Why Real Weight Loss Will Always Be Hard

I’m sure you’ve seen the “lose 10 pounds in 7 days” ads.  All the miracle diets and all the different weight loss marketing media messages.  In advertising you always want whatever your selling to the potential customer to be very easy, hassle free and work kind of like a magic pill.  That’s exaclty why weight loss supplements and pills are always hot sellers when none of them really work.  So why is real weight loss always hard?

Well I recently came across an honest weight loss article in a health and fitness articles directory that talked about how there really is no magic pill to weight loss and I couldn’t agree more.  In fact most of the so called “magic pills” do more harm than good.  How so?

Well weight loss supplements are an execuse for not working out.  Hey if you can lose weight taking a pill then working out is optional, or so the mind thinks.  That is just one example there are several others, however lets get back to the focus of this post, why real weight loss will always be hard.

Now by real weight loss I mean not only losing the weight but also keeping the weight off.  There are many fad diets that can help you drop a bunch of pounds really fast only to gain them back in the next couple of weeks.  That is NOT real weight loss.

Real weight loss is hard because it means controlling what one eats and regularly exercising.  Controlling what one eats is challenging in and off itself since we often engage in emotional eating or eating for comfort.  Eating out of boredom or eating due to stress are common examples of emotional eating.

The second aspect which is regular exercise is also challenging because it takes time and effort.  It’s not something you can do ocassionally rather it’s something you must make a life long habit, and in today’s busy world this is much easier said than done.

Funny Weight Loss Cartoon

Life is Hard but Eating is Easy

It was another stressful day at my job.  I just got home, went straight to the fridge and started eating every food in sight until my stomach was about to burst.  I only realized what has happened after I slipped onto my bed and laid down on my back.  I just overate, I was disappointed and furious at my actions.  I was on a diet and I just ruined it.  I felt ashamed of my out of control eating habits.  I felt like a failure and remembered all the times in the past I went on a diet and ruined it.

Did that sound familiar?  Do you ever eat comfort foods or junk foods due to stress?  Do you find yourself eating more than usual on stressful days?  What about when you are feeling depressed do you ever notice how you try to comfort yourself with food?

For me I disliked my job at the time, and all the stress that went along with that caused me to engage in emotional eating.  Emotional eating is simply eating to cope with emotions including anger, disappointment, fear, boredom or depression.

Emotional eating is by far the most common cause of overeating and weight gain in general.  So the question is how do you stop emotional eating or eating for comfort?

Well first it’s important to remember that life is hard but eating is easy.  I gotta be honest with you life isn’t pretty.  The happy and satisfying moments in life are few and far between.  We often take everything for granted, and are never really grateful for what life hast to offer.  Additionally having a “happy” life is very tough.  You see happiness requires constant growth and improvement whether it’s your health/fitness, work/finances or relationships.  No one is happy with his or her life if it’s standing still.  We feel happy when we grow when we improve yet that takes a lot of work.

With my old job I knew that the solution was to quit.  However the stress of having to look for another job, update my resume and go to those stupid interviews took over me.  It was a dilemma.  On the one hand I hated my job but on the other the thought of finding a new one stressed me out.  So I resorted to overeating as a way to comfort myself.  You gotta admit eating a twinkie or a bag of potato chips can be comforting at least for a few minutes.

Emotional eating often helps an individual escape from their current state of emotional or psychological stress.  However as you already know it never solves any problems.  Emotional eating is just like an alcoholic who drinks a shot or two when he is stressed out.  It might help distract him from his difficult life for a few minutes.  However he’ll always wake up the next day and have the same tough life.

When you realize that life is hard you expect difficulties.  This is important because often we assume that life is a utopia of some sort, some perfect existence where everyone is nice and everything works out.  It’s not.  Life is hard.

To deal with emotional eating you must first become aware of when you are doing it.  Think of the last few times that you fell off track with your healthy eating and examine your thoughts/emotions at the time.  That’s a great way to become aware of your own eating habits.

Once you become aware of your emotional eating you need to deal with it in two ways…

First in the moment when you feel like you are craving those comfort foods or about to engage in emotional eating you need to do an alternate relaxation activity such as taking a walk outside, going to the library, taking a shower, taking a nap or going cloth shopping.

Secondly, you need to eliminate as much stress from your life as you can.  If your job stresses you out consider finding a new one.  If a friend of yours is always a pain in the butt then spend less time with them.

It’s your life, you only live once, so make it a good one I’m interested in your comments, so please leave me one below, thanks.

Tomorrow Never Comes - Start Losing Weight Now or Never

“I’ll start eating healthy tomorrow” or “I’ll start exercising tomorrow” are probably two of the biggest weight loss lies you can tell yourself.  I’ve used those lies myself way too many times, and guess what?  Tomorrow never comes.

It’s the destructive cycle of procrastination.  You put off eating healthy or exercising until tomorrow.  Tomorrow comes and you’re busy, some circumstance comes up or you don’t feel like it so you put off until the next day.  This cycle keeps repeating and you never start losing weight.

There are many pre-suppositions to this lie that you need to become aware of in order to face it.

1. Perfectionism

   Let’s say you already ate a fatty greasy breakfast.  You put on one of your older outfits and notice that it’s feeling a bit tighter and even uncomfortable.  You get on the scale and notice that you’ve gained a few pounds over the last few weeks.  You decide you want to start losing weight, eating healthier and exercising.  You decide you’ll start tomorrow because you already ate a fatty greasy breakfast and you want to start your “diet” right.This never works.  It assumes that there is such a thing as a perfect “diet” or a perfect road to weight loss.  This is a big lie my friend, no one follows a diet perfectly.  If you are serious about losing weight you need to start now.  You never know what circumstances you’ll face tomorrow.  Make your next meal healthy even if you last wasn’t.  Exercise lightly even if you haven’t exercised in months.

