The obstacles to weight loss and a healthy life

I am sure you have often wondered why your weight is not coming off when you think you are being very careful with what you are eating.

 

The major culprits are sugar, salt and fat! I never realized the major role these items play in our lives. I ran into a book recently that addressed these major obstacles.

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Back Cover

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Were it not for the fact that the book was addressing a major health issue, it would be an excellent product development and marketing book. It talks about how food products are developed that stimulate the “cravings” of the US populace to buy lots more of these products.

This kind of product development and marketing approach allied to bigger and bigger package sizes ensures that everybody buys more (and therefore consumes more) of the products than they really need. It might surprise you to know that the US supermarket has much larger package sizes than the markets in the European and Asian countries. The late Prof. C.K. Prahalad (a management heavyweight at U of M at Ann Arbor and author of many management books) wrote that inventory (of food and other consumer products) was a luxury of the rich. The food companies sell larger and larger packages that end up in pantries and refrigerators (which also have to be larger to accommodate these bigger packages).

This really opened my eyes to the destructive effect that these elements have on our diets and weight reduction programs. I don’t want to market this book but I think the more people read this book and understand what is going on, the more they will be able to take control of what they are eating. I found that this knowledge is having a major impact on how I am approaching my own program.

In succeeding posts, I will comment on how this kind of knowledge can be put to good use. It is better to approach a program with a fundamental understanding of things that will affect you rather than blindly following some diet just because it is marketed strongly with lots of before and after pictures of people who have lost weight.

My experience is that there is no instant gratification here. It requires patience, stamina to stick with some guidelines and persistence to follow it through until you reach your initial goals. I have myself been very guilty of not sticking with it, in the past.

You might find me blogging about many things on the periphery of my weight reduction program. I am just recording things that go in my mind as I am working on my program. I am sure you also find your mind wandering around, especially while exercising.