Getting and staying in shape is important for you - but your workouts may be more important for your family. The reason: your family is inexorably drawn to follow your fitness example - for good or bad. How you manage your personal fitness and nutrition has a ripple effect that spreads across your entire family.

Your "personal ripple effect" may be one of the most powerful forces shaping your family's mental and physical future. Consider the following:

We are products of our environment. We gravitate toward what we are repeatedly exposed to. It's a simple matter of repetition. The more we see, hear, use, or eat something the more it becomes ingrained in our psyche. In fact, social scientists believe environmental repetition may have an effect on gene expression and can literally change your biochemistry.

The power of suggestion is strong. The power of repeated suggestion is practically unstoppable. So if you're making poor fitness and nutrition choices at any age, it's likely your family will be making the same choices shortly.

"When Junior sees Dad parked in front of the tube and digging into a bag of chips, it's hard to resist the same lifestyle. And chunky Mom, plus chunky Dad, often equals chunky kids".

The evidence is compelling. Your example, your behavior, your habits are being absorbed by your family at warp speed. The secret is making it a blessing instead of a curse.

It's never too early or too late to start. In the research center,

my staff and I see the impact that consistently exposing people to a healthy lifestyle has on individuals. As people mature, they embrace exercise as a natural, fun part of their lives.

You have the power to influence the health and fitness of every person in your family (your children, your spouse, your siblings, your parents --- and even your friends). The fitness habits you help them build will keep serving them in every area of their life. I can think of no better gift to give people than the gift of health.

But here's the secret...

You absolutely must lead by example. Never "tell" a person what they should do, just keep living a healthy life in a tight lean body, and people will instinctively gravitate to you and learn from your examples.

The process for some "hard-headed" folks might be a bit slower, but they'll come along once they see how much more fun you're having in your new body than they could ever hope to have unless they pick up the pace and learn from your example.

So how do you do it? It's a day-to-day process and a series of

repeated small steps that add up to awesome health habits. Every time you choose the vegetables over the chips, a walk over a drive, and an active game over T.V., you've just made another donation to yourself and to your families lifetime health and fitness fund.

It's your personal ripple effect in action…

Christopher Guerriero, is the founder of the National Metabolic & Longevity Research Center and a best-selling author, speaker, and coach to millions. He is creator of the award-winning 'Maximize Your Metabolism' system. To learn more about this step-by-step program, and to sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE teleseminars, visit: Maximize Your Metabolism

Nutrition as it applies to our daily lives means that we take in what we need to maintain our body's healthy state. Nutrition has become an important word thanks to the involvement of the USDA in our daily food requirements, and the FDA's involvement in determining what is and is not dangerous for us to consume.

But what is our responsibility in the nutrition game? Do we understand what our nutritional requirements are, how to fulfill those requirements, and how to look for real nutritional value in our foods?

I'm not sure that nutrition has been successfully addressed in its own right. We hear nutrition in relation to our vitamin intake, our fortified cereals and milk, and in the context that we need "nutritional value" from our food choices. But what really is nutrition when applied to our daily bodily functions?

Today, we must determine how much nourishment we need, how much physical exercise we need, and how best to accomplish those ends. Calorie needs, nutritional needs, physical needs, and education about those needs now is information we should all understand, at least as it applies to our individual self.

If you will visit your local doctor, library, or fitness center, there is massive amounts of information available to help educate and to help you make good health choices, no matter what the age group.

Nutrition refers to the nurturing of our body, in our ability to keep it healthy and functioning as it is supposed to do. Our ability to provide the body with all it's necessary food, vitamins, and minerals so that we continue to thrive in our daily life processes.

If you were to take a cross section of the population, and check for adequate levels of the most used and fortified vitamins and minerals, you would probably find that as high as 80% or the population is lacking in a least one of the vitamins and minerals.

Now, that doesn't sound too bad, until you stop to think, what if it's calcium? A calcium deficiency brings on osteoporosis, a deteriorating of the bone. This disease alone costs millions in medical expense to the population.

Can you see how a little more cooperation and open-minded participation on the part of our medical field could result in far fewer health problems? It would also have provided the general population with a viable way to discern their nutrition, vitamin and mineral needs, accurately.

So how do we determine that we are providing the essential nutritional needs? That knowledge comes by educating ourselves about what our individual needs are, the needs of our family, and then taking that knowledge and applying it to the foods we buy, that we prepare, and that our families consume.

Quite often, our vitamin and mineral needs outweigh our caloric needs. In those instances, we turn to manufactured vitamins and minerals to fill the gap. This is a part of our nutritional needs, also.

Nutrition is one of the most complex areas to gain useful knowledge about, because there are so many components, and because each person has their own individual needs.

Women needs differ from those of men, and older women's needs differ from those of a young girl. As we age, our needs constantly change; therefore continual education about nutrition is a fact of life. The nutritional needs of a cardiac patient are different than those of a healthy, middle-aged hiker.

Can you see the complexity of the situation now? What we really need is to develop a scale that determines the nutritional needs of our bodies on a cellular level, so that as we age, as our physical condition changes, or our health changes, we can recalculate our needs, based on cellular changes and content in our body.

Individuality is the key to understanding each person's nutritional needs, and then working to educate us is the key to fulfilling those nutritional needs. Good nutrition should be the ultimate goal of every person alive.

Nishanth Reddy, is an author and publisher of many health related websites. For more information on how to be fit and healthy visit his website at Deit and Nutrition

As we all know, weight loss diets are big business. And looking at the statistics, it's easy to see why. Currently, an estimated 58 million American adults are overweight (BMI 25+), of whom an estimated 40 million are obese (BMI 30+), 9.6 million are seriously obese and 6 million suffer from super-obesity (BMI 40+). Worldwide statistics on overweight are equally alarming, as reflected in the new word "globesity". In China, the number of overweight people has risen from less than 10 percent to 15 percent in just three years. In Brazil and Colombia, the figure of overweight is about 40 percent - comparable with several European countries. Even sub-Saharan Africa is seeing an increase in obesity, especially among urban women. In all regions, obesity appears to escalate as income increases. And the higher the incidence of obesity, the higher the incidence of weight-related disease, including: type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders like insulin resistance, and cancers of the breast and colon.

CONVENTIONAL DIET METHODS

Both the US Surgeon General and the Dietary Guidelines For Americans (2005) issued by the US Dept of Agriculture emphasise the need for calorie control and increased physical exercise to reduce the overweight epidemic, but evidence suggests that conventional diet methods do not provide significant weight reduction, due to poor compliance. Surveys show that annual weight loss resulting from convention diet and exercise programs averages less than 8 pounds per annum, while in a 4-year follow-up study of programs incorporating the use of obesity drugs, behavior modification, diet and exercise, the final average weight loss was 3 pounds. This apparent failure of conventional weight loss methods is often contrasted with the 30-40 percent average weight loss following bariatric surgery.

FOOD COMPOSITION OF DIETS

Fashion sells products, and weight loss diets are no exception. First we had low-fat diets, which were promoted as heart-friendly ways of reducing weight. Unfortunately, this message was interpreted by consumers as "all fats are bad, all carbs are good", and led to an unhealthy overconsumption of refined carbs. With the relaunch of Dr Atkins "New Diet Revolution", the fashion penduluum swung the other way. Now carbs were the enemy, not fat.

After Atkins came the South Beach Diet, which offered us a more moderate low-carb approach. Now, it is GI diets - based on foods with a lower glycemic response - that are high fashion and, being scientifically more beneficial, are likely to remain so for some time. However, while the food composition of diets may change, the basic law of weight loss remains unaltered: calorie expenditure must exceed calorie intake. To this extent, provided a diet is calorie-controlled and includes foods from all food groups, the exact composition of foods remains no more than a matter of personal taste.

GENERAL EATING AND EXERCISE HABITS

When assessing the effectiveness of conventional dieting methods, due regard must be paid to general eating habits. In America at least, these do not appear to be helpful. Despite the mounting evidence of weight-related ill-health, social eating habits continue to develop in unhealthy directions. Value-for-money "supersizing" continues to attract customers, while fast-food sales continue to rise. And the continuing demand for "instant" food only inspires the food industry to produce more and more refined food options bulging with nutritional deficiency and calorie-overload. Is it any wonder that levels of diet-compliance among average dieters is so low? Meantime, an estimated 78 percent of Americans do not meet basic activity level recommendations, while 25 percent are completely sedentary.

IS SUPPORT THE ANSWER?

If conventional diet programs remain less than perfect ways of tackling overweight in the face of engrained eating habits, it would be misleading to write them off completely. Not only does research data from the US National Weight Control Registry demonstrate that long term weight reduction is perfectly achievable, a number of diet programs, especially medically-supervised clinic-based programs, are consistently effective. What distinguishes these diets is the level of counseling support which subjects receive. Nowadays, this support can be provided in various ways, including: mandatory group meetings, one-on-one sessions, online forums or chat-rooms. And it seems to work. For example, according to recent studies, the average weight reduction for a 10-12 week clinic-based obesity program involving meal-replacement diets, exercise and counseling support is 5.5 pounds.

FINDING MORE SUPPORT

If getting proper support is one way of improving conventional diets, dieters need to rethink their approach. Instead of focusing attention on finding the optimal eating-plan, they need to look for programs offering optimal support. Weight Watchers is an obvious choice but diets organised around the workplace or other social groupings may also provide natural help. Online programs with forum support might also be considered. In any event, there is no substitute for a reliable dieting partner.

