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Sir Issac Newton had what is known as the Law of Motion

An object that is at rest will stay at rest until an unbalanced force acts upon it.

Living in Ohio, I’ve pushed many a car out of a snow drift. You get a few people and you try to push. It’s heavy and you give it all you got. Finally, the car starts to move and rolls. It gets easier. Eventually the car is rolling on it’s own and is on it’s way.

So if you are sitting on the couch, you are going (or have been) sitting there until some force (motivation) acts upon you sitting there (and gets you to stand up). However, if you do not get motivated to move – you won’t. This is why the first thing you have to change is the way you think. You have to believe. As long as you believe, you will try. If you don’t believe, you will lose the willingness to try. You will not gain any ground on the way to your fitness goals.

An object that is in motion will not change its velocity until an unbalanced force acts upon it.

I look at this and say, “Once you get started, you build momentum, and it starts to roll on it’s own.” When you make lifestyle changes, you are slowly transformed into a new you. If you identify your hurdles, and come up with alternatives you can carve your path to fitness. Once you lose that first ounce, you are on your way. Ounces lead to pounds, and once you are going in the right direction you never want to go back.

The first step is the hardest part. I’ve heard the phrase “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” I have had times when I just did not want to exercise – at all. I moaned and groaned but I still made it on to the treadmill. It was 5:30 am. I hit the start button. Within two minutes, I felt better. I was proud of myself. When I got off the treadmill later, I was ready to take on the day. I felt confidence that I could tackle anything. I was on the road to being physically fit.

With this in mind changing your lifestyle is not going to be easy. Take it with little steps at a time. If you jump in the deep end, you will get overwhelmed and stop. Go for the easy things. When you accomplish the easy things it will give you confidence to take on some of the harder challenges. Never, ever, quit.

It all comes back to the way you think. An object in motion will continue in motion until a force acts upon it. Well if your life throws you a curve ball, you may feel the force, but if you keep pushing – and never quit – you WILL over power that negative force and you will keep moving in the direction toward a new, healthier, confident, you.

Other Items Mentioned on This Podcast

Fit or Fat by Covert Bailey (great “logical” diet book).

Cut the Fat Podcast

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I’ve been a U2 fan going back to the WAR album (or I will follow from early MTV days). Jenny from San Deigo sent in she likes the song Vertigo, she loves to shout out “Ola!” during the chorus as she is on the treadmill. When the lyrics say “You give me something I can feel” Jenny says she thinks of that as talking to the treadmill.

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As this podcast deals with exercise, let me remind you to contact your doctor before starting an exercise program. This information is for entertainment purposes only as I am “just a dude” in the basement trying to lose weight like you.

I recently decided that as much as I HATE weight lifting, it is a necessary evil. However, once again knowledge comes into play here.

1. It’s very hard (if not impossible) to gain muscle and lose weight. This means I’m going to need to be patient.

2. In the long run, I will have a better “butter burning machine” and be able to eat MORE and have it no effect my weight (muscle burns more calories than fat).

3. You do not burn as many calories weight lifting (as in doing the exercise) as you do on a treadmill, but from different reports I’ve read you burn more calories resting when you have more muscle. So you may burn more calories after your exercise when you weight lift.

I wasn’t sure how much weight to lift, and how many reps to do. I found this on dummmies.com (they have all sorts of fitness books).

“You can’t design a strength-training (or weight-training) program without knowing two terms: rep and set. Rep (repetition) is one complete motion of an exercise. A set is a group of consecutive repetitions. For example, you can say, “I did two sets of ten reps on the chest press.” This means that you did ten consecutive chest presses, rested, and then did another ten chest presses.

How many reps should I do?
The number of reps you should do depends on where you are in your training (new, experienced, coming back from a long layoff) and your goals. To become as strong and as big as your body type will allow, do fewer than 8 or 10 reps per set. To tone your muscles and develop the type of strength you need for everyday life — moving furniture or shoveling snow — aim for 10 to 12 repetitions. Doing dozens of reps with ultralight weights (weights you can barely even feel) doesn’t bring good results of any kind, because you’re not stressing your muscles enough.

