Lose the Extra Forever

Stop Starving and Start Living!

In today's culture it is a shameful thing to be overweight and, even if the condition is medical and not the case of a regular couch-potato or a white-collar office rat, people are stigmatized and labeled all the time. The position of the medical professionals is clear being overweight is harmful to one's overall health and it increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases as well as diabetes and cancer. However, although it is logical that people would primarily care for their health and not merely for the way they look, in today's culture, it has also become normal that the media dictate not only the standards music, taste, art, beauty and other-wise, but also the standards and the widely accepted values health-wise. Namely, in today's society it is not uncommon to starve oneself for days, weeks or months in order to lose a few extra pounds. It is also a commendable sacrifice considering the overwhelming choice of food fast foods, as well as restaurant made and served foods and the promoted party-goer lifestyle that includes the consumption of alcohol that is certainly above the recommended dosage, both for the health and the body weight. The problems young men and women are facing today are what kind of stance they should take, what lifestyle they should choose should they become gym-goers even though they do not like exercising indoors and only because it is the trendy thing to do? Should one decide to spend their life craving for chocolate or a hamburger, but completely give up on meats, dairies and sweets because there are celebrities talking about it? Is one to starve themselves to thinness at the cost of their health, only because the current pop-culture says it is the preferable thing to do?

There are plenty of choices and plenty of paths before young individuals today and neither is uninfluenced by the culture of esthetic-ideal-frenzy and misconceptions.

Nevertheless, there are certain facts that everyone, young in the body and young in the soul, should bear in mind when finally taking the time to decide on their lifestyle in the long-run, and also certain advice that they should take under consideration.

• 1. Starving is not dieting!

Starving oneself does not guarantee weight loss at all. In fact, the reality of things is much different. Starving creates the opposite effect of what the person trying to lose weight is doing it activates the stress hormone secretion in the body and completely slows down the metabolic processes. When metabolism is lowered to the bare minimum, everything that we intake is considered a precious substance the body stores it. Now, we usually have problems with particular areas of our bodies whether it is the thighs that we cannot shape the way we want to, or it is the abs that defy the sculptor's efforts and sweat it is genetically predetermined whether one would gain weight quickly or have difficulty losing it, where the deposits would go first or most, etc. We are basically sentenced to being dependent on our genetic code, but not to be enslaved by it! Moreover, we are the ones with the power to change or, at least, modify the way our body functions if your body is slow to burn fat, the decrease of calories you intake and the increase of physical activity cannot fail to reduce the body weight. If your body is more responsive to a particular diet, then it is that diet that you should pursue regardless of whether it is recommended by the celebrity nutritionists, as long as it includes healthy foods and an appropriate mixture of proteins and carbs.

• 2. Weight loss is a result of a proper diet and exercise!

There are many diets today, protein or carbohydrates based, whose supposed efficiency is even promoted by celebrities worldwide. However, one must always bear in mind that what helps one individual maintain or lose weight, or better yet, speed up the metabolic processes, need not work for another. Therein lays the main problem in today's world, which relies on quick fixes for the most part. What is very difficult for some people to accept is that there are no easy and quick solutions to the problem of their bodies being different than the current, though rather changeable, standard of body-beautiful.

Very often people disregard the fact that they are the ones who know themselves and their body best. Therefore, any diet or regimen can be figured out easily by mere observation. It is widely known that the best foods to speed up one's metabolism are green raw vegetables in combination with protein rich, but low fat meats. It may not be a strict diet promoted by a famous actor, but it can be your personalized combination that gives best results. Namely, with an appropriate amount of exercise, which should, by the by, be moderate and with plenty of resting time, and a regimen that is restrictive enough to prevent you from taking in too many calories, but not to leave you craving for your favorite food, the results will not be disappointing. Moreover, with balanced diet and exercise, there will not only be changes in the size of your body, but there will be visible change in the way the body reacts to food, physical activity overall, sleep and stress and the changes will be positive! From the improvement of one's mood to the improvement of the body image, there will not be a better incitement to continue at the same, or even at a quicker pace!

• 3. Do not despair! The change is not supposed to come overnight! Drink your water!

Many people hope and pray even that the stored deposits of fat simply vanish from their bodies as if it did not take years for them to be stored and forgotten there in the first place. It may actually be the worst enemy of all those who are trying to lose those extra pounds forever.

Let me break it to you it is virtually impossible to lose all that weight over a short period of time in a way that is healthy for you and in a way that will not produce the yo-yo effect soon after.

Just think about it your only way of cleansing yourself is to start by burning the excess. That means that you should not take in more than absolutely necessary, more than the bare minimum of nutritive substances. However, there are also toxins and all kinds of waste that has to be flushed out you need plenty of water! And you need to drink it in such a way so as not to make yourself sick!

Water is what will help you not only get rid of the waste and the toxins, but also what will help you additionally speed up your metabolism  drink it cold! It will help with the digestion as well, as long as you eat food that is not processed and that is sugar-free (as you well should!).

It is very important to maintain a routine and not to stray too much from it. However, do not allow your diet and exercising to take over your life you had a life before the major decision and you made the decision because you wanted to improve your life! Do not allow for your hobbies and other (healthy) habits and practices to become neglected. That includes your friends. Instead, try asking for support from your family and friends and make sure that they understand why you are making such an effort to change your life. Who knows! Maybe you will inspire someone close to you to take up a sport or change their eating habits.

• 4. Take seriously only the reason you made the decision in the first place and not yourself!

It will not be the end of the world if you break the rules once in a while, but just think about the work and the effort you have then wasted. Do not take the decision to live a healthier life as a sentence your goal is not to become thin and then return to where you started. No! Your goal is to establish a new pattern of behavior and change your complete lifestyle dieting differently, drinking differently yes, that means no, or very little alcohol, and yes, wine is an alcoholic beverage and the same goes for beer and exercising regularly, will lower your stress levels, increase your tolerance to stress and improve your general health by enhancing your body's ability to fight disease. Not to mention that your new improved immune system will be more powerful against the seasonal colds and the flu, but also cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer, and we all know that this is of the essence today!

Author Bio:
Ivan Dimitrijevic is a health blogger with strong roots in SEO industry. He has done research on many weight loss related products, from dieting plans and meal replacement products to fitness plans, and he's always ready to share his knowledge with his social circles.