 I got interested in personal maintenance when my doctor told me that if I don’t start working on my weight, she will put me on the Cholesterol medicine and soon I will be facing Blood pressure and Diabetes problems.
It was a pretty scary situation for me because the thought never went through my mind that it could ever happen to me. I started researching and ended up reaching my healthy weight goal. I would like to share some of that interesting information with you. My main topics will be:
Weight Management:
You can choose your weight goal according to your height and calculate your BMI (Body Mass Index) from any site, such as:
Once you choose you weight goal try to educate yourself with proper knowledge of food and nutrition. There is plenty of material available to help you reach your goal such as I signed up for newsletters from South Beach Diet, eDiet and others. Try to familiarize yourself with one type of diet instead of trying all of them at the same time otherwise you will get frustrated and get lost before you reach your goal.
Read success stories to boost your confidence and remind yourself that you can do it if you do it right and don't cheat. I learned some very useful lessons when I was working on my weight and one of them was that once I started taking care of myself I was a more fun person to be around. Here are some basic tips if you are interested in losing the extra weight that is keeping you from enjoying your life and making you sick:
- Believe in yourself, be patient and remind yourself repeatedly that you can do it if you do it right.
- Try to exercise even if it is a 15 minutes walk, but make sure that you increase the intensity every few days or when you feel that you are not getting tired enough.
- If it is slower and healthier, it is the right way.
- Drink lots of water because water hydrates you and gives you energy.
- Try to get enough sleep to get energized and start a good day.
- Talk to people who are working on their weight loss or have achieved their weight goals to get support and inspiration.
- Educate yourself about the foods you eat, the closer to nature the better, but make sure it tastes good and you enjoy what you eat.
- Add as much fiber in your diet as possible.
- Put a nice picture of yourself from your healthy days or someone you admire on the refrigerator for inspiration.
- Don't keep unhealthy foods at home so you don't cheat even if you are tempted.
Exercise:
When I  started looking into healthy lifestyles, my doctor recommended South Beach Diet and I really liked it because it was very easy to follow for me. The book came with all the recipes and detailed descriptions of foods and lists for all three phases, so it was easy for me to follow even when I was visiting Pakistan.
Dr. Agatston encourages people to get as much help as possible, once you start losing weight you need to speed up the process by choosing some kind of physical activity.
I am not a gym person so I started working out with my FIRM DVDs at home and it was such a great feeling to lose the weight and keep the energy. I also educated myself through internet research, followed useful tips from anywhere I could find, it was so much fun. Here are some of my favorite, exercise tips:
- Try to walk as much as possible, park your car at a distance from your home, mall or office to add extra steps to your pedometer.
- At work also go talk to your coworkers instead of using the telephone.
- Use stairs instead of elevator if possible.
- Participate in outdoor activities like races and marathons for fun, or tracking and hiking are also fun way to enjoy life and get healthy at the same time.
- Take out time for yourself and exercise, you will thank yourself for the best investment of your life.
- Some reasons to exercise regularly:
- Get healthier and increase your metabolism.
- Reduce the risk of blood pressure, diabetes and heart attack.
- Improve your looks feel good about yourself.
- Get your confidence back.
- Feel happy with a positive attitude towards life.
- Increase bone density and prevent osteoporosis.
- Reduce your level of anxiety to help managing the stress.
- Improve your immune system.
- Sleep better and feel fresh in the morning.
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