Making a decision to lose weight is one thing and becoming successful in reaching your weight loss goal is quite another! The number of weight loss resolutions taken every year is not proportional to the rate of weight loss successes, and that is because only a few of the millions of people who take a New Year’s weight loss resolution are able to keep their vows intact throughout the year! Why? It is because losing weight is an uphill task.

Let’s say that you are used to sitting on your couch for hours on end, munching on potato chips or popcorn! Now if I suddenly ask you to change that habit and workout in the gym during the hours you used to be seated on the couch, or if I say that you cannot lose weight until you stop eating that packet of chips or popcorn, you can well understand how difficult would it be to follow those suggestions!

While it is not easy to get rid of unhealthy lifestyle habits which have become one with you over the years, it IS possible to lose weight if you are willing to follow a few easy but effective weight loss strategies which I discuss in this article.

The most difficult part about weight loss is that of being able to stick to one diet plan for a long time. People waste more time in hopping from one diet program to another rather than making some progress towards their weight loss goals; they are always in search of an ‘easy’ and ‘quick’ weight loss solution which would effortlessly melt away all the unwanted chunks of fat from their body! However, that is simply not possible. If you are not willing to work hard, you may not be able to lose weight permanently!

Weight loss is important not just for cosmetic reasons but also to keep your body healthy. Overweight people suffer from a number of additional maladies over and above obesity itself, and not without a cause! For years experts have linked obesity to harmful diseases such as heart problems, kidney problems, back problems, pain in joints and muscle, premature death, etc.

You probably know that in order to lose weight successfully, you need to follow a healthy diet and workout regularly. While working out is surely tough, maintaining your healthy eating habits is even tougher, especially in the busy modern life which most of us lead! Thanks to our hectic schedules, few of us have the time and energy to spend on cooking healthy meals at home! Naturally; we find it much more convenient to buy loafs and cakes from our local grocery store than cook some vegetables at home. Thankfully there is a way out!

There are special diet delivery services which would deliver healthy, low-calorie meals at your doorstep at short notice! The beauty of these services is that while on one hand you are spared the stress of trying to figure out the calorie contents of the foods you cook at home or buy from outside, you also save time on the other!

All you need to do is just unwrap these packages and serve them for your breakfast, lunch and dinner! In fact, most people now prefer to use these services as they find it easier to maintain their healthy lifestyle that way!

Provided that you are wiling to make the extra effort, losing weight is not tough at all!

Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

Happy New Year!

Over the years I have had some really good years and some really bad years as far as making change on new years day is concerned. I know that back in my drinking smoking partying days I would not commot and do the work for anything and sadly I now call those my lost years. Not anymore. Every year I move forward and I have accepted the fact that every year parts of my life chance a lot and always for the better.

So what makes the biggest difference in my eyes? Making the commitment with action.

The trouble with thinking of a new years resolution and trying to get it done is that you will forget it easily when other things in life distract you, so you take the action of writing it down, and this gives you a better chance.

To further improve your chances of meeting your new years resolutions, today you must do things that will move you towards them, ACT!, get moving now!

If you want to lose weight (very common today of course) then start eating right this morning and get some exercise this morning as well. I read a book once where the lady that wrote it (Your Best Year Yet!)
said that in a drunken bit of bravado she announced that she was going to run the London Marathon and the next day, hungover she realized she would have to give it a shot and she started running that day….that is what it takes.

So to help you today to get started I am going to pull a few posts from the archives that will hopefully give you some ammunition to get started today. You can always change your life for the better so why not start that process today?

Stevia has been used in sodas marketed as dietary supplements and in other countries for sweetening treats and other foods but before now was not officially approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Experts had predicted the FDA would approve before the end of the year and the market for natural-based sweeteners would rise exponentially. December is as close to the New Year as can be and seems like the perfect time for introducing new products.

Officially recognized by the FDA this week, Cargill received the notification in the form of a letter stating that they have no objection to the previously submitted research that rebaudioside A (rebiana)—Truvia’s scientific name—has been generally recognized as safe (GRAS). The letter continues to support Truvia’s safety and the research behind a panel of experts from an independent company that provided the data.

PepsiCo has also teamed up with Merisant to produce PureVia another stevia-based sweetener, which also received the same FDA safety letter this week.

Cargill has complete confidence in this product and is elated at the recent findings that stevia-based sweeteners are now safe for use by all consumers. Marcelo Montero, president of Cargill, stated, “The FDA brought the appropriate rigor to the process and we are extremely pleased with the news.” Read the rest of this entry »

New Years Resolutions are a great idea that seldom work. The reason that most peoples new years resolutions fail is that people will get a good idea and not flesh it out, decide what to do and how. The best way to be successful is to plan your outcomes and to decide what are the most important things for you. When you do this you have a much better chance at succeeding because when you need to make changes you will do it knowing why you are making a change and exactly what changes need to be made.

