In this Newsletter:

• OLEDA adds Vanilla Targeted Proteins Meal Replacement
• Lose Weight, Keep It Off
• What You Didn’t Know About Men, Women and Aspirin

Scientific studies have shown that the specific proteins in the OLEDA Targeted Protein Diet increase protein synthesis by 60% and protein utilization by more than 30% for maximum body-changing benefits…it truly is a Targeted Protein Meal Replacement Health Drink.

OLEDA Targeted Protein Meal Replacement is a powerful tool in any weight loss program. It makes you feel full while providing the nutrients your body needs to keep energetic and healthy. This product, supplemented with a regimen of a healthy diet and regular exercise is designed to help you lose weight for good…helping you to keep it off.

**Special Discount Offer For Newsletter Menbers Only

OLEDA Targeted Protein Meal Replacement

Chocolate or Vanilla

Regularly $16.50, now $14.00 for 1 lb container (15 servings)

**Offer good until midnight, Monday, February 12, 2007
Use code: 7NL1

Have you ever known someone who lost weight and looked great, and then, when you saw them again a few months later, had regained most of what they had lost? Has that ever happened to you? It’s a heart-breaker.

Or, conversely, have you ever known someone who lost a lot of weight and kept if off? Have you wondered how they did it? Have you ever thought to ask?

That’s exactly what a team of researchers did when they created the National Weight Control Registry in the mid-1990’s and followed their dieting habits and progress over more than ten years. They recruited roughly 5000 participants in a pool of adults who had lost at least 30 pounds and had maintained the loss for at least a year. The average weight loss within the group was 72 pounds. The average age of the group was 47 and 77 percent were women. Although many gained back some of that weight, all of the participants maintained at least a 30-pound loss—some for 10 years or more.

How did they do it?

Weight loss doesn’t come easily. About half the participants reported being overweight as a youth, and 75 percent reported obesity in one or both parents. The vast majority had tried to lose weight in the past and had failed.

A consistent theme of the habits of the participants is that there was no single strategy that worked—and was used—100 percent of the time. About half reported receiving some kind of help through a weight-loss program, or from a doctor or nutritionist. The other half lost the weight on their own.

However, four key strategies emerged that were employed by the vast majority of the participants:

• Eating a low-fat, low-calorie diet. There were a variety of ways that people achieved this, although few people went to the extreme. Strategies included restricting certain foods, limiting quantities, counting calories, counting fat grams, using a liquid formula or using an exchange diet. (See our Targeted Meal Replacement)

• Getting lots of exercise. Over 90 percent of participants incorporated physical activity into their weight-loss plan. On average the exercise was equivalent to about one hour of brisk walking every day. Walking was the most common activity. However, many people participated in additional activities, such as weightlifting, bicycling or aerobics.

• Eating breakfast. 80 percent of the participants ate breakfast every day. Cereal and fruit were two of the most common breakfast foods consumed. Only 4 percent of the participants said they never ate breakfast.

• Frequent weighing. 75 percent of participants weighed themselves at least once a week. And, about 60 percent of those people weighed themselves every day.

So how did this group keep the weight off?

More or less, by maintaining the behavior changes that got the weight off in the first place. But there were two primary factors that were predictors of successful weight-loss maintenance:

• Day-to-day consistency. Those who had a consistent diet on weekdays, weekends and on holidays were most likely to keep from regaining weight.

• Catching “slip ups.” Among those people who regained weight, those who recognized small weight regain early and got back on track were most likely to be able to stop or reverse the weight gains
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• When people maintained weight loss for at least two years, they reduced the risk of regaining weight by 50 percent. (Great News!) In contrast, the more weight that participants regained before one year had passed, the less likely they were to be able to maintain their initial weight-loss amount. (When Oleda’s jeans feel the slightest bit tight, she cuts back her food intake by adding an additional Meal Replacement or two during the week.)

Conclusion

At the core of almost any plan for weight loss are both commitment and motivation to adopt a lifestyle that consistently includes eating a healthy, low-calorie diet and getting plenty of physical activity.

Any set of weight-loss techniques is only as good as your motivation to use it—in both the short and long term. The researchers found that most participants began to change their lifestyles after some sort of motivational trigger, such as a health concern or reaching an all-time high weight. If you’re overweight, don’t wait for that to happen to you. It might be more difficult for people to be motivated, if they are not yet ready to change or if they have met with repeated weight-loss failure in the past; but use the potential for disease, sluggishness, and social difficulties caused by obesity to be your motivation to do it NOW. Take if off, and keep it off. We can help.