When it comes to living a long and healthy life, there are two necessary ingredients: diet and fitness. While some believe that they are one thing all together, nothing could be further from the truth. It is quite possible to have a perfectly healthy diet with deplorable fitness habits. It is equally possible to be very physically fit with less than savory eating habits.

There’s a clever little line in the Jimmy Buffet song “Fruitcakes” when his ‘lady’ is lamenting:
“I treat my body like a temple
You treat yours like a tent”

I can’t help but think of this line whenever I think about all the people around the world who are going on these garbage in, garbage out diet plans hoping to achieve the weight loss success of those who are endorsing these products.

To be completely honest, it is possible to shed pounds through diet alone. It is difficult but possible. It is also possible to be physically fit and have a few extra pounds hanging around. To a large degree we are what we eat. If we consume a high fat low substance diet our bodies are going to lack the fuel required to burn the fat. At the same time if we aren’t providing our bodies with the tools it needs to build muscle it doesn’t matter how many weights we lift.

When it comes to diet and fitness, the best results are achieved when they work together rather than separately. Use your fitness routine to burn excess calories and use your diet in order to properly provide your body the nutrients and fuel it needs to build muscle. I’ve heard many times in my life that a pound of muscle weighs less than a pound of fat. While this is not true at all, a pound is a pound regardless; a pound of muscle occupies less space on the body than a pound of fat. Pound for pound, I would much rather mine be composed of muscle than fat. Dieting alone does not build muscle and that is something you will do well to remember in your efforts.

You should also realize that as you are building muscle you may be shedding inches while not showing a great deal of progress on the scale. It is very important that you keep this in mind throughout the weight loss process. Do not measure your progress by the scales alone or you will achieve misleading results. The problem is that far too many people do just this and get frustrated and give up when they are actually making progress. Do not allow yourself to be a victim of the scales. Look in the mirror, try on your tight pants, and measure your waistline. Measure your success by how you feel after climbing a flight of stairs not by how many pounds fell of the scale this week.

By incorporating fitness into your diet routine you are also enabling your body to burn off any extra calories you may have consumed during the day. This means that if you want to have a small ‘cheat’ during your day, you can make up for it by burning a few more calories than normal in the evening. This isn’t something that should happen often but an occasional occurrence isn’t going to make or break your diet.

You should also look at dieting and fitness as a ball and glove type of relationship. While you can play ball without the glove, it seems to work so much better if you have both. Diet and fitness when combined can create fantastic weight loss results for those who take them both seriously. The thing to remember is that neither works as well alone and neither will work unless you are willing to do the work. You must make this a priority in your life in order to achieve the best possible results.

Nutrition and physical activity is going to go along together for our bodies. Exercise is going to give us fitness along with four major things: flexibility, strength, muscle endurance, and cardiovascular health. Diet on it’s own is not going to be able to give you this. You need to have the physical part as well. One thing to remember is that a bad diet can affect the way that your fitness training goes even if you follow the best type of exercise plan that you can. You need to put a healthy diet and a lot of exercise together to stay as healthy as you can.

It is going to be achievable to answer the question of how long you need to exercise to keep as healthy as you can. The average is at least 20 minutes of exercise at least three times a week. This will help to strengthen the cardiovascular health. Another idea is that 3500 calories must be used in a week by doing any sort of physical activity. This will benefit you and your heart as well. It is a good idea to speak to your doctor first to find out what exercise plan is going to be best for you and your body.

The energy nutrients that are stored like glucose and fatty acids with a few amino acids are let out into the blood during exercise in order to provide energy for what you are doing. This means that the body will respond to exercise by adjusting its fuel amounts.

There is a way to use diet to control high blood pressure and now they are finding out that exercise has a role in keeping blood pressure from increasing. With the reduction of sodium into your body, weight loss and limited alcohol use, along with the increased amount of physical activity and a low fat diet, you can control hypertension. Foods that are used for the purpose of lowering blood pressure without using medication can include sweets and many beverages that have sugar in them, red meat and fats.

