TaiSlim – The Basics

Tai Slim is based on GoChi, FreeLife’s goji juice beverage. According to Rick Handel, FreeLife’s chief scientific officer, Taislim is designed to foster weight loss in 4 different ways:

• Fight belly fat
• Control appetite
• Cleanse digestive tract
• Boost metabolism

TaiSlim is covered by a 90-day money-back guarantee (before or after you use the product).

Tai Slim – The Science

Rick Handel, FreeLife’s chief scientific officer, informs us that FreeLife has done extensive scientific research related to TaiSlim over the past couple years. As far as published research is concerned, there are currently three peer-reviewed, published studies on GoChi, one of the main ingredients in TaiSlim. There are also quite a few studies published on the other ingredients of TaiSlim.

Buying TaiSlim

Tai Slim is sold in a 1 liter bottle. You can purchase a case of 4 of these bottles for $134.95.

Click here to buy TaiSlim.

Does it work? Can it work for you? That remains to be seen. Read for yourself and determine whether or not diet.com can help you lose weight and keep it off.

The Plan

So, you’ve navigated and found diet.com. Now what?

For starters, a personality quiz is taken in relation to your general eating habits, feelings about yourself and feelings about exercise. You are then assigned a personality type in three separate areas:

Eating Personality: Meal Skipper; Convenient Diner; Steady Snacker; Emotional Eater
Exercising Personality
Coping Personality

There are about eight different personality types spread out over the three main categories.

Once you’ve completed the quiz and been assigned your personality types, a Personality Type Diet program will be designed for you if you join. Starting memberships that include a few free gifts such as a free year of Fitness magazine and an eating out guide begin at $2.99 a month according to the website but average at about $7.99 – $19.95 per month.

At diet.com, the plan consists of a two week meal plan including meal substitution lists and grocery shopping lists. There’s also a tracking tool available to monitor your progress. This costs extra.

There are blogs written by Dr. Robert Kushner and his daughter RD Shauna as well as members’ boards. These are meant to offer help and solutions to continue on a path to eating right.

Dr. Kushner feels strongly that weight loss should be a multidimensional effort and that it shouldn’t merely focus on food, but rather individual personalities and why the person may overeat or fail to exercise.

Pros

Dr. Kushner’s approach is a fresh approach to dieting because weight loss is in fact a multidimensional issue. Emotional eating, low self esteem and lifestyle account for a lot of obesity issues. A lot of fad diets do not wholeheartedly take this into account. Generic plans are doled out without taking into account these important factors behind weight troubles.

Encouraging a person to exercise is always good advice, but making specific suggestions that work for each individual is more difficult. By having a general idea of the person’s individual exercise personality, more accurate suggestions can be made. For instance, if a person was shown to be embarrassed by working out in a public place, exercise would be geared more towards in home exercise until the person felt more comfortable.

Likewise, if a person’s idea of exercise for the past 10 years has been changing the television channel manually rather than using the remote, advising easier methods of exercise such as walking is much more effective.

There are scads of information and advice from nearly every facet that will tout one plan or another, but unless the individual is kept in mind, the weight loss advice may not be useful to the dieter. Busy people don’t have time for complicated plans. People who are unsure of themselves might do better on a plan designed to give more direction. For these reasons, diet.com may be fantastic.

There is also potential for ongoing weight loss and support. There seems to be plenty of support and ongoing advice offered up by doctors and nutritionists. For people who really need encouragement and tools to aid in their weight loss, diet.com may be a good idea.

It seems that many people have found success with diet.com based on diet.com reviews. Knowing that there aren’t a bunch of complaints about the diet and failure stories may be of some comfort to the person deciding whether or not to hand over their money for the program.

Speaking of which, the program can be inexpensive depending on which membership the person chooses. It is also cancellable at any time. With billions of dollars spent every year on weight loss efforts, it perhaps would be a small price to pay if it works.

