***** Positive Thinking, Happy Living

Many diets make you lose water weight! It's a dirty secret that the weight loss industry would rather keep under wraps. You've seen it thousands of times - a brand new weight loss product comes on the market promising to help you lose huge amounts of weight in a very short period of time. They then show you glowing testimonials of people who were able to achieve those miraculous results.

What they will often leave out is that those people in the testimonials and the weight that you would lose with the product is not fat!

"Why Does It Matter? I Just Want to Weigh Less..."

The route to permanent weight loss is to make changes. I’ve found that when most people want to lose weight, they decide to go on a restrictive diet. This type of dieting calls for many changes at once and although most people are able to stick with this for a short while, they usually find they can’t sustain it. Unfortunately, the feeling of failure creeps in and leaves us feeling worse than when we started to lose weight. I’ve found that many people who follow restrictive diets lose some self-esteem each time they feel they’ve failed.

Your weight loss success can be calculated a number of different ways.

You should calculate your progress not only by your physical appearance, but also by decreases in medical problems, decreased reliance on medications, fewer injuries, etc.

Try to notice and recognize a change for the better in energy, performance, self-esteem, improvements in health risk factors and medical conditions, improved quality of life and psychological functioning, healthier eating, and more enjoyable physical activity and the many other benefits you'll gain from reaching your weight loss target

As I write this article, 65% of American men and 62% of American women are overweight. 22% of our children are overweight and 0% of them are obese. All of this despite the fact that Americans spend an average $40 billion a year on diet and weight loss related products! For $40 billion a year, you would think that we would be getting better results than we obviously are.

I believe that the average American is confused about how to lose weight, get themselves in good shape and protect themselves from

Believe it or not, losing a little or a lot of fat involves pretty much the same concept - consistent dieting coupled with cardiovascular exercise and weight training. This is how the professionals do it, and it works. Many of you may be hesitant to start a weight training program, but the benefits far outweigh any reservations you may have. Weight training enhances your fat loss by increasing your muscle mass and more muscle means more calories burned (faster metabolism).

On the road to weight loss, fitness, and health, you can easily become discouraged. In fact, discouragement is what leads many people to give-up when they may have been near a point of significant progress and encouragement in their program.

I've put together my "top 10" points of encouragement to help keep your spirits high on your road to weight loss, fitness, and health..

Loosing weight is not a great thing, but maintaining the same amount of weight loss need lots of determination. Loosing weight the cardio way means to exercise the cardiovascular system. This can be done by executing an aerobic activity. The decisive point is that cardio aids in loosing weight, and it becomes most efficient when blended with intensity training and a healthy, low-calorie diet.

Just when it seems like many Americans have begun to embrace the Mediterranean diet for its health benefits, people in the Mediterranean countries are abandoning the traditional way of eating in favor of the "American" diet. Italy, Spain and Greece are now experiencing the obesity epidemic first hand, with Italy having the highest percentage of obese people in Europe today. In Italy and Greece, people today eat roughly four times more meat than they did 40-50 years ago.

The Cookie Diet... Really?

In the last few years, I've noticed that more people are beginning to embrace the idea that weight loss involves making healthy food choices and lifestyle changes. This comes as welcome news to myself and all of the other dietitians out there who have been trying to promote that very idea for years. But then, another fad diet emerges which starts to cast doubt, and those who have been trying to escape the dieting mentality once and for all begin to wonder if this new plan may just be the one that finally works…..enter the Cookie Diet!

Do you know anybody who does not wish to get rid of the fat on one particular area of their body? I have not met anybody like that!

"If I could only get rid of my big belly"! "Oh, I wish my thighs were slimmer"! Does it sound familiar?

Even skinny people are often unhappy with the excess fat in some areas of their body. We've all seen those skinny men with huge bellies!