Go For A Walk.

Ok, it's time to bring more angry comments down on myself.

So, since getting diabetes, I had to radically change my diet, but realized recently that just changing my diet wasn't going to be enough.

Yeah, in an amazing shock, it turns out that sitting on your ass and not exercising for over five years leaves you dangerously unfit and out of shape.

So as well as getting a little stricter in my diet, a few weeks ago I decided I really needed to start exercising. Since then, I've been getting up in the morning, eating a couple of slices of toast for breakfast and then going for a two mile fast-walk.

After a few weeks of this I'm really happy to say that I'm slowly and steadily losing weight…but even better, my resting heart rate is a full 15-20 beats per minute slower than it used to be. I figure that within another month or so I'll trade in my daily walks for daily jogs and just keep building up from there.

Well, I was thinking today, and I've come up with a theory as to why people find it so hard to lose weight.

I was sitting watching the TV when an infomercial for a 'diet product' came on TV, and at the same time Sunny was putting everything she'd eaten that day into some kind of application that keeps track of your calories.

Now, I think a lot of people decide they're going to get into shape and lose some weight, so they work up some enthusiasm, go out, buy a diet book and exercise video and then spends an afternoon reading the book and going online to work out a specialized diet and exercise plan. Then, they fill their cupboards with things like 'green tea' and 'weight loss supplements' and all other kinds of snake oil that supposedly help the pounds just melt away.

Then, because they're spent all day working in 'diet stuff' go to bed that night with a real feeling of achievement and progress…when in reality, they've not done a damn thing.

Basically, that's what a lot of the diet industry is based around, providing ways for people to feel like they're doing something when they're not really doing anything.

If you get up in the morning, spend an hour reading a diet book, then take a 'healthy herbal fat-burner' with some green tea while posting in a forum about how you're really going to get into shape this year…you're basically tricking yourself into thinking you've spent that morning 'working on your weight problem'…when all you've really done is got out of bed, spent an hour reading, then drank some tea while sitting in front of the computer.

My advice is you really want to get into shape?

Throw out all your diet and exercise books, tip all the supplements in the trash and go for a walk and actually exercise. Then, just read the nutritional information on the food you eat, use your common sense and limit the amount of obvious junk you eat.

Oh, but keep drinking green tea if you like it. It tastes good and it really is good for you. It's just not going to magically make you thinner and healthier.