5 Steps to Permanent Weight Loss
- By:Kathryn Martyn
Your Roadmap to Permanent Weight Loss: A 5-Step Plan
It's easier to reach your destination with a map so here is your roadmap to permanent weight loss. Follow these five steps, every day for one week. At the end of the week (Sunday evening perhaps) take a five minute inventory. How has the week gone? Did you first plan then follow through with that plan or did you take a lot of side trips? The idea isn't to chastize or berate yourself if you didn't follow through but to figure out what worked and what didn't so you can fine-tune the plan for the next week. Make adjustments where necessary and revise until you have a plan that works for you, for your lifestyle.
Each week decide if you'd like to follow the steps for another week. It takes discipline but even the lottery requires buying a ticket. Without some effort you are stuck.
STEP 1 to Permanent Weight Loss: State What You Want to Achieve in the Next Month
"I want to lose 50 pounds."
Is that achievable in the next month? If not, break it down into smaller mini-goals. "I want to lose 5 pounds this month."
What other ways can you describe what you want? Try using other senses such as what you'll see, what you might hear (compliments, etc.) and what you will feel:
"I want to step on the scale and see (a certain number) of pounds (remember keep it reasonable for something you can achieve in one month).
"I want to feel my pants getting looser."
"I want other people to notice I'm looking better and tell me I look good."
"I want to easily bend over and touch my toes."
"I want to get up from a seated position, easily and gracefully."
Those are positive goals. Focus on what you want. How you want to feel, what you want to experience. Imagine hearing these things, feeling these things.
STEP 2 to Permanent Weight Loss: Decide Which Habit to Change First
You'll likely have more than one habit to change so choose one (what you choose is not as important as simply choosing something). Get out your weekly calendar and start with eating less (portion control), eating more (healthier foods), or eating differently.
Do you eat pizza every Friday night? What if you ate it only three Fridays a month? What if you stopped at one slice less than usual? I've noticed that Friday nights I easily eat four slices yet with leftover pizza one slice seems to be plenty. What's different is that Saturdays don't have the "indulgence" mindset that accompanies Friday nights. That's my unique perspective; what's yours? What can you notice yourself doing and what can you change in your regular eating habits?
Do you mindlessly snack on a bag of chips until they're all gone? Try portion control: take a small bowlful to your chair instead of the whole bag. Decide in advance how many bowls you'll eat, and stick to your plan. Take your time. Taste the chips for a change. Pay attention and be reasonable. If you know it's going to take three bowls full of chips, that's fine. It's less than eating the whole bag, and later you can cut it back to two bowls. One day you may find a handful or two is plenty.
Gradually cutting back on quantity, slowly introducing other new foods such as an apple when you want a crunchy food, and modifying what you prefer to eat is a far better approach than eliminating all your favorite foods. The former is a way to develop an eating style that works for you and that you can live with. The latter (fad diet approach) is fine for short-term weight loss but that weight inevitably comes back simply because you'll eventually go back to the eating style you prefer.
STEP 3 to Permanent Weight Loss: Move it to Lose it
Adding regular exercise helps enormously because the more active you are the more calories you burn. Muscle tissue requires calories, fat does not. The more muscle you have the more calories you burn just sitting there. Decide what you might do, when you'll do it, and how often? Do you need equipment, books, tapes, shoes, or can you just get started and walk out your front door and around the block?
Write it down. It should include which days of the week and what time of day. Don't make the mistake of saying you'll exercise every single day. Build in rest days and make it ultra easy at first. You can always add more later.
Hate to exercise? Think outside the box. Exercise does not have to mean getting sweaty to the oldies. It can be gardening, bike riding, enjoying nature. All activity counts so household chores, washing the car, up and down stairs and even watching TV if you are playing with games such as DDR (Dance, Dance, Revolution) or the Yourself!Fitness program for X-box, PC and PlayStation. Dance, play, go fishing. Whatever floats your boat, just get out and get busy.