No matter how many repetitions you do, always use a heavy enough weight so that the last rep is a struggle, but not such a struggle that you compromise good form. After about a month of strength training, you may want to go to muscular failure (that is, your last repetition is so difficult that you can’t squeeze out one more).

If you have a few different goals in mind, you can mix and match the number of reps you do per workout. If you want to get bigger and stronger and also improve the endurance of those muscles, you can do a heavy workout one day and a lighter workout the next time out. Keep track of how you feel; your body may respond better to one type of training than another.

Be sure to adjust the amount of weight you use for each exercise. In general, use more weight to work larger muscles like your thighs, chest, and upper back, and use less weight to exercise your shoulders, arms, and abdominals. But even when doing different exercises for the same muscle group, you’re likely to need a variety of weights. For example, you typically can handle more weight on the flat chest-press machine than you can on the incline chest-press machine.

Write down how much weight you lift for each exercise so that next time around, you don’t have to waste time experimenting all over again. But don’t lock yourself into lifting a certain amount of weight every time. Everyone feels stronger on some days than on others.

(This is one of the reasons I loved using the vidaone software – Dave).

How many sets should I do for each muscle group?
There’s no simple answer. Several studies show that doing one set per muscle builds just as much strength as doing three sets per muscle, at least for the first three or four months of training. If you’re a novice or if you’re starting again after a layoff, begin with one set of 10 to 12 repetitions, and make sure your last rep feels challenging. You should feel like you have control of the weight but if you did one more rep, you may not be able to make it all the way.

Most people can increase their initial weights after two to four weeks of training; at that point, consider adding a second or even third set for each muscle group. However, if your goal is simply to build enough strength for good health, one challenging set may be sufficient.

How Much Weight to Lift
If you are using weight training to increase your strength, you need to lift an amount of weight that stresses your muscles. This should be enough weight so that you feel challenged as you’re lifting, and so that the last rep (repetition) is difficult to complete — difficult, but still possible and still using good form.

After about age 30, you lose bone mass for the rest of your life. But don’t let that frighten you, because there is a solution. To maintain bone density (that is, to build enough bone density to offset the loss of bone density that occurs as you age), you need to perform weight-bearing exercise.”

How Long To Weight In Between Sets?
According to about.com “Higher intensity (i.e., when lifting heavy) exercise requires a longer rest. When lifting to fatigue, it takes an average of 2 to 5 minutes for your muscles to rest for the next set. When using lighter weight and more repetitions, it takes between 30 seconds and 1 minute for your muscles to rest.”

Some of this information is paraphrased from the fitness for dummies book.

Listener Feedback

Mio Strapless Heart Rate Monitor

Dmed on the forums said this about “Whats working for them.” What’s working is using a Mio strapless heart rate monitor.
This is just a watch. No chest strap. YEAH!  It gives you your heart rate when you hold with your thumb and index finger.  It takes just a few seconds and when it displays it automatically shows your percentage of maximum heart rate.  It has several timers on it.  Even though I work out on an elliptical, I started using the double timer on the watch to do my workout.  That way I don’t have to break my intervals into full minutes.  Therefore, I can slowly increase the running part of my interval  without jumping a full minute.  It, also, counts calories burned while I use the timers.  This has really allowed me to gradually improve my workout.  For some reason I have improved my workout alot since I started using the mio watch.  It also has a recovery check on it, which I was using a lot when I first got the mio.

For more information check out mio heart rate monitors at amazon.com

Exercising off Your Food For the Day

David_Sydney from the forums said,
“I know I can’t control my eating, but I can count my calories.Confused

I exercise down to my weight loss calorie intake each night. Depending on my motivation I burn anywhere between 1,000-3,000 calories a session.

When I am disciplined I have been losing around 1.5kg a week. A few years ago I tried not eating/meal replacement and I found that although when I stuck to the plan I lost weight, most of the time I spent trying to get onto the ‘fast’ side I failed, felt guilty, overate and was not motivated/did not have the energy to exercise and put on weight in off weeks.

