winter weight loss
Lose Weight
RIGHT NOW! I bet that title really got your attention. That is how most fitness magazines, websites and commercials suck you in to buy their product. They entice you with unrealistic expectations only to take your money and leave you fatter than when they met you in the first place. Well, I can tell you how to lose five nasty, unwanted pounds in an instant. Get up, go to your kitchen, bookshelf or DVD case and throw away all of those fad diet books and DVDs that are just sitting there collecting dust. They have been taunting you for too long, reminding you of how overweight or unsuccessful you are at losing weight. Now it’s me pushing you, pleading with you to show the diet industry where it really needs to go. Go ahead. I will wait here… Back so soon! You must feel lighter now. The theme from Rocky is playing in my head. You are a champion. Alright, maybe I just went overboard. I will make this very simple — diets do not work. You knew that though, didn’t you? They don’t work and are one of the reasons we, the United States, are fat. There really is no fancy, scientific answer about how we need Cortisol blockers or pills that suck the fat out of the food we ingest so it doesn’t get into our blood stream, thus ending up on our rears. You don’t even want to know what happens to that fat once it gets absorbed out of your food – gross! You do not need to cut out any certain food group or spend hours thinking about your food group ratios. The USDA food pyramid makes the food groups pretty simple. You do not need a pill, a new piece of equipment or expensive prepackaged foods that you have delivered to your home. What you need is a reality check — here it is.
30 | Salt | February 2011
America has been on a crash diet for the past 40 years. Look around. Everyone is skinny now that they have been dieting for 40 years, right? What? They aren’t? In reality, we have become a nation known for our obesity levels. Heart Disease has become the number one killer in the U.S. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that more than 28 percent of Ohioans in 2009 were obese. Not overweight, but obese. Obese means having a Body Mass Index equal to or greater than 30. More and more children are becoming obese and will not have the same life expectancy as their parents. So, how are those diets working for us now? In 2011, we need to make a BIG change. Not the kind of change where we throw out all of the naughty foods in our cabinets and restrict our calories to 1,000 per day. Instead, let’s scrap all of the diet books. Let’s get back to basics and simplify. Losing weight should not mean starving yourself forever, eliminating a certain food item or group unless they make you sick or you are allergic. Let’s think about this in a more realistic way. We need to stop dieting first and foremost. This is a neverending desperate cycle. So let’s stop. First, get up tomorrow morning and eat breakfast. Add some fruit, whole grains and protein to that meal. Then, eat lunch and have some snacks. Tomorrow too, and the next day and the day after that. You are no longer going to starve yourself. Okay?