Starting to Plan New Years Resolutions

The way I start each year is by looking back, looking at where I am today and finally looking at where I want to be tomorrow and then creating a plan to make a better tomorrow happen.

With traditional goal setting most people just look at what they want and then create a plan to get there. My method of setting real New Years Resolutions is much better as it does not just look at myself as a superman and allow me to collapse as soon as any problem gets in the way of my goal.

Tools for successful New Years Resolutions

To start you must have a notebook and realize that this notebook will be your companion for the next year. Give yourself an hour to get started and know that you will likely be sitting down a few times over the next few days, if New Years Day comes and goes while you are in the midst of this process do not worry. Even though we always look at new years day as the switch that begins a new year remember that you are creating a map and a route that is much more important and long lasting than the flip of a calendar, the end of a day, or a fuzzy idea in the middle of the night whose idea of importance is reflected only by the thoughts and actions of a very few minutes.
Read the rest of this entry »

This is a busy time of year for a lot of people and I am no exception. I slacked a little over the last couple of weeks with my workouts and here I am at 5:30 in the morning, when I should be sleeping sitting on the computer.

I am pretty happy though because I just got a workout in.

Nothing feels better than working successfully towards your goals and so I am pretty excited to be back on track. You could get on track to and if you are smart about it you can get in some short 10 minute workouts and feel like I feel this morning (although you may not want to get up this early for a workout).

How can you get any kind of workout in 10 minutes?

Well Craig Ballentyne, the Turbulence Training guy, gave me this 20 page guide that gives you a four week plan of 10 minute workouts to get yourself going. Not only is there 5 sample 10 minute workouts but there is also 10 tips to safe workouts and a some stretches to get you all limbered up. The guide has lots of pictures to so that you don’t have to guess what the exercise should be like.

The best thing about the 20 page guide is that it is free. Just click this link and the guide will open up the pdf right in your browser window, it is an Adobe Acrobat file.

This is a great deal (free is always good in my book). Let anyone that you think is interested know about it and we can all get in great shape by the new year

If you are like others, you have certainly made a strong New Year’s resolution to shed all those extra pounds of flab which bother you so much. This time you have promised yourself that you would really show off your new-found slim body much before the Valentine’s Day! However, January is almost about to end and your body shows no signs of getting slimmer or lighter. Is the problem is with your diet, or something else? If you are confused and don’t know the answers to these questions, this article is for you!

Making and breaking New Year’s weight loss resolutions is nothing extraordinary; in fact I have done that many times myself and finally came to the conclusion that resolutions can do little if you are not willing to get started on the job! Yes, you should treat weight loss with the same dedication with which you perform at your office!

Weight loss is not about starving for a few days, or following one fad diet for a couple of weeks and then hopping on to something more attractive! Weight loss can be achieved only when you make a long term commitment to follow a healthier lifestyle!

Believe it or not, the first few days of your weight loss journey would probably be toughest, as you simply don’t know whether you would be successful or not or if it is the right time to start losing weight, etc. Once you push yourself hard and sail smoothly through these first few days, you would be on a roll, burning fat and losing weight non-stop!

What I am offering in this article is solid, practical advice which works for any individual; what I won’t offer is suggestion for weight loss fads, since they have neither worked for me nor anyone else I know about!

1. Drive procrastination away by setting a realistic goal: The only thing that is keeping you from starting the weight loss journey is lack of a proper goal and target. You primary task should be to set a weight loss goal, and more importantly, the goal needs to be realistic!

Instead of wishing for a body like Brad Pitt or Jennifer Aniston, you could set a much more meaningful and achievable goal of losing “1two pounds by the end of March”. Assuming that you would be shedding two pounds of weight per week on an average, that timeframe is more than enough for you to become as slim as you wish!

2. Fix your bad food habits: Controlling your portions is surely important, but even more important than that is to discard all the unhealthy, junk foods from your daily meals and import healthy foods in their place! To give you an example, try to have a glass of fruit juice instead of chocolates or cookies; this would satiate your sugar cravings but without making you any fatter!

Similarly, grilled chicken meat is healthier than its fried version. Also, instead of gulping down on dozens of soda cans, try to drink eight glasses of water per day!

3. Leave the couch: I know it sounds harsh but the couch is the biggest stumbling block in your way of successful weight loss and as such, you need to start hating it right away! Leading an active lifestyle would not only help you lose weight faster but also make you more energetic!

If your local club sponsors outdoor sports, make sure you participate in them. If the club comes with a swimming pool as well, then that is an added advantage. Whether you play tennis or swim, you would be burning fat and losing weight either way! Dancing is also not a bad idea-how about joining a dance school?