Cons

As with any patient reported tool, the diet relies on accurate input by the candidate. Taking a bubble test online doesn’t necessarily mean that the personality quiz answers have hit the nail on the head. Of course, this is something one encounters even when sitting face to face with a single dietician; however, having individualized attention when reporting eating patterns and emotions about eating can be beneficial.

In a clinical setting, though food diaries rely upon the accuracy that the dieters put into them, having the individualized attention in reviewing the food diary may be all the person needs.

It might also be difficult for some people to admit their problems. Instead, they may answer questions with answers that they know are right, but may not be true. There should be a little more instruction prior to taking the test that emphasizes the importance of the dieter being truthful. Without accurate information, the true problem behind the person’s weight troubles may be overlooked and an adequate diet will not be given.

The personality types may be too much of a “one size fits all” concept. Many times, personality quizzes are designed to sort of catch more generalized traits. Really, would you want to take a personality quiz that told you at the end “You have no particular personality.”?

Part of the diet is in fact the rather large website. One could get carried away with posting and blogging which happens in a lot of online communities. It seems a little counterproductive with this plausible problem. If a person is sitting at the computer “talking” about weight loss too often, the potential problem is of course lack of exercise.

Although the diet is relatively low in price as well as being cancellable at any time, it’s difficult to click away answering 50 questions and not even get a peak at what might be on your personalized diet plan. It seems kind of like buying a diet book at the book store, only you’re told you can only read the front and back cover before purchase.

The Bottom Line

It seems like a fresh approach to weight loss so it may be worth a shot if the usual advice has failed you.

When we lower caloric intake in an effort to lose weight, it’s imperative that the diet meal plan is well thought out so proper nutrition isn’t sacrificed. Here are some top tips on setting up a diet meal plan that will offer up optimum nutrition as well as promote weight loss in a healthful way.

VEGETABLES

We all know that we’re supposed to eat our veggies, but how many of us do? And if you do, do you eat enough? Really, this is one food group that you most certainly don’t have to worry about overeating.

These power houses contain so many great nutrients and with very little caloric content. Choosing a wide variety of colorful vegetables ensures optimum nutrition. This is due to the phytochemicals that not only give vegetables their characteristics, but they are also what give us important nutrients such as vitamins and flavanoids. Vegetables also contain fiber. Fiber is incredibly beneficial to weight loss because of its cleansing effect in the digestive system.

In terms of preparing vegetables, the closer to the way Mother Nature intended, the better. Raw vegetables are of course the most nutritious, but cooking is acceptable as well so long as the vegetables are steamed or microwaved. Prolonged cooking breaks down the fiber in the vegetables which of course makes the fiber less useful to our bodies. In addition, boiling vegetables literally boils the nutrients right out of them. Have you ever noticed how the water changes to whatever color the vegetable is? Remember, the phytochemicals are not only the vitamins that make the vegetables so good for us, but they are also the actual color.

Vegetables can and should be included at every meal. Coming up with clever ways of adding vegetables to your meals in flavorful ways isn’t as difficult as one might think. Raw vegetables can be a refreshing side to any meal and complement quite a few dishes. Steamed vegetables with just a bit of olive oil and black pepper are delicious. Adding hot peppers to a mix of vegetables can be a great way to spice up a meal. Try splashing on some herb vinegar or a berry vinaigrette for a sweeter taste.

PROTEIN

Protein is necessary for cellular health and a thousand other functions in the body. Obviously, a healthy diet meal plan includes protein sources. The trick is to make sure you are eating lean protein as well as the right amount.

Lean protein sources contain less saturated fat which has been known to have an effect on cardiovascular health. Good choices here are chicken or turkey breast, lean pork, and fish. Some cuts of beef are acceptable as well, but opt for the leaner versions and save the juicy steaks for an occasional treat.

