Weight Loss

The first step in successful weight loss is to understand that changes to your lifestyle must be made. Simply put, successful weight loss involves making small changes and setting reasonable goals. Weight loss is a combination of many factors including boosting your metabolism by healthy eating and exercising.

As you're probably well aware, there are hundreds of websites that offer advice and details about many doctor approved diets. The problem with dieting is that most people find them so hard to stick to, especially after the a few weeks. If the thought of going on a diet makes you cringe, remember that diets are not so much eating small amounts food, as it is about eating the right amounts of all the things your supposed to be eating. If nothing else, remember to include high-fiber foods such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains, limit your fat intake and choose lean cuts of meats. This is a nutritionally sound way to help you shed a few pounds, keep you active, and healthy at any age.

Including an exercise regimen in your life can help regulate of appetite, boost your metabolism, and decrease excess body fat. The health benefits of exercise include such things as a reduction in the risk of premature death by strengthening the heart, muscles, and bones. Another benefit of exercise is that it can also raise serotonin levels in the brain and effectively diminish junky food cravings. However, exercise can not make up for a poor diet. Many people still believe that they can eat what ever they want since they exercise several times a week. This is simply not true. What is true that a combination of diet plus exercise is are both primary factors involved in weight loss.

The most effective approach to weight lose is to gradually modify your current lifestyle and set reasonable goals. The best way to shed those unwanted pounds is to maintain a nutritionally balanced diet and to participate in a moderate exercise routine.

According to weight loss expert Tom Nicoli, some Americans will literally put their life on the line during the next few weeks, a theory backed up by an American Heart Association study and researchers at UC San Diego. For many, the upcoming holidays will mean indulging and overindulging in high fat/high calorie foods and alcohol. Add to that the stress of over-extended finances and lofty expectations for a Norman Rockwell holiday, and the way most people celebrate the season becomes enough to kill them. In fact, recent studies show heart attacks increase throughout December with a peak occurrence on New Year's Day.

"What will you get for Christmas? A heart attack? A shorter life expectancy?" Tom Nicoli asks. Yet he insists that despite the urgent need to achieve weight loss, a diet is one of the worst plans to take into the New Year. "You did not gain weight overnight and you can't lose it that way either. You have to make long-term, maintainable lifestyle changes that you learn to see as positives, not as punishments. You have to deal on the subconscious level with changing your feelings about weight loss, reducing stress and committing to exercise more

Tom Nicoli, who is a board certified hypnotist, published author, and much-demanded public speaker, says, "The season to be jolly has become synonymous with an attitude of indulge now and make up for it in the New Year. Except we all know how long New Year's resolutions last." Citing the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association, Tom Nicoli explains, "As you make plans for 2008, remember that roughly 1.2 million Americans will have a heart attack next year. More than a million and a half will be diagnosed with diabetes in 2008, three quarters of a million will suffer a stroke, and as many as 24,000 will lose their eyesight to diabetic retinopathy."

The thousands of individuals Tom Nicoli has helped to achieve permanent lifestyle changes, as well as many mainstream authorities including Harvard Medical School, acclaim Nicoli's success in guiding people to living healthier, happier and more prosperous lives. In 2003 and 2004, Nicoli gained global recognition when NBC's Dateline followed the success of Marc Merlis, a Boston pastry chef who achieved a 39-pound weight loss using Tom Nicoli's weight loss hypnosis program. As the Dateline series closely followed six individuals, each trying a different weight loss program, Nicoli's weight loss hypnosis clearly produced the most successful results.

Eating moderate amounts of healthful foods and changing to a lifestyle where you exercise more, according to Nicoli, has become a matter of life or death for many people dealing with obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetic or pre-diabetic conditions. Nicoli likens the combination of stress and indulgence during the holidays to adding another nail to the proverbial coffin. "People know that what they are doing is not healthy, but making lasting changes is very hard, often impossible, unless they also change deeply rooted patterns and feelings."

Weight loss begins with the mind, not the body, according to Nicoli, who explains that people must come to feel that eating moderately, reducing stress and learning to exercise more is a positive and rewarding choice they want to make. He describes it as a process of changing lifelong, learned behaviors and provides convincing evidence that weight loss hypnosis is perhaps the single most powerful tool to help people make these changes for a healthy life. His clients and loyal fans agree; Tom Nicoli's weight loss program appropriately called, "Not Another Diet."

Understanding Weight Loss Recommended Resources:

University of Maryland Medical Center

Cornell University