I gave up playing football when I was 33 years-old. Thinking back that was too early by a long way, but I was newly wed, had a child on the way and was not really liking it as much as previously.

At that time I was a somewhat lithe 172 lbs, but on my way to middle-age I managed to plump-up to around 287 lbs; a rise of more than 100 lbs in a tad over a decade.

What caused the weight gain? My eating habits for one thing, I adored chocolate and junk food and was somewhat unrestrained in my appetite. Add to that the fact that my career choice caused me to have a very static lifestyle – that’s right, sitting on my backside – and another element was that I am in excess of six feet high and decidely muscular, so I never really appeared all that heavy. At least not to my mind.

That said, by my mid-forties I was certainly not very mobile; struggling to extricate myself from chairs without an effort and happy to watch my slender and limber spouse lean forward and pick things up for me here and there. I well understood that I was clinically obese and that it was a difficulty that I needed to try to put right.

At that time I had an acquaintance who was something of a guru for a well known weight loss company and he prompted me to try their online system to count food intake. It wasn’t long before I too was a convert, I lost 30 pounds very quickly and couldn’t see why people found weight loss difficult.

That is, I didn’t before the diet plan got short-circuited by a touch of gastroenteritis. I lost 5lbs in about three days because I couldn’t consume food and when I got healthy again I decided that I could be allowed a fews days feasting to make up for the rapid reduction in weight. That was the death knell for that diet plan.

Thereafter it was at least a couple of years before I could gather the enthusiasm to try once more. After I did the end result was almost identical; good weight loss, followed by a a crash. The same thing happened two more times, before I realized that I needed to look at my tactics.

That is why I starting reading books by reknowned nutritionists (Patrick Holford being a favourite); people who actually read the research papers that come out of top universities and otherwise immerse themselves in the biological details of the human body and mind.

I learned an awful lot about the junk that I was consuming and how our bodies use them. I finally grasped a fuller knowledge of the many sugars and which carbohydrates release sugars the quickest and how that correlates to blood sugar increases and the resultant blood sugar dips.

By altering my food intake fairly substantially I quickly began to learn to control my blood sugar better, which reduced the cravings that I frequently had for sweet foods. The occasions when I would suffer glycemic overload became less frequent, the foods that I chose gained a more sustainable nutritional content and with some exercise added my weight has dropped away.

And the moral of this tale is as follows. The food industry is adding sugar to virtually everything that arrives in a packet these days and if it’s carbonized and comes in a can they are including quite a bit more.

Our governments are without funds and not interested, apparently, to set the food industry to rights. Were they to do so they would probably be obliged to take on big pharmaceutical companies and the agricultural mob as well. So it will not happen.

If weight is a problem for you, what you really should to do is shoulder the responsibility, like I did. Put some time aside to read-up. Write notes and persevere. I know it’s a drag and probably not your heart’s desire, but believe me, it’s interesting and you will be very glad of it in the long term.

Guilty and frustrated from cheating on your diet plan? These diet plan saving tips will keep you on track!

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It’s nine thirty at night and you have followed your new diet plan perfectly to a tee all day. A pizza advertisement comes on the commercial break of your favorite show and you notice it is close to your next mealtime.
Up to the kitchen you go to eat your next meal. When in the fridge pulling out your nicelyprepared diet plan meal, you notice some left over Fettuccini Alfredo your wife or roommate brought home. Sure looks good you think as you catch a little bit of saliva about to drip on your shirt!

“Just a little taste won’t hurt my diet plan,” you justify…

“ I’ve stuck to my diet plan all day……”

A little taste and before you know it you tell yourself the extra carbs and calories will be a good boost to your workout tomorrow!

An hour later your gut is stretching and Indigestion plagues you from cheating on your diet plan!!

“I should have stuck to my diet plan!” is going through your head as you lay down to have nightmares of a fat ass! “Tomorrow I’ll stick to my diet plan “, you chant in your head!But you fall from your diet plan only a day or two later!

The occasional stray from your diet plan can really add up!And billboards,tv’s, radios and people are everywhere pushing fast foods and junk to sabotage your diet plan!

Here are five diet plan saving tips to arm yourself against the onslaught of the Cheating War!

Diet Plan Tip #1 – Eat Slowly – Take your time when you sit down to eat.

The chances you will stuff yourself or overeat diminish and you will reach the point of satiety much more quickly if you eat slowly!

The more you are satisfied with what you have eaten the less likely you will continue to think of food. That chocolate Black Forest cake won’t be as tempting either!