There is hardly anyone who doesn’t take one resolution or other during the New Year, and one of the most popular New Year resolutions is the weight loss resolution. Every New Year, millions of people resolve to shed the extra flab and get slimmer, and just a few weeks after that, most of them break their resolutions and get back to their normal (read unhealthy) lifestyle! The result: nada, zilch!

This year too would be no different either. Many would take the same resolution they have probably taken countless number of times before, and once again only a handful people would make it to the slim figure! But why should you follow their trail? In this article I am going to tell you about some of the tools and strategies I used to lose weight successfully!

Yeah, I too had taken countless weight loss but they came to nothing until I started doing the following things!

1. I cleaned up my kitchen and refrigerator: No, I didn’t make them completely empty; rather, I emptied all the junk foods out of them! When the culprits aren’t around the corner, there would be less of a temptation to eat them. Think about it: when are you more likely to eat gobs of ice cream: when it is not at your home and would need to be fetched from a store which is a couple of miles away, or when it is conveniently seated in your refrigerator?

When you would have to make a great effort to indulge in your junk food cravings, you are less likely to eat them and more likely to opt for healthy foods which should already be stocked in your home!

Oh, I totally forgot to tell you: once you clean your kitchen of all the junk and fatty foods, buy lots of natural fruits and eatables and stock them in your kitchen and refrigerator! I have found that this has helped me a lot in killing my junk food cravings!

2. I started keeping a weight loss journal: To make sure that I was really doing things which were conducive to my weight loss goal, I started keeping a journal in order to keep tab on my daily lifestyle. These days, most weight loss programs automatically offer you a journal for free where you could record all the detailed statistics about yourself, including but not limited to what foods you are eating and what not, what workouts you are doing and how far they have helped you with weight loss, whether you are eating something you shouldn’t, etc., and many other such tidbits.

You can also use it to keep a tab on your body weight, so that you know how far you have progressed and how many more pounds are left to shed! Some people prefer to maintain separate weight loss journals, each for food, exercise, etc., which is fine as well.

The rationale behind maintaining a weight loss journal is that it would act as your moral police by keeping you on the right track, and at the same time would act as your guardian which would lead you towards the path of weight loss success!

Holiday weight gain is almost inevitable! In fact, you would need to be a staunch, self-disciplined, health-conscious individual to be able to avoid the temptations of cookies, candies and alcohol at parties! In fact, the ‘food season’ starts much before Christmas – usually from Thanksgiving Day!

From Thanksgiving Day to New Year, people stuff themselves as much as they can with all of their favorite foods. A bite here, a bite there and then more bites follow!

All this while the individual keeps reminding himself that even if he gains some extra pounds during this time, there is nothing to worry about as he would work very hard after the New Year to lose all that extra weight! Truth to be told, you CAN lose holiday weight within just a few weeks, provided that you make a little effort and are determined to reach your goal!

Continue with your workouts: The first thing you need to keep in mind is that no matter how busy you are, you should continue with your regular workouts! If you haven’t exercised ever, start doing it right now, and continue doing it at least throughout the whole holiday season – up until the New Year, when much of the ‘food craze’ usually dies away and is replaced by a new craze: the craze of weight loss!

If you workout regularly then you would not only be able to lose weight, but also have very little chance of gaining weight either! However, to be on the safe side, I would suggest that you focus on the intense workouts which help you burn a lot of calories within a very short time! On one hand, you would spend very little time on your workout regimen and on the other, these intense exercises would help you burn calories even at rest!

There is no excuse for deferring your workouts or taking a sabbatical from your exercise regimen simply because it is holiday or that you don’t ‘feel’ like working out, or are too busy with shopping and writing and sending out party invitations! Keep in mind that health always comes before everything else, and nothing but your health should always be your number one priority!

Indulge yourself only on the ‘cheat’ day: Just because it is holiday season doesn’t necessarily mean that you would throw all dietary cautions in the wind; but at the same time, you also won’t want to deprive yourself from the fun and enjoyment of this period! What I recommend is that you eat healthy foods for at least six days pf the week and then use the next day as the ‘cheat’ day.

Now how would you choose this ‘cheat’ day? If you have a party to attend to soon, just plan things in such a way that you attend it on your ‘cheat’ day! That way, you would be free to indulge yourself in all the delicacies available to you: candies, cakes, eggnog, you name it!

Keep in mind that one day of indulgence won’t hamper your health or make you excessively overweight, provided that you don’t eat the same bad foods throughout the whole week! Even if you gain weight, it won’t be much and you would easily be able to lose it within a short time!

With so many people taking a resolution to lose weight every New Year, one would think that our world is getting healthier. Reality however, is exactly the opposite. Out of the countless number of people who take the weight loss resolution, only a few are able to stick to it throughout the rest of the year!

