Starting an exercise program — and sticking with it — is all about knowing yourself.
Especially with beach season upon us, plenty of people are thinking about picking up yet another shape-up routine.
Others don’t need to start exercising, because they’ve never stopped moving, but you probably don’t hear from them so much. Why? They consider their exercise routine as daily hygiene, almost like you would brush your teeth or take a shower. Sure, they might miss a session every now and then. They are not perfect, but they’re not trying to be perfect either.  They’re focusing on a good average, not a perfect score.
Plus, consistent exercisers aren’t all about the short-term goal. They intend to be active today, tomorrow, and forever.
Who are they? Maybe the lone runner or walker you seem to pass every day. Or the person who’s at the gym whenever you are there, too. Or maybe it’s the tennis player you regularly see at your neighborhood courts.
What do these people have that others don’t?  Nothing that anyone can’t acquire. Here are few ideas to help you to adopt — permanently — the attitudes and behaviors of consistent exercisers:
• Choose activities you like. Recognize that you can change your mind whenever you like.  You can do the same thing every day until you’re tired of it, or you can do something different every day of the week. It’s up to you. Just keep moving. Understand that over a lifetime, you’ll go through changes that will require you to switch things up. Maybe you suffer an injury, you get ill, or you’re just tired of the same old same old. Be ready to roll with what life brings you.
• Train your brain to think realistically. There’s no room for perfectionistic thinking if your goal is to be active, long-term.  Strive for a good average rather than a perfect score.  For example, your average improves when you decide to do part of your workout if you’re strapped for time instead of skipping exercise altogether.
• Develop the art of not giving up.  Imagine yourself staying active throughout your life.   Knowing that life has its challenges, you can decide that you will always work at figuring out any problems rather than giving up.  Keep the mind flexible and it will be a good problem solver.
• Provide incentives that make sense.  A lifetime of healthful exercise requires both short- and long-term goals, not short-term goals alone.  Starting to exercise in order to train for a race is good, but if that’s your only goal, it’s more likely there won’t be an incentive strong enough to keep you moving after the race.  Try a meaningful long-term goal such as, “I want to stay active so that I can stay independent in my older years.’’ Then add to that many short-term goals, such as “I want to learn to dance salsa,” “I want to run a 10K,” or “I want to increase my walking pace.’’ The combination of long and short-term goals keeps the brain focused on wanting to move.
• Don’t make losing weight the primary goal. This is the most common reason people use for starting an exercise program but it just doesn’t work long-term. Include weight management on your list of reasons to exercise but don’t put it at the top of the list. Put health and happiness at the top of your list.  Perhaps daily exercise helps you reduce your stress level or helps control your diabetes.  It may keep you limber so that you can continue your passion to garden into your old age. These kinds of priorities are far more likely to keep you moving.

Previously published in the St. Petersburg Times

It’s so frustrating to go on a diet and lose weight, only to regain it.
Frustrating, but common — studies show 90 percent of dieting attempts fail.
What can we do to improve our chances?
Despite overwhelming evidence that most diets fail, ever more people are
vulnerable to quick weight loss promises that won’t work in the long run.
Most of these people have histories of going on and off diets, over and
over again.
Diets may be one of the few things that intelligent people will keep trying
even after repeated failures.
What do the lucky 10 percent know about losing weight and keeping it off?
The problem is that people usually confuse weight loss with fat loss.
Actually, the faster the weight is lost, the more likely it is that the
weight lost is water or muscle, not fat. A lot of research has been done
showing that fad diets show particularly dismal results.
But it’s fat that people want to lose and they want to lose it for good —
not to gain it all back and have to start dieting all over again.
So don’t just go on yet another diet. First, stop and think.

•••

If you have a long history of on-and-off dieting it’s time to face the fact
that what you’ve been doing doesn’t work.
Maybe you’ve tried a bunch of diets with different names, like the Low Carb
Diet, the Blood Type Diet, the Grapefruit Diet. But consider what was
similar about them. Did they eliminate particular foods completely? Did
they emphasize fast weight loss? Did they not include exercise?
If you are a first time dieter, learn through the experience of others
rather than following them down the road of fad diets that don’t yield
lasting results.
Preparing yourself psychologically in this way will keep you on the right
track to successful weight loss and maintenance, not just this summer but
every summer from here on out.

