Overweight America

Today, more than 130 million Americans are overweight, approximately 50+ million are obese, and an estimated 9 million Americans are considered morbidly obese.  The more you are overweight, the more health problems you tend to have and the more severe they may be.  It is noted that obesity-related health problems include diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, back pain, leg pain, asthma, sleep apnea, infertility, osteoarthritis, and depression.  Just losing 15% of one’s body weight can help to improve health and prevent many of these health problems. 

Make a Diet Plan

It is important to realize that when it comes to diet plans, “one size does not fit all.”  We are all different and the ways in which we each metabolize the foods that we consume are different.  What works for one person may not necessarily work for you. The key to any successful healthy weight loss plan is to make sure that what you will be eating every day is something that you can live with doing over the long term (for the most part).  It is important to realize, when “dieting,” that you shouldn’t deprive yourself when you really want something in particular.  For instance, if you have been dieting for a couple of weeks and you end up at a party where they are serving some delicious-looking crab puffs or even cheesecake, don’t deprive yourself by not eating any, just have a little and get over the craving.  If you don’t, then you are sure to splurge later and perhaps even blow your diet altogether.  The key is to make sure you eat a little of what it is you crave, adjusting what else you had planned on eating to ensure you are still eating less than before.  This way, you don’t binge and your craving will be satisfied.

Three key things that you should keep in mind when putting your diet plan together are:

• Plan your meals one week before – Planning your meals at the beginning of each week will help to ensure that you always have something healthful to eat and that you will be lessening your daily calorie intake.  This includes snacks.

• Prepare your meals ahead of time – Preparing your meals ahead of time so that all you have to do is pop them in the oven or microwave will help you to avoid eating other things simply because you don’t feel like “cooking” and want something fast and easy.

• Keep healthful snacks around – All too often, people fail to stick with a diet nutritional plan because they get so busy in their day-to-day lives that they just grab whatever they can when they get hungry – chips, cookies, sodas, etc.  In order to avoid this from happening, keep healthful snacks with you at home, in the car, and at work.  Pieces of fruit, celery and carrot sticks are great healthful snacks.