It’s great – I don’t feel guilty when I eat, I can see the purpose of the exercise, and the pain of the exercise makes me think twice before I overeat.Cool”

My reply is, “What happens if something happens and you don’t make it to the gym?” Also different experts have advised not exercising over 90 minutes (Which I’m assuming you do to burn off 1-3,000 calories). Be careful with this plan, you could find some pitfalls.

As always consult your doctor before beginning an exercise program.

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I found a great article at sparkpeople.com from 1bigdream who wrote a blog on what she learned after trying to lose weight (and succeeding) in year.

Help Dave get a kindle for his 45th birthday by going to www.logicalloss.com/birthday

1. This is not an all-or-nothing game. Relax. If there is pizza, and you want the pizza, eat the pizza. Savor the pizza. Don’t beat yourself up over the pizza—why turn something pleasurable into a big ol’ guilt trip? Nobody is affected by your eating that pizza other than you, so you can decide to eat it or not. Eating food shouldn’t be fraught with self-hatred, IT’S JUST FOOD. We need it to live, and it is enjoyable. If you go overboard, fine. Do you feel good afterward? If not, then remember it for next time and don’t do it again. If you do feel good, and you enjoyed it and had fun eating it with someone else, great. Awesome. That’s what life is all about. We can’t live our lives depriving ourselves of all pleasure. Now, you can’t binge, and you have to track it, and it wouldn’t hurt to do a little more cardio. And so, again, it’s not all-or-nothing. There is no more, “I screwed up and ate pizza, so f— the rest of the day/week!” No, you don’t do that anymore. A little exercise here, a salad for lunch there, stay well under the upper limit for calories for a few days—it will eventually even out. And if you don’t lose any pounds this week, you learned something about your metabolism, or your calorie needs, or your exercise level, or how your body responds to what you put in it, so take the lesson and roll on.

2. Figure out what works, what is fun, what you like, and what you don’t. Try new things. Like running, or Fiber One pancake mix, or raw apples, or going down to two cups of coffee per day, or getting at least 7 hours of sleep each night, or Wii Active, or lunchtime ab classes, or breakfast smoothies, or (mostly) quitting TV, or starting school. All of these things were new for me, and I liked them, so I stayed with them. Failed experiments include Fiber One cereal, and, um… I can’t think of any others. So pretty much everything new I’ve tried has worked out. New things on deck to try include running a race, biking, taking swimming lessons, growing a garden, getting CSA produce… The point is that life is about adventure. Try new stuff. This is not about a diet, this is about LIVING! If we never try anything new, we will never get new results.

3. Stop with the “poor, poor me” bullcr@p. I gained this weight because I felt bad about not getting pregnant. In the past, I gained weight because I was in a bad relationship, and because I had a stressful job, and because for various other reasons I was depressed and feeling out of control. But now I know, and will forever understand, that eating = control for me. So, I recognize that pattern, and it’s not a lesson I can forget. And the great thing is that when I am feeling out of control, I have also figured out that…

4. …the solution to taking back control in my life is to find those things I do have control over and do them. This means that when life is crazy, it seems a lot more manageable when I am exercising, eating right and getting enough sleep. As a matter of fact, taking control of these things has a remarkable way of bringing other things into alignment.

5. I have to take care of myself before I can take care of anything else. I know, I’m a mom, and I’m supposed to be selfless. Bullsh!t. I will not martyr myself for my family. I can not be the best mother, wife, employee, friend, daughter, sister, PERSON if I am not taking care of myself. I am responsible for taking care of me, no one else can do it, and I deserve it. Others are depending on me, which is exactly why I must take care of myself.

6. When I am feeling down and getting into self-destructive behavior like drinking too much, binging, or secluding myself, I force myself to start doing the OPPOSITE of what I feel like doing. Sometimes, what I want and what I need are two separate things. When I feel myself starting to head in a “down” direction, I force myself to stop and analyze my thoughts. If I’m thinking, “I don’t feel like talking to anyone today,” that is a big red flag that I MUST call someone. Making conscious choices about my thoughts and how I react to them has pulled me from the brink of full-blown depression several times, and this is an excellent coping strategy.

