weightloss

Take It Off Keep It Off

SECRET 1 BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN DO IT

Believing in yourself really makes a 1996 University of Maryland study involving 54 women who followed a diet and exercise programme for nine moths. Before they started, investigators asked them whether they thought they’d lose weight. Twenty-eight of the women were “disbelievers”. The believers expected to get trim – and they did. At the end of nine mouths they’d lost 30 per cent more weight than who lacked that important faith in themselves.

You may feel skeptical. Perhaps you’ve tried dieting with poor results, or you’ve lost weight only to regain it. No matter what happened before, you can lose weight now. Don’t be discouraged by earlier efforts. Think positive. Just as we benefit from the supportive words of a loving friend or relative, we need to hear our own encouraging messages.

SECRET 2 TAKE RESPONSIBILITY

Once you begin to believe that weight loss is possible, acknowledge that’s not easy. You may be fighting a sluggish metabolism or a schedule that leaves little time for exercise. It’s also tough to modify lifelong eating habits. Eating is an essential part of our social and emotional lives, and food isn’t something you can just give up.

Experts – doctors, nutritionists, trainers, therapists – can offer assistance; friends, family members can provide support. This can be valuable, but some people secretly hope that someone else will take responsibility. For instance, a woman may ask her doctor to weigh her every week. This may work for a while, but when the doctor goes on vacation she overeats because she doesn’t worry about her weekly weigh-in.

Lean on others in the beginning if you have to, but think of them as the equivalent of training wheels on a bicycle. If you continue to depend on their help, you won’t go very far. The people who succeed at weight loss are the ones who take it upon themselves to change their behaviour.

SECRET 3 SET REALISTIC GOALS

Success provides powerful encouragement, even when the achievement is small.

The people most likely to succeed in losing weight are the ones whose chief motivation is to become healthier. They measure their progress not only on the scale, but also in terms of fitness goals. Women whose principal aim is to fit into a bikini often wind up frustrated by slow weight loss because they feel they’ve achieved nothing until they reach their goal. There’s a risk they’ll push themselves too hard – exercise excessively, restrict their eating too much – and burn out.

Weight loss should be a positive experience. You’re doing something important for yourself – not only becoming slimmer, but also gaining all the benefits of exercise and good nutrition. That’s why intermediate goals are just as essential as long-range goals. Set smaller weekly challenges for yourself. Meeting them will reinforce your motivation, provide a feeling of accomplishment and make the next week much easier.

SECRET 4 MAKE A FIRM COMMITMENT NOW

Consider how you plan a vacation: You don’t wait until your schedule is completely clear. If you did that, you’d never get out of town. Instead, you pick a date and make reservations. Suddenly, the trip fits into your life – because you make it fit. Take advantage of your current enthusiasm and interest. Assume that you will begin to eat a healthful, low-fat diet. Then begin to act on these assumptions. Select an exercise programme. Plan menus and stock up on wholesome foods. If you do, your healthful new lifestyle can begin immediately.

SECRET 5 PLAN FOR SUCCESS

Okay, so your life is hectic. You have a demanding job, a spouse, three young children. Does that mean you can’t fit a weight loss programme into your schedule? Not quite. All it requires is a little planning. You’re about to create significant changes in your life. You’ll make decisions about food and exercise. There will be new skills to learn and activities to fit in. Planning will help you sort everything out so the pieces fall into place more easily.

Sit down and get organized. Write down your obligations. Divide big jobs into small, manageable tasks. Go through your calendar and figure out when to do everything. This planning session will take only 15 minutes, but will dramatically reduce your stress.

SECRET 6 KEEP RECORDS

Kaiser Permanente, America’s largest HMO, was running a weight-loss programme with more than 2,000 participants. The programme leaders wanted to learn what factors were associated with success. They looked at age, activity level, starting weight and many other variables. What was the best predictor of success? The answer may surprise you: keeping food records. Other studies have also shown that people who simply keep food records lose weight, even when they don’t consciously eat less. Similar research has found the same for exercise. People who keep logs stick with their exercise prograammes.

What makes record-keeping so effective? Nobody knows for sure, but here are some possible answers: Keeping track of the details helps you follow a food or exercise plan more faithfully; records are a constant reminder of your commitment; over time, records help you how far you’ve come.

SECRET 7 LEARN FROM MISTAKES

Learning how to bounce back and persevere is one of the most helpful lessons of sport psychology, and it’s invaluable for weight loss. Setbacks are inevitable in any long-term effort. Yet some people become so distracted and demoralized by small failures they forget heir larger successes and go off track. As a result, a problem that should have been small and Christmas, you might gain a pound or two. That’s of little long term consequence, provided you return to your food plan right away. Here’s what sports psychologists tell athletes, and it’s great advice for everyone.

Don’t be self-critical just because you’ve made an error. Mistakes are unfortunate, but they’re normal part of everyday life. That’s why pencils come with built-in erasers.

Look back only to learn from what happened, not to criticize yourself. After you’ve extracted the lessons, moves on with an idea of how to improve.

Concentrate on the task ahead.

Remind yourself how far you’ve come toward your long-term goals. Savor the satisfaction. You’ve got a lot to be proud of!