Obesity is an issue for more people all the time. Healthy weight loss takes so much time. In today’s fast-paced world people are pressured into a “quick-fix” mentality which often doesn’t work.
So why is this happening? We have more opportunities than our parents. Our children can become involved in more activities. This is all good but it puts much more pressure on us. These added stressors may be part of the growing trend toward obesity.
Today we have more appliances and conveniences to cut our prep and cook time than our parents did. The problem is that after a harried day cooking a meal seems overwhelming. Actually getting all family members together to eat that meal is a challenge in itself. Unless your income is high enough to hire someone to come in once a week and prepare all your meals for you, your fast food choices are all fattening and expensive.
Based on recent history weight and stress related diseases are at their peak. Doctors believe that 2/3 of Americans are overweight and 1/3 of those are obese. This means more people are at risk for diseases related to excessive weight, such as diabetes, cardiac disease, and stroke. In order to decrease the risk of developing these diseases, individuals must take their health into their own hands working toward reducing stress and weight to normal ranges.
“Diet” doesn’t necessarily mean losing weight but eating a healthy combination of foods for proper nutrition. Some people try a starvation diet – or taking much less calories than they need to survive – and only find that they have put their body in starvation mode. Once they go back to former eating habits they gain even more weight than they had before.
Here are some tips to achieving a healthy weight loss that takes into account a realistic understanding of what you can achieve.
Take a good look at your body type and lifestyle. Be realistic about any changes you can make in your routine now and then add them in gradually. Get used to changes in diet and exercise habits over time. Doing something consistently for six weeks will help develop the change into a habit.
- Define what your next step in achieving a healthy life style should be. Make it measurable and achievable.
- Don’t attempt a dietary change where you feel deprived. If you feel you are being denied you’ll obsess over them and failure will be secured. Instead make changes to your diet that you can live with. If you are used to drinking 3 regular sodas a day cut back to 2 regular and 1 diet for several weeks, then 2 diet and 1 regular. Eventually work your way down to 1 soda every week. The time will be marching on anyway – you may as well take the time to make a few changes.
- Become familiar with the correct serving sizes. You may be surprised.
- Entertain the notion of breaking meals up into 4-6 smaller meals. You want to keep your body fueled and never really feel too hungry. Once you start to feel hungry you may also start to feel cravings. Cravings are harder to resist when you’re hungry.
- Phase out the processed foods and sweets in your diet. When you’re hungry at 3 pm grab an apple or banana to instead of the candy bar or donut.
- Drink at least 8 glasses of 8 oz of water each day. This will help to keep you feeling full, flush toxins out of your body and keep the cells in your skin plump and looking younger.
- Exercise at least 30 minutes each day. That doesn’t mean training for the Olympics but rather getting the heart rate up and maybe sweating a little. You can even break this time into 10 minute segments.
- Don’t go shopping on an empty stomach. In fact you should probably go shopping after eating enough to fill you up. Shopping on an empty stomach may mean that you buy junk food or entering a fast food restaurant for a snack.
- Learn what your weaknesses are and stay away! We all have a weakness – moments, certain restaurants, and times of the day, foods, desserts or people. When we’re exposed to these triggers we crave certain foods. Learn about your triggers and find ways to cope. Do you eat when you’re bored? Or when you need comfort? Find other ways to fight these triggers – take lessons, a class, a walk, or garden.
- Use smaller plates when you sit to eat. We are visual creatures and if we see a large, half-empty plate our brains see ‘less’ and we feel deprived. But a smaller, full plate and we’ll believe that we are getting all we want.
- Consider buying a crock pot or slow cooker so your meals will be ready when you get home. Some people take one weekend a month and cook up large recipes and freeze them in meal sized portions.
Every step you take toward a healthier life style is a victory. We see the ads the diet industry publishes and have come to think of weight loss as a one shot deal. It isn’t! Achieving and maintaining a healthy weight is the combination of a lot of small but important life style changes. Which one will you start today?