THE FAT TRAP: TEN WAYS NOT TO LOSE WEIGHT

IF YOU WANT TO REMAIN FAT, HERE ARE SOME FOOL PROOF THINGS TO DO. I HAVE DONE MOST OF THEM IN THE PAST, AND THEY WORKED.

1. Decide to eat only one meal a day, and starve yourself until meal time arrives. This is especially effective if the meal is dinner, since you will eat too much and sleep on it all night long.

2. Take the Atkins diet approach (dangerous because most of the foods have a very high glycemic index), then cheat by eating carbohydrates. The carbs will cause the calories and fat from the high fat foods related to the Atkins approach to yield their total amount of calories, PLUS you will also obtain the calories from the carbs you ate. While I do not recommend this diet, anyhow, the only way you will lose weight is to avoid carbs as if they were rat poison. Otherwise, you will begin to gain weight FAST.

3. Decide not to weigh until you look a little thinner in your clothes, because you do not really want to know how much you weigh now. The problem with this, and it was once my main problem, is that weight loss happens gradually, and you generally only lose a few pounds at a time. The few pounds you lose motivate you to remain on the diet. If you wait until you can actually see a difference, you may lose interest before you actually lose weight.

4. Go along with one of those schemes that promises weight loss without exercise. Even if you lose weight, your body will be saggy, and without tone. You still won't be able to wear a bathing suit in public.

5. Join a gym, then never go, or go once or twice, then stop. This is a good way to spend money, and a poor way to lose weight. Unfortunately, your body does not notice how much money you spend. News flash: You have to really work out in order for it to do you any good.

6. Believe the weight charts that allow extra pounds for extra years you've been alive. If you want to weigh more because you are older, go ahead and do this, but be aware that older people are also more inclined to have cancer, heart disease, and type two diabetes. They also don't look as good in most cases. One of the benefits of weight loss is to avoid some of the pitfalls of aging for as long as you can. I can be as thin as an 18 year old, and I intend to be. I don't look 18, and don't want to attract 18 year old boys, anyway. But I weigh less than many women much younger than I am, at 59.

7. Refuse to change your eating habits. Certain foods are related to high body fat and obesity. Foods with high sugar content, red meat, processed foods, and fast food are very high in calories and very low in nutrients. Because these foods do not supply your body with the nutrients it needs, you will remain hungry, and crave more food. Whole fruits and vegetables are high in nutrients and low in calories. They will satisfy your body's need for food, and decrease your desire to keep eating.

8. Eat out often. Restaurants want to fill you up on less, and they tend to serve foods that are heavy, and high in fat in order to do so. Eating out should be reserved for special occasions, and you should plan your eating out meal choices ahead.

9. Refuse to count calories. No matter what weight loss program you choose, there is some version of calorie counting involved. Weight Watchers uses points, but the higher the points, guess what? The higher the calories. The Curves program brags that you just select meal plans, but guess what? The meal plans they offer are lower in calories. Sooner or later you will have to pay attention to calorie intake, as well as how much physical exercise you are getting. Refusing to do either of these traditional weight loss actions, keeps you in the fat trap. So, you decide.

10. Last but not least, and definitely not causing you to weigh the least, is finally getting to your goal weight, then relaxing back into your original eating habits and amounts. If you gradually return to your old eating habits, guess what? You will also return to your old body weight. A diet is not a temporary trick to lose weight; it is a new way of life. You must develop healthy new eating habits, not only to lose weight, but to keep it off, and also avoid a number of common diseases.