I can’t afford to lose weight anymore. I just can’t. Appetite suppressants, dietary aids, equipment; it all adds up and it adds up fast. I can barely make it out of a grocery store within my diet without breaking my budget. Ridiculous isn’t it? I’m sure you’ve noticed the same issues with trying to lose weight. Those handy 100-calorie packs are great but at 3 dollars a box for a week of tiny snacks? I just can’t do it anymore.

Man this is my pessimism day so let’s change that attitude and think because weight loss doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Equipment if you have already spent money on weight loss equipment you’re best option is to use it. If you haven’t don’t. I’m not saying that exercise equipment is a waste of money but if you’re in a state of trying to save money you can achieve weight loss goals without it. Instead of a treadmill, buy a video, you’ll likely get more engaging workout anyway. Twenty bucks still tight? Go to the library, you’re library will have a lot of videos. Also if you have a community center in your area the cost for their fitness classes is often much cheaper than a gym membership. Those are just a few tips.

See it. Be it. The power of visualization to real results is amazing. You can be anything you can imagine yourself to be. Do you want to be thinner? Done. Do you want to have better skin? Done. Whatever you want can be yours. Visualization is a method of meditation and while doing this meditation you focus on what you want to be and what you want to see in the mirror. What this does is set a pattern in your brain. If you spend time daily in a sort of meditation imagining yourself thinner you’ll be more aware of your choices and make more of your dieting choices subconsciously. Ok diet, exercise and look at your body.

Follow all of the normal weight loss things but add to it time to reflect and process. Slow down and you will still make progress. Don’t stop your diet. Don’t stop exercising. DO start a daily routine of whole body health to improve your results. Get less stressed and more motivated. “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Ghandi’s words hold no less true for your body. I believe in you and your results will show that you’re taking care of your body and not just your weight.

So the Wii has a new fitness game. They made amazing strides with Wii Fit and now EA has come out with Wii active. There are a whole host of other weight loss games out there but they all pale in comparison to these two fitness gaming icons. Wii Fit was made by Nintendo and finds itself in a position of being cute. It’s fun and light and active and a great start to working out if you need to be eased into it with constant encouragement and changing scenery.

But if you need a game that is going to be a low down dirty active workout EA’s Wii Active is by far the best thing on the market. Wii Active comes with a leg strap as well as a resistance band to perform some of the exercises. You can either do the 30-day challenge built into the system, which encourages a slow buildup to the workout and senses how you do the activities to make sure you’re doing them right. You’ll sweat laugh and work hard with this game that shows a new and interactive way to bring the workout into your living room. What will they think of next?

Studies have shown that improper sleep can have several negative effects on the body. Where it’s unfortunate to think that one late night party can do to a diet, it’s worse to think that you can maintain that diet at that party and still harm your efforts. When you do not get enough sleep it affects your metabolism which can hurt a diet more than cheating a little and having some cake. Researchers from several separate studies have found a link between sleep and the hormones that influence our eating behavior. Two specific hormones are involved. One chemical is responsible for feelings of hunger and the other tells the brainit’s time to stop. When you’re sleep deprived the hormones that regulate hunger increase while the other that regulates to stop decreases. The result is an increased craving for food and not feeling full.

Next is the fact that when you are sleep deprived you tend to chose different foods to snack on. You choose more high calorie sweets and salty and starchy foods. With this in mind, you can see how these small changes can lead to long-term weight gain. Most people need between seven and nine hours of sleep a night. Some more, some less. Very few of us actually get the minimum of seven. How do you know how much sleep you really need? Experts say to sleep as long as you want for several days that you are able to. Then, your sleep should stabilize and you’ll find yourself waking up after the same number of hours daily, within 15 minutes or so. Once you know about how much sleep you need, start getting into a steady routine. Set a regular time for sleep and see the results!

So friends are one of the greatest benefits and biggest downfalls of most weight loss efforts. Friends are often supportive of your weight loss desires and may even be helping keep you motivated with exercise and proper food motivation. I’m sure you have some friends who take great pains to let you know how you’re doing on your diet. But this may not be the best idea.

