The Ugly Truth

Contrary to popular belief, if you need to lose a lot of weight, you will have to do a lot of work. I have previously written an article on how to be more active by fitting exercise into a busy schedule, but that is not enough if you need drastic changes. In this article, I will get to the basics of both exercise and nutrition. I'm sure you have heard there is a quick fix for everything and for the women in their 20s that may be true, but for us in our 30s, well, let's get started.

First, you need to look at what you eat. More importantly, you need to look at how much you are eating. Portion size has been seriously exaggerated over the last several years. Does your body really need endless shrimp or endless pasta? No, of course not! We have conditioned ourselves and our bodies to believe that more food is better than quality. Everyone has heard to cut their orders in half at restaurants, but how often do we actually heed that warning?

In addition to taking this step, I suggestion you begin eating out of a smaller plate. Remember those kid plates you fed your toddler from? Those are the plates you, yes you, should eat from. If you have the divided plates, that's even better. The bigger portion is for fruits and/or vegetables, one of the smaller is for protein, and the other smaller portion is for complex carbohydrates. Be sure to not eat more than 3 main meals and 2 snacks per day. Drinking a full glass of water before the meal, eating slowly and chewing thoroughly will help your stomach to trigger your brain that you are full. These simple changes will make a huge difference in your weight.

Now, for the dreaded exercise! We all know exercise is important. Long ago, people had to exercise to live; it was a part of their everyday life. Today, we have jobs that do not require any type of exercise at all. And when get home; we just plop down in front of the television, computer, or video game to "relax after a long day at work." Well, this is no way to lose those stubborn pounds. We must get up and get moving for at least sixty minutes per day. Of course, the sixty minute rule is for those that are already in shape. For those of us that need to lose some serious pounds, we need at least ninety minutes of cardio per day. The great thing is we do not have to do all ninety minutes at once. We can easily break them down to three separate thirty minute workouts and yield the same results. As you start to see results, add in two or three days a week of weight training. If you want to lose the weight you must push yourself to and beyond your limit. There is no lasting shortcut. No matter what you may have read, there is no quick fix. We all know this. The problem is that we do not want it bad enough. If you want to lose the weight, you will do the work required to get you there.