Weight watchers is a great way to lose weight. It also costs about $40 a month. Some might think that $40 a month is no big deal and maybe it isn’t but in this sluggish economy that $40 could easily go to so many other places in your budget. Weight watchers, or a really close imitation, could easily be accomplished with a little research and dedication for free at home.

There are plenty of resources out there that will help you figure out how many points you are allowed each day and how to attach point values to the food you eat, just like weight wathcers. So, get out your calculator and start figuring. It really is pretty easy, just follow some simple steps to arrive at the numbers you need.

You might need to go out and get a book with calorie counts for food that doesn’t have labels like fresh fruits and vegetables or find a free one online. I am sure they are out there, you just have to look.

Weight watchers does work, I lost my first 16 pounds with weight watchers. The problem lies in being able to afford the monthly payment throughout the whole time you need to lose weight. I could only make it about 3 months. I wish I could have gone longer and maybe I could have just continued the program on my own. They give you everything you need to continue to lose weight even if you have to quit going to the meetings. I should have had the motivation to continue but I didn’t and I am still overweight.

When you know that that $40 per month could benefit you in so many other ways it is hard to justify using it for what amounts to purely selfish reasons. Not that losing weight is selfish but it only benefits you. Of course, you want to lose weight and be healthier and that can benefit your family, as well, but as a mother, I have felt the guilt of wanting something all for myself when my children needed or wanted something else.

Anyway, if you do have the money to afford weight watchers then I would highly recommend using it to get thin and fit. With the weekly meetings and monthly weigh-ins you are held to a higher standard than you would be if you were trying to lose weight on your own. There is an accountability with weight watchers that keeps you on your toes and moving keeps you moving forward and the numbers on the scale moving downward.

You realize, when going to the meetings or even doing the program they have online that you are not the only person in the world who has to lose weight, no matter how much you have to lose. Whether it is 20 pounds, or 120 pounds, or more the people at weight wathcers are there for you and they have great supplements and snack foods that will help you stay on track and not go running back to all the bad carbs and calories that you have been used to.

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Want some quick weight loss tips? Who the heck doesn’t? I wish it could be quick, then all I would have to do is snap my fingers and 50 pounds would be gone. The reality of the situation is that if you have a significant amount of weight to lose then it will take some time to get it off and keep it off.

Dedication, perseverance and learning to change the way you live your life. If you are over weight then you undoubtedly do not get enough exercise and do not eat right. Here is where you need to start. Either take in fewer calories over the course of the day or get up and get moving. Even just a little bit. Get off your duff and take a walk around the block. The first one may be a little tough but the more you do it the better it will be.

You probably will not be able to go for a thirty minute walk right off the bat so you will have to work up to that. Ask a friend to go with you so you do not have to do this all by yourself. Most likely your friend can use a little more exercise herself so you will be killing two birds with one stone.

The other side of the equation is to eat healthier and watch portion sizes. I know someone who lost 25 pounds in 6 months just by cutting her portion sizes in half. Another way to lose weight kinda fast is to cut out the pop you drink. Did you know if you stop drinking pop you can lose 38 pounds in a year without doing anything else? That’s right no extra exercise or futzing with your diet, just 38 pounds gone by just quitting the pop. Find yourself a good sparkling mineral water (without all the flavorings and artificial sweeteners, that’s a whole other article.)

Once you start losing the weight the best way to keep it off is to get yourself into a maintenance mode of working out. By this time you should have your routine down to a science and know what it takes to get a good work out. You know the level of intensity you need. You know what you need to do and you are doing it day in and day out. The old way of eating is a thing of the past and you look better than you have in years.

There are so many recipes out there you do not have to try to come up with anything new to cook. If you want to stay away from carbs, go to the library and take out a book about reducing the amount of carbs you take in in a day. It really is not that hard to do. The experts say to stay away from all the white stuff, white sugar, white flour, white rice. So what do you do if your recipe calls for white rice? either use the brown rice or substitute mashed up seasoned cauliflower, looks just like white rice and is much better for you.

Try all these quick weight loss tips and see if they do not work for you.

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If you are asking yourself, “How do I go about losing weight the right way?”, you are asking a very good question. Losing weight is a process that takes time and dedication. too may people think there is, or should be, a magic pill for losing weight and that they won’t have to work at it.

