Break the Vicious Cycles: How to Lose Weight and Control Cravings

Even the best fitness plan in the world is no match for a person who has no willpower to stop overeating. The holiday seasons are just one of many times during the year that people are licensed to pack the pounds. Many think that the holidays are an excuse to forget about healthy eating habits and exercise.

Break the cycles

According to Carla Fields, an award-winning fitness competitor and certified fitness consultant in Decatur, Ga., who has been in the business for 15 years:

“To break the cycle of roller-coaster dieting and live a healthier lifestyle, there are three key elements that work together. They are diet and nutrition, aerobics and cardiovascular exercise, and weightlifting.”

As you can see, all the components are interrelated and focus on keeping the human body lean and healthy. Cardiovascular exercises keep the heart strong while keeping the muscle groups toned and ready for action.

According to Fields:

“Those elements help burn food consumed throughout the day. I urge clients and dieters in general to set realistic goals and to write them down. Keep a record of daily food consumption- it’s central to the whole program of losing weight.”

Radical changes

By “radical” we mean here breaking the cycle of three meals a day. Unbelievably, we want you to eat six meals a day, instead of three. The problem with three meals a day is that people often eat their breakfast at lunchtime, eat their lunch after five (double servings) and have their dinners at ten in the evening.

The portions involved are detrimental to weight loss. So instead of eating three meals a day, eat five small meals and a big breakfast. Not only will you be feeding your brain enough glucose in the morning, you would be giving your digestive system time to digest its meals properly with the small meals.

Eventually, you will feel lighter and your excretory system would also begin to function better.

Diet and exercise, please

According to Michael McMullen, a body builder and certified personal trainer in Detroit, who has been in business for 17 years:

“People like to try to just diet and escape the exercise. It does not work. The weight always comes back.”

Why does the weight come back? Think of your body as a bank. If you make 10,000-calorie deposits, and you spend only 1/3 of this figure, how will you lose weight? You won’t lose weight, and your efforts at dieting would only go to waste because you didn’t condition your body to burn off the calories properly.

Jump-start your fitness plans

1.    Set realistic goals that you can accomplish with your peculiar schedules and time limits.

2.    The aerobic exercise that you will be doing regularly should be at least tolerable. Don’t do ballroom dancing if you don’t like dancing. Don’t do video exercises if you don’t like the idea of exercising in front of a TV.

3.    Sustain the so-called target heart rate. Your doctor can give you your target heart rate after a short medical assessment.

4.    Use music to bolster motivation. If you’re relaxed mentally, the exercise will just flow until you hit the required time.