NeoWeight – a new approach to weight loss

“I see food, I eat it”.Most people go through this train of though when they see food. On many occasions I have found myself eating food, just because it is there, even though I am not really that hungry. These days, every where you go, there is an opportunity to eat food, and this may be a major reason that many people are overweight.

The “see food, eat food” dilemma usually happens the most in one’s own house. Maybe you see a delicious loaf of french bread sitting on the table, or a few slices of leftover cake; the next thing you know you are scarfing down that cake even though you weren’t that hungry. So, when one is trying to lose weight, it is imperative to try to avoid seeing tempting foods all the time.

Fixing the “see food, eat food” problem, is very easy. Just make sure to store all your food in cabinets and pantries where they are not visible. If you constantly are seeing food when you walk in the kitchen, it will be very difficult to avoid eating that food. When food is placed somewhere where you can’t see it, it is more likely that you will forget about eating that food all together.

So, instead of leaving out rich foods on the counter and other places which you can see them, throw those foods way into the back of your pantry. Instead, cut up a bowl of vegetables and leave that on the counter. Vegetables like carrots, cucumbers, and celery have relatively no calories. Plus, you will be gaining valuable dietary fiber and other nutrients when you eat these vegetables.

Small changes like this can lead to less seeing food, and in turn less eating of food. This change can really help take out some of those eating temptations, and help you lose weight.

Tea, of all varieties is a great drink to have in between or with meals. It has zero calories, and can help you avoid eating something when you really are not that hungry. A really hot glass of tea really helps suppress hunger, just because it is hot. Other hot foods have been shown to have a similar effect, such as soup, but tea is even better because it has zero calories.

When picking a type of tea to drink, it is important to know the different types of tea and their benefits. Their are two main categories of tea.

1. The first category of tea is all tea made from the camelia sinensis plant. These tea varieties include green, white, and black. These teas are loaded with health benefits. They all have high antioxidant content and some studies may show that green tea naturally promotes weight loss. However, all teas can help you lose weight if you use them to stave off hunger.
2. The second variety of tea is herbal teas. Herbal teas are made from plants other than camelia sinensis. They are usually made from things like flowers and other plant parts. Herbal teas do not have antioxidants like true, camelia sinensis teas do. An example of a herbal tea is Chamomile tea. Some of these teas may have some health benefits, but the camelia sinensis teas are probably a better choice if you are drinking tea for its health benefits. Either, way all teas are great calorie free refreshments.

So, the next time you have one of those late night food cravings, grab a glass of tea instead of a bag of chips. You will be amazed at how full your stomach feels after a hot glass of tea. Tea can be a great tool to use during your weight loss journey.

Most dieters try to avoid eating in between meals. However, weight loss may actually be promoted by “smart snacking” in between meals. Therefore, you should “eat before you eat!”.

When I say, eating in between meals, I do not mean snacking on a bag of chips. I mean, snacking on very low calorie foods. The best food items to snack on are vegetables. Their is no better time to get your daily recommended servings of vegetables than in between meals. Bell Peppers, carrots, and Tomatoes all can serve as great low calorie, zero fat, snacks in between meals.

When you eat in between meals, you will be less hungry for lunch and dinner. This will result in you eating less at these meals. This helps weight loss, because the vegetables that you ate in between your meals will almost undoubtedly be healthier than what you are eating at lunch and dinner (I’m pretty sure its impossible to eat a lunch or dinner which is healthier than a raw vegetable). However, you have to make sure that you do not overeat at lunch and dinner, when you eat snacks in between them. This may result in consuming even more calories every day. At your meals, listen to your stomach. You will probably hear it saying to you “I’m content”, much earlier than when you don’t “eat before you eat”.

Vegetables are probably the best things to eat before meals, but their are still many other options. Many dietitians recommend eating an apple before meals. A small portion of something like walnuts, may also be a good option before meals.

Basically, eating before eating is a very simple concept. For example, if you eat a healthy snack before dinner, you will eat less at dinner. Considering that your dinner will probably be less healthy than your snack, you will eat more healthy food and less fatty food. Also, when you don’t eat anything before meals, you will probably be extremely hungry at every meal, and this may lead to overeating. So, “Eat before you eat!”

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner are the three main meals of the day. How you think of these meals, and how much you eat at each will have a very big effect on your overall weight.

