Losing Weight is So, So Simple!

It's easy , right? Simple maths - use up more energy than you take in, then you'll lose weight.

But it doesn't quite work like that, for many reasons. Some people don't know enough about what a good diet actually is. Some people just can't resist that chocolate. Some people rarely move further than bed, to bathroom, to fridge, to sofa and then to bed again.

That is not enough work in one day to use up much food at all, and I bet if that person is you, the things you get from the fridge aren't healthy things.

You don't have to run marathons to lose weight, and you don't have to starve yourself either. You have to learn to be more aware of yourself and pay attention to what you are doing. Mindlessly chowing down on food, and barely realising you're doing it, is the way many of us became overweight in the first place.

Once you begin to pay attention to yourself though, you may begin to question whether you really need to eat those biscuits. You may begin to explore books about weight loss, and nutrition and so learn things that can help you on your new journey to a slimmer you.

You may begin to think about things you can do outside, walk a bit, go exploring in your nearest town or go down to the beach.

As I said, running wasn't how I lost the weight I wanted to lose, but I stopped being lazy and began doing more things during my day. I began asking my body what it wanted, and not letting my head do the deciding. Your tummy knows more about whether it's hungry than your head does.

I realised too, that being a little bit hungry wouldn't kill me, and also that being a tiny bit hungry still after a meal is much more comfortable than being stuffed full!

So give it a try, eat less, or at least eat better, and do a little bit more. Your body will thank you for it.

It's Official now, I am a Community Foodie

Ask me a question about healthy eating, go on, I want you to ask me something. I have spent six weeks learning about healthy eating, good food and nutrition, and I am itching to test out my skills.

If I don't know the answer to your question, I have a nifty book that is packed full of the answers to attaining a healthy diet. I am also about to begin a course that will accredit me as a Community Service Worker. These two things together are my tools to create a healthier, happier world.

I am feeling revved up and ready to go, so keep an eye out as I zip around the community!

Chocolate is good, preferably dark chocolate, and only in moderation. A new study has shown the benefits are truly there for the Mediterranean diet, and the main thing about it is the insistence on the good things, only in moderation.

On my reading, it seems the moderation part is the most important part. And isn't that what the old wives have been saying forever - All things in Moderation. The key to healthy eating is to give all kinds of things a bit of a go, but only a little bit.

Want tome steak - go for it, but only a piece of steak the size of your palm. Like chocolate? Don't deny yourself, just limit it to a small piece. It's not rocket science, and it has been proven to keep you healthier.

Give it a moderate go!

A Great Website

I have just found a fantastic website, jam-packed full of good information for those of us who care about what we eat.

Everybody has at least one reason why food is important to them. Most people have many reasons. The first and obvious reason is you eat to stay alive. There are many other reasons why people eat, and reason they eat what they eat. Some of those reason can lead to living a healthy life, other reasons lead to poor food choices.

But if you don't know enough about nutrition, you may not know which food choices to make. I can strongly recommend you visit the website of the Australian Better Health Initiative (ABHI), a national program, supported by the Australian and state and territory governments. There is information about food groups, tips for getting active, recipes for healthy foods, advice on how much is a 'serving' of fruit and vegetables.

There's also a quiz, which is on the website I've mentioned. I was very excited to test my nutritional knowledge. And I was even more excited when I got all of the questions correct.

There is also a quiz for testing how physically active you are. I'm not so excited about that one, and I don't think I'll get a good score. I know I am nowhere near as active as I could/should be. But, in the interests of fairness, and encouraging others, here goes...

...Well, it could have been worse. The answer to the question of how physically I am, was that I'm not active enough, but I'm getting there. I'd better get back on Wii Fit today, and every day (every other day at the very least).

How do you think you'll go at these quizzes. Is your knowledge about your physical health up to scratch?

I'd love to hear from people about their thoughts on physical health. Tips, recipes, quiz results, let us know. This is a community issue, be a part of the community by leaving a comment!

Community Healthy Eating, It's On!

Community Foodies classes are starting next Wednesday, so I'll be getting all trained up in healthy eating and all kinds of other interesting things. I am so looking forward to be able to say, with authority, this is true, this is what you might be able to do to have a better diet.

At the moment, I know what I should eat, even though I know I don't eat enough vegetables, but I'd love to have more knowledge, and to know the best places to look for the most up to date knowledge.

