Free Fitness and Weight Loss Methods

For awhile I was fat, steadily approaching an unavoidable future of serious obesity. I was totally unaware that I was over-weight because I'd been a medium-sized, physically fit teen in high school, and my self-image was still stuck in those good old days of athletic high activity. As the years went by, I embraced a more lethargic lifestyle, and the pounds were creeping up on me even though I blindly believed I was still as attractive as I'd ever been.

This is reverse-anorexia. I was in denial, unaware that I had any problems, happily doing whatever pleased me the most. As far as I was concerned, there were no consequences to be worried about. I thought I was healthy, cool, good-looking, and built for non-stop fun wherever I could find it -- but that was all in my head. Truth is, I was getting fatter every day.

All of us would end up being much too skinny!

I was happily scooting along, certain that all was right with me and my bod. Sure, my new clothes needed a bit more room to be comfortable, but I figured that was natural as we get older. No big deal.

Then one day, before a routine trip to the vet, I needed to find out the weight of my cat, Roxie. I dusted off my old scale, hung on to Roxie, and we weighed ourselves. It was unbelievable, but apparently my cat was more than 80 pounds! Then I did the math and it hit me -- all that extra tonnage was ME! Now it was all too obvious: If I didn't change my lifestyle, I would become a big fat slob very soon. So I became alert for any sensible (and easy) ways I could find that would reverse my impending obesity.

Where do we pick up these things? "Brush your hair 100 times each day." "Chew each mouthful one hundred times." "Don't run with scissors." Oh yeah, now I remember where I heard that stuff...

Actually, the chewing thing makes sense, but I can't believe anybody would really be nuts enuff to count to a hundred. Nevertheless, my first strategy was to slow down my eating, taking lots of time between bites, which was a major leap for me since I was in the habit of wolfing down huge servings in record time. No more gulping half-chewed chunks to make room for more.

Liquefying every mouthful is very important because saliva is the first step in digesting your food. It produces an enzyme (amylase) that breaks down starches and delivers them to your bloodstream directly through the flesh of the mouth. Saliva also kills bacteria and can prevent illness by sanitizing your food before any germs can cause trouble. And while you are chewing, your stomach receives messages about what is on the way. Without sufficient heads-up time, your belly can't produce enuff acid to deal with what's coming, and this is the main reason people get upset stomachs. Sloooow down and you'll feel better.

Getting used to slowing down was helpful, but what really changed my whole out-of-control "getting fatter" spiral was one simple fact that altered my life and was the key to my success at staying slim and trim. This is it: Your brain takes 20 minutes to recognize that it is full!

That means, if you force yourself into slo-mo and take a full twenty minutes to just eat a carrot or a slice of toast, your body will say, "Okay, I'm done. Let's move on."

No kidding, it really works, and this little secret has shrunk my stomach to minimum size, and I am a constant annoyance to anybody who invites me out for lunch. So be it. I'd rather be a freakishly slow nibbler than an obsessive stressed-out calorie counter. I still like chomping down on a big dinner, but I'm no longer overeating all day long like I used to.

Life is too short. Just slow down and enjoy it.

This is an interesting Psychology Test. You select from a series of 20 pairs of photos and arrive at a face that most appeals to you, based on either introverted or extroverted appearance. I've heard that, normally, we are most attracted to a person who matches a 50/50 blend of our parents' faces when we were very young, since that's when we were imprinting images that are important to us. Do you think that's true?

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