Many people chose to eat a small breakfast (or no breakfast at all), a medium sized lunch, and a large dinner. This is probably the worst possible thing you can do health wise, and for this reason most of the people who eat their meals in these proportions struggle with their weight. When one eats most of his or her calories later in the day, that person’s body has a lot less time to burn off those calories before going to sleep. And once a person goes to sleep, all those extra calories just turn into excess body fat.

Another big mistake, people make is not eating breakfast or lunch at all. Sometimes, people know that they are going to eat at their favorite restaurant and are going to eat something unhealthy, so they starve themselves the whole day in order to “save calories”. This is also a horrible eating habit, because at dinner you will probably be so hungry that you will eat upwards of 2,000 calories. Most of these calories will probably come from unhealthy, high in fat foods, and you will not have any time to burn them off before going to bed.

The Eating Proportions Lifestyle change:

The best proportions in which you should eat your meals are; a hearty breakfast, a medium sized lunch, and a light dinner. This way, your body will have plenty of time to burn off all those calories you ate earlier in the day. And when you do occasionally have a larger dinner, or go out to eat at an unhealthy restaurant; try to eat your dinner earlier as opposed to later, and make sure to eat breakfast and lunch. Skipping meals is always a bad idea, and a recipe for weight loss disaster.

Working out is crucial for overall health and weight loss. Pretty much every single overweight person has tried working out on one occasion or another. The problem is, most people end their workout regiment before a month has gone by.

There are many reasons that people cannot stay committed to their workout regiments:

1. Many, workout so hard that they really start to hate it.
2. Many, don’t like how they are working out, but fail to find a better way.
3. Many, just forget to workout after a trip or vacation
4. Many enjoy initial success, achieve their goal, and then get lazy
5. and many other reasons

So, why are some people able to stay committed and motivated to working out or getting some sort of exercise? Well, as the post title says; “slow and steady wins the race”. The slow and steady people, are those who are able to get some amount of exercise every day. Exercise doesn’t have to be running three miles until you are almost dead, and hating every single minute of it. Exercise, needs to be something you enjoy. Or else you will fail to stay committed to getting your daily exercise. When deciding how you are going to work out / exercise; ask yourself “will I be able to do this every day for the rest of my life?” If the answer is yes, you will succeed. It is as simple as that.

So, how can one enjoy exercise? Quite easily actually. I exercise every day, and I enjoy it too. I have been playing basketball all my life, and to this day I still play every day. Rain or shine, I always get a workout from playing basketball; and I enjoy it too. The best way to get daily exercise is to take part in a fun activity / sport which involves some sort of movement. You may not end up burning as many calories as if you had ran three miles. But, the person who tries working out by doing something he or she hates, will never succeed and will give up working out eventually. So you may not get as much exercise every day, but the important thing is that you get some sort of exercise 365 days a year. Follow this advice, and pretty soon you will learn why “slow and steady” always wins the “never ending weight loss marathon”.

Losing weight without a diet, probably still sounds like insanity. But, you won’t lose weight with a diet. And when I say lose weight, I mean the kind of weight loss that isn’t just temporary. I am talking about the type of weight loss that lasts a lifetime, basically reaching your “neoweight”. If you try fad diet after fad diet, you probably are going to continue on the endless cycle of gaining weight, going on a diet, losing weight, being happy for a few months, gaining the weight back, being sad, going on a diet again… I would really bet a lot of money that well over half of the overweight people who go on a diet end up gaining it back within a year, and maybe even end up heavier than they were in the first place. So, don’t be another person who goes on this endless cycle of dieting… because diets suck, and we all know that.

So, what is the alternative to dieting? It is actually a pretty simple answer. Just eat real food, avoid bad habits, and take a few natural supplements to help your body function as it should.

To continue with this post, lets just take a look at how simple bad habits can lead to big weight gain. In the following example I will just try to show you the difference between someone with bad eating habits and someone with good eating habits. The guy with bad eating habits will be Fatbob and the other guy will be Healthyjoe.

FatBob says: When I am done eating a meal on a level of fullness, I am at a 10 out of 10. I really can’t eat one more thing when I finish a meal because I feel so full. I really just love eating, its kind of like a hobby of mine.

Healthyjoe says: When I finish a meal I am usually just content at around a 6/10 fullness level. I really see no reason to eat so much that my stomach feels like it is going to explode when I am done eating. I mean, afterwards, the meal tastes just as good whether I eat a medium sized portion or a huge portion. I mean, I eat to live, I don’t live to eat. Eating is really just a small part of my life.

