The title here, that our technology is a weight loss challenge, probably does not take any of you by surprise. If you are overweight or obese, you have faced difficulties yourself in your attempts to lose weight because you have less than a healthy lifestyle.

I'm sure everyone of you has at least one grandparent, or maybe an older relative…or maybe it's you…who loves to go on about how you have it so easy – not like when they were a kid. You know the story…they had to walk 10 miles through hip-deep snow to get to school every day, uphill both ways. And they had to carry 75 pounds of books.

Worse  yet, after they trudged home each evening they had to chop wood, or scrub clothes on a washboard, or milk the cows and feed the pigs, or…these tales of woe go on. You roll your eyes and scoff, certain that no such things ever happened.

Well, though these tales are no doubt highly exaggerated, actually the older folks among us did have it much tougher in a physical exertion sense. They didn't have 3 or 4 cars for every household, they didn't have microwaves and dishwashers and packaged foods, they didn't have a drive-through fast food joint on every corner, and they actually played outside – running and jumping and skipping (gasp!) – rather than sitting in front of a computer or TV for hours on end.

Now most of our modern technologies are wonderful and make our lives richer in many ways. Some of them, however, such as the unhealthy packaged foods and fast-food joints, and the convenient technologies that help us avoid exercise, are not wonderful. In fact, they are the cause of so many of us being overweight or obese, beginning now at a very young age.

I think we can all admit that going back to a few of these old-time practices would be a good thing. So I put out this challenge. If you have decided you need to get serious and finally lose weight and start eating a healthier diet, but it is overwhelming and you don't know where to start…why not just start small?

Start out by cooking simple meals with fresh ingredients instead of grabbing some fast-food on the way home. Along with that, try fitting some physical activity into your day – every day. Come one, now…don't shriek in horror. All I mean by that is…go play outside. Yes, you too, adults. Just eat something fresh and go play outside as your first tiny steps toward a more healthy lifestyle. I think you'll like it.
 

I have wondered many times – are all those amazing weight loss success stories really true? And I think we all know that most are not. But it is likely that many of them are if they are based on proven weight loss programs and if they portray losing weight in a realistic time-frame. But there are also the ones which you know are outright lies. Weight loss testimonials based on fad diets generally fall into this category. You know the ones – they show a picture of a gorgeous, reed-thin, bikini-clad blonde next to her *before* photo at 350 pounds, and she says she did it in only 30 days!

Weight loss success stories have been around forever and they continue to be seen everywhere. We see them in tv commercials featuring celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Rachael Ray, and Marie Osmond; they are in magazine advertisements for weight loss programs such as Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, and Nutri-System (usually which include these same celebrities); and, of course, blogs and forums that focus on losing weight are filled with them; and finally, that is all some people talk about in the work place.

While much of this information leans more towards the shallower aspects of losing weight – how fabulous you will look in (and out of) your clothes and how much more attractive you will be – in reality good and safe programs can actually save lives. And that is a fact. We all know that being grossly overweight is risky to your health, but it is far more glamorous to accent how you will look and how you will attract better things to your life by being thin. Frankly, both of these concepts are true, so the most important thing for you if you need to lose weight is to get inspiration!

The fact is that personal success stories are very inspirational. Many of these stories are from real people who have made huge sacrifices and life changes to achieve their goals. And those before and after photos of themselves can be extremely inspiring to you and motivate you to begin your own journey to weight loss success. So guess what the next step is? You got it – TAKE ACTION! Put your *before* photo up where you will see it every day and get that *after* vision of the sleek new you in your mind.

Now, you may be thinking (I can hear you…) that it just is not possible to become one of those weight loss success stories yourself, but that simply is not true. What you weigh now does not matter. All that matters is to accept as fact that absolutely anyone can achieve their weight loss goals. People of all ages and of all weights and in many different circumstances have regained control of their lives, so there is no reason why you cannot do the same.

