The Simple Secret to Weight-Loss Success

If you ask successful people how they achieve so much, many will tell you that the secret is to break down goals into smaller, less intimidating steps. When you're going after a degree, for example, you work toward the next term paper, not toward the graduation ceremony. Sure, you dream of the day you'll wear that cap and gown, but your immediate attention is on what's next.

It's smart to look at weight loss in the same way. The temptation to obsess over your ultimate weight goal is strong, especially when you're excited about the prospect of being slim and healthy. But that can make the slow and steady pace it takes to get there feel frustrating.

"It's important to break overarching goals into smaller ones, because the big ones are going to seem overwhelming if you don't meet them right away," says Misty Hook, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at Texas Woman's University in Denton, Texas. "Setting milestones and recognizing when you meet them lets you reward yourself for small changes. It helps you pat yourself on the back."

Your journey is about you, so the milestones you set should reflect your challenges and successes. Members of the Weight Watchers community share a few common goals, though. Start by using these milestones as your guide, then write down and strive for any others that motivate you!

Milestone: 10 percent of original weight lost
Hitting your first 10 percent can be a great feeling. Often, it can mean you're down at least one clothing size and people have started noticing your success.

Studies show that losing 10 percent of your original weight has incredible health benefits: lower cholesterol and blood pressure, decreased risk for type-2 diabetes and more. Plus, losing 10 percent shows that you're capable of losing the weight you need to. "If you can do 10 percent," says Jackie Raha, manager of group service development for Weight Watchers International, "you can do another 10 percent."

Milestone: Halfway there
Once you make it to the halfway mark, you might find you're getting compliments left, right and center — but you might also hit a bit of a plateau. Rather than get discouraged, look at what you've done so far! "Every time you reach a milestone you're that much closer to your goal," says Raha.

Keep the momentum by looking back at your progress, and replicating the foods you ate and activity you did during highly successful weeks. Browse weightwatchers.com for new recipes and fitness ideas to keep you active and engaged.

Weight loss: Ready to change your habits?

Your weight-loss success depends in large part on your readiness to take on the challenge. If you jump in before you're ready, your weight-loss plan might buckle under the first challenge.

Use these questions to assess your weight-loss readiness.

1. Are you motivated to make long-term lifestyle changes?
Successful weight loss depends on permanent lifestyle changes, such as eating healthy foods and including physical activity in your daily routine. That could represent a significant departure from your current lifestyle.

Be honest.

Knowing that you need to make changes in your life and actually doing it are two different things. You might need to overhaul your diet so that you're eating more whole grains, fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy products, for example. You'll also need to find time for physical activity, ideally at least 30 to 45 minutes — or more — nearly every day of the week.

Whether your motivation for undertaking these changes is better health, improved appearance or simply feeling better about yourself, find your motivation and focus on it.

2. Have you addressed the big distractions in your life?
If you're dealing with major life events, such as marital problems, job stress, illness or financial worries, you might not want to add the challenge of overhauling your eating and exercise habits. Instead, consider giving your life a chance to calm down before you launch your weight-loss program.

3. Do you have a realistic picture of how much weight you'll lose and how quickly?
Achieving and maintaining a healthy weight is a lifelong process. Start by making sure your weight-loss goal is safe and realistic — such as losing 10 percent of your current weight. Then aim to lose 1 to 2 pounds (0.5 to 1 kilogram) a week until you reach your goal. This means burning 500 to 1,000 calories more than you consume each day — through diet, exercise or both.

You might lose weight more quickly if you change your habits significantly. Be careful, though. Radical changes that aren't sustainable aren't likely to be effective over the long term.

What kind of diet is for high blood lipid patients?

Dyslipidemia refers to abnormalities in fat metabolism or operation, characterized by low density lipoprotein, triglyceride, total cholesterol increases or decline in high-density lipoprotein.

Diet control is the most important
No matter which kind of dyslipidemia, diet is the most important and most basic treatment. Studies reveal that long-term adherence to the diet treatment can lower the blood lipids by 10% or even 20%. For mild blood lipids abnormalities, as long as they adhere to the diet, no medication is required. For those with high blood fat, at the same time of taking the medicine, dietary therapy is necessary, or the curative effect will be reduced due to unreasonable diet.

For, dyslipidemia patients, daily cholesterol intake should not exceed 300 mg (equivalent to the cholesterol in one egg yolk ). For patients of coronary heart disease or other atherosclerosis, daily cholesterol intake should be reduced to 200 mg per day. Animal organs (liver, kidney, stomach, brain, etc.) and suet, tallow, lard(fat), egg(mainly the egg yolk), squid, scallop, squid, crab roe all contain a lot of cholesterol. Daily intake of more than 75 grams of meat, weekly intake of more than four eggs and fried foods for more than five times a week all belong to reasonable diet.

Seafood such as kelp, seaweed, etc.
Dark-colored or melon vegetables such as carrot, pumpkin, wax gourd, balsam pear, kale, spinach, etc. Bitterguard have good heat clearing effect which is favorable for patients with obesity and dampness.
Mushrooms are of high protein, low fat which have the toxin expelling and anti-cancer effect.

Onion is rich in a variety of vitamins and trace elements and contain almost no fat. It has the effect of reducing harmful blood lipids and soften blood vessels.
Legumes such as soy beans, black beans, red beans, etc. are a good source of proteins. They are conducive for the prevention and treatment of dyslipidemia and coronary heart disease (CHD) health food and beneficial to the prevention of disease of heart head blood-vessel.