Ah yes, New Year. New beginnings, a fresh start, a chance to wipe the slate clean and this time stick to those weight loss resolutions to get to your goal weight.
So it’s two weeks in and how are you travelling so far?
If you were anything like me, you would have already blown it by now. Those habits are deeply ingrained and take a little more than a fanciful thought or even signing up to a 12-week program to make a permanent change. We are talking f-o-r-e-v-e-r people, so it may take some persistent, consistent reminders and shifts to change 20/30/40 year old habits. So try this on…
No. 10 – Make one tiny, weeny, itsy bitsy change at a time
The way I see it, many people want to go from overweight most of my life to supermodel in an easy 2-week diet. And we wonder why 95% of diets fail? Sheesh!
Then we beat ourselves up because it seems like we are not motivated enough, disciplined enough or have enough willpower. Seems to me that while the goal is fine, the approach may be all kinds of wrong.
I like to see it more like layers, pick one little thing that you can change that will bring no pain whatsoever and do that until it just becomes what you do now. Then move to the next thing. For example: put stevia in your coffee instead of sugar. Sure it tastes a little different but you get used to that and doing this consistently may lose you 5kgs (11lbs) over time. Sure beats getting up at the crack of dawn and torturing yourself with workouts that you hate. Once you have that one happening, then move to another thing.
No. 9 – Sign up to a blog, facebook page or instagram you like to remind you
As the saying goes, ‘life isn’t one thing after the other, it’s the same thing over and over.’ We’re all human, we forget stuff and so it’s great to receive daily or weekly reminders of what you wanted and suggestions on how to get it. It may be the inspiration for the next little thing you change to add that next layer that will lose you the next 5kgs (11 lbs.) (Hint hint: www.facebook.com/slimbirdy and Instagram – @slimbirdy.)
No. 8 Get in touch with your body
Different foods make you physically feel different ways, such as tired, bloated, hungry again soon after you have eaten, energetic etc. Get in touch with how this works for you and it will magically guide you. Again focus on one thing at a time – see how bread feels then see how sugar feels etc.
No. 7 Know why you want it
Why do you want to lose weight and how do you want to feel? For me feeling fantastic was important and it guided my choices as to what foods to eat. Eating normal cakes, ice cream and biscuits full of sugar and/or flour made me feel crappy and kept me fat and I didn’t want that, so they were easy to leave out while I was feasting on all the good stuff. (Chocolate Tweets, hello!)
No. 6 Dessert and sweets are on the weight loss menu!
Learn to make desserts/sweets with healthy ingredients that taste amazing, make you feel good and help you lose weight – total win/win. In this way, this new style of eating that you are working on can last forever because you are not missing out at all. (Some of these recipes are here on my recipe page and in my books.)
That’s enough for this week to keep you on track and keep piecing together what works for you. Seems to me weight loss is more like a puzzle, rather than hard work.
Continue reading to complete the rest of the list here.
Sunshine and sandy beaches.
Kristy x
