7 Tips for Sustainable Weight Loss

Despite the countless trendy diets we are bombarded with, losing weight is still incredibly challenging for many women. Why is that? Why do we have such a hard time losing weight and keeping it off?

LOSING WEIGHT IS HARD

For so many women, losing weight is difficult. Choosing the right diet is hard, sticking to the right diet is hard, and maintaining results from the right diet is hard. 

Most people just want a quick fix or magic pill to make all of their weight-related problems disappear. Unfortunately, diets don’t work that way — well crash diets can be quick, but often the weight-loss only lasts as long as the diet. 

You cannot make a temporary change and expect that your results will be long-lasting. 

DISCLAIMER: First of all, I am not a registered dietician or licensed nutritionist, and this post is not about specific diets or how you should eat, but about our relationship with food and why it can be so difficult to change how we eat. It’s always recommended that you speak with your healthcare provider before making changes to your diet and work with a licensed professional to make those changes. Secondly, while physical activity is a big part of losing weight, this post is just about food.

So, how can you successfully lose weight and keep it off? How can you create a home environment that promotes health and wellness? How can you set your children up to be healthy adults?

By changing your relationship with food.

7 TIPS FOR SUSTAINABLE WEIGHT-LOSS

Make Informed Decisions About Losing Weight

As previously mentioned, nutrition and diet are trendy topics. There are countless diets, plastered all over the place, each promising fast weight-loss and optimal health. 

So, how are you supposed to determine which is for you, if any at all?

First, identify your goals. Short-term weight-loss? Sustainable weight-loss? Better disease management? Optimal health? A longer life? Get really clear about your goals first and then start your research.

Use reliable sources to gather information; like peer-reviewed journals or credible institutions like the WHO.

NutritionFacts.org, founded by Dr. Michael Greger, is designed to make nutrition research accessible to the general population and is a great resource.  

Talk with your healthcare provider and consider working with a licensed nutritionist or registered dietician. Choosing the right diet FOR YOU can be difficult, especially if you have underlying health conditions or take certain medications. Find someone who is qualified and has a philosophy that resonates with you and your goals. 

Respect Our Emotional Connection to Food

You’ve heard me say it before — CHANGE IS HARD — especially when it comes to our eating habits.

For many of us, food is not just a source of fuel for our bodies. It goes way deeper than that. 

Meals are steeped in cultural and familial traditions. We use food to cope when we are upset or stressed-out. We celebrate birthdays, triumphs — even the end of the week — all with food or food-related activities, like going out to eat or happy hour.

Many of our memories are connected with food. When you abruptly change or eliminate that pattern, you change or eliminate that feeling of pleasure and comfort.

It’s no wonder that messing with this connection can wreak havoc on our emotions and cause resistance. 

Without a plan, you put yourself at risk for picking up other habits to replace the void.

Treat the Cause, Not the Symptom

It’s no secret that we use food — especially unhealthy food — as a way to cope with our emotions. No matter if they are positive or negative feelings. 

Even feelings of boredom can cause us to grab a bag of chips, then before you know it, the bag is empty, and you swear you’re never eating chips again.

Have you ever noticed that when you declare you are no longer going to do/eat something, suddenly that’s all you can think about?

Instead of focusing on avoiding the chips, try to root out why you are grabbing them in the first place. Dig in and explore your feelings around particular foods or activities that you struggle to let go. 

Why are you resisting so fiercely? What is it about this food or activity that you feel so attached to? Pinpoint that cause and address it.

Redesign Your Life

Once you’ve started identifying areas of your life that need some attention, get to work by finding new ways to feel pleasure and comfort or to relieve stress, frustration, boredom etc.

Look to your habits, your daily rituals, and your routines.

• Consider what is important to you and why.
• Which habits or rituals can be replaced with a healthier option?
• What are you ready to let go of?

Be prepared to rewrite years of patterns. It will take time.

Keep your well-life vision in the forefront of your mind. What do you want your life to feel like? What do you want it to look like? Consider how you would like to respond to various scenarios that normally would result in reaching for the chips.

Anticipate and Prepare for Challenges

If you’ve ever tried to change the way you eat in the past, you know that there are inevitable challenges, some small and some HUGE.

Take time and plan ahead. What has the potential to derail your new diet? Make a list of these obstacles and have a strategy in place. Or have a few strategies in place. Do not rely on sheer willpower to get you through. It’s always best practice to be prepared.

Ask for Support

We all need support from the people we trust when it comes to making lifestyle changes. 

Our lives do not exist in a vacuum. We cannot control every detail of our days and we need to find sustainable ways to stay on track. Having the support of others, especially those you live with and interact with on a daily basis is invaluable. 

Unfortunately, support is not always easy for friends and family, so don’t be surprised if you have a few nay-sayers. That’s ok. Find someone you can lean on. The internet is wonderful for finding like-minded people who want you to succeed. Support groups, group programs, or chats may be just what you need.

Change Your Mindset

Now, we’ve already established that change is hard, and for good reason — humans are creatures of habit. We like predictability and patterns. Of course we’ll feel some resistance when taking away a big source of pleasure and comfort. We need to look at this in a different way.

If you want sustainable weight-loss, then whatever changes you make to your lifestyle also have to be sustainable. 

Crash dieting, with temporary sacrifices, leads to temporary results. You cannot expect that whatever results you get will last after returning to your regular patterns.

Go slowly. Focus on small changes that don’t disrupt your lifestyle too much. As you build confidence, continue making manageable changes until you’re ready to tackle the big ones, whatever they may be.

Keep the big picture in your mind and your real motivations. A lifestyle focused on improving health and well-being will undoubtedly affect everyone around you, especially those you live with. Consider your children and their futures as healthy, well-balanced adults. What do you want their relationships with food to look like? 

TAKE PLEASURE IN THE ENTIRE EXPERIENCE

Food is and should be a source of pleasure, but when we use it as a replacement for emotional management, we can get a little lost. Having a healthy relationship with food goes a long way toward wellness.

Take pride in preparing quality meals and mindfully enjoying each bite with gratitude. Delight in savoring the entire experience, from start to finish.

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Sarah Morgan is a Wellness Coach for Women, specializing in helping busy women, especially moms, find manageable ways to prioritize their own health and wellness needs.

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Health Disclaimer.

Please read this disclaimer in full before acting on any of the information or guidance in this website. Regular exercise and physical activity is not without its risks, even for individuals that would otherwise be considered “healthy”. This is also true of certain diets. There are diet recommendations that might be healthy for many people but potentially dangerous to others. You are solely responsible for your own health and safety at all times.

Before acting on any information contained in this website, we recommend that you be seen by a qualified medical professional to discuss your proposed activity and diet changes and make sure that those changes are safe and healthy for your individual situation. Furthermore, you acknowledge and agree that if you harm yourself as a result of acting on the information in this website, that you will not hold Sarah Morgan or anyone associated with Sarah Morgan responsible for your actions. You acknowledge and agree that your use of the information and advice on this website is completely and strictly at your own risk.