Losing weight
Obesity - the 21st century epidemic
Obesity
The rates of obesity, especially in the 1st world, are alarming. More than one-third (34.9% or 78.6 million) of U.S. adults are obese. The reasons for that are unhealthy diet (too many fats and sugars) and too little physical activity.
Mindset
Many people make the mistake of trying to lose too much weight in too short of a time period. Again, this is corresponding with the lack of patience many people have problems with, the expectation of instant gratification. If you suffer from obesity, you won't turn into a supermodel in a month, but if you're disciplined enough and commited to your progress, even in a month you will see noticeable differences. Just because change takes a lot of time, doesn't mean there shouldn't be any at all.
Diet
This word is oftentimes connected with pain, but if you feel so heavily negative about the way you eat, something isn't entirely right with it. Having a good diet doesn't mean eating very little, it means eating in a balanced way. A good start to cutting down big contributors to obesity, is to reduce the intake of sugars, such as sodas, candybars and other sweets. You don't have to say goodbye to them forever, as that may only discourage you and make you not want to do anything at all. Progress is key, gradual change is the nature of this universe. Every time you engage in the consumption of these products, try to ingest less ammount of them or skipping the "session" completly. What about the withdrawal, though? There is no other way, than to try to stay as strong as you can, when you introduce change to your body, it is almost always painful. That doesn't mean there aren't ways to mitigate this, though. For example by subsidizing it with higher quality food. A great and healthy way to doo that is sweet fruits. You will get a bit of sugar and something to digest (lower your feeling of hunger), but with a much lesser caloric density and with many vitamins, enzymes and other helpful chemicals. Don't try to starve yourself too much, as that will make your body feel like there is a danger of a long-term lack of food, making it slow your metabolism even more and when you do eat, it will try to store as much as it can. You should eat smaller ammounts of food more times a day.
Exercise
The law of conservation of energy works everywhere, including your body. So if you want to lose mass (stored energy), your outtake must overall be bigger than your intake. This is the core principle in the battle with obesity. Exercise doesn't have to mean going to the gym to do repetitive movements. It can begin with simple physical activity, like taking a walk outside. It can be both relaxing and good for your health. And each time you walk, you should try to walk a little bit further, so you have a sense of progress and accomplishment. And that's just one of the possibilities, every physical activity is better for your health than just sitting at the computer. And with incremental betterments of your diet and incremental increases in your physical activity, you will progress towards lowering your obesity, that's just the laws of physics.