7. Since becoming a parent, the #1 most motivating tool is my daughter. Period. I MUST set a good example for her. Before, if I screwed up, it only affected me, so whatever. Now, I have responsibility for a whole other person, and I will not let her down. If I want her to eat healthy food, I must eat healthy food. If I want her to be active, I must be active. If I don’t want her sitting in front of the TV all day, I can not sit in front of the TV all day. She is my conscience. And, at the same time, she is my playmate. My daughter thinks everything is fun. Playing is her job. She is teaching me to have fun and play right along with her!

8. Our bodies are not built to be sedentary. The body is built for running, jumping, climbing, lifting, bending, stretching, etc., etc., etc. It is not natural to sit at a computer all day and then sit in front of the TV all night. I’ve gotten to the point where I barely stop or sit down on the weekends, and, on Monday mornings, I am literally feeling like I am going to jump out of my skin having to sit in a chair all day. I love being active, and I hate sitting still. I didn’t used to feel that way, but I have figured out that this body was made for moving!

9. This one is thanks to PINKCOCONUT (http://www.sparkpeople.com/my
page_public_journal_indivi
dual.asp?blog_id=2368315): motivation is NOT the same thing as consistency. Motivation is that exuberant feeling of excitement to accomplish something, but most days, motivation ain’t there for me. Most days, I have to rely on consistency. I run every other day, because that is my training plan, and I need to do it consistently. I eat fruit and vegetables because that is what is healthy, and I do it consistently. I go to ab classes on my lunch break because it is just part of my routine. I don’t DECIDE every day what I am and am not going to do for my diet, I just do it, and I do it consistently. And sometimes, I really, really, really don’t feel like it. But I do it anyway. This has become a lesson I have applied to other areas of my life as well, especially housework, and it has really helped me to think differently about procrastination, in general. I have finally, finally figured out that the things I don’t do today will just make the list of things I have to do tomorrow longer and harder.

10. And #10… Well, I have 9 other lessons, so I feel like I should have a 10. I guess I will add something that really isn’t so much about weight loss as it is about life, and that is to REACT with LOVE. This is something I am working on, and it isn’t one I have mastered yet. I tend to REACT with FRUSTRATION, or REACT with IMPATIENCE, or REACT with I-CAN’T-EVEN-THINK-ABOUT-THAT -RIGHT-NOW-BECAUSE-I-AM-THINKI
NG -ABOUT-A-MILLION-OTHER-THINGS. But another lesson my daughter has taught me is that I just automatically react to her with love, even when she is crying, or throwing a fit, or not doing what I want her to do. It is just natural that I react to her with love. It got me thinking that I should really react to everyone that way, especially my husband, who sometimes bears the brunt of my frustration, and also including myself, whom I sometimes beat up for no good reason. Reacting to difficult people, situations, and feelings helps me to think more positively, makes me a better listener, and helps my relationships. I can choose not to react with frustration and negativity, and instead react with love and positivity. I can’t help my feelings, but I can help my reactions, and sometimes that makes a lot of difference.

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Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts

Get serious about your weight loss and become a premium member today and get all the back archives commercial free, along with great bonus content at www.logicalloss.com/premium today.

When I set up my website, I had it alert me if someone alerted me about comments on the website. I never got them. Today I found them and I share them. This show originates at www.logicalloss.com (this is show #41).

Here are some of the great tips from our listeners

1.  If you are eating food just to get a new taste in your mouth, try brushing your teeth.

2. Preston picks something to give up for A YEAR. Why not take a baby step and see if you can give up something for a month. If this makes your life miserable, maybe think twice. We don’t want losing weight to bring up feelings of hatred and pain.

3. Pam says quit eating after 9 PM. Quit eating pasta after lunch.

4. Some great weight tracking sites: www.bodydeamon.com and www.calorieking.com

5. Car From Wolverhampton England has seen results in his Mother who like Paul McKenna of “I Can Make Your Thin” fame.

6. While Exercise is great, you may want to ask yourself, “Is the food I’m eating worth the extra time on the treadmill?” In most cases you may find out its not.