A serving of meat is roughly 3 ounces for the above choices. The easiest way to determine an appropriate portion of meat is to realize that a 3 ounce serving is roughly the size of an average fist. A free diet meal plan may offer up more suggestions on proper portion sizes.

Choosing fish a few times a week is highly advisable due to the omega 3 fatty acids found in many fish. Omega 3 fatty acids have been found to lower LDL (bad cholesterol) and raise HDL (good cholesterol).

WHOLE GRAINS

You probably thought I was touting a low carb diet. Not so. Carbohydrates are important in our diets and we should aim for around 6 servings or more a day. The thing to consider here is which carbohydrates?

When trying to lose weight, obviously some calories need to be cut. The category that is usually to blame for unnecessary calories is in fact carbohydrates. This is because a lot of us tend to relate carbohydrates to starchy sides such as white rice or mashed potatoes as well as all of the junkier carbs such as potato chips and cookies. When it comes to these types of carbs, then of course, they should be eliminated from a diet meal plan aimed at weight loss.

Instead, choose carbohydrates that are whole grain. Switch out your starchy mashed potatoes for sides such as couscous or brown rice. You might consider searching for a free diet meal plan on the internet for other creative suggestions for whole grain sides. Make sure you read bread labels carefully to determine whether it is in fact whole grain bread or simply brown bread that is made with wheat flour rather than the whole grain kernel.

EVERYTHING IN MODERATION

Finally, the biggest rule of all is the old adage, everything in moderation. If you have some favorites, make sure to include these in your diet meal plan for weight loss from time to time. If you deny yourself everything you really enjoy, eventually you may very well go overboard when you finally allow yourself the treat. Instead, go ahead and have that glass of wine in the evening or a piece of chocolate when you’re craving it.

If you find yourself craving your favorites too often, you might consider substituting for something else more healthful. A handful of almonds might replace your craving for salty items like potato chips. A bowl of strawberries may satisfy your sweet tooth. If creamy delights are your thing, a healthy smoothie in the morning may stave off that craving throughout the day.

Be sure to incorporate exercise into your life as well as the above suggestions. Soon, you’ll be on the path to healthy weight loss for life!

However, isn’t that really part of the question? The efficacy of a diet not only relies on whether or not it actually works for weight loss but whether it has any “stickability.” Can the person stay on the diet? How long can the person stay on the diet? Has the diet taken into account the dieters likes and dislikes? How practical is the diet?

In addition to that, a diet must allow for lasting weight loss. So, with the South Beach Diet, weight loss needs to be actually doable as well as long term. Let’s see how it rates.

Designed as a means to lower cholesterol and help diabetics, the South Beach Diet starts off with a two week sort of cleansing period. During this time, no fruit, bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, sugar, alcohol or baked goods are allowed. Afterwards, healthier carbohydrates such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables are slowly reintroduced.

Part of the goal of the diet is “healthy eating for life.” This is meant to happen through continued support via online communities and direct advice from nutritionists. Then there are a whole slew of books with any kind of South Beach Diet Recipe one can imagine.

I’m sure anyone who shops for groceries has seen the vast plethora of products that are basically manufactured South Beach Diet recipes. They are a bit on the pricey side, but overall, fairly healthy as well as convenient.

So, sounds pretty good, right? Well sort of. There are a few flaws with South Beach Diet weight loss.

The biggest problem of this trendy diet plan can be found right at the get-go. If a person has been eating poorly and has gained weight, it’s going to be extremely difficult to suddenly switch so quickly and cut out anything that has in the past seemed pleasurable to the dieter.

Wine lovers will have difficulty cutting out their evening glass. Pasta lovers will really be in trouble. Fruit seems like a really big sacrifice given that it can offer a person a healthy alternative to something sweet (which of course isn’t on the diet plan’s first two weeks either!).

The potential for failure is great and as anybody who has been on a strict diet knows, this type of discouragement can stop the dieter dead in his or her tracks. This may even lead to emotional binge eating with a sort of “hands up in the air I give up!” reaction. When cravings are denied repeatedly, the end result will more than likely be binging on the food item that the dieter wants so badly.

