Health
Fast Food Calorie Count
Who doesn’t think this would be a good idea? Fast Food Calorie Count. The article talks about how NYC Board of Health wants to force fast food restaurants to include nutrition information on their menus. I know I would have bought a LOT less fast food (or at least made better choices) when I was younger, if I knew the amount of fat and calories were contained in their foods. I think it is a fantastic idea and it needs to be adopted across the world.
Want to see what McDonald’s has to offer you? View the McDonald’s Nutrition Info on their website. You can not see it listed on the menus at their restaurants (yet), but they have the necessary information on their site. Double quarter pounder w/ Cheese has 740 calories!? Big Mac has 540 calories!? You think teenagers and young children know this as they put this in their mouths almost everyday? Add some large fries to those sandwiches and you are over 1,000 calories for one meal.
Want to see what Chipotle has to offer? A lot of people would. Funny how they don’t include that information at their restaurants or on their website. However, you can estimate what the calorie count is at this fan website .
Why this idea would be good for a LOT of people is best summarized in a quote from that article:
“The more fast food people eat, the more likely they are to become obese,” Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden told the New York Daily News. “Some people may choose to ignore [the calorie information], and that’s totally fine. But other people will use it to choose healthier food.”
One last thing, Did You Know That…
2nd leading cause of preventable death and no one feels obesity is a BIG issue? When will America begin to realize this needs to be addressed?
Think about this…
Do you think it is right that the FCC allows TV channels to have fast food companies advertise on their stations during children shows? They do this when they know in their hearts that most of the food from these restaurants are introducing our kids to high calorie foods and possibly the start of their obesity? The parents will call and complain to a TV station if they hear a swear word, but never a complain about all the unhealthy commercials being shown on their kids’ shows??? Interesting.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )View The Future You (After Weight Loss)
Please visit the link below from the Pop Photo Flash Daily Blog (scroll down to “New Way to Lose Weight”). There is a site that you can upload your picture and include how much you want to lose and they will show you what you will look like after you lose the weight. Of course this is just based on the technology they use, but it might be fun to try. I am going to try it and if the photos come back in a format I can upload here, I will.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Find Support – Step 4
Your support can be your family, friends and/or co-workers. These people should be aware of what you are trying to accomplish and how you want to change your lifestyle for the rest of your life. They need to know this so they can support you and so they are aware that this is not just some 2 week adventure. You can not expect them to change their eating habits just because you are. It would be great (for you and them) if they do, but if they really don’t want or have to, then you have to respect that. You will just have to be strong when temptations are around the house or at parties.
However, what you may find is that the real support you use on a daily basis can be found on the internet. Myself I found that Traineo was the best and simplest site out there. Most of the people in the Traineo community are great and there are people on there that motivate you too. You can sign up to be a motivator or get a motivator to get on your rear end and motivate you to meet your goals. I have become good friends with some people from that site and I continue to talk to them and they always help me stay on course. They have a great forum where there are tons of people who are always online willing to anwwer some of your questions. You may also find that you can help others and answer some questions for them. IF you visit this site and sign up, please go to http://bigmex44.traineo.com (I had to type it out) and put a comment to let me know you signed up because of my Blog. IF you visit my Traineo profile you will see that I have my mini goals documented so I can refer to them everyday.
Other sites are Sparkpeople, Weight Watchers. There are tons more out there. You will just need to look around to see what best fits your needs. You will see that it is great to have some support from some strangers because you will most likely find people that are in similar situations as you are and you can each motivate each other.
Your support will be there to help you stay on course. However, you have to be the STRONG one and remind yourself every single day WHY you are working so hard on this journey. The longer you stay with this, the stronger you will get.
Good luck on your journey to a new you!
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Create a Plan/Schedule – Step 3
Sometimes this step is assumed and never really done. Some people just think of a schedule in their heads, but they don’t consider all the other things going on in their life. When you develop a schedule you should do one for working out and a seperate one that includes everything else going on in your life (i.e., birthday parties, sporting events, travel, doctor appointments, etc.). It is an important step to do so you can see your workout and family schedule in front of you for the next month.
