16! But if you prefer honey – that’s ok, just use it in a small amount.

Myth 7: It’s not necessary to exercise when you are on a diet

Fact: It’s true that dieting alone can be helpful for weight loss, but muscles and extra skin (that appears after losing much weight) will look awful. Working out will double your rate of weight loss and also your muscles will look great.

Use of this article is permitted as long as there are clickable links back to us at:
Weight loss and all credits are given to the author.

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By: David McCarthy

April 4 thru April 9.

On Friday I weighed in at 183 pounds (90.5 kilo’s) and that is slightly up on last week. It is not a problem because last week was a distorted figure due to being unwell and not eating very much anyway.

One of the things I have learned during this weight control period is never to become upset if the scales seem to indicate a poor week. The reason for this is that when you go into a weight loss program you have to take the mindset that “I am what I measure, not what I weigh.” With my waist belt two notches slimmer than when I started there are no complaints.

During the past week I concentrated on diet and ate no bread or pastry products on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Bread is my greatest weakness; having a local baker who produces the most magnificent bread doesn’t help the weight loss program. Hence the reason for dropping bread for three days; it reaffirmed my commitment in my own mind.

Those that have followed this series of articles from the start will know that I only diet on the condition that I give up no food that I like. This includes bacon sandwiches, desserts, ice cream and just about anything else. What I do is give up one thing each day and leave a space on my plate where that item would normally be. This removes one of the biggest problems that all dieters face – the temptation to go off of a rigid diet due to the temptation of foods that they love. There isn’t a single person I know of that can’t give something up for a day when they know they can return to it next day.

In the western world most inhabitants eat far too much. The average adult body requires 2,000 calories each day to function normally; we tend to eat around 3,500 calories each day. This translates to an excess intake of 10,500 calories each week. One pound of body weight is equal to 3,500 calories so that excess eating amounts to three pounds each week weight gain. It is true that you can exercise the excess calories away and if you work in a heavy laboring role in an iron smelter you probably will. But do you spend eight hours each day in that type of environment?

By having a space on each plate you soon learn serving size discipline and that is what causes most weight problems – eating too much per serving. Remember it takes about twenty minutes for the your stomach to get the message to your brain that you’ve eaten enough. It is what we continue to consume during this critical twenty-minute period that is our enemy. Maybe serving smaller portions taking a twenty minute break between courses will help you.

This article is copyright © David McCarthy 2006.

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By: Joey Dweck

Experts have discovered that walking 10,000 steps a day can help you drop those unwanted pounds faster than just about any other method of weight loss. Walking will also help you keep the weight off for a longer period of time because it builds your muscles while keeping your heart at a fat-burning rate.

Because it can seem to be a daunting task to walk 10,000 steps, it is important that you develop a strategy for meeting your daily quota. Here are three simple methods to help you reach your goals without losing focus:

Use a Pedometer
Using a pedometer can help you easily keep track of the distance you have covered throughout your day as well as the number of steps that you have taken. A pedometer is a small box-shaped calculator that you can clip to your belt or pants pocket in the same way you would wear a beeper.

When placed firmly near the hip, the pedometer accurately registers each step that you take. For individuals wishing to meet their new daily quota of 10,000 steps, the pedometer is the easiest, more carefree method to reach the goal.

When shopping for a pedometer, make sure that you select a model that has both distance and well as individual step readings. You will begin to learn how many steps go into one mile. You will also be surprised by how many steps you can add to your daily count by changing small habits, such as choosing the stairs over the elevator or walking to your colleague’s desk rather than sending an email.

Calculate the Time it Takes
Using either you pedometer or a counting method, calculate the approximate time it takes for you to traverse a specific distance, such as a mile. Calculate this number several times on several different days and average the figures together. You will then be able to determine approximately how long it will take you to walk a portion of your steps if you choose to spend a set amount of time walking them off.