South Beach Diet weight loss in the first two weeks occurs simply because the body is being denied calories. The weight loss is not necessarily healthy weight loss. As a matter of fact, the body can actually go into ketosis.

During ketosis, the body produces ketone bodies as a result of inadequate carbohydrate intake. Worse yet, if ketosis continues, ketoacidosis can occur. Ketoacidosis can actually lead to coma and/or death. You may have heard of this in regard to diabetics.

Also during this state of ketosis, the majority of weight loss is water. As soon as normal eating resumes, the water weight will be regained. Here’s another issue. How discouraging will that be to the south beach dieter? Starve and sacrifice for two weeks and then gain weight back right away?

Weight loss will slow down regardless of whether or not it is gained back as soon as a more normal eating pattern is begun at the end of the two weeks. More than likely, people who have denied themselves of so much will go overboard as soon as carbohydrate resumes. It’s normal human behavior!

In addition, a South Beach diet recipe book is obviously appealing to many based on the amount of books sold; however, it won’t work for every one. Not everybody enjoys cooking; moreover, those that do enjoy the culinary arts like to explore a lot of different cook books.

Besides, the amount of books sold doesn’t necessarily indicate that the book has proven useful for everyone. Many of the South Beach Diet books are more than likely gathering dust or gracing a yard sale table.

The bottom line is that the South Beach Diet may prove to be too complicated for many. Surviving the first two excruciating weeks is only the first step and after the excitement of losing weight quickly wears off, the dieter may be less likely to stick with a plan that has radically changed the way they eat and involves learning quite a bit.

Another problem is that though exercise isn’t discouraged necessarily, it isn’t emphasized enough either. Healthy weight loss that lasts should involve developing an exercise program that will work for each individual. In addition, exercise has a ton of other benefits beyond weight loss.

Not only is exercise difficult in the first few weeks, it’s nearly impossible. How would anybody be able to exercise with so little energy in their diet?

After the first few weeks, exercise would be possible but it’s just not strongly recommended and in some cases discouraged.

Some of the advice the South Beach diet gives is in fact sound. Lean meat and vegetables always make excellent choices when considering a healthful diet. Learning to eat this way doesn’t need to be quite as complicated.

For healthful weight loss, slow and steady is the key. Eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, lean protein and whole grain carbohydrates as well as getting adequate dairy products in the diet is the key to eating healthfully for lasting weight loss.

Remember to exercise, get plenty of sleep and keep your hydration levels optimum with water throughout the day.

The Plan

The Atkins Diet plan has four phases:

Induction phase – For the first two weeks a very strict diet will kick off the plan. There’s a list of acceptable foods that consists of protein, fats and vegetables. Foods can be eaten liberally from this list so long as the “rules” are followed.

During this phase, weight loss will be at its peak due to the extremely low calories consumed.

Ongoing weight loss – During this phase, certain carbohydrates are allowed. Five more grams of carbohydrate can be consumed than the stricter 20 allowed in phase 1. After a week, if weight loss has continued, you may increase it another 5 grams.

The carbohydrate choices remain the same, you’re just allowed a few more. Weight loss will continue, but at a slightly slower rate.

Pre-maintenance – This phase is a preliminary step to learning how to eat healthfully for life. Weight loss is slowed and this phase gears the dieter towards maintaining a healthful weight for life.

Life-time maintenance – In the last phase, the dieter will be eating normally with the idea that normal now means a much more healthful diet.

A typical Atkins diet menu consists of lean protein and non-starchy veggies. Certain cheeses are allowed. Some fat is allowed so long as it’s good fat.

There are plenty of Atkins diet recipe books as well as ongoing online support through forums and direct advice.