ADOPTING HEALTHY HABITS

Given the fact that losing as little as 7-10 percent of body weight can improve many of the problems linked to being overweight, such as high blood pressure and diabetes, some obesity experts advocate a less formal approach to calorie control. They recommend adopting certain healthy habits rather than following a specific diet. An example might be a 200-calorie-a-day reduction achievable by taking a moderate 30 minute walk, and switching from (say) whole milk to skimmed milk. This saves 73,000 calories a year - the equivalent of 20 pounds of body fat. The commercial response to this approach is already visible in programs such as the "Three Hour Diet", which recommends regular eating to maintain a regular rate of calorie burning. Expect to see more weight loss programs like this, which emphasise specific habits.

CONCLUSION

Current levels of overweight and obesity require urgent attention. To be effective, conventional diet programs need to provide optimal support rather than optimal food composition, in order to facilitate diet compliance. For people who are unable or unwilling to follow a specific weight loss plan, making small but specific changes may be sufficient to achieve significant improvements in health.

Linda Smyth B.Sc., RD, aged 51, is a qualified dietitian and nutritional consultant. She is part of the editorial team at which provides a range of information about diet, nutrition and weight management to more than 5 million visitors per year.

Diet Information

Nowadays there are zillions of free articles, e-books, free reports and publications about weight loss programs and products. Most of the authors don't even realize that they are only losing your time by providing you free information, promoting commercial products.

Considering this it looks like you need to pay for a diet plan and diet pills, and losing weight will be a peace of cake. Guaranteed!

But this is not true. You can achieve your goal weight simply by cutting down on your food.

Do you believe that if you decrease your daily calorie intake by 30%, you can lose up to 4 lbs a week? This can be easily done if you stop eating chocolate, cookies and candies between meals, and limit your food to one normal portion 3 times a day.

I am not saying not to follow a personal customized daily meal plan, combined with natural weight loss supplements. It is always better to have a plan for whatever you do, but it is possible to lose weight if you simply reduce the amount of calories you take daily.

Think about that:

What Do All Commercial Weight Loss Programs Do?

They simply tell you to eat no more than 1200 -1500 calories daily and/or to throw away all high carbohydrates and fat foods. And you get the calories table and start counting …

… after a while you understand that you need to leave all your favorite meals, to eat only tasteless food and this will continue indefinitely. I don't know about you, but this will despair me.

At this time of desperation the question is: "Are there any secrets for fast and easy weight loss?"

And you will find a lot of answers like: "Ultimate weight loss secrets revealed in this book!" or " Fast weight loss secrets – lose 20 lps for 2 weeks!".

What are these secrets? Are these secrets protected by the US government? And do you believe, that if there are any secrets, they will stay secrets for long time?

No, the only secret is to have the right motivation, permanency and to make the effort.

Why Choosing A Diet Plan Combined With Natural Supplements?

How do you prefer to go to your place - by a sports car or by bus?

I mean, following an effective diet plan, and combining it with natural supplements, is like driving a sports car on a first class road - easier, faster and costs you a lot of bucks out of your pocket.

It's your decision!

Find more information at Start losing weight Now!

So if diet pills work and I am overweight, why shouldn't I use them to get myself back to where I want to be? The truth is that we live in an obese society. With that being the case, then it stands to reason that the business of losing weight is big. We are all busy, so we want the easy way out, the quick fix, and to lose those extra pounds without having to disrupt our busy lives. Diet pills seem to be an easy answer, so why not give them a try? Well there are actually two big reasons: harmful side effects and addiction (physical and emotional).

The biggest reason that the dangers on diet pills exist is that they are not really regulated. The law does not require a diet pill to be tested by the FDA before release to the public. The FDA will pull a diet pill product from the shelves if it shows to be dangerous, but by then you may already be taking that particular drug. So what are the side effects that can result from this lack of regulation?

Diet pills generally do one or two of a few things: they may suppress appetite, increase metabolism, block fat absorption, or even make use of laxatives to flush the body of waste and fluid. The chemicals in the diet pills that helps them accomplish these things have been known to cause varying side effects. Some of the best known of these are anxiety, insomnia, heart palpitations or attacks, stroke, fever, dry mouth, blurred vision, hair loss, disturbance in sex drive and menstruation, urinary tract problems, digestive problems, and even congestive heart failure. There are numerous others as well, so the risks can be high when it comes to side effects with diet pills.

The other danger with diet pills is addiction. The chemicals and drugs used in the pills can very often cause physical addiction. On the other hand, if they pills do work, even to a small degree, emotional addiction can follow. You may think that you cannot keep your weight or even live without the pills and can find yourself in the midst of complete dependency.

When there are side effect problems in conjunction with dependency, there are overdose risks as well. In the rush to lose as much weight as possible as quickly as possible, you might be tempted to take more diet pills than is recommended. The result can be convulsions, hallucinations, breathing difficult, or even a heart attack. It is important that if you feel or have any of these symptoms that you get medical attention promptly.

The risk of using diet pills is varied and high. Without regulation and with the high availability, those seeking an easy fix to a large problem may end up jumping from pill to pill, ending up addicted, or suffering terrible side effects. What many don't realize is that the only proven way of keeping weight off for a sustained amount of time is through a balanced diet and exercise.

If you would like to read more of my online articles, please feel free to visit my health blog!

It has happened to all of us at some point or another: we were doing so well with our weight loss diet or exercise regime. Then suddenly we fell off the horse and decided that if we had already gone this far we might as well give up entirely.

There's an old Chinese tale about a father and his son who lived on a farm. Together they raised sheep and cared for them. They lived off of these sheep and were able to make money from the sheep's fur. Every day both the father and the son walked around the field where they were raising the sheep to check that the fence was in good order. One night, the fence broke and some wolves sneaked into the field and ate some of the sheep.

The son cried out to his father saying that all was lost and that they were now ruined! But the father simply picked up his tools and took his son to the fence to patch it up. Once the fence had been fixed, the father told his son that just because there was a weakness in the fence it does not mean that it cannot be fixed nor that it is impossible for them to keep raising sheep.

Your diet or exercise regime is like sheep, it is always at risk of violated or destroyed. The fence represents your will power and your circumstances. It might happen that you're too busy to go to the gym or go jogging every morning for a period of time. It might happen that you were forced to stop at a fast food joint on the side of the high way. It might happen that you cave in to eating some chips, some chocolate, or any one of your other cravings. But that doesn't mean you should give up and let your sheep continue to be eaten by wolves. After you've stuffed yourself with what you know to be unhealthy food: stop and think about it. It's not the end of the world.

If you go end up on a binge of food, you don't need to eat more bad food to "get it out of your system", to feel better or to make sure it never happens again. You will be faced with times where you want to eat something unhealthy, or you want to sleep in and skip your step class. No problem, but don't let that one incident ruin your motivation or your commitment to your diet or exercise regime. It happens to everyone, but if you're one of the people who is able to pick yourself up and fix the fence you'll be able to keep losing weight and get healthier.

I hope this story has helped you to understand that not all is lost if your resolve waivers for a day or a week, or what have you. You are the boss of yourself and you can chose to return to eating healthy foods and working out on a regular basis without any fear. Trust in yourself and make sure you keep your eyes focused on the goal since that's what keeps us all motivated.

Nathalie Lussier maintains the All Around Success Article Directory. She is also the owner of of a healthy weight loss web site and you can find out more about her at her weblog.

Do you eat fast food? You must. According to the House of Representatives, the fast food industry is a significant part of our national economy. It did not become that way be having few customers. Many independent researches have found that fast food is unhealthy and causes weight gain. This research suggests there is something "faulty" with fast food. Our nation is becoming more obese by the day and many obese people are attributing their weight gain to fast food consumption.

In the documentary Super Size Me, it was proved that eating fast food promotes poor health and weight gain—even without over eating. In response to this "faulty" product, some are turning to the legal system for justice. However, a cleverly devised bill was created called the "Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act of 2005." This bill was sent to the house (H.R. 554) and on October 21, 2005 is passed by a vote of 306 to 120. The bill is now in front of the Senate, where it is expected to pass.

The House of Representatives, in this case, found the following:

1. The food and beverage industries are a significant part of our national economy.

2. The activities of the manufacturers and sellers of food and beverages substantially affect interstate and foreign commerce.

3. A person's weight gain, obesity or a health condition associated with a person's weight gain or obesity is based on a multitude of factors, including genetic factors and the lifestyle and physical fitness decisions.

4. Fostering a culture of acceptance of personal responsibility is one of the most important ways to promote a healthier society, lawsuits seeking to blame individual food and beverage providers for a person's weight gain, obesity or health condition are legally frivolous and economically damaging.

5. The American food industry is the nation's leading private sector employer.

If you notice in the above findings, the basis of this soon-to-be law is economically motivated and not devised for the betterment of a healthier society. In their purpose and summary statement, the House of Representatives basically said that fast food establishments should not be held liable for the damage their products cause due to "over-consumption." What is interesting is that these fast food companies have never, to my knowledge, defined what "proper-consumption" is. How can you have over-consumption when you have not defined what proper-consumption is?

If a typical American simply eats his or her regular three meals a day at a food establishment and his or her health deteriorates as a result, shouldn't that establish be held responsible for serving a "faulty" product? H.R. 554 is an attempt to remove the liability of food providers and silence the legal resource by consumers. The next time you walk into a fast food establishment, see if you can located the "proper-consumption" documentation.