To build muscle in the body, proteins are used and this is true when the body is at rest after exercise or any type of physical activity. There is research that has shown that athletes will retain more protein and use more of it as fuel for the body. The American Dietetic Association has said that one gram per kilogram of bodyweight is recommended for people that do not exercise at all. For the athletes, the protein amounts are going to be higher. It should be considered that athletes also need more carbohydrates as well. If they do not take in enough crabs, their protein will be used all up for fuel and there will not be anything left for muscle building after exercise is done.

There is increasing evidence that weight bearing exercises like walking, dancing, running, sports and so much more. Are very good at getting good bone health. Swimming has been a great use for bone health. Eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia have been said to damage bone strength. Exercise alone cannot make your body healthy. You need to have the proper calcium and other vitamins and minerals required for bones must go with the adequate amount of exercise to provide the best bone health. Along with exercise, diet can help keep your body working good and in the right mode for the rest of your life.

Why is it that merely saying the “D” word, you know “diet” brings immediate thoughts of failure to the minds of many men and women around the world? Could it be that we have all learned through trial and error that diets simply do not work? I know many of you are sitting back with jaws dropped at the moment. After all, this is an article about dieting, right? It is and it isn’t. Dieting is the kiss of death for many while a new phase in your life or lifestyle adjustment may be just the thing that will mean success for you and your fitness and health goals.

Eating for some is an addiction. Unfortunately, you can’t exactly give up eating all together as a smoker can give up cigarettes. I’m not applying by any means that giving up cigarettes is easy but how much more difficult would it be if you were forced to have three a day? At that point you may as well enjoy them every time the urge hits right? The same holds true for food. You must eat in order to survive. You cannot live without eating. This means that if food is a problem in your life, you must find a healthier way of viewing food.

Isn’t this where diets generally come in handy? The short answer is no. This is where diets often fail. Diets do very little to change how we view food. In fact, most diets only serve to tell us which foods are good, which foods are bad, and which foods (typically most of the foods we enjoy most) are strictly taboo. Diets begin by forcing people to feel deprived or punished. And no one likes to feel either of these things.

Even worse however, is that we punish ourselves further when we slip along the straight and very narrow pathways upon which our diets place us. This means that we are going to wallow in guilt over every little misstep we make until we give up all together and decide to over indulge once again and ignore the guilt all together.

In order to have real success you must make a lifestyle change. This is the only way that you will be able to shed those unwanted pounds without experiencing the horrible guilt that so many dieters go through each and every step of the way with their diets. Set goals for yourself. Keep them aggressive but realistic for fitness, dropping pounds, and eating new healthy foods. Even if your goal is as simple as eating 5 vegetable servings a day it is a great place to start.

Change your way of eating. Then change your way of seeing food and you will experience amazing changes in your attitudes toward your health, your body, and even your fitness level. As the first pounds begin to drop you will begin to experience more energy and less pain when exercising. This should help keep you motivated to do even more as time goes by.

Do not think that long term weight loss goals will be as easy to achieve as the first five or ten pounds. Consistency is vitally important when making these lifestyle changes. Take each day as it comes and begin again the very next day. This means that even if you fall completely “off the wagon” today, you can start over tomorrow. The trick is in staying the course more days than not and learning moderation and balance when it comes to straying from the straight and narrow.

There are many ways to fail when it comes to dieting and I know people who have failed in almost every one I can possibly imagine. There is no way to fail, however, when you are making positive changes in your life that are getting positive results. It may take weeks, months, or even years to reach your goal. As long as you are making steady and continuous efforts and progress, you are doing many great things for your health and well being.

There seems to be one universal truth when it comes to dieting. No one really enjoys the process though we all eagerly await and anticipate the results. The problem is that far too many men and women around the world focus so much on dieting and perfecting their external beauty that they forget the beautiful people they are inside along the way. Our culture is becoming obsessive about the perfect body and the perfect body image.

If there was one message that should make it out to everyone dieing it is this: dieting should be more about health than beauty. You should not need to conform to some preconceived notion of what is or should be beautiful. If we create a world where everyone looks alike it would be rather boring in the end.

