Boot it from the Booty

We’ve seen the headlines, heard the stories on the nightly news, and seen it in the mirror. Americans are getting fatter and fatter, and along with our national weight problem is an increase in weight-related chronic conditions and diseases. We know it’s in our own best interest to get healthy, get moving, and take off the extra pounds, but how can you do it in a way that you can live with?

Special diets come and go. Visit a bookstore or library and search out the health and nutrition section, and you’ll find a huge array of ways to slim down and get fit, backed by tests, studies, and the author’s personal experience. The problem is, sometimes all these different weight loss methods seem to contradict each other. One diet suggests you load up on protein in order to build lean muscle mass quickly, which will help you burn more calories even during rest periods. Another diet advocates eating only specific types of foods – sometimes only at specific times of the day – to best utilize the body’s ability to extract nutrients and burn fat. It all becomes very confusing, especially as you read the fervent testimonials of those who have tried every other diet with no success and found that this one (whichever one is promoted in the book you’re holding) is the one that finally worked.

And, of course, there are the pills, potions, and drinks that promise quick results with no effort whatsoever on your part. Although you know it’s most likely too good to be true, if you’ve had a long battle with your weight, even fantastically unlikely promises start sounding really good. It would be such a relief if one of those magic cures actually worked, so people all around the world throw money at them by the billions in desperate hope.

If you’ve done any research, you will know several things:

1.  Yo-yo dieting (losing weight quickly, only to pack it on again the moment you fall off the diet wagon, then losing it again quickly) is dangerous to your health.

2.  Losing weight too quickly almost guarantees that those pounds you lost will return with a vengeance and bring their friends. The fastest you should lose weight to keep your weight stable in the long run is about 1 – 2 pounds per week.

3.  If you eat refined flours and sugars, chances are you’re not going to lose as much weight as you’d like, especially if you skip any opportunity to eat whole grains..

4.  Vegetables are good. Fruit is good. Lean meat in moderate proportions is good. Legumes are good. Whole grains are good.

5.  Exercise is essential to your weight loss strategy.

One sure-fire way to rev up your metabolism and get some lean muscle built is to start moving your body. Even if you don’t change your diet all that much, exercising more than you already are can either help you maintain your current weight or begin to start losing weight. The average couch potato in America walks only between 2000 or 3000 steps a day. Buying yourself a pedometer (a little device that clips to your trousers pocket or belt and measures the steps you take) can make you conscious of how much you’re walking and encourage you to take more strolls, park in the outer reaches of the parking lot, or skip the car altogether. Just by walking 45 minutes a day at a brisk clip, you will soon begin to see changes in your body. As muscles become stronger, they become lean, which makes you look skinnier and longer. Even if the pounds don’t start dropping away, you might find your clothes fitting better or getting baggy.

If you’re going to start walking and exercising more, now might be a good time to also reduce your ingestion of refined flours and sugars. Most people have a difficult time cutting things they love completely out of their diet, so don’t expect yourself to have the will power every second of every day to stay away from forbidden foods. Instead, read the labels on what you buy at the grocery store. If it’s prepackaged, chances are it is high in fat, sugar (and high fructose corn syrup is definitely a type of sugar), and calories. Just because something is labeled "fat free" doesn’t mean it’s also low in sugar. Don’t put junk into your grocery cart. If you don’t have it at home, tempting you from the pantry shelf, you won’t eat it. When you are faced with something delicious and sweet that you can’t resist, eat only a tiny portion. A very thin slice of cheesecake eaten slowly satisfies as well as a huge wedge gulped down with hardly a breath between bites. You get to satisfy your sweet tooth and know you’re reducing your calorie intake.

For those who have tried dieting to no avail, have a BMI of 35 and above, and also have conditions such as diabetes that make it a top priority for them to lose weight, there are aids. One of those aids is to get a gastric band. Increasingly popular as an alternative to stomach stapling, in New York or Los Angeles, Lap-Band is the brand name of a gastric band designed to aid in weight loss. The band is placed at the top of the stomach and filled with silicone. As the band is filled, it decreases the stomach’s size to about the size of a golf ball. The patient feels full after eating approximately one tablespoon of food, and the body is forced to burn fat reserves to make up for the sharp decrease in caloric intake. Over time, the Lap-Band can help the patient lose as much weight as the more invasive and dangerous stomach stapling surgery with fewer risks of side effects – although there are possible side effects.

In any case, learning to eat more healthfully and exercising your body more will go a long way to helping you feel alert, awake, and slimmer. The human body responds very quickly to your efforts at a more healthy lifestyle, so you can be encouraged that your wait will not be long before you start to see positive results.