This is the one big promise we make to ourselves every year but seldom keep. I can’t speak for everyone, but for the ones obsessed with losing weight, don’t make that resolution about the bathroom scale. If this is the promise you have been making for years, “this is the year I’m going to lose weight”, it’s time for a change. This year you want to promise you're going to “live a healthier life”. I know it's a little early to write about the new year, but it's only 3 weeks away. If you're careful and watch your diet closely you won't have that regret in January that you gained too much.
Step off the scale now and no one will get hurt. Focusing just on weight loss can lead to cycles of losing and regaining weight, lower self-esteem, and a preoccupation with food and body image.
“You’ll do better if you have goals that have to do not with weight, but with health,” says Carol Landau, Ph.D., clinical professor of psychiatry and medicine at the Alpert Medical School, Brown University. While a New Year’s resolution is a great way to get in touch with what’s important and how you want to change, “Most diets don’t work,” she says.
“A focus on weight loss tends to result in a quick-fix approach to a permanent challenge,” she says. “Instead, focus on finding health results in lifestyle changes that are more likely to last.” It would be better to focus on changing your diet.
The irony is, if you make your resolutions about wellness, rather than weight, you may get the best of both worlds: You’ll feel better, get healthier and yes, lose weight. By eating the right foods and being more active your body will burn up that excess body fat.
“The reason most people fail to lose weight is that they don’t realize that it’s their lifestyle that caused them to gain the excess body fat and it’s their lifestyle that prevents them from losing their fat.” In almost all cases when an adult gains weight, it’s because they’re gaining body fat.
Good: Resolve to change daily behaviors
“If you’re totally inactive, it may be walking a mile every day”. “If you’re already pretty active, it might be training to run a 5k race.” Or it could be a promise to cut out processed foods. Let your goals be achievable and based on things you can actually do, rather than weight-loss results. It could be eating a healthy breakfast every morning, or eating fish twice a week and making sure you sit down when you eat.
You might resolve to eat a fruit or vegetable at every meal of the day. Eating more fruits and vegetables, along with drinking plenty of water and walking daily, has been shown to be a pretty powerful combo when it comes to weight-loss success. But that’s not your concern now. Before you get there, your goal is to create a healthy habit you can sustain. The same goes for exercise: Your goal is to create a habit that will improve the health of your body and mind.
You won’t have to rely on the scale to know if you’ve been successful, either. If you have an orange at breakfast, a salad at lunch, and a green vegetable at dinner, you’ve won. Took a 20-minute walk during your lunch break? Pat yourself on the back. Any improvements you can make in your diet or your activity level will improve your health.
That said, The more improvements you make the quicker the results. Yes, any small improvements will help over the long term, but big improvements can show results in a short amount of time.
When I first decided to “get healthy” I stopped eating my normal diet and started to eat a low-fat, low-carb diet of meat and vegetables. Oatmeal for breakfast and a salad for lunch. That it. I didn’t skimp on food, I ate a small amount of food every two hours or so. Between my three basic meals, I’d eat fruit or a yogurt cup. I was eating 6 times a day in small quantities. I never got hungry. I was eating all fresh foods. That alone will curb your appetite. Fresh food is more satisfying than manufactured food and yogurt are manufactured, but I stuck to Greek yogurt, it has less sugar and has more protein. Eating protein is important and you should try and eat protein at every meal.
Look for my podcasts on anchor.fm, or the podcast app on your cell phone. Search “howbaddoyouwanttoloseweight”.
If you really want to lose your body fat then look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books.
There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.
My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.
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