Jason A. Martin is a Journalism Major (Political Science minor) and future law school student. His blog deals with Politics, Media and the Law. You can view it at JasonAM

The Roll of Oatmeal (Porridge) in a Healthy Diet

Oatmeal, or porridge if you live outside the US or Canada, play a major role in our modern diet yet few seem to know the true health benefits it gives. Oatmeal provides two of the required three daily servings of whole grains required in a healthy and balanced diet and this alone should help convince you to use it. However there is an added bonus because oatmeal (porridge) is the only whole grain recognized by the US FDA to help reduce cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease.

Can't you imagine all the Scots jumping in the air, waving their Sporrans in glee telling the world: "We told you so!!!" (Sorry I can't type in a Scottish accent.)

There is also a school of thought that claims that by eating filling foods in the morning you actually suppress appetite later in the day and this makes oatmeal an ideal breakfast for weight-watchers. Research clearly indicates:

People who eat breakfast, like a bowl of oatmeal for instance, tend to weigh less than those who skip it.

Adults that eat cereals, cooked or cold, have a lower body mass index than those who eat a combinations of meat and eggs, or those who skip breakfast altogether.

On the subject of healthy eating and weight control - don't forget that you need seven daily servings minimum of fruit and vegetables to maintain health. Again this is also good advice to weight watchers.

The biggest problem you are likely to face if you are trying to lose weight is serving sizes. I've lost count of the number of weight watchers who have told me that they follow a strict diet regime but never seem to lose weight, then they serve themselves at least double recommended serving sizes. Hey it doesn't work that way. Serving sizes are the biggest problem that most weight watchers must contend with and when they come to terms with serving sizes they not only start losing weight they keep it off too.

Quaker has recently introduced Weight Control instant oatmeal, no doubt there are equivalents in all parts of the world and you can get some good tips at

You can also find a free weight control program at:

Sometimes all it takes is a change in your daily habits to regain health.

This article is ©

There are many reasons why you may wish to lose body fat. Among the top are to simply look better and improve your overall health. Losing weight should always be regarded as a long term proposition. Quick weight loss plans can help you lose weight but will not give you the longer term results you crave and deserve.

I want "instant" not "fast"!

Fat will be lost in any diet where the calorific intake is lower than expenditure. However these "crash" diets and low-energy diets will result in a muscle loss in addition to the fat burned. It is estimated that the maximum fat a typical human body can burn in any one week is 2 pounds. This means that any weight loss over and above 2 lbs in a week will be mainly muscle or water.

Crash dieting slows down your metabolism . If you don't eat enough food your ancient survival instincts take over and the body enters "starvation mode". In this mode the metabolic rate slows to conserve energy and thus the speed at which weight is lost is reduced. Thus ultimately less fat is burned using "crash" methods.

In addition the body has lost muscle during this crash phase. Muscle burns calories and the more muscle, the more calories and burned. Crash dieting therefore delivers the double whammy of a drop in metabolic weight and a drop in calorie burning muscle tissue.

This is the reason why so many dieters who rely upon fad diets regain weight quickly after losing it. The only safe reliable and long term way to reduce weight is to do it over a period of time.

A gradual reduction in calories maintains muscle tissue, burns only fat and allows you to maintain a healthy lower weight in the future.

Resident experts at explore the issues surrounding Fast Weight Loss

The feasting is over. The turkey has disappeared: roasted and hot, microwaved leftovers, then cold sandwiches and eventually croquettes or thrown into soup.

You climb on the scale with trepidation and breathe a long sigh of relief when the dreaded poundage fails to appear. Before you relax and think you got away with it, remember that your sneaky little body is playing its usual tricks. Two or three days of Spartan eating will make you feel virtuous again -until you step on the scale and find you've gained 5 pounds. "Fraud" you shriek. "I've been so good!"

Remember the holiday feast? It has finally caught up with you as you knew, deep down, that it would.

What to do?

We all need brief periods of self-indulgence - it's part of the human condition. Expect a setback on your weight loss goals and let that knowledge mitigate your disappointment. Then continue on your diet with the assurance that a special occasion blip doesn't define your future. Enjoy the memories of a family gathering while carefully planning your next week's intake.

Appreciate what you have accomplished so far and avoid loading yourself down with guilt and self-reproach.

Get back on your program as quickly as possible because (sorry to bring this up now) Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat.

Virginia Bola is a licensed psychologist and an admitted diet fanatic. She specializes in therapeutic reframing and the effects of attitudes and motivation on individual goals. The author of The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, and a free ezine, The Worker's Edge, she recently published a psychologically-based weight control e-workbook, "Diet with an Attitude" which develops mental skills towards the goal of permanent weight control. She can be reached at She provides support and guidance in use of the workbook through her regular blog,

Every year, I swear that I will be thin enough to wear my smallest dress to the office party. And every year, I don't quite make it. Oh, I can usually get into it by the beginning of February after a diet-obsessed, guilt-ridden January, but it doesn't mean as much then.

Why are November and December so toxic to our weight control efforts? Certainly there is abundant food available during the month long celebration from Thanksgiving to New Year. It is the season for non-stop parties and gifts of food from colleagues, friends, family, and customers.

But more than just the food, there is a special atmosphere that descends on the Western World at the end of November. Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzai – whatever the celebration involved – evoke the onset of primitive emotions. We wax nostalgic over the holidays we recall from childhood. We turn towards family and traditions that have been absent from our thoughts for the rest of the year. We indulge ourselves in the joy of giving and receiving.

Cookies, and chocolates, and gift baskets bursting with preservatives, which we would politely refuse during any other time of the year, are now gratefully accepted in the spirit of the season. Food we would normally avoid – creamed soups, fruit glazes, gravy, fruit breads, honeyed hams – appear as comfort foods, warming and welcoming. Our sophisticated and world-weary veneer fades in the face of traditions that make us feel whole and contented again.

The goodwill we feel demands a context and a continuity that was established many years ago. Each December, we trot out the same old carols, enjoying the familiarity of tunes we learned to love sitting next to a glittering tree and a roaring fire. For a month, we emotionally step back in time to reconnect who we are with who we were. Despite its current crass commercialism, we need the holidays to remind us of our roots, our values, and our beginnings.

So this year, I am going to throw myself into the fray, eat whatever I want, and let the chips fall where they may. I can always wear something else to the office party and there will be innumerable occasions in the New Year when I can attain caloric virtue through deprivation and denial.

This year, I'm going to have guilt-free, unalloyed, and omnivorous fun.

Bon Appetit!

Virginia Bola is a licensed psychologist and an admitted diet fanatic. She specializes in therapeutic reframing and the effects of attitudes and motivation on individual goals. The author of The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, and a free ezine, The Worker's Edge, she recently published a psychologically-based weight control e-workbook, "Diet with an Attitude" which develops mental skills towards the goal of permanent weight control. She can be reached at She provides support and guidance in use of the workbook through her regular blog,

We have all seen the new Dove commercials that feature "real" women rather than the impossibly "ideal" models that are usually selected. While the Dove girls are universally attractive and fit, they also reflect different sizes and shapes, designed to represent the average American woman. Is that what we want?

Glorifying our diversity seems like a positive development which should lead to increased self-content and improved self-esteem. Comparing ourselves to the imperfect bodies displayed is supposed to lessen our self-criticism and sense of inadequacy.

Does it?

We are a race of strivers, constantly seeking to better ourselves. Self-improvement is the biggest marketing niche of the Twenty-first Century, from books and classes to online information products, magazines, and television. The gurus of our day, from Oprah, to Martha Stewart, to Dr. Phil, to Donald Trump, all entice us towards improving ourselves, our looks, our relationships, our finances, our surroundings — our whole life. We are dissatisfied with ourselves as we are because we have caught a glimpse of what we can become.

To keep us motivated in that direction, we need a vision of perfection to work towards, even if we know we'll never quite get there.

When it comes to weight control, what will keep us riveted on our goal? To look as gorgeous as the cover models on Cosmopolitan or the chunky figures in the Dove Ads?

We don't want to be patronized by the marketing mavens. We don't want a subtle reminder that we need to set our sights lower or aspire to something less than excellence. We want a dream that soars, that inspires us to unbelievable heights. We want a vision to move towards, no matter how unlikely it is that we will reach that destination. So keep your condescending "Go ahead and settle for this" approach away, please.

Robert Browning suggested: "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?"

Virginia Bola is a licensed psychologist and an admitted diet fanatic. She specializes in therapeutic reframing and the effects of attitudes and motivation on individual goals. The author of The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, and a free ezine, The Worker's Edge, she recently published a psychologically-based weight control e-workbook, "Diet with an Attitude" which develops mental skills towards the goal of permanent weight control. She can be reached at She provides support and guidance in use of the workbook through her regular blog,

Despite our national propensity to overeat, under-exercise, and grow steadily heavier and more out of shape, we all yearn to be slender, fit, and attractive. Our culture rewards the thin and the beautiful; look at how we devour celebrity gossip, mesmerized by the looks and energy of our current favorites.

Why the discrepancy between our aspirations and our reality? There are a plethora of reasons, most of which can be traced to the simple fact that life gets in the way.

"I'd love to cut back on my food intake," we think, "But I have to attend all these work functions and have little control over the meals that are served." "I would really like to get in shape," we complain, "But there's no free time and I can't afford a personal trainer like the movie stars I see." "I really want to take care of my skin and my body," we wail, "But I'm so busy that a quick shower and a slap of moisturizer is all I can fit into my schedule."

