Losing weight isn’t anybody’s idea of a really great time, but what’s even worse is having to lose it for a second time after the pounds have climbed back on. If you want to make sure to make weight loss stick you have to work on those extra pounds of fat, then make sure you know the right tips to stop them from ever returning.
The first thing you need to do is change the way you think of dieting and weight loss. Far too many of us think of ourselves as fat. We are not fat. We have extra fat on our bodies, but we are not fat. Your weight loss has nothing to do with guilt, shame, or who you are. It is another life goal – an important one – that requires work to be achieved. It takes skills, knowledge and the willingness to stick to it, just like any other goal you want to achieve.
For that reason, crash diets, fad diets and quick fixes are no longer going to fool you into trying them. They’re a waste of your time, energy and motivation. From now on, you need to concentrate on living a lifestyle that will help you to make weight loss stick.
The following tips will help you to keep up the right mindset for healthy weight management for the rest of your life:
• Think long term – You’re developing a new lifestyle. If any part of your diet is something you’re not going to be willing to keep up forever, then it may actually do more harm than good to try to keep it up. Giving yourself too many restrictions and limitations isn’t something you can maintain over time to make weight loss stick. It’s far better to lose weight gradually in a way that you’ll be able to keep up than it is to lose weight rapidly only to revert back to your old ways and gain it all back again.
• Don’t forget to exercise – Eating right is only one part of losing weight and keeping it off. Exercising does more for your body than you could count on both hands. A body is naturally programmed to keep extra pounds packed on “just in case.” When you exercise in a smart and reasonable way, this can help to burn off the excess. If you don’t exercise at all, you won’t burn any excess. If you exercise too much, your system will only tell you that you need more backup fat and will amp up your hunger. You’ll end up eating more calories than you’re burning! Find a happy medium when you exercise.
• Deal with your hunger reasonably – If you’re just a little bit hungry, eat something small to tide you over. Many of us have spent our lives feeling that we need to respond immediately to any sensation of hunger or that we should ignore it altogether and wait until the proper time to eat. Both of those responses work against us. A little bit of hunger isn’t going to hurt anything. It’s nothing we can’t handle in our lives. There’s no reason to overreact to it and overeat. That said, if it will be a while before you’re going to have a meal, don’t just hold off altogether. Have a small something. Half a dozen almonds can actually dull hunger for a little while without throwing a healthful diet off track. The reason you also shouldn’t ignore your hunger entirely is that by the time you are ready to eat, you’ll be starving and will eat the wrong foods, you’ll eat quickly and you’ll eat too much.
