One of the most embarrassing things for anyone is incontinence. As people get older, both men and women can suffer from it. If you watch television you will now see several commercials about the problem and how drugs can assist with it. This is a nationwide problem for many people.

In a recent clinical trial that was funded by two departments in the National Institute of Health, it was found that obesity can be the cause of some incontinence. The suggestion is that if some people, particularly women, lose weight their incontinence will stop.

The clinical trial called, The Program to Reduce Incontinence by Diet and Exercise (PRIDE) was conducted with 338 women who found they were incontinent at least 10 times each week. They choose women in Providence, Rhode Island and Birmingham, Alabama. They assigned women to one of two groups: a 6 month weight loss program that included nutrition, behavior modification and exercise, or a group that only received information about diet and exercise with no training.

The results of the trial were stunning, but not surprising. The group that received the diet, exercise and nutrition training lost more weight than the other group and decreased their episodes of incontinence by 47%.

According to research on incontinence, more than 13 million women in the United States, suffer from it. According to the study a large portion of healthcare cost — $20 billion annually — is put towards treating incontinence. Up until this study the link between obesity and incontinence wasn’t known.

The researchers continued to monitor the women for six months and they found that the women in the first group that were trained around nutrition and exercise were more satisfied with their results than those who only received information. This is to be expected we would think since the second group wasn’t given a way to fix their challenge.

Behavioral Interventions and Weight Loss
There is a strong body of research that shows that weight loss responds to behavioral interventions. In most studies that interventions have to change with modifying the way that people think about dieting, exercise and food as well as learning to eat differently. Those programs that work actually help people understand the difference between eating well and eating poorly.

Within the process they are educated about diet and exercise and how the lack of it can lead to other types of health problems like high blood pressure, type2 diabetes and heart disease. With this information and changes in the way they think about diet and health many people are finding that weight loss is easier.

The bottom line seems to be that if people are going to lose weight they need more information about nutrition and exercise. They also need to modify their behaviors around eating and about the choices they make with food.

This study about obesity and incontinence also supports the fact that the more information an individual has about weight loss the better equipped they are to make behavioral changes.

A question that many people wonder about when they are undergoing weight loss challenges is, “Does self-control really supersede temptation?” This is a long debated question by many people who deal with weight loss and weight training.

There have been studies done around the area of will power, and most say that weight loss isn’t a matter of whether a person has the will power to withstand eating nutritionally; it is more about the choices that people make in what they eat.

So the question still remains, “Does a person’s self-control give into temptation or does self-control make it possible to not give in?” This is rather like the chicken and the egg question. This question has finally been proven through a study done by three psychologists that was reported in Psychological Science Journal. What the three psychologists found was that if given a choice, most people will take what is healthier than what is not, if they have a strong reason for doing it.

Their study looked at temptation through the eyes of counteractive control theory which says that desire is deflated when temptation is available, but there is also an ability to pursue more important goals. In the case of the girls in the study, their goal of being healthy was stronger than their desire to eat chocolate; hence the choice of healthier power bars over the chocolate.

What the psychologists found interesting was that even when they gave students in another study a chance to blow off a boring course by choosing a fun leisure activity, the students stuck with the course. It seemed that they were more interested in completing the course that was required for their degree.

This phenomenon has the psychologists baffled because in one sense, this could mean that dieters need to have food available to them, so they do not eat it. However, it could mean that they just need to have a desire that is greater than the need for the sweet, or the binge.

Obviously, this is a study that needs to be looked into more because people are different. Perhaps they are on to something, and it just needs to have more information brought forward. Everyone has a desire that is unfulfilled, and it could just be that the desire for weight loss isn’t as great as the need to binge on foods that aren’t available.

Dealing With Temptation
There are many ways that people deal with temptation. Some people have learned that if they get into situations where food becomes an issue they can make the situation more fun. As an example, if you have family members that push you to eat, find other ways to be with them. Start a garden or go out once a week with them to a movie.

Also look for supportive friends who want to change their lives. You can both exercise together or eat nutritional foods together instead of hanging out with friends who don’t want you to change. You will find that this strategy has you feeling better and looking great.

Obesity has become a great problem in the United States as most people know. Statistics show that Americans are carrying more weight than they need to and most are living more sedentary lives.

Most people understand that something has to change in their lives in order for them to lose weight and now Health Advocate ™ has created a white paper to discuss weight loss in the workplace. This report gives details of the most important research on how obesity has impacted the workplace and gives guidelines to show what other employers have done.

