StrawberryP0cky's Self-Help Tips!

Okay, now we're on to the part that you want to know. You love yourself. You think that you're beautiful. You feel good about yourself. But now you want to lose weight so you can be healthy. Good! When you try to lose weight because you think that it'll make you feel better, it won't. People that are thin because they hated their big bodies are STILL depressed and STILL hate themselves. Being thin will not make you feel better, so feel better about yourself before you lose weight. This makes sure that you lose weight safely! I know that you've heard about magic diet pills or really cool work-out machines. Don't pay attention to them. While they make it sound like it'll end all your problems, it won't. You'll just waste money and be more frustrated. Just dieting won't help you, and just eating right won't help you; you need BOTH, and I'll give you tips for both.
--DIET: As you know, a good diet helps you lose weight, but which one do you choose? High carb, low protein? Low carb, high protein? Low calorie? All veggies? The truth is NONE of them! Those diets are not meant to be healthy, they're meant to lose weight (the low carb, high protein diet is popular, but it's not even TESTED that much, so it could really be dangerous!). What you want is a diet that is GOOD for you. A good thing to do is to keep a record of what you eat in a day, and then check out the food label. Write down how much Vitamin A and C, Iron, Calcium, Calories, Fat, Sugar, and Sodium that is in each of your foods, and then add them together at the end of the day (you can find those on any food label. They're required to put that information there. If you don't find it, then there isn't enough of that nutrient in there, so count it as ZERO of that nutrient). The nutrient(s) you don't get enough of you should eat more, and the nutrient(s) you eat too much of you should eat less (if you're getting a good amount, like 90-110% of your daily values, then don't change). Confused? Let me give you an example. I wrote down each food I ate and then I wrote down the nutrients in each food. At then end of the day, I added them all up (I did this for three days). When I was done, I saw that I ate too much Sodium and too little Vitamin A (I was pretty good on the rest of the nutrients). So what I did was instead of eating a salty snack, I ate carrots (carrots are high in Vitamin A). That's what I'm talking about. That's all you do! Change your diet little by little until you're eating a good, balanced diet. If you change your diet all at once, it'll be hard to stick to it. DO NOT JUST COUNT CALORIES!! Calories are not as important as your nutrients. Those are MUCH more important to count. Why? Calories are what your body uses. Your body needs a certain amount of calories to function (to see what you should eat, CLICK HERE). You need calories to do work like thinking, walking, moving, and that sort of thing. But when you don't use those calories, they get stored to use later, and this adds to your fat. The more active you are, the more calories you need, and the reverse is also true. But it's much more important that you get your nutrients instead of counting calories. It's so much healthier to eat a food that has 120 calories and a lot of your needed vitamins instead of eating a food that has 60 calories and a lot of Sodium but nothing else. Basically, eat to be healthy, not to lose weight. When you do this, your body will NATURALLY start to lose weight because it can use more of what you eat so you don't store it as fat.
If it's too hard for you to change your diet right now, then here's a really good tip: eat what your body is craving and stop eating when you're full. Save the rest for later! We were all told as kids to "clean our plates" so we feel like we have to eat everything in front of us. When you keep eating even if you feel full, it stretches out your stomach, so in the future, your stomach is bigger, and you need to eat more, and you put on weight. When you stop when you feel full, your stomach remembers that size, so it won't grow (and may even shrink a little). In the future, you'll eat less food and feel perfectly full. That's what you want. Don't eat more than you need! What if your body is craving a big, juicy cheeseburger? Eat it! What about a tasty salad? Eat it! What if you want some popcorn and Skittles? Eat them! Your body craves certain foods because it wants certain nutrients! If you feel like you have to eat some candy, it's because your body needs extra sugar. If you feel like you must eat a salad, it's because there are good nutrients in there that your body wants. Eat what you crave, stop when you're full, save the rest for later. If you can do this and the tip above (eating more healthy), then your body will be so much healthier and have less fat.
--EXERCISE: Yeah, you knew it was coming! For most of us, exercise doesn't sound fun. A lot of us are lazy or just plain busy, so we don't want to work out. It's really important, though. You don't have to go to a gym, and you don't have to get an aerobics video. I exercise before I go to bed while watching TV! Here's what you need to do: buy a couple dumbbells (check Wal-Mart or a sporting goods store) and make time to work out. If you like to watch TV like I do, then work out while watching TV. Give yourself a day to rest in between working out! Here's what you do:

• Walk in place for 2 minutes. This gets your blood flowing and muscles warmed up.
• Stretch every major muscle group in your body (especially the ones you'll use for your workout). This helps your muscles loosen up so they don't tear as easily.
• Do something active for 10 minutes. Try dancing, running in place, doing some kind of martial arts, or even cleaning up really fast.
• Now you use the weights. Choose your upper OR lower body. Don't do both in one day because you'll be really sore! Your upper body is your shoulders, pectorals (chest), biceps and triceps, and your upper back. Your lower body is your quads and hamstrings (upper leg), your calves, your lower back and your abs. An IMPORTANT thing to remember is to work out opposite muscles (the muscle on the opposite side). If you don't, one muscle will get bigger and it'll put pressure on the opposite one. Your opposites are: bicep and tricep, upper back/shoulders and chest, hamstrings and quads, and lower back and abs (these are the most important because they carry so much weight and support your upper body). Your calves and forearms don't really have major opposite muscles. For upper body exercises, CLICK HERE. For lower body, CLICK HERE.
• Stretch the muscles you worked. This helps you be less sore the next day.
• You're done! It should take about 30 minutes, the length of a TV show :)

• Use your lipstick as blush! Put a light stripe of lipstick on the apples of your cheeks, stopping about an inch or so away from your temples. Then blend and you're set!
• Use your lipstick only! If you have a nice pink or a light brown, you can use your lipstick on your lips, cheeks (instructions above), and eyeshadow. For the eyeshadow, take your finger and swipe it across the lipstick, then apply to your eyes and you're done! No worries about your make-up not matching, either! It works, and it works suprisingly well, too.
• Mix colors! I know this sounds like a no-brainer, but some people need to be reminded. Buy a few basic colors: red, brown, maybe a pink. Apply them and blend them as you'd like. I have a medium pink that looks great, but sometimes I want to tone it down. I get a light brown and apply that right on top of the pink that I just put on. Simple!
• Use eyeshadow as lipstick! Ever had a perfect shade of eyeshadow that you wish they'd make into lipstick? Do it yourself! Get some petroleum jelly (like Vaseline) and mix the color in. Then apply to your lips and you're done!