Lets face it, we all have at least 10 extra pounds that we can do without. For many this is much more and although we all have our own ultimate goals, being healthy should always be the number one consideration. Being overweight is never a healthy condition and apart from feeling bad about yourself it does affect your health in so many different ways.
Weight loss can be very frustrating because its so easy to put on weight and so hard to lose it. Even when you go on a diet and a strict workout routine you can still not see results for weeks. It takes a lot of dedication and persistence to make it happen.
While losing weight has its challenges, its keeping it off that is the real challenge. Diets and other FAD's can work but it rarely works long term. To lose weight and keep it off there is only one strategy that works. You have to change your habits. You have to change your relationship to food and you have to change your relationship to fitness and exercise.
Only when being fit and healthy becomes more important than the instant (and short lived) satisfaction that you get from junk food will you be able to change things long term. Junk food is nothing but an emotional crutch and its something that far too many people lean on to make them feel good instantly. As long as you use food to make you feel better you will never lose weight long term.
The very nature of diets is temporary and in most cases its a temporary fix. We tend to approach it like that as well and think that we just have to eat certain foods for a while, lose the weight and then we can go back to our old ways. Most people feel so deprived during their diet that when they do get off it they start binging and end up gaining back even more than before the diet.
The simple fact remains that you need to make the change "inside". You can only force yourself to the gym for so long. You can only force yourself to diet for so long. In the end you innermost feelings will take over and if you are not in control of it you will never get the better of it. It needs to become habitual and until and unless you make being healthy a habit you will always battle with weight problems.
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