Here is a video I found on YouTube that features a panel of health experts talking about starch-based diets and their effects on health. I found it interesting, and I hope you will too.
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Losing Weight Shouldn’t Be a Contest
Contests are meant to be motivating. They motivate through competition. Consider the size of the viewing audience of shows like The Biggest Loser.
Contests always have winners–and losers. Contests can be fun, especially if you win the prize, as long as it’s the prize you wanted. And that’s where trying to lose weight in a contest can trip you up.
If you are a food addict or an emotional eater, you probably have put on some extra pounds. That happened to me, and when I was in my thirties I decided to try a popular weight loss system.
The program worked well for me. The packaged food was palatable, and all I had to do was to follow directions and check in for meetings and blood work every couple of weeks.
What I was learning about my body and metabolism was helping me understand myself more, and my food addictions seemed almost non-existent. And the pounds were coming off.
When I had lost 22 pounds, had my flat stomach back and was feeling on top of the world, my counselor reminded me of something.
One of the incentives to losing those last few pounds was that a member could win back half of their original investment if they could hit the weight goal by a certain time.
I chose a weight that was too low for me but it was a contest and I was sure that the $150 prize would be enough to make my body obey my will. Yeah………..right.
The contest did work for some, I guess. Maybe they weren’t food addicts who overate because of emotional stress. I don’t know.
What I do know is that I wasn’t able to lose those last two pounds because of the pressure I put on myself trying to win that contest, and so I didn’t get the money.
It left me with a sense of shame, and it took much away from the earlier success I felt from feeling so alive. Why could someone else do it and not me? What difference did it make anyway?
I hadn’t figured it out yet when a big blowout with my ex-husband, who frequently made me feel like a loser, sparked a two-week eating binge and that was the end of that.
I did get to enjoy my slimmer figure for a couple of months first, but that contest spoiled my success with the weight loss program.
Once I transferred my attention to the cash prize, I forgot what my goal had been–to learn how to eat so that I could reach and maintain a healthy weight and thus, enjoy my life more.
Motivation is important but when it comes to losing weight, making it a contest might put unnecessary pressure on you to go after something you don’t even really want.
Contests have time limits. Good health does not. It takes a lifetime, and every day you remain alive is another chance to live a better life in the best of health, or at least on the road to it.
Whether you are an emotional eater, a food addict, or just someone who overate too many times or got lazy and stopped being physically active, if you’ve gotten a little too fluffy lately, you might want to take off a few pounds.
The only thing you need to win is your good health. If you have that, you won’t have to worry about your weight or anything else. You will have it all. It really is true.
No contest in the world can promise–or deliver–more than that.
Diets and Weight Loss
No matter the reason for those extra pounds, if you are an emotional eater or a food addict, the odds are that you are overweight.
No matter what the root cause of your emotional eating binges might be, you are probably more concerned with losing the weight than getting to the source of the problem.
We hear every day how “diets don’t work” but what does that really mean? Fad diets are just that–fads. They come and they go. We lose interest in the food or tire of the monotony, and just give up–until the next miracle diet comes along.
Changing your eating patterns radically for short periods of time can undermine your health, even when your intentions are good. And even if you drop a couple of pounds, if you don’t feel good, then what’s the point?
Most people who have found success with a weight loss program say the same thing: “I’m the healthiest I’ve ever been in my life”. That should tell you something.
At various times in my life, I have had success with weight loss products and programs, as well as energizing supplements and foods that helped me achieve my weight management goals.
Some of these products are listed in the column on the right and, yes, I receive a small commission when someone buys them from my website. This doesn’t bother me because I know they work.
You shouldn’t have to change your life for any diet. A weight management program, and that includes any diet, should fit into your life in a way that promotes your good health.
The real challenge isn’t losing the weight. It’s finding a weight loss and management program that works for you. It may take a few tries but if you don’t give up, you will be successful. You will lose the weight.
Make it a goal to find something that works for you in the long run. Our bodies change so an eating plan that worked in the past may not have the same results now.
Don’t be afraid to try something new, but make sure you do your research. After all, no one knows your body like you do.
Check out Diet Magic and other great weight loss products, and start on your new road to health today. When you get to the website, click on Products and scroll down to Weight Management.
You are awesome!