There are a variety of successful workplace programs that the white paper gives acknowledgement to because they are cost effective programs and are impacting their employees to lose weight. According to this paper there is a reason why workplaces should be concerned about obese workers:

An obese worker is twice as likely to be the one who files a worker’s compensation plan than one who is not obese.
Often medical costs are higher to the point of seven times higher for an obese worker.
Obese workers lose about 13 more days of work because of injury or illness (according to Duke University Medical Center Analysis)
Many firms are spending about $285,000 per year in extra costs because of obese employees (based on a firm of 1,000 employees).

The programs that are working for employees take into consideration the fact that people need more education on nutrition and other aspects of good healthcare. Employers recognize that they must help obese employees find the resources they need, in order to help their weight loss.

Employers also understand that obese employees can cost them money over time because they are prone to problems like high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease. By offering programs to address the health issues in their workplace employers can have a larger impact on obesity.

The challenge for the workplace is that employees tend to eat unhealthy snacks, and they are more sedentary now because they sit in front of their computers. Some of the things that some workplaces have found effective to help their employees lose weight include:

• Installing vending machines with healthier snacks
• Offering incentives to employees who become active with Health Risk Assessments
• Giving two half hour exercise breaks twice a week which helps them decrease blood pressure and increase productivity.
• Creating on-the-job employer based weight loss programs
• Providing access to coaches to help in individual weight loss programs.
• Working with community resources to initiate weight loss programs.

Since employees spend most of their time in the workplace than anywhere else, it stands to reason that employers would want to help.

Health Advocate, Inc. founded in 2001, leads the nation in independent health assistance and advocacy. They help 4,300 employers who represent over 14 million Americans. They provide information about various aspects of healthcare and wellness solutions for employers and their employees.

This white paper titled, “Obesity in America: Workplace Solutions” is available from Health Advocate.

It’s going to happen.  There is going to be a point in your weight loss efforts in which progress slows down a bit.  Progress may even stop completely.  There’s a good chance that you will even regress somewhat.  It’s going to happen.  Plateaus are a part of life.  They are a part of achievement.  How you deal with them will determine the degree of your ultimate success.

This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes.  It is an ancient Chinese proverb: “Our greatest glory comes not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

If you are working on accomplishing something substantial, you must keep this idea in mind.  You are going to trip up and fall somewhere along your journey, but you must get back up.  You must dust yourself off and get right back on that path toward your goals.  If you let the fall keep you down, then you are accepting defeat.  You are accepting momentary failure as an end rather than roadblock.

Some things along your path to success are going to slow you down.  If there wasn’t anything there to slow you down then you would have gotten to where you were going a long time ago.  You must accept these temporary setbacks for what they are and move on.  You must not let them defeat you.

That reminds me of another great quote from the classic book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.  Hill states, “We are not defeated until defeat becomes accepted as a reality.”

Think about that one.  Defeat is an end.  It means you are never going to succeed at what you are currently trying to accomplish.  It means you are done.  You have given up hope, so there literally is no hope left.  That is defeat.  If there is some hope left and if there is a chance to get back up from your temporary setback and return to your path, then you are not yet defeated.  You are not yet defeated, that is, as long as you recognize that hope still exists.  And if you recognize that hope still exists and are willing to give it another push of effort, then you are refusing to accept defeat as a reality.  If you are refusing to accept defeat as a reality then you cannot yet be defeated.

There are going to be times when you check the scale and notice that your weight loss has stopped.  You may even have times when you see that you have put on a couple pounds.  This is the biggest reason why I recommend only looking at the scale every two weeks or so.  Still, you are going to have minor setbacks.  But that is great because that makes your ultimate success even sweeter.  There are going to be days when working out is a struggle.  There are going to be days when you feel like ditching your nutrition plan.  By not letting your frustrations get the best of you, in the long run, you will be almost guaranteeing great success for yourself.

Keep up the great work!

Are you getting frustrated with your weight loss progress?  Are you overwhelmed by how much work you must actually put into losing weight in a healthy and lasting manner?  Do you often contemplate whether it is all really worth it?

Then I have these four words for you:

It’s not that bad.

Think about it.   At least you have the opportunity to lose weight.  You may even have relatively good health.  Things could certainly be worse.  You still have a chance to change your life and you are willing to throw that away?

There are many people out there who are wishing they had the same opportunities that you do.  There are many people who wish they were able to change their health.  There are people who passed up on opportunities just like you may have and are now really regretting it.  There are many people who did not even get a change to regret passing up on these opportunities.

If weight loss is something you want and is something that will make you happy, then go for it.  Sure, it is going to take work.  Yes, it is going to take focus and determination.  But, in the end, the final reward makes all that effort completely worth it.

