Weight Loss Shortcuts - Fact or Fiction?

     Why do we always look for shortcuts? Why do we look for the quick and easy fix?

We're convinced that if we can just find the right diet pill or weight loss program this time, we'll end up looking like some incredible combination of Pamela Anderson and Jessica Simpson (only without the freaky boyfriends).

Sure, we've tried weight loss diets before. We tried the Atkins Diet three years ago, the South Beach Diet two years ago, the Zone Diet last year, and so far this year we've been on some crazy thing called the Rice Diet.

Oh, we've tried the weight loss pills too. We jumped on the bandwagon and bought up our 30-day supply of hoodia diet pills, prescription diet pills, ephedra diet pills and basically every cheap diet pill on the market. We even lost weight with a few of them.

But it's time to face facts. The diet programs that promised us we'd lose 20 pounds this week didn't work. The diet plans that assured us we could eat chocolate cake, and still lose weight, didn't work either. The low carb diets might have solved our weight issue once and for all, but we just couldn't stick with anything that required us to give up potato chips.

We want to fast weight loss so bad, we can almost taste it! Unfortunately, the weight loss supplements didn't work. The weight loss products didn't work. The diet products didn't work. The weight control diets didn't work.

Like many of our friends, we've tried almost every diet food and weight loss drug on the planet. The results? Nothing. Nada.

Where's our shortcut? Are we going to have to resort to weight loss surgery? That will cost us forty grand, and then there's the reports that just a couple years after the surgery people have a tremendous weight gain. No, we'd better forget about that option.

So where's our shortcut?

If we're being honest, we'll have to admit that the diet supplements didn't work for us. Either did the weight loss medication we got from that pharmacy in Mexico. The weight loss hypnosis was an absolute disaster! (What was that guy thinking, trying to suggest to our subconscious that we don't really like chocolate cake? Yeah, right!)

Come to think of it, every time we've tried to achieve easy weight loss by using a shortcut, we've been disappointed with the results.

Maybe, just maybe, a shortcut isn't the best answer. Maybe the best weight loss plan isn't an online diet pill or even a diet patch like the one we borrowed from our friend last week. Maybe, just maybe, the way to attain quick weight loss isn't quick at all. Or at least not as quick as we've been led to believe.

It took years (maybe even decades) for us to get in the shape we're in, so what made us think we could reach our ideal weight in just a few weeks?

You know what? We've gotta go with what we know and have experienced, and what we know is that a shortcut isn't the best idea when it comes to weight control strategy. We're tired of trying to achieve rapid weight loss without any effort, only to fail (again). We're tired of fad diets that don't work. We're tired of spending hundreds of dollars on weight loss diet pills that don't deliver results. We're tired of relying on shortcuts but still gaining weight year after year. Most of all, we're just tired of being overweight.

Okay, so weight loss shortcuts aren't the answer. At this point it is essential that we finally agree (and admit) that maybe our doctor was right. Maybe exercise is the key to successful weight loss.

Exercise is one weight loss method that has never been banned, has never led to an investigation, and has never been been listed on a 'whistleblower' fraud report.

Exercise is the only path to health and fitness that virtually every doctor in the world agrees upon. Exercise is safe, effective, and brings many more benefits to our lives than diets or drugs ever will alone. Exercise is fun, invigorating, motivating and the single most powerful way to improve our life and well-being.

Are all diets just a rip-off? Of course not. We know people that have lost weight with dieting, so they can't all be bad. Besides, if the 'major' diets didn't work at all, they would never gain the popularity that they have. You can't sell thousands, or millions, of diet plans if there's absolutely nothing to it.

But what we need to realize is that dieting is not a get-thin-quick shortcut. We've tried the shortcuts, and they didn't work, remember? Real, lasting weight loss can only come about by a combination of a health diet plan and regular exercise.

It will take work. It will take effort. It will take time. But it will happen.

Diet and exercise combined will help us burn fat faster than we thought possible. Weight loss achieved by regular exercise and diet will be healthy weight loss because of all the benefits we receive from exercise:

1) Strengthens muscles
2) Strengthens bone
3) Strengthens ligaments
4) Strengthens tendons
5) Strengthens immune system
6) Improves muscle tone
7) Improves endurance
8) Improves strength
9) Improves self esteem
10) Improves confidence
11) Improves balance
12) Improves physical appearance
13) Improves physical performance
14) Improves glucose tolerance
15) Improves circulation
16) Improves memory
17) Lower risk of heart disease
18) Lower risk of diabetes
19) Lower risk of cancer
20) Lower blood pressure
21) Lower cholesterol
22) Lower risk of stroke
23) Lower risk of osteoporosis
24) Lower risk of osteoarthritis
25) Lower requirements for medication
26) Lower risk of injury
27) Lower bodyfat
28) Helps with sleep disorders
29) Reduces frequency of illness
30) Prevent Alzheimer's disease
31) Prevents muscle loss
32) Increases metabolism
33) Eases symptoms of menopause
34) Healthier pregnancy
35) Fewer problems with childbirth
36) Reduces ovulation problems
37) Prevents heartburn

Without a doubt, regular exercise is the most important piece of the puzzle and the best way to achieve rapid weight loss. Exercise is the safest way to achieve permanent fat loss, and when combined with a sound diet program the body is turned into a virtual fat-burning furnace.

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