Top 5 Weight Loss Tips
Updated: Feb 14, 2020
What is it that you really want, to just lose weight? Or do you actually want to achieve and maintain your ideal weight?
The truth is that it is easy to get started, and there are ways you can help yourself see it through with these top 5 strategies to lose weight and keep it off.
1.- Choose the right time
Christmas might well be over but, do you have a birthday, wedding or anniversary coming up next week? It’s best to make changes when you have no major celebrations coming up. That way, by the time the next event comes up, you have already installed new eating habits into your life. It will be easier to resist temptation and stick with it when you have given yourself time to see results.
If you get started in the New Year and your next celebration is Valentine’s Day, you will have already lost some weight by then and be motivated to keep it up.
And if you are going out on a date dinner, I have already shown you how to socialise smartly, or you can read about it here.
Remember very little counts. An all or nothing mentality will derail you off your path to success and take you back to your old eating habits in just one mishap.
So focus on the good habits you are acquiring each day, however big or little they are, like reducing sugar in your tea or coffee, going for a walk or gym session everyday, ordering a take away every fortnight instead of every week, etc.
“If you think you are too small to make a difference,
try sleeping with a mosquito.”
Dalai Lama
2.- Fad Diet vs Lifestyle
Crash diets that starve you, fad diets that require ingredients you have never heard of before, which you probably do not even like, and is a chore to follow, are doomed to fail. You know that, to stick with it, your chosen diet plan must adapt to you and not the other way around.
The best lifestyle change you can do for weight loss and health is to ditch processed foods and nourish your body with whole natural foods. Processed foods have a very low nutritional value and are loaded with fat and sugar that your body doesn't need. Since your body doesn't need it, it becomes the extra weight you carry. But they are also packed with chemicals that make you eat more of it.
If you want guidance on healthy eating, you can read my previous post Simple Healthy Eating Plan to Lose Weight.
If you want to discover what emotion drives your overeating,
take my Type of Eater Quiz
and receive personalised tips based on your results.
3.- Exercise routine
Whatever type of exercise you choose that suits your fitness level, the key word here is ‘routine’. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will you run a marathon nor pop up your abs by tomorrow. Walking the dog, household chores, a dancing class, swimming, running, gym workouts… all combat the couch potato syndrome.
Choose activities you enjoy doing, rather than starting a regime you label as a chore that you will soon give up, and make them part of your daily fitness routine. Incorporating movement into your life is less about weight loss and more about physical fitness and mental wellbeing.
4.- Accept responsibility
There will be days when temptation lurks around, but you always have a choice. No one is going to put a gun to your head and force you to eat junk food or make you eat until you finish your plate or feel sick.
You can always eat all the pizza, ice cream and biscuits you want when you are 90, you will have plenty of time to do that then. But, right now, you are choosing to make good food choices because you are the one who is going to be rewarded feeling the health and life benefits of weight loss.
Your new mantra is: “I choose to (your choice, i.e. leave the chips and have a salad instead) and I feel good about it because (your goal, i.e. I will look fabulous in that size 10 dress I'm going to buy).”
5.- Value yourself
When you truly love and respect yourself, you stop mis-treating yourself with food and habits that are detrimental to your body image and self-esteem. Instead, you choose to celebrate your weekly or monthly weight loss with treats that make you feel good about yourself and motivate you.
For example, you could reward yourself with a bath bomb, a mani-pedi, or a full body massage, a new scarf, pair of shoes or handbag. Or follow your adventurous spirit and try something new like a salsa class, belly dancing or Bollywood.
Celebrating your milestone successes is an integral part of the journey. Both your body and mind will thank you for it.
Whatever route you take this year to achieve your health and fitness goals, it's not a sprint but a race. Cultivate self-love daily and focus on your progress. You've got this!