Weight Loss Ross

When you first decide to lose weight and get in better shape, you can compare yourself to a person who decides to give up smoking – especially if you have been overweight for a number of years and have struggled with bad eating habits for just as long.

Like smoking, drinking, and drug abuse, overeating is a strong habit that will require a fair amount of determination to overcome. This is one of the main reasons why so many people hop from diet to diet, fad to fad – never quite sticking to one long enough to see results. They are seeking the “easy way,” not realizing that no plan is going to be easy because they have some deeply ingrained habits that need to be broken, and that is always a challenge no matter which weight loss plan they choose.

Does weight loss seem this difficult for you too? (more…)

Most people opt to follow a specific diet plan to lose weight, but you can also make a lot of progress just by addressing the habits that caused you to gain weight in the first place.

The first step is to figure out what those bad habits are.

Grab a sheet of paper and a pen, and think about your normal daily activities. What do you do when you first wake up in the morning? Go through every segment of your day and consider the things you normally eat, as well as your level of physical activity. Note any obvious bad habits, like stopping at the fast food place for breakfast, or not exercising except for your twice-nightly strolls to the refrigerator during commercials.

Next, jot down some ideas on things you can do to gradually change these habits. (more…)

Sticking to a weight loss plan can be hard because the transition between your current weight and your goal weight can seem a long way off. How can you stay motivated and committed when it seems like the payoff for your hard work and sacrifice will take forever to get here?

One good way is to keep your mind focused on the outcome you’re working toward, and how great it will be when you finally achieve it. That great outcome, of course, is your slender, hot new body! Staying focused on the delicious sense of victory and pride you will feel when you finally see that magic number on the scale is a great way to keep your motivation high and your commitment strong through the months ahead.

There are a couple of ways to use this to your advantage: (more…)

Most of us tend to avoid anything that’s very difficult or challenging, simply because we often don’t feel like we have the energy and stamina to keep pushing against the resistance the obstacles create in our path through life. Diets are no different – how many times have you started a diet and eventually quit?

Whether you quit within a few days, or you’re one of the rare few who managed to hang in there for a substantial length of time, the fact remains that you are just as susceptible to defeat as the rest of us.

Below are a few common diet obstacles, along with some tips for effectively overcoming them: (more…)

Is it really possible to lose weight without dieting? For centuries people have followed one diet after another, and more often than not they do lose weight. But is that the only way to lose weight?

Believe it or not, it’s very possible to lose weight without dieting – or what most of us think of as dieting anyway. (more…)

One of the biggest causes of overweight is emotional overeating – that is, eating for emotional reasons rather than physical hunger. If this has been an issue for you in the past, or still is, take a look at the coping strategies below: (more…)

There’s no doubt about it, dieting can be stressful. Whether the stress stems from the dietary changes themselves or you simply don’t know what to do now that you’re not eating in response to emotional triggers – the result is the same; stress and uncertainty about what to do about it.

Today I’d like to propose a workable solution: creativity. (more…)

Have you ever felt a gnawing emptiness inside that you tried to fill with food? That feeling of inner emptiness is usually a sign of spiritual disconnection. Even if you aren’t a religious person, you could call this “spirituality” a connection to your inner self, your inner peace, or any other term that works for you.

The point is, when you feel disconnected inside, it translates into your outer life circumstances and you may find yourself trying to fill the void with food.

Luckily, there are other options, and nourishing your soul is one of the best. By nourishing your soul I mean doing things that make you feel filled from within. Not empty anymore. Happy, inspired, comforted, peaceful.

There are many ways to do this, and the ones that work best for you may be different than what works for other people, but here are a few of my favorite ways to nourish my soul: (more…)

Are you one of those people who gobbles down your food so quickly that you barely taste it? If so, you may want to rethink that habit if you want to lose weight and keep it off. Eating too fast is one of the major causes for overeating, for two reasons. First, if you eat so fast that you barely taste the food, you won’t feel satisfied and you will keep craving more. Secondly, eating too quickly doesn’t allow time for your body to signal that it has had enough food, so you feel compelled to keep eating.

Below are three good ways to change the habit of eating too quickly: (more…)

Practically every one of us is an expert when it comes to losing weight. We know how to cut calories. We know how to reduce carbohydrate, fat and sugar intake. We know that we need to increase physical activity and reduce our total caloric count to create a calorie “deficit”.

When you consider the amount of people who know this stuff, and the number of those same people who are still overweight, it makes you wonder why more of us aren’t skinny, doesn’t it?

Part of the reason is that it’s easy to “know” this stuff – and much harder to put it into action. Much more common but also less acknowledged, is the fact that many people who say they want to lose weight really don’t on some level. Even though the thought of being thin thrills them, it also terrifies them so they continuously sabotage their efforts to lose weight. They gather mountains of tips, techniques and strategies to lose weight, they try diet after diet, but they still won’t allow themselves to succeed.

Is this a pattern in your own life too? (more…)