•••

If you want this next weight loss attempt to be your final effort because
it actually worked, try these tips:
1. Focus on the behaviors (portion control, increased activity, better
nutrition) that help you lose fat, rather than achieving a weight goal
number.
2. Make sure that you include consistent aerobic exercise in your plan.
3. Don’t set a time limit for your goal. Instead, keep your mind focused on
the forest (the rest of your life) instead of the trees (an upcoming
wedding or bathing suit season).
4. Don’t go on a rigid, stringent, fad diet of any kind. If it sounds
depriving, you need to consider something else.
5. Make sure that the eating and exercise plan you go on is one that you
can follow for the rest of your life. For example, are you really going to
be able to keep buying expensive food through the mail?
6.      Your body has genetic limits. You don’t know if your body will be
able to reach the ultimate weight goal you have in mind. Instead, keep
doing what will make you leaner and healthier and let your body take care
of the weight. It will show you what its best weight is.
7.      Take time to keep your fridge stocked with easy to prepare,
nutritious alternatives.  Get rid of those foods that don’t fit a healthy
lifestyle and fill the fridge with luscious, colorful, fresh foods.  It may
require a stop at the grocery store more often but fresh food actually
requires less cooking — or even no cooking — which saves time in the end.
8. Reinforce, compliment, and pat yourself on the back often.  Stop the
criticism and judgment altogether.  The psychology of weight management is
a key factor that is usually ignored.  If you don’t do the right things
emotionally, psychological barriers will continue to get in your way.
You don’t want to put all that effort into losing weight only to regain it
and more. Let’s do it differently this time.

Previously published in the St. Petersburg Times

Most diets leave a person battling with hunger yet the most effective way to lose weight should not involve any struggle with hunger.

The body needs food to survive and one of the ways the body makes sure that it gets this fuel is through the feeling of hunger. For most people in developed countries, not having enough food is not a problem. Instead, people are more concerned with losing weight and controlling their eating. The body has a fine balance, however, and eating too little by ignoring hunger can lead to gaining weight rather than losing it. This is often what is behind the yo-yo pattern of weight loss and regaining typical of most dieters. Successful weight loss is not a matter of how little a person can eat, but how they balance their eating.

Not only does the body’s metabolism slow down if it’s not fed enough (leading to a body that stores fat readily and burns it more slowly), but ignoring hunger to the point of excess leads to out of control eating. Almost everyone has experienced the feeling of ravenous hunger at one time or another and its resulting feeding frenzy. A slower metabolism and overeating spell weight gain, not loss. Clearly, careful care of hunger is important in any plan for losing weight.

The mind is an important part of behavior change especially when it comes to the complicated task of losing weight.

Ten Mind Tools For Successful Weight Loss

1. Keep track of hunger - When the body needs fuel the brain will push you to eat. The hungrier you are, the stronger the push making it difficult to control eating if you wait too long to eat. A simple mind tool is to use a hunger scale from 0-5, with 0 being no hunger and 5 being extremely hungry to the point that you can’t focus on anything else. The trick is to try to eat early, when you first start feeling hungry (2) and not going beyond a 3. The sooner you eat when hungry the sooner you will be satisfied and the less you will eat.
2. Slow down eating - Fast eaters tend to consume more food. Focus on slowing down eating by savoring food – chew it thoroughly, focus on appreciating all the flavors of the food, involve all the senses in savoring the food such as noticing the textures, the colors and the smells as well as the taste. Swallow before taking another bite, take a sip of water between bites, and take the time to look around and “smell the roses.” Too many people gobble down food without taking the time to appreciate it. There are few things people do more often than eat so we might as well enjoy it.
3. Keep nutritious foods in stock at all times – In our hectic culture, if food isn’t easily accessible we’re not likely to eat it. If the accessible foods are junk foods, that’s what will be reached for first. Instead, have plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grain foods, and nutritious goodies available and the brain will go for those first instead of the junk
4. Brush teeth after eating - Brushing your teeth after eating eliminates the food taste from your mouth and the signals to the brain that encourage it to want to eat more. The fresh, minty taste from the toothpaste soon becomes a signal that the meal is over and you can go on to doing other things without urges for more food.
5. Think ahead when leaving the house - Consider whether you’ll be gone at meal time or when you’re likely to get hungry, and make a plan. Sometimes it means eating something before you go out or taking something for the road.
6. Don’t go to the grocery store hungry - It’s better to eat first or wait until after a meal when your brain will not be susceptible to the temptations.
7. Don’t try to eliminate favorite foods - This will only make you feel deprived and, sooner or later, the favorite food will be eaten anyway. This strategy only leads to compulsive eating of the same favorite foods that were being eliminated.
8. Never skip meals or go long periods without eating – These strategies only result in a slower metabolism and rabid hunger – both of which lead to weight gain.
9. Make health rather than weight loss the priority – If you strive for health, not weight, the weight will come off anyway, but you’ll find it to be an easier road.
10. Don’t take life too seriously - The more relaxed and happy a person is the easier it is for him to lose weight. Ironically, the more intensely a person tries to lose weight, the harder it will be.

