According to the Word Health Organisation - WHO, obesity is a global epidemic and a chronic condition. Changes in society and advances in technology are some of the factors to blame for increased stress levels which lead to overeating and lack of exercise.
Although research continuous to look into the genetic predisposition for obesity, it is a fact that in the majority of cases obesity is a consequence of energy unbalance. Often the negative eating habits established in childhood become difficult to break in adult life and add to other habits such as smoking and drinking.
Obesity can be seen as a chronic condition due to the difficulty in reversing the illness long term. Some cases require behavioural changes to promote long term healthy eating as opposed to dieting short term, some others require healthy eating, exercise and patience as obesity may be due to certain conditions or medication such as the case of corticosteroids and some antidepressants, which can induce weight gain.
Obesity is defined in terms of body mass index - BMI, the higher a person's BMI the greater the risk of diabetes, strokes, coronary heart disease, depression, low self-esteem, thrombosis, back pain and knee pain, breathlessness, deep vein thrombosis and many other conditions.
Some simple steps you can take to loose weight and maintain a healthy eating patter are the following:
- Write a list of all the negative habits you have accumulated through the years in relation to food; be it eating too fast, missing breakfast or eating very late at night. Then write a strategy to work on each habit in turn, in a way that would be beneficial for you and not a struggle.
- Remember that habits are re-enforced by repetition, it takes at least about 21 attempts to think of the behaviour consciously before you can do it right on automatic pilot.
- Do not deprive yourself from any groups of foods including sugar and fat, but when eating from this groups use minimal amounts of these foods, as a treat. If you totally cut on foods you like, you will end up craving for them and loosing you willpower to maintain the healthy eating plan.
- Motivate your mind by writing a list of all the reasons why YOU want to loose the weight, be it to fit into your last year's cloths, to feel more sexy or confident or any other meaningful reason. Then read your list every morning to remind yourself of your goal and to keep the motivation.
- Do not think of healthy eating as a diet because it is not, diets are normally short term and demand a lot of struggle. If you say to yourself your are dieting, your unconscious mind will link the phrase to all past diets you have performed, to hard exercise and past failures, will think of starvation, restrictions, cravings and deprivation. This way of self talk is less motivating than saying to yourself that you are eating healthy, then you will feel more motivated, energetic, have a sense of achievement each day and willingness to continue.
- Do not think of your weight; instead use the time to work on your plan and to devise ways to make it work for you. If you focus on the problem you loose valuable motivation, energy and time which you could be using to concentrate on the solution.
- If you have young children don't make your eating habits a big problem, do your plan in a discrete way so not to pass on the message to your kids that food is a big issue, or they may start worrying themselves with their image unnecessarily and develop fears of becoming overweight, leading to problems later on.
- Finally exercise, it does not need to be expensive or include complicated machinery but it must be consistent. Make it fun such as dancing around the house with your kids, skipping, using an exercise tape, finding a walking group in your area or any others.
- Remember all you need is motivation and discipline!
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