Some things you may already know about stress and gaining weight, stress makes the body produce a hormone called Cortisol. Cortisol increases fat stores around your mid-section putting you at risk for heart disease and diabetes.

Learn some techniques to decrease the stress in your life. Meditation is a good technique to use to decrease stress. Yoga is another good way. Actually, just getting some regular daily exercise will go a long way to decreasing your stress level.

Try to think more positively about your life and your weight loss. If you do then the extra pounds will disappear in no time.

Getting enough sleep at night is also a big part of losing weight the right way. If you are always tired and dragged out then try getting an extra hour or two of sleep at night. The human body needs 7-9 hours of sleep per night and when you do not get it your metabolism slows down to a not so steady crawl and your body does not work the way it should. Those of us who work the night shift really have screwed up metabolisms. Working nights is very stressful on the human body. We were all meant to sleep at night not during the day.

OK, so, you have done all the things listed above and find you still cannot lose the weight. Are you drinking enough water? If you think that you drink enough fluids every day then let me ask you, do you drink regular pop, diet pop or other sweetened drinks? If you do you need to stop. Regular pop, diet pop and other sweetened drinks are called empty calories because they have absolutely no nutritional value. The only thing they do is increase the amount of fat you have. Did you know that if you do nothing else but stop drinking pop you can lose 38 pounds in just a year? No, I am not kidding!

Hold on, back up, did you say diet pop? Yup, diet pop is ‘sweetened’ with artificial sweeteners and is basically considered poison by the medical community. Diet pop actually tricks your body into staying fat. When you drink diet pop the brain expects nutrition and when it realizes you were only joking, the brain signals the stomach that it is still hungry and you end up eating more to compensate the empty calories you just put in your body.

Stick with the water and maybe some green tea. The green tea gives you an added benefit of antioxidants that are so important for your health and it tastes great, too.

So try to decrease the stress in your life, divorce it if you have to, get more sleep at night, exercise and give up the pop. This should help you in losing weight the right way.

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To encourage motivation as you lose weight, it is important to set goals. Setting goals that will stretch you allows you to improve both your exercise and eating habits consistently. Goals help you maintain focus as you strive to reach your target weight. Without goals and planning, youre setting yourself up for failure before you ever begin. Take the time to design a system of goals leading up to a stretch target to help you meet your fitness goals.

Stretch targets are goals that are designed to stretch you. When designing a stretch target, you need to plan a goal that you think is out of reach, and then set smaller goals to help you work towards it. For example, if you never exercise, you could make your goal to run a marathon in six months. You would then set smaller goals to get you there.

Goal setting is essential when you are attempting to make any lifestyle change. Take the time to design a stretch target, and smaller goals leading up to it. For example, you could begin by setting goals of walking each day with short bursts of running. Do this for 30 minutes per day for awhile, and then add more running each week. Eventually, by meeting these mini goals, youll be building up to running your marathon.

Be sure to encourage yourself along the way. As you design each goal, pick out a small reward that you will get when you achieve it. Set a much bigger reward for achieving your target goal. This gives you small incentives to work towards the bigger goal. If youre like most people, you require some sort of immediate gratification to keep you motivated. These rewards provide just that.

Goals are essential to any type of long term change, and weight loss is no exception. Setting goals leading up to a target that stretches you is a great way to encourage motivation. Tell others about your goal, so that they can encourage you as you begin. With dedication and hard work, youll be achieving your goal in no time at all. Be sure to choose a goal that really matters to you, so that youre even more motivated to work towards achieving it. Keep your mind focused on how proud youll feel when you finally reach your goal. Congratulations! Youre on your way to a better life.

This article is for informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, nor should it be interpreted or substituted for medical advice. Prior to making changes to your physical exercise routine and your diet, you should always consult your personal physician. Better safe than sorry.

Tags: 30 Minutes, Dedication, Eating Habits, Exercise, Failure, Fitness Goals, Goal Setting, Healthy Diet, Immediate Gratification, Incentives, Lifestyle Change, Losing Weight, Marathon, Motivation, Personal Physician, Rewards, Running, Setting Goals, Six Months, Stretch Targets, Target Goal, Target Weight, Weight Loss —