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.

Not the kindest of descriptions, that, but I have to say most fat people (and let’s not hide behind such terms as ‘big’ or ‘a little overweight’ or ‘differently weighted’ or ‘horizontally gifted’) absolutely hate the way clothes do nothing for them. And while that is a cause worthy of our concern, I wouldn’t say it is the biggest reason to lose weight. Of course, none of us would mind looking as though we had just got off the ramp wearing the latest designer dreams, but the point is, there is, to my mind, a bigger reason to lose weight.

Very simply, being fat equals being ill.

Losing weight is a global concern

There’s no way to put this gently, so I’m not going to try, but the fact is that thin people live longer than fat people. Medical research has established that obesity – roughly defined as more than 25 percent body fat in men and more than 32 percent in women – is one of the biggest threats to good health, and the worrying news is that a little over 20 percent of the United State’s total population is clinically obese.

And though I mention the US as an example, the urge to lose weight has gone global, to the extent that we are witnessing the emergence of an entire industry built around weight loss. For example, a friend who was in India recently told me about a reality show on one of the TV channels that pits very fat people against each other in a race to lose as much weight as possible over the course of a few months. In the end, the biggest loser wins. Sounds familiar? Yes it does, because we know all about NBC’s The Biggest Loser, but the thing is that the globalization of a show themed on losing weight merely proves my assertion.

Excess fat has been proved to directly or indirectly cause heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Scared? You ought to be, because a National Health and Nutrition Examination survey found that three out of four Americans (that’s 75 percent, in case you want it rubbed in) die of either heart disease or cancer; and roughly 80 percent of those deaths are associated with lifestyle diseases born out of inadequate exercise.

Losing weight impacts your health

Let’s take heart disease, for instance. Once you are obese, it takes more of an effort to breathe, simply because the heart has to labor harder to keep the blood circulation going, to the lungs as well as to other organs. The overwork takes its toll by enlarging the heart so that blood pressure rises and heartbeats become irregular. If that weren’t bad enough, obesity has also been linked to higher levels of cholesterol, and in extreme cases, this means that the arteries are narrowed owing to plaque deposits on their walls – a classic symptom of arteriosclerosis.

Not immediately fatal, arteriosclerosis is nonetheless potentially so, because as the deposits grow, vital organs like the brain, heart and kidneys are deprived of blood because the narrow arteries can no longer deliver enough blood to them. In a vicious cycle, this means that the heart is forced to pump harder, and so blood pressure rises. Get the drift? Small wonder that nearly 25 percent of all heart problems are linked to obesity.

Then there’s cancer. Medical research has established that excess body fat acts as a sort of warehouse for carcinogens, though research on this subject continues. While more women are likely to suffer from breast and uterine cancer owing to the presence of excess body fat, obese men are under threat from colon and prostate cancer.

Finally, there’s diabetes. This is not the forum for a medical discussion, but you have to know that whether or not you develop diabetes depends on how far the balance between blood sugar, body fat, and insulin within your body is upset. The problem, as you may guess, begins with excess blood sugar, which is stored in various vital organs. When these organs can’t take any more sugar, it is turned into body fat. But when sugar levels exceed the maximum capacity of the fat cells, the pancreas starts to produce more insulin to control sugar levels, and thus you have diabetes, a potentially fatal disease that can in turn spawn such grave conditions as heart and kidney failure and blindness.

Losing weight impacts your lifestyle

“At the beginning of the 21st Century, obesity has become the leading metabolic disease in the World. So much so, that the World Health Organization refers to obesity as the global epidemic. In fact, obesity is a common disease affecting not only affluent societies but also developing countries. Currently 300 million people can be considered as obese and, due to the rising trend in obesity prevalence, this figure could double by year 2025 if no action is taken against this threat.” (Extract from a 2004 research paper by Xavier Formiguera and Ana Cantón of the Obesity Unit of the University Hospital in Catalonia, Spain.)

