Here's How You Can Lose Weight, And Keep It Off Permanently!
[7 Days To Permanent Weight Loss - Day 7]
If you have followed the advice I've given in the last 6 lessons and started changing your eating habits in a conscious effort to supercharge your metabolism, take a moment to pat yourself on the back. Job well done. Building a "Natural Diet" mindset is the most important part of the 7 Days to Permanent Weight Loss Program. Last time around I promised that I'll bring an "action plan" to the table - a roadmap for you to follow if you are serious and committed to achieving not only permanent weight loss, but also better health (which is ultimately the main goals of the whole program).
Before I start though, I want to repeat a point I mentioned in Lesson #4 (What Makes You Fat?):
Your current weight - just like your current eating habits - is an artificial product of social evolution. In order to return to your natural (ideal) weight, you must adopt a natural diet and in the process, bring your metabolism back to its natural, active state.
Keep this in mind as you read today's action plan - every step outlined here, from preparation to execution, is about returning your body to its natural weight.
Let's get started...
What Do You Need To Get Started?
Nothing!
That's right; you don't need to have something (like a seriously debilitating weight condition or a health problem that forces you to lose weight) and you most certainly don't need to "wait for something to happen" before you start losing weight.
You don't need to make excuses for yourself if you lose your step and get back to your "bad eating habits". You don't need to find a "reason" such as upcoming weddings or seasonal changes (winter to spring, or spring to summer) to spur you into action.
In fact, I'd suggest that you ditch the "need to lose weight" mindset altogether and move over to making a willing commitment to restoring your natural weight. Make a conscious choice to build a healthy lifestyle, and make sure that you follow this action plan.
Weight Loss Goals
Most people make the mistake of choosing unrealistic weight loss goals - like choosing to lose 5 pounds in a week or worse, choosing an "ideal weight" that is actually less than their "natural weight". Instead, choose a realistic goal, such as 2 pounds a week, so that you can lose weight permanently while eating well and not burning yourself out through starving.
It may be an attractive advertisement for diets to tell you that you can lose several pounds in a week, but consider this - almost always, exercise is the only tool you can use to help you lose more than 2 pounds a week (without starving). The moment you stop exercising, you will immediately regain weight.
Exercise, as I've said all along, is great for your health, but it requires a commitment and works best if you can integrate it into your natural routine. However, as far as weight loss is concerned (especially permanent weight loss), forget exercise and focus on realistic, long-term goals.
Loosing a pound a week means that you shed 3500 calories - approximately 500 calories a day. Creating a greater deficit (2 pounds a week will ask you to lose 1000 calories daily) will cause a tremendous strain on your body - specially as you lose those extra calories by eating less (while programming your body to burn more). If your lifestyle is moderately active, you may choose to target 2 pounds a week - however for most of us, 1 pound per week will lead to safe and permanent weight loss path.
Of course, you may also want to identify your top motivations for losing weight (mine has always been better health, but motivation is largely an individual matter) - as long as your motivations are long-term, they can help keep you going if you feel tempting to start eating lots of junk food again.
Get Your Facts Together
To calculate your daily calorie requirements (and thus to find out how many calories you need daily in order to lose a pound a week), you need the following information:
* Gender
* Age
* Height (in feet and inches)
* Weight (in pounds)
* Daily Activity Level (sedentary to very active)Once you have these facts, you can enter them in a free calories calculator to get an approximate figure on how calories you need on a daily basis. Then, simply subtract 500 from it (if your goal is 1 pound a week) to get at your daily amount of "required calories".
Daily Calories Calculator
Pick A Diet
In Lesson 5, I talked about the two types of diets (low-carb and high-protein) that you can adopt depending on how active you are in your life. Now, once you've outlined your weight loss goals, it's time to decide what diet you should follow. This is simple enough - if your daily routine is active (as a reference figure, if you play any sport daily, exercise or if your job involves a lot of manual labor, your routine is fairly active), go for a high-protein diet. If you are like most of us (leading a sedentary or inactive life), then choose a low-carb diet.
Another aspect of picking your diet is choosing the number of daily meals. As a general rule, I would suggest that you start out with 4 daily meals (3 regular "timed" meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and a snack in between breakfast and lunch). A 4-meal plan is the basis for everything I've told you about supercharging your metabolism, You will eat more frequently, eat less per meal AND eat less overall…eventually, causing your metabolism to speed up WHILE eating less at the same time - a double impact on the cardinal equation and thus your weight.
A Weekly Plan
The final step in the action plan is for you to chart out a weekly roadmap for yourself. This would include picking a set of recipes (based on your choice of diet) for all 4 meals in a day and then repeating the process for every day of the week.
Don't leave your health up to chance and on last-minute decisions on what to eat. A critical component of both diets (low-carb and high-protein) is the selection of foods and recipes that are specific to the diet in terms of calorie content AND the carb-protein mixture. By planning ahead and making sure you have your recipes ready (so that you can shop for groceries in advance), you will guarantee that you always have something to "guide" you and keep on the path to weight loss in the form of a detailed weekly plan that includes not only what to eat, but when to eat it and how to prepare it.The eating plan is the culmination of the 7 Days to Permanent Weight Loss program, but like everything else, it is a part of the whole - without the "natural diet" mindset, adherence to a "weight-loss friendly" diet and creating a system to boost your metabolism, you cannot achieve permanent weight loss.
To get this off the ground, you need only two things:
A set of recipes for your diet 7-day sets of daily meal plans After that, it simply becomes a matter of choosing the recipes and plugging them in (while keeping in mind your target "daily calories loss amount" so you don't eat too much or too less).
And I almost forgot to mention the best part about this program - once you lose weight with this system, you can use it to maintain a very healthy lifestyle by simply eating the equivalent to your daily calorie amount.
Before You Go
I've personally used this system for a long time now, first to lose weight and then to maintain my "natural weight" and to eat healthy (although I modified it slightly because I exercise regularly). The only problem I had with it in the beginning was the "hassle" of collecting recipes - I wanted to make sure that I was eating something that was tasteful so I could enjoy the ride. Eventually though, I was able to collect enough recipes to help me get through a few weeks without having to repeat a recipe in the week, and the variety of my diet was a major factor is helping me stay committed to the whole process of planning out my week's meals in advance.
For more information, visit www.dietplannerplus.com
All the best,
Brad Callen
Health and Fitness Consultant
http://www.dietplannerplus.com/
