10 Realistic Dieting Tips to help you lose weight

1. Fill your tank: Going without breakfast because you're planning a big dinner is as silly as filling up your car's gas tank after you finish the trip. There is no "calorie bank". You can't eat more dessert by skipping breakfast or lunch. Missing meals slows your metabolism. You will never eat your way to fitness. No magic eating plan, no exact ratio of carbs to protein to fat will ever be the end all.

2. Eat Sensibly: Eat all you want of the things that you know to be good for you; all vegetables, fruits, and lean proteins that you enjoy. Eat something every 3 to 4 hours, and eat only enough to be not hungry. Don't eat until you are full.

3. Work Your Body: Your body needs to work hard to function properly. The only way to be fit is to exercise on a regular basis. Physical stress causes the body to adapt and get stronger. Think about the last time you exercised regularly; you didn't get sick as often, you had more energy, and you were probably "happier". Make all activity vigorous.

4. Have Fun: Exercise doesn't have to be structured. If it's something you enjoy doing, you'll look forward to it. Walk with family or friends. Ride bikes or in-line skate to the neighbors' house.

5. Build Muscle: Find a way to incorporate strength exercise into your program. Weights are the easiest way to do this, but there are other ways. Slow, controlled calisthenics at home (pushups, crunches, twists, etc.), martial arts, even yoga and tai chi have elements of muscles working against each other (resistance exercise). Walk the stairs whenever you can. Even mowing the lawn can be considered resistance exercise

6. Be Realistic with your goals: Everybody wants something they don't have; skinny people want muscles, stocky people want to be thin. Take a good, honest look at your body. If you are skinny, do endurance stuff. If you are stocky, do activities which demand strength. You will feel better, get more fit, and reach a higher level of satisfaction by letting your body do what it does best.

7. Be Original: Periodically, plan a change in your routine. Not only will your mind be more challenged, your body will have to adapt. The body is an amazingly adaptable machine. It will get very good at what you ask it to do. It will get very efficient at what you ask it to do. It will begin to use less fuel for the same activity.

8. Patience is a Virtue: If you focus on the activities, and the achievement of progressing with performance, you will be less likely to feel failure from not looking exactly as you envisioned. How do you want to look a year from now? Two years? Ten years? Think about those time frames, and a pound or two on the scale won't seem so important.

9. Enjoy time Alone: Exercise is the best way that I have found to learn about myself. Sure, it's fun to be in a group occasionally, but you need to be able to discipline yourself to working your body, even if no one else wants to.

10. Imagine: Imagine that you are in exactly the shape that you ultimately want to be. You're lean, strong, and fit. All of your hard work has paid off. Once you've reached your goal, what would you do each day to protect your investment? How would you eat? How would you exercise? What would you NOT do? If you can think about what you would do to protect a great body once you had it, you know what to do to get there. Doing the things to keep that body, will make your body become what you want.

Dr. Dennis Padla