Losing Weight, Diet & Exercise

I am sure everyone (male and female - of all ages) have tried to diet, exercise and lose weight once in their life. Because I have! Gin and I used to work out in the gym religiously. Like 3 to 5 times a week. We were addicted to it --- well at least for the whole year of our membership in Fitness First. I guess thinking on how much we paid was the motivating factor. The result was that we both lost weight, firmed up and still eating all our favorite food but in moderation. That's what everyone wants right? I loved attending the classes. My favorite was this class they call Body Jam. Its a mix of different dance steps which will really make you sweat. When our 1 year membership ended, we chose not to renew it anymore because we started to plan for our wedding already and we couldnt afford extra expenses since we were the ones who will be shouldering all the wedding expenses.

Since then, I've had difficulty finding time to exercise on my own. No motivating factor I guess? But I always had reasons not to exercise. After our wedding, Gin and I enrolled in this gym near our house. But we didnt get to use it. Either I am too lazy or just dead tired! As a result sad to say I started gaining weight and same goes with Gin. For one, we both love to eat and with no excercise its but natural to gain back all the weight we lost. There were a few attempts to do those home video excercises (Hip Hop Abs) but I wasnt able to pursue it. I was trying to find a quick fix. My sister in law that time was taking this Chinese diet pill and she really lost weight. I said to myself "why not give it a try?" So I did! Man..I hated the side effects! I was getting cold sweats, pulpitations and I'd go to the bathroom frequently. I threw the damn pills away. It was a desperate move to lose weight --- never again!

One diet secret that worked for me (not really a secret) is the after 6 and no rice. I kind of lost weight doing that. But its still different if you combine it with excercise. That is really the key! Thinking of other ways on how to lose weight, I finally found something that works which I knew all along I just didnt have the will power to do it! There is this article online thats talks about it and here it is:

Yahoo! Health

Keep It Simple, Keep It Off

Keeping is simple is the best way to not only lose weight, but keep it off, too. There are some clear-cut certainties, rules, unchanging facts and formulas regarding weight loss that really never vary. If followed, you will lose weight.

So, for just a moment let’s look only at the facts - take emotion, psychology, and personal history out of the equation, and let’s look at the simple rules of weight loss.

Just the Facts:

1. If you spend more calories than you take in, you will lose weight. Just like your bank account, if you spend more than you put in, your bank account or, in this case your body, will shrink.

2. Adding (more) exercise, and not changing your diet at all, will cause weight loss only if you are burning more calories than you are taking in (as it states in rule 1). So if you are exercising enough to push the equation over to the deficit column (where you are basically in the red with calories - spending more than you are taking in), then you will begin to lose weight.

3. Reducing your food/caloric intake and not adding exercise will result in weight loss only if you have reduced food intake enough to tip the energy balance to the negative, whereby you are taking in less than you are expending.

4. Obviously, adding exercise, and reducing your caloric intake, will make it more likely that your equation will swing over to the negative – the weight loss side. And of course, the greater the difference between intake and expenditure, the faster the weight loss (or gain, depending on which way the equation swings).

To maximize your health and weight loss benefits, add exercise and reduce food intake.

I am not belittling the difficulty of losing weight, but there is a kind of simplicity to the plain facts. Still, few of us, if any, are able to be totally objective and mathematical about weight loss.

We have managed (or our society has) to make our bodies and our weight, emotional and social and psychological subjects, making it tough to take weight off simply, and harder to keep it off. And believe me, I understand, I am no different from you.

But I do realize one thing: Whether you are agonizing over losing 2 lbs or 200 lbs, looking at weight loss as a formula can provide you with some simple, practical, and effective steps that can be taken. And just knowing that this formula is fact, and works, just looking at the black and white of it and seeing that there are absolute and realistic steps that will lead to weight loss, may help someone, maybe you, who is struggling with body issues and weight loss.

So if you can, even for a brief period of time, separate out the discomfort, frustration, personal reasoning, and self resentment from prior attempts at weight loss that have failed, you may find the objective willingness to just keep moving forward in the equation – taking out a few calories here, adding a little exercise there, and so on – until the weight starts to fall away. And it will, if you stick to the rules.

I hope this helps you stay, or get back on, your road to better fitness.