I do want to lose weight and be healthy and I'm now reading on the role that the chemistry in your brain has to do with weight gain or loss. One amazing book I read was Breaking the Food Seduction: Hidden Reasons Behind Food Cravings--and 7 Steps to Break Them Naturally, by Dr. Neal Barnard. I learned so much from this book! There is an actual, measurable reason as to why my eating habits are the way they are... and there is also a way to change them.

Programs such as FitDay or Weight Watchers do help because they teach portion control (by you counting calories/points) but the problem is that if I "save my points" so that I can have that luscious dessert (whatever it might be) then something happens to the biochemistry in my body when I eat that dessert that makes it impossibly hard to stay on track the next day.

Dr. Barnard demystified the entire biochemical process for me. If I now choose to have that dessert I at least know what it'll do to my glycemic index and therefore I understand the run-amuck cravings that'll surely follow. Now that I know the biochemical reactions that eating the dessert (or any other food that affects my glycemic index) will produce in my body, I "go into war" prepared. I know that if I eat the things that'll send my sugar index way up I'll have to deal with cravings afterwards. Very helpful information in this book.

I don't believe that there is a "silver bullet" out there I can use to magically get rid of my weight. It'll probably be a combination of wise choices, of exercise and healthy eating, that'll get me there and as I discover them I'll continue to add them to this section of the CCF site. Each of us needs to arm ourselves with the research, tooks, resources, and books that together will form what I'm calling the MyDiet4Life program that's customized to work for each of us individually. I have a blog on this and would love for you to add what works for you as you design your own MyDiet4Life program...and tell us about it!

Right now I've begun exercising. So far I'm walking 2 miles a day, several days a week. I hope to add strength training in the near future. I also think that keeping a food journal is critical in achieving your weight loss goals. There are many programs that'll help you do this. Both Weight Watchers Online and FitDay help you keep track of everything you eat and look it over once a week to evaluate where you are and where you need to go.

My weight loss is going slow BUT I'm no longer fighting myself to stay on track. I find that urges to overeat or to eat the wrong (high in calories/low in nutrition) foods still come but it's as if I have a bodyguard inside me helping me say no. Up until I started educating myself on things like my body's and brain's biochemistry my "no" just wasn't strong enough to stand up to my years of bad eating habits. I need to consciously work at changing my eating habits...I'm just feeling that it's going to be easier for me to do so with a little help from the resources I'm adding to MyDiet4Life program.

I'd love to hear from all of you reading this article! Visit Olgy's Weblog on the topics/info I'm posting to MyDiet4Life and tell me what you think!