There is just so much information available out there, and I know that a lot of the information is just plain wrong. It is frustrating. And every time I go to the supermarket and look in the shopping trolleys of other people, I can see where they are going wrong.

I'm not saying I am a saint with my own eating, but when I have something higher in calories, I make up for it in other ways. Chocolate is fine for me, as long as I only have a little bit, and I have a little less of something else later on.

And as long as I don't have it too often. I shared a block of chocolate with my husband and son last night, and we have another block of chocolate in the fridge still. I'm OK with that - the chocolate block only weighs 30 grams - 10 grams each is not going to be a major weight problem, unless we started eating that at every meal and on every day, instead of for dessert once a month.

So on Wednesday, I will get to know my fellow Foodies better, and begin a whole new adventure in better health for me, my family and my community!

Really Wanting to Lose Weight

If you really want to lose weight, you have to be prepared to commit to it. There's not a lot of point to saying, 'Gee I'd like to lose weight', and then not making any changes in the way you behave.

The most important thing you need to work on isn't your exercise program, or the food you eat. The most important thing you need to work on is your head, your mind. People gain excess weight in a variety of ways, and for a variety of reasons.

I'm not a psychologist, I can't get inside your head. I'm just a person, and ordinary person, who has lost weight and kept it off. I didn't join a gym, or go on a restrictive diet. I just used the information that is sitting in my head.

I know a bit about nutrition, and I've read lots and lots of diet books. I've read about fruit diets, vegetable diets, carbs, low fat, all of that stuff. The thing that struck me most was that a lot of these diets were not made for real live people, living in a family, with all of the hustle and bustle that involves. I needed to do something different, something I could do for the rest of my life without making myself feel like I was missing out.

I started listening to my body, and realised that I don't get hungry very often. I always used to eat at the designated meal times, and have snacks sometimes, without ever having my tummy tell me 'Hey, I'm hungry!'

That realisation was the most amazing thing. Once I learnt to listen to my stomach, not my head, I was on my path to reaching my ideal weight. It means I wait until I'm hungry before I eat. It means I can eat whatever I want, as long as my tummy is hungry for it.

Of course, I still need to be aware of eating what is healthy for me, fruit, grains and seed, vegetables, small amounts of meat. But it also means I can have chocolate too sometimes, if I really feel like it. And that is great!

Because I know I can eat things like chocolate, I don't have cravings, and I only eat enough to savour it. I don't eat cheap chocolate, I only eat good quality chocolate. And I enjoy it, guilt free.

Tried to Lose Weight but failed?

It happens to most of us at times through our lives. The pressure is on to be thin, thin, thin.

And the pressure is on to buy, buy, buy. We buy the food that's being promoted to us daily, and it makes us fat. Then we buy the most recent weight loss method, maybe lose some weight, then go back to our normal life, and the weight goes straight back on.

It isn’t easy to lose weight, as almost everybody knows. Some people go on and off a new diet almost every week without attaining the ideal weight they hope to achieve. I’ve been on just about every diet since my teenage years myself, but hadn’t ever felt satisfied with the results. I did lose some weight, many times, but I always put the weight back on, and often some extra weight as well.

Then I had one of those epiphanies. I realised the problem with going on a diet was that at the end, you go off the diet.

As soon as you go off the diet, old habits come back, and so does the weight. The answer for me was to Change my Lifestyle, Not my Diet.

That was about a year and a half ago. I was unhappy with my weight, feeling fat and frumpy when I realised what the answer might be, and I decided to change my lifestyle. I have attained my ideal weight, and it doesn't look like I will ever be fat and frumpy ever again.

I didn't have an enormous weight loss, because I didn't have an enormous amount of weight to lose. I just knew that my ideal weight was not the 65 kilos I was back in 2007, it was more like 54 kilos. So that was my aim. I would use my knowledge about losing weight and good nutrition, and focus on getting to my target of 54 kilos.

I got there in 2008, and it feels so good to fit into jeans the size I could fit into when I was a twelve year old, and thought I would never fit into again.

Now, in 2009, I weight 50 kilos, and feel completely in control of my body and my life. Losing weight, in the way I did it, has empowered me, and I want to help others to be and remain the weight they know they should be, and they want to be.