Thanks to everyone who sent in their comments. You can communicate with the Logical Loss Community in our Forums

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This weekend I found some exercising that is both a great upper body workout, and really relaxing. I took my girlfriend out in a canoe. We paddled around for about 3 hours. This burned about 750 calories (according to http://www.nutristrategy.com/activitylist.htm ). The best part of this exercise is it was very relaxing. We saw some swans, fish jumping out of the water, and just enjoyed the breeze and sunshine (while burning calories).

Today we also have an article from www.sparkpeople.com about over doing it. If you are really exhausted you need to make sure you’re getting enough sleep. Your body needs that time to repair itself. You may do more harm than good if you’re pushing yourself when you need rest.

We read a listener email who says having a pedometer keeps him moving as its just a gentle reminder to keep moving. I start my day by taking 5000 steps. Then I find that through the day I’ll get between 1500 and 4000 steps. This way towards the end of the day I’m close to 10,000 (my goal) and I will take a short walk to get to 10,000. Find pedometers at http://shop.logicalloss.com

One of the keys of avoiding “fast food” (McDonald’s, Wendy’s) is to have FAST FOOD at home. My favorites are the steamed vegetables from birdseye. You get home, pop it in the microwave for 5 minutes, by the time you pet the dog, and get the mail, your vegies are ready. Now when you pass a McDonald’s you know that you will be eating as soon as you get in the door.

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Well the Super Bowl is over. It was a giant upset. Did it upset you because you ate too much food? I’m afraid to say I did bad, but no horrible. I didn’t eat a very big breakfast (so I was hungry by game time) and in walked my brother with Pizza, Chicken and Jo Jos’.

I hadn’t had fried chicken months. So I had 3 pieces, and some Doritos, and a couple of sodas. It wasn’t my best day.

So does this mean I quit my diet? Did I stop exercising? NO!

While I may have had a bad day (like I do on most Super Bowl Sundays), the rest of the year I’m doing much better.

However if you think about it most holidays and big events in America are tied to food (Candy and Valentine’s Day, Ham and Easter, Turkey and Thanksgiving, Ham and Christmas, July 4th and Hamburgers, etc, etc, etc.

Don’t let these days through you completely off of your program. If you take a wrong turn, just turn around, get back on track and get back going in the right direction.

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They say your maximum heat rate is typically 220-20. Then you want to exercise anywhere from 60-85% of that (with your doctor’s permission). Today I talk about how easy it is to over do it. I talk about using the 8 minutes in the morning cards (available at shop.locialloss.com ) and MAN was I sore.

We talk about your maximum heart rate is 220 – your age. Then exercise anywhere from 60-85% of that (with your doctors approval).

If you don’t have a heart rate monitor, then use the breathing test. If you can’t breathe you are exercising too hard.

Do your kids have a Wii? Go play with them. I did, and playing fake tennis and boxing I was breaking a sweat. The great thing I was having too much fun to even notice.

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I forgot I had the book "Fit to Lead" and as I was moving the studio I found it. So today I’m paraphrasing some of it, but there are some goods tips on staying on track.

1. Reduce the Bad Fats
2. Eat 20 to 35 Grams of Finer Daily
3. Consume 1000 to 1500 Milligrams of Calcium
4. Eat 5 to 9 Fruits and Vegetables a Day
5. Eat Smarter Fat Food
6. Minimize Refined Foods.
7. Learn the Art of Quick Cooking
8. Master the Art of Eating Out. Many of these we have already talked about.
Planning ahead (like the soup in the drawer instead of the candy bar), having something quick at home to eat (so you can pass by the burger joint and know that you will be eating once you get home). Staying away form cheese, and putting things on the side, and knowing that you may be taking part of your dinner home (as portions are enough to stuff an elephant). Keep tracking, keep TRYING. We know its not easy, but DON’T GIVE UP.

Get serious about your weight loss and become a premium member today and get all the back archives commercial free, along with great bonus content at www.logicalloss.com/premium today.

