How to lose weight and keep it off
I’m going to start off with some bad news. For most people, diets don’t work. To make things worse, even if you are successful you’re likely to regain the weight you’ve lost in the long-run. The good news is that there are some simple things you can do to increase your chances of losing weight, keeping it off and making long-term changes.
In this post, I’ll share some effective practices that should help you lose weight. I’ll then break them down into three easy things you can do right now. ’m writing this because the way we perceive ourselves can have a significant impact on how we feel and the way we present ourselves to the world.
So why is it so difficult to lose weight? One of the most important things to remember is that we’ve evolved to survive famine and food shortages. This means that our bodies will naturally adapt when we eat less over time.
Another important thing we often overlook is that people naturally have different amounts of willpower when they really need to dig deep. It’s not always a matter of being weak or failing when you can’t keep on track, as it often relates to how much glucose your body naturally produces.
To make things worse, most of us also have a natural, set weight that our bodies will keep bouncing back to.
On top of all of this, some of us are ‘internals’, who eat when their bodies let them know they ‘need’ food and others are ‘externals’, who ‘want’ to eat all those tasty treats that tempt them. Combine this with the natural pressures and time restraints modern life puts on us and we’re really in trouble.
Don’t get down about this though, because once we know what we’re up against we can do something about it. We can change our relationship with food.
Let’s begin by looking at how we can prepare for those times when we want to focus on losing weight.
Preparing to lose weight
As I’ve just explained, the odds are stacked against us when we attempt to lose weight and keep it off. It can genuinely feel like you’re climbing a mountain and there will be days when you just don’t feel you can do it. To help you with this, here are three easy things you can do to prepare.
Create a 21 day plan
The most effective way to start your journey is to make losing weight your sole focus for 21 days. If you’re doing this alongside other things like a fitness kick, or even worse giving up smoking, you’ll probably fail to achieve anything.
You need to remember that we all have a finite supply of willpower, in the form of the glucose our body produces, so we need to turn this to our advantage. Three weeks isn’t long either, and it’s the perfect time period to allow habits to set in and allow your brain to adapt to everything.
If you can, try not to think beyond these 21 days but don’t expect it all to be over afterwards. Most of us will need a lot longer, so this is all about introducing and adapting to effective practices that we’re going to need to get in place before we can expect to see results.
Remove temptations
A lot of people overlook the fact that you can’t be tempted by something that isn’t there. Your journey is going to start at the shops so if you can, make sure unhealthy food isn’t in your house where it’s going to torture you. I know this is going to be difficult if you don’t live alone, unless you get everyone to join you, but try to get a good balance if you can.
Consider your eating arrangements
Are you really too busy to eat healthily? You should think long and hard about when and where you eat your meals before your big push begins. Can you take a healthier lunch you’ve prepared yourself to work and will that evening meal be whatever you can quickly lay your hands on? It’s also important to remember that you can still eat healthily, and in moderation, in most restaurants.
When you’re ready, it’s time to start that big 21 day push so let’s look at some important practices.
Things to do every day
Here are some helpful practices that should really help you develop good habits and hopefully, lose some weight. That’s right, you just need to do these three easy things every day:
Weigh yourself
Although the advice varies about when it’s best to weigh yourself, I strongly suggest you weigh yourself every day, first thing in the morning. Regardless of what’s more accurate, you need to keep reminding yourself of what you’re trying to achieve. This simple act will also focus your attention on what you’re going to eat and drink throughout the day.
Record everything you eat
One of the most important practices is to keep a food diary during your 21 day push. This could either be a written list or a simple photo taken in advance. Like weighing yourself every day, your food diary will help hold you to account and remind you of what you’re trying to achieve. You should also be able to work out where you’re going wrong if you don’t get the results you expect.
Write about how you feel
If you can, try to keep a journal of your 21 day push in addition to your food diary. Like the two ideas above, it should really keep you focussed and motivate you to get through the hard times. It will also be great to look back on what you’ve achieved.
Now it’s time to look at the bit that will really make a difference.
Things to do while you’re eating
So now you’ve done everything to get yourself ready and remain focused, it’s time to look at what you can do when you sit down to eat. If you can, try to do these three easy things when you’re eating.
Remove distractions
I know it can be difficult, but try to eat alone when you can and remove anything that’s going to distract you, like a TV or a digital device. Research has shown that when you give your food your full attention, you’re likely to react when you’re full and reduce the risk of overeating. It also helps if you pay close attention to what you’re eating which in turn, helps you eat slower and really savour your food.
Pay close attention to yourself
This may sound strange, but it helps if you can see yourself while you eat. This makes you self-conscious and it should reduce the risk of overdoing it. While I fully understand that setting up a mirror or camera isn’t likely to be convenient, a simple photo at your side or on your fridge will work wonders.
Be mindful
For me, there are two types of mindful eating and they are both really important. Firstly, being mindful and focussing on the present moment when you eat can really help you eat slower, savour your food and hopefully allow you to go a lot longer before you start to feel hungry again.
The other important aspect to mindful eating is really focussing on what’s going on in your body and reacting to when you ‘need’ to eat, rather than when you ‘want’ a tasty treat. You should also start to react when you begin to feel full.
That’s it, it’s up to you now to do as many of these things as you can for 21 days. I haven’t finished though, as I have some other suggestions if you want to learn more.
Simple ideas to help you lose weight
Now we’ve got some effective practices in place, let’s look at some simple things we can do when we’re struggling to put it all together. Here are three easy things to help keep you on track.
Push food away
We’ve all been placed in a position where a bowl of tasty treats has been placed in front of us and we just can’t stop ourselves. We know we’re overdoing it and if people are around us, we know this probably doesn’t look good.
Fortunately, there’s a simple and very effective solution. You just have to push the bowl away from you. This simple act will help create a natural barrier and you should be able to stop eating. Just try it yourself the next time you’re in this situation and see what happens.
Avoid ‘what the hell’ moments
I’m pretty sure that the main reason most of us fail to lose weight when we try to is that we soon adopt a ‘what the hell’ approach to cutting down. There will be days when you’ve caved in and eaten too much and you think, ‘what the hell’ I’ll have that huge dessert anyway as the damage has already been done.
Calories don’t cancel themselves out after a set limit though, so you really need to be careful and contain the damage when you start to lose control. Just being aware of this can really make a difference.
Swap your knife and fork
This may sound strange, but if you really want to put these practices into action you should swap your knife and fork around. Eating with your non-dominant hand will naturally force you to slow down and pay a lot more attention to what you’re doing. It may look a little weird in a restaurant though, so this is probably something you’ll want to try at home.
So that’s it. If you can put everything I’ve introduced together, you should stand a good chance of losing weight and keeping it off.
Although this journey never really ends, you need to keep your focus on those first 21 days. It should be a lot easier afterwards and you should soon start to see some results.
I’ve deliberately stayed away from looking at what you eat and giving nutritional advice because I want this to be about the practices. With these in place, you can then go out and explore everything else.
So to sum it up simply, we need to prepare for our big push and make sure it gets our full focus. We then need to keep reminding ourselves what we’re trying to do and implement effective, daily practices.
Here are the three easy things that will help you lose weight and keep it off:
Make losing weight your sole focus for 21 days
Keep reminding yourself of what you’re trying to achieve
Give your food your full attention
I really hope this has been helpful and that this is the start of a successful journey for you.