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A Common Sense Approach to Weight Loss and Management

If nothing else has been driven home by the mass media at large over the past 2 decades, the message that fat is not attractive to such an extent as to even border on becoming not socially acceptable certainly has. It has changed general attitudes surrounding obesity from being a desirable quality (as it was considered an excess exclusive to the well-to-do in earlier times), to highly negative. The implications inherent in this condition now include: dirty, low-class, gluttonous, lazy, undisciplined, and stupid among others. Of course, none of these are true as applies to obese people in general. This broad stereotyping however does affect these people to varying degrees. They often have difficulties finding and keeping a partner, have a harder time at work and in social situations, find themselves passed over for promotions and even neglected in school by teachers. They soon discover themselves trying (and usually failing) a variety of crash diets, fitness crazes and even more drastic measures including surgery in an attempt to conform to the media (and therefore society's) definition of what is the norm as applies to weight. Typically these folks unfortunately find themselves in a cycle of rapid weight loss immediately followed by even more rapid gain, usually beyond the point in terms of mass of where they began the process in the first place.

So … what to do? Well, you can follow one of two paths: either just accept yourself the way you are and hope society eventually follows suit, or you can make a series of lifestyle changes which ultimately will enhance its overall quality.

There is certainly something to be said for the first option. In fact I wouldn't recommend anyone embark on a weight loss program without being first happy with yourself as a person. Losing weight will not solve all or even most of your problems. Indeed, as a goal by itself it is rather hollow. However, as this article is not devoted to the former option, we will instead discuss the latter.

Where to begin?

The following is a set of steps you may undertake to not only lose weight but to improve your health, happiness and well-being in general.

1. Take your scale and throw it out the window. This is particularly satisfying if you live in a high-rise apartment or condominium. If you don't think you will derive enough pleasure from this, perhaps run it over with a truck. Better yet, if you want to get some physical activity involved, destroy it with a sledge hammer. "Why on Earth would you do that?!" you ask. Weight loss should not be goal oriented, in fact treating it as such is counterproductive. Let me explain: there is no finish line in the race to get thin. So why start a competition against yourself that you cannot win? The reason most people fail in their quest to attain a certain weight is the fact that once they feel that they have succeeded or attained at least some measure of success, they go right back to their old habits and regain the pounds plus a few they never had before thrown in for good measure. The approach we are going to discuss here does not involve counting calories, doing specific exercises, cutting fat or buying expensive "meal alternatives". What it will go into are things you can do to change the way you feel about yourself as a result of positive steps you are taking in your life as a whole. A happy by-product of this strategy just happens to be weight loss. Consider it a bonus, not an objective in of itself.

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