Tips to help you lose weight to look better, feel better, and live a healthier life.

1. How did I get here?

Do you simply need help learning how to eat better? Probably. But if you eat poorly as a result of emotional, mental, or spiritual problems, they may have to be addressed before you can make any real progress with weight loss.

Even people who don't have an eating disorder often turn to food for comfort. To learn to eat well and exercise regularly, you may also have to learn to handle the problems life throws at you without turning away from healthy eating and exercise.

Be particularly careful about all-or-nothing thinking. A common tendency when failing to stay on a diet is to abandon it altogether. Instead, try to learn from your mistakes and do better in the future.

2. Are you ready to diet? Again?

Diets entice us with their promises of quick weight loss. But the people we know who eat well and look healthy aren't dieting at all. They have simply adopted good eating and exercise habits.

Focusing on quick weight loss can lead to unhealthy eating and only short-term success. Focus instead on improving your health, and you will become slim and healthy.

3. Take control of what you eat.

There are few things that we have complete control over, but what we put in our mouths is one of them. We don't have to lose control in a restaurant or a friend's home, and we don't have to eat everything that's put in front of us.

Consider this:  We love fat because it carries flavor, and restaurants aren't as interested in whether we'll be around in 30 years as whether we'll be back next week. And what about our friends?

4. Eat more fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

People that eat mostly unprocessed foods including fruits, vegetables and whole grains often find that they can eat as much as they want without gaining weight. If they are switching from a diet containing a lot of meat and junk food, they find that they can eat more yet consume fewer calories. And they lose weight.

When you eat meat, be sure it's lean. Think native Chinese. They eat mostly rice and vegetables with a little lean meat for protein and flavor. But don't confuse this with Chinese restaurant dishes like deep fried sweet and sour pork!  

5. Eat more fiber.

Fiber makes us feel full sooner and stays in our stomach longer, slowing down our rate of digestion and keeping us feeling full longer. Due to its greater fiber content, a single serving of whole grain bread can be more filling than two servings of white bread. Fiber also moves fat through our digestive system faster so that less of it is absorbed.

Refined grains like white rice and those used to make white bread and sugary breakfast cereals have had most of their fiber and nutrients striped away. They turn into blood sugar (glucose) so fast that, like sugar itself, they can cause a spike in our insulin level. This tells our body that plenty of energy is readily available and that it should stop burning fat and start storing it.

6. Cut down on sugar.

The insulin spike caused by eating foods like white rice is even more dramatic when eating sugar itself. Be careful about sugar in coffee and soda pop. It can add up quickly, and these drinks aren't filling.

Also watch out for "fat-free" products. Sugar is often used to replace the flavor that is lost when the fat is removed.

However, the greater concern with the insulin spike is not that it tells our body to start storing fat. This is because whatever we eat that we don't burn up eventually gets turned into fat anyway. The greater concern is that the insulin spike is followed by a drop in insulin level that leaves us feeling tired and hungry and wanting to eat more. The unfortunate result of this scenario is that it makes us want to eat something else with a high sugar content. When we do, we start the cycle all over again.

7. Avoid fried foods.

Fried foods, especially deep-fried, contain a great amount of fat. While chicken and fish are usually leaner than beef, they can contain more fat than beef when they are fried. Look at how the number of grams of fat in a chicken breast changes depending on how it is cooked:

8. Too much of a good thing.

Be careful with salad dressings, mayonnaise, and other condiments that are high in fat content. They greatly increase the calorie count and can easily negate the healthy aspects of a meal. Replace mayonnaise-based condiments with fat-free alternatives like fat-free yogurt, mustard, ketchup and barbecue sauce.

And remember, a gram of fat contains more than twice as many calories as a gram of protein or carbohydrate.

9. Too little of a good thing.

But don't try to eliminate fat altogether. While you should limit foods high in saturated fat, fat is necessary to maintain a healthy body. Many people eat too much of the bad fats, but also eat too little of the good fats required for optimal health.

10.   Eat frequently, and eat slowly.

Never skip a meal, and eat healthy snacks between meals. Eating frequently prevents hunger pangs, provides consistent energy, and maintains metabolism efficiency.

Our bodies were designed with the survival mechanism of hoarding fat to protect us from famine. When we skip a meal or go on a crash diet, our bodies think they are starving and slow down our metabolism to conserve energy. What is conserved is our fat stores; our weight loss comes mostly from water and muscle.

Eating slowly gives our bodies time to tell us they are full before we eat more than we need.

   11. Exercise regularly.

At home, at the gym, playing sports, participate in both aerobic and strength building activities on a regular basis. Not only does the exercise itself burn calories, but your body will continue to burn calories at a higher rate even after you stop exercising.

If walking is all you can do, then walk because it's been proven to be great for you. And muscle burns more calories than fat, so put on a little muscle if you can and you will burn more calories just sitting there... looking good.

But don't sit too long. The human body is good at adapting. If you dig ditches without gloves, you will develop calluses to protect your hands. If you sit too long, you will develop extra padding to keep you comfortable!

    12.  Take it easy.

Unless you are excited to be following a very specific diet and exercise plan, do not try and change too much too fast. If you have been eating poorly and not exercising, both your body and your mind will have a lot of adjusting to do.

All the sugar and fat were actually quite enjoyable, and sitting on the couch didn't feel too bad, either. If you try and change everything too quickly the odds are greater that you will feel bad, get discouraged, and give up. So be patient.