It would be so wonderful to have loads of free time: to plan our days; to cook low calorie, healthy meals; to exercise without time constraints; to be able to pamper ourselves without the pressure of deadlines. Unfortunately, our lives are too hectic for that to happen in the foreseeable future. We can throw up our hands in frustration and join the legions of the overweight and the unfit, or we can work out a personal plan that fits within our lifestyle, taking us where we want to go, albeit not quite as quickly or completely as we would prefer.

Your life, your time, the demands and responsibilities you face, vary on an individual basis. You will need to calculate what works for you, and what cannot be realistically accommodated. Here are some ideas to consider:

1. Diet

Eating on the run, at your desk, or on the rubber chicken circuit, wreaks havoc with even the best-laid diet plans. If you weigh even a pound more than you'd like, try to identify where you are going astray.

If fast food on your way to an appointment is your downfall, look at what you order. Almost all drive-thrus these days offer salads. The problems with those salads can be minimized by throwing away the little bag of croutons (fried) and omitting the packaged dressings (loaded with fat). Carry your own individual container of low calorie dressing, opt for (unsweetened) ice tea, black coffee, or a diet soda, and avoid those sugar-laden colas like the plagues they are.

If you lunch at your desk, ask yourself what are you eating? If it's takeout, by all means have a cheeseburger or a sandwich. Just discard the bread or bun and eat with a plastic knife and fork, cut into raisin-sized pieces that will fill you up fast. French fries and onion rings? You just don't want to go there.

Is your office always filled with snacks and treats (as most of them seem to be these days)? When the snacks come by, go to the bathroom or, better yet, take a brisk walk around the building to beef up your "won't" power and clear the vision of goodies from your head.

If business lunches, dinners, or those awful meeting banquets are your obstacles, plan ahead. Lunch is relatively easy: salad (with your own dressing, of course) or fish and cottage cheese are available almost anywhere. For dinner, try two low calorie appetizers instead of an entrée. Best of all is something that you have to work at – crab legs, unpeeled shrimp, an artichoke (hold the hollandaise) – it will take a lot of time and no one will notice how little you are actually eating.

Banquets are particularly difficult because a plate is plunked in front of you, filled with food you would never order by choice. Cut whatever protein and vegetables there are into little pieces and chew slowly. Spread the rest out over your plate and play with it to delay the onset of a syrupy dessert. Get a cup of black coffee and place it squarely in front of you to thwart that eager-beaver waiter who keeps trying to slide a plate of pie onto your table.

Entertaining in the home creates a different set of problems because usually you know the hostess and want to avoid creating any bad feelings. Fall back on allergies as no one wants to see you break out in hives in the middle of their party. Carry a club soda or mineral water with you and no one will notice that you're not drinking.

Over a period of time, these little changes can have a significant impact on your weight. If you're hungry when you get home, make sure that you have some liquid protein or a health shake available to complete your daily nutritional needs.

2. Exercise.

With the best of intentions, millions of us purchase gym memberships. If we all actually used them on a regular basis, as we promise ourselves we will, there would be waiting lines spilling into the streets. Health clubs can keep signing up more and more members because they know that the number of regulars will stay about the same as the new enrollees will show up in a burst of initial enthusiasm but within a few short weeks will gradually fade away.

Unless you have a job with very regular hours, something few of us enjoy these days, it's difficult to commit to going somewhere on a regular basis. We mean to go but then an important meeting comes up, our significant other asks us to do something, or the kids pester us to drive them somewhere.

Our high demand lives almost force us to obtain our exercise at home. Television is replete with home equipment that promises to flatten our abs, define our pects, and re-sculpt our entire bodies. Despite their assurances that the equipment easily folds away, we know our apartments can never accommodate a Bowflex or a Nordic Track. Where do those buyers live? In the suburbs, we suspect, where the expensive equipment is soon relegated to the basement or the garage to gather dust until some future yard sale comes along. Equipment, except for minimal contraptions such as elastic bands and hand weights, are just too much trouble, and setting them up takes too much time.

Slipping exercise into your schedule is most easily handled (and therefore more likely to be regularly repeated) by pursuing activities that can be initiated without any preparation time, special clothes, or long periods free of interruption. The old standbys of pushups, situps, stretches with weights, yoga, and calisthenics have stood the test of time for a reason. They can be inserted into your crowded schedule at odd moments of the day and require no preparation except a short warm-up. Some of the newer programs: callanetics, pilates (some), killer exercises, and video workouts also fit these requirements.

When you unexpectedly find a secret half hour free, take a walk and, if you can, magnify its benefits with an occasional bout of sprinting.

Such a plan may not make you into a Mr. or Ms. Universe but it will keep you limber and semi-fit while avoiding that energy-devouring guilt you develop when you set your sights too high and then fail to follow through.

3. Taking care of yourself.

We have all read the accounts of Cleopatra bathing in asses' milk to bleach and smooth her skin. But she was a Queen, for heaven's sake! She didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn to fight the traffic into the office. She didn't have to take care of a husband, a house, or a child. You'd have the time to leisurely bathe if it weren't for cleaning the house, washing the clothes, finishing that report for the office, helping the kids with their homework, cooking dinner, and picking up Aunt Mildred at the airport.

We know we need to take care of ourselves. We want to perform the routines that will stave off the signs of age that wait just around the corner. We would love to take a long daily bath or shower, polish our skin to perfection with a loofah and scrubbing powders, envelop ourselves in skin softeners and lotions, and pamper our face and hair with special cleansers, masques, and skin brighteners.

Again, our lives get in the way. We work out a minimal routine of makeup remover, toner, and moisturizer. We shampoo our hair when we can and occasionally find the time for a special oil treatment or facial. It is hard to be fully motivated when the signs of age are brief and fleeting. When I have more time, we tell ourselves, I'll work on it. Twenty years later, the wrinkles have set in, the jowls have puffed out, and our skin carries the scars of sun, wind, and gravity. Then we bemoan our lack of care through the years and try to minimize the ravages of time already indelibly imprinted on our looks.

By all means, stick to your rapid daily routine. Sure, you could get up earlier in the morning and have time for more self-care but you're already, like most working-age Americans, sleep-deprived.

One solution is to identify one period a week when you can steal a couple of hours for yourself. Women, especially, shortchange themselves, too busy taking care of everyone else and ignoring themselves. Stake out your claim to that two hour window as if your life depended on it. Use it only for you. Use it to take deep treatments for your face or your hair. Use it to practice relaxation, listen to music, or walk in the rain. Use it to pamper every part of your body and spirit. Use it to think about yourself, and your goals, and your dreams. Use it to appreciate yourself and the good things life has brought you. Use it to lay plans for future self-development and use it to become your own best friend and confidant.

Our lives are so filled up with what we have to do that our wants and internal needs are often unmet. In even the busiest and most demanding schedule, there are moments we can carve out for ourselves, but only if we absolutely insist on it. Right now is the time to become assertive about your own self. You too deserve a brief moment in the sun.

Virginia Bola is a licensed psychologist and an admitted diet fanatic. She specializes in therapeutic reframing and the effects of attitudes and motivation on individual goals. The author of The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, and a free ezine, The Worker's Edge, she recently published a psychologically-based weight control e-workbook, "Diet with an Attitude" which develops mental skills towards the goal of permanent weight control. She can be reached at She provides support and guidance in use of the workbook through her regular blog,

You probably know a diet bore: there's at least one in every office, every group, and at every get-together. It's almost always female - men lose weight too but don't seem to feel the same compulsion to convert the entire world. Blame it on our innate female need to change everyone else.

The diet bore is the one who knows the caloric count of every morsel you eat, and makes sure you know it too. She can expound, at length, on the relative merits of sugar, salt, protein and carbohydrates. She actually knows the difference (and explains it ad nauseum) between mono and unsaturated fats, transfats, and essential fats. She knows what's good for you and what terrible things will happen if you actually eat what's on your plate.

She's the one who makes you cringe in a restaurant as she meticulously quizzes the poor waitress about how everything is prepared and cooked. She demands special substitutions and omissions and then complains that her meal is bland. She carries salt and sugar substitutes in her tote along with her trusty food value books and a calculator to loudly total the calories and carbs she (and you) has consumed.

She causes more of us to fall of our diets than Ronald McDonald and Colonel Sanders combined because she makes the whole concept of losing weight so damned boring that we don't want anything to do with it.

As we happily pig out on our spaghetti and meat balls (with garlic toast), we can take comfort in noting that the diet bore, despite the breadth of her knowledge and her too public weight control efforts, is always a little heavier than she should be.

Maybe she bores herself too?

Virginia Bola is a licensed psychologist and an admitted diet fanatic. She specializes in therapeutic reframing and the effects of attitudes and motivation on individual goals. The author of The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, and a free ezine, The Worker's Edge, she recently published a psychologically-based weight control e-workbook, "Diet with an Attitude" which develops mental skills towards the goal of permanent weight control. She can be reached at She provides support and guidance in use of the workbook through her regular blog,

We decide to lose weight because of any number of reasons: we don't like the way we look, our clothes don't fit, our health is in danger, our significant other is wandering, our job is at risk, or our kids are embarrassed. We tend to think of weight loss as something that involves only our body; surely no one ever decided to lose weight because of a fat brain or a bloated mind.

Yet "we decide" is a mental function. When and why we make such a decision depends on our mind, not our body. We may make the decision when we are five pounds heavier than we would like, or after passing the two hundred pound mark and entering true medical obesity. The actual size of the body does not trigger the decision to lose weight, such a choice in made in the brain.

Since the start (and the continuation) of a diet program is a mental process, it would seem to be worthwhile to explore what factors might trigger such a decision.

