Okay, let me start off by introducing myself. My name is Niki . This was me 3 years ago. I am a 37 year old woman, I have 2 teenage daughters, and live in a small town in Ohio. I am currently a college student seeking a degree in the medical field. I am writing this article to help you understand how to lose weight. I know there are hundreds of articles out there that do this very same thing. But, I am going to tell you the truth. I am not going to blow smoke up your rear end just to get you to buy a certain product. I truly want to help you do what I did.

            Let’s start with where I started. About 3 years ago I weighed 220 pounds. My health was not good, my knees were going out, and my back hurt constantly. I hated the way that I looked so like you and many others, I turned to these quick fix pills that are out on the market. Guess what? They didn’t work. Some of them didn’t work at all, so I just wasted my money. Others helped me lose a little, but then I gained all the weight I lost plus! I could not figure out what the problem was. I was taking the pills as directed, and sometimes more than what was directed. I just couldn’t lose the weight. So, after years of trying these quick fix pills I turned to exercise. I was faithful to doing my exercises 4 times a week and I lost a little weight. But, like many others, I stopped. I lost interest and guess what happened. I gained it all back plus more, again. So then, I weighed more than what I did before I started using the pills.

            At this point I was so depressed and discouraged I just gave up even trying. I didn’t have any support from family and had no outside help. It is very hard to be motivated about anything without support from someone. So, for the next couple of years I just continued to pack on the pounds.

            When I hit 220 pounds I was so down I didn’t think there was any way out of the hole I was in. Then came a visit to the doctor. At 33, my body had finally said it had had enough. I had to do something. I had to figure out how to help myself and get healthy or my body was just going to shut down.

            So, after many weeks of research it finally clicked in my brain. Although exercise is great for your body, it is not a fix all. Although those manufacturers and sales people say that their pill is the magic pill that will allow you to sit on the couch and eat whatever you want, and the fat will just fall off, they do not work like this. I figured out that the most important aspect to losing weight was food! And, if you combined good food, exercise, and supplements the results would be amazing. I am here to tell you that it is true. I am living proof that this combination is the most effective way to lose weight, and keep it off. I am going to tell you just what I did to lose my weight and go from a size 22 to a 4. It really is not has hard as we make out to be. You just need support, motivation, information, and determination.

            When I started, I could not exercise. My knees could not take it. So I started with my diet. I cut white carbs, added more lean protein, added more green vegies, cut starchier vegies, and cut high sugary fruits. Oh, and LOTS OF WATER! I know you probably hear this all the time. I am here to tell you. Water is very important. It helps to flush the fat and impurities from your body. Also, helps your internal systems to work more efficiently. Another thing I learned, you need to change the way you think of food. We are not supposed to use food as a reward. It is fuel to power the most important machine you have. YOUR BODY! Now is it bad to have a cheat meal? NO! The key is to space them out and not have them every day. I had, and still do have, a cheat meal every couple of weeks. I would not recommend having a cheat meal more than once a week. Cheat meals can be beneficial too. They confuse your body and kind of shock it in a sense. It keeps the body from adapting to the foods that you are eating. But, when I say a cheat meal, I don’t mean you sitting down and eating a whole cake or a whole pizza all by yourself. A cheat meal is just that, a meal. It should be the same portion size as the rest of your meals.

            That brings me to my next recommendation. Portions size. Most people think that a portion is a full plate of food and that you are not done eating until you are stuffed. This couldn’t be further from the truth! A portion size is about the size of your hand. You don’t need to eat until you feel like you are going to barf! The idea is to give your body what it needs to keep going. Not to give it what it needs for the next week. This is what makes you fat. Your meals need to be a balance of lean protein, green vegies, and slow acting carbs. One myth about nutrition is that fruit is good for you. Okay, fruit can be good for you in moderation. But when you are trying to lose weight some fruits hinder your progress. Fruits like apples and bananas are very high in sugar and calories. The best fruits to eat when trying to lose weight are berries and citrus. They help to cleanse your body, they have fat burning qualities, and they are a slower acting carb. The thing with sugary fruits is that your body does not know the difference between sugar from fruit and sugar. It breaks down the same way. So basically it is just like eating candy or any other type of sugar.

            Okay, let’s move on. After altering my diet I began to lose weight. I could feel a difference in my body. I didn’t hurt quite as bad. I started to feel better and had more energy. After just a couple of months, I started to exercise. This made all the difference in the world! Combining a good diet with just a little bit of exercise sped up the weight loss dramatically! At this point it seemed the fat wanted to melt off. After another month, I finally felt good enough to do some real exercise. So I joined a gym. I started with the traditional cardio that most women think that they should do. After about 2 weeks I stopped losing weight. So what had happened? Why did my weight loss suddenly stop? Well, here is the answer. My body adjusted and the cardio was only targeting the lower part of my body. I needed to make an adjustment to the exercise that I was doing. So I started lifting weights. I know, I know, women aren’t supposed to lift weights because they will get bulky like a man. This is totally FALSE! Women cannot bulk like a man unless they have a hormone imbalance that has raised the testosterone 9x the normal level or they are using steroids. It is just not possible for a woman to bulk without some kind of enhancing drug.

            After adjusting my exercise to weight lifting, I really started to see my body change. I was starting to look tone and strong. Not veiny or too skinny. But, curvy and feminine. I am not saying not to do cardio, but it should not be the bulk of your exercise plan. You should spend most of your time in the gym lifting weights. Not only does lifting weights burn more calories than cardio, it tones your whole body. I wanted a balanced, toned body. I didn’t want be “skinny fat” or have great legs and nothing on top to match. The only way to accomplish this is to get in there and lift those weights. When you tone your whole body and add muscle your body also burns more calories without you ever doing anything. This allows you to not be on such a strict diet.

            Okay, so we have talked about nutrition and exercise. At the beginning of this article I mentioned supplements. This is why. Our food, even organic, has been proven to only have 75% of the nutrients that our bodies need. So what does that mean? We need to supplement our diets with products that can fully fuel our bodies. In order for our bodies to work at an optimum level we need to feed our bodies. When I say supplements I don’t mean going to Wal-Mart and buying the garbage they sell. I mean a good quality protein powder and good quality vitamins. Most of the supplements that Wal-Mart sells are full of fillers and are made with very low quality materials. These products are higher in calories, sugar, and fat and very low in protein, which is what you need. You need to look for what are called designer products. This is the only time I will suggest a certain brand. I used Fit Bodi Nutrition’s products. The products are of the highest quality, taste great, a great value for your money, and all made right here in the United States. I could not find a better product than these. I looked at several. All the multi-level marketing companies and products put more emphasis on the business opportunity than they did their product. Other big companies put more money into marketing their product than they did into making a good quality product. I chose Fit Bodi Nutrition because they are a small locally owned company that put more time and money into their products and not marketing just to sell. You will not see these products in any stores. The only place to buy them is on the Internet, in small gyms, and personal training studios. This spoke volumes to me. Anyone can put together a business plan to show the profit potential to a big retailer but not many try to build a good reputation by being personally invested in their customers.

            Okay, so to sum it all up, you need a combination of diet, exercise and supplementation to be a healthy you. Your best and quickest results will come if you have a good balance between the three. This process will take time. I have been working for 3 years to reach my goals. But, I have done it. I hope you take this information and use it to meet your goals. This is me now.