The inescapable fact is that obesity is a ‘lifestyle disease’, so that when you lose weight, apart from the obvious health benefits, you also acquire a healthier lifestyle and a mental shot in the arm. Trainee psychologist Priscilla Sayers, who has been conducting a study on the psychological impacts of obesity among people aged 18-35 years in Philadelphia, says losing weight successfully is one of the best ways to increase low self-esteem. “It really makes a difference to a person’s lifestyle when she or he loses weight. I have seen people become more outgoing, better dressed, and more confident – all because they lost 20 pounds in four months,” she says.

Hard to beat, isn’t it, the combination of improved health and lifestyle? And to think that losing weight is all that you have to do.

So Bridget and her ilk need a diet plan, obviously. The problem with that is you never know if a diet plan is good for you until you give it enough time. Susanna Giles, a homemaker who trained in nutrition and food science to create the perfect diet for her four growing children, says the problem with diet plans and dieters is that it is a now-on-now-off relationship. “The common belief among people is that a diet should have immediate impact, but that is just so unreasonable. You have to give any diet at least three months to make its presence felt,” she says.

When was the last time you planned your diet?

That was a serious question, requiring a serious answer. When was the last time you carefully planned your diet starting from breakfast to mid-day snack to dinner keeping in mind all the essential nutrients that your body required? “Far too often, and even when they are handed a diet plan, people tend to make what they see as slight adjustments to the plan and then blame the diet for not having any effect,” says Wendell Harvey, a consultant nutritionist based in New York.

Just as a matter of interest, while researching this topic, I came across nearly 75 diet plans, and these are just the known ones. No doubt there are hundreds of personal diet plans tucked away across the world, formed according to what a dieter thinks is best for him or her. However, none of it is going to work if you keep cheating on your diet plan, or more damagingly, keep switching between diet plans.

Even conservative estimates reveal that the dieting industry makes billions of dollars every year selling diet plans and remedies in the USA alone. So when we learn that an astonishing 20 percent (or thereabouts) of Americans are medically overweight, our automatic reaction is to blame the diet plans that they follow, without wondering whether the fault lies with the dieters rather than the diets. Most diet plans are based on premises that will work, because the essential thing about a diet plan is balance. If the diet plan is balanced, it will help you achieve whatever it is that you want to achieve.

If one were to stop people passing by on the street and ask them what they thought was a healthy daily diet plan, the reply would probably go something like this: “A variety of food incorporating carbohydrates, proteins, fats, minerals, and vitamins, and about five portions of fruit and vegetables.” The point is that most of us know what a healthy diet is like, so we don’t have to work too hard to figure out what we should eat.

The famed diet plans

Here, you must indulge me by letting me quote Bridget again, because she incorporates quite a few internationally famed diets into her daily routine…and gets nowhere. It’s a long extract, but extremely illuminating:

“Breakfast: hot-cross bun (Scarsdale Diet – slight variation on specified piece of wholemeal toast); Mars Bar (Scarsdale Diet – slight variation on specified half grapefruit)
Snack: two bananas, two pears (switched to F-plan as starving and cannot face Scarsdale carrot snacks). Carton orange juice (Anti-Cellulite Raw-Food Diet)
Lunch: jacket potato (Scarsdale Vegetarian Diet) and hummus (Hay Diet – fine with jacket spuds as all starch, and breakfast and snack were all alkaline-forming with exception of hot-cross bun and Mars: minor aberration)
Dinner: four glasses of wine, fish and chips (Scarsdale Diet and also Hay Diet – protein forming); portion tiramisu; peppermint Aero (puked).”

Can you see what’s happening here? This crazed switching of diets is doomed to failure, as anyone but Bridget can tell. However, like Bridget, people who follow the Scarsdale or Hay diets will tend to blame the diets rather than their own inability to stick to any one of them.

Since, as I mentioned, the sheer number of ‘official’ diet plans in existence makes it impossible for me to discuss all of them, and since I am not going to advertise or run down any specific diet plan, I can only repeat that for a dieter, following a diet plan is akin to a battle that they must win, provided they can overcome their ‘eating instincts’.

