Wellness Focus: Weight Loss Tips
Published - May 25, 2018
- Don’t forget Fido. Just walking the dog twice daily for fifteen minutes each time will help you reach your goal of 150 minutes per week of exercise.
- Park Farther and Take the Stairs! Old, but good advice.
- Eat to Live. We have all heard the saying “Eat to live, don’t live to eat.” Which hobbies do you miss? If food is the only source of pleasure, it’s a recipe for disaster. Find another hobby such as music, drawing, volunteering or calling an old friend. Food can be so powerful that it can replace intimacy in some relationships.
- Lose the tube. When we watch TV and eat simultaneously, we eat more due to the distraction. Shut off the television and sit at a table.
- Water, Water, everywhere. We know water is great but try drinking a tall glass ten minutes before meals.
- Think Do, not Don’t. If you are told to quit eating chips, it’s often the first thing you crave. You might begin to focus on the “forbidden goodies.” But when asked to add 3 vegetables and 2 fruits per day, you don’t feel cheated. Mixing it up with some frozen grapes or some crunchy snow peas with dressing with your lunch will keep things interesting.
- Choose an Exercise you like. If you hate walking, don’t choose it as your exercise. Aqua classes, biking, and Zumba are becoming more popular for men and women alike. Gardening, raking, cleaning the house and washing the car all burn calories.
- Put the box down and back away. Everyone is going to cheat sometimes. If you want some ice cream or chips, measure it out and put the box away.
- Catch some ZZZZZ’s. Lack of sleep can increase stress hormones and cause overeating during the day.
- Sugar-free gum. If you have a chewing fix, break out the gum and save on calories.
- Keep a food diary. We all know it—we eat more than we think we do. Writing it down in black and white can help to think more about what and how much you consume.
- What’s Eating You? If you suspect that you are an emotional eater, you may want to keep a journal for one week. Before eating, you might record how you feel, what happened at work, any conversations replaying in your mind and then what you ate. It can certainly be a reflective exercise in why we eat and a great way to become more conscious of the connection between food and emotions.