So you’ve made the decision that it’s time to prioritise your health and you’re just not quite sure where to start. You may have tried once or a few hundred times and you may have had some success or none at all. With so much information online and in the media today about this new diet, and that new diet, it’s easier than ever to become overwhelmed when you’re looking for the healthiest ways to lose weight. But when we put all that aside and start simple, there a few key strategies that we can all keep in mind, no matter our lifestyle, to help get us on the right track, no matter what life throw at us!
1. Don’t Do Perfect
Aim for ‘a little better’, not ‘perfect’. Aiming for perfect often leads to extreme restriction (in either food types or calories) and then extreme rebounds. This is where you say to yourself “I can’t eat chocolate” and you’re awesome at it. For a week, maybe even two. Then you read a nasty email from a client that makes you feel crappy and you reach for a few squares of chocolate to make yourself feel better. Next thing you know you’ve demolished the whole block and are feeling no better…
Aiming for a little better might mean keeping some sugar free chocolate in the cupboard, or buying a smaller block of chocolate (like the little Whittaker’s singe serves) in the cupboard for moments just like these.
2. 80% Guide
Take the time to check-in with yourself. When you feel about 80% full, this might be a good time to stop. Put the rest in the fridge to heat up for later. Many people have forgotten the importance of our own body’s hunger cues – our body is an amazingly complex and advanced system, it’s smarter than we give it credit for! Taking just a small pause to ask ourselves ‘How hungry am I?’ or ‘Am I still hungry?’ can make a huge difference to our food intake in terms of quality and quantity.
This is a great tool to use as it can help you reach your weight loss goals without having to give up the fun stuff like dinner and lunches with friends at restaurants or other places where there might be not the healthiest food options available.
3. Eat Like Your Great-Grandmother
Avoid the centre isles of the supermarket. Think of how your great grandmother used to eat – I.E. meat/protein and veg (including carbohydrates). While there is a great deal of information out there about the benefits of eating certain types or carbs or no carbs etc, if you are struggling with your health and weight, just start simple – removing processed foods for most people will be enough to see significant results. Later, when you’re more comfortable with eating a mostly unprocessed diet, then you can start researching and experimenting other ways of eating to see how/if they work for you.
4. Prepare To Win!
Can we say #mealprepsunday! Most of my clients when they have a slip up and over indulge, it’s because of one of two things – emotional stressors or lack of preparation. While dealing with emotional stressors is well out of scope of this blog post, ensuring you’re prepared is definitely something we can all work on.
Prepping meals in bulk or even purchasing pre-made meals from somewhere like Think Food and keeping them in the freezer, can be a great help when late work meetings/deadlines strike, or you get home and are just too stuffed to even think of cooking a meal!
5. Consistency Is Key
Last but not least, the main key to gradual healthy weight loss over time is consistency. If I had a $1 for every time I heard someone say ‘I eat really well during the week but on the weekend but I tend to relax a little’, I’d be writing this post from a sunny beach in Hawaii and not from my freezing cold office in Auckland…
Most of the time we underestimate how easily it is to blow out our weekly calorie needs with a brunch, a few wines with dinner and some snacks at the movies. Now, I’m not saying you can’t enjoy these things at all, but keeping points 1 & 2 in mind will help you have your cake and eat it too!
If you’ve struggled with weight loss before or even if this is your first time giving it a go and feel like you might need a little support and direction to get you on the right track, drop me a message about the nutrition and fitness coaching services I offer and we can have a chat to see how I can help 🙂