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I’ve heard this question phrases a few ways:

Should I exercise when I’m sick?

Should I exercise if I have a cold?

Should I exercise when I’m ill?

So I went to the Internet to find out. I found a few articles and here is what they said (as I summarize)

If you illness is “above the neck” (nose, etc) then you could exercise at a greatly reduced intensity.

If your illness is below the neck (chest, cough, etc), the NO you shouldn’t.

Many articles also said to be VERY CAREFUL about this. Your body is already working overtime fighting the infection. If you come in now and want it to focus on building muscle, etc then you are distracting it (and in trying to do both – you may weaken your body – and thus give the illness an advantage).

The people who are really troubled that they may lose their routine of exercise is who should worry. Myself, I have a stuffed up nose. I have my exercise clothes sitting next to my Tony Little Gazzelle (my piece of equipment at home) and I know the minute I can exercise I will pick up where I left off.

Since I can’t exercise, I should concentrate to make sure what I am eating is really healthy to make sure my body has the best fuel to fight the infection. Be careful. In my case I have NO appetite. While you may feel this is great and enjoy starving yourself without the will power, you body NEEDS fuel to keep going. Depriving your body will only weaken it and possibly lengthen the illness.

Remember rule #1 Live right. That means eating healthy. It will help you get back on the treadmill in no time.

Keep in mind. I am not a doctor, and before considering any exercise program you should consult your doctor – especially if you are ill.

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Today is day 30, and the results I am seeing are not what I wanted. I’m not as far along as I had hoped. DO NOT GIVE UP. Look at what you are doing right. Look at what can be improved. The Chinese use a phrase "Kaizen" which means CONSTANT IMPROVEMENT.

It has taken a LONG time to get into this bad of shape. It will take some time to get back into shape.

There will be times when things are slow, and then you may experience a quick spurt of loss.

The key is to keep doing the things that you know are right, and look for ways to overcome those things you are doing that are wrong. If you dont’ want to exercise, do NOT stop, but instead choose to do a lighter workout. You will feel better, and reinforce your habit of daily exercise.

Get serious about your weight loss and become a premium member today and get all the back archives commercial free, along with great bonus content at www.logicalloss.com/premium today.

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Today I felt awful. However, I realized I needed help. I took out some training videos to inspire me (as music wasn’t going to work today), and I DID IT. I did my exercise plus an additional 10 minutes. I FELT AWESOME.

There is a book called “Eat That Frog” that mentions if you start your day off by “Eating a Frog.” Now why in the world would you want to start off your day by eating a Frog? Because the rest of the day is a breeze if you do all the stuff you’d rather put off first. This book is designed a bit more for business, but has great relevance to your personal life as well. Check it out at amazon.com I found an article from the FTC, FDA, National Association of Attorneys General. You can find it at http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/wgtloss.html, but I’ve copied it here.

Facts About Weight Loss Products and Programs

The Weight-Loss Industry Looking for a quick and easy way to lose weight? You’re not alone. An estimated 50 million Americans will go on diets this year. And while some will succeed in taking the weight off, very few–perhaps 5 percent–will manage to keep all of it off in the long run.One reason for the low success rate is that many people look for quick and easy solutions to their weight problems. They find it hard to believe in this age of scientific innovations and medical miracles that an effortless weight-loss method doesn’t exist. So they succumb to quick-fix claims like “Eat All You Want and Still Lose Weight!” or “Melt Fat Away While You Sleep!” And they invest their hopes (and their money) in all manner of pills, potions, gadgets, and programs that hold the promise of a slimmer, happier future.

The weight-loss business is a booming industry. Americans spend an estimated $30 billion a year on all types of diet programs and products, including diet foods and drinks. Trying to sort out all of the competing claims–often misleading, unproven, or just plain false–can be confusing and costly. This brochure is designed to give you the facts behind the claims, to help you avoid the outright scams, and to encourage you to consider thoroughly the costs and consequences of the dieting decisions you make.