The Atkins Lifestyle Food Guide Pyramid allows for increasing each section of the pyramid if and only if exercise is increased. The pyramid has meats on the bottom and carbohydrates at the top which is nearly opposite of the traditional food guide pyramid by the American Dietetic Association.

Pros

Many people find the Atkins diet to be easier to stick with than other diets. Let’s face it. If someone says, eat a bowl of carrots or eat a grilled chicken breast, which one will most people choose? Right, the more flavorful meat. Because of this, people find it much easier to face the Atkins diet menu.

There is also a lot of potential support offered. The official website offers ongoing advice as well as community boards where fellow dieters can discuss different aspects of the diet, look for ways to stick with it, and even throw out their latest greatest Atkins diet recipe.

Another pro is the elimination of poor quality carbohydrate. These nutritionally devoid foods are really not necessary in any diet let alone a diet meant for weight loss. The bottom line is that in order to lose weight, a person needs to limit caloric intake. When one does this, they have to make certain cuts. The obvious thing to cut is foods that don’t offer a lot of nutritional value so that we still have room in our daily caloric intake to take in foods that do offer important nutrients. We simply can’t afford to have high calorie foods that offer nothing more than calories.

Cons

The cons to the Atkins diet plan are numerous. The biggest problem is that in order for a diet to really, really work, the weight loss needs to be lasting. Many people do in fact lose weight using Atkins but inevitably begin to eat normally again and gain back the weight lost (plus some usually). It’s just not possible to continue the Atkins diet forever, though that is in fact touted in the diet.

It’s also expensive. One of the largest portions of a person’s grocery bill is meat. Healthy cuts of meat aren’t usually the cheapest. Just look at hamburger. The poorer quality it is, the bigger the hunk of it you can buy for less. There are other things one can add to a diet beyond Atkins diet food that are less expensive but still nutritious. Bulk grain products are highly nutritious. This brings me to my next point.

Eliminating too much carbohydrate in the diet can leave it nutritionally poor. We rely on good carbohydrates to provide fiber. As well, fruits and vegetables provide us with anti-oxidants and other vitamins for optimum health. Protein is an excellent macronutrient, and one that we need; however, it can’t provide all the energy we need especially if we’re trying to exercise while losing weight.

The whole premise behind the Atkins diet is thought by most to be that carbohydrates are bad. Unfortunately, this can be misconstrued as meaning that all protein is good. Though Atkins doesn’t purport that one can become thin dining on bacon and big old burgers (provided you remove the bun), many folks tend to think that it’s okay to eat so long as it’s not carbohydrate. Butter contains few carbohydrate grams, but it’s still high in fat and therefore high in calories. I’ve literally seen people who are “dieting” that slather a huge amount of butter on a piece of fish and when asked about this strange behavior, their answer is “but the butter doesn’t have many carbs, so it’s okay.” I’m thinking… but you just added 300 calories to that poor little fish!

If followed correctly, the Atkins diet plan can in fact help a person lose weight. Not all of the advice is bad; however, it doesn’t seem reasonable or healthful to cut out so many carbohydrates. Too little is just as off balance as too much.

In order to lose weight and keep it off for life, one needs to focus more on eating healthfully overall by looking at the Food Guide Pyramid at www.eatright.org, controlling portion sizes, and exercising.

Let’s start with the negative aspects of a low carb diet and end on a positive note with the up side to low carbohydrate dieting.

Clearly, a low carb diet is really no different than any other type of fad diet. Though one might be lead to believe that carbohydrates are the evil behind flabby abs and big bums, what the diet is really doing is cutting calories. As we all know, healthful weight loss occurs when caloric intake is lowered to allow for more calories burned than consumed. A low carbohydrate diet’s gimmick is that by cutting out a lot of if not all carbohydrate from the diet, far fewer calories are consumed. Sounds good, right?

Not really. There are some healthful aspects of carbohydrate that are also going to be missing. Fiber is an important aspect of weight loss, gastrointestinal health, cardiovascular health and possibly cancer prevention. Fiber is found in whole grains, fruits and vegetables. These food sources are only allowed in small portions if not eliminated all together.

