If someone called you fat, how would you react?  Hurt?  Embarrassed?  Angered? Resentful?  What does that say about who you are as a person?  It’s not merely a statement about your physical appearance.  It’s about a physical characteristic that you can do something about but, for whatever reason, choose not to.  The insult is what it says about your habits, your self-control, and your personal accountability.

The blunt and honest truth is that it has become all too common to blame someone, or something, else for our situation instead of pointing the finger in the right direction…at ourselves.  If someone, or something, else is responsible for our weight problems, we can claim victim status.  Sure, there is a weight issue but its not our fault!  It softens that blow to the ego and keeps us from having to be accountable for our situation.

Often times, we don’t even realize we do it.  How many sentences have you heard from yourself or someone else that start with, “I could lose weight if I wanted to but…”?  Here are some of the most common endings to that sentence and a rebuttal for each.  See how many you recognize:

“…eating right takes too much time.”

The rebuttal:  You’re right, it does take a little extra time to prepare a healthy meal when compared to just having a pizza delivered. The easiest way to combat this is through planning your meals a week in advance.  Pick a time where you make yourself sit down and plan your menu and then create your shopping list for the grocery store .  If you don’t have time to cook during the week, cook your meals in advance and freeze them.  One very common way to reign in your lunches is to pack your lunch when you make dinner the night before.  Are you cooking for a family of four? Make and extra helping and put it in the fridge for lunch the next day.

“…I’m always sick and tired.”

The rebuttal:  Seriously?  You’d lose weight if you weren’t always so sick and tired?  Care to take a guess as to why you always feel bad?  Before you start a weight loss program, it is always a good idea to get a physical.  In all likelihood, you’ll find that your current ailments and lethargy are a result of your weight issues.  That is not to say that there can’t be a reason unrelated to your weight issues but the odds are not in your favor on this one.  Carrying those extra pounds around can lead to Metabolic Syndrome.  With Metabolic Syndrome comes a laundry list of problems.  Click here for more information on Metabolic Syndrome.

“…eating right is too expensive.”

The rebuttal:  It doesn’t have to be.  There are some ‘healthy’ products on the market that cost more than their not-so-healthy counterparts but eating to lose weight doesn’t mean you have to break the bank.  How many times do you eat out?  How much do you spend on ‘grazing’ food for the pantry?  Take the money you spend there and use it to buy fresh fruits, vegetables, and lean meat.  You don’t need to buy high dollar diet foods to lose weight.  If you monitor your portion sizes and shop intelligently, you may even find that you save money.

“…my family won’t support me.”

The rebuttal: There are many factors you have to take into account before beginning any weight loss program and one very important factor is your family. Here are some questions you really need to ask yourself if you use this excuse:  Have you talked to them about how they are effecting your efforts?  Have you included them on your plans and asked for their help?  Do you include them when you celebrate your successes?  Here is an article about the different family factors and how you can overcome them.

“…nothing has ever worked before”

The rebuttal: There can be many reasons for this but, most likely, you haven’t properly addressed the real reason for your weight problems.  Weight loss has always been temporary because as soon as you come off of your ‘diet’, it is back to business as usual.  The easy part is losing the weight.  The hard part is keeping it off.  That’s why you always hear the term ‘yo-yo diet’.  It is usually not that people can’t drop the pounds but that they don’t change their habits and lifestyle to match.

“…I like who I am”

The rebuttal: Usually, it isn’t that you like who you are but that you are unwilling to make the sacrifices needed to lose weight.  Dedication to losing weight and becoming healthier means more than just eating a salad every now and then.  It means bad habits must be broken and your unhealthy lifestyle must change.  Going out for pizza and beer has to become a thing of the past.  If you aren’t willing to make the sacrifices then you won’t succeed.  It really is that simple.

A lighter and delicious version of a classic!  Courtesy of CookingLight.com.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
5 teaspoons butter, melted
1 large garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon grated fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1 teaspoon paprika
4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 thin slices prosciutto (about 2 ounces)
1/4 cup (1 ounce) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
Cooking spray

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.

Place broth in a small microwave-safe bowl; microwave at high 15 seconds or until warm. Stir in butter and garlic. Combine breadcrumbs, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and paprika in a medium shallow bowl; set aside.

Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap, and pound each to 1/4-inch thickness using a meat mallet or rolling pin. Sprinkle both sides of chicken with salt, oregano, and pepper. Top each breast half with 1 slice of prosciutto and 1 tablespoon mozzarella. Roll up each breast half jelly-roll fashion. Dip each roll in chicken broth mixture; dredge in breadcrumb mixture. Place rolls, seam side down, in an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray. Pour remaining broth mixture over chicken. Bake at 350° for 28 minutes or until juices run clear and tops are golden.

 Nutritional Information:
Yield:  4 servings (serving size: 1 rolled chicken breast half)

CALORIES 297 (30% from fat); FAT 9.9g (sat 4.4g,mono 3.6g,poly 1g); IRON 1.9mg; CHOLESTEROL 125mg; CALCIUM 94mg; CARBOHYDRATE 3.8g; SODIUM 619mg; PROTEIN 45.5g; FIBER 0.5g

Start cooking before work and you’ll have a great dinner when you get home!  Courtesy of SparkRecipes.com.