2. I don’t Feel Like it

   Here is how this lie comes up, “I don’t feel like eating healthy or exercising today, so I’ll start my weight loss efforts tomorrow”.  This assumes that you’ll feel like it tomorrow.  Well I get some news for you, you’ll never really feel like eating healthy, exercising or losing weight.Implementing healthier habits is always a pain in the butt.  It never feels easy until a couple of month have passed and the healthy eating and exercising becomes a habit or part of your everyday life.  Change in general is never easy whether you make it today or tomorrow.  So you might as well start eating healthier and exercising today.

3. I don’t have Time

   “I’m too busy to exercise today, so I’ll just skip working out today and do it tomorrow”.  This is another big common lie.  You’ll never have time to workout or cook a healthier meal.  Believe it or not, no one has time for anything these days.  No one really has free time.  You need to make time.You might have to reorganize your schedule or watch less tv to workout.  That might be one way to make time.  Keep your priorities straight and remember that there is no free time.  If your busy today, chances are you’ll be busy tomorrow.  Figure out what non-essential activities you can skip and replace with exercising or cooking a healthy meal.

I hope by now you realize why tomorrow never comes.  If you are serious about losing weight then you need to start today.  If you are feeling motivated right now then start now:

• Go for a 15 minute walk
• Do some sit-ups or push-ups or jumping jacks
• Make your next meal a healthy one

If you start today it will be easier to keep going tomorrow.  Starting to implement healthy habits is never easy.

No Shortcuts for Losing Weight CHEATER

“You can’t cheat an honest man”.  How many of those “lose 10 pounds in 5 days” diets have you tried? or those get a 6 pack exercising 3 times a week for 15 minutes machines?  I gotta admit I’ve been suckered by those way too many times.

I was watching this show called “The Real Hustle” which is all about scam artists and their latest ploys.  One of the scam artists said “You can’t cheat an honest man”.  And this really hit home with me especially when it comes to fitness and weight loss.

It’s funny, I’ve always been looking for the shortcut.  One of the most search terms online today is “fast weight loss” or “lose weight fast”.  In looking for a shortcut for years, I’ve ended up gaining more weight.  I think the latest diet I tried was the warrior diet, what a joke and I guess I’m a bigger joke for trying it.

See it all makes sense now.  It’s not really about the weight, rather the habits that keep me overeating and gaining weight.  I bet you if I had weight loss surgery and all the fat was sucked out of me, I’d slowly gain the weight right back…

Hard to believe? Well it’s kinda of like how if you take a person in great shape, lock them up, and make them gain 20 pounds of fat and then let them go they’ll eventually lose all the weight.  I don’t know think of all your friends, family and relatives.  Can’t you classify a lot of them as either an “in shape” kind of person or a “fat” person.

It’s interesting how some people will live their whole lives fat and others stay skinny and in shape no matter what happens.  An extreme example I a handicapped guy who had a six pack.  The guy was stuck in a wheel chair yet still somehow managed to workout.  It really got my emotions going.  I mean he has every excuse not to workout and become a fat ass.  Yet he’s in better shape than most of us who aren’t handicapped.

And all those weight loss ads that make losing weight look easy, why do you think they are so appealing to us?  Why do you think we always buy into them?  Well it’s because we want to cheat the system.  I mean if someone wants to naturally and honestly lose the weight, he/she knows it’ll take time, be slow and has to become part of his/her lifestyle.  Only a cheater will go for a magic diet to drop all the weight, and I guess to some degree we are all cheaters.

Staying Fat is Easy, Comfortable and Convenient

“Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.” - Brian Tracey

If I want to stay fat, all I gotta do is keep everything the same.  It’s simple really, my current habits have lead me to my current weight of 211 pounds.  I haven’t checked any of those stupid weight charts lately but I’m pretty sure I’m at least 30-40 pounds overweight.

I had a realization, it’s very comfortable for me to stay fat.  I really don’t have to make any changes.  I just keep doing it what I’ve always done:

• I keep eating like a pig - that’s easy
• I keep avoiding the gym or working out - come on, working out sucks, and sweating and running out of breath, who wants to do that everyday? NOT ME haha
• Oh and I keep using my fatness as an excuse of why I can’t get some of the things I really want in life.  Instead of asking that hot girl out and risking rejection, I can just assume she’ll never go out with a fat guy like me, problem solved, risk a voided, damn being fat really is easy

A big part of any major change I’ve made in my life often involved really getting and staying out of my comfort zone.  In other words I really had to face some of my fears and do some embarrassing things.

I mean it kinda of makes sense doesn’t it?  If I keep doing the same things I’m doing right now, I’ll keep getting the same results.  Unless I shake up my reality, and start trying new things I’ll never lose the weight.

This is why I started this website.  I decided to really go public about my weight loss.  I’m sick of trying to do it on my own, and to be honest, I need all the support I can get.

So I will be using this site as a weight loss journal.  And I’m hoping I’ll attract others who are also trying to lose weight and we can do it together.

And no this wont be the typical weight loss blog, as a matter of fact I’m going to explore some really weird and messed up concepts.  Because everyone knows how to lose weight, you have to eat healthier and exercise.  I’ve known that for years.  As a matter of fact I’ve lose 50 pounds in the past and gained half the weight back.  So the problem isn’t really the HOW, it’s the WHY.

Why can’t I lose weight and keep it off?  What are the benefits of being fat?  There must be some even if they don’t make sense.