When you actually see the schedules, you might realize that maybe certain days of the week won’t work out for you. You don’t want to overlap workouts with doctor appointments or other commitments. For example, you don’t want to plan on working out after work on Tuesdays and Thursdays if you have doctor appointments on some of those days and your kids have some after school activities that you want to go to over the next few weeks. You don’t want to have these type of important things going on in your life stop you from achieving your goals you wrote down in step 2..
Therefore, maybe in week 1, your workout schedule will be M-W, F, Sat. But the following week, because of events going on you have to work out T-F, Sun. Doesn’t matter the days, as long as you get there. If you write this plan out on a calendar, this will limit the reasons why you can not workout, especially over the next few weeks. Yes, in a perfect world you will workout the same days each week. However, things go on in your life that you can not control so with a schedule you can prevent excuses from stopping you from meeting the goals.
Whenever you write out your workout schedule commit to a certain # of workouts per week. Maybe it is 4 for the first 2-3 weeks. IF so, over the next 2-3 weeks make sure you leave at least 4 days per week to workout. Developing a monthly plan should be done every month, especially during those busy months in the summer.
IF you ever get to a point that your days off and work out days are consist fro a few months, you may want to change things up every few months, especially if you are plateauing.
For me working out at 5 in the morning was the best way for me to avoid from things popping up and preventing me from getting to the gym. It also allowed me to keep a consistent workout schedule for a long time now.
Good luck on your journey to a new you!
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Write Down Your Goals/Reasons – Step 2
Writing down your goals is an extremely important step in your journey to a more healthy you. For me goals are challenges. Challenges are what motivate me to keep going every morning when the alarm goes off at 3:15am. Document them on a sheet of paper or in your journal. Then make copies of them and put them on your desk, on your PC desktop, in your vehicle or wherever they can be seen on a daily basis. They should be placed in multiple places so you can refer to them frequently. Why does this have to be done? Because you need to remind yourself almost everyday why you are working so hard to lose weight and get fit. You will be tempted at work to join in on the overeating parties or when you are driving home and pass up your favorite fast food place. Therefore, IF the goals are on your desk, you may get a quick reminder of what you are trying to accomplish and you just might be able to say no to your co-workers. (NOTE: After a while, they will really understand that you are 100% committed to this new lifestyle and they will respect your strength to say no.)
Starting a “weight loss plan” is EASY, but having this continue for the rest of your life is the HARD part. Most people stop after 2-3 months. One of the reasons they stop is because it gets hard and they lose focus on the real reasons why they are trying to improve their life. IF they can see those reasons frequently, then most of the time it will make it harder for them to give up. Believe me, once you lose the weight you WANT to lose, it doesn’t get easy to keep it off. You have to work just as hard if not harder to make sure the weight stays off. That is why if you keep adding goals to your list, you will get new challenges to keep you going for the rest of your life.
How many goals? It can be one or two or it can be twenty. It is all up to you. Make sure they are all specific and attainable. For example, if you want to lose 20 lbs, put down a realistic timeframe. I doubt meeting this goal in 2 weeks is doable for most, but something like in 2 months is probably more realistic. Keep in mind, when you put dates behind your goals, they can always be adjusted.
Feel free to add or edit your goals as time goes by. For example on your first day you write your goals you might never of visualized you running in a 5K. Well, 3 months later, maybe this is something that you started thinking about. IF so, write it down as a goal and when you want to run one and before you know it you will be getting your first 5K shirt.
Also, there is nothing wrong with writing down mini goals. What are mini goals? Well, they are small goals with shorter timeframes to help keep you on track to meet a MAJOR goal. For example, I have an overall MAJOR goal of weighing 185 lbs. Well, when I wrote down some of my goals last year, I put down some mini goals to help keep me on pace to meet my 185 weight goal by the end of this year. I keep referring to those mini ones to help me meet my major goal.