Says Susannah Giles, “The problem is that as your brain gets used to certain eating patterns, it prevents you from adjusting to new ones. So even if you follow certain diet plans and consume the required calories and other nutrients, your brain will still signal to you that you haven’t eaten enough and are still hungry.”

That, of course, sets off the various ‘cravings’ dieters regularly experience. Stacy Grimaldi, a 37-year-old banker from Shreveport, Louisiana, who has been following a diet plan for three years with what she says is astounding success, claims that in the initial stages of her diet, her craving for chocolate grew alarmingly, even though she wasn’t too fond of it to begin with. “I guess it was just because I was not allowed it,” she laughs.

So whichever diet plan you follow, chances are you will notice a similar thing happening to you. So knuckle down and (honestly) stick to your chosen diet plan. The result will be a matter of time.

According to a study conducted in October 2004, 18 percent of Americans could be described as clinically obese (roughly 32 percent more than their ideal body weight). In numerical terms, this meant one in five Americans was clinically obese. The situation, sadly, persists. “I would say that we are leading increasingly sedentary lives,” says nutritionist and dietitian Deborah L. Sayers. “Our lifestyles now revolve around sitting in an office or sitting at home or sitting in a pub or club or whatever. And all the labor saving devices that have become part of our lives make things worse.”

So weight loss is the need of the hour. And natural weight loss is fast gaining ground as the preferred method among a large part of the global population. Very simply put, natural weight loss methods do not involve a specific diet (high-carb, low-carb, high-protein, low-protein, zero-calorie, negative-calorie, the works), pills, powders, weight loss clinics…I could make this a really exhaustive (and exhausting) list, but you get the drift. In essence, natural weight loss is all about how you can use your body to get rid of the excess flab that it has been carrying.

Natural weight loss basics

“When you are starting out on your natural weight loss program, the two basics that you need to keep in mind are nutrition and exercise,” says Deborah. “And it is essential that you set realistic weight loss goals.” In effect, what this means is that not everyone can expect to acquire a body like Angelina Jolie or Brad Pitt (amazing pre-ordained combination of good-looking bodies), because what shape you end up with will depend to a large extent on your body type. However, you can most definitely shed excess fat and eliminate obesity regardless of your body type.
So, the basics: “The creed of ‘drink plenty of water, eat healthy food and get regular exercise’ is easy to sum up but so difficult to maintain,” says Deborah. Terence agrees. “I was so tempted to gorge on all the burgers and ice cream that I could, and then wash it down with a miracle diet pill,” he says. The fact is, however, that he didn’t, and four years later, weighs 170 lbs for his troubles. “I guess I still need to lose about 10 lbs or so, but I am not complaining. And I am never going to use pills and stuff.”

The biggest problem with ‘pills and stuff’ is that you are forever at risk of regaining the weight you lose once you stop using them, whereas if you lose weight naturally, you can actually manage your weight too. As Deborah says, “Just keep doing the things you’ve been doing.”

So what have you been doing?

“Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, sup like a pauper.” Hmm…now where have we heard that one before? In my case, it was from my mother’s Aunt Fran, who made sure her family started the day with a meal of mammoth proportions, or that was what it seemed like to nine-year-old me when I stayed with her occasionally. Breakfast was a Ritual That Must Not Be Tampered With, and involved fruits (more than one kind), raw vegetables (carrots were vomit-inducing but Good For My Eyesight), smoked salmon or tuna sandwiches, and even a lamb chop on occasion. And raw honey…oh my, lots of it, and milk or cream depending on your preference.

Okay, I can feel some of you wincing at the list, but just change a few of the items around (rye bread and yogurt are a good idea, for instance) and make sure the stuff is organic, and you do indeed have a breakfast fit for kings. The thing is that you need to eat a large one, and then go easy on the lunch (simple brown bread and cucumber sandwiches will do nicely), and eat a light snack by 7 pm. AND STOP EATING thereafter. For a full diet chart, consult a dietitian, but the point is to limit the calorie intake.

