Never was this truer than in the case of weight loss. When it comes to losing weight, everyone wants to get results as soon as they possibly can. It's not anything anyone should be criticized for. We all want our needs fulfilled quickly as we can,it's a trait that most of us posses.
However if you are looking to lose weight quickly, then the ultimate result will end in failure. Don't get me wrong, it is indeed possible to lose large amounts of weight in short periods of time. The results of quick weight loss will mean short term results and any weight that you may have lost, eventually returning. Often with a vengeance.
The human body is not like a car or a house where a lick of paint or a good clean up can alter the appearance after a couple of weeks. Your body is a living entity, and this being the case it needs time to change. Your body needs to adapt to any changes that you make,and that adaptation requires time.
From our beginnings as a race, it has taken hundreds of thousands of years to evolve into what we are today, it didn't happen overnight. When we want to change the way our bodies look, we are basically evolving into something else. This evolving is obviously on a much smaller scale; it won't take thousands of years for you to get thin. It will however take longer than a few weeks or a few months. This is a fact you need to accept, because once you understand and accept this concept, you won't give up or start to panic if you haven't lost a pound for a couple of days.
So many people fall into the trap that is set by certain companies that sell weight loss products. How often do you see products claiming to help you lose miraculous amounts of weight in a short time? Because we want to lose weight quickly we buy into this. What people don't realise is the effect that this type of weight loss will have on their bodies.
Can you imagine what it would do to your body if you had to lose more than 21000 calories a week? This is what would be required if you tried to lose 30 pounds in 30 days. To lose a pound of weight you will need to get rid of 3500 calories through diet or exercise. Of course you will lose weight for a few weeks, and you will feel happy about the results. After this initial time of success the weight loss will stop. By cutting back calories in such a huge amount,your body goes into a defensive mode and refuses to burn any more calories unless it really has to.
Just think about it; if you are used to eating a certain amount of food, and then this is cut down drastically, it comes as a shock to your body. This leads your body to defend itself from the shock by stopping you burning calories efficiently. Hence the weight loss comes to a standstill.
On top of this problem there is another problem that is going stop you losing weight. This other problem is your mind. Your brain uses 30% of the glucose that you consume. The glucose your brain need comes from the food that you eat. So if you decrease your calories by a large amount, it means less glucose for your brain. This will result in you getting mood swings, feeling irritated and short tempered, feeling miserable and often depressed. These types of feelings will quickly make you give up any weight loss program and revert to your original behaviours.
Traditional dieting methods rarely work. If you find this difficult to believe then why is weight loss out of the reach of so many? Your body will not tolerate you forcing it into losing weight. This is done in small stages, which will not put too much stress on your body or mind.
You should be looking at losing between 2-3 pounds a week. Your body is capable of accepting minor changes without any fuss,anything more and it goes to war with you. It can easily get used to losing a couple of pounds a week because compared to its whole; it is such a small amount. I know people will say that 2 pounds of weight loss sounds too small, but it is those same people that have tried to lose weight in the past quickly and found themselves back to square one.
2 pounds a week over a 12 month period equates to a loss of 104 pounds. I know a year sounds like a long time but the truth is that doing it this way will be a workable situation. If you don't do it this way then you will continue to use fad diets which work for a short time and then stop working. The odds are that in a year you will find yourself in the same plac where you are today.
The simple truth is that by using some crash diet will result in your body crashing after a few weeks. Give your body the time it needs to adapt to any changes. Take your time and do it in small steps. Your body and your mind will be happier by doing it in this way. Most importantly the results will be much longer lasting. On the other hand you can stick with the crash diets and you will only get what you have always got.
The Hare And The Tortoise Story
Do you wish for more success in your life? Whether it is professionally or personally we all wish we could master success. That is why the self help industry is such a profitable market. What makes personal development so difficult for us all is that it really is not something we can get from someone else. In the end it comes down to what we possess already. We have to want to change. Perhaps it might help to consider the story of the tortoise and the hare. This familiar children's tale can be easily applied to the field of personal development success if we only consider the three lessons this story teaches us.
The first lesson is that you have to want it bad enough to work for it. The hare does not want to win. He just assumes that he will. He assumes that he deserves to win because he is the fastest. However in the end he does not win, the race does not go to the fastest at all. In the end, the race goes to the tortoise who simply wants it more. Life is much like that. We should never make assumptions about who is going to win in the long race of life and why they will win. We simply have to focus on what we want and continue to work very hard for that goal.
The second lesson is that you have to plan for the long haul. The hare is easily sidetracked from the goal of winning the race because he believes the outcome is sure. He is not in the race for the long haul because he does not think he needs to be. If anything is worth having--financial success, personal relationships, etc.--then it is worth it to you to be in the race for the long haul. Do not get sidetracked by short-term delights and distractions. Focus on the finish line and the sweet rewards of victory.
The third and final lesson is that you have to be able to withstand some bumps in the road. This lesson is all about the tortoise. He suffers the taunts of the hare and faces the same distractions and disturbances the hare does. However the tortoise works through the difficulty because he is focused on the end result. He knows his path to victory will not be easy or smooth. However accepting the troubles that comes his way and continuing to plod forward means that eventually he will succeed where others fail.
What can we learn from the tortoise and the hare? How can these lessons contribute to our personal success? We can learn that you have to want it bad enough to work for it, you have to plan for the long haul, and you have to be able to withstand some bumps in the road.
Both Terry Sandhu & Deanna Mascle - are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Terry Sandhu has sinced written about articles on various topics from Health, Fitness and Lose Weight. See the testimonials of the people who have successfully lost weight with the Change your Mind Change your Body Weight Loss course at
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