by Elizabeth M Young

Created on: March 31, 2010

There are easy ways to lose weight. But the first barrier to losing weight is in the mind of the person who feels that their weight is an issue. There are severe diabetics, for example, who simply do not comply with the dietary programs, even though they are suffering serious consequences. This means that there are mental roadblocks and problems with eating that are a serious and life threatening problem.

For a person who is ready, has an open mind to changing some habits, and is dedicated, but not obsessed with weight and diet, there are many easy ways to lose weight.

The first way is to pick one or two bad habits a month and to get rid of them. The first month might involve transitioning to lowering fats in some foods by switching to lighter milk, butter substitutes and leaner meats. The second month might involve mixing sugar with larger and larger proportions of sugar substitute.  After something has been a regular habit for thirty days, there is a likelihood that it will be a long term policy!

The second way is to do a "bad stuff inventory" and to carry a list of the bad guys that are in foods, such as sugars that may be under different names, such as sucrose, dextrose and regular sugar. One major error is in not paying attention to the serving size for a food! Some foods have an astoundingly small serving size in relation to the calories.

Learning to read the food labeling and to look for problem ingredients will help with a program of leaving more and more problematic food products on the shelves and replacing them with better food.

Converting from processed to fresh, or from prepared foods to from scratch cooking is a great way to control nutrition, content and calories. Even if, at first, the food has a bit more fat or sugar than is desirable, there will be a lot fewer of those unknown and sneaky calories that come from not knowing what is in the prepared foods that we eat.

Dilute the juice and soda! It is easy to get used to juices and sodas that have been diluted with diet 7-up, water or other diet sodas of the  of complimentary flavor. After a month or so, drinking pure sugary juices and sodas will be a bit jarring.

"The return of the treat" is a way to cut calories and to lose weight. Too many times, we eat horrendous food, considering it a daily right and privelege. When we look at fully loaded pizza, ice cream and fatty meats as a treat that can be enjoyed from time to time, we are on the

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>