Losing weight is a full time job!

Losing weight is a full time job!  People are obsessed with having 6-pack abs and a smaller waistlines.  The ways to accomplish such a feat abound, all the way through crash diets, workout videos, club memberships, etc.

As I wrote before, the key to weight loss is caloric intake and output. If the output is greater than the intake, then one will lose weight.   Exercise is certainly a way to raise one’s metabolic rate, but truly, it must be combined with a proper diet. I like to compare it to gasoline.

I can either put in 87 octane and slowly ruin my car, having the response time be sluggish and gas mileage decrease or I can put in 93 octane and get top performance from my car.

 The same can be said for our bodies. If I eat junk food, even though I work out, I am not going to get the results I really want. But if I ingest foods that allow my body to turn that food into “high performance” energy, then the combination of exercise and diet will yield the best results.

Top 12 Foods To Raise Metabolism

1. Protein rich foods
2. Iron, Zinc, & Selenium- Rich foods
3. Chili pepper
4. Coffee
5. Tea
6. Legumes & Pulse
7. Spices-Ginger, grains of paradise and cayenne pepper
8. Cacao
9. Apple Cider Vinegar
10. Coconut oil
11. Water
12. Seaweed

For more information on these foods and why they raise your metabolism, just google “Top 12 Foods To Raise Metabolism.”  There are plenty of articles that will explain why each one of these foods could arise metabolism.

The Real Problem Of Weight Loss

The real problem is “Why are we eating so much?”  It’s not because we don’t know how to eat properly, rather, it’s how we cope with what’s happening.  If your sitting with your friends and potato chips or pretzels and soda are on the table, you tend to eat them as a social activity.  In truth, most of our eating can be seen as a social activity. Think about how much you ingest at a barbecue or party as opposed to when you are alone.  When alone, you eat what you need. You stop before you stuff yourself. But when you’re with friends, as long as the food is out, you’re nibbling.

Other times food is a coping mechanism, so much so that we have a category called “comfort foods.”  How many times have we watched sitcoms or movies in which we have seen the main character after ending  off a bad date, coming home and diving into an ice cream carton? We are subconsciously taught that the way to cope with bad or sad events is with food or drink.  It’s no wonder that we are overweight. And there lies the problem.

Time To Lose Weight For Good

It’s relatively easy to lose weight for a short time, as long as you stick to the diet du jour.  But once life takes over and we return to our regular routines, we slip back into our bad habits and all the advances we have made are lost.  Worse than that, we usually gain a little more than before and start the vicious cycle all over again. It’s time to get out of this vicious cycle and discover why you react the way you do.  Should you be able to identify what your triggers are and how you react, you need no longer be a prisoner to learned responses. You can develop new responses, which takes work, but can be done.  It will take some time, some reinforcement from others who have taken this journey, but once it is the new behavior is ingrained, you will have broken the cycle and finally be able to get and maintain your desired weight.

Good luck and enjoy the journey.  It’s worth it!