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Articles
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A Healthy Weight Attitude
Most people consider overeating and lack of physical activity to be the main causes of weight gain, but managing your weight can be a more complex issue. Weight gain and obesity are caused by many factors including genetics, body shape, metabolic rate, environmental factors, activity level, and eating habits.
When you understand the factors that lead to weight gain, you can learn how to make personal lifestyle changes, including healthier eating and increased physical activity. This combination is critical to achieving and/or maintaining a healthy weight, and also reduces your risk of developing the numerous health risks related to excess weight.
Weight Management for Your Lifetime
Many people become less active as they grow older, making adulthood a time of creeping weight gain. The typical adult between the ages of 25 and 55 may gain about one-half pound per year - a slow increase that often leads to on-again, off-again dieting. Yet studies have found that people who lose weight by dieting alone usually do not keep the weight off. To manage your weight on a regular basis, you may need to make changes in your lifestyle beyond calorie restriction. By incorporating healthy eating and exercise into your daily routine, you'll greatly enhance weight loss efforts as well as maintenance of a healthy weight throughout your life.
Adjusting Your Attitude
In addition to healthy eating and exercise, weight management works best with a positive outlook, appropriate goal setting, and the ability to recognize when you begin to gain or regain weight. Together these changes can assist you in making weight management a routine part of everyday life.
Some people live to eat and others eat to live. Whether you enjoy the process of planning, preparing, and savoring food, or you eat primarily to satisfy hunger, adjusting your attitude can help. For example, if you find mealtime to be a whirlwind of activity and effort, try to relax and take the time to make it enjoyable. Put on some music, set a place at the table, and arrange your food attractively on your plate. Eat slowly and consciously.
If you view food as the enemy and yourself as the victim, try thinking of food as a positive source of nutrition, of eating as providing your body the fuel it needs to function optimally. Thus, the foods and the portion sizes you consume can be positive choices you make to take care of yourself.
Remember: you are in control of what you eat and drink. Maintaining a healthy weight can be a struggle, but with a positive attitude, discipline, careful food choices, and an ongoing exercise program, you can be on your way to a healthier lifestyle.
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