You need to focus on being happy with who you are in order to achieve the greatest dieting success you will have ever dared dream. Many of use eat out of emotional need or a simple need for comfort when we are depressed, hurting, uncertain, or simply in unfamiliar territory. There is no solution that will work for everyone when it comes to making peace with who you are and this by no means indicates that you should no longer seek to be the healthiest you there is. It simply means that your focus should be more on coming to terms with who you are as a person than in creating a new person or imagine behind which you can hide.

Dieting for the most part is an opportunity for many men and women to become someone else. Whether that someone is the person you used to be or some person you think you want to be, you are quite unlikely find happiness at any weight until you accept you for the person you are inside. This is often a difficult process but one that is well worth the effort. Once you’ve accepted the person inside you can address the specific needs that often lead to the excess weight to begin with. Depression is a common factor in weight gain as well as an inability to lose weight. By finding contentment depression will no longer a controlling factor in you life. For many, this is the freedom they need from their weight problems while others will find there are still hurdles remaining.

The important thing is that you stop allowing the person you are to be defined by what the scales say about you. Once you’ve reached a point in your life where you are happy with your appearance and feel that your personal fitness level is in hand you should discuss things with your doctor and see what he or she has to say. We do not need a nation of size 5 women. We need a nation of women who are self-aware and self confident and not afraid to be who they are on the inside regardless of how they look on the outside.

Finding the beauty within is often the most important aspect of dieting that there can be. Take the time while dieting to get to know the person you are and introduce that person to the person you want to be. In time the two will work out a healthy compromise and you will find that image isn’t really everything no matter what the glossy magazines try to tell you.

When it comes to dieting, far too often we take those first steps towards weight loss bliss for what we later determine are all the wrong reasons. Ultimately however, if your reason works for you there is no truly wrong reason to diet. The trick is in finding the reason that will actually work for you.

I’ve seen all kinds of excellent motivators when it comes to dieting and taking your dieting seriously. One of the more common reasons is to lose weight. This is as good of a reason as any. Some want to get back into the size 5 jeans they wore in high school while others would simply like to be able to look in the mirror once again without feeling guilt. For some this is a simple matter of vanity and for others it is finally managing to deal with what has become a lifelong problem. If you find the inspiration you need to be successful with your dieting this time as opposed to others, then that is the perfectly plausible and acceptable reason for you to diet.

Other reasons for dieting include a desire to be more physically fit. Some of us have a deep and abiding desire to live as long as possible and firmly believe that the best possible method for accomplishing this goal is to live the healthiest life possible. This is another excellent reason for losing weight and getting into shape. If it works for you that is. The thing to remember is that every person is going to have to find their very own motivation deep within.

Yet another great reason is to have the energy you need to keep up with your little ones. This is one of the most heartbreaking side effects for most when it comes to obesity. There is simply no energy left over at the end of the day to enjoy doing things with your precious little ones who are young for such a very short amount of time. You desperately want to be able to build those precious memories with them but absolutely have no energy with which to do so. If that isn’t bad enough you probably (if you are considered morbidly obese) have noticed that many of the simplest activities with your children often bring you physical pain that is the direct result of your weight.

Revenge is a dish that is best served cold and another excellent motivator for some when it comes to dieting and taking off those pesky pounds. Losing a great deal of weight takes time in many cases so you must be able to maintain your motivation even when things are going rough along the way. The path to a new body is not an easy path. This is for those who have some serious emotional healing to do and the best revenge for old slights and wounds is to come back more beautiful than ever before. If this motivation is what it takes for you to take off the pounds then this is the motivation to which you should cling.

Religion is another common weight loss motivation. Some people believe the body should be treated as a temple. There is nothing wrong with this philosophy at all, though it takes some us longer to find our way to that line of thinking than others. Religion and faith are powerful motivators, as they have been known to bring healing to those in need by the power of their faith or their prayers. If your faith can give you the will power and strength you need in order to reach your dieting and weight loss goals then by all means lean on your faith and hold it close.

No matter what motivation you have for dieting and losing weight if you find it is no longer working for you, then you need to find another motivator quickly. Without proper motivation it is quite unlikely that you will ever meet your weight loss goals.