How To Prepare For Your Weight Loss Journey?
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What You Need To Know:
Making the decision to lose weight can feel extremely overwhelming. Between the choices of how to change up your diet, exercise, and lifestyle, the mounting choices can prevent you from starting. But according to dietitians, successful weight loss does not need to be complicated and can happen with small, simple changes over time.
The first thing an individual needs to remember when starting on a weight loss journey is that you need to be patient! It’s a lifestyle change, not a quick fix.
“The winner in weight loss is not the person who loses the weight the quickest, but rather who keeps it off the longest.”
“Think about making realistic lifestyle changes you can stick with for the long haul,”
“Don’t make a lifestyle or dietary changes you can’t stick with.”
While each person’s weight loss journey is individual, there are a few pointers that will go a long way and help you reach your goal.
Losing weight is difficult, that’s an undeniable fact. Whether you’re considering a weight loss journey to improve your health or even just to look fitter, it takes a lot of time, hard work, and immense amounts of willpower.
HOW TO PREPARE FOR YOUR YOUR WEIGHT LOSS JOURNEY?
Research has shown how weight loss can help you reduce the risk of several diseases like cardiovascular malfunction, diabetes, and blood pressure. On the other hand, it also helps relieve stress and anxiety caused by body-image issues and makes you a fitter, happier, and healthier individual.
HOW TO PREPARE FOR YOUR YOUR WEIGHT LOSS JOURNEY?
There are many factors to consider when trying to lose weight. Simply not eating won’t work; you will need to change your diet and adopt an overall healthier lifestyle. It is important to know the right kind of changes to make, and what to avoid.
Many tools and tips can help you through the process and keep you on track. But before you get started, FITrebel.in has some tips for your weight loss journey.
Focus On Making Small Changes Versus Big Ones
If you focus on small changes they are easier to adapt to.
Then once they become more of a habit you can move on to another. For example, if an individual never eats fruit or veggies I would suggest starting with just one serving a day of each, perhaps a fruit for dessert at lunch and a veggie at dinner. Once they have success with that, I would suggest adding another piece of fruit during the day and a salad for dinner.
Fruits and veggies are packed with fiber and can be rather satiating. Building on success is much easier to do than building on failure.
Click Here To Read: Use The 1% Kaizen Principle To Reinvent Yourself
Replace Unhealthy Foods With Healthy Ones
Creating a list of foods to avoid (such as pizza, pasta, ice cream, and french fries) only makes you want them more.
Instead, try to incorporate these foods into your diet in a healthier way. For example, Have a slice of pizza with veggies on top and a side salad versus 2 slices of pizza.
Want French fries with your burger?
Try skipping the bun to make room for the fries. Pasta doesn’t need to be a big bowl of creamy Alfredo, but rather try spaghetti sautéed with lots of veggies and grilled chicken.
Slowly Incorporate Some Type Of Physical Activity
You can’t run before you can walk.
In other words, if a person has basically been inactive simply adding 15 minutes 2 days per week of something they enjoy doing is a start. Once those 15 minutes become a piece of cake, you add another 10 minutes or another day to the cycle.
Eventually, it will become part of your healthy lifestyle.
Click Here To Read: What Does Sugar Do To Your Body?
Drink More Water
One of the first things that can help you lose weight is drinking enough water.
The goal amount of water should be half your body weight in ounces.
The thirst and hunger centers are very close in the brain. That is why sometimes we can confuse thirst with hunger. So when all we need is a sip of water we may turn to some sweets or chips we have lying around.
Also, being chronically dehydrated doesn’t help with weight loss because then we aren’t helping our body run at optimal performance.
HOW TO PREPARE FOR YOUR WEIGHT LOSS JOURNEY?
Limit Added Sugars
Foods rich in added sugars are often high in calories and devoid of filling and blood-sugar-stabilizing nutrients, like fiber and protein.
Aim to keep daily added sugar intake under the recommended limit (25 grams/day for women and 36 grams/day for men) and try enjoying a snack with fruit (i.e. apple or banana with nut butter, Greek yogurt with berries) to help curb some of your sweet cravings.
You can also replace artificial and processed sugars with natural ones such as jaggery and honey.
