Weight Loss Secrets of the Stars

Isn't it funny how after you have a health scare, your whole world starts to revolve around health? A friend of mine said this, and it rings incredibly true. Before I was in the hospital, I looked at my health as something that I would deal with later. Now, I'm highly aware of what I'm putting into my body and the work that I'm doing toward the goal. I've been looking at celebrity weight loss methods, too, just as a note of comparison.

Here's the down and dirty of celebrity weight loss, using 10 random celebrities (links go to Wikipedia entries).

Jessica Simpson - Walked between 8K and 10K steps a day
Gwyneth Paltrow - Worked out a lot, went on ultra low calorie diet
Christina Aguilera - Reiki, presumably it removed her stress
Kelly Osbourne - Developed healthy eating, sleeping, and moving habits
Melissa Joan Hart - Exercised with friends and her husband
Jennifer Hudson - Did it for herself, became ultra focused and mindful
Khloe Kardashian - Exercises, eats badly, lost 30 pounds in 18 months.
Jennifer Aniston - Went on the baby food diet
Padma Lakshmi - Worked out, climbed *tons* of stairs, walked home
Anne Hathaway - Ate next to nothing to shed the pounds

You know what? I like sustainable. While I could lose weight like the stars by cutting my diet down to a few calories a day and working out like a mad fiend, I know that I couldn't sustain it for any length of time. I'd forget that I could only eat a postage stamp and wolf down a hamburger and that would be it. There would be no more diet, no more losing weight, and I'd be left watching The Biggest Loser with a bowl of ice cream in one hand and a dozen cinnamon honey straws in the other.


When it comes to losing weight, there are three (technically, four) options:

1. Pay attention to intake
2. Focus more on output / exercise
3. Have weight loss surgery
4. Combination of options 1-3.

In reality, keeping the diet sustainable comes down to one word: mindfulness.

Mindfulness essentially means awareness of what's going on with the body. Be aware of what's going in, what's coming out. Be aware of how you feel 20 minutes after eating. Be aware of how the body reacts to both fresh and processed foods. I've found that asking myself 'is it worth it?' really helps out - because there are consequences to every action.

I'm not going to dress this up in some sort of fru-fru suit. There's already a Mindfulness Diet written by someone else, but those are the keys to making the diet thing work: sustainability and mindfulness.