By using the mind tools above and those from Ten Mind Tips for Losing Weight,the best foot is stepping forward toward health, weight loss, and fitness.

Being active and eating right are essential for losing weight successfully but there are also other simple things a person can do to make the job easier.
Losing weight successfully involves a lifestyle change. Getting on a diet that can’t be followed for the rest of one’s life is not only not going to do anything to change lifestyle, but because most diets fail, it wastes time that could be better used doing things that work.

There are hundreds of simple and easy things a person can do that add to weight loss success and that work at changing a person’s lifestyle to one that is fat burning.

Ten Easy Gems For a Fat-Burning Lifestyle

1. Make gradual changes – People who use a gradual approach to making weight and lifestyle changes tend to be more successful at making the changes permanent. Rapid weight loss as well as taking steps that are too big with other behaviors can set a person up for failure by making them feel overwhelmed.
2. Keep the big picture in mind - People who aim at making lifetime changes instead of just going on a “diet” have been shown to keep the weight off more permanently. Striving for a healthy way of life rather than just to lose weight insures consistent, progressive, fat-burning changes.
3. Don’t fall for unrealistic diet plans and aids – There are plenty of “diets” to choose from. Wise people learn to bypass those that promise things that are impossible or improbable. “Diets” that have quirky names and advertise large amounts of weight loss in short periods of time are the type of diets that are best passed up.
4. Make lifestyle changes a priority - People who consider their weight loss and exercise goals important and make the behaviors that will accomplish these goals a priority, achieve their goals more quickly.
5. Don’t take advice from yo-yo dieters, instead seek advice from experts – Taking advice from people that are frequently going on and off diets and losing and regaining weight, is not a good idea. It’s better to observe someone who has been thin and fit for many years and seek expert advice.
6. Strive to eat more nutritiously – Feeding the body what it needs is not only good for health but also prevents overeating.
7. Eat enough calories and eat frequently – Under-eating slows metabolism resulting in a body that stores fat easily. People tend to get hungry about every three hours. That’s because the body performs best when given fuel frequently throughout the day so it’s best to listen to the body. If the body is hungry it needs to be fed.
8. Don’t eliminate carbohydrates - The body needs carbohydrates to function effectively. Diets that eliminate carbohydrates usually end in compulsively eating the same carbohydrates that were eliminated and ultimately, regaining the lost weight.
9. Eat the last meal of the day at least 3-4 hours before bedtime - Metabolism slows down later in the day. By eating the last meal early more of the calories consumed are burned off.
10. Increase activity and exercise – The most fat-burning weight loss tool available to everyone is exercise and general movement. People who exercise on a regular basis and are active tend to be more successful with weight loss than those that don’t use exercise as part of their weight loss plan.

These are only a few of the many easy tips that help people be successful at losing weight. Since gradual progress is more effective than quick weight-loss goals, starting with the ten weight loss gems above is a good place to start. More weight loss gems follow.

Copyright Lavinia Rodriguez. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.

There are effective and simple ways to make the body burn more fat and boost metabolism.

Burning fat effectively requires an efficient metabolism (the calories required for the body to perform all the bodily functions, including burning fat). Most people know that metabolism is something that varies among individuals, but they think there is nothing that can be done about changing it.

“I have a slow metabolism,” is a statement that some people make as an explanation for the difficulty they have managing their weight. However, everyone can boost their metabolism! Problem is few people know the simple steps they can take to achieve it.

The Best Formula to Boost Metabolism

* Engage in Aerobic Exercise-Aerobic exercise is any exercise that uses oxygen efficiently and lasts for about 30 minutes. A person is exercising aerobically if they are breathing deeply during the exercise but able to have a comfortable conversation with someone at the same time. There should not be any gasping for air. While this type of exercise uses calories, the real benefit of aerobic exercise is what it does to boost metabolism after the exercise is over. Metabolism is increased above a person’s baseline after they have finished exercising and it gradually slows back down to baseline hours later. By exercising aerobically every day or most days during the week, metabolism is boosted time after time creating an average level of metabolism higher than the original baseline. The end result is a net boost in metabolism rate.
* Build Muscle-The more muscle a person has, the more calories it takes to maintain that muscle. Therefore, a person can achieve an increase in metabolism by building muscle. Muscle resistance exercise such as lifting weights is effective in building muscle.
* Eat Frequently-Each time a person eats, their metabolism is boosted temporarily. If a person eats 2000 calories in two meals one day and 2000 calories in 5 meals another day, all other things being equal, they will have burned more calories on the day they ate the 2000 calories in 5 meals. This is one reason why skipping meals is counterproductive to losing fat.
* Move Around-The more a person moves around generally in their lives – aside from formal exercise – the higher their metabolism. Two people may be watching a television show together but one is getting up during commercials to do something or is performing a task while watching while the other is just sitting the entire time. The active person is burning more. When it comes to boosting metabolism saving steps is not the smartest strategy.

