The Three Pillars of Weight Loss Success

When it comes to effective weight loss, every little bit counts, and that includes a proper nutrition program, a good workout program and lifestyle change.  If you really want to transform your body and prevent or even reverse diseases associated with obesity, you need these three pillars:

1.  Nutrition:

There are three devastating nutrition realities:

Nutrition Reality #1: You can't out-train a bad diet.  You can work out 2 hours a day and still get fat.  Even if you resorted to a body builder's diet of chicken, broccoli and brown rice 6 times a day, you can still get fat by eating too much of it.  The excess has to get stored somewhere - in your belly.  It doesn't matter how "healthy" you eat if you consume too much of it.  

Nutrition Reality #2: Diet is 90% of the equation.  You can cancel out 2 days worth of working out with 3 minutes of consuming a donut and washing it down with a glass of chocolate milk.  

Nutrition Reality #3: "Eating healthy" without a plan is guaranteed failure.  You can eat healthy foods but how do you know if you've eaten too much or too little?  What do you do when you jump on the scale at the end of the week and nothing has changed?  How can you monitor and modify your nutrition program if you're just guessing and hoping what you're doing is working? How do you know how much food to buy?  

Most people who try to lose weight fail because 99% of the diet programs out there aren't realistic or practical. You need a simple nutritional plan you can implement immediately, complete with the correct foundational nutritional principles.  It's critical to start now and continue until you have developed the habits necessary to see results so that you stay motivated and finally perfect your body and health.

2.  Exercise:

We all know that exercise is essential for good health, not only for weight loss because it burns calories and reduces body fat but it also helps strengthen your bones, increases circulation, lowers blood pressure and blood sugar, lowers bad cholesterol and raises good cholesterol, helps detoxify your body, strengthens your immune system and decreases depression by increasing serotonin in your brain, which, in turn, controls your appetite and mood.  There are probably dozens of forms of exercise, including:

walking outside or on a treadmill jogging dancing aerobics swimming water aerobics rebounding (jumping on a mini-trampoline) bicycling hiking golf tennis racquetball working out in a gym or fitness center ice-skating roller-skating gardening raking leaves jumping rope weight or resistance training exercise

If you do something you enjoy, then exercising won't feel like work and you will be more likely to stick to it.  The key is making it become a habit so that it's done on a regular basis.  

3.  Lifestyle change:

If you want to lose weight and keep it off forever, a lifestyle change is necessary.  This happens by developing good nutrition and exercise habits you can live with that aren't too restrictive, burdensome, difficult or expensive, habits that you actually enjoy and are easy to develop and stick to.  

Losing weight can be challenging, confusing and emotionally consuming -- unless you have a plan.  If you have a plan that is designed specifically for you, with clear instructions on what to eat, when to eat, how much to eat and what to do when you "cheat" or your weight loss comes to a standstill and you follow that plan and incorporate some exercise, then your weight loss is guaranteed to happen, and once you have developed the habits necessary to see results, you will stay motivated and will be on your way to literally transforming your body and preventing or reversing any or all of the diseases associated with obesity.

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