Losing Weight is All About Counting Calories/Carbs and Exercising. Or Is It?

2. Get the right nutrients. It’s not just about the right
amount of carbs, fats or protein. A proper balance of the nutrients
contained in those carbs, fats and proteins can play a part in whether or
not you will lose weight happily and keep it off or if it is just another diet
that you must endure to wear a smaller size. A client of mine said it best
when she told me she “dieted her way up to morbid obesity”. She started
at 106 lbs and after years of dieting peaked out at 255 lbs.

3. Use a balanced approach to lose and maintain your weight.
Yes, it is important to watch what you eat. Yes, it is imperative
to exercise so you don’t lose lean mass (muscle, bone, organ
tissue). It is also important to examine your stress levels and where
that stress is coming from. We all must eat. We all must move. We even
must have some stress. But what kind of food, exercise and stress and
how much we should have of each of them is important. A good balance
of each individually and in balance with each other is of major
importance in reaching and maintaining our weight goals.

4. Tweak your lifestyle. Lose 20 lbs in 10 days! Look
great in your bikini in just 30 days! We are led to believe that weight loss
is a quick-fix and anyone can do it. I went to college with a beauty queen
who told us she could lose 5 lbs in a couple days when she had an
appearance to make. At the time I was impressed. Now I know that we
can all do it. All we have to do is quit drinking water and eating food. The
food in our digestive system at any one time and the water in our blood
and cells can easily weigh 5 lbs. But isn’t weight loss supposed to get
rid of fat?

Well, the scale doesn’t know the difference. Success in long-term weight
loss comes from understanding that the extra pounds didn’t come on in
a few weeks or even a few months. If we are willing to make weight loss/
management a long-term project, we can realize a lifetime of success.
By making small, progressive changes in our lifestyle, and having an
appropriate support system, we set ourselves up for a happier, healthier
journey to our weight goals.

5. Forget about losing weight and strive to be healthy.
Have you every met anyone who has dieted for decades and all they got
was sporadic success with long-term failure? Then when they finally
decide to learn to love themselves as they are (all ???
pounds of themselves), and turn their attention to becoming more
healthy. . . the weight starts dropping off! Well our body doesn’t care
what we look like but it does care if we are healthy. Our bodies are
continually striving for homeostasis (a state of balance).

When our bodies are balanced, we are healthy. When something is out
of balance, our organs and cells will work hard to bring it back into
balance (no wonder we get tired). When we sabotage (there’s
that word again) our bodies by not giving them the nutrients and
exercise they require and/or giving them too much or the wrong kind of
stress, they can become overworked, resulting in loss of energy, weight
gain (or inappropriate loss) and/or disease.

So if you want to look your best and feel energized, you may want to
change your thoughts from losing weight to gaining health. Just the fact
of changing your thinking patterns from losing to gaining can put you
into a more positive mental state and could be the first step on your
personal journey to your goals.

© Jan Barosh 2004. Permission is granted to reprint this article in print
or on your web site so long as the following paragraph is included and
contact information is provided to http://www.janbarosh.com

Jan Barosh’s degree is in health and physical education with post-
graduate work in exercise science and psychology. She is a licensed
corporate wellness coach and a certified teleclass leader and has
helped adults and children be more healthy and fit for over 25 years.
Jan has developed a unique weight management program called
LifeWeight™ which is being taught in the US and licensed for
distribution in the UK.

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