Click Here To Read: What Does Sugar Do To Your Body?
Don’t Equate Slim With Healthy
The very first thing you need to keep in mind is that thinner doesn’t equate to healthier. Your weight comprises a lot more than just body fat, and it is this body fat you need to shed. Some people even end up gaining weight as they lose body fat due to muscle mass, which is good for you!
So, avoid obsessing over the digits on the weighing scale and instead focus on your body fat percentage 25-28 average for women and 12-15 average for men).
Since we’re all built differently, some bodies just don’t have the structure to be traditionally “thin”. And that is perfectly fine! Don’t base your weight loss journey on wanting to get a particular kind of physique. Instead, determine the best shape for your body and work hard to achieve that.
Focus On Portion Control
If you don’t want to track your food, your next best bet is just to focus on eating about 10 to 20% less than you currently eat.
What we advise you all to do here is look at your current plate, and simply modify it by removing a fist-size portion of any of the higher-calorie options on it.
Recommended Read: How To Plan Your Perfect Diet?
Calorie Restriction Is Going To Be A Nightmare
We’ll be straight with you. No matter how much of the healthier food you eat, your body likely won’t feel full once you start cutting out calories. That’s only because our bodies are used to getting (and accumulating) more than the daily calorie count required.
Be sure to opt for foods that aren’t made of “empty calories”. They simply add a lot of cal intake to your diet without providing any nutritional value and just making you feel hungrier.
Instead opt for lean meats, fulfilling veggies, and dairy. You may feel constantly tired and hungry at the start of your weight loss journey but trust us, that’s more of a mental effect of cutting calories. Follow a healthy diet and soon enough these cravings will subside.
Patience Will Lead To Permanent Change
You aren’t going to get to your ideal weight within a month, and that’s perfectly fine! Accept that fact and mold your new lifestyle in a way that slowly incorporates all the changes. Giving your body time to adjust is important if you want your hard work to be sustained.
Your new, healthy diet shouldn’t just be followed while you’re on the weight loss journey – it should become a part of your day-to-day living. Once you give up on all that junk and start living healthy, trust us your body won’t want to ever go back.
Remember that following diet fads for short time periods may help you shed some weight but it will come right back as soon as you start eating normally again.
Click Here To Read: Start By Doing It Badly!
Make A Plan To Include Your Favorite Foods At Least Once A Week
Depriving yourself of your favorite foods could lead to overindulging and overeating. When you have a plan to include some of your favorite foods in moderation, your intake is typically more controlled and better enjoyed.
Unlike other parts of life, cheat days during your weight loss journey aren’t just encouraged; they are very important. And perhaps not for the reason you might think.
Every person trying to follow a strict diet looks forward to that one day each week in which they can eat to their heart’s delight. People plan out the entire day based on food, dreaming about when they’ll finally be able to have some cheesy lasagna and frosted cupcakes.
Well, besides letting you indulge and motivating your diet; these cheat days play a significant role in maintaining your metabolic rate. Your new food style has the potential of slowing down metabolism.
So, this one day will set your metabolic rates right for the whole week!
Diet Pills Won’t Work
Diet pills seem like an attractive, quick way to shed weight without breaking a sweat. Sounds too good to be true, right?
Well, it is!
These pills are a horrible idea that does more damage than good. Most of these haven’t been tested and certified by the FDA and can cause a myriad of health risks like:
-Dizziness
-Fatigue and restlessness
-Hair loss
-Heart diseases and pulmonary hypertension (which can be fatal)
-Increased blood pressure and heart rate
-Insomnia
HOW TO PREPARE FOR YOUR YOUR WEIGHT LOSS JOURNEY?
The worst part is that the effect of these pills is temporary. So even if they do help you proceed on your weight loss journey – all that weight will be back soon. Quite a waste of money, time, and (potentially) your health.
Click Here To Read: Three Reasons You Should Never Diet!
In Conclusion
It is important to realize that losing weight is possible only when you are ready to adopt a new lifestyle that involved good food, exercise, and taking care of your body in other ways.
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Also Read:
9 PSYCHOLOGICAL WAYS TO HELP YOU LOSE WEIGHT
7 Ways To Prepare Yourself For Successful Weight Loss
