It is all baby steps and I have done it without pills, powders, gyms, and mail order food. It was good old fashioned learn what you should be eating, drinking and doing and then go do it. I don't believe personally that the mail order food helps anyone. If you do not learn how to cook and feed yourself on your own you will be living on that stuff forever and it is not cheap! The pills and powders out there are mostly gimmicks and again take your money. The lovely exercise equipment commercials are showing people that have been fit for years as an example to those of us, myself included, what you could look like if you took care of yourself properly. They are not showing an obese person a realistic look at life. I purchased many of these so called quick fix, lose weight gimmicks and was still fat, except my wallet wasn't. Then the item would sit around in the way and remind me how foolish I was to spend my hard earned money on them. If you are not truly ready to make a change don't throw your money away. We all have good intentions but if you are not going to learn what and how to eat and move your body as it was meant to, then you are not ready. You can't go to fast food establishments, guzzle soft drinks and knock back a bag of salty chips and expect to lose weight. If you think that sitting around eating pizza and wings in front of the TV watching movies all weekend is part of a balanced diet well then you may not be there just yet. If going to the donut shop for a cup of joe with whipped cream on top and a pastry is your idea of heaven well you need to think again. It just will not happen and you are fooling yourself if you think you can lose weight and be healthy this way. It takes time and commitment and it will not happen overnight, in a week or two. You did not get to be _____ amount of pounds overnight and it will not go away overnight either. We all want the quick fix and it all takes time and effort. I have lost all of my weight by working out at home, riding my bike and counting every calorie that reaches my lips. I started out using my Wii and a few of the Wii games. Then I worked up to using Exercise TV On Demand & chose the Jillian Michaels' workouts for myself. I did that for most of last year. In December for my birthday I purchased Bob Harper's Inside Out DVDs. I now do a combination of On Demand and Bob's workouts and I also do what I call commercial workouts. If I have a show I want to watch I try for the most part to workout during the commercial breaks. It is fun and gets me off my butt. With the warmer weather now here it is time to again pull out my bike and take it out for some fresh air. I am blessed to live in the country so I enjoy the scenery while riding. I did start workout out slow. I started with a couple of times a week for about a half hour. I now do a minimum of an hour 6 nights a week. As things get easier you need to add to it so you get the results you are looking for.
The problem with the American diet is not what is available to eat, we have a wonderful variety of healthy choices. Our fast, go get it done mentality that has allowed fast food, drive thru's and junk food to enter out diets. Not that having a little will kill anyone but if it is the main focus of your food intake it is killing you! Would you sit and eat about a 1/4 cup or more of fat or shorting at/for a meal? How much do you think you are eating when you sit down with a burger and fries? We were all taught the basics of you need to eat your fruits and veggies but, when you deep fat fry them they are no longer a feasible option for consumption. If you think that eating things like batter dipped and fried butter is good for you then you need a lesson in nutrition for sure. A balanced diet where fruits and veggies are the larger part of what you eat and then the grain and meats are not the main focus is more how we are suppose to eat. Somewhere we lost sight that the meat on our plate should compete with size of the plate. Your salad should be the main thing with a side of meat. I love meat don't get me wrong but eating more than 4 ounces of meat at a meal is overkill for your body to digest and more calories than you should have at any one sitting. The next time you are in a restaurant line see if they have the nutrition information for what they serve. The average person should have no more than 2000 calories in a day. Take the time to just add up the calories for what you are going to eat there. You may be shocked at what you are eating. I have had a few folks that I know realize that they were eating almost 1500 calories in one meal. Ouch! That hurts your waistline and the sodium in these meals is usually off the charts. Then we wonder why we have so many diseases that cripple us later in life. It is never too late to take a look at what you are doing or to make even small changes in your life. Your body will thank you for it and you can thank yourself for avoiding many of the diseases that plague those that choose to continue eating the fast food, quick pickup meals that are everywhere you look.
Yes, I am being a bit preachy but maybe it is for your own good. I have one child that is pre-diabetic, and my husband is obese as was I till not to very long ago. I was this way all of my adult life and it is not healthy nor normal. I have changed the diet for everyone in my home but, I can not control what anyone eats away from home so I still am working on my own family. I was headed down a road of disaster myself before I decided to change. I did not have high blood pressure but there is heart disease in my family as well as diabetic situations so, I was playing Russian roulette with my health. I finally realized that I did not want to be in a situation where my health depended on me changing. I wanted the choice to be mine not a doctor telling me what I could and could not have. So I did it and I will shout it from the roof tops if I must to try to have the rest of those folks out there that need a kick in the butt to move their collective bottoms for the betterment of their own lives. In the end the choice is yours. Remember that you make your choices for the good or bad in all that you do. This includes eating and exercise. I wish all of you the best in your journey in this thing called Life!
P.S.
Here is what I am doing this week!
This week with my knees trying to act up due to the back and forth weather I am working to keep my hour long workouts up. I have done well so far but today is no different in the fact that they are swollen and unhappy. I have upped my fruit intake because I was slacking a little. All I can say is yum! Find things you like and it makes it easy! I love raspberries and cherries so I have been getting frozen ones and they are good and easy. This is my kind of fast food!
