Taking Off Those Holiday Pounds

Holiday hangover? Hang over your belt that is. Is it time to start thinking about shedding those holiday pounds? Which diet plans work? Do all diets work for all people? Is one diet better than another? Should you try Jenny Craig? Weight Watcher's? How can you shed those holiday pounds?

In my experience, there is no better way to shed 5 or 10 pounds than juicing. Juicing means different things to different people. But, I've found the most nutritious juices are fresh made. If Santa brought you a juicing machine, put it to work right away. If you stored your old juicer "out of the way", it's time to pull it out. There are many good juice recipes online and tons of good books on the subject. My favorite juice is a version of V-8, sweetened with a small beet. A fruit smoothie made with soymilk for breakfast and a veggie juice for lunch will melt the pounds away quickly. You will be ready to slide into that dress you bought for the New Years party in nothing flat.

Did you gain weight over a longer time than just the holidays? If you have more than a fast 5-10 pounds to take off you might want to consider a longer standing diet. A fat counting diet can take off as much as 8 pounds a week. My doctor recommended 20 grams a day. Unfortunately, he failed to tell me anything more helpful and I almost starved to death learning about fat grams. At the time, I didn't know a fat gram from a calorie. Counting fat grams is more complicated than some structured diets, but the long lasting effects are very good. In the process, you will learn many things about nutrition and changing the way you eat forever. It will take longer to take off those last few pounds. Those are the pounds you've had the longest. This is not an overnight remedy.

Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers are long time favorites for many of my friends and family. Both offer preset meals and prepared food. Almost all of the "guess work" is taken out of the diet by offering not only the prepared food, but recipes as well. They use a "weigh in" program for incentive to stick with the task at hand. This can go a long way to simplify the diet process. You will also learn a foundation that can stick with you for a lifetime.

Every year new diets are added to the growing list of which diet will work for what type of body or metabolism. Recent years have seen the Atkins, South Beach and more recently Volumetrics. I have no doubt that each of these diets will work at least for the short term. Studies have failed to prove, to me, a long lasting effect for many diets that pop up. And often they can have hazardous results. Consider the "Ice Cream Diet"!

The greatest questions you can ask when choosing a diet are; will it be detrimental to my health? Will it give me long lasting results? Will this diet work for me? Does this diet have a proven track record? Is this a diet I can live with? Do your research, make certain that whatever diet you choose is healthy, and will actually work.

No matter which diet you choose, you will never find long lasting results if you don't move. You are going to straighten-up your house anyway. Why not pump up the volume to your favorite music and dance through your chores? You will find the chore finished in no time and you might even have a little fun at the same time. Exercise doesn't have to be costly or boring, use your imagination to find more ways to move. Your body will thank you for it.