Weight keeps finding me.

With the Biggest Loser Contest in its first week at my center

I thought I'd share some thoughts and tips.

You are going to lose weight because you've decided to finally lose a few pounds.

Your have to want to do it for yourself.

It's the quantity as well as the quality of your intake that is important.

Although calories, carbs, fat grams and other measures of food

content factor in they are not as important.

The secret to a successful weight loss program is very simple

to eat less, and exercise more.

All food has some benefit, as well as some problems.

Don't eliminate anything completely, but always go easy on

the amount of carbohydrates you're eating.

You have to invest in your health. Whatever it takes!

All the money in the world will be useless to you if you are dead.

Don't drink pop.

Diet sodas have a lot of sodium. If you are a two drink a day drinker,

you will shed a couple of pounds the first week.

Quit eating junk food, and fast foods in particular. 

After a while even Doritos taste awful.

Nutrasweet and Splenda are bad for dieters.

Eating anything sweet will only stimulate your hunger

impulses in your brain.

Chewing gum is great when dieting.

It keeps our mouth busy, it satisfies cravings for sweets. It also hides

the halitosis that dieting may cause.

Try a good diet aid like Crystal Light or teas.

If you love sweet drinks, try Crystal Light. Green or Black Tea would

be better but not everyone likes tea.

Add cayenne pepper on anything and it will slow down your eating.

It may even kick your metabolism up.

Coffee and tea without milk and sugar will taste just as good

once you get used to them.

Begin by adding a little less every day. (Black coffee has 0 calories).

Water has volume.

Drinking water fills you up.

Alcohol has calories.

Lots of them.

Some alcoholic beverages are worse than others.

A margarita has lots of sugar, calories and carbs. A glass of wine

has some calories and carbs, but there are some possible heart health benefits.

Don't eat at the "All you can eat" salad buffet.  

2500 calories of vegetables are still 2500 calories.

Salad dressing has a lot of calories.

Huge amounts. I recommend you stick with oil and vinegar, more

of the vinegar and a little bit of oil.

Multiple small meals make you feel much less hungry.

Try eating 6 times a day instead of 3 times per day. What you can do

fairly easily is eat a hearty breakfast, a raw food snack

mid-morning (i.e. fruits or veggies), a largely raw food lunch

(i.e. no heavy carbs or meat), a moderate-carb midafternoon snack

(shortly before heading home have an energy bar),

and then eat what you want for dinner but don’t eat too late.

Don't eat carbs within 3 hours of your bedtime.

You are your least active late in the evening, and any carbs eaten

will not be burned off.

Eating carbs for breakfast is a bad idea.

Eat eggs, cottage cheese, or turkey. Fruits are OK,

even though they have carbs.

Eating carbs for lunch will make you drowsy in the afternoon,

so it is a bad idea.

Carbs are generally bad.

Other than natural bread once in a while, maybe rice and some pasta,

there’s not a whole lot to say for carbs.

Have a single serving of cereal each morning.

It's all about portions, including breakfast cereals.

Your eyes are bigger than your stomach.

Eat half of your meal, than wait 5 minutes, drink some tea or water,

and then start eating again.

If you eat your meals slower you will eat less.

It takes 18 minutes for the signal to reach the brain,

and say you're full, period.

Eating because it’s tasty, not because you’re hungry is hard,

but you can do it.

Kids don't eat when they are not hungry, why should we?

Being fat is not a human’s natural state.

If you are overweight and lose weight, you will feel happier.

Keeping snacks in the house is not smart.

It is bad enough to walk by your vending machines at work,

but don’t keep snacks lying around at home.

Canned soups are high in salt, calories, preservatives,

and not satisfying.

No one I have ever known has ever lost weight eating just canned soups.

If you are hungry before bedtime eat some string cheese.

You will sleep better and not wake up starving.

The first thing you should take into your body when you

wake up is water.

Good ole cold, out of the faucet water and a lot of it. It will curb your

appetite and wake you up. It will also help cleanse your digestive system.

Dieting is going to be lonely.

Dieting around others who are not is torture. Tell your friends and family

what you are doing, and never let them push food on you.

Nibbly, small foods are a bad idea even when they are healthy.

Don't keep anything you can grab by the handful and eat.. lying anywhere

around the house. That includes nuts, fruits and veggies.

There is no health related reason for you to eat beef, pork, lamb, etc.

You can get all of the protein you need from poultry and seafood.

Don’t be too sure that being a vegetarian or vegan is a good

way to lose weight, either.

You can eat nothing but cheese pizza and French fries and still call

yourself a vegetarian.  It’s the quality of the food you eat that’s more

important than what you end up calling yourself.

A small handful of nuts will keep you going for hours.

Although, three handfuls of nuts are about 1800 calories.

Only one milk will work into any diet plan.

Soymilk.

Keep your portions measured.

You should never eat more at one sitting than fits on a medium size plate.

Take the stairs or park further away - these are both free workouts.

Elevators and escalators are rides.

Never go to the supermarket on an empty stomach.

You've heard this one before, and it's true.. you will end up buying

more than you need.

Try not to watch much TV.

There are loads of ads for junk fast food.

You can quit wearing black clothes all the time now.

Black is slimming, but being a healthy weight is slimming-er.

If your knees, back, ankles, shoulders, neck or any other joints

hurt and you are overweight, losing weight will very likely help.

Pain will abruptly disappear when you lose even 10 pounds of weight.

Take a picture of yourself when you are at your peak weight.

Treasure it. Frame it. Use it for motivation.

It still upsets me when I see or hear the insensitive remarks

people make about anyone over 300 pounds. Have actually been

involved in a couple of loud discussions.

The looks some people give are awful. Avoiding those looks is another

nice benefit of losing weight.

Airplane seats, bus seats, subway seats, even office chairs:

for some reason the American seat-building industry thinks all

Americans are fit and trim.

Chair manufacturers in America need to start being building chairs able

to accommodate 250 pound people.

I will be able to see your feet and other appendages

while standing up.

That is a horrible thing to say, but there is no shame if you are doing

something about it now.

I will one day be able to touch your toes and tie your shoes

without sitting down.

If you're a Catholic kneeling will became much easier.

We all have only life to live.

The average person has around 29,000 days on this earth.

If you are afraid that quitting smoking will make you eat more,

you should be afraid.

However, you should still quit. Using cigarettes as an appetite suppressant

is like flooding your garden to get rid of one vole.

Sure, it may work, but at what cost?

Sex is better when you are fit.

But you'll also get more of it, regardless of whether you are

married or single.

Once you start to lose weight, you’ll wonder why

you didn’t do this ten years ago.

However, once you’ve lost the weight you’ve meant to lose,

you’ll forget that euphoric feeling and be tempted to eat

a little bit of junk again. Why do that?

There is only one thing at Starbucks that you can have on a diet.

Black coffee.

You have to stick with this. The failure rate for dieters is high.

Even successful dieters often gain some of the weight back.

You have to think of it as a battle. Food is here to stay and will be forever

tempting you. You will lose the battle if you stop fighting it, even for a minute.

Temptation will be an ever present danger.

Tell yourself every day that Your will is stronger than your urges.

The first time you walk by a friend you have not seen in a

while and they don't recognize you because of all the weight

you've lost will be an amazingly positive experience.

Having to go buy a new belt because your old one is too big

is a close second.

The best is getting “checked out," even if you

are in a relationship.

Buena Suerte!!

Let's make it a weight loss día!