Losing weight requires a change of lifestyle habits. Remember, through your commitment to better yourself, you can live a healthier and, hopefully, longer life. Make simple changes to your life and use focusing techniques to help you eliminate cravings and stick to your dietary adjustments. Rather than stressing out about losing weight, focus on how your lifestyle changes are a chance to discover new activities, foods and possibilities.
Step 1
Write down your goals. Be sure to include goals other than weight loss, such as get healthier, lower blood pressure and have more energy. According to experts such as the Mayo Clinic and TV personality and physician, Dr. Phil, losing weight requires a detailed awareness of why you want to get fit.
Step 2
Throw out or donate foods that hinder your weight loss, including processed foods, overly fatty, salty or sugary foods and drinks. Stock up on whole grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes and lean meats. Keep a small amount of your favorite foods on hand so you do not feel that your lifestyle change is overly drastic.
Step 3
Buy healthy and interesting snacks. This is your time to discover new eating habits and healthier foods to crave. The University of California, San Francisco Medical Center list raw vegetables, bananas, crackers, raisins and popcorn as a few healthy snack ideas.
Step 4
Meditate to help you focus on your goals and release any stress that contributes to you making unhealthy choices. You can try using food as a focal point during your meditation. Clinical nutritionist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Stephanie Vangsness, says that you can take a small bite of an apple or other healthy food, close your eyes and chew slowly, without thinking about anything except the process of eating.
Step 5
Chew more slowly during meals, focusing on your food, rather than on TV, reading or other distractions. Nutritionist Stephanie Vangsness also recommends trying to make each meal last 20 minutes.
Step 6
Write up a rewards system that helps you work toward a gift, vacation or other non-food treat for each time that you resist a craving. Remember that completely eliminating your favorite food from your life can backfire on you, so let yourself have a very small portion of what you like each day or a slightly larger portion once a week. As long as you cut down your overall calorie intake by about 15 to 20 percent of what you need to eat to maintain your base weight, you will continue to shed pounds.
Step 7
Eat a substitute food. For example, if you crave potato chips, find a baked or organic chips made of whole grains that you find tasty and keep it on hand for a small treat. Be sure to pour your serving into a separate container so you resist eating more than one serving.
Step 8
Run, walk, swim, cycle or play a sport three to six days each week. You can mix up your routine as much as you like. Your activity will burn calories, help you lose weight, help you focus and make your cravings seem more like self-sabotage than a tasty idea.
Tips and Warnings
- If you are unsure of how much weight you need to lose, see your physician. It is important that your weight loss goals are reasonable and healthy. Commit to losing one to two pounds per week. Have a plan to maintain your ideal weight once you reach it.
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