Success Strategy #6: Cut out soda and sugary drinks
It is no secret that Americans consume more sugary soda, sweetened iced tea, and other high-sugar beverages than water, daily. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sugary drink consumption is associated with obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and other health problems. Here's why this is important to you. Your weight loss is at stake, and nixing sugary beverages from your diet can be a huge boon to your success. By eliminating sugary beverages, the average American could lose about 15 pounds in a year without making any other changes.
Do yourself a favor and stop drinking liquid sugar. And remember, this includes sweet tea (whadup, Alabama and Georgia!), which is loaded with sugar and calories. Try making your iced tea without sugar, flavor- ing it with fresh mint, ginger, or a splash of lemon, lime, orange, peach, mango, even cucumber, instead (the citrus and cucumber are alkaline in nature and reduce inflammation in the body). It may take some getting used to, but before you know it, you'll love it--and when you take a sip of sweet tea, you'll wonder how you could stand that overly sweet taste!
Switching to diet sodas may not be the solution, even though they contain many fewer calories than sugar-sweetened drinks. The same study, as well as others, found that people who drink diet sodas have a higher risk of diabetes than those who don't. This is referred to as the diet-soda paradox.
Success Strategy #7: Avoid eating within 3 hours of going to bed
At the end of the day, your digestive system needs to slow down and rest, so I recommend that you avoid eating anything within 3 hours of bedtime. Eating before bed can interfere with sleep quality and throw off your circadian rhythms. It can also contribute to heartburn and acid reflux. If you must eat before bed, choose a small protein-rich snack, such as a cup of yogurt.
Success Strategy #8: Use a daily food diary
Keeping track of everything you eat and drink can truly help with weight loss. Tracking your food makes you think more about the foods that you choose to eat. Mindless eating is one of the biggest contributors to weight gain, and keeping a food diary helps to get your mind back into the correct process of eating. Reflecting on what you eat, when you eat it, and the emotions you feel before, during, and after eating can help you to understand the habits and emotions that impact your eating choices.
Looking back at your food diary gives you an opportunity to identify trends and unconscious habits—for example, you may realize that you overeat on days that you work late or that you do a fantastic job of sticking to your eating goals on days that you exercise vigorously. These kinds of patterns are different for each one of us, and one of the best ways to understand your own individual patterns is to put everything in writing.
Using a food diary also helps to up your accountability—to yourself. By writing down everything you eat, including the "cheat foods," you give yourself space to be honest with yourself, which is one of the first steps toward true mindfulness. With accountability and honesty comes true acknowledgment of what you're doing, how it's helping or harming you, and what you can do to improve your habits and your health.
Success Strategy #9: Shop with a list
Always use a shopping list when you go to the grocery store; it is a surefire way to cut back on junk food. Not only will this save you from eating food you hadn't planned on eating, but it will help you to lose weight and save you money, too. By sticking to the foods on your list and refusing to buy other, unplanned foods, you spend the money that you previously planned to spend, which supports your calorie and weekly or monthly food budget, as well.
Using a grocery list is an example of what's referred to as a precommitment strategy. These kinds of strategies help build momentum for success because they allow your present and future selves to work together. When you write a grocery list, your present self is promising your future self that you will make smart choices in the grocery store. This commitment can spread out to other choices, as well.
In a study published in the journal Nutrition & Diabetes, Australian researchers found that women who used shopping lists lost an average of 27 pounds (9 more pounds than those who did not use lists). Ultimately, these researchers found that planning your meals ahead of time by creating shopping lists helps you to gauge food intake better and stick to the meal plan while avoiding the pitfalls of strategically placed, unplanned treats that you might otherwise buy on impulse at the grocery store. Their results support the reasons that I have used shopping lists for my entire career to help clients stick not only to their food budget but to their calorie budget, as well!
Success Strategy #10: Take special care if you work nights
Shift work disrupts your circadian rhythms, which are the physical, mental, and behavioral changes that follow a 24-hour cycle (think of it as a clock) within your body. Circadian rhythms are directed by environmental cues such as sunlight, darkness, and temperature. People who work night shifts often experience disruption of their circadian rhythms, which affects their sleeping and eating patterns. Because of circadian rhythm disorders, people who do shift work can have higher rates of heart disease and mental health conditions such as depression. Shift workers are also more likely than 9-5 workers to be overweight or obese.
Shift working requires you to sleep during the day and work during the night, forcing you to go against your body's natural rhythm. As a result, your metabolism can slow down, which reduces your body's calorie and fat burning potential. Shift workers may also eat more because their mealtimes get mixed up. And if they don't get enough sleep, exhaustion may negatively impact the action of their hunger and satiety hormones. It can also be more difficult for shift workers to get the exercise they need, and it may be harder for them to schedule stress-relief techniques into their daily life.
Adapted from Lose Your Final 15
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