1. Self-Image.

Each of us has a dual image: the face we turn to the world and our internal idea of how we appear. Although we dress and groom ourselves in an effort to be seen as attractive by others, we are far less influenced by others than by our satisfaction, or dissatisfaction, with ourselves.

Explore this concept by observing yourself and others over the course of the next week. You will notice that you often receive compliments on clothes you wear that, to you, don't feel "quite right." Wear a favorite outfit that fits perfectly, that you think looks outstanding, and that makes you feel especially dashing – and no one notices! The same phenomenon occurs with a hairstyle. One morning, rushed for time, you can't get your hair to do anything so you angrily pull it back with clips and hope that no one important sees you looking so awful. Voila! Three people comment that they like what you've done with your hair.

There is the same disconnect when it comes to our weight. If we look good in our mind's eye, we don't feel fat, even if friends and coworkers are whispering about our steady weight gain. However, if we see ourselves as overweight, no amount of reassurance from those around us is going to make us feel less fat. Carried to the extreme, this mental picture of our body size can lead to the eating disorder anorexia nervosa in which painfully thin individuals continue to dangerously restrict their caloric intake because they consistently see themselves as too heavy.

We decide to go on a diet, therefore, in response to our internal self-image. Some of the benefits we envision that go along with being slim and fit do take others into account: I will be more attractive to the opposite sex; I'll be noticed at work when it's time for a promotion; my family and friends will be jealous and will have to re-evaluate me as a stronger person than they had thought. But the real payoff for getting in shape is what it does for us personally. It is the desire to feel great about ourselves that carries us through the pain and monotony of diet and exercise. It is the future vision of ourselves in our mind that spurs us toward our goal. Losing that vision, or concluding that we won't feel that much better about ourselves, are the reasons we give up and fall back into the relative comfort of settling for just "okay."

2. Body versus Mind dominance.

We all wage a lifelong internal battle between our body and our mind. Each is dominant at different stages of development. As infants, we are little more than a collection of sensations. We explore the exciting new world around us through touching everything within reach, tasting everything we can put into our mouths, watching the movements of everything around us, and listening to all the sounds we hear until we eventually learn to imitate them.

As we move into our early school years, we start to concentrate on our minds. We voraciously devour immense amounts of information. We learn to read and our world expands its boundaries by a thousand percent. We learn to use the Internet and a limitless universe is at our fingertips.

Then we move into puberty and, overnight, our appearance becomes the dominating factor in our everyday lives. We navigate the pitfalls and pleasures of adolescence where popularity and being cool are so much more vital than mere learning or mental development. We spend an inordinate amount of time on our bodies. We try new clothes, new hairstyles, and new makeup. We have body parts pierced and undergo the pain of a tattoo because it will make us stand out. We primp, and groom, and force ourselves into the styles our peers have judged as "in."

As we mature, we seek to balance our mental and physical selves. While our bodies reign supreme in the attract-a-mate environment, we need to exercise our minds to advance our careers and to develop deep relationships that move far beyond mere physical attraction.

It is when we settle down, and start to build the good life we want, that our efforts and energies turn towards things outside ourselves: children, significant others, friends, family, and work pursuits. We have so much happening around us and so much to do that we lose touch with both our bodies and our minds. We slip into our own comfort zone where so many of our needs are fulfilled by food. It eases our anxiety, relieves our frequent frustrations, and makes periodic bouts of the blues bearable. It oils our social interactions. It becomes a vital cog in how we demonstrate affection for those we love. We continue to see ourselves as we have always been and ignore the love handles and pockets of fat that attach themselves to parts of our body we resolutely ignore. Our bodies, and our internal image of our bodies, become more and more discordant.

3. Our sense of self-efficacy.

Self-efficacy is a term used in psychology to describe an individual's belief that any action they take will have an effect on the outcome. It is not self-confidence, nor a belief that one is competent to do something, although it may involve both. It reflects our inner expectation that what we do will effect the results we want.

If I lack this belief, then I fear that whatever I do will not bring about my desired goal. Bordering on helplessness, it leads to self-defeating thoughts:

"No matter how carefully I diet, I don't lose weight . . ." "I could work out every day but I'll never get rid of these thunder thighs . . ." "I try to eat healthier foods but my hips just keep on spreading . . ." "No matter what techniques I try, nothing is going to keep the wrinkles away . . ."

If I have a strong sense of self-efficacy, my belief system and thought patterns will sound like:

"All I have to do is get motivated and I can whip my body into shape in a few weeks . . ." "I just need to pick a date to start my diet and I'll be on my way . . ." "I may have neglected myself for a while but some hard work will bring me back . . ."

Whether or not we start a diet, decide to get in shape, or start taking better care of ourselves is, ultimately, a personal decision which may, or may not, be made as we have planned. The difference lies in the expectation of success and it is always easier to set out on a journey we anticipate will be successful than it is to drag ourselves toward a goal where failure is the most likely outcome.

How can we combine these concepts to work for us in our desire to become slim, fit, and attractive?

We begin by examining our self-image and how we appear to others. Merely asking others "Do you think I'm getting too heavy?" doesn't work unless you have a brutally honest friend or you ask someone who dislikes you. Most of us are culturally trained to spare others' feelings so responses to such a question are more likely to be polite than true.

Concentrating on specifics can produce better feedback. Tell everyone that you're completing a survey for a class you're taking. Hand out a brief one page questionnaire requiring that each friend or coworker list three adjectives to describe different aspects of your physical appearance. Complete one of the sheets yourself. Make sure that the answers are anonymous by requesting that no names be used and having someone else collect the completed sheets.

Once you have the responses back, compare them to your own answers and see where the descriptions diverge. You may find yourself becoming a little defensive: "My hips aren't that big . . . my clothes do too make me look slim." This isn't an exercise to make you feel bad about yourself nor for you to gloat over the unexpected complimentary remarks you received. It is an organized effort to help you identify where your self-image and your image-in-the-world move apart. Those areas of divergence are a place to start in the effort to make the two images overlap.

Once the areas where work is needed have been identified, it is time to call on the immeasurable strength of our wonderful mind to start imposing the structure and organization we are going to need to effect the desired changes. Our mind can only get us where we want to go if it is supported by a belief in our ability to bring about a successful conclusion. Now is the time to dismiss any expectations of failure. There may have been many unsuccessful dieting and fitness attempts in the past. Leave them in the past. We are not somehow doomed to continue unproductive behaviors forever. We possess that jewel of evolution, the human mind, which is capable of just about anything. If we set our mind to any task, it will accomplish it, if our doubts and misgivings don't get in its way.

We build up our positive expectations by exploring our memories to pile up a long list of prior successes. There may be major benchmarks such as bringing about a promotion we wanted, orchestrating a fantastic event, or working ourselves into an intensely satisfying relationship. However, the small personal triumphs count the most but are usually quickly forgotten or discounted as unimportant.

Studying hard and obtaining a good grade in a difficult class clearly demonstrates your ability to bring about the results you want. Go for quantity: the day you smiled at someone across a smoky room and ended up with a brief but lovely affair; the report you brought in on time which no one expected; the night you mastered a spin on ice skates. Keep going: making the drill team, shooting a stolen basket, making your own prom dress, dying your hair a wonderful color in your own bathroom, catching a fly ball, figuring out new software on your computer, burning your first CD. The list can be endless and will be, as you keep remembering snippets of the past that you had long buried under more important things.

Keep this list close by and read it regularly. It is your personal self-efficacy pep squad.

You now know the areas you are going to work on and are developing a belief in the effectiveness of your own efforts. Now you need to identify the internal rewards that successful weight loss will bring. Feeling good about yourself, enjoying stepping on a scale, and easily zipping up your clothes are easy starters. Unselfconsciously walking to the pool in a brief suit is a reinforcement to dream about. Making a sales presentation with the confidence that you are looking your absolute best is an image to relish as you fall asleep. Seeing someone you love watch you admiringly, or seeing your competitive coworker jealous, underscores your resolve and keeps you going through the discomfort of dieting and the demands of boring exercise routines.

You know where you're going, you know what it's going to take, and you know you're going to be successful. Your mind is fully prepared, simply awaiting your day of decision. You'll make that decision whenever you choose because you are now in control.

Virginia Bola is a licensed psychologist and an admitted diet fanatic. She specializes in therapeutic reframing and the effects of attitudes and motivation on individual goals. The author of The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, and a free ezine, The Worker's Edge, she recently published a psychologically-based weight control e-workbook, "Diet with an Attitude" which develops mental skills towards the goal of permanent weight control. She can be reached at She provides support and guidance in use of the workbook through her regular blog,

The e-mail comes out at noon. "To celebrate your hard work this week, there is cake and ice cream in the big kitchen at 3 today. Be there!"

The universal reward for hard work always seems to be food: cake and ice cream, a catered lunch for in-service training sessions, pizza for the overtime crew, bagels and cream cheese to brighten up a bleak Monday morning.

Food seems to be the perennial favorite for any kind of work reward because it is universally accepted. Some of us (we hard core dieters) may pass on the sweet stuff but usually find something allowable. In a world where two thirds of us are overweight or obese, is there nothing else available as a gift that cuts across all individual interests?

Recently, we had a whole week at my company devoted to employee appreciation. The primary rewards were, of course, food but other things were added: a company baseball cap, a hiking water container, a lunch bag, and a handwritten note of thanks to every employee from their supervisor. The cap was a bust for those of us with any modicum of fashion sense; the insulated flask and bag were food related, and the handwritten notes were superfluous - good supervisors show their appreciation of hard work constantly while a handwritten note from a harsh supervisor, no matter the "thanks" stated, means diddly squat to a resentful employee.

