How to Lose Weight: Fast and Easy?

1 CommentMonday • July 5, 2010 • by Imei

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Did I get your attention? I purposely titled this post, “How to Lose Weight: Fast and Easy?” because I know if you’re looking for this kind of information, you could very well go to the wrong place. Truly, I feel for you: you’re just trying to get honest information, and a ton of people who aren’t even in the health care industry are trying to tell you how to lose weight. Admittedly, my friend Chris Pirillo wrote his own weight loss tips list, and it was he who suggested that I use my licenses as an RN and psychotherapist who has coached others towards weight loss to write my own eBook to help people.

Truth: there is no SAFE way to lose weight fast nor easily. You can, however, lose weight at a steady pace and keep it off. Here’s how.

If you live in America, you need to know that you live in a weight-obsessed culture, with a food industry that creates a hostile environment for your plans to maintain a healthy diet, a fit body, and a weight meant for your height, age, and genetics.

Here’s the opening excerpt from my upcoming eBook, “Video Nurse: 50 Weight Loss Tips for Busy People”. It will be available to order by Paypal for just $5, and comes with an attractive cover and title page, perfect for giving as a gift. Download it as a PDF, or make a printed copy to keep by your desk.

Here’s the excerpt:

According to present statistics available at the time of this writing, obesity rates in the U.S. may be finally leveling off, but the rates are still high. No state passed the Healthy People 2010 Guidelines for 15% or less obese people http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/index.html. Our food supplies continue to cater to a market that is willing to buy cheap food to keep our mouths entertained, while the number of preventable diseases and deaths related to complications of obesity continue to soar along with our health care bills.

Whenever instituting a change that doesn’t provide an immediate measurable outcome, consider giving yourself a non-food reward for good behavior to help encourage the repetition of that behavior. I suggest that reward to be something other than food because I feel that food shouldn’t be used as punishment or reward. An example of a non-food reward: put a dime in a jar for each time you complete a particular tip on the list below. At the end of fifty days, you’d have five dollars if you did just one tip (or put in a dollar per day as your list grows); you’d have $250 if you did all fifty tips for fifty days at a dime a piece (although some tips will only be done once or twice). At the end of fifty days, use that money for something healthy for yourself to enjoy.

I hold licenses as a Registered Nurse and a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in the State of Washington. “Video Nurse” health tips are just that: health tips. They are not designed to be used for diagnosis or treatment of specific diseases or disorders. Any misuse or misinterpretation of these health tips are at the risk of the reader, and Video Nurse and Bernice Imei Hsu, RN, MAC, LMHC is not responsible for any untoward consequences of these actions. You are advised to seek professional advice in the treatment of any illness, disease, or disorder.

Here area few tips from the eBook:

17. Unless you are diabetic or an athlete, it’s not likely that more than 60% of your calories need to come from carbohydrates. If your diet consists of mostly cereal, spaghetti, and breads because of convenience, you might be encouraging a carbohydrate addiction as well as packing on the pounds over time. Consider weaning yourself off of excess carbs by reducing the portion size while replacing the excess with a serving of vegetables cooked in a tablespoon of good oil. Non-wheat eaters may find that returning to their genetic history may be easier on digestion. Example: I metabolize rice better than pasta, as long as I combine my carbs with protein.

18. Busy people need to have healthy foods ready to grab and eat in order to change the habit of eating less nutritious convenience foods. Consider spending one afternoon on a weekend preparing fresh foods cooked and measured into meal-sized bags, and keep a basket of fresh fruits in snack sizes (e.g small oranges, apples, bananas) nearby. Lunches can be pre-packed. Dinners can be waiting in large-sized zip lock bags, reheated by microwave or by placing on a baking sheet and reheated.

19. Juice fruit rather than buy it in a carton. It’s easier to see how much you’re actually consuming when you grab one orange and juice it yourself.

20. Eat slowly. It takes time for the stomach to feel full enough to signal the brain to stop seeking food. Converse during a meal, or put your fork down between bites. Consume a glass of water before the meal and during the meal to slow the process of eating down.

21. Stop eating when you feel 80% full. As one friend put it, it’s a realization that you could eat a few bites more, but those bites would only be for entertainment. Do you really need “a party in your mouth” (as Dr. Phil has said)?

The eBook contains fifty tips I have discussed with clients over the years who were either recommended by their doctor to reduce their weight, or had personal health goals of which weight loss was a reasonable part of their treatment. Every client who did what I asked them to do lost weight. Whether they put the weight back on depends on whether they understood the lifestyle change involved in weight management, or their vision was temporary in nature.

The only real way to lose weight and keep it off is to eat less calories than you burn on a daily basis, and to use both smart nutrition and exercise/movement to create an environment where the body can thrive. There are no short cuts. There is no magic bullet. Even diet pills that encourage faster weight loss have side effects that may be intolerable, such as fatty, loose stools if you have too much fat in your diet. Diet shakes and protein shakes can help you lose weight, but they do not do the work for you to shape up those muscles, such as swimming, jogging, and resistance training.

You may have reached the time where you “get real” with your health goals, and you are ready to do the work to achieve your best life physically, emotionally, spiritually, and relationally. I hope you’ll check out my work at Seattle Direct Counseling, or my eBook of weight loss tips (coming soon), to help you on your way.

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