The Facts About Weight Loss

Being obese can have serious health consequences. These include an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, gallstones, and some forms of cancer. Losing weight can help reduce these risks. Here are some general points to keep in mind:

Any claims that you can lose weight effortlessly arefalse. The only proven way to lose weight is either to reduce the number of calories you eat or to increase the number of calories you burn off through exercise. Most experts recommend a combination of both.Very low-calorie diets are not without risk and should be pursued only under medical supervision. Unsupervised very low-calorie diets can deprive you of important nutrients and are potentially dangerous.Fad diets rarely have any permanent effect. Sudden and radical changes in your eating patterns are difficult to sustain over time. In addition, so-called “crash” diets often send dieters into a cycle of quick weight loss, followed by a “rebound” weight gain once normal eating resumes, and even more difficulty reducing when the next diet is attempted.To lose weight safely and keep it off requires long-term changes in daily eating and exercise habits. Many experts recommend a goal of losing about a pound a week. A modest reduction of 500 calories per day will achieve this goal, since a total reduction of 3,500 calories is required to lose a pound of fat. An important way to lower your calorie intake is to learn and practice healthy eating habits.In Search of the “Magic Bullet” Some dieters peg their hopes on pills and capsules that promise to “burn,” “block,” “flush,” or otherwise eliminate fat from the system. But science has yet to come up with a low-risk “magic bullet” for weight loss. Some pills may help control the appetite, but they can have serious side effects. (Amphetamines, for instance, are highly addictive and can have an adverse impact on the heart and central nervous system.) Other pills are utterly worthless.The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and a number of state Attorney General have successfully brought cases against marketers of pills claiming to absorb or burn fat. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has banned 111 ingredients once found in over-the-counter diet products. None of these substances, which include alcohol, caffeine, dextrose, and guar gum, have proved effective in weight-loss or appetite suppression. Beware of the following products that are touted as weight-loss wonders:

Diet patches, which are worn on the skin, have not been proven to be safe or effective. The FDA has seized millions of these products from manufacturers and promoters.”Fat blockers” purport to physically absorb fat and mechanically interfere with the fat a person eats.”Starch blockers” promise to block or impede starch digestion. Not only is the claim unproven, but users have complained of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach pains.”Magnet” diet pills allegedly “flush fat out of the body.” The FTC has brought legal action against several marketers of these pills.Glucomannan is advertised as the “Weight Loss Secret That’s Been in the Orient for Over 500 Years.” There is little evidence supporting this plant root’s effectiveness as a weight-loss product.Some bulk producers or fillers, such as fiber-based products, may absorb liquid and swell in the stomach, thereby reducing hunger. Some fillers, such as guar gum, can even prove harmful, causing obstructions in the intestines, stomach, or esophagus. The FDA has taken legal action against several promoters containing guar gum.Spirulina, a species of blue-green algae, has not been proven effective for losing weight.Phony Devices and Gadgets Phony weight-loss devices range from those that are simply ineffective to those that are truly dangerous to your health. At minimum, they are a waste of your hard-earned money. Some of the fraudulent gadgets that have been marketed to hopeful dieters over the years include:

Electrical muscle stimulators have legitimate use in physical therapy treatment. But the FDA has taken a number of them off the market because they were promoted for weight loss and body toning. When used incorrectly, muscle stimulators can be dangerous, causing electrical shocks and burns.”Appetite suppressing eyeglasses” are common eyeglasses with colored lenses that claim to project an image to the retina which dampens the desire to eat. There is no evidence these work. (really? – Dave)”Magic weight-loss earrings” and devices custom-fitted to the purchaser’s ear that purport to stimulate acupuncture points controlling hunger have not been proven effective.Diet Programs

Approximately 8 million Americans a year enroll in some kind of structured weight-loss program involving liquid diets, special diet regimens, or medical or other supervision. In 1991, about 8,500 commercial diet centers were in operation across the country, many of them owned by a half-dozen or so well-known national companies.Before you join such a program, you should know that according to published studies relatively few participants succeed in keeping off weight long-term. Recently, the FTC brought action against several companies challenging weight-loss and weight-maintenance claims. Unfortunately, some other companies continue to make overblown claims.The FTC stopped one company from claiming its diet program caused rapid weight loss through the use of tablets that would “burn fat” and a protein drink mix that would adjust metabolism. The FTC also took action against three major programs using doctor-supervised, very low-calorie liquid diets, and they agreed to stop making claims unless they could back them up with hard data.Before you sign up with a diet program, you might ask these questions:

What are the health risks?What data can you show me that proves your program actually works?Do customers keep off the weight after they leave the diet program? ?What are the costs for membership, weekly fees, food, supplements, maintenance, and counseling? What’s the payment schedule? Are any costs covered under health insurance? Do you give refunds if I drop out?Do you have a maintenance program? Is it part of the package or does it cost extra?What kind of professional supervision is provided? What are the credentials of these professionals?What are the program’s requirements? Are there special menus or foods, counseling visits, or exercise plans?Clues to Fraud

It is important for consumers to be wary of claims that sound too good to be true. When it comes to weight-loss schemes, consumers should be particularly skeptical of claims containing words and phrases like:

easyeffortless

guaranteed

miraculous

magical breakthrough

new discovery

mysterious

exotic

secret

exclusive

ancient

Sensible Weight Maintenance Tips

Losing weight may not be effortless, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. To achieve long-term results, it’s best to avoid quick-fix schemes and complex regimens. Focus instead on making modest changes to your life’s daily routine. A balanced, healthy diet and sensible, regular exercise are the keys to maintaining your ideal weight. Although nutrition science is constantly evolving, here are some generally-accepted guidelines for losing weight:

Consult with your doctor, a dietician, or other qualified health professional to determine your ideal healthy body weight.Eat smaller portions and choose from a variety of foods.Load up on foods naturally high in fiber: Fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains.Limit portions of foods high in fat: dairy products like cheese, butter, and whole milk; red meat; cakes and pastries.

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Well my vidaone software told me that I’m not losing weight fast enough and you know what? It’s right (I have the version for the desktop and I’m running a version on my smartphone). I have gained back the first few pounds I lost. The software is gently nudging me and suggesting some options for me.

How did this happen? Failure to plan. I knew I was going to be stressed out (becaase of my final exams at college), and yet I didn’t stock the shelves with healthy snack foods for me to munch on while pausing between my studying. That was dumb. I knew I was going to want to much on breaks. I plan and I study for my final exams, but I didn’t plan for my health goals.

OK, I’ve learned a lesson. What I need to do here now is identify what I did wrong and come up with a different plan (in this case get ot the store and by some healhty snacks). Here are some other dietting tips. If you are eating out? Halve it, and box the rest. A typical restaurant entree has 1,000 to 2,000 calories, not even counting the bread, appetizer, beverage and dessert. When dining out, if you order a dessert, share it with your diet. Two people – one dessert. Use a salad plate instead of a dinner plate. This helps for those times when we feel we have to “Empty our plate.”

Remember if you fall down, you take what you’ve learned and get back up again. You can do it.

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If you think you can, or you think you can’t YOU’RE RIGHT. YOU have to believe in YOU. This may take some convincing via affirmations.

I found some tips on making affirmations. Also, I tell of a weird time where I didn’t do my best the last few days – and yet lost another pound. Keep this in mind on those when you exercise and eat right and you just don’t drop any weight. So when things get weird – DON’T QUIT. Keep doing the right thing. Remember: live right, lose weight, live long.

Affirmations. Can you believe in you? Sometimes they seem a little weird, but there is enough study showing their power to warrant you giving them a shot (if you find yourself doubting). If you don’t believe you can achieve your goal – you won’t. I believe that with all my heart. So if this is the case, we need to change your mind first.

Try this: Break your goal down into smaller items. If need be break it all the way down to a meal. Commit to eating one healthy meal. Then repeat it. Eat another healthy meal. Then exercise.  You will see that you CAN do this (if you put your MIND to it). This will start to build your confidence so that when you do say an affirmation "I choose to eat healthy today" when you wake up you believe it. If you believe it you can achieve it.

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