So take action today! Starting your new sensible-for-you weight loss program, not a fad diet you cannot possibly stick to, will be the first step towards your ultimate goal of achieving your desired weight. Remember though that you must tailor your plan for yourself, as everyone loses weight in different ways and in different time-frames. All weight loss success stories do have one thing in common though – they all had the will and motivation to get started and then to continue their diet and exercise plan day after day.

Keep in mind that you will not have your own weight loss testimonial by tomorrow, next week or even next month, but by sticking to it, every day brings you one day closer to your target! You will have doubts, you will have lapses, but if you do not give up and go back to your old eating habits, it will be a journey well worth taking.

Reading about and hearing about weight loss success stories is fun and inspiring, so share yours with us here. If you don’t have your own success story yet, make one up that you would like to come true… then go out and live it!

While you are constantly flooded with information about weight loss, the same diet mistakes continue to be made anyway, over and over every day.  I am not talking about the little lapses you will make occasionally on any diet plan, like the 3 slices of pepperoni pizza that you swore you would not eat, but huge mistakes that will ultimately lead to your failure to lose the weight you want to lose.  Understanding these errors can help you develop the attitude that will lead to permanent weight loss for you.

1. Attitude of All or Nothing

If you decide to be an all or nothing dieter, you will choose a complicated diet that is almost impossible to maintain.  You will launch an all-out attack on your kitchen, searching for anything that does not fit the plan and tossing it.  You will be the perfect dieter, following your diet plan to perfection – and you will – for one day, three days, seven days, or even a couple of weeks. But, of course, something always happens to lead you astray. So when you cannot keep to the diet one time you immediately decide the whole thing is ruined and the diet is over.  You head to the store and purchase everything you had recently tossed…and more.  Since you are now feeling like a failure, you eat more than ever, plus all those extra goodies you bought, and you proceed to gain back all the weight you lost as fast as possible.

If you are this kind of dieter, stop and ask yourself some tough questions.  Doyou have the right attitude to start your weight loss program?  Do you really want to lose weight permanently, or do you just want lose a few pounds (again), so that you can enjoy putting them back on (again)?  The correct attitude is to decide to find a plan that allows you to make small changes to what you eat, gradually making the changes that result in a slow but steady weight loss.

2. Attitude of Sacrifice

Another common mistake is to choose a diet that requires a long period of sacrifice.  You are asking  for failure if you do not allow yourself the foods that you enjoy most while you are on your way to your target weight. Your diet plan may be great and allow you to be very successful in losing weight, but what happens when you reach your goal?  If you have not learned new eating habits, like making better food choices, watching your poritons, and eating ‘bad foods’ in moderation, you will likely go out of control as soon as you reach your goal weight and start eating “normally” onc more.  It is better to choose a diet plan that allows a little of everything and teaches you to enjoy it in smaller quantities. Yes, even pepperoni pizza!

3. Attitude of Failure

Setting realistic and achievable goals is vital in any weight loss plan.  Your goals must be clear, realistic and put in writing.  While you no doubt have an ideal weight in your mind, unless you only have a few pounds to lose, that goal weight is probably too distant to feel achievable.  So keep your goal manageable, such as to lose two pounds per week for the first five weeks, then one pound per week after that.  Some weeks you will lose more and some less. Some weeks you will even gain, but by tracking your progress – on a graph or in a daily journal – you will see that ups and downs are natural and do not stop you progressing steadily toward your major goal.

But wait!  If you have been making these mistakes, do not panic.  The most important point in dieting, as in most other things, is to move on.  Forgive yourself.  Learn from your failures as well as from your successes, and do not use a mistake as a reason to give up.  The only way to achieve your goal permanently is to make a commitment to become a healthier person.  Remember that eating normally includes eating a variety of foods, making healthy food choices, and eating more some days and less others.  Learn to enjoy food in moderation and you have every chance of avoiding these bad diet mistakes.