The HAS to be something else, doesn't there? We human beings have few things totally in common and eating is the primary universal. Other common bodily activities such as urination and defecation are not easily translatable into some kind of reward system. We are all involved in physical activity, to some degree, but that is often more a chore than a delight.

When it comes to our other senses, we all differ so much that one person's pleasure is another person's pain: music, perfume, pictures, or massages are differential tastes rather than general givens.

Money is almost always acceptable but the small amounts that would be individually generated to replace a free dessert or snack would be so minimal that their reward value would be insignificant.

So what can those of us on a permanent diet, and alarmed about our coworkers' increased girth, suggest?

How about plants? Small individual pots or a larger department shrub would save our waistlines while adding to the health and esthetics of our environment. I calculate, just within my call center, that if a plant had been given to each department, instead of an edible goodie, for celebrations over the past 5 years, that I would now be working in a lush rain forest of exotic plants where the stale re-processed air conditioned air would be purer, more humid, and a thousand times fresher. Morale booster and health benefits in one fell swoop!

How about the gift of time? In our overly busy pressured lives, who would not be immensely grateful for a free hour here or there. Rotate it through each department, letting one or two people leave early on a Friday afternoon. That would means something and would carry no cost so upper management should be ecstatic.

Instead of a handwritten note, how about getting Supervisors to perform their subordinates work duties for an hour or so, once in a while? Can you imagine the morale boost for an employee to get off the telephone, or the machine, or the computer, and shoot the breeze with friends for an hour while their duties are performed by their supervisors? And if mistakes are made - so much the better. It creates a sense of equality and inter-relationship between workers and supervisors that is generally lacking in a corporate environment.

How about free "Get out of jail" cards for every line worker? Each person gets one free card and additional cards can be given by supervisors for outstanding work, ensuring that the better workers have more cards. The cards can then be used as excuses for small transgressions - coming in a little late, leaving early, making minor mistakes. With the use of the card, a worker avoids verbal coaching, warnings, or being put on report. And let employees use their cards for coworkers who may need them - think of the teambuilding that would accomplish!

Flexibility of hours, assignments, and days, is another area where workers will universally respond: not to money, or food, but to accommodation of individual needs. Give each employee a wish card and then allow them to use it to get something they need.

What does all of this accomplish? It allows for employee rewards without fats and carbohydrates. Now isn't that worthwhile?

P. S. I'm recommending this to my company. I'll let you know if they buy it!

Virginia Bola is a licensed psychologist and an admitted diet fanatic. She specializes in therapeutic reframing and the effects of attitudes and motivation on individual goals. The author of The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, and a free ezine, The Worker's Edge, she recently published a psychologically-based weight control e-workbook, "Diet with an Attitude" which develops mental skills towards the goal of permanent weight control. She can be reached at She provides support and guidance in use of the workbook through her regular blog,

A common expression is that we're "going on a diet." The phrase suggests that, like a vacation trip, there is a beginning and an end. We dream of the day we will reach our weight goal and how wonderful it will be when we don't have to lead a life of painful deprivation.

In the back of our minds, there is a comforting little tape playing, promising us that when our weight loss campaign is over, we'll be able to stop counting calories, carbohydrates, or fats. We long for the day when we no longer have to clench our teeth as we refuse a favorite dish that always causes us to salivate in our sleep. We reach for the carrot and celery sticks without anticipation or enthusiasm while torturing ourselves with visions of the special treats we'll enjoy when the diet is over.

Uh, hello?

Allowing ourselves to think of a diet as a delineated, restricted period within our total life span is a sure avenue back to tent city (that refers to what we wear, not where we live). To have any hope of attaining permanent weight control, we must approach it as a lifelong effort, watching our intake day after day, week after week, year after year.

You feel your heart sinking in your chest. You think "If I have to live like this all the time, it's just not worth it!" That little voice promises you that you are different. You can relax because now you know how to lose weight, you can do it anytime you want. Gain five pounds and you'll go back on your diet and be back to goal in no time at all.

But you won't! Think back over your chequered weight history. We all believe that once our weight is down, it will be so easy to go on a short diet if we gain back a few pounds. It doesn't work that way, though, does it? We start gaining a pound here and a pound there, but then there are some special events coming up and a diet would be so inconvenient. We don't go back "on" our diet until we've gained enough weight to develop the self-disgust that warrants a new period of serious deprivation. We have become a full-fledged member of the yo-yo club, that vast majority of dieters who cannot keep the weight off for more than a few weeks.

The reasons we go "on" and "off" diets are numerous: they are boring, depressing, and very uncomfortable. They set us apart from friends, family, and coworkers who continue to snack, to feast, and to celebrate. We resent how diets make us feel and how they impact our daily lives.

Let's look at the whole picture from a different perspective for a minute.

Instead of "a diet" envision a way of eating that involves living on a diet for the rest of your life. While the prospect may appall you, don't say you can't do it just yet.

First, consider another wide-spread concept many of us accept. To lose substantial weight in a relatively short time, we need to select the diet that seems to fit us and then stay with it, religiously, until we've reached our goal.

Let's now take these two concepts, squish them together, and then turn them upside down.

We are not "going on a diet." We are starting our diet-for-life. We then pick a diet, any diet at all, and make the commitment to stick with that diet for one week, and one week only. At the end of the week, we are going to pick an entirely different diet to which again we only commit for a one week period. This continues for virtually the rest of our lives with selected diets changing on a weekly basis.

What does this accomplish? A whole bunch of things:

1.

By selecting a different diet each week, it removes those common misgivings that maybe we should have gone in a different direction. We worry that we're not getting the right nutrients or that we're going to get sick or develop a rare disease. We read the diet ratings and panic at the warnings posted for all the popular programs. With our new approach, you don't have to fret about if you made a good or bad choice because you'll be making a new choice in a week.

2.

If there are particularly painful "No-Nos" in this week's diet, resolve to try something next week that allows a currently forbidden fruit. For example, a primarily protein regimen has been found successful for many participants who often lose five or ten pounds in a week. However, they miss the vegetables and salad they enjoy. The next week could then be a vegetables and salad only routine, also successful for rapid weight loss but a bit lean on the protein you body needs for self-repair.

You may then find yourself craving some good bread so you switch to the Subway diet for a week until your craving is satisfied. Move on to something completely different – the cabbage soup diet or liquid shakes. Since there are literally thousands of diets, a few are bound to include the food you crave.

You are never more than a week away from having what you feel you absolutely must have in order to keep going. You can include spartan fad diets that move fat quickly and you can include calorie counting or Weight Watcher diets that allow almost anything so long as you adjust your intake to stay within the totals specified.

3.

The frequent changes in your eating patterns keep your body off-balance. Give the body enough time and advance notice and it will adapt to anything, turning protein into carbohydrates and storing even low calorie carbohydrates as little pockets of fat. By totally changing what you eat on a regular basis, the body gives up trying to figure out how to thwart you and spends its time efficiently processing what you give it. You are effectively using your smart little mind to outmaneuver your smart not-so-little body.

4.

The constant changes force you to buy food in smaller packages. It's pointless and wasteful to buy those family packs of anything. That will help you with overall portion reduction, a must for any serious dieter. Your shopping goal is only to purchase items that you can consume within a week. If you see something that you particularly want but is not on your allowed list, make a mental note to find a diet for next week that can accommodate it.

5.

The need for a new diet each week requires that you read and research a lot of diets. The reading acts as reinforcement for your goals and will assure your continuing education on nutrition and fitness. When you see something that intrigues you or just makes a lot of sense, try it out. Perhaps one week will involve barely restricted eating but require a lot of exercise. Go for it – it's only a week.

6.

You are in the happy position of having wide choices available but also the needed structure of an organized plan to follow. The regimented eating is within each week's diet; the power of choice is operative when you decide what the next week's program will be.

7.

Can you stay on a diet permanently? Yes, you can, because you're not restricting yourself from anything for life, just for a week at a time. Should you stay on a diet for the rest of your life? Yes, you probably should as long as you are getting a balance of foods from an intelligent mixing of alternative diet plans. If you like one diet more than another, or if one particular program works exceptionally well for you, by all means cycle that diet into your routine on a regular basis. Just make sure you don't use the same plan more than once a month or your body is going to be ready for it and Zap! you find it no longer works so well.

8.

Can you over-diet? We have all seen (although they seem to be harder to find these days) overly thin, cadaverous dieters with sunken cheeks and loose skin. That can be avoided by making your selected diets very diverse so you are never without needed nutrients for very long. For example, many retirement homes and assisted living co-ops produce thin seniors with pallid skin and protruding abdomens. Replace their mushy, high starch meals with any of the myriad high protein and vegetable-fruit diets and their color will improve, their energy increase, and their tummies fade.

9.

Can you ever be too thin? Visit an eating disorder facility and you will see the results of anorexia nervosa, not a pretty sight and highly dangerous from a medical standpoint. If you have a history of overweight, you may tell yourself that being too thin will never be in the cards for you. However, there are not infrequent cases of the perennial heavy who becomes anorexic through dieting too much with resulting anxiety about gaining back even an ounce of the flesh so painfully discarded. If you have a distorted body image, and reliable friends are concerned about your being too thin, get professional help.

10.

It all comes down to using your brain intelligently. When you are at your heaviest, with the most to lose, the logical choice is a rather spartan program that will get the fat moving quickly. As you lose, more moderate programs can be interspersed so that your skin and cheeks have a chance to adjust and fill in as your weight stores become redistributed. If a particular part of your body is resistant to reduction, exercise may become a more important part of your plan than simply a dietary approach. Once you are hovering at your ideal weight, simple calorie counting or support group involvement may be all you need.