So, the next time you are contemplating giving up on your weight loss efforts, think of all that you have going for you.  Think of how “it’s not that bad”.  Think of how happy you will be when you accomplish this and then go for it and do not look back.

In a previous article (post) I mentioned the importance of finding happiness during a weight loss journey.  In this article, I am going to tell you that the journey itself can bring you happiness if you just view it the right way.

A weight loss journey is something special.  Many people embark on one at some point in there lives.  Few people complete one.  Why is it that few people complete one?  Is it that people do not know how to lose weight in a healthy manner?

Well, yes, this is part of it.  There is indeed a great deal of misinformation circulating around the weight loss community.  However, this is not the biggest reason why people often fail to complete a weight loss mission…not by a long shot.

The biggest reason most people are unable to see their weight loss efforts through to the end is simply that it is difficult.  It is difficult for people to lose weight mainly because they have made weight loss unnatural.  In fact, weight loss is always unnatural.  Our bodies want to maintain a certain weight.  They do not want to keep going up and down.  They do not want to undergo drastic changes.  Once you’ve put on the weight and made your body accustomed to that weight, it becomes very difficult to lose that weight.

Think about it.  When most people start out a weight loss program, they have been eating about the same way for a long period of time.  This period of unhealthy eating has become natural for them.  Making a change to a healthy diet would then be unnatural and uncomfortable.  As a result, in order to make changes to their physique through healthy eating principles, these people must break out of their comfort zone.  This is never easy.

The same is true for exercise.  Few people who begin a weight loss program have been exercising at the necessary intensity to lose weight in the past. Thus, making a shift to higher intensity exercise (or for some people to any exercise at all) is quite difficult.  Therefore, making changes to one’s physique through exercise is naturally difficult.

There is an exercise principle known as the overload principle that basically says (in simple terms) that in order for the body to make any changes in response to exercise, it must be stressed in a way in which it is not accustomed.  As a result, by definition, it is necessary to break out of your comfort zone if you want to make changes to your body.  So, a simple stroll in the park everyday is likely not going to do much for your weight loss efforts.

This brings up a very interesting argument.  Many people claim that housework and yard work are great exercise.  Many people like to take the stairs instead of the elevator.  To this I say “great!”.  Sure, these things will help you stay healthy and will not hurt your weight loss efforts, but the truth of the matter is that your body will get used to these things very quickly.  As a result, it is difficult to overload your body to make any changes.

This issue is not near complete, so I will continue it tomorrow…

I preach on this site about the importance of healthy weight loss.  At times I think I come across as having a no-nonsense simple approach.  It may seem that there is only one way that works and if you don’t like that way, then the only way you can lose weight is to make yourself miserable for a while.  Fortunately, that is not true at all.

Today I took a trip around the internet and looked at some of the other weight loss blogs.  I paid particular attention to blogs that preached healthy weight loss principles.  What I found, surprised me.  A select few blogs had posts that really got me thinking about taking weight loss beyond the nutrition and exercise principles that produce the best results.  I found that there is something even more important.

Actually there are two things more important: health and happiness.  We must focus our weight loss efforts on these two things because these are the things that are most important in life.  Sure, now, it is true that simply achieving weight loss success will make most people happy to a certain degree.  But there must be a way that we can actually make the weight loss process enjoyable.  Indeed, there is.

While I am in agreeance with the idea that you want to do things that are enjoyable for you that could help in your weight loss efforts, I also strongly believe that it can be even more enjoyable to set up challenges to yourself.  One major area of my own life that I have been working on a lot lately is breaking out of my comfort zone and trying new things.  This, in itself, opens up new possibilities and opportunities for greater happiness.

The same can be done with a weight loss program.  Within your program, try setting up a few goals to try new things.  Maybe you want to run a mile.  Perhaps you want to do a real pull-up or 10 push-ups without any help.  Or maybe you simply want to go a whole month without drinking soda.  Whatever you can think of, set up a few smaller goals within your weight loss program.  This will keep you interesting in the program and increase the enjoyment factor.  Instead of only having the opportunity to celebrate after losing x pounds, you can now celebrate several instances along the journey.

So there is one idea to make a weight loss program more enjoyable.  I’ll be back with another one tomorrow.  If you have any ideas of your own, feel free to post a comment and let me know.

Crash diets often work…for a very short period of time.  After that short period of time, they hurt…bad.  Cutting calories down to extremely low levels, i.e. under 1200/day, can be very dangerous.  First of all, cutting calories down to this level means that your body will be missing out on key nutrients.  There is no way that you can sustain a crash diet and still get the necessary amount of vitamins and minerals that you need to keep your body healthy.  That is, you can’t get the necessary amount unless you take about 50 supplements each day.