What else is lost along with the fiber? Fruits and vegetables contain many, many important nutrients that not only aid in weight loss but promote good overall health. Vitamins and minerals can be severely lacking in strict diets and lead to all sorts of health problems.

It’s imperative that people consume plenty of vegetables and some fruit in their daily diets. One simply can’t be healthy and lose weight without consuming vegetables. Any fad low carb diet that advises limiting vegetables is simply ludicrous. What better food group to offer optimum nutrition and so few calories at the same time?

Another problem is the general misunderstanding of the diet. Because many dieters have been lead to believe that carbohydrate is evil, they tend to think that any protein is good and fill their plates with low carb diet food that is high in saturated fat. Though they may still be able to lose weight while dining on bacon every morning due to the extreme calorie cutting, there’s a good possibility that they are doing all sorts of miserable things to their bodies such as clogging their arteries or making themselves more susceptible to developing certain types of cancers such as breast cancer or prostate cancer.

Probably the most damning problem with following a low carb diet plan is the mere fact that long term weight loss is extremely difficult. Depending on how extreme the diet is, much of the initial weight loss could be due to the fact that the body is in a state of ketosis where water weight is lost. Not to mention that eventually, normal eating will resume and folks who have starved themselves from breads and the like may go overboard when they finally begin eating carbohydrates again. The simple fact is that most low carb diets are very difficult to maintain for an extended period of time and due to the aforementioned problems, it may even be detrimental to one’s overall health to remain on such an eating plan for too long.

That being said, there are few benefits to low carb dieting.

As I’ve said, healthful dieting has everything to do with lowering caloric intake as well as increasing caloric deficit through exercise. We all have different energy requirements. People who are more active can tolerate a higher level of caloric intake than people who live a sedentary life.

When we wish to lower our caloric intake in order to lose weight, we need to eliminate things in our diet. What should be eliminated? We need protein to maintain cellular integrity, hormonal function and a vast plethora of other activities in the body. We need carbohydrate as well for energy needs. Some carbohydrates, however, offer little more than this and we need the other benefits of good carbohydrates as well.

Good carbohydrates offer more than energy. Whole grains which are made with the whole grain kernel rather than processed flour offer fiber. Fruits and vegetables offer both fiber and vital vitamins and minerals; all of which not only support bodily functions and thus overall good health, but also have been known to aid in weight loss.

If a low carb diet plan advocates eliminating carbohydrates that are nutritionally poor such as refined sugars in junk food, and instead tell the dieter to choose carbohydrates that are high in fiber and other vitamins and minerals, then the diet could be a very sound eating plan.

As well, if the low carb diet advocates the use of lean protein sources instead of randomly assigning “choose from the protein group,” then the diet will probably help lower cardiovascular risk disease by lowering the amount of saturated fat in the average American’s diet.

The fact is that because some things in our diet have to be eliminated, we need to eliminate those things that are nutritionally poor. By doing this, you’re able to lose weight without leaving the body susceptible to all the problems that come with poor nutrition.

As weight is lost and the dieter has been trained to enjoy things like fruits, vegetables and whole grains over junky carbohydrates, lasting weight loss results are far more likely. This is because the person, rather than simply following a fad diet, has learned to eat properly possibly for the first time in his or her life.

Add to that plenty of exercise, water and sleep and this person will be at optimum overall health!

Video part 3 is my most favorite one. The end of the story is really funny and scary at the same time. Enjoy!

