Aardvark Daily

Your Weight-loss enemies

As I mentioned earlier, there are many reasons why people eat, and hunger is often the least common one.

I'm betting that if you're like most folks, you do a lot of eating without really thinking about what you're doing.

Do you find yourself sitting in front of the TV at night with a pile of snack-food at your side?

Don't' feel guilty -- its a very common thing.

But you must appreciate that you're not eating because you're hungry, you're simply eating because that's what you've gotten into the habit of doing while you're watching TV at night. You need to break that habit.

You also have to realize that TV is a major enemy of weight loss.

Not only is there a strong association in many people's lives between snacking and watching TV, there's also the constant barrage of fast-food and snack-food ads that get pushed down your throat through this medium.

Now if you've decided to follow one of my earlier tips (not eating after 4pm so as to lose weight in your sleep) you may also find that you're a whole lot keener to get to bed in the evening -- so that breakfast will roll around more quickly.

Well another of those old sayings "early to bed, early to rise..." has never been more true than it is today. In developed countries, massive numbers of people waste huge portions of their lives by simply vegetating in front of the TV for several hours each evening. Please -- don't waste your life like this!

If you want to lose weight -- get a hobby and get away from the TV.

Isn't there something you've always wanted to do but never had the time or have simply never gotten around to it? Well replace your TV viewing and snack-munching with that hobby.

Read books, join clubs, build models, make patchwork quilts -- do whatever it is that you've always been interested and said "one day I must..." about.

Next to habit, boredom is the single largest reason that people overeat. If you're bored (and that includes watching TV) it's only natural that you try to stimulate at least one of your senses by reaching for a tasty (hi-fat, hi-salt) snack food -- and that's why you gain weight.

A good hobby can save your life and make weight loss a whole lot easier.

But, if you *must* watch TV in the evenings, try this...

Don't bring out the snacks, keep them locked away in the refrigerator or cupboard.

If you are feeling like you really need to eat something, wait until an ad-break and do some exercise. Yeah... I'm not kidding! You'll find that just half a dozen sit-ups, press-ups or squats will help suppress your appetite and (even better) it will start burning extra calories. That calorie burn will continue for up to 15 minutes *after* you stop exercising -- as will the appetite suppression.

Replace the chocolate and peanuts with situps and squats and instead of gaining you'll be losing weight.

If things get real bad, have a glass of low-fat milk and go to bed. Lose weight while you sleep. Nobody ever died from a lack of TV but every day, plenty of people check-out from heart-disease caused by over-eating.

Well that's the basics of what works for me.

If you can follow some or all of these steps you will lose weight. No, it won't fall off at several pounds a week but it will come off and stay off.

The first week will be the hardest -- if you can make it to two weeks you'll suddenly find that it's really easy and requires very little willpower or effort.

Your muscles will have started to burn more calories, your stomach and brain will have gotten used to not eating late in the day, your gut will be filled with healthy bacteria and fiber, and best of all you'll actually start to feel healthy.

Within a month you'll find that your weight is falling and you've actually got more energy.

Unlike other diets and weight-loss programs, I think you'll find that what I suggest becomes so much easier as time goes on that you won't regain the lost weight.

So that's it.

As you can see -- there are no pills to buy, no potions to swallow and no checks to write. I just hope that you get as much benefit from what I've discovered and tried as I did.

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