Tips for using a healthy self body image as a way to maintain control weight.
The term "losing weight" seems to usually have negative connotations. A lot of times when people think of "losing weight," they think of people starving themselves, never eating any "junk food" or eating anything "tasty" again, eating only vegetables and exercising six hours a day.
However, it doesn't have to be like that. There are ways in which a person can lose weight and not go overboard. After all, everything in moderation. You should not go on a diet, severely limiting your intake of food. You should change your eating habits, forever. You should never restrict your eating so much that you could not do it forever. If you do, you are just setting yourself up to regain the weight back, since you already know that you can not keep up the restricted intake forever.
One great way to lose weight is to exercise and eat healthy NOT for the sake of losing weight. If a person just eats healthy and exercises just for the reason of being healthy, she is a lot more likely to lose weight than if she is doing so with the intent of losing twenty pounds. If a person is exercising and eating healthy and dieting to lose weight, there will (hopefully) come a time when they have reached their goal weight. What do they do after they reach their goal weight? They never intended to always exercise so much and eat so little FOREVER! Unfortunately, what happens a lot of times when people diet and go crazy with exercise is that either they can't keep it up, or once they reach their goal weight, they go back to their old exercising and dieting habits and gain back all the weight that they had lost, maybe more.
Don't be a victim to this trap! First of all, even if you are overweight, realize that you are beautiful!! Wear outfits that really flatter you, do your makeup and hair- see yourself as beautiful! Once you realize that you are beautiful even with a little excess weight and you think to yourself, "Even if I always weighed this weight, I'd still think I look good," you are on your way!! If you can seriously say that to yourself, then you are already halfway there.
Once you do have that kind of self-esteem, you are more than likely going to WANT to exercise, because people with high self-esteem think highly of themselves, respect themselves, want themselves to be healthy, and want to take care of themselves! Well, one way to take care of yourself is to eat healthy and exercise! If you do really have high self-esteem, you will want your body to be healthy. Remember, don't exercise to lose weight- exercise because you want to have a healthy body! Read up on all the books and ask your doctor what the health benefits of exercising are to you-- if you have high self-esteem, you want to do what is right for your body- you respect your body!
Again, everything should be in moderation. And start SLOW! If you have not exercised in months or even years, do not try to run ten miles on the treadmill the first day at the gym! Start slow, because any exercise is better than none! You have your whole life to work up to exercising harder and faster and longer. The key to exercise when it comes to lose weight (or just for health reasons) is consistency anyhow. Maybe you could start with just three times a week, for about 20 minutes each time, maybe just walking on the treadmill at a moderate speed. If you start too fast, you probably won't keep up with it (you will think that you will not be able to handle this daily, as it may be too tiring), and then usually, that is when people give up. Also, if you start too fast, and do too much too soon, you could seriously injure yourself, and if that happens, then you will not be able to be consistent and keep up with your exercise program!
Start slow, and work up to more. Maybe just add 5 minutes every week to your work out, or add an extra day or two.
As for your diet, you also do want to start slow with this. If you start your first day with absolutely no sweets at all, and you are used to eating many sweets, you are probably going to feel deprived and want to give up, and binge on junk food the next day, or maybe even the same day! All deserts aren't even, they can be satisfying, just make sure that you limit yourself. Maybe just let yourself have one or two deserts a week. Learn about the food pyramid and what acceptable servings and portions are. Load up on vegetables and fruits.
Just remember, everything in moderation, and you can use your healthy self-image to lose weight!
