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Defrazzle Your Weight Loss

“The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook”

Julia Child

I hate dieting. It doesn’t matter what diet I follow, I gain weight. It’s so frustrating! If I do find one that works, I usually find that right about the time I’m getting used to the diet, my life ends up creating situations where I need to be eating out a lot, or spending time with friends and food. ARGH!

I’ve stopped dieting now. I’m just working on healthy lifestyle habits that I can work with anywhere, at any time and that allow for “life” to happen, so I don’t need to panic.

Now, believe me, I’m no expert, so check with your doctor before you follow ANY of my advice – I’m just a fellow mom, trying to get back into pre-baby clothes! I have found some things to be consistent in the myriad of ever-changing diet/health rules, and I’d like to share them with you here. So ladies, if you want to lose those extra 10 pounds (or more) that just refuse to disappear, here are some tips that are finally working for me:

Pick Your Time
Weight loss involves very personal issues for most people, and is closely related to their self esteem. It is crucial that you attempt to lose 10 pounds at the appropriate time - at a time where you otherwise feel good and satisfied with your life. If you try and lose 10 pounds during a period of time in your life where you have a lot of stress or other distracting things going on, you drastically increase your chances of failure, which will only make things worse.

Do It With Friends
A great and fun way to help you stick with your plan is to undertake your project of losing 10 pounds with a friend. Not only will you be able to provide support for each other and track each other's progress, but you'll be able to engage in fun exercise activities together.

Make Your Plan Realistic
It's important that you set achievable goals for yourself. For example, with just some basic changes in your lifestyle and eating habits, you can lose 1 pound a week. There's no need to be in a huge rush to lose weight, and trying to lose weight quickly often requires a regimen that is difficult to keep up. For most people, it is healthier to lose weight slowly than with drastic dietary changes.

Exercise in the morning on an empty stomach
There are two main reasons why you can more easily lose 10 pounds by exercising in the morning. The first has to do with the fact that it is much easier to build into your daily routine. One of the keys to losing weight by exercise is to do it regularly, which many people find difficult: it's always hard to find time. So a great reason for exercising in the morning is that you'll have very little distraction. In many ways, you are literally "making time" for the exercise by starting your day earlier. The second reason is that if you exercise in the morning on an empty stomach, you're burning energy at a time when your body's carbohydrate levels are the lowest, and therefore more fat will be burned with the same amount of exercise. There have been studies that suggest over 250% more fat is burned when you exercise in this state.

Balance Your Diet
Try as much as possible to balance your diet. This doesn't mean that you have to starve yourself -- rather make a point of getting no more the 30% of your calories from fat. Eat more fruits and vegetables and try to add as much variety to your diet as possible. Try new things, and new meal ideas. A great rule of thumb is to take a 9” plate and divide it into quarters. One quarter is starch/carbohydrate (potatoes, pasta, rice), one quarter is protein (meat, beans, tofu) and half is vegetables.

Keep Track Of Your Progress
The problem with dieting for many people, especially in the early stages, is that even if the diet is working they can't see any results. It's hard to really notice if you lose 1 pound. For this reason it's important that your track your progress, so you can have a good sense of the accomplishments you've made. Don’t just track pounds, make sure you are also tracking inches by keeping track of the measurements of the main body areas: bust, waist, hips, thighs, calves, and even your upper arm.

Incorporate exercise into your daily routine:
Another good idea is to try and get some exercise while you're at work. Think how often you end up staying in your office on your lunch break. Instead, why not take a walk? It may not seem like much, but if you did that every day, you'd be walking 5 hours a week, which is a pretty great start towards getting some more exercise. On the weekends and in the evenings, take up a sport or an active hobby like hiking. The key is to find ways that you can get exercise while also doing things you enjoy.

You can lose 10 pounds fairly quickly by starting a serious exercise regimen, of course, but that's not necessarily the best way to do it. If you make your exercise like work, it'll start to feel like work, and it will become tempting to put it off and avoid it. If you incorporate exercise into your daily routine, however, it won't seem like work at all - it will be fun. And the best part of all is that the more you exercise the more energy you'll have: instead of being tired when you come home from work, you'll feel like doing something active. Before you know it that 10 pounds you lost might become 20.

So, there you have it! Try implementing one tip a week and making a habit out of it. You’ll drop those pounds in no time!

Tipping the scales in your favor!

Darlene Hull

www.mom-defrazzler.com

P.S. Want more weight loss ideas and a community to share frustrations and triumphs? Check out Darlene’s March 2006 blog entries at her “Mom-Defrazzler Blog”
http://mom-defrazzler.com/Mom-DefrazzlerBlog/nfblog/
(There’s a contest, too!)

Darlene Hull is the creator of the free “Mom-Defrazzler tool” - 52 Tips for Moms to get from Chaos to Calm in One Year and the “Merry Moms” newsletter, a weekly humour e-zine to help moms defrazzle with laughter. Check out her website for great tools and tips to help moms cope with stress: www.mom-defrazzler.com