Easy weight loss tips from how to lose weight tips.
Try these 10 easy weight loss tips,
they will give you a good weight loss start. I think it is easy enough to be done.
Most people treat themselves
by indulging in a gallon of ice cream or by lounging around the house, watching
TV. Blatner wants "treat yourself" to mean exactly the opposite. Her
definition is designed to give you more energy, help you lose weight and keep your
body healthy.
"It's preplanning your
grocery list. It's being in the grocery store and buying foods that nourish
your body. It's eating mindfully," she told the audience at the Obesity
Action Coalition's annual Your Weight Matters convention. "Those are really good
things that when you do them, it's treating yourself right."
In other words, you deserve
to feel good and look good, Blatner says. So putting in five or 10 minutes to
plan your meals for the upcoming week or spending 30 minutes at the gym is the
ultimate act of self-love.
"There's no bigger
gesture in this world that says, 'You know what, Dawn? You matter.'"
Follow these 10 tips to
"treat yourself" to a healthier, slimmer body:
1. Table. Plate. Chair.
Every time
you put food in your mouth, you should have three things, Blatner says: a
table, a plate and a chair.
These three items ensure
you're not sneaking snacks from the refrigerator late at night or gulping down
1,000 calories in your car from a fast food joint. And having them probably
means you're consuming more nutrients than a bag of potato chips would offer --
unless you're one of those weird people who puts potato chips on a plate.
"It's my answer to
eating mindfully," Blatner says.
Eating mindfully, research
shows, helps people pay closer attention to the enjoyment of eating and to
feelings of fullness. Studies suggest people who eat mindfully consume fewer
calories at meals, no matter how much is on their plate.
2. Willpower is a mental
muscle. Exercise it.
Willpower is a limited
resource, psychologist Sean Connolly of San
Antonio says, but we all have it. The trick is in
knowing how to use it efficiently.
"People list lack of
willpower as the No. 1 reason holding them back from improving their lives in
some way," says Connolly, who works regularly with bariatric patients.
"Willpower is not a gene. It's a tool that we all have that we have to
learn to use, develop and manage."
Like any muscle, your
willpower gets tired. So you have to plan, Connolly says, and know what you
will do in situations that offer a healthy choice and an unhealthy choice. You
also have to be prepared for emergencies, such as at the end of a long work
day, when your willpower is exhausted and the drive thru window beckons.
Willpower also needs to be
replenished daily. The best way to do this? Get enough sleep.
3. Be realistic.
Let's be honest, most of us
want to lose a lot of weight. And when we don't -- when we drop 5 or 10 and
then hit a wall -- we get discouraged and jump back on the fried food wagon.
One of the biggest obstacles
to losing weight is unrealistic expectations, says psychologist Gary Foster,
director of the Center for Obesity Research and Education at Temple University.
"The less you weigh, the
less you need to eat and the more you need to move (to lose weight),"
Foster says. "And that's not fair."
It's nice to aim high, but
successful losers drop an average of 8.4% of their body weight. If you weigh in
at 200, that's about 16 pounds. And losing those 16 pounds improves your health
dramatically.
In other words, hoping to
weigh what you did in high school will derail your plan before it starts.
"Life changes, and
that's not an apology or a cop out. It's a realistic assessment," Foster
says. "What else in your life is the same at 45 as it was at 20?"
4. Find better friends.
It's known as the
"socialization effect." Cigarette smokers hang out with other
cigarette smokers. Drinkers hang out with other drinks. And overweight people
hang out with other overweight people, says Dr. Robert Kushner of Chicago.
"What do you do if
you're hanging out with a group of people who are overweight?" he asks.
You pick a restaurant. You go out for burgers and a beer. "You're probably
not talking about going rollerblading."
We tend to pick up the habits
of those we hang out with the most. So find some friends with healthy habits,
and you'll become healthier yourself.
5. Do a cart check.
You know the MyPlate diagram -- the one that shows how your plate should
be split into fruits, grains, vegetables and proteins? Your cart should look
the same, Blatner says. When you think you're finished shopping, do a quick eye
check to make sure it's filled with about 25% protein, 25% whole grains and 50%
produce.
"Choice is the enemy of
weight loss," Blatner says. She recommends planning out two healthy
breakfasts, two healthy lunches, two healthy snacks and two healthy dinners for
the week. Buy the ingredients you need for each and then rotate them throughout
the week.
This gives you enough choice
that you won't get bored but not enough choice that you're overwhelmed and end
up looking for the nearest vending machine.
6. Do not eat in response
to that thing.
You're at the movies. It's
your cousin's bachelorette party. Your son is at the top of his graduating
class. It's a ball game -- and what's a ball game without a hot dog? If you
want to lose weight, avoid eating in response to "that thing," Foster
says.
Plan what you're going to eat
at these special -- or not so special -- occasions so you don't have to rely on
your willpower. And only eat when you're hungry. There will be more food at the
next thing.
7. Tell yourself: "I
have the right to be thin."
Self-sabotage is a real
problem in weight loss, Connolly says. A lot of times his clients say they want
something and then go out of their way to make sure it doesn't happen.
It's not a lack of desire or
motivation. "Something holds us back," he says.
We have to learn to validate
ourselves, Connolly says, because we'll never get everything we need from other
people. Tell yourself daily that you deserve to be healthy. You deserve to look
and feel good. Then believe it.
8. Set S.M.A.R.T. goals.
If you haven't heard this
acronym before, memorize it now. Any goal you set should be specific,
measurable, attainable, realistic and timely, says Eliza Kingsford,
psychotherapist and director of clinical services for Wellspring. If it meets
these qualities, you'll be much more likely to achieve it.
It's specific in that you
know how much activity you're going to do. It's measurable -- did you walk
today or not?
It's attainable and
realistic; everyone can find 30 minutes in their day, and walking doesn't
require a lot of equipment or special training. And it's timely because you'll
be able to see at the end of the month if you hit your goal.
9. Stand up.
Most of us now spend eight
hours a day sitting at our desks at work, and two to three hours sitting at
home. That kind of sedentary lifestyle is nearly impossible to counteract, Dr.
Holly Lofton of New York
says, even if you hit the gym for two hours a day (and who does that?).
She suggests wearing a step
counter that will keep you aware of the movement -- or lack of movement --
you're making throughout the day. Try standing up at your desk while on a
conference call, or walking to a colleague's desk instead of e-mailing him.
Take the stairs. Park farther away. Everything counts!
10. Life will never be
stress-free. Learn to cope.
Scientists disagree about
whether stress itself produces a physical change in your body that can lead to
significant weight gain. But we all know the effect a stressful day can have on
our willpower.
The problem, Kushner says, is
that there never will be a long period in your life without stress. And if we
cope with everyday stress by indulging in brownies and vodka, the weight will
continue to pile on.
"Life happens. It's not
so much stress that causes weight gain, it's the coping, the push back,"
he says.
The key is to learn positive
coping skills. If work is stressing you out, take a 10-minute walk instead of
hitting up the cookie tray in the breakroom. Take a yoga class at the end of a
long week. Use deep breaths to get through a phone call with your mother.
And treat yourself to a
stress-less day.
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