Is your 2012 Your Year to Lose Weight?

This is a good question; is 2012 going to be the year that you lose weight?  For many, this is going to the one of the New Year’s Resolutions. Unfortunately, there are people who had this same resolution last year and this year they will be making the same resolution yet again because they did not realize their much-desired goals of losing weight in 2011 as they had resolved. They are not alone. Over 40% of the US population struggles with obesity in one form or another and there are about half a million deaths in the US alone attributed to being overweight. This makes no mention of the hundreds of billions of dollars a year that is lost due to medical costs caused by employees who cannot work because of obesity-related illnesses. But in the recent decades, more people are waking up to the realization that obesity is a problem and have started taking whatever steps are necessary to correct this and get a great lean body starting in 2012. First of all, let us examine why people become obese.

In countries such as the United States, many working people are under tremendous pressure at work, at school and at their homes. This accumulated pressure means people do not have time to watch their diets or even to exercise. A direct result of this situation is to eat out more and that is why fast food restaurants have mushroomed at such an alarming rate. We can practically see fast foods at almost every corner and their mission is to feed the millions who are too busy to go grocery shopping or to cook. While fast food restaurants have vowed to use less trans-fat in their food preparation, and have also been mandated by the government, they nevertheless continue to churn very high calorie diets. It is almost astonishing to learn that some single meals served at fast food joints have enough calories to equal an entire day’s requirement. Then take this figure and consider the fact that many people eat three times a day at fast food restaurants!

Then a lot of people as we have mentioned, do not have time to exercise. This is because of the limitations of time and family. But if these same people are to rid themselves of excess weight, they have to adapt more or less a new mindset. They have to change the way they live.

It may not be easy to shed excess weight and we are not going to pretend that it can take a month or two to get there. But it is not impossible. One of the must dos is to get education. Before you can lose weight, you must first get as much information as possible about nutrition. You must understand which food has more calories and which one are healthy to eat. Then one has to develop an exercise routine and stick with it. All these things require discipline and commitment.