Studies have proved that people who consume a majority of their daily caloric requirement early in the day tend to consume fewer calories for the rest of the day, whereas people who eat larger meals at night tend to consume more total calories each day.
Get moving

If daily workouts and a regimented exercise schedule is not an option, try walking – nonstop for at least an hour every day, preferably early in the morning or after sunset. “You don’t have to half-run,” says fitness trainer Dennis Li. “You can just walk at your normal pace. Walking is the best cardio-vascular exercise there is, particularly for those who are unable to go in for any other kind of cardio training. Regular walking boosts your metabolic rate and therefore promotes constant burning of calories.”

Watered down

Drink at least eight glasses of water every day, beginning with first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. Water is unparalleled when it comes to flushing out the toxins from your body, and is great for your circulation.

Eating healthy, drinking water, walking: is that all there is to natural weight loss? Er…yes, actually. Hear it from Terence: “Just cutting down on the carbs and sugar made such a huge difference. And I walked as though I was going to break the world record. It was difficult, but my cravings for sweets began to disappear after the first two months or so. And my mom advised me to look in the mirror every time I felt like giving up.”

So there you are. And if Terence can do it, any reason why you can’t?

Over a period of six months, Marisa’s blood pressure shot up, and she also developed insomnia. “I would be prowling through the house at night, because I couldn’t sleep and would be feeling too restless to do anything else. And it was particularly terrible because thanks to the diet pills, my appetite was suppressed so I couldn’t take comfort in a midnight snack as I used to do earlier,” she says. This in turn led to acute depression, threatening Marisa’s four-year marriage with high school sweetheart Gerry.

Today, Marisa is off diet pills completely, though she still has some way to go before she attains her ideal weight of around 125 lbs, but she is sticking to morning and evening walks and a balanced diet that she swears work far better than the pills used to. “I’m down to around 170 lbs, and though my weight appears to have currently reached a plateau, my fitness consultant assures me it’s a matter of time before it stars to go downhill again,” she says.

The debate for…

Considering the horror story I’ve just told you, it would be tempting to assume that weight loss diet pills are the poison of Satan that no one should go near, forget take into their systems. Not really, you know. There are several benefits of diet pills that we need to know about if we are to make a fair analysis.

For starters, weight loss diet pills speed up your metabolism, which means you burn greater quantities of fat. Many diet pills contain ingredients such as green tea extracts and lipoic acid, which promote weight loss. And diet pills are also a great way to cut down on between-meals snacks, because they contain appetite suppressants that make you less hungry. Says consultant nutritionist Shari Matthews, “It is a myth that people who take diet pills actually starve. Appetite suppressants are basically substances that enable you to eat less, which means you eat enough to stay healthy, but not in excess of your needs.”

Diet pills also help you limit the amount of calories that enter your body, which means you stand less risk of gaining excess weight.

In general, stimulants carry a risk of high blood pressure, faster heart rate, palpitations, closed-angle glaucoma, drug addiction, restlessness, agitation, and insomnia.

…And the debate against

The biggest problem with diet pills is that we simply do not know enough about them to be sure of their efficacy. As is obvious, they have definite side effects. In fact, because diet pills affect or change certain fundamental processes of the body, they are supposed to be prescribed only in cases when obesity can be potentially fatal, as was the case with Shari. Obviously, they may not affect every individual in an identical way, so what works for one may not do so for another.

And while certain diet pills can be prescribed, there are the over-the-counter (OTC) pills that you may buy without a prescription, so the risk of side effects is ever present. Indeed, the OTC weight loss diet pills sector is among the fastest growing pharmaceutical segments in the United States. At a conservative estimate, Americans spend between $50-70 million on weight loss diet pills and allied products. Which unscrupulous businessman worth his fake dollars can ignore that kind of money? So the result is that Americans end up spending up to $10 billion on diet pills that could be less than genuine.

In any case, OTC diet pills are mostly classified as food supplements rather than medicinal substances, and are therefore not as strictly regulated as prescription diet pills. Federal rules do not require OTC diet pills to be extensively tested, nor are they subject to the same advertising and labeling guidelines as prescription diet pills. In the opinion of industry observers, this needs to change, because they feel many OTC diet weight loss pills are actually eligible to be labeled anti-obesity drugs.