Your friends may find themselves telling you how good you look and how you no longer need to diet. This is unfortunate because you find yourself conflicted. Do you continue your diet against your friends, who are just trying to be helpful or do you stick with your goals? Also, you have friends who do not want you to lose weight. These friends either don’t believe you need to because you’re thinner than them or any number of other reasons. Mostly from their own low self esteem. Phrases like “you’re looking really good” “I’m very proud of your weight loss” are all great things to hear and will help keep you motivated and working toward your goals.

When you hear negative phrases such as “you don’t need to lose any more weight” or “I don’t see any difference” or even “I don’t know why you’re so focused on losing weight, you look great!” The problem is that what they are not saying is that they support you and that is what you need right now. Whether they realize it or not they are not helping your weight loss efforts and you should let them know that what you need is their support.

“Mom, can we go to the park?”

“Dad you promised we’d go to the pool”

Does this sound like your house on a Saturday? If you’re like me it is and if you’re like me and trying to lose weight, the answer should be YES! When you take the time to play with your children, you don’t even notice that you’re losing weight and building strong memories and bonds with your child. You run and play and blow bubbles and all of these activities are more fun and more effective weight loss methods.

By keeping your activity level high and fun, which is key for weight loss, you burn calories and rarely notice that you’ve done anything special. Running with your kids or pushing them on the swings is a workout. You should take the time and say yes to your kids. On top of the health benefits you’re instilling active and healthy habits into your children as well as keeping your mood elevated. All things that will help when it comes to your overall weight loss efforts.

Let’s not forget that often your kids want to exercise with you. When the kids say let’s play baseball it’s no less an exercise than if you go out to a batting cage. Also if it’s raining or otherwise not hospitable to outside activity ask your son or daughter to work out with you with a video. You’ll be surprised how often they say yes!

So hormones play a large part in the weight loss game. Whether you’re a teenager going through puberty or a mid 40s woman going through menopause you’ll find that major hormonal changes will affect your weight, usually in the negative. Part of the reason this does this is because when your hormones change so does your metabolism. There are lots of things you can take or do to increase it but it’s going to change.

Since it takes time for your body, stomach and brain to realize that you don’t need as much food, it can lead to over eating. When your hormones change with pregnancy, specifically in the post partum state, the same results are found. There are pills you can take to keep your hormones in check but the best way is to listen to your body. You should keep track of how much you eat and diet slowly. Maybe watch calories and reduce them by 250 calories and see where your level of need is as far as food goes. Hormones confuse us because they are hard to measure but it’s not hard to see how they affect our body. Listen to your body and it will never steer you wrong!

Where is the benefit in sweating with weight loss? Sauna’s and other steam therapies will tout the benefits of sweating as a form of weight loss and they may be right to some degree. When you sweat your body is cooling itself down. You sweat because due to either activity or heat your body has been heated to a level that it is not able to cool itself with our normal internal controls and leads to the bodies natural external controls which is sweat.

Now that we know what sweat is there are a couple things to think about in its effects on weight loss. When you sweat your body is losing water. Water is essential to your bodily functions. Water has been proven to reduce wrinkles and help you lose weight. This weight that you are losing by drinking lots of water and by sweating is something called water weight. They do it in completely different manners. Sweating through saunas actually has the water leave you.

This can lead to dehydration but the method works. Drinking lots of water prevents dehydration and your body does not store the water weight because your body is not in need. Because of that drinking water is likely preferable to sweating the weight off as dehydration brings it’s own risks.

So you’ve been on your diet for 3 weeks. You’ve even seen results. You’re excited and haven’t had anything sweeter than fruit and your snacks are granola bars and low butter popcorn. You’re doing great! Then it happens. You have a rough day at work. You have to go to a birthday party. You just can’t take it! You indulge. You indulge a lot and feel terrible. It seems that in that day you gained 5 pounds and an image that you’ve determined is not your best. How could you? STOP! You’re not alone. You’re not the only one who has ever cheated on your diet and it doesn’t stop you from effectively continuing your diet.

The best thing to do is to stop panicking. There are no diet police and dieting is a choice. It’s been said that many diets even have “cheat” days built into the dieting system. There’s no need to feel guilty when you’re doing so well and tomorrow after a healthy cheat you’ll be ready to get back on track and see the results. Whenever your diet is frustrating you and you’re not seeing what you want you may have a day where you want to cheat or feel that it’s necessary. Well, I’m here to tell you that it is necessary because we’d hate to ruin a perfectly good diet with positive results with hurt feelings and guilt.