For example, if you know that you can walk all 10,000 steps in an hour, then you can elect to dedicate an hour everyday to walking your steps. However, if you cannot dedicate a full hour, then you can add up increments of ten minutes at a time until you reach your goal. Having a clear understanding of just what it takes to reach your goal will help you to approach the task much more strategically than if you did not have a plan. Do the calculations to save time and assure that you reach your 10,000 steps.

Measure a Route
Measure a route based on the time and distance it takes you to walk your 10,000 steps. Having a pre-planned route will help you to view the task of walking 10,000 in a more manageable light. You will be able to measure your progress along your day and have a system for achieving your goals.

Because taking the same path everyday may become tedious, plan two or three routes. Plan a long route for days when you have a plethora of energy, a short route for days when you are tired, and a mid-length route for days when you are energized but busy. Giving yourself plenty of options is important to helping you stay positive so that you can achieve your goal.

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By: Nishanth Reddy

Katie, a 33-year-old mother of two, has been on her share of diets over the years. From Weight Watchers to the Zone to Sugar Busters, she feels as if she has tried them all. While she has had moderate success in losing weight from time to time, she has never found a long-term weight loss solution. Her weight is a point of contention in her marriage; her husband—who also happens to be obese—wishes she were thin, but says he loves her anyway. The two have been separated a number of times, and even filed for divorce once. The stress has caused Katie to begin binge eating again.

There is hope for Katie and others like her who feel as if they’re trapped on the diet carousel. The key to long-term weight loss success may not be the body, but the mind. Research indicates that those who have a positive outlook on life are more likely to lose weight—and stay thin. But how can you have a positive outlook when you’ve been burned so many times before? Is it possible to “will your way” to losing weight?

One technique that has been proven effective in sports training is something called visualization. For instance, a baseball player might visualize his bat connecting with a ball, leading to a homerun. A soccer player might visualize kicking the winning goal in a soccer match. And a golfer might visualize sinking the winning putt in the Masters Tournament.

The same technique can be used by dieters. Visualize yourself as thin. Picture yourself in that dress that is now two sizes too small. Imagine stepping onto the scale and being pleased with the result. Visualize yourself saying “no” to that piece of chocolate cake or that plate of Fettucini Alfredo. These mind exercises can help to spur you onto weight loss.

When people learn they are suffering from cancer, they are encouraged to imagine their cancer cells being destroyed by healthy cells. You can follow the same technique in order to lose weight. That means imagining your fat cells being destroyed by thin cells. Through such a method, you can “think your way” to a healthy weight.

In addition, it is critically important that you maintain a positive attitude. Be forgiving of yourself. If you veer off your diet plan, simply get back on course with your next meal. Don’t spend precious time “beating yourself up” over your failures. Instead, celebrate your successes—in a non-fattening way. For instance, when you reach a milestone—say you’ve lost ten pounds—reward yourself with a trip to an art museum or to your favorite coffee shop (but skip the cream and sugar). Marking milestones will give you a sense of accomplishment, a sense that you are triumphing over food.

Another helpful technique can be prayer or meditation. Some support groups even offer Bible-based weight loss programs that use scripture verses to help inspire. Taking stock of your life and handing your weight loss problems over to a higher power can be cathartic and may give you a sense of peace about your weight difficulties. It has been said that a clear head leads to a healthy body. Try praying or meditating ten minutes at the start of your day. Chances are you will feel refreshed and ready to tackle the weight challenges that come your way.

Yet another technique you might consider is role-playing. Grab your spouse or a friend and ask him or her to act out a situation in which you might be tempted to overeat. You’ll be forced to come up with strategies to fight temptation. This rehearsal could prove to be quite helpful when a real life diet dilemma comes your way. If role-playing works for job interviews, it should be beneficial for your weight as well.

Mind over matter is not just a clever saying. It can actually be the solution to your weight loss problems. By using your brain power, you can develop the techniques needed to make healthy food choices. When your mind and your body are both healthy, you have the best of both worlds.

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