The secret is to be rational about it all and use that wonderful mind of yours to set the program for your not-so-intelligent body with its insatiable appetite and poundage conservation cravings. Don't try to cheat unless you want to cheat yourself and then be honest and admit that, for whatever reason there is, you want to avoid further weight loss. When you want and need to lose fifty pounds, an ice cream and chocolate diet is not rational. When you are at ideal weight or below, a stringent fad diet makes no sense.

Will all this mixing of diets result in consistent weight loss? There is never consistency in weight loss because there are just too many factors involved: water retention, digestive inefficiencies, the amount of energy expended, and individual body quirks. Over time, you will lose steadily but there will always be some ups and downs along the way.

Once the concept of "going on a diet" has been discarded, a lifelong eating plan can be embraced, guaranteed to leave you in control of your weight for the rest of your long slender life.

Virginia Bola is a licensed psychologist and an admitted diet fanatic. She specializes in therapeutic reframing and the effects of attitudes and motivation on individual goals. The author of The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, and a free ezine, The Worker's Edge, she recently published a psychologically-based weight control e-workbook, "Diet with an Attitude" which develops mental skills towards the goal of permanent weight control. She can be reached at She provides support and guidance in use of the workbook through her regular blog,

It's 11:30 AM. You've been up since 5 o'clock and the hunger meter is on high. "What to eat?" you think to yourself.

You pore over the menu for the deli downstairs but nothing you can allow yourself looks that good. Sure, you could go out for fast food but there's a meeting coming up and you don't really want to move your car and then have to find a new parking spot when you return.

So you decide not to go out. That leaves eating in.

You look at your choices, wishing you'd had the foresight to bring something from home. There's the vending machine in the break room, filled with plastic-wrapped, rubber-textured sandwiches, bagels, muffins and Danish. Ugh, you keep spinning the carousels, hoping that by some miracle, there will be a vegetable snack plate or something half-way decent. You narrow down your choices to a cup of noodle soup or a chicken breast sandwich.

Now you have another choice: eat something to take the edge off or power through the minutes of temptation until you are sitting in your meeting and eating is out of the question. After an hour of dreary, repetitive discussions, your hunger may have calmed down.

How you handle it each day, depends on your mood. Often, if we can get through that one tempting half hour, we're set for the afternoon and can easily wait for our well-planned light dinner. On other days, you know in your heart that if you don't eat something, you won't be able to concentrate on your work because all you can think about is food while you try to conceal the embarrassment of a gurgling stomach.

On those days, take the chicken sandwich, remove the bun, and microwave the miniscule piece of chicken provided. Then cut it into tiny pieces and eat slowly with a plastic knife and fork. If you can make the pea-sized pieces last for 15 or 20 minutes, you'll feel like you've actually eaten an entire meal and be on your way to a pleasant non-food-focused afternoon on a very limited caloric intake.

If you truly want to control your weight, you can do it anywhere. The key is never to eat until you've had a lengthy internal dialog with yourself that forces you into a full awareness of your food intake and then select the lesser of all evils and consume it as slowly as you can manage.

Even trapped in the office with nothing more than a killer vending machine, you can turn bleak choices into a self-esteem building triumph.

Virginia Bola is a licensed psychologist and an admitted diet fanatic. She specializes in therapeutic reframing and the effects of attitudes and motivation on individual goals. The author of The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, and a free ezine, The Worker's Edge, she recently published a psychologically-based weight control e-workbook, "Diet with an Attitude" which develops mental skills towards the goal of permanent weight control. She can be reached at She provides support and guidance in use of the workbook through her regular blog,

We are so eager to lose weight that we swallow the promises of every diet guru on the planet and eagerly plunk down our hard earned cash, praying that this time it will work.

What are the costs of the popular diets? The initial cost is to buy the "Bible" for the diet or join the program. Those initial fees range from $20 or $30 for a book to several hundred dollars for a personal program.

Then there's the food. Studies have shown that the average cost of a week's food purchases, per individual, is slightly above $50. To start the South Beach Diet, tack on an additional $25 per week. For the Zone and Weight Watchers Diets, the additional cost is about $40, for Atkins $50, for NutriSystems almost $60 and for Jenny Craig about $85!

Wait a minute, you say. I'm losing weight by cutting back on eating. Shouldn't that SAVE me money?

Looking at it logically, you would certainly think so. But we don't try to lose weight logically, we approach the whole process through our emotions. It is our emotions that lead us to buy things on impulse, to sign up for programs we know we'll never complete, and to join projects we'll never actively pursue.

Our emotional thinking is our weakness and it has nothing to do with intelligence or education or social level. We all get suckered into scams at some point in our lives and we all occasionally suffer from buyer's remorse – it's a part of the human experience.

The marketers and ad men know it well and spend their days devising tricks for which we all too often fall. How often have you eagerly dialed an 800 number during one of those brilliant infomercials only to receive something that doesn't work as it did on TV, is either shoddily made or just too complicated, and you stick it in the back of a cupboard where it gathers dust until you finally toss it?

When it comes to our weight, our emotions reign supreme. We so desperately want to be more attractive, more respected, and more desirable. We will even subject ourselves to painful and sometimes dangerous surgery to bring our reality closer to our ideal. And we will rob our piggy banks, deplete our bank accounts, and run up our credit cards for anything that promises us a slender future.

Do we get what we pay for? Sometimes. There are a few successful disciples in every program. It is their pictures and stories that are prominently displayed in promotional literature. It is the old "before" and "after" trick that sucks us in. Our logic (and a tiny footnote) tells us that the featured results are not typical.

The wary left side of our brain wonders if a little airbrushing might have been employed. Then the right side explodes, filled with desire, well-meaning intentions, and an overwhelming urge to believe. And we fall for it again.

Notice that we never hear or see about the failures, the hundreds of thousands who start a diet with such high hopes yet live the rest of their lives overweight. All the diets have their failures but never bother to mention exactly what their percentages are. They may caution that their program must be followed exactly if it is to work, but let's be realistic. How many of us can follow an unswerving routine for the weeks, months, or years it is going to take to reach our ideal weight? We may be creatures of habit but life seldom fits into one unsquishable box for very long. We adapt the routine to meet our immediate needs and everything falls apart.

Sadder, wiser, guilt-ridden and self-critical, we vow to start again until, eventually, we give up. Is there a better way?

We can start by realizing that it really doesn't matter what diet we choose. The secret is to address our emotions, that infatuation with food that has, nationally, reached crisis proportions. We have to break off our affair with what we eat and restore food to its rightful place – something that keeps us alive and healthy, not our primary source of excitement and self-satisfaction.

Virginia Bola is a licensed psychologist and an admitted diet fanatic. She specializes in therapeutic reframing and the effects of attitudes and motivation on individual goals. The author of The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, and a free ezine, The Worker's Edge, she recently published a psychologically-based weight control e-workbook, "Diet with an Attitude" which develops mental skills towards the goal of permanent weight control. Reach her at

When Hoodia was discovered the very first animal trials to test it was with Rats. The rats that were fed with Hoodia stopped eating completely. Rats are well know as animals that will eat anything and everything. Can you believe that an animal who loves to eat anything simply switched off its desire to eat, even when foods that rats love were placed in front of them.

When the first clinical human trial was conducted with Hoodia, several morbidly obese people were placed in a unit which was a closed off area were all that they could do was to read, watch television, interact with each other, and of course eat. Half the people were given Hoodia Gordonii to take, and half were given a placebo. After fifteen days, the group that had been taking Hoodia Gordonii had reduced their calorie intake by 1000 calories a day - despite taking no exercise and not being on a diet

This is due to the active ingredient in Hoodia Gordonii, the molecule known as P57, as it imitates the effects that glucose has on your brain, signaling that you are full. Your brain has what is called a Hypothalamus. This part of your brain controls your appetite. When you eat, the glucose levels in your body rise. As these levels go up, the hypothalamus sends off a signal to your cells to stop eating. This is when you start to feel full. Hoodia Gordonii's molecule, P57, tells your brain the same exact thing, even if you haven't eaten a bite. By mimicking the effects of glucose on your brain, the hypothalamus starts to send messages to your cells which in turn, make you feel full

Hoodia is grown in the Kalahari Desert region of South Africa, Hoodia Gordonii is an all natural appetite suppressant, derived from a cactus like plant with prickly spikes. Scientists have been researching the Hoodia plant for almost a decade, and have found it to be completely free of harmful side effects.

Paul Callis is extremely knowledgeable in the field of sports and nutrition in the UK . You can visit Paul's web site, and read his recommendations and advice at Hoodia Gordonii

Detoxification programs have been promoted as the remedy to today's unhealthy lifestyles for years. Proponents of detoxification note that a good detox can help increase energy, slow the aging process, aid the digestive system and help relieve the symptoms of diabetes and asthma. One of the greatest benefits of a good detoxification program is weight loss.

Our bodies are equipped with several systems to help it naturally detox. However, today's stressful lifestyles and unhealthy eating habits often overburden our natural systems. As our body struggles to keep up with the toxic matter flowing through our systems it often falls behind. Toxic waste begins to back up and the balance of our body is disrupted.

A good detox will help restore the body's balance, eliminate the waste building up and make our systems run much more efficiently. During autopsies, coroners often find colons that are more than 75% clogged with waste matter. This causes the systems that clean our blood and intestinal tracts to back up. Nutrients can't be absorbed as efficiently and we gain weight, become tired and irritable. Health issues often follow.