Crash diets are a waste of time.  They may work for a few days, but after a while the damage you’ve done to your body is going to catch up to you.  What happens when you go on a crash diet is your body goes into starvation mode.  This means that it slows down all of its processes in order to conserve energy.  Thus, your body’s metabolic rate must slow down in order to accomadate this reduction in calories.

So what happens when you inevitably go back to eating more calories?  Well, you gain weight of course.  The worst problem then becomes that your metabolic rate will be so low that it will take a long time and a great deal of effort to get it back to where it was.  That will mean that you will likely not only put back on the weight that you lost, but you will also put on even more weight on top of that!  What’s worse is that it will then become harder to lose the weight because you are starting from a lower metabolic rate.

This is truly bad news for those on a crash diet.  If you’ve been on one in the past, you’ve probably experienced those problems.  If you’re thinking of going on a crash diet, hopefully this article will be enough to make you think again.  You may make bigger weight loss gains short-term, but it will not last and you will only make actually healthy weight loss more difficult.

One more point about crash diets is that a lot of the weight that you lose will be muscle and water weight.  As a result, you may not actually look the way you want even if you drop the weight that you want.  You may actually end up looking physically ill.  I’ve seen it many times before and it’s not a pretty site.

So take the time out now and get started on a healthy weight loss program.  Be patient and be consistent.  Make those necessary lifestyle changes now so that everything becomes much easier later.

Half of weight loss is 200% mental.  In all honesty, once you learn the stuff it takes to achieve weight loss success, the rest is simple.  In all brutal honesty, simple does not alway mean easy and it certainly does not in the case of weight loss.

Healthy weight loss is not achieved easily.  Healthy weight loss requires a great deal of hard work.  It requires time, effort, and sacrifice.  But then again, doesn’t everything worth achieving require these things.  As I’ve told many people many times, do not look for the easy way out when it comes to weight loss because you will never find it.  Looking for the easy way out is a waste of time and effort that could be applied to doing the things that actually will bring about weight loss success.

This commitment of time and effort requires discipline and mental fortitude.  Few people ever find this mental fortitude, which is why most people fail at their weight loss attempts.  Furthermore, few people even acknowledge the need for mental fortitude to reach their weight loss goals.  Most people think they can just show up at the gym and eat a salad every now and then and they will be alright.  Most people think they will have no problem committing to their program long term…this time.

How often do you hear “this time will be different”?  How often do you say this?  Well, what’s different about this time?  Have you worked on your mindset so that you will conquer all obstacles in your way?  Have you worked on your mental toughness to get through those days when you feel like taking a break from your weight loss program?

These are all things you must think about.  You must plan ahead and you must take the time out to develop a strong mental approach.  If you don’t, it will eventually come back to haunt you.  So toughen your mind and make this the time you really do achieve long-term success from your weight loss efforts.

When it comes to healthy weight loss, it is not nearly enough to just exercise.  You must also eat properly to have a chance at success.  This is not meant to scare you, nor is it meant to overwhelm you, rather this is a simple fact that most people completely ignore.

It amazes me how many people work out hard for an hour or so everyday and then hit up McDonald’s for lunch.  The philosophy “I worked it off in the gym” just does not work in the real world.  You can burn some extra calories through exercise, but you are throwing all that away if you continue to eat garbage.  Sorry, but that’s the reality.  Working out does not earn you the right to eat however you want, that is unless you want to stay in your current physical condition and put your health at risk.

Similarly, you can not expect to achieve healthy weight loss if you simply eat right and do not exercise.  How do you expect to build muscle and improve you metabolism if you do not exercise?  How do you expect to improve your physical condition if you do not exercise?  You can’t expect either of these things because they simply cannot happen without exercise.

To achieve healthy weight loss, not only to you need to eat right and exercise right but you also need to exercise at both high and low intensities.  You must take advantage of high intensity resistance training and interval training; and also low intensity resistance training and aerobic cardio.  The combination is what ensures success and what makes sure your body does not adapt to exercise.  The combination is necessary for true healthy weight loss.

One final thing that you must implement into your healthy weight loss routine is rest.  You must properly periodize your workouts and rest appropriately to make sure your body recovers from the stress of exercise and responds optimally to your efforts.  Sleep 6-8 quality hours each night will also help with recovery and aid in your weight loss goal achievement.

Some people just do cardio to lose weight.  Others simply eat right.  However, the people who actually achieve lasting healthy weight loss success are the ones who exercise using different training methods, eat right, and rest properly.  The combination of all these factors is not an option if you want to be successful when it comes to healthy weight loss, it is necessary.  Don’t slack in any of these areas.  Focus all of your efforts on the ultimate prize.