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13 Tips to Lose Weight (and Keep It Off!)
By K. Aleisha Fetters, Women's Health
Maybe it's your most dreaded moment: The nurse tells you ever so politely to step onto the scale. You take off your purse and step aboard. Not good. You take off your boots and belt. Not much better.
This year, your best move will be to stop making excuses for your weight, says Barbara Berkeley, M.D., author of Refuse to Regain!. That’s the first step to getting healthy, she says. Her other weight-loss strategies will help take you the rest of the way.
And next time you meet that sadistic nurse you can don your moon-rock earrings. Sweet revenge.
1. Scan and Plan
Each morning, review your eating plan. Think ahead to what food challenges you might encounter during the day, and get your defenses ready even before you crawl out of bed. Preparedness is the best defense when it comes to fighting fat.
2. Measure Yourself
Step on the scale every morning. This will help you monitor even the smallest fluctuations in your weight. Another helpful strategy is trying on the same pair of jeans every morning. That way you can actually feel how your body changes on a day-to-day basis and when your jeans fit tighter than they should. Size can often be a more real measurement of fat than weight. Whatever you chose, keep tabs on your weight.
3. Get a Mini-Mantra
Inspiring slogans are great for saying no to unhealthy cravings. Berkeley's patients have found success with mantras like “The zing isn't worth the sting!" and "By saying no, I give myself the gift of health."
4. Picture Yourself
Keep a picture of yourself on your refrigerator door at both your original and current weight. Or hang photos of women who inspire you. Either way, every time you reach for a bite, you'll see a reminder of why you should stick with healthy foods.
5. Remind Yourself
Food stalking you? Start carrying a reminder of why you are making healthy food choices. Some dieters like to wear a pin, others like to keep a picture of themselves or an inspiring quote in their wallets. Whatever you choose, make it significant to you.
6. Commit
If you start a diet, make it for good. Eating healthy foods only until you hit your target weight doesn't do much for your weight--or health--in the long run. Getting healthy is a lifestyle choice that has to last.
7. Take a Break
No, not a break from your diet, a break from eating. It's important to have parts of the day when you immerse yourself in non-eating activities. The hormones that work to break down fat and glycogen (stored in sugar) need you to let them alone to do their job. That means not eating for an hour or two. Plus, the break might just give you time to finish that dusty novel on your bookshelf.
8. Have a Love Affair with Exercise
Exercise is an essential element to getting and staying healthy. It revs up your metabolism, making your body a fat-burning machine. This allows you to eat more on your diet and still have even better results than dieting alone.
9. Find Support
When it comes to dieting, strength is all about numbers. If your friends are using the same diet plan as you, they can make a great support system. More often that not, though, support systems should be formal arrangements to guarantee that everyone in the group has the same diet mentality. Plenty of websites offer great networks, too. Or you can set up regular visits with your physician or dietician.
10. Treat Yourself
Once a day, you can eat just to eat. What food lover doesn't love that? Just make sure that your daily snack fits these four characteristics:
1. Is tasty enough to look forward to daily
2. Is low in saturated fats, has zero trans fats, and is not overwhelmingly sweet (too much sweetness can stimulate your appetite rather than filling you up)
3. Contains less than 150 calories per serving
4. Is satisfying and doesn't make you crave more
11. Follow a Plate Pattern
One quarter of your plate should be lean meat products like poultry, fish, eggs, or low-fat dairy. The rest should be plant foods. Make sure that the fruits and veggies you include are diverse and are different colors (each color signals a different nutrient), guaranteeing you are about to chow down on a balanced meal.
12. Recognize Workplace Sabotage
Your workplace can actually encourage overeating. Vending machines, snack rooms, and cakes to celebrate the boss' birthday can all contribute to temptation to overeat. If these pressures are sabotaging your diet, you may have to get political. Tell your supervisor about your difficulties and advocate for what you want to change.
This can happen any time, any place. And they sound something like, "Come on! It's just one piece. It won't hurt you!" We all know it's never just one piece. But just as you can count on certain lines to come out of your friends' mouths, so can you prepare standard lines for defense.
One idea? Say something like "It's important to my health that I stick to my diet plan." Letting your friends know your decision is about health will shut them right up, Berkeley says. They want you to be healthy, after all.
Pictures from Tumblr, Flickr, Singapore Fitness Blog, Get Thin For Life,Pesoideal and We Heart It
Bikini Picture from 100lbsorbust, we heart it, tumblr
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