8 Week Weight Loss Program Guidelines

By Kathleen Goodwin, RD

Guidelines for successfully completing our 8 week weight loss program

Hello, and welcome to The Diet Channel's exclusive online Weight Loss Program! For many, losing weight can be a lifelong battle. Learning to differentiate between successful weight loss strategies and fads and scams can be a tricky process. This course is ideal not only for those tackling the battle of the bulge for the first time, but also for those who have tried popular diets, diet pills and other strategies that may shed weight quickly, but generally do not lead to permanent results. You will learn the best strategies for permanent, healthy weight loss based on the latest scientific evidence. You will learn how to plan healthy meals, how to jumpstart your metabolism, and how to pinpoint and change behaviors that lead to overeating. Get ready to be motivated!

About the 8 week program's lead nutritionist

This 8 week diet challenge was written by Kathy Goodwin, RD, a registered dietitian with 10 years of experience working with clients on most aspects of diet and health. Kathy belongs to The American Dietetic Association and one of its many specialty groups - Sports, Cardiovascular, and Wellness Nutritionists (SCAN). Members of SCAN specialize in nutrition areas including weight loss, sports nutrition, eating disorders, and diet and cardiovascular disease. Kathy is also involved in nutrition as it relates to overall wellness and disease prevention. By far, her favorite area is weight loss, because it is a huge challenge for so many. She has incorporated into this course the latest research about what it takes to lose weight, and most importantly, keep it off.

How we can work together so you meet your weight-loss goals

It is our goal at The Diet Channel to provide you with the best information possible in order to help you achieve your goals. However, we can do this only by providing you with the most ethical, scientifically based, and timely information available in a way that you can understand. We can't put the principles you learn into practice or put in the required time and effort to attain your goals. That rests on you. This can be a time-intensive program if you thoroughly complete each week's reading, activities and exercises, and recommended articles. However, we guarantee you that the more thought, time, and effort you put into each assignment, the more results you will get. Like many other things in life, in this program and with weight loss in general, you will get out of it what you put into it.

For each week's topic:

  1. First complete the topic readings in your text and on this website.
  2. Then complete the exercises and activities.
  3. Next, review the recommended articles.
  4. Do not skip any section or activity -- each has a specific role in your learning
  5. Pace yourself. Be sure that you devote at least a week to covering each of the 8 topics (this means a minimum of two months to finish the whole program). If needed, take more time to be sure you have absorbed the concepts taught each week before moving on to the next week.
  • We recommend you purchase the book Dieting For Dummies as an accompaniment to this program. Each week different chapters from this text will be assigned in order to enhance your learning of the weekly topics.
  • Always consult your physician before beginning a weight loss program.
  • If you need more assistance, contact the Clinical Nutrition Department of your local hospital to speak to a Registered Dietitian. You may also call the American Dietetic Association's Consumer Nutrition Hotline at 800/366-1655. Due to the volume of e-mail we receive, we regret we will be unable to address individual questions and issues.
  • Remember that those who are most successful at permanent weight loss take pounds off slowly, are willing to work hard, have given up on the "quick fixes", and are willing to find new solutions and not give up when setbacks and plateaus set in.

Best of luck on your new beginning to self-discovery and better health!!!

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