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup salsa
1 package reduced sodium taco seasoning
1 can reduced fat cream of mushroom soup (condensed)
1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream

Directions:

1. Add chicken to slow cooker.
2. Sprinkle taco seasoning over chicken.
3. Pour salsa and soup over chicken.
4. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.
5. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream.
6. Serve with rice.

Number of Servings: 6

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 157.2
Total Fat: 3.3 g
Cholesterol: 63.4 mg
Sodium: 654.2 mg
Total Carbs: 6.7 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.9 g
Protein: 24.3 g

There is no set definition for ‘extreme’ weight loss but to determine what technique is best, a starting point should be defined.  The problem with defining the term for everyone is that there are too many factors that would need to be included such as height, age, body type, and more.

For the closest definition, the parameters of what is considered obese should be taken into consideration.  To put this into ‘pound’ terms, someone that is 40%-100% over their ideal weight is considered mildly obese.  Someone over 100% of their ideal weight is considered severely obese.  Someone over 150% of their ideal weight is considered morbidly obese.  If someone in the severely or morbidly obese category were to be able to obtain their ideal body weight, we would most assuredly consider that to be extreme weight loss.

There is another perspective to consider when you hear the term ‘extreme weight loss’.  It could be used when describing the speed at which you lose weight such as dropping 10 pounds in 2 days.  As we all have seen, there are many that use extreme weight loss techniques even if they aren’t considered to be severely or morbidly obese…or even moderately obese!

Some of the extreme weight loss techniques used today try to target speed of weight loss or amount of weight loss.  Most attempt to target both areas. Here a just a few of the well known techniques:

Diet Pills

There are two varieties: pharmaceutical and natural.  Generally, these diet pills do one of two things.  They either suppress your appetite or block something ‘bad’ from getting into your system (like fat or carbs).  There are varying degrees of success with diet pills but the side effects often make this method less than desirable.  With many of the appetite suppressants really just being a form of amphetamine, you can actually run the risk of dependency.  With the ‘blockers’ such as Alli, there can actually be rather embarrassing physical side effects.  A recent study even linked Alli to possible liver damage.

Liposuction

Liposuction is the method of sucking the fat out of your body with a vacuum.  Sounds great, doesn’t it?  Your fat is literally ripped out, blood vessels and all.  Many that turn to liposuction don’t do so because they are severely or morbidly obese.  They do it to remove fat from perceived ’stubborn’ areas.  Because of this, liposuction would mostly be considered extreme weight loss in the speed definition sense of the term.

Gastric Bypass

What list of extreme weight loss techniques would be complete without listing the good old gastric bypass surgery.  While the success rate of gastric bypass surgery is quite high, so are the risks and side effects associated with it.  This surgery, put simply, makes the stomach smaller and allows food to bypass some of the smaller intestines.  To get a better idea of the risks and what you can expect from gastric bypass surgery, you can click here.  This method addresses both the speed and amounts of weight loss associated with extreme weight loss.

Extreme Dieting

There are too many types of extreme dieting out there to list.  You can easily find someone willing to sell you their latest extreme diet that guarantees you will lose 30 lbs in a week.  The promises are plentiful, the results are short lived, and the only lasting guarantee is that you’ll be looking for another diet that is bigger and better in short order.  Many of these diets have the potential to yield large amounts of weight loss and at an extreme speed.  The question you should be asking of these diets, thought, is this: Are they healthy and sustainable?

So what is the most effective extreme weight loss technique?  It is one that most people know but don’t want to hear.  It is one that disregards the speed aspect of the extreme weight loss definition.  It’s the timeless technique of good nutrition, exercise, and patience.  It’s often said that we are a society that wants everything now and some of the other extreme techniques really prove this.  We are willing to undergo major surgery (gastric bypass), painful minor surgery (liposuction), and the risk of addiction (diet pills) to achieve faster results rather than change our current lifestyle for a longer period of time.

Of course none of these techniques will ultimately be effective if you don’t address the underlying issues of why you are overweight to begin with.  Stay tuned for future articles discussing how to identify those issues and ways you can address them.

Pinning asparagus spears together with skewers makes them easier to flip and grill evenly on both sides.  Courtesy of CookingLight.com.

Ingredients:
16 thick asparagus spears (about 1 pound)
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
1 garlic clove, minced
2 teaspoons sesame seeds, toasted
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Dash of salt

Directions:
Prepare grill to high heat.

Snap off tough ends of asparagus. Arrange 4 asparagus spears on a flat surface. Thread 2 (3-inch) skewers or toothpicks horizontally through spears 1 inch from each end to form a raft. Repeat procedure with remaining asparagus spears.

Combine soy sauce, oil, and garlic; brush evenly over asparagus rafts. Grill 3 minutes on each side or until crisp-tender. Sprinkle evenly with sesame seeds, pepper, and salt.

Nutritional Information:
Yield:  4 servings (serving size: 1 asparagus raft)

CALORIES 50 (38% from fat); FAT 2.1g (sat 0.2g,mono 0.5g,poly 0.6g); IRON 3mg; CHOLESTEROL 0.0mg; CALCIUM 26mg; CARBOHYDRATE 6.1g; SODIUM 190mg; PROTEIN 3.2g; FIBER 2.4g