Come to think of it, taking a weight loss resolution has become more of a fad than anything else, as most people hardly take their resolutions seriously, or even if they do, they are not prepared to make the extra effort it takes to keep those resolutions! If you really want to make your weight loss resolution iron-clad solid, just follow the two easy steps below.

1: Make your resolution realistic: How far you would be successful in weight loss would be determined on the viability of your resolution. Is it realistic? If not, it is unlikely that you would achieve your weight loss goal ever! The very first thing you need to do is to make sure that you make a very realistic resolution.

Examples of unrealistic resolutions are:

“I want a body like Jessica Alba by next Christmas’.

‘I want to lose all weight before the next Thanksgiving day;

As you can see, these goals lack specifics of any kind, so there is no doubt that they are unrealistic. When your weight loss goal lacks specifics of any kind, your mind would wander aimlessly and you would jump from one diet to another with little or no success.

What happens when you are asked to go on a shopping spree without a list of items you are going to buy? You wander aimlessly and waste money on buying useless stuff. The exact thing would happen if you don’t make your weight loss resolution specific and realistic. Examples of good weight loss resolutions are:

“I want to lose 20 pounds by next year”

“I want my weight to be reduced by 30 pounds at the end of 2009″

Okay these look like ‘baby resolutions’, but I really suggest that you make ‘little’ resolutions like these so that your mind thinks it is ‘easy’ to lose weight. Keep in mind that if you intimidate your mind with a formidable resolution, chances are that you would soon lose the motivation to lose weight!

It is possible that you will outgrow your weight loss resolution and lose more weight than what you promised yourself, but the opposite may also happen! Either way, you WILL lose some weight, that is for sure!

2. Get plenty of support: I would be honest with you: I don’t know anyone who has been able to reach their weight loss goals all by themselves without any kind of external support or guidance! Very often your family would support you, but that is just not enough! You also need to secure the support of your peers – people who are in the same boat as you, struggling to lose weight!

You can find such people at weight loss forums. Most of them are free to join, so make sure you sign up with at least one of them and get involved! Remember that you will also find several experts in these forums who are more than eager to offer free help and advice to wannabe weight loss aspirants!

It is also important that you surround yourself with positive-minded people at all times. Positivity begets positivity and encourages you to lose weight, while negative people would only frustrate and discourage you!

The New Year is not far away, and with New Year comes a new resolution. For those who want to lose weight, the resolution they would take is quite predictable: they would probably resolve to join a gym and workout vigorously so as to lose all fat within a week! But do you really think such resolutions work for those who take it?

First of all, people often take resolutions either in a moment of excitement, or being provoked by peers. However when the reality strikes these people, they fail to keep their resolutions. Joining a gym is one thing, but being able to hit it every day is quite a different story. If you have never exercised before, just one week of gym membership would tell you how much work goes into weight loss!

No wonder people quit the gym after a couple of weeks of joining, and their New Year resolution comes to nothing. However, if you follow exactly what I advise in this article, you will be able to keep your 2009 weight loss resolution!

First of all, let me tell you that these people work way harder than they need to, and to be honest, they are doing nothing better than wasting their energy and time on something which is not going to bring them any results! Simply doing long boring cardios for four hours per day isn’t going to help you lose weight within a week. Just like others who have been successful in losing weight, you need to follow a strategy, a plan, of which exercises form just one aspect; the other aspect being your eating habits!

Many people believe that if they workout too long and hard everyday then eating junk foods won’t make them any fatter, but that is a completely wayward thinking. Healthy eating is as much important as leading an active lifestyle; in fact, both are required for weight loss!

You gained weight not just because of sitting on the couch for hours! You gained weight because of bad eating habits, binge-eating and snacking in midnight, or eating too much of junk foods at a time. If you are serious about weight loss, you need to forget about going to McDonalds and change your route to the market where you can find raw fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, etc.

I am not advising you to survive on just a piece of lemon or salad, nor am I asking you to starve. I am just asking you to quit your junk food eating habit and start eating healthy foods instead! This would help you a long way with weight loss! It is no secret that the average American diet is high in calories and sugar, but no one said you have to keep following that diet throughout your life!

Along with healthy eating, you also need to take the help of supplements. Even 100 years ago, you could get a lot of nutritional benefit just by eating natural foods and animal meat, but in this day and age of malnourished animals and pesticide laden trees and fruits, you should expect to receive at least 30% less nutrition from these foods than what your forefathers received! To cope up with this nutritional deficiency, you need to take the help of weight loss supplements!

If you want to have a high-protein diet, simply eating eggs and lean chicken meat is not enough; you also need to add protein shakes to your diet as well! These days, supplements are available for almost every type of nutrient you need; it is just a matter of picking up the right supplement for yourself!