Weight Loss

Some thoughts on losing weight:

First, pregnancy excepted, if you gained weight, it was a gradual gain. You likely didn't cram on thirty pounds in a month. If you are going to reverse the trend, the way to do it is to lose weight the way you gained it: Slowly and over time. Oh, you can lose weight fast if you like by getting into a program where you work out like a tri-athlete and eat like a concentration camp inmate, but if you do and when you hit your target, you will pack the pounds back on faster than you would have thought possible.

So, with that in mind, I offer these suggestions:

First, eat three decent meals a day. Don't stuff yourself, but don't starve yourself.

Second, get some moderate exercise. Walking a couple of miles a day is enough. If you live in a city or somewhere that you walk that much anyway, then you don't need to do any more.

Three: No snacking! Don't eat outside of the three meals. If you find that you are ravenous at supper time, then maybe you need to add something to your lunch. This is key; if you nosh on stuff between meals, then get used to gaining weight. If you can't avoid noshing, then eat an apple. Do not eat sweets, pastry or the like. You might as well just have the fat injected straight to your belly and hips.

Fourth: The scale is your enemy. Unless you have a doctor's office type scale, most home scales will not detect a gradual weight loss. If you weigh yourself frequently, you'll set up unreasonable expectations in your mind and you will doom yourself to fail. If you want to weigh yourself, do it no less than every two weeks. I am serious about this-- this plan will result in a slow, steady weight loss of maybe two or three pounds a month. You can't see that weighing yourself daily.

The idea is not to lose wight by a dive that wreaks hell on your body, but a smooth gradual descent to a lower weight. It's the only way that you can get there, other than by surgical means, that won't result in getting on a weight yo-yo.

My $.02