Get Real to Get Fit

Have you blown your New Year’s resolution yet? Have you even started?

If your goal is to shape up in 1997, there will be no shortcuts. Starving yourself, eating weird foods and exercising all day won’t work forever, experts say.

Instead of gimmicky foods and impossible diets, there is a new trend for simple, common sense plans for healthy living, where weight loss is just an added bonus. A pair of local authors added their thoughts on weight loss with self-published books released in December.

While their priorities and game plans differ both authors agree on the basics of losing weight: no guilt, no gluttony, and no getting ahead of yourself.

“It’s not going to be in the next 30 days, despite those signs you see on the road.”

Morgan stresses balance.

“You should eat in proportion to your size,” she says. That doesn’t mean starving yourself or eating only vegetables.”

Morgan eats four times a day and doesn’t balk at cooking up a pot of chili or ladling gravy on her potatoes, but prepares her food in a healthy way.

“If you go into an eating plan that takes away from you the things you like to eat, you’re not going to enjoy it”, she says.

Morgan hears “I don’t have time” frequently at her gym. The Fitness Club, but stays that once people start moving, they discover they don’t want to stop.

“If you exercise in some small way, you’ll feel better,” she says, “Nobody has the time to do it, but you have to make the time if you want to feel better.”

Morgan’s gym doesn’t have a scale either. She says lean body mass is more important than weight, and offers herself as an example. She’s 5-foot-5 and a slim size 7, but weighs 145 pounds.

Are there any secrets to weight loss?

If you are eating out, Morgan tells her clients to splurge without guilt, but to eat right the rest of the time and don’t be bad more than a couple times a month 

“I see people in the grocery store and the first thing they worry about is what’s in their cart. They are worried about what they are eating.” She says, “I say, ‘Do you ever want to look in my cart?’”

“If you have a spouse or family member pressuring you to lose weight, if you feel compelled, you will rebel,” he says. “If you’re losing weight because you think it will make everything OK in your relationship, it won’t.”

TOPS holds weekly meetings where members weigh in, provide encouragement to each other and discuss strategies for eating healthy.

“We’re not all going to look like Cindy Crawford, (but) most of us didn’t look like her, anyway,” Luker says, “We try to build self-esteem.”

Again the message is realistic goals and slow steps toward success.  TOPS requires members to have their weight loss goals approved by a doctor and uses small prizes and rewards to keep members motivated. Once the goal is achieved, participants become KOPS (Keep Off Pounds Sensibly) and are responsible for encouraging others.

“When you sees something succeeding, you’re not jealous,” Luker says, “You just have this wonderful sense of  ‘Hey, I helped with that.”

Of course, as with any weight loss or exercise plan, consult your doctor first.

Order this book at The Center On-Line Store.

For more information on The Center go to: www.aplaceofhope.com.