From their point of view, the clinching argument is that many OTC weight loss diet pills contain ingredients with powerful amphetamines, which may induce side effects that could even be fatal, but they criticize the fact that there is no compulsory reporting procedures for these products. Says Dr Fenton La Rocca, who has been prescribing anti-obesity drugs for nearly 20 years, “OTC diet pills are an unknown quantity, because we just can’t be sure of their composition unless we subject them to exhaustive tests.”

Are prescription diet pills the answer?

It would be nice to be able to say yes, but the truth is that prescription diet pills – common examples of which include brands like Meridia (Sibutramine), Xenical (Orlistat), Adipex, Bontril, Didrex, Tenuate, and Phentermine – are liable to cause problematic side effects too. Take Orlistat, which limits the body’s capacity to absorb dietary fats, and which may result in oily spotting bowel movements, oily stools, mild or acute stomachache, and flatulence.

So the problem persists. At the end of it all, it may be a better idea to extensively consult your physician before you commence taking any diet pills, particularly OTC pills. They may represent an easy way to lose weight, but they also make demands of your body that it may be unable to fulfill. Before you start using weight loss diet pills, it is as well to know that they may affect your heart, brain, liver, and intestines, and you need to be aware of the extent of the damage that they can cause. Shari Matthews recommends that you get all OTC weight loss diet pills privately tested and discuss the results with a trained expert before you use them. As she says, “When it comes to regulating something as fundamental as your appetite, you can’t be too careful.”

In fact, in many Asian cultures, green tea has a proud tradition as a healing beverage. There is archaeological evidence to prove that green tea has been consumed in this part of the world for close to 5,000 years, and that India and China were the first countries to grow it. Traditional texts indicate that green tea has been medicinally used in countries like India, China, Japan and Thailand to help everything from healing wounds to regulating blood sugar and promoting digestion. Spot the green tea-weight loss link here? Happily, modern science has started to recognize these properties too, which has led to widespread research on green tea, adding to its popularity.

Before we proceed further, you need to know that green tea is tea (L. Camellia Sinensis) in its purest form, which means that it has undergone minimal oxidation while processing. So while all tea (black or green) comes from the leaves of the Camellia Sinensis tree, green tea undergoes less fermentation and is therefore much lighter than other (black) teas, usually a pale green or yellow in color.

Green tea and weight loss

In 2000, scientists at the University of Chicago’s Tang Center for Herbal Medicine Research announced that a major chemical component of green tea caused rats to lose up to 21 percent of their body weight. Rats injected with epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) derived from green tea leaves lost their appetites and consumed up to 60 percent less food after seven days of daily injections (Source: University of Chicago Medical Center press release).

Yet another study, the results of which appeared in the January 2005 issue of American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, established that people who drank green tea extract every day for three months lost more body fat than those who drank regular oolong tea for the same period. The researchers said that catechins, which are crucial ingredients found in green tea, could cause weight loss by stimulating the body to burn more calories and thereby decreasing body fat.

Now that scientists have gone such a long way toward establishing a link between green tea and weight loss, corporate entities are not to be denied a great marketing opportunity. Therefore, in 2006, we had Coca-Cola in collaboration with Nestlé launching the green tea energy drink Enviga, which is said to have not zero, but negative calories, but this is not yet a scientifically proven fact. Lipton followed suit with its Green Tea (150 mg of natural antioxidants per serving).

Does green tea weight loss really work?

Whatever the current state of the scientific research involving green tea and weight loss, the fact remains that green tea is rich in catechin polyphenols, particularly EGCG, a powerful antioxidant which, besides stimulating the body to burn more calories, also lowers LDL (or bad) cholesterol levels. As nutritionist Becky Harman says, “All tea contains polyphenols, which are natural substances that possess antioxidant, anticancer, and antiviral properties. And green tea is even better because it is not processed as intensively as black tea, which leaves the ECGC pretty much as they are.” How far wrong can you go with something like that?

