Women's Weight Loss Secrets - How to Get Slim Without the Gym

Diabetes and obesity are reaching epidemic proportions and both are closely related to our lifestyle. Unless we change some of our lifestyle habits, this trend is likely to continue.

So, how can you improve your fitness and start your weight loss program?

Here are 7 suggestions.

DRINK PLENTY OF WATER AND AVOID SOFT DRINKS.
A recent research study published in the Journal of The American Medical Association found a direct correlation between drinking soft drinks and obesity. Refined sugar with its high glycemic index is the enemy of weight loss.

An article published in the Los Angeles Times, September 15 2005, titled: "Liquid Candy. The Rise of Soft Drinks in America." stated: "Soft drinks are currently the primary source of added sugar and studies connect them to obesity and nutrient deficits".

Dr Joseph Mercola, author of "The Total Health Program" warns: "To be truly healthy, you will need to seriously consider reducing or eliminating all sugars from your diet. Consider the fact that your risk of obesity increases by a whopping 60% for each can of soda you drink a day."

Some popular soft drinks contain as much as 9 teaspoons of sugar!

Beware also low calorie or diet drinks. Check the labels to see if they contain Aspartame, a substance that can be toxic.

FORGET STARVATION DIETS.
If you go on a crash or starvation diet, you may have a speedy but transient weight loss. You will lose predominantly lean muscle and that's what you don't want!
Your body senses famine and goes into starvation mode. It slows down the fat burning or metabolic rate and begins to store fat.
This is the opposite to what you want to achieve.

EXERCISE DAILY.
Your body was designed to be active and a sedentary lifestyle slows down its metabolism. You don't have to take part in high intensity exercises. Simple fitness activities such as gardening, walking and climbing stairs are beneficial. Weight bearing or resistance exercises are particularly beneficial as they build lean muscle mass and help burn fat.

These exercises are an important part of any weight loss program.

EAT BALANCED MEALS.
Try to include a balance of proteins, fats and carbohydrates in your diet. Your best carbohydrates are complex carbohydrates such as brown rice, high fiber bread, fruit and vegetables. These have a low glycemic index and are released to the body slowly with increased feelings of fullness.

They are also high in fiber, an essential part of any weight loss diet. Psillium husks and ground flaxseed are excellent sources of fiber.

HAVE A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP.
In a study reported in a recent issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers found that overweight and obese subjects slept less than those with a normal body mass index.

The message is clear. Try to get at least 7 hours sleep each night and if possible avoid late night meals.

Stress is a major factor in sleep loss and supplementing your diet with B group vitamins, valerian root extract or valerian tea may help.
A magnesium supplement prior to going to bed may also help.

Generally they work just as well as prescription, or over the counter drugs without the side effects. You should first consult your doctor if you are having sleeping problems.

EAT REGULAR SMALL MEALS.
Most people in their healthy weight range tend to stop eating once they feel the edge has been taken off their hunger. They know they can always have more later, when they're hungry.

Try eating when you're hungry and stop when the edge has been taken off your hunger. Binge eating places strains on your digestive system and won't help your weight loss and fitness program.

The important message is to eat smaller portions and enjoy a variety of low GI foods to meet your daily nutritional requirements.

FINALLY, FOOD AND YOUR EMOTIONS.
It's not normal to think about food morning, noon and night. Yet this what most people with a weight loss problem do. You need to become comfortable with food again. Try only to think about your next meal when you get hungry, eat it, then forget it.

Food is often used by those with weight loss and fitness problems to help them deal with emotional issues. If you think you might be an emotional overeater, you need to uncover the emotions that are the cause. Are you angry, stressed or frustrated? Once you know why you overeat, you can then focus on constructive ways to resolve it. You may need to discuss this in greater detail with your family doctor.

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What Does It Mean To Be Strong?

If you were to mention the word "strong" to me as a kid, I surely would have raised my arms up and curled my biceps, making the connection that "strong" meant "muscles." Physical strength was what I knew back then. I remember being fascinated with my father's musculature when I was a boy, his dark, chiseled arms the result of hard labor on a dairy farm throughout his youth. His muscles were so much bigger than mine, and I would egg him on to flex from time to time, just to see his biceps bulge. I wanted to be like him one day.

As I grew up, most of my peers thought of me as strong. I was a good athlete, I was very fit, and physical activities came easily to me. I was always at the top of my PE classes. I began lifting weights in high school, and still continue to today. I have dedicated my life to being considered strong, and have worked hard to maintain it.

But what does it really mean to be strong? Life is teaching me that it's a lot more than physical strength. There is mental strength, emotional strength, and character strength to name a few, and I would argue that each one of them is more important than physical strength.

For purposes of day-to-day life, we need a certain amount of physical strength to get through our daily activities, especially if we have a job that requires manual labor. But in order to get through our days, we need the mental strength to get out of bed and go to work, the emotional strength to be positive about what we face every day, and the character strength not to cut corners when things seem too hard the way they are.

I'm not knocking physical achievements. They require a good amount of mental and emotional strength to be able to maintain. I have incredible respect for anyone who has pushed themselves physically to get the results they wanted, whether that was to cut up for a bodybuilding contest or to shed 100 pounds. It is no small accomplishment.

But the achievements that have come to impress me more are the ones less tangible, at least on the surface. I am humbled by a couple I know who work the graveyard shift 7 days a week, with no vacations, cleaning a couple of restaurants in order to support the 7 children they have at home. They go home after their shift to get their youngest children off to school, then sleep for a couple of hours, get up and run errands, pick up the kids from school, make dinner, maybe sleep for a couple more hours, and come back to work. And they don't complain. They don't lament their lot in life. They just get up and they do it. There is no second-guessing.

I try to think about them when I complain about some trivial irritation with co-workers, or when I sit around pitying myself for not having achieved all of my goals yet. I try to appreciate the fact that I have a home to sleep in when I pass people living on the street. The more negativity I feel come up inside me about where I am in contrast with where I'd like to be, the more I realize where my weaknesses lie. Physical strength will only get you so far in life. Being able to triumph over the mental and emotional challenges we face in this world is what truly equips us to succeed in anything we choose.

I've learned that mental, emotional, and character strength need to same investment as physical strength. Just like we have to get up and workout every day to make noticeable changes in our physique and health, we have to push ourselves mentally and emotionally every day to make improvements in our inner state of being. We have to overcome fear continuously to break out of our comfort zones and achieve the things we really want. To quote John Patrick Shanley, "All the really exciting things possible during the course of a lifetime require a little more courage than we currently have. A deep breath and a leap."

What does it mean to be strong? I believe, more than anything, it's courage: courage to call someone you're afraid to call in order to build a relationship with them; courage to confront someone who's treating you with disrespect; courage to ask for what you want; courage to start living your life and not letting others live it for you. Whether you want to become stronger physically, mentally, or emotionally, you have to have the courage to do things you're currently afraid of doing to get the results you want. And courage is a muscle. The harder we push it, the stronger it becomes. We may not always want to, but the more we do, the more we'll see changes. No complaining. No second-guessing. Just doing.

Stay strong.

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