Diet Plan Tip #2 – Have Delicious Meals That Fit Your Meal Plan Prepared Ahead Of Time.

Having meals prepared ahead of time makes it convenient to eat according to a plan and on schedule.

You can make it more convenient to stick to your diet plan than it is to eat that bag of candy by having your diet plan meals prepared and available when it is time to eat– and when you gethungry.

Diet Plan Tip #3 – Get Used To Eating For Your Purpose Instead Of For Your Taste Buds.

Satisfying your taste buds when you get the urge to gorge down a Big Mac will never develop a healthy, lean, muscular physique! Keep in mind you are eating to develop a lean, healthy muscular physique every time you open your mouth! The temporary taste satisfaction of a jelly-filled donut will be gone real fast but the empty calories you just devoured can defeat a whole day’s worth of bodybuilding effort!

Diet Plan Tip #4 – Be creative with your cooking to make sticking to your diet enjoyable.

Ideally, with proper preparation and some reciperesearch you can create delicious mouth watering meals that meet your diet plan criteria. Learn to cook. Employ spices from other parts of the world. India and China are twocountries with interesting choices to really spice up your diet plan. When you don’t have to force feed yourself with your nose plugged the chances are much higher you can stick to your diet plan more easily!

Diet Plan Tip #5 – Drink Water.

Drinking water between meals can help to reduce your hunger pains temporarily by giving a sense of fullness. For those of you that sabotage your diet plan munching here and there,keeping a water bottle with you wherever you go can really help.Just sip away when its oral satisfaction rather than hunger driving you.

The idiot-proof diet is all about calorie shifting. That is, in this diet, you shift your food intake throughout the day instead of eating just 3 meals a day. The diet is popular because it’s actually very easy to follow and there are hardly any restrictions when it comes to the types of food you can eat.

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The Idiot-Proof Diet

The idiot-proof diet is all about calorie shifting. That is, in this diet, you shift your food intake throughout the day instead of eating just 3 meals a day. The diet is popular because it’s actually very easy to follow and there are hardly any restrictions when it comes to the types of food you can eat.

The ‘calorie shifting’ model takes place because you eat every two and half hours. The theory is that because your body is consuming calories (energy) constantly throughout the day, it’s always in ‘burning calories’ mode instead of the ‘saving calories’ mode.

When you sign up for the diet, you get access to a diet handbook, an 11-day diet-plan and a diet calculator. You get to pick what foods you like to eat so don’t think that you’ll be tarving in this diet!

NutriSystem

The NutriSystem way of dieting is all about proper meal planning. People love this diet because it takes away the burden of trying to figure out what to eat during their dieting phase. You see, a lot of people actually get confused as to what they can eat when they want to lose weight. That’s not really surprising because there’s so much information out there and for every yay sayer, there is a nay sayer so it’s really tough to know what to eat.

However, with NurtiSystem, they do all the meal planning and portion controlling for you. You just need to sign up to any of their diet programs (e.g., Women’s Program, Men’s Program, Vegetarian Program, etc.) and order a multi-day (usually for 28 days) diet program.

After you choose your diet program, a menu is presented to you and you simply choose what you want to eat. The meals are then delivered to your doorstep at various intervals during your diet program.

The South Beach Diet

The South Beach Diet is popular because the name alone conjures bikini-clad bodies! Add to that the fact that it was founded by a cardiologist, Dr. Arthur Agatston, then you have a sort of ‘doctor recommended, doctor approved’ seal on the diet as well.

At first glance, the South Beach Diet looks a lot like the Atkins Diet in the sense that it restricts carbohydrates during the initial phase of the program (there are 3 phases). The first phase (14 days) encourages ‘normal eating’ in the sense that you can pretty much eat whatever you want but you must NOT eat bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, or baked goods. Fruit is also not allowed. No sugar. No alcohol.

The second phase allows you to SLOWLY introduce these items back into your diet but at lesser levels that you consumed them before of course. The third phase is more about general maintenance.

Weight Watchers

Probably one of the longest running diet programs out there is Weight Watchers. It believes in the overall approach where food, exercise, behavior and support are addressed.

Weight Watchers is known for advocating a point system for foods. Using this system, one calculates the calorie intake of the foods he or she eats. The number of points you can have in a day varies depending on your weight. The beauty of the program is that there are no gut-wrenching food restrictions so you never feel deprived of anything. However, the point system teaches you how to balance your meals so that even if you indulge on one food item, you don’t go overboard and consume too much in a day.