We have all heard the rants entitled the secret to weight loss, the miracle diet and all those other generic slogans that are designed to get us to read yet another sales pitch on some miracle diet that will get them pounds gone and gone fast. The key word being fast, we live in a busy time and none of us seem to have the time to follow the fundamental weight loss systems.

Let me begin by saying your weight, whether you are obese, a little heavy, carrying that holiday weight or whatever your current situation is not your fault. We are victimized daily by junk food chains or even relatively healthy eateries that offer that extra huge serving just for you! From the day we are old enough to comprehend to the day we die, and we are victimized. This is nothing new; it has been a prevalent part of our society for many, many years. The mass media is used as a tool by anyone who wishes to make a buck. The media is a sales mule, guised under the cloak of information, but a sales tool all the same. Turn on a TV and there it is, eat this, drink this, take this, buy, buy, buy, or more to the point consume, consume, consume. So again your weight is not your fault, but it is your responsibility.

The first thing to decide if you are keen on losing weight is this, do you want to just lose the weight or do you wish to get in shape and stay in shape without needing to fight with weight gain for the rest of your life. If you wish to only lose weight then this article may be of little help to you, but if your goals are to lose weight, keep it gone and develop a lifestyle that means living free of the threat of weight gain then please read on.

Sustained weight loss can only be found in one place, the mind. You have been trained since birth by the media to desire more than you need, some of this may be good, but there is a lot of it that is bad. The good can be the desire to achieve the best in life, good education, nice house, general comfort in lifestyle. The bad is where you are tricked into believing more is better by industries that thrive on your consumption. Such industries like fast food, tobacco are the most obvious and dubious, but consider the food industry in general, do you really need to super size just because it is better value for your buck, and ask yourself why it is better value? The answer is obvious is it not, because more consumption equals greater profits! These industries are willing to give larger portions of food at a cheaper price because they are in fact training you to believe that more is better, by doing this the food industries are increasing over all consumption, quantity is where these large industries make their profits, just look at all the "All you can eat" franchises, sure they say it’s healthy in some of them all you can eat salad bars etc, but too much even of a good thing is still bad!

Take one second and think on this, lets us say that you are looking at two sub sandwich stores, store A offers a good sized sub for $3, in fact the sandwich is exactly the right amount to slake your hunger, now store B has a big sign that says 20% more meat in our sub, but is also $3, which would you buy? Most of us wouldn’t hesitate and Store B would rake in our business, but really do you need that extra 20%? We as consumers are always looking for the best bargain for our dollar, but in the end is over eating really a bargain we wish to be a part of it, look at what it is really costing you, your self esteem, your fitness and mostly your health! With heart disease, diabetes and obesity on the rise in so many places, I will say it again; the push towards over consumption by the food industry has the stench of big tobacco all over it.

Losing weight is a very difficult process for those of us who suffer from over eating, for many of us food has become an addiction, much akin to Tobacco. As with any addiction the first step is realizing that you are in fact addicted, after that the next and most crucial step in de-toxing that addiction from your body and more importantly from your mind, is to reprogram yourself, to solely retrain your body and mind to crave only what it needs, this is the real challenge in maintaining weight loss! I will sum up a few points that may help you get on the path to healthier food consumption:

• Just because you feel hungry there is no need to completely fill the tank, instead consider your expected activities on that day and eat accordingly, just like your car, if you are only driving to the end of the street you don’t need a full tank of gas!

• Do not binge eat, you can starve yourself and effectively shrink your stomach size (a practice I am very much against, but using as an example here), but with only one gorge binge session you will effectively revert your appetite back to an unhealthy level and begin feeling hungry all over again, a binge eating session is much the same as an alcoholic falling off the wagon, instead I recommend many small healthy meals throughout the course of the day!

• Realize that junk food tastes great for one reason only, to get you hooked! It does not constitute food in any way shape or form, remove it from your diet and believe me you will not miss it once the addiction fades

It all comes down to a single phrase which you will have heard before. Healthy mind equals a healthy body!