Weight Loss - How To Prepare Yourself : Part 1

There are many people like me, I know who need to lose weight for a long time and while some people manage to go ahead and do it, others need a little push to get there. Losing weight is not a very easy task, specially for those people who have psychological reasons for putting on weight.

If you are one of those people who are overweight and have been toying with the idea of losing weight for a very long time then let me first warn you that you need to "prepare" yourself mentally and physically for the task ahead.

So, what do you need to do? Well, first and foremost you need to ask yourself some very tough questions mentally and be prepared to answer those questions very truthfully to yourself.

1. Why am I putting on weight?
2. Why do I eat irregularly?
3. Am I eating too much Junk food, or comfort foods?
4. How do I feel when I eat comfort food?
5. Do I get angry, or frustrated, or depressed very easily?
6. Am I ready "mentally" to start losing weight?
7. Will I get support from any of my family or friends to achieve my goals?
8. How much weight do I need to lose.
9. Am i ready to change my diet and lifestyle to a more healthier one?

All the above questions will indicate your psychological reasons for putting on weight. Most women who put on weight have some underlying psychological factors which cause stress and tension in their personal lives and this leads to the vicious cycle of turning to comfort foods, that makes them even more frustrated as they then begin to feel guilty and a complete failure. Life becomes very insecure for these women as they go down further and begin to lose self-confidence and self-esteem. This cycle is very difficult to break and requires tremendous amount of courage and self willingness to come out of it. Most of the women require external support to be able to get out of the depression, and eating habits and get rid of the stress in their lives.

So, prepare yourself mentally. Imagine the benefits of weight loss on your body. How good will you look? Don't you want a better shape and a healthier body? The more you think and visualize a thinner you, the more you will "want" to lose weight and be more committed to yourself. Remember, that you are doing this for yourself so that you can lead a better life, be more healthier and a happier person and feel good about it. It's very important to "feel good" about yourself.

You will also need to prepare yourself physically for this task. Weight loss techniques require you to drastically change your habits, eating patterns, lifestyle and a hectic exercise routine that will only add more stress physically and psychologically on your body. So, you need to prepare yourself well in advance for this extra burden.

How do you go about it? For a start, I would recommend that you first visit a doctor and get your routine medical check up done, to rule out any other underlying medical condition, that may be causing your obesity. Do all the routine blood tests like hemoglobin, blood sugar - Fasting and postprandial, Lipid profile and Thyroid tests for TSH and T3, T4 levels to rule out any thyroid condition.

Once you have cleared all the tests and established that everything is generally within normal range, and there are no serious underlying medical conditions to hamper your exercise routines, then you can go ahead to the next step of preparation. However, many people may discover underlying medical conditions that had not been detected before, like elevated cholesterol, or high blood pressure, or elevated blood sugar, and or thyroid condition. In any of these circumstances, it is very important, of course to first get treatment for those conditions before you can think about weight loss.

Okay, so now we have finished with the tests. You are generally normal and some symptoms are obviously associated with your weight, so losing weight and exercise with proper diet control will take care of minor aberrations in your medical reports.

Now you are ready for part 2 of the preparations.

Continued in Weight Loss - How To Prepare Yourself : Part 2

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