TIPS FOR LOSING WEIGHT AND KEEPING IT OFF

Holistic Health Article by Neva Howell

Tip 1: Balance The Food Groups. Work on changing your focus from counting calories to balancing nutrition. I personally feel it's a mistake to let calorie counting dominate your weight loss goals because a lot of times, you just end up eating a lot of what you like and hardly any of what you don't. For example, if calories are the main criteria, you might use up all your calories on your preferred group - some people love fatty foods. Others are draw to carbs. Still others prefer protein. A better approach is to be aware of calories but be more aware of balancing the different groups of food. Be sure you have all groups represented in balance. Make sure meals consist of a balance of proteins, complex carbohydrates and some fat. For additional information on the subject of effective calorie counting, click here.

Tip 2: Increase your water intake. Many people make the mistake of thinking that, because they drink 5-6 sodas a day or that equivalent in coffee, that they have enough "water". Not true. Both sodas and coffee have diuretic properties and contain other ingredients that your body has to work to get rid of so they don't count as water intake. In addition to whatever you now drink (and better yet, instead of those cokes or coffee), to facilitate weight loss as well as better health, you should drink 6-8 glasses of pure water daily. This is probably the most overlooked diet tip I ever give. Hardly anyone drinks sufficient water to help their body absorb nutrients, release waste and balance body functions, including the functions that cause us to hold on to fat. Plenty of liquids will make you less hungry while helping to dilute toxins and flush them out the body. Rather than soda, try natural unsweetened fruit juice. Do not drink alcohol because it interferes with the burning of fat and adds calories to your diet. If you choose to drink alcohol while dieting, stop at one or two beers or glasses of wine and have a glass of water in between each one. For pure water: Water Purification Systems

Tip 3: Cleanse your colon regularly. I'm rabid about this. Most of us simply don't eat right and, as a result, the colon has a harder time of eliminating wastes than it would if we ate better. Toxic colon wastes build up over time whenever we eat fast foods, fried foods, refined sugar products, white flour products, and other unhealthy dietary products that are not the best for maintaining healthy digestive and eliminatory systems.. A lot of us don't drink enough water, and we don't get enough fiber because we eat cooked veggies (if we eat them at all) instead of raw. Because we don't eat enough raw foods anymore, many of us are enzyme-deficient. Add to this the stress of modern day life, the tendency of those in sedentary positions to put off going to the bathroom and the common problem in today's world of irregular sleep patterns, and you've got the prescription for a toxic colon. Without regular cleansing, colon waste alone can keep you from losing weight because your body is under stress all the time from toxicity in the colon.

Tip 4: Increase your dietary fiber thru high-fiber foods and/or fiber supplements. However, and this is important, I don't recommend adding a fiber supplement to the diet unless the colon is clear. If colon toxicity is suspected, or the person hasn't done a good colon cleanse in the past year, I'd do a colon cleanse first before adding a fiber supplement, to prevent binding, cramping and discomfort. Be sure to take fiber supplements at different times than other supplements. If you feel you would benefit from a fiber supplment, please read about Remove Special Fiber Blend.

Tip 5: Accept that healthy weight loss is no more than 3-5 pounds a week. If you want to stay healthy while losing and have a better chance at keeping off the weight you lose on a diet and/or fitness regimen, then look for a long term program that will facilitate slow, permanent weight loss over the crash diet of the week. The exception would be a rapid weight loss "fast start" diet that is very temporary and serves the purpose of stimulating metabolic shifts so that later weight gain is easier to accomplish. Only a person in good health generally should do a rapid weight loss diet and even then, check with your doctor if under care for any known medical problem. Starving yourself is never a good dieting choice. Very low calorie diets which are sustained beyond a day or two, can cause the body to think it is starving, thus it will hold on to more fat and water to survive what it perceives as a threat to life. It's better to start moderate exercise as a way of raising the metabolic rate and burning more fat as you reduce calories in a sensible manner..

Tip 6: Find an exercise you like enough to do it daily. Focus on consistency more than how long you exercise. Build your endurance over time rather than pushing your body beyond what is reasonable in terms of introducing new activities. Exercise was a big bug-a-boo for me. Just didn't like it. Never have liked it. But when peri-menopause set in, I knew I had to do something. Definitely. So, I settled on the Gazelle Glider because walking had always been the only exercise I could ever really force myself to do and the Gazelle seemed like it would be fun. Get an exercise video or dance video that you enjoy, or join a dance class. You can also consider a personal fitness coach, if you have the bucks, because they will help motivate you. If you don't have the bucks, you might check out Tom Venuto's program BFFM.

Tip 7: Go for the long haul with supplementation. When you are considering the right diet supplements to use, to augment your moderate exercise, cleansing and nutritional changes for optimal weight loss, choose supplements that support long term weight loss and are backed by solid research. Here are a few suggestions from Vitabase.

• Healthy Weight Formula - Includes a carb blocker (Phase 2), an appetite suppressant/fat burner (Citrimax), and natural stimulates (green tea and citrus fruit peel extract).
• Starch Neutralizer (Phase 2) - Works by neutralizing the enzymes that break down carbohydrates and converts them to fat.
• Relora - Useful in controlling weight loss by fighting the nervous eating that affects so many people under stress.
• Super Citrimax - contain standardized levels of hydroxycitric acid (HCA), which has been clinically shown to suppress appetite and inhibit fat production.