But I digress. My objective was to show you whether green tea weight loss works. With apologies, I must direct your attention to yet another scientific study, this time emerging from the University of Geneva. In December 1999 (yes, its’ a little far back), scientists in the United States and Switzerland published the results of a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and Urology, claiming that certain ingredients in green tea promote weight loss, among other things.

I have chosen this particular study because it seemed to me the most definitive in terms of demonstrating the weight loss benefits of green tea. The control (or sample) group for the study was a team of men whose average age was 25 and whose body types were ‘lean’ to ‘mildly overweight’. The journal article said that all the men were on a standard diet of about 13% proteins, 40% fats and 47% carbohydrates. For six weeks, the men took two capsules of either green tea extract + 50 mg of caffeine, 50 mg of caffeine only, or a placebo (properly defined as “a preparation that is pharmacologically inactive but which may have a therapeutic effect based on the power of suggestion”).

In the end, based on their findings, the University of Geneva scientists reported as follows: “Green tea has thermogenic properties and promotes fat oxidation beyond that explained by its caffeine content per se. The green tea extract may play a role in the control of body composition via sympathetic activation of thermogenesis, fat oxidation, or both.” Allow me to translate: drinking green tea equals burning lots of fat.

What was that bit about caffeine?

Having talked only about the pros of green tea, it would be unfair to neglect the cons. Sharp-eyed readers may have spotted by now that green tea contains caffeine (in accordance with the ancient principle of All Good Things Come At A Price). However, it actually has less caffeine than black tea, and if you keep your green tea intake down to two or three cups (300 to 400 mg if you prefer green tea extracts) per day, you should be in the clear.

That still leaves quite a few people — heart patients, those with kidney disorders, stomach ulcers, and anxiety disorders – who should not drink green tea. The same applies to pregnant and breastfeeding women. And anyone on any kind of medication should consult a doctor or qualified nutritionist before drinking green tea.

All other weight loss aspirants are free to indulge in green tea. Of course, if you’re the kind who gorges on double burgers and then expects green tea to pack the excess fat, forget it. As with all other weight loss techniques, green tea will work wonders given the right conditions, so follow a healthy diet, drink green tea, and watch the fat run!

The researchers, from the University of Kentucky’s Chandler Hospital and Emory University School of Medicine, reviewed the health of a 15,000-strong sample group, the members of which had originally been studied 20 years ago. They looked for the presence of diabetes (Type 1 and Type 2), analyzed the body mass indices and reviewed the members’ histories of critical illness (such as organ failure) and mortality.

The research findings revealed that the obese are not at increased risk of organ failure or premature death if they do not have diabetes. Correspondingly, patients with diabetes were found to be three times more likely to suffer from organ failure and die from it – or any other cause – than non-diabetics, regardless of their body mass index. Finally, the authors concluded that obesity itself might not intrinsically lead to what they refer to as “poor outcomes”.

However, if you thought that all this means you could go ahead and pile on the adipose, beware. Among other things, the study has also revealed that those who are obese are more likely to develop diabetes than the non-obese. In fact, a highly disturbing recent trend has been the increase of Type 2 diabetes among teens and even pre-teens, in extreme cases.

Dr Nicola Sexton M.D., 59, a consultant endocrinologist based in Akron, Ohio, says she is treating more teenagers for diabetes now than at any time of her long career. “Sadly, most of these children are obese, and I firmly believe increasing teenage diabetes is attributable to increasing childhood obesity. As recently as 10 years ago, I had virtually no patients under 30. Today, at least seven or eight percent of the patients I see are under 19, and that has to be cause for alarm,” Dr Sexton says.

Living with diabetes

Nutritionist Harry Neville says “lifestyle shifts” are the best way to deal with diabetes. “If diabetes runs in your family, you are a high-risk case and the only way to keep the problem under control is by modifying your lifestyle,” he explains. “But the problem with diabetes is that we still don’t know exactly what brings it on.”

