Easy Weight Loss Tips

Easy weight loss tips must sound like an almost unbelievable idea, but in reality its quite the opposite. Weight loss can be easy if you are in the right frame of mind to make it so. The last post here "Slimming with Water", looked at how drinking plenty of water throughout the day is one of the best slimming agents there is. So here, I'm going to take that idea further by looking at it as one of the easy weight loss tips that there are, as well as some others.

So back to water, briefly. Why is water such a good strategy when there are a plethora of pills and potions that you can get at the pharmacist or nutritionist store?

Well for starters, its free!

Losing weight doesn't get any cheaper than that! Add to that it is freely and easily available wherever you go, which means there's no excuses for not drinking plenty of it. On top of that, it is a big part of our body's make up, so complements our natural state of being. So don't turn your nose up at something that is free, readily available and works!

Next, an easy and free resource that everyone who wants to lose weight should make the best use of is their minds. Again, these are free, readily available and the bets part is they can be trained to work almost automatically. Think I'm kidding?

Your mind is what controls your body, so of course it is the best weapon you can possibly have when it comes to health, fitness and weight loss. You can train your mind by telling it what it should do. That's right! One way is by repetitive or rote mental teaching that is as easy as repeating a positive phrase, or affirmation over and over in your mind every day, like:

"I am healthy and my body is achieving its perfect weight"

or

"Every day I am getting healthier, slimmer and feel better"

Make some up of your own that suit the way you talk to yourself in your own head. Just make them positive affirmations and avoid the negative like the plague. Things like "I'm not fat any more"or "I wish I wasn't so overweight" are negative and will have the wrong effect. Make the affirmation in the present tense, make them what you want and NOT what you don't want, make them believable to you and make them fun!

These can be repeated whenever you have a few free minutes all throughout the day, like if you're stuck waiting in a queue. Don't get frustrated at having to wait, turn it into a positive moment and use it to say your affirmations to yourself!

So when it comes to discovering some of the best weight loss tips, it pays to think outside the box occasionally. Then you'll discover that every cloud really does have a silver lining when you know how!

Ok, that's all for today. See you again next time!

Weight Loss Tips

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Success Stories at Weight Watchers

Check out this page where Weight Watchers features their five finalists for inspiring weight loss stories for 2008.

They show before and after photos of the three women and two men as well as brief video interviews. These stories are very inspiring!

Jane is one of the five finalists. This is her 'after photo' where she weighs 138 pounds at her height of 5'5". When she joined Weight Watchers she weighed 255 pounds. She is 41 years old. See her 'before photo'.

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New Year's Weight Loss Resolution

Happy New Year Everyone!

I've only lost a few pounds this year but I'm very happy with my progress because I've lost a lot of fat and gained a lot of (heavier but slim) muscle. Since January of 2008 I've managed to go for regular long walks a few times a week almost every week. I've kept a log of my mileage and have been averaging about 15 miles per week (with the exception of a few lazy weeks throughout the year).

My legs are a lot slimmer than a year ago, my butt has totally firmed up :-) and my middle-age belly is looking a lot better. I think the walking has even helped tone up my upper arms, as I haven't done any other kind of exercises but my arms feel much more toned.

I'm not overweight on the BMI scale but it would still be nice to weigh 10 pounds less. I've got an ambitious goal to walk an average of 30 miles per week for 2009. Doubling my mileage over last year may be a bit unrealistic and I likely won't be able to complete my New Year's Resolution but it feels worth shooting for.

I've really gotten to enjoy my walks and feel pretty keen about trying to meet the new goal. One thing I have to confess is I've been using a little prop that I don't think I could do without.
Walking would seem a little too boring without it. My personal secret motivator for getting out on that walk is the tiny little iPod I bought for under $80. (The price has since gone down to $49 as in the image above). My routine before every walk is to load up my iPod with about one hour of podcasts that I can listen to while walking.

I pass by a lot of other people walking or jogging with some sort of iPod or other type of MP3 device. I'm sure most of them are listening to music as they exercise. But in my case, I never download music as I find the podcasts are way more interesting. All the stuff I listen to is free and my favorite are the daily podcasts put out by NPR radio, the New York Times, Bloomberg News and some free Buddhist podcasts.

The iPod is so tiny that it's hard to find when you misplace it. There's been a few times when I couldn't find it and that was enough (not fully justified) reason to cancel my walk on those days.

I haven't paid any attention to limiting my food intake in 2008 and I don't plan on it in 2009. I think the increased exercise could easily do the trick of losing the weight. I have however been trying to limit my food intake to just healthy foods. Recently I stopped eating as much bread and cheese as this used to be my staple easy snack or lunch. I'm now eating wheat alternative breads but also choosing other types of snacks much more often.

I haven't posted here for a couple of months but hope to post regularily in 2009. A new year is here and there will be lots of success stories to write about.

Wishing you all a lot of resolve and motivation in your New Year's Resolutions!

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