<p style="text-align: justify;">Losing weight is not about following the latest fad diet and exercising for hours. Of course, while exercise is a must to lose weight and for optimal health, there’s not much point of it if you don’t learn to eat healthy.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">These fad diets only suggest eliminating some food groups or taking mega-doses of vitamins. This leads you into a vicious “yo-yo” where you end up losing interest in the diet and exercise. Instead of doing all this, you need to maintain a healthy eating habit.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;"><strong>A Lifelong Commitment</strong></h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">It’s only with healthy eating and good nutrition do you feed your body what it requires to do all that exercise, and help you lose weight in a healthy manner. With a good weight loss and management program, you learn how to implement sound nutrition habits, physical activities and behavioral changes to your day to day activities. You thus learn the reason and importance of making lifelong commitment by adopting a healthy lifestyle.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Proper nutrition is based on following a balance of all food groups and moderation of food portions. It’s important that you include a variety of foods to your diet so that you eat from all the major food groups as no single food group provides your body with all the required nutrition.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">There is no fixed serving size to follow as this changes and depends on individual needs based on age, gender and your everyday activities.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;"><strong>No need of Starving to Lose Weight</strong></h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">When you think of losing weight, you think that it involves your cutting down, and eliminating your favorite foods form your diet. However in reality, you need to learn how to choose and eat some foods in moderation for a successful long term weight loss regimen.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Setting a weight loss program is not difficult, as long as you know how to do it right with the following tips.</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li>You need to set a realistic weight loss goal like losing about 10% in the first six months, and then keeping it off for a year.</li>
<li>Maintain a food journal for about a week or two to monitor your food habits, and realize what are your eating habits are like the quantity of food you eat and where, why and whom you eat it with.</li>
<li>Don’t starve yourself. So if your normal diet constitutes of 2000 kcal or more a day, you need to just reduce you calorie intake by about 500 to 1000 kcal to safely and effectively lose 1-2 pounds a week. Starving only leads to rapid weight loss and consequent side effects.</li>
<li>Following the food guide pyramid helps you plan your meals while incorporating all six food groups. Always read food labels for fat, sodium and carbohydrate content while shopping, especially if you suffer from cardiovascular or diabetes risk factors.</li>
<li>Be aware of your BMI (you can use BMI calculator from motivation.ie).</li>
<li>Keep a watch on your serving size and avoid going back for seconds. It’s okay if you dine out occasionally, but do plan in advance to adjust your day’s calorie intake accordingly.</li>
<li>Last, but not least, drink at least 8 to 10 ounces of water a day and limit your alcohol intake as it only provides your body with empty calories.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Practice these good nutrition habits and a healthy lifestyle and you will experience long term health improvements like reduced blood pressure, improved appearance and self-esteem levels, increased energy levels, better blood glucose control and an improvement in your cholesterol levels. Your body deserves all this, and there’s no better time to start a healthy lifestyle than today!</p>