- Start learning to love your body now. If you can’t see anything good about yourself, weight loss will not make you feel better. Instead, as you get closer to your goal, you’ll get depressed you still aren’t “perfect.” You can love yourself while seeking self-improvement.
-Educate yourself on how weight loss works. Learn the definition of BMR and how many calories you need just to live, and read up on metabolism. This is the most important thing you can learn regarding weight loss.
-If you are losing more than 2 pounds a week, then you are losing lean muscle. Muscles that keep your body alive. The only exception is when you first change your eating habits, you might lose a larger amount due to water weight.
-On the note of water, drink lots of water. Not only because water is calorie-free, but it’s been proven that water aids weight loss. Did you know dehydration slows down the fat-burning process? Then there’s the ol’ adage that if you drink more water during a meal, you’ll be less inclined to overeat.
-I’m just naming random percentages here, so don’t quote me on this, but weight loss is 80% nutrition/calories/food and 20% exercise. In fact, I didn’t exercise at all in the middle of my weight loss, and I was still losing weight. If you eat within the exact right range of calories your body needs per day (neither OVER or UNDER), cut out over-processed foods, drink lots of water, get lots of fiber, and eat fruits, veggies, and whole grains, you will see progress. Exercise aids weight loss and makes you look better, but you will have more power over your progress if you have power over your food first.
-Eat frequently. I am less inclined to overeat if I eat small amounts of food and often. For example, my work lunch is packed for today already, and I have one banana, two single servings of frozen broccoli, two grilled chicken breasts, and two boiled eggs. I get a break every hour and 20 minutes for 15 minutes, and I eat something nearly every break. Before I started doing this, I would eat once at work, and then when I got home, I’d overeat because I thought I was hungrier than I really was!
-Don’t reward yourself with unhealthy food. What you’re doing is creating a bad relationship with food, and you are confusing your brain. Isn’t it counterproductive to gain weight due to excess unhealthy foods, to cut out unhealthy foods in order to lose weight, and then when you lose weight reward yourself with the very thing that restricted your progress in the past? This is my biggest tip: when you tell yourself “NO CHOCOLATE, IT’S BAD FOR ME,” you want it more. You put it on a pedestal, and you think about it more and more. And when you finally cave in, you’ll binge. That’s why I don’t restrict in my diet; I moderate. I want a soft taco supreme from Taco Bell? Okay, I can have it. I’ll look up the calories online to calculate into my daily calories, and if what I eat is more than I normally eat, I go to the gym and burn them. If I’m going out with friends, I’ll fill up on something healthy like broccoli before going so I won’t overeat at the restaurant. If I’m eating something at home, I’ll eat it with a side of something healthy so again, I won’t overeat. And you know what? Now I hardly even crave unhealthy foods.
-Track your calories. Eat nothing you can’t track. You can look things up online if you are unsure. http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/ is my favorite site to track.
-MEASURE YOUR FOOD. I can’t emphasize this enough! You may think that spoonful of peanut butter is one tablespoon, but it’s twice as high as the spoon and spilling over all the sides. You think you’re eating a certain amount of calories, except you’re over-estimating your portions. Get a food scale and some measuring cups. It’ll be the best weight loss decision you’ve ever made, I promise!
-Take LOTS of pictures during your journey! If you are less motivated when you look at them, then take them and put them away in a folder on your computer. Wait until you’ve lost some weight and THEN go back and look. There were times when I didn’t feel like I had made much progress at all and wanted to quit, but when I would go back to my older pictures, I would see how much progress I had actually made. You might surprise yourself!
-Find ways to be held accountable. Personally, I told EVERYONE I was losing weight. Friends, family, co-workers, and the internet. Why? Because I wanted to feel guilty when I gave up, when I wanted to stop because it was too hard. Too many people knowing I give up so easily is too embarrassing to bear. Besides, if you have a blog or a fitness log where you track your food and exercise, you’ll be more accountable for your diet and exercise. If nobody but you knows you snuck in a few cookies during dinner, or had a few cokes at work, it’s easy to get away with it. But if you’re tracking your calories on a public log people follow, it would be unbearable for them to know how you broke your diet.
-Find a partner! Losing weight was a lot easier when I had friends to do it with. Don’t have friends in person who will talk weight stuff with you? Find people online! There are loads of communities out there.
-Food is not the enemy. Repeat with me: food is not the enemy. Food is not bad. Eating food does not make you fat. Food is fuel. Fuel gives you the energy to get through the day, and to work-out. Working out is nice. Therefore, food is nice.
-Got off track for a day? Did it start with a single donut and end with a whole box of pizza? That’s okay! Hey, guess what? You’re human, and so am I. Nobody can be expected to be perfect everyday. It’s okay to indulge your cravings sometimes! Enjoy the hell out of that pizza and don’t let the taste of guilt make it not worth it. Start over tomorrow and don’t let it weigh you down.