It is also great to write down some “reasons” why you improving your life. Examples of “reasons” can be: I want to lose weight so I spend more time with my kids and wife, I want to live longer than my Mom who was overweight and died at a young age, etc. There is no way of writing a date after reasons. These are just great examples of what I call a benefit goals of losing weight and great reminders of the REAL reasons why you are on this journey.
Good luck on your journey to a new you!
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )How Did I Do It?
People that I come across on a daily basis, ask me how I lost the weight. Well, usually I can’t give them all my “secrets” in a quick 3 minute conversation. This is one of the reasons why I started this blog. Now I can direct them this blog and on their own time they can read and see what I “believe” helped me on my journey to becoming healthier and meeting some of my goals.
Over the next few months I will be posting a series of messages of what I believe helped me lose all this weight. I hope at least one bit of information found in these posts will help get you on track to becoming more healthy.
Good luck on your journey to a new you!
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Get a Membership – Step 1
One of the first things you should do on your journey to becoming more healthy is get a membership to a fitness center (aka gym) or find ways to build a very good workout area at your house. There is nothing wrong with working out at home. However, one of the problems doing that is eventually you will get bored of the equipment and may not be able to blast through a plateau.
A monthly fee to a fitness center is really not that much once you think about all the benefits it provides to you now and in your future. IF you GO, it is worth it. At times (if not always) in your life it should be a “MUST” in your monthly budget. IF you are paying a membership fee, you will feel like you have to go and you will most likely go.
There are some affordable fitness centers out there like Snap Fitness .They are open 24 hours a day and are usually located close to homes and they have the equipment you need to workout and improve your health. You may not have one in your neighborhood, but look around and maybe you will find a place that is close to that.
IF you are on a very tight budget, find a way to spend less money on other things so you can afford a membership or invest in some used equipment that you can put in your house. People are always selling equipment in their garage sales. Yes, you can lose weight with no gym equipment by walking, jogging, cycling or running but you will be limited to only these activities and you will not take advantage of all the great benefits from lifting weights.
YES, Fitness Centers are always trying to SELL you a membership. However, it is NOT a rip off, IF YOU go. A Fitness Center is there to make $$$, so they can pay their bills and make a profit. However, if it is a VERY GOOD Fitness Center, they will REALLY care that you reach your goals. Look around, before you can sign up to make sure you like the employees, the place is clean and it is a membership you can afford.
Good luck on your journey to the new you!
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )About Me!
Hi everyone! I wanted to start blogging because eventually I want to start up a website for weight loss and health news. Regardless here is my story…
My name is Fred and I am married with one son. I have been overweight my entire life. Ever since I was a toddler I was always on the overweight side. I think I was overweight for most of my life because no one (not even school) ever gave me any information on nutrition. I had no idea that some of the meals I was having were over 10,000 calories. I never even understood the importance of calories and the nutrition value. Anyway, my obesity still continued until my early 20s. Finally, something woke me up then and I decided to lose weight. I did lose about 50 or so lbs, but gained it back within a couple of years. I ballooned up to 355 lbs and when I saw that number on the scale I couldn’t believe I had lost control of my looks and health. I knew it was time for a change. I went on my own nutrition and fitness plan and I lost 125 lbs. It was great and I felt great. However, after I lost that weight I got stuck (became frustrated) and I could not lose anymore weight for some reason. Meanwhile, I hurt my knee while training for a marathon so I had no access for any other type of cardio at that time. Slowly over the last 5 years or so, I gained back 70 lbs because I could not run. Well at least that is what I told myself and maybe at that time, I truly did not undersand why I originally lost the weight and how mentally hard it is to stay fit the rest of your life after losing weight.
Once I saw the scale go over 305 lbs again (in 08/06) and because I had a new son, I knew in the back of mind it was time to make some changes forever.
In August 2006, I started a journey to a more healthy me. I wanted my results to be permanent this time so I could live as long as possible and spend each day energized and make every day special for my wife and child. At that time, I weighed 307 lbs (more…)
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Lose Weight Forever 