Part 1:

Part 2:

part 3:

Synopsis source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0716958/

Chubby telemarketer Betsy (Sharon Madden) is such a reclusive loner she has nightly talks with her plants in between harassing people over the telephone. When her nerdy, bald high school flame Elmo (Larry Gelman) comes back into the picture wanting to sweep her off her feet, Betsy decides she needs to lose a few pounds. She already has a special refrigerator that taunts her (“Fatty, fatty 2 by 4″) every time she opens the door, but that doesn’t seem to be doing the trick. One day out of the blue she gets a phone call from a mysterious company called “Your Weight Is Over.” Next thing she knows a package is delivered to her door. Inside is a hearing aid. In a crowded restaurant, she slips the device in and from that point on can hear food literally screaming in agony as it’s being eaten. Hey, it DOES ends up successfully making her lose her appetite for the night. In fact, she passes out from the shock.

A few days later, she receives a package from the same company. This time it’s a pair of eye glasses. As soon as she slips them on, she can see faces on the food. A pear, banana and apple sitting on the desk (all with sad-looking expressions) plead “Please don’t eat us!” over and over again. Then they become friends. Each piece of fruit has a personality of its own. The pear has a female southern belle voice, the banana has a grating New York accent and the apple, naturally, is the intellectual of the group. Before long, Betsy’s had enough of this program and tries to take the glasses off. Uh oh. They won’t come off… and the hearing aid won’t come out either. Will she ever be able to eat again or will she have to “murder” one of her new buddies?

Everyday we hear the news about how bad the economy will be in the coming year. We don’t know what the year 2009 will be like. One thing we have to understand is that worry won’t change anything one bit. Let’s take a positive thing out of the negative. Be an optimist and believe that everything will be better. Despite the economic crisis, this is actually the best time to lose weight. Cut all the unnecessary spending, cut eating out and cook at home more.

One of my biggest New Year’s Resolutions is still LOSING WEIGHT

I want to loose 20 pounds before our 5th anniversary on July 7th. (This time I’m very serious – starting on January 1st, 2009-)
How :

• Remove all junk food, sweets from refrigerator.

• Remove all junk food, sweets from my drawer in the office (I love to keep bunch of snacks in my drawer. When I’m bored I run to my drawer and satisfy myself with all kinds of chocolates, chips, cookies, peanuts and etc. I’m bad! bad! bad!)

• Eat breakfast regularly – control portions.

• Bring variety of cut out fruits to work. When I’m hungry or bored, fruit will be my solution.

• Reduce meal portions.

• Drink green tea 2 cups/day – morning and mid-afternoon

• Cook my own lunch (in this way I can control and pick the healthiest food I can eat)

• Have dinner before 7pm-control portions.

• Exercise 5 days a week – 30 minutes to 1 hour.

• Go to bed before 12am.

• Drink Plenty of water.

Okay…that’s my goal. No more excuses!

What’s your new year’s resolution? We would all like to hear.

My weight has been stable for about 3 years. I want to achieve my desired goal of weighing 100lbs but it seems so hard. The reason why I want to loose 15 pounds is because I’m not that tall. I’m only 4″11 and I think 100lbs is the best weight for my small frame. What do ya’ll think?

I need to stay motivated and get back on track.  2 months ago I joined the Nutrisystem diet plan and I quit because I was too stingy.  But now I have joined Nutrisystem again. This time I ordered the dinner meal only.

Dinner is the most difficult and weakest part. Since my husband and I work full time, I don’t have time to cook (lazy is the right word) for our dinner so we always dine out.  Or buy dinner and eat it home.  Most of the time the food that we eat is not healthy food.

That’s the main reason why I decided to join the Nutrisystem diet plan again and order just the dinner meal only. Most of their dinners have calorie counts between 220-360. I hope that’ll help me.

Anybody have experience struggling to lose the last few pounds?

The Weight Watchers®. diet is based on the idea that ” healthful weight loss occurs when we consume less food than we burn “.  Many of us know this, but find it difficult to apply it to our own lives.  Counting calories and weighing food to make sure we accomplish this mission just isn’t all that easy.  It’s time-consuming and if there’s one thing most of us are short on, that would be time.

