I recently had an eye opening experience when my doctor told me I had high blood pressure. He told me to lose weight and see if it lowers. If not, then he was going to put me on medication. And, let me tell you, taking medication is NOT an option for me. My grandmother had diabetes, high blood pressure and other issues and she used to take so many pills. I promised myself then that was never going to be me. When the doctor threatened to put me on medication, it was time to get serious about my health. Like most people, I know exactly what I shouldn’t be eating but I thought I was okay healthwise. I totally misjudged. Now, I realized that I had to monitor what I was shoving in my mouth.
Being overweight can lead to a heck of a lot of health issues such as type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, certain cancers, liver and gallbladder disease and so much more that you don’t want to experience. Thankfully, these are all lifestyle diseases which means that they are not genetic so you are not predestined to have these problems. Change your lifestyle and you lower your risk of getting them. So, off I went in search how to stop being a fatty.
The first step in getting healthy is eating healthy. You can exercise all you want, but if you are still shoveling donuts, fast food and every kind of dessert you can think of in your mouth, it kind of defeats the purpose. There really has to be a balance of healthy eating and exercise. According to the Center for Disease Control’s website, “When it comes to maintaining a healthy weight for a lifetime, the bottom line is – calories count! Weight management is all about balance – balancing the number of calories you consume with the number of calories your body uses or “burns off.” That makes perfect sense, lesson the amount of calories, exercise more and you lose weight. Brilliant!
But usually, the first thing people do when they are planning to lose weight is “go on a diet.” Just to clarify, a diet is what a person eats or drinks during the course of the day. It is not depriving yourself of carbohydrates or some other important nutrient your body needs, for a certain amount of time. When you cut carbohydrates or any of the other important nutrients out of your diet, your body tries to get it from something else. Your body needs all of its nutrients. Unless you are going to swear off a particular food or food group for the rest of your life, as soon as you eat it again you will most likely gain the weight right back. Then you are right back to square one, plus more weight and upset about it.
Eating all the proper nutrients brings the body into balance and helps you age gracefully, giving your body what it needs in order to function properly. You want to have a balance of all the food groups — grain, dairy, meat, vegetables and fruits. The amount you need varies from person to person.
Another misconception is that if you skip meals you will lose weight. That is absolutely false. When you are starving yourself and thinking that you are doing something good, your body goes into survival mode. The next time you eat, your body will hold on to the food because it is not sure when it will be fed again. Many nutrition experts suggests that you eat small meals throughout the day, so that you will keep up your blood sugar and have enough energy to get through the day. Also, make sure that you drink eight glasses of water a day. Water will give you a full feeling as well as clean and replenish your cells.
And, in case you were wondering, heck yeah I lost the weight and my blood pressure came down so no pills for me. Yay!
What do you do to lose weight?
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