12 Ways to FINALLY Get Healthy – And Yes, Lose Weight and Keep It Off!

People are always asking me how to lose weight, especially in the months leading up to swimsuit season. You probably already know that eating less and moving more leads to weight loss; however, health is more than just a number on the scale or a dress size. Instead of focusing only on your weight, pursue a healthier lifestyle – it will lead to weight loss as well as a better overall quality of life.

Here are a few specific guidelines that lead to a significantly healthier lifestyle.

1.      Determine your motivating factor. This is of utmost importance. Don’t ask yourself the question, “Why does my wife want me to lose weight?” Ask yourself why YOU want to lose weight. This reason needs to be important enough to keep you motivated as you pursue your health goals. It needs to be big enough to help you help you maintain those changes for the long term. You can definitely have more than one reason, but be sure to keep them clear, concise, and personal. They can serve as a self-empowering mantra when faced with temptations to veer off the path to a healthier lifestyle.

 

2.      Keep a food & activity journal. It doesn’t have to be every single day, but studies do show that journaling can help keep your diet on track and support lasting weight loss. You don’t have to do calorie counts and run all the numbers, but maintaining a food log keeps you accountable to yourself. You can look for overall patterns of being more active, or eating more fruits and vegetables, more whole grains, and fewer sweets or fatty snacks, for example. If you are interested in keeping track of specific numbers, try a website like livestrong.com, sparkpeople.com, or a phone app, or you can crank out the numbers yourself using a site like calorieking.com. However, all that accounting can wear a person down, and really isn’t necessary unless you are doing everything you think you can and still feel like you aren’t seeing any results.
  

3.      Find a support group/person. Whether it’s a health professional, relative, neighbor, friend, spouse, or someone you meet through a weight loss group or forum, it’s so important to find someone (or a group of people) who will offer their help and support in your journey to a healthier way of living. Additionally, those people who most closely affect your health habits (such as significant others or household members) need to be clued in that you are trying to make changes; letting them know about your new lifestyle gives them the ability to show support by not begging you to try a new fast food restaurant, buy you big boxes of chocolate to show their affections, or asking to drive to the corner market instead of walk or bike. Having a support system adds accountability to your lifestyle – not just to yourself, but with someone else. Make sure this person is a positive influence in your life, not someone who will bring you down when you have bumps in the road.

4.      Eat regularly spaced small meals and snacks throughout the day. Eating only 2-3 square meals a day makes your blood sugar peak and drop drastically after each meal, which leads to energy bursts and crashes as well as a decreased ability to portion control at mealtimes. Eating regularly throughout the day keeps hunger in check and has been shown to support weight management and helps curb hunger. See my blog on snacks for more information.

5.      Read your labels and ingredient lists. What we don’t want is to simply assume that a food is healthy without first examining the ingredients and label. The exception? Fresh fruits and vegetables. Those are always good choices. Remember, saturated and trans fats are the bad fats (see blog entry on fats here), added sugar is a no-no, and we want all our grains to be whole (check out more about label reading in my entry about picking a healthy cereal). Overall, the more unpronounceable ingredients there are on the ingredients list, the more processed it is. We want as many fresh, whole ingredients as possible.

6.      Eat more plant foods and drink plenty of water. This means fruits, veggies, beans & legumes, tofu, nuts & seeds, and whole grains. These foods provide fiber, vitamins, minerals, and lots of phytonutrients as well. Plant foods are completely cholesterol-free since cholesterol only comes from animal foods; most are also low in saturated fat. You don’t have to eat completely vegetarian to reap the benefits of plant foods, just shift your animal food to plant food ratio! Drinking more water will keep your body hydrated and ensure you don't mistake thirst for hunger.

7.      Lead an active lifestyle. Just move more. Taking your dog for a walk, your child to the park, going for a hike through a nearby metro park, walking around the zoo, gardening, biking to a friend’s house, taking the stairs at work, mowing the lawn, exergaming, vacuuming; all these add up to an active lifestyle. It isn’t exercise, but it does keep you from living a sedentary life.

8.      Make time to exercise most days of the week. And be realistic about your expectations! Gentlemen, you may never look like Vin Diesel. Ladies, you may never be a size two. Instead of going into the gym with unrealistic expectations of losing 5 pounds in a day, having cut abs and Michelle Obama arms, and finally fitting into those skinny jeans by this weekend, aim to gain self-confidence in yourself and in your body. Fixating on a “right” size will just lead to frustration and negative associations with working out. It’s easy to think being a certain weight will lead to happiness in all other realms of your life, but that isn’t how it works. When you exercise, think of what you are doing for your heart, for your longevity and long-term mobility. Learn to take pride in your body and its ability to carry you farther, lift more weight, or become more flexible. Exercise to clear your mind, help your body, find a sense of peace, create a routine, and sleep better, and stop worrying about those skinny jeans. Most health experts recommend fitting in at least 150 minutes of moderate to intense exercise each week, so work on increasing those minutes week by week until you hit your goal.

9.      Get at least 7 hours of sleep every night. This may sound impossible for some, but it really is the best thing to do for your health – and your weight. Neglecting your sleep schedule can mean messing up the amount of certain hormones your body makes while you’re sleeping, including hormones involved with signaling hunger, appetite, and satiety. Turn off the TV, put down your work, and get into bed at a decent hour; sleep needs to be a priority in your life.

10.  Limit the salty snacks, savory desserts, fast food/eating out, and sugary drinks – in short, lay off the junk food. This is an obvious one. Is it a food that is going to help you or hurt you? Are you eating it to fuel your body or your appetite?

11.  Eat appropriate portion sizes. Use smaller plates, smaller cups, smaller utensils. Serve yourself. Look at serving sizes on food labels for guides. Think quality, not quantity. Eat more slowly and don’t go back for seconds until at least 20 minutes as passed. All in all, eat less of the not-so-great stuff and pile high the fruits and veggies. MyPlate (the new food "pyramid") is a good example of what a balanced meal can look like. 

 

12.  Stay positive. Staying optimistic about your progress and dealing with obstacles as they come greatly improves the chances of turning your lifestyle around permanently – as well as losing those extra pounds and keeping them off. Negative self-talk puts you at risk of falling back to old habits. When you see a number on the scale you don’t like, or if you really veered off your diet for a day (or a month), instead of talking down to yourself and focusing on the bad, think about the ways you can get back on the wagon and what has worked for you in the past. Studies show that people who were more positive throughout a weight loss journey were the ones that managed to achieve their weight goals and keep those extra pounds off for the long run.

Thanks for reading!

Anna