Just as there are things people can do to boost their metabolism, there are things that can slow it down. Some of these things are usually done with the intent of becoming leaner but, in the long-run, have the opposite effect.

Things That Can Slow Metabolism

* Stringent Dieting-Typical diets that are too restrictive with calories can cause metabolism to slow down.
* Being Sedentary-If the body isn’t doing much it won’t take many calories to maintain the inactive lifestyle. This results in a slower metabolism.
* Losing muscle mass-This can happen because of strict dieting, a lack of exercise and/or inactivity.
* Skipping meals, fasting, or going long periods without eating-When the body isn’t fed properly it has to do whatever it takes to survive. One of the things it can do is to lower its metabolism to save calories for more important functions until the danger is over.
* Yo-yo dieting-This type of “feast-to-famine” approach to managing weight is also counterproductive and can lower metabolism.

A person could inadvertently lower their metabolism instead of increasing it based on the choices they make. The best formula for boosting metabolism involves exercising and eating in the right ways.

Copyright Lavinia Rodriguez. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.

How a person uses her brain can be the difference between success or failure with any challenge, but especially with weight loss.

A positive thinker achieves more success in life than a negative thinker. This is especially true with weight loss and fitness. Most people aren’t aware of how much their thinking affects their feelings and behavior. It’s easy, however, to learn what thoughts are getting in the way of intentions to lose weight – they’re “negative thoughts”.

Negative thoughts are typically ones that are critical and illogical. For someone to say that she can’t do anything right just because she ate more than she planned is an example of a thought that is illogical. Where is the logic that just because of one event the person can’t do anything right? This type of all-or-nothing and punishing thinking only causes a person to make more mistakes, not less.

So it’s wise to become closely acquainted with thought patterns and statements frequently used in response to behaviors and events. The more relaxed and motivated a person feels the easier it is to follow through with what needs to be done to achieve a healthy weight. It’s positive thoughts, not negative thoughts, that lead to motivation.

How to Become Aware of Negative Thoughts That Interfere with Weight Loss

1. Make a decision to listen to the things that you say to yourself.
2. When feeling a negative emotion such as guilt, anger, or anxiety ask yourself, “What did I just say to myself about this situation?” Most likely you said something negative to yourself that led to that negative feeling. For example, you might be feeling badly after having overeaten. The thoughts preceding this feeling might have been something like, “I can’t believe you failed again. You can’t do anything right. I just know I’ll probably gain weight from this.” It’s easy to see how this type of thinking can lead to negative feelings of frustration, guilt, and a lower self-esteem.
3. Point out to yourself how the thoughts, not the situation, have lead to the feelings and ask yourself, “Is thinking like this going to help or hurt me in my attempts to lose weight?” It’s logical that this negative way of thinking can hurt goals to lose weight.
4. Now think about what thoughts would be more helpful considering the situation. The thoughts might sound something like this, “I overate but it’s not the end of the world. Let me look at what might have caused my overeating so that I can prevent it next time. It looks like I went too long without eating anything and I was too hungry. That lead to the overeating. Let me learn from my mistake and continue on. No one does this perfectly. I want to focus more on what I’ve done well instead of what hasn’t gone well.”
5. Use a journal to write down negative thoughts in order to become more aware of them and then immediately write down the more positive and rational thoughts. Writing down thoughts initially keeps the brain from being distracted so that we can learn more quickly. By being consistent with working on thoughts people can change their normal thinking patterns to ones that will help at losing weight.

Thoughts That Get in the Way of Losing Weight

Here are some typical thoughts that can get in the way of losing weight:

• “I messed up again. What’s the use! I might as well forget the whole thing.”
• “I can’t believe I ate that. I can never do anything right!”
• “I ate too much. I might as well finish the whole thing.”
• “I can’t believe I didn’t lose weight this week. I’m never going to lose it.”

Losing weight isn’t just about eating less. It’s also about thinking the right way.