Modern medicine has given us a number of miracles in a bottle. We have pills for arthritis, pills for heartburn, pills for heart trouble. We have pills that will help us wake up in the morning, pills that will help us digest our afternoon meal, and pills that will enable us to sleep at night. We live in a pill-popping society.

Because of the number of medications available, we often turn to pills to cure what ails us—no matter what our trouble might be. Whether it’s physical or emotional, we may believe that medication will take care of the problem. As a result, it’s not surprising that a number of us also turn to diet pills in an effort to control our weight.

There are a number of advantages to using diet pills when trying to fight fat. (more…)

As a child, you may have kept a diary to record your daily activities, your hopes, and your fears. If you wrote in the diary each day, it might have seemed as if the diary itself had become one of your best friends. As you grew older, the diary might have become a record of your job search, love life, or wedding plans. Psychologists, in fact, tell us that writing down your goals can be the first step to achieving them. It has been demonstrated that individuals who kept a written record of their hunt for employment were more likely to find the job they wanted than those who did not.

It’s not surprising, then, that some dieticians recommend keeping a food diary or journal if you’re hoping to lose weight. If you’re not accustomed to writing, the idea can seem a bit daunting at first. After all, if you don’t seem to have the time to record all of your baby’s “firsts”—the first words, the first steps, the first day of reciting the alphabet—how can you be expected to find the time to write down everything that passes through your lips? It’s a valid question; however, if you stop to consider just how much time you spend eating, surely you can find the time to write down what you eat. (more…)

You see the razor-thin models gracing the covers of magazines…you watch actors and actresses on the big screen who seem to never gain a pound. And you wonder: How do I differ from them? You may be surprised to learn that a number of famous people at one time had difficulty maintaining a healthy weight. But they were able to conquer their problem, thanks to a new-and-improved, healthy view of eating.

You may not realize it, but there is a certain psychology at work in successful weight loss. It is no surprise, then, that the magazine Psychology Today has explored the issue in-depth. In October of 2004, the magazine posted an article on its website detailing the experiences of Diane Berry, a nurse practitioner who studied women who had shed at least 15 pounds and had maintained their weight loss for an average of seven years. (more…)

While shopping may not qualify as an aerobic activity, it can certainly help you to shed the pounds, if you follow the right formula. What you buy largely determines what you will eat. Therefore, if you want to maintain a healthy diet at home, you’ll need to do some advanced planning before heading out to the supermarket.

The secret to weight loss may begin with your shopping list. You need to take some time before going to the store to assess what your nutritional needs are. For instance, a healthy diet might very well include breads and cereals, dairy products, vegetables and fruits, along with meat, fish and poultry. However, you’ll need to decide on exactly which products to buy within each food category.

For instance, rather than purchasing white bread or cereals with little fiber, consider whole wheat bread and whole wheat cereals. (more…)

From an early age, we are conditioned to reward ourselves with food. It might have begun in kindergarten, when we were treated to cupcakes at the annual Halloween party. It may have continued through junior high and high school, when we reached for the cookies after a hard day at school. In adulthood, we may buy a high-calorie frappucino to celebrate a success on the job.

But the problem is, food was not designed to be a reward. It exists simply to give us energy. When we look at food as a reward, there is a great temptation to overeat. We believe that we deserve it, that we’ve earned this opportunity to indulge. We feel gratified when we eat food that might otherwise be forbidden.

Our food-as-reward culture has had calamitous consequences. An increasing number of us are overweight, and getting fatter by the year. We suffer from a myriad of health problems as a result of our obesity. We may feel lethargic and unmotivated—too stuffed to engage in exercise. We have become a nation of couch potatoes. (more…)