Cleaning the colon and the liver often completely relieves these clogs and allows our bodies to return to optimum functioning. Nutrients are used efficiently and many find that the detox program has such great results that they simply don't crave sugar and fried foods after the detoxification. Many report feeling so good after detoxifying that they are motivated to eat more carefully.

With the toxins being flushed out of the body, many report a dramatic increase in energy level, encouraging many to exercise and further assist their detox in reducing weight.

Researchers have found that as the level of toxins in the body rises, more fat is manufactured to protect the body. Weight gain is a natural by-product of toxin buildup. Removing the toxins from the body allows the body to release the excess fat, resulting in a natural weight loss.

There are many detoxification programs on the market. Choose a gentle, well researched program that includes a parasite remover as well. You'll be pleasantly surprised at your increased energy and amount of weight loss!

Sandra Kim Leong publishes information on detoxification and cleansing. Her site includes information on colon cleansing, liver cleansing, kidney cleansing, detox diets and juice fasting. Please visit

The food pyramid was issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the early 1990s as part of a program to encourage the growth of healthy eating habits from a young age. From the outset schools that were keen to introduce healthy eating habits from junior school level upwards embraced it. We all accepted that USDA had produced a new key to guide us in how to eat healthily and start the battle against obesity from a young age. Time has since taught us that the Food Pyramid was based upon some unsound scientific data and the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health has since corrected the base knowledge by using up to date scientific data that has now replaced the original Pyramid. On a personal note I think the original Food Pyramid was great and a definite step in the right direction. This new approach is based upon more accurate scientific data and is therefore better to use.

The Five Food Groups

Fruits: Eat a variety of fruits rather than fruit juices for most of your fruit needs. Apart from fresh fruit you can also use canned fruit, dried fruit or frozen fruit. But try to have at least one item of fresh fruit each day.

Vegetables: Dark green vegetables are especially good for you; spinach, broccoli and kale lead the way together with any other dark leaf greens. Orange vegetables should also form a major part of your diet: Carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin and winter squash. Don't forget beans and peas such as kidney beans, pinto beans, black beans, split peas and lentils.

Calcium foods: You need at least three cups of fat free or low fat milk each day. You can substitute an equal amount of low-fat yoghurts or cheese. One and a half ounces (42.5 grams) of cheese equals a cup of milk.

Grains: Minimum three ounces (85 grams) of whole-grain cereal. This can be substituted by pasta or rice. 1/2 cup of pasta or rice equals 1 cup of whole-grain breakfast cereal. Harvard School of Public Health suggests that you should read the content labels to be sure that grains such as wheat, rice, oats and corn are referred to as "whole".

Proteins: Choose only lean meats and poultry and it is preferable to bake, broil or grill it. You can vary your protein intake with fish, beans, peas, nuts and seeds.

A healthy diet requires a daily intake from each of the five food groups listed above. It also requires that you eat in moderation and should never eat until you feel full. It takes around twenty minutes for your stomach to get the full message to your brain. It is this time lapse that is to blame for the majority of cases of obesity. Today many of the top dieticians are advocating that you eat more meals each day rather than less. For instance, if you eat six small meals each day with a controlled calorie intake you are less likely to eat too much at any meal. This is far more helpful to losing weight than taking 3 meals each day and being so hungry when you sit down that you eat until the brain gets the message that you are full because that is already too late and the damage will takes months to undo.

This article is © copyright David McCarthy 2005. It may be reproduced in its entirety with no additions.

David McCarthy is webmaster of a site that is dedicated to freely sharing knowledge of all things connected to food and diet with recipes from diet to party food.

A good health and fitness program needs to focus on factors that prevent us from becoming unhealthy. One factor that has definitely a correlation with unhealthiness is obesity. The health consequences for being overweight or obese are vast and may include high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, gallbladder disease, sleep apnea and some cancers to name a few.

Losing weight and becoming healthy for obese and overweight people is imperative and well designed fitness software can support this. One way it can be helpful is to calculate a person's calorie balance and correlate these numbers to their body measurements and vital signs. It is very encouraging and motivating to see yourself lose weight and in the same instance your blood pressure and cholesterol levels go down.

Weight loss all boils down to your calorie balance. If your intake is higher then you spend, you gain weight. In part 1, we talked about the calorie intake side of the calorie balance equation. Part 2 describes the requirements for the calories spent module.

Let's start out with the assumption that the calories spent will significantly vary between people and can not be generalized between high, medium and low activity level. We need a more precise method than that. If we look just plainly at the factors that influence our energy spending, we can conclude the following:

Larger people will spend more energy than small people. It makes sense that when you move more weight it costs more energy. Younger people will spend more than older people. Males will spend more than females. Tall thin people will spend more energy than short stocky with the same weight. The tall thin person has more body surface and loses more heat. Lean muscled people spend more energy than the average or overweight person with the same weight. Muscles use more energy than fat cells. Active people will spend more energy than sedative people.

During a day we execute many activities all with a different length of time and intensity level. Between activities there can be huge differences in intensity level. For instance fishing is way less intense than rowing a boat. Also within the same activity different intensity levels exist. For instance 30 minutes running will cost more energy then 30 minutes jogging or walking. Executing an activity with a high intensity level will spend more energy per unit of time.

When calculating the calorie balance, the fitness software should take all the above factors into its formula and adjust the variables automatically. For instance if somebody loses weight, this should be immediately reflected in the outcome. Let's say I weigh in on Monday and the system calculates 2500 calories spent and two weeks later I weigh again and provided my daily activities were exactly the same but I lost two pounds, the system should automatically calculate the new calories burned taking the 2 pounds lost into account.

You should have the ability to create multiple activity plans in the system, individualized per person. Most people repeat their daily activities on a weekly basis, if today is Tuesday, next Tuesday my activities will be pretty much the same. From Monday till Friday the activities may be similar, but they can differ significantly from weekend to weekend.

In order to calculate the calories spent during the day precisely, you will need to record all activities, the length of time for each activity and the intensity level it was executed. Doing so could mean a lot of time behind the computer entering all this data. To circumvent this problem, the software should allow you to create a plan that is repeated on a weekly basis with default values. Now you need to only to copy this plan and update the differences from what actually occurred. The actual activities with their time length are noted on an activity worksheet that can be printed on a daily basis. This way your data can be recorded within 30 seconds.

Next we need to be able to compare our calories spent with our calorie intake. This can be done in the form of a chart that displays the calorie balance per person over time. See the following example: calorie analysis. This chart makes abundantly clear what your calorie balance is and consequently shows the reason why you lose weight or not lose weight.

In the next article I will talk about body measurement and vital sign readings and how they correlate to your work outs, supplement intake etcetera

About the author

© Erik Pijcke is founder and CEO of Pycke Inc. He is the architect and developer of Hythial Pro, an all-inclusive personal health and fitness software program. Part of this software program contains a comprehensive calorie counter module. You can download this program at

Hythial Pro - Health Diet Fitness Software + Free Online Recipe and Food Calorie Counter

Obesity has become an epidemic, especially in The United States. An average of 300,000 Americans die each year and nearly $177 billion is spent on illnesses related to obesity.

Obesity can affect your legs and back. It can raise your blood pressure and even cause diabetes.

We are becoming fat and lazy, but before we can conquer the problem, we have to start accepting responsibility for our own actions. What you are about to read may offend some people, but it needs to be said.

Many people suffer from being overweight. It may result from a stocky build, slow metabolism, or some other physical reason, but it is a fact of life for many people. They will probably struggle with it their entire lives.

But obesity is different. A very miniscule percentage of obese people have medical reasons for their condition. The rest of them just cannot stop shoveling the food in long enough to see the consequences of their actions.

How many times have you been in a restaurant or at a party and watched an obviously obese person shoveling in the food and drinking a diet soda? Do they think the diet soda will make all that fat and calories go away? It doesn't work that way.

Please understand that the following suggestions are only the beginning of a very long and bumpy road to recovery. But even the longest journey begins with a single step.

1. PUT DOWN THAT TWINKIE! Someone, right this minute, is probably reading this article and eating something fattening. If not, it has probably been less that an hour since they have last eaten.

Before they can recover from their problem, they have to admit that they have one. And that Twinkie is the first sign.

If this is you and you feel that you absolutely must eat something, get some fresh fruit or vegetables. They not only contain the essential nutrients that your body needs for good health, but some will actually burn more calories that they replace.

2. See your doctor. If you are more than 50 pounds overweight, only a fool would recommend any diet plan until you are medically cleared by your physician.

Your doctor can also advise you on the best programs to help you get started.

This cannot be emphasized enough. Once you have eliminated the fattening foods, see your doctor before going one step farther.

3. Consider seeing a counselor. Is there a deep seated, subconscious reason for your obesity or are you just a pig? The answers may surprise you.

Once you discover the reasons for your self destructive behavior, you will be better equipped to handle them.

If you cannot afford counseling, talk to a trusted friend or, if you are a religious person, perhaps someone at your church.

They may not be able to diagnose your problem, but they can be there for you when you encounter those bumps in the road to recovery.

The bottom line is this. Curing your obesity and getting fit not only will increase the likelihood of a longer life, it will make that life much more pleasant.

Maybe it's time you stopped looking for sympathy and give yourself a swift kick in the pants.

Jill Miller, founder of the Fit4LifeClub, will give you a free copy of her weight loss and fitness guide. Sign up for her newsletter today at: