You Need to Be Wise if You Want to Lose Weight

Common sense and an approach that considers the realities in your life are far more likely to help you to lose weight, than some fancy diets, exhausting workouts or those miracle pills. All these are far more likely to have you parting with your hard earned money, thus reducing the weight of your purse.

A Simple Common Sense Approach to Weight Loss:

Examine your present lifestyle, eating habits, diet constituents, and physical exertions. Make a complete list of everything,  sit yourself down, and go through it critically. Do you have a regular routine, or one which keeps you awake at all odd times? Do you eat in front of the television or computer, and are rarely aware of what you eat? Do you eat a lot of fast food? Are you drinking too many colas or other fizzy drinks? Is your exercise routine one that is sporadic?

A “yes” answer to all or most of these questions is a sure sign that you need to get more control over your life, diet and exercise routines, if you are to benefit yourself in anyway, in attempts at weight loss.

Making Those Changes:

Human beings are meant to work for eight hours a day, sleep for another eight hours, and have eight hours left over for leisure, social activities and other things. Ensure that you make for yourself a routine that enables you to work correctly, sleep adequately and relax sufficiently. This itself will get your body into a rhythm that will enable all your bodily systems to work correctly and this can help weight loss.

Switch off that television or your computer and see that you take your meals at the dining table. If in the office, find an outside area where you can eat your sandwich in piece, away from the computer or telephone. Eat slowly whenever you do so, making sure to bite correctly. This will enable your gastric juices to work efficiently to digest your meals.  See if you can stop going back for refills. 

Fast food contains a lot of refined carbohydrates, fats and salt. All these help you to put on weight and are best avoided. A simple brown bread sandwich carried from home can give you far better nutrition. Carry along some fruits or nuts and nibble on them whenever you feel hungry. Cut out the fizzy drinks and colas. Reduce your intake of coffee especially if you are used to taking cream and sugar in it. This can reduce the intake of sugar, which can in turn help you to lose weight. Ensure that you eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and avoid the heavy red meats. Switch over to brown bread.

Make exercises a part of your daily routine. Consider this as important as eating or going to work. This does not have to be anything elaborate and can be something as simple as walking, jogging or cycling. Gym routines can always help, but need sufficient motivation. Making a habit to climb up stairs, walk down to the supermarket and avoid using your car wherever you can. 

Try out all these simple common sense tips and there is every chance that you will be well on the way to your weight loss goals. Do not expect or want drastic results. Very high weight loss can cause other problems like loose skin and loss of vitality.

You Need to Be Wise if You Want to Lose Weight

Weight Loss Over Age Forty

Weight loss is a challenge at any age. But, after the age of forty women in particular have the added obstacle of having to overcome the hormonal changes in the body. Hormones have a definite impact on weight loss.

I’m an avid viewer of Dr. Oz’s show as he seems to be very balanced and, at the same time, really up-to-date regarding the current trends in dieting and what works and what does not. So when he acknowledged that hormones can definitely slow down my weight loss efforts, I sat up and took notice. Maybe he would also have some helpful suggestions on the solution to this dilemma.

He did have a number of recommendations and I’m going to share them here, in case there is still a female in this country that has not tuned into Dr. Oz’s show on a daily basis. He pointed out that after age 50 the body burns 200 calories a day less because of estrogen loss. As you age and your eggs “shrivel,” your body turns to your belly fat as a backup for storage of its estrogen. That being the case, you need to provide your body with an alternative source of estrogen. Dr. Oz recommends you grind up and eat two teaspoons of flax seeds daily to boost your estrogen.

Of course, exercise of some sort is always recommended, no matter what your age. Unfortunately in your forties and fifties your body responds differently to exercise. Even when you are burning up the calories, the fat is reluctant to leave, preferring to stay in your body, marbleizing your muscles. You might be surprised to learn that this has to do with the diminishing amount of testosterone in your body as you age.

To combat the decrease of testosterone, Dr. Oz recommends a very high protein source – Roman Beans. He suggests building up the amount of these beans that you eat until you reach 2-3 cups a week. If you are concerned about that creating a problem with gas – a common occurrence when eating beans – simply increase the amount of beans you eat in small increments until you’ve reached your goal of 2-3 cups a week.

Salmon is a good idea also as it is rich in protein and Vitamin D (and let’s not forget those healthy Omeg-3 oils). Broccoli is helpful for the iron it provides, building up your red blood cells that in turn carry oxygen to your muscles.

Finally, don’t underestimate the value of weight training – thirty minutes a week will help burn those calories and continue to do so even after the workout is over!

There’s no denying it is going to require a little more of a concentrated effort to be successful in the weight loss department after the age of forty. It’s a hard reality, but weight loss CAN be accomplished if you follow these guidelines. Even more importantly, you will be increasing your overall health which means you will feel strong, healthy and vital – and isn’t that the ultimate goal in any diet regimen?

Weight Loss Over Age Forty