Fatbob says: When I get home from work, I really just can’t wait for dinner. I usually eat dinner at around eight o clock. I drink two or three glasses of red wine after dinner. Because I mean, there were those studies that said red wine was healthy…

HealthyJoe says: I usually eat dinner at around 7 o clock. Then I usually go to the park with my kids. I rarely eat or drink anything other than water after 7 oclock.

So here you see how one person can become very overweight because of bad eating habits (Fatjoe), while the second person can stay healthy with just better habits (Healthyjoe). Healthyjoe still eats like a regular person. He doesn’t go on diets that tell him not to eat bread or other things he likes. He simply has learned to do a few things that help keep him in shape. He eats dinner earlier, he doesn’t overeat, and he doesn’t drink or eat any calories after seven oclock. On the other hand Fatbob, eats the about the same as Healthyjoe, except he has developed a few bad habits. He tends to overeat, he doesn’t get too much exercise (skinny joe goes to the park with his kids after dinner), and he drinks wine after seven, which adds hundreds of calories to his body which he does not have time to burn off before going to bed. See how two people can eat basically the same, except the person with a few bad habits may become very overweight.

Although there are other factors that affect weight loss, many people just need to kick out a few bad habits and will be able to lose weight and find their neoweight. So basically, Neoweight’s mission is to help you understand that you don’t lose weight with diets. You lose weight by eating good foods in moderate proportions, getting some exercise, and losing all those bad eating habits. When you lose weight the Neoweight way, you can still eat a slice of chocolate cake. But simple things like eating the cake earlier opposed to later at night, and getting a little exercise (not hard exercise, but maybe just walking to the park with your kids) after eating really have a large effect in the long run, and can keep you from gaining weight, and can help you to continue living a healthy and happy lifestyle.

So here at Neoweight we hope to provide you with some tips and tricks to help you lose your bad eating habits without having to go through the pain of a diet to lose weight.

Many of us come to a point in our lives where we look at ourselves, and just have to say, “what happened?”. The “what happened?” may be a response to a lot of things, but what we’re here to address is weight gain. It sneeks up on you, and one day you look in the mirror, and just have to ask… well, you know what you have to ask.

So, you are overweight… don’t get discouraged, you’re a regular person. You, me, and the rest of America faces a daunting world, full of cheeseburgers and even deep fried Snickers; lets just agree on the fact that its a lot easier to get fat than stay fit. But here’s where the hopeful part comes in: we at Neoweight will help make this scary world a little less scary, we hope to make losing weight and keeping it off actually possible, we hope to help you make small lifestyle changes that can lead to practical weight loss, we will help you can find your “neoweight”! A NEW WEIGHT for a NEW LIFE, or so our motto goes.

Now, lets take a look at “why you are overweight”. Well, there may be many reasons for different people, but the majority of people are overweight because they are uneducated. Not uneducated, as in books and stuff, but uneducated in staying healthy. We believe that a great majority of the American population is uneducated in staying healthy. Most of the time, when you are young, you can manage to stay fit just from staying active and having a fast metabolism, but with age most people usually start putting on the weight.

Then people do one of the worst things possible…Go on crash diets!

Yep, you heard me. Diets, at least in the sense we have come to think of them, can be one of the worst strategies out there for weight loss.. Ok, you are probably thinking, “I thought this is a weight loss blog so… don’t I need to go on a diet to lose weight?”. Nope. Diets are stupid, I said it. Almost all overweight people think that you lose weight by going on a diet, and this is why they are uneducated about losing weight.

Ok, now think about it for a second… Haven’t you met those people, those elusive figures who just don’t seem to struggle with dieting, with going on diets every other month, yet are still very fit. Well, I know you think it is obvious that someone who isn’t overweight doesn’t need to go on a diet because they aren’t fat. But don’t think that these people who have never been on diets are some sort of super humans. They are just people who have developed good eating habits, are educated health wise, and have bodies that generally work well. Neoweight will help educate you to be a healthy person who avoids the pitfalls of dieting. Instead of giving you some sort of crazy diet plan, NeoWeight will help you make small changes in your daily lifestyle to help you lose weight, and help you identify why you are overweight. Additionally, we believe that some all natural supplements are sometimes necessary to strengthen the body’s natural systems (such as the digestive system), to get the whole body working how it is supposed to.

Next, Part 3, weight loss basics: Losing weight the Neoweight way