Tips for Staying Healthy and Consistent Weight

Nutrition
The big tip here revolves around the fact that we can plan our meals and stay focused and eat our "prescribed" health food as much as we want. We've all tried the diets. The problem is when those diets collapse, our temptation resistance caves, and we lunge for the nearest bag of junk food. The best way to overcome this, simply, is to NOT do diets! Diets never work. No one "likes" diets long enough to stay on them. You can't cut corners; you have to go the hard route and find a nutritional set of foods that are simultaneously enjoyable and healthy.

HUGE Tip: Most importantly, litter your kitchen with snack food, but healthy snack food (cut up pineapple, salads, dried nuts) so when you get an uncontrollable urge for food, you wolf down something healthy and then don't guilt-trip yourself, and prevent a downward spiral.

Consistent Workouts
Working out for the sake of exercise and not some reward is the key to consistent workouts. I've seen runners reward themselves with breakfast or a donut or some food after a workout. I've seen people do cardio workouts just yearning to take off those 5 pounds. Losing pounds and food rewards make poor reinforcement. Why? Because then you begin to obsess about the pounds and the food reward! Diets never work because a few pounds become an obsession, a huge victory! You end up limiting yourself by turning a molehill into a mountain. Did you know that some marathon runners can lose 12 pounds in 2 hours (the length of their race)? 12 pounds in two hours! Then there's dieters jumping for joy if they lose 5 pounds in two weeks! Although this is physiologically impossible, for the sake of mathematics, at the same loss-rate of 12 pounds/2hours, in 2 weeks, a marathoner could lose 2,016 pounds, while you're losing 5! Of course, yes, yes, we know that's physiologically impossible, but just think of those marathoners that lose weight at rate 40,320% faster than the 5 pounds/week people! The purpose of all this is to show that when you don't focus on losing weight, you're more likely to have control of your weight and to have success with your body-mass goals; A watched pot never boils, remember, an watched weight is never lost!

Stretch
Stretch. Period. Stretch. Yoga. Body Alignment. Anything you do that gets you closer to knowing your own physiology. There have been numerous studies showing how excessive malnourished eating is derived from stress. Furthermore, combined studies have shown that after sitting at a computer desk for hours on end and some of the other societally-warped behaviors in which we participate, some of our own muscles and tendons become strained and created inner tension. For example, your sternocleidomastoid (neck muscle) may become tight causing you to strain to simple stand upright. That additional strain creates stress and causes you to over-eat. Stretching will help reduce stress, align your body, and get you more in touch with your own physiology. You'll feel more conscious of what you eat and have less of an inclination to shove junk food in your system.

I stretch before and, more vigorously, after workouts. Your body is warmed up after a workout and you can extend your flexibility with the increased limberness. But it's shocking how much more control you have over your appetite with a stretching routine. Your body ceases to feel like an amorphous mass as you become acquainted with the delicate and highly precise alignment of 206 bones, over 300 muscles, and hundreds of ligaments and joints. Stretching is the number one way to achieve body mastery.

Bottom-line Question: Have you ever seen a fat gymnast? Point taken.