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Success in Dieting Has One
Very Important Key
How many times have you tried to diet/lose weight in the past?
How many times have you had some initial success only to fall short of
your goals?
How many times have you achieved your initial goals, only to see
them fly away faster than you were able to enjoy the fruits of your
labor?
Why does this happen?
In most cases, the answer is simple. You've failed one test... This
is a difficult test. This test I like to call consistent persistence.
Sometimes, you will be missing other essential components. You need
to also include a variety of other things that will make the consistent
persistence useful. If you are consistently persistent in doing the
wrong things, you will still fail. So before we get in to the final
key, let's review the other essential components.
Successful dieting and or weight loss should always be geared
towards a total lifestyle change that you intend to be permanent. If
you cannot healthily sustain the changes for an indefinite period, it
probably isn't the right diet for you. Reasonable exceptions would
include medically necessary emergency weight loss, with a view to
changing the program once the crisis management was concluded.
If you are trying to lose weight, you should have a goal of
maintaining that weight loss for at least five years. How many of the
fad diets out there today could withstand a five year test? Not many.
With the diet changes (that can be maintained for five or more
years in a healthy fashion), it is essential to increase your energy
expenditure.
You can increase this energy expenditure with a variety of
strategies. Some of those include supplements that boost your metabolic
rate. As we have seen with the ephedra issue, it isn't always the
safest choice. A safer way is timing your activity to boost your energy
expenditure throughout the day. One of those ways is to exercise early
in the morning before eating, and then waiting for a period of time
after having concluded your exercise before you eat. If you have blood
sugar regulation difficulties such as diabetes or hypoglycemia, this
may not be the route for you to take.
Additionally, because your body will accommodate to any exercise
regimen after a period of time, you will need to vary your programs.
Water consumption at adequate levels is a must in any successful
plan. This will help to wash away the waste products and toxins that
the body will release as you burn away the fat (which does store some
toxins).
Adequate supplementation with good quality vitamins and minerals is
also very important so that your body has the micronutrients it needs
to drive its metabolic processes.
Ensuring that your body does not think that it is in a state of
famine is also important. While it is a good idea to decrease your
overall caloric intake, you want to make sure that you feed you body on
a regular basis, so that it knows that food is still available and is
coming soon. Six small meals a day is generally a good idea. Your
choice of calorie sources is also important. For many health reasons,
it is good to avoid highly processed products. Vine ripened, organic
produce is also a great idea.
Another way to help yourself succeed and give your body a greater
variety of micronutrients and enzymes is to eat a large variety of
foods. Our bodies haven't yet really adapted to the advent of
agriculture, let alone a few monocrops. Variety, variety, and more
variety is a great idea.
Ensure that your rest is adequate and of good quality. If you do
not rest adequately, all of your body's processes can be adversely
affected.
Take time for yourself. Meditate or pray. This will help you on so
many different levels that there isn't enough time or space to go into
it.
Set yourself reasonable, attainable goals with specific time
frames. If you don't achieve them, reset the goals and review your
plan. Maybe the goal was unrealistic or the plan was faulty. Entertain
both possibilities. If you don't know how to tell, enlist professional
help.
Measure your progress. Measuring in inches and energy is a better
way to evaluate how you are doing rather than by pounds. Also very
useful and a good measure of health factors, is to record how your body
fat percentages change (for better or for worse).
So now you have the basic principles down. While a three month
interval is a great way to look at progress points, if you stop there,
you have failed. You need consistent persistence. At every goal point,
re-evaluate your plan, refine it, work it, and then repeat the process.
If you need a holiday from your routine, schedule it, don't improvise
or you are likely to fall out of the routine and have a difficult time
getting back into it.
Work it, re-evaluate it, measure your progress, and repeat.
Consistent persistence is the key to your success. This success
must also be built on sound principles and be realistic, sustainable,
and varied.
Don't let yourself be discouraged, keep at it and fight to maintain
your consistent persistence because this is where success lives.
Author: Arnel
Ricafranca
More
Fitness Articles by Arnel Ricafranca
© Copyright
2005
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