Michele Maroldo

If dieting seems easy at first and slowly becomes more and more difficult, you may have reached the “dieting doldrums”. Learn how to stay on your weight loss track and avoid the common dieting pitfalls.

Each year millions of Americans begin some sort of weight loss program in an attempt to lose weight. While some may prove to be successful, a mere 20% will be able to maintain their loss. And to make matters worse, some will have regained all the weight they’ve lost plus additional weight leaving them fatter.

Losing weight is a tough battle in and of itself but keeping it off is even tougher. Here are 7 tips and tricks to combat the known pitfalls that can sabatoge your weight loss goal and help you successfully lose the weight and keep it off.

1) Scrap Your Scale: If you must weigh yourself, limit it to once a month or once a week if necessary. There may be meals that contain more salt than others and you may be carrying more water weight that day. Your body may be in a neutral mode and not be showing a loss that day. Whatever the case may be, weighing yourself every day can wreak havoc with your mind. You may become so depressed and angry that you immediately run to the kitchen and start consuming the first thing you get your hands on and it will almost always be the seven-layer chocolate cake you’ve hidden in the freezer for a special occasion. I’ve had clients who have weighed themselves every day, one girl weighed herself every hour! While that may be an obsessive person with a borderline eating disorder, we all need to be careful not to obsess about the numbers on the scale. Add to the fact that if you’re weight training as part of a weight loss program, muscle weighs more than fat and so the scale may be deceiving you.

2) Progress Past a Plateau: If you’ve reached a plateau and you find that you’ve stopped losing weight after weeks of dieting, don’t get discouraged and give up, you may just need a change in your routine. I like to refer to this as “shock training”. If you’re just dieting and not exercising, add some form of aerobic and/or weight training to your regime. If you have been exercising try changing your exercise routine, add more aerobic training or change the type of aerobic training you are currently doing. You may also need to make a change in what you’re eating. The idea is to shock your body by doing something out of your normal routine and then it will get back on the weight loss track.

3) Don’t Bail for a Binge: It may be a bad day, it may be a temporary loss of control, maybe it’s a special occasion, whatever the case may be, if you’ve gone off track don’t just give up for the rest of the day just because you’ve eaten something you shouldn’t have. You can still do a lot more damage during the remaining hours of the day if you continue eating whatever you want. A temporary slip is not going to sabatoge your entire dieting goal so don’t beat yourself up over it just get back on track the minute it’s over.

4) Help for Hunger Pains: When you’re between meals and you feel the urge to snack, try drinking an entire glass of water. It may sound funny but often times our bodies are just thirsty when we feel we are hungry. If you still feel hungry after drinking the water, choose your snacks wisely. Go for something with a lot of fiber, that way you’ll feel fuller faster. I always keep a bag of baby carrots or carrot chips in the refrigerator. They’re already washed, cut, and ready to eat. They’re even easy to grab a handful and take with you. Other vegetables and fruits work just as well, just wash and cut them up and have them ready to grab when you need a snack.

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When your exercise routine becomes a bore and you don’t see results in the mirror, it may be time for a change. Read on and follow these easy steps to get your routine and your body back on track.
You’ve been working out for months, you’ve got your routine down pat, and when you first started you saw significant results. Now that the months have past, you’re seeing less and less results. What gives? You’ve reached an exercise plateau. You might find this hard to believe given the fact that you’re still exercising so I’ll give you an example. A man of average size and build begins a job as a construction worker, when he first begins his muscles are very sore at the end of the work day. Each day that goes by he becomes less and less sore until he no longer feels muscle soreness. He begins to notice that his arms are becoming more muscular and well-defined due to swinging a hammer all day. However, in time he no longer sees growth in his arm muscles, they remain the same despite his continuing to swing a hammer day in and day out. Why these results? His body has become accustomed to this motion and it’s no longer a challenge to his muscles because he uses the same weight of hammer every day.

So how do you continue to challenge your muscles? You must revamp your routine every so often, as your body will become accustom to a daily routine of exercise. The first step would be to increase your weight resistance as your muscles become less challenged with the current weight you’re using. Depending on the exercise you are performing, increase your weights in 5 pound increments. Some exercises, however, will not allow for a 5 pound increase. An example of this would be most shoulder exercises like side lateral raises. You may only be able to increase the weight when performing this exercise by 1 pound increments. If you don’t have access to dumbbells or there are no dumbbells increasing by 1 pound you can try performing your shoulder exercises using a shoulder machine or cable crossovers.

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Approximately 107 million Americans have a moderately high level of cholesterol, a level which begins a risk for heart disease. Learn the facts and what steps you can take to control your cholesterol.

You’ve only got one heart, if it stops beating you no longer live. Protecting your heart could be the single best thing you can do for your body. Every year approximately one half million people die from heart disease and more than a million people suffer heart attacks in America alone. High levels of cholesterol in the blood is a major risk factor for heart disease and heart attacks.

How can high levels of cholesterol cause heart disease leading to a heart attack? According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, the definition of cholesterol is a white crystalline substance, found in animal tissues and various foods, that is normally synthesized by the liver and is important as a constituent of cell membranes and a precursor to steroid hormones. Its level in the bloodstream can influence the pathogenesis of certain conditions, such as the development of atherosclerotic plaque and coronary artery disease. To put it in more simple terms, cholesterol is a soft fatty substance found in the blood and cells that is necessary for normal bodily functions. However, too much cholesterol in the blood causes a build up of a hard substance called plaque that narrows the walls of the arteries. If a blockage occurs in an artery carrying blood to the heart, the blockage can cause a heart attack. If a blockage occurs in an artery carrying blood to the brain, a stroke could occur.

If you have high cholesterol, you may not exhibit any symptoms. For this reason it is very important to have your cholesterol checked on a regular basis. Because high cholesterol is treatable, it is important to learn what your cholesterol levels are and what the numbers mean. It is a simple blood test that your doctor can perform. It should also be noted that anyone can have high cholesterol; young, old, persons at risk for heart disease and those without risk.

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