Well, we know that those with a family history of diabetes are about 25% likely to develop the disease, but we also know that diet is a major contributor. “Most people do not eat a balanced diet,” says Harry. “The idea behind a balanced diet is that it produces enough for the body to perform vital functions. So if you don’t eat the right food, the pancreas does not secrete enough insulin. So cut out the carbohydrates and fats, and concentrate on vegetable proteins and vitamins.”

Heredity, food, obesity…the three main causes of diabetes have company in the form of stress, and, in rare cases, a viral attack that affects the pancreas. And the only way to combat these is to eat the right foods, get adequate exercise and conduct regular health check-ups that can warn of impending diabetes. As Dr Sexton says, “Living with diabetes is not easy, but you can stay ahead most of the time given you follow a certain lifestyle.”

Since I started my Nutrisystem weight loss program 3 weeks ago, I try to totally focus my mind on the program. I want to be successful in shedding pounds from my body. If other people can do that, I can do that as well. I try to be really disciplined in following the Nutrisystem weight loss program guide and rules.

I try to exercise 5 days a week. It’s really tough sometimes. There are times I don’t want to work out because of laziness or fatigue. BUT all the time I’m feeling guilty if I skip my exercise or eat junk food. I am afraid I will gain back all the weight that I’ve tried so hard to loose. I have already spent money, time, entergy, etc… and I don’t want to ruin all the hard work and all the resources just because of laziness? Nay! nay! nay! Beside that, I’ve seen RESULTS and that motivates me to keep going!

At the end of this month I will celebrate my one month anniversary of my Nutrisystem weight loss program. WooooHuuuuuuuu….. I will continue the program the next month. This will be my second Nutrisystem order. I edited my food choices this time and I picked foods that I really like. That will help me enjoy my weight loss program more without feeling hungry or suffering. I am so happy and excited to see how many pounds I can shed next month )

Personally, I disagree with BMI formula that’s says I’m in a healthy weight. Being 5 inches tall and 125lbs, I think I’m in the fat category. I have a pear body type where my belly, thighs, bottom and calves were the first parts to gain weight. They jiggle and look like an orange peel. I try to love my body but I don’t think I like those parts when I’m gaining weight.

Last year I tried to loose weight and I succeeded in losing 15 pounds within 8 months. I was so happy. BUT maintaining a slim weight is like caring for plants that you need to water and nurture so they can grow healthy. You can’t just loose weight and then after you achieve your goal, put it in the closet and forget about it.

You need to keep maintaining your body everyday. Keep exercising and continuing living in your healthy lifestyle. THAT’S the part I forgot.
I thought “well I’m in a good weight now, I can eat whatever I want”. But that’s a wrong mind set. After succeeding in loosing weight, a couple of months later, I started eating fries, burgers, and ice cream again. Because I never cooked at home, we bought food or ate out almost every night. That habit sped up my weight gain.
In 6 months I’ve gained my 10 pounds back. I tried so hard to loose that 10 pounds but it seems so hard. I had up and down moments. Sometimes I was in my high mode but sometimes I just didn’t care about it. I was addicted to good food. The sad part was, I had to get some new clothes in bigger sizes. I was so upset to see that. I want to be able to wear all my clothes again. After 8 months struggling in a yoo..yoo..diet, I finally decided that this time I want to loose weight. But I needed help and a huge motivation for this.

When I saw a Nutrisystem advertisement on TV, I had a good feeling about it. With support from my husband who also gained weight a lot since we got married, I decide to joined the Nutrisystem diet. My husband wants to use me as a rabbit experiment. If Nutrisystem really works, then he will join it. Seeing is believing he said.
On March 25, 2008 I joined Nutrisystem. It cost me $299.59 + Free shipping and 2 weeks free meals. That’s a lot cheaper than the Jenny Craig diet. Think about this, $299.59 means you only spend $10 /day–that’s like spending on your regular food everyday and or even cheaper. The benefit is you don’t need to think about what you want to cook or eat for the day because everything is ready for you. Especially for someone like me who is lazy to cook, I really like this kind of diet. I got the email confirmation within 5 minutes. I can’t wait for my Nutrisystem.