Women today are more concerned about their health and body image. Perhaps, primarily because of the mass media’s influence about the perfect body and the people’s increasing consciousness about health. Being slim or thin has been made by the media as the one which is acceptable rather than being overweight. Because of this, women are burdened to always appear thin and perfect. In fact, notice that you can seldom-to-never see an obese actress take the leading role in a major Hollywood film.
Being overweight and obese is caused by a lifestyle of less physical activity and eating too many calories. Genes, environment and culture also play a role in developing the condition. Cultural factors include having little time to look for healthier foods and using cars in going to even near places instead of walking. Overweight and obesity problems might also originate from a poor body image resulting to the emotional or comfort eating habits. According to a European study conducted lately, overweight and obese women at ages between 25 and 50 surmount comfort eating habits and lost more weight when they were assisted to love and accept themselves. The authors helped the participants create a more realistic ideal body shape for themselves and feel greater acceptance for how they look and learn that they are actually more than just their looks.
The study showed that when the ladies realized that their looks matter less than their sense self and importance in life, they changed their eating habits and reduced 7% of their starting weight with the complement of https://weightlossindy.com. On the other hand, women, who were not able to do the psychological realignment, lost only 2%. In other words, when you love yourself just as what you are now, you are able to naturally develop emotions that inspires you to take good care of yourself and do the things that need to be done to keep you healthy all the time.
Weight loss in women includes a number of ways such as weight loss plans, diets and healthy eating, weight loss surgery. The best way to lose weight is to spend more calories than what you take. Make a healthy eating plan and engage more in physical activities. But before you begin your weight-loss program, see your doctor for assessment advice regarding your plan. In choosing a safe weight-loss program, remember the following criteria:
- Sets a realistic goal of a gradual but steady weight loss. For example, 1 to 2 pounds a week
- Offers a low calorie diet with a broad range of healthy foods.
- Encourages you to be more engaged in physical activities
- Teaches you the importance of a healthy and balance diet and exercise
- Suits your likes, dislikes and cultural background
- Helps maintain your weight after losing it.
To make a healthier choice of food, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Agriculture (USDA) provide tips in Dietary Guidelines for All Americans.
Focus on fruits. 2 cups of fruits everyday is needed for a 2000-calorie diet. For example: 1 small banana, 1 large orange, and 1/4 cup of dried apricots or peaches.
Vary your veggies. Eat more dark green vegetables; orange vegetables such as carrots and sweet potatoes; beans and peas such as kidney beans, black beans and garbanzo beans.
Get your calcium-rich foods. Drink 3 cups of low fat or fat-free milk each day in cases where you can’t consume milk, choose lactose-free milk products and calcium fortified foods and drinks.
Make half your grains whole. Eat at least 3 ounces of whole-grain cereals, breads, crackers, rice, or pasta each day. One ounce is about 1 slice of bread, 1 cup of breakfast cereal, or 1/2 cup of cooked rice or pasta. Look to see that grains such as wheat, rice, oats, or corn are referred to as “whole” in the list of ingredients. Go lean with protein. Vary your protein choices with more fish, beans, peas, nuts, and seeds.
Limit saturated fats. Most fats that you take should come from sources of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids, like fish, nuts, and vegetable oils.
Limit salt. Consume only about 1 teaspoon of salt each day.
Having an active lifestyle can combat overweight and obesity problems and can lower your risk of early death as well. Diseases that can be prevented by physical activity include stroke, heart disease, hypertension, unhealthy cholesterol levels, type2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cancers of the colon and breast, falls and depression.
Regular activity if combined with low-calorie intake can aid in preventing unhealthy weight gain and also help in losing weight. If you are overweight, losing weight can lower your risk for a variety of diseases. On the contrary, being overweight or obese predisposes you to a number of diseases like the ones mentioned earlier.
According to James P. Krehbiel, Ed.S., LPC, unhealthy eaters can change their maladaptive thoughts about weight loss and meet their goals by:
- Learning to realistically react to negative thinking.
- Identifying cognitive distortions such as black and white thinking. For example, “If I can’t lose 5 lbs. this week I might as well give up”.
- Being kind to yourself. You can talk to yourself as compassionately as you would with your dear friend who experiences the same weight problem.
- Don’t assume your negative thoughts as accurate, instead, check the evidence that supports your conclusions. “Will people think that I’m hopeless if I don’t lose 15 lbs?”
- Assess other factors that contribute to your obesity and deal with those issues with the support of others, instead of taking full responsibility for your condition.
- Set a realistic plan.
- Evaluate your weight maintenance progress according to the effort you put in instead of the outcome. The outcome may not be in your control but your efforts depend on you.
- Use language that is less emotionally heavy. Instead of saying “I shouldn’t have eaten that extra helping”, say like , “ It would have been better if I hadn’t eaten more.”