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While January is the month that screams ‘time to lose
weight' for many Americans, the drive to lose weight
plagues us throughout the year. Spending more than $33 billion
a year on diet books, diet foods, diet programs and other
schemes ‘guaranteed' to take the weight off for
good, Americans are being misled by the millions. The truth
is, when we try to lose weight, we may end up gaining it.
And according to the National Weight Loss Registry, those
who do maintain weight loss from a diet do so at high cost.
Their days are devoted to counting calories, fat or carb grams
or otherwise monitoring what and how much they eat, and to
exercise that doesn't often qualify as joyful –
not a recipe for a pleasant lifestyle, in our opinion.
But what are we supposed to do if we're too fat and
out of shape? It's called taking care of yourself. Now
there's a concept!
Jump Start Weight Loss
by Not Focusing on Weight Loss
Read these tips for a quick refresher course on what taking
care of ourselves is all about. Ironically, they can help
jump start weight loss by removing our focus from weight loss.
- Accept your wonderful self. The first
step in taking care of ourselves is to adopt a non-judgmental
attitude towards ourselves, to help us see what's
what without interfering, critical self-talk. Rather than
causing us to ‘give up' and just accept our
current state of fitness, self-acceptance actually motivates
us to take steps to improve things. Read our FitBriefing
on self and size acceptance
for healthy weight for more on this.
- Quit trying to lose weight. Set our
sights on doing what's necessary to help us feel great.
Generally, those are activities that will take our bodies
to their natural, healthy weight. Weight loss becomes an
outcome rather than a goal, and with this method, it's
likely a lasting result, rather than a yo-yo diet effort.
- Stop dieting. This may sound like a
repeat of the previous tip, but here we're focusing
on that constant attention to what we're eating, how
many calories, fat or carbohydrates it contains, when we
eat it, etc., etc. Instead, start eating
mindfully, using internal cues to guide eating. If you
need a little help getting started, use the healthy
eating plate model to help put together balanced meals
and snacks that support your body's cues.
- Start moving. The first step is to just
start moving in whatever way that feels good. It can be
a walk around the block, a belly dancing class, a strength
training session, a snowball fight with the kids. We can
fine tune things as we go along to be sure we include aerobic,
strength-training and flexibility activities that are all
considered important for fitness. But don't get caught
up in believing there's only one way to achieve each
of these. If we don't like to lift weights, we can
strength train with yoga, for example. Read our FitBriefing
Intrinsic Exercise: Learning
to Love Physical Activity for some good insight into
making regular physical activity a part of your life.
- Enjoy life. With these fundamental ways
of thinking and doing in place, we're set for living
a life doing what's important to us.
At Green Mountain at Fox Run, we've been helping women
learn how to do the above for over 33 years. Our healthy weight
loss program can help you jump start your weight loss program
by helping you to stop dieting and shift your focus from weight
loss to living well. Join us for the time of your life that
can change your life!
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