Not only that, but putting all that thought into what we’re eating kind of sucks the fun out of food.  We begin to obsess on every bit we put in our mouths; how many calories was that?  Oh, I forgot about the mayo!  Etc.

The Weight Watchers®. points system is supposed to make it easier for you to accomplish your weight loss goals without the hassle of counting all those calories.  Foods are assigned points; for instance something that is about 250 calories will be around 4-5 points.

Each individual starts with a meeting to determine the correct amount of points allowed per day to achieve his or her weight loss goals.  This way, rather than counting calories, they count smaller numbers.  They are not told what they can eat, but they do have to figure out how to eat in a way that doesn’t go over their daily allotted points.

Obviously, one can see that this could lead to making healthful choices.  For instance, nobody wants to blow all their points on a huge breakfast and then not have much left over for the rest of the day.  Things like fruits and vegetables aren’t going to add very quickly and are better choices for snacks.  Makes sense, right?

But, you’re still counting.  You still have to think about everything you put in your mouth and record it in a food diary.  You may not have to weigh anything, but you do have to learn proper portion size (which isn’t all bad and key in weight loss), but it still forces you to obsess over food.

Using a food diary in and of itself is rather tedious and unless you’re a detail-oriented person, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to keep up for long.  There are already so many things in our lives that we have to monitor and fuss over.  We have to remember to keep track of our children’s homework assignments.  We have to remember to pay our bills on time.  We have to make sure we’re on target for work assignments.  Why make yourself slave to something else?

There is an alternative to the Weight Watchers®. points system and that is the Core Plan that Weight Watchers offers. This Weight Watchers diet doesn’t involve recording food or keeping track of points.  Instead, a restrictive list of what foods you are allowed to eat is incorporated.  For people who like a little more direction on what to eat and what not to eat, then this plan that takes the work out of it is probably a better way to go.

Unfortunately, there are two major drawbacks to this as well.  Can you guess what they are?  First and foremost, it’s too strict. When a diet is too strict, the failure rate is high.  It may become too difficult to resist things that you crave and eventually, the binge monster will rear its ugly head.

The second problem is that it’s not teaching you how to eat healthfully for life.  That which makes it simple causes trouble down the line when the weight has been lost and “normal” eating resumes.  It’s very easy to go overboard when you’ve restricted yourself for so long.  Not only that, but without your restrictive list of foods and Weight Watchers recipes, will you be able to make the right choices?  For that reason, the Weight Watchers®. points system, or Flex Plan, is probably the better of the two.

Whichever method you choose, part of the Weight Watchers diet program and one of the strong points is the Weight Watchers diet meetings.  Weekly weigh in’s and discussion with fellow dieters and counselors can offer the support you may need to boost your confidence and help you stick with your weight loss goals.  Well, that is if it’s been a good week and you’ve lost weight at this weigh in.  If you’ve gained weight, these public weigh in’s may prove to be more than you can handle in terms of obsessing over the event.

In addition, many nutritionists will tell you that looking at the scale too often can be more discouraging than anything.  Our body weights fluctuate and when we’re talking about just one or two pounds, your true weight may not be reflected right at that moment.  If you weight during your menstrual cycle, the scale might be reflecting water weight rather than true body weight.

In addition, these meetings are just one more thing to add to an already busy schedule.  Part of the reason you may be heavy in the first place could be the fact that you don’t seem to have the time to exercise or eat properly.  I can’t help but think that the time may be better spent in the gym or preparing a healthful lunch instead of grabbing something easy (and usually fattening) because you didn’t have time to eat.

Some people even describe the meetings as a little boring and repetitive, perhaps even a little corny in their bubbly manner.  Some of us just don’t work well with the group strategy.

The Weight Watchers diet program has both positive and negative aspects.  Some people will achieve lasting weight loss and others may find that the program just isn’t for them.  You’ll have to weigh the odds and decide for yourself whether or not Weight Watchers is for you!