Weight-loss
success is much more likely if you follow some important behavioral strategies
in addition to the choices you make for every meal. Based on my many years of
experience working with hospital patients and the clients in my private
practice, I've identified 10 Success Strategies that go a long way toward
helping people stick to a weight-loss plan.
These
strategies are simple—no need to reorganize your life to fit them in. Just
start working them into your daily routines, and before you know it, you'll be
much better positioned for weight loss success
Success Strategy #1: Eat within the
first hour of awakening
When you are at rest, your body wants to conserve
energy, so your metabolism slows down. Just as you shut off the lights when you
sleep, your body turns down many of the processes
involved in metabolism. When you wake up, you want
to turn everything up and start burning calories and fat as soon as possible.
That's why I recommend eating breakfast within one hour of
waking up.
By eating a nutritious, energy-revving breakfast,
you are jump-starting your metabolism. When you add healthy food to your tank,
so to speak, you prime your engines and get them ready to go, go, go for the
day, so you can do everything that you have to do as well as those things you
want to do, while feeling energetic.
Despite what you may have heard or read, it still
stands that if you
skip breakfast, you're telling your body to stay in conservation mode. You're setting yourself up to feel tired,
lethargic, and irritable. When no fuel comes into your tank, your body starts
thinking about holding on to calories and fat rather than burning them because
it doesn't know when more food will come. This is
absolutely not the way you want to start your day. Even if you don't feel like having breakfast, push yourself to have
something—an apple, an orange, some yogurt, maybe a glass of vegetable juice.
Something is better than nothing.
Success Strategy #2: Eat early and
often
Many people follow this kind of daily eating plan:
They either skip breakfast or have a small bite in the morning. They go light
on lunch. Then their hunger roars like a starved lion in the middle of the
afternoon, at which point they start eating sweet/salty junk food. Then at
dinner, thinking they didn't really eat much during the day, they help
themselves to giant portions of their evening meal, followed by dessert and
bowls of ice cream and chips while sitting around watching TV for a few hours
before bed.
This is not the way to eat.
It's much better for your body to eat early and
often. That means having a healthy, lean, green breakfast; a morning snack to keep your metabolism humming; a healthy lunch;
an afternoon snack; and a dinner that's
smaller than you're probably used to, with a small snack in the
evening. Ideally you should eat the bulk of your
calories at breakfast and lunch.
Researchers have found that people who consume most
of their calories before 3 p.m. are more likely to be successful at weight loss
than those who pile on the calories later in the day. And get this: It takes 24
hours for your blood sugar to stabilize after a late-night meal. Eating earlier
gives your body plenty of time to burn up calories and stabilize your blood sugar before you
get into bed.
Success Strategy #3: Get 7 to 8 hours
of sleep per night
We Americans are an exhausted bunch of people.
Although sleep researchers recommend 7 to 8 hours per night, studies show that
30 percent of us get fewer than 6 hours of sleep a night.
Being chronically tired truly interferes with
your health. Lack of sleep is associated with higher rates of hypertension,
diabetes, depression, obesity, and cancer. In fact, studies show that getting
fewer than 5 hours of sleep per night is associated with a higher body-mass
index. The more sleep-deprived you are, the higher your risk of obesity.
Insomnia causes hormonal changes and cravings for carbohydrates. And when you
deprive yourself of adequate sleep, fatigue lowers your ability to resist
trigger foods. Instead of eating, try taking a power nap for a bigger, more
effective payoff.
Nighttime sleep even has an effect on daytime
hunger, influencing the production of the hormones that regulate appetite. When
we're over-tired, we tend to eat more than we do when we are well rested.
Overall, people who sleep less appear to weigh more. Be sure to get your 7 to 8
hours a night. If you're having trouble sleeping, see your doctor; you may have
a sleep disorder, such as sleep apnea.
Success Strategy #4: Eat snacks that
are no larger than your closed fist
Incorporating snacks into your daily meal plan is a
helpful way to prevent hunger. But in order to stay on track, you have to make
sure your snacks are a reasonable size. One of the eas- iest ways to do this is
to eat snacks that are no larger than your closed fist.
The exception to this is free foods (leafy green vegetables, which contribute few
calories) and calorie-free beverages, such as coffee and tea. For example, a closed fist holds about half an ounce (1
tablespoon) of nuts. But remember, I'm talking about a closed fist, not an open
palm.
Success Strategy #5: Drink half your
body weight in water
Drinking water helps fill your stomach and boosts
your body's metabolism, so fool yourself into drinking more water. It also keeps you hydrated, which is important because
often we mistake thirst for hunger, leading us to eat high-calorie snacks when
all our bodies really want is a glass of water. To figure out how much water to
drink, divide your weight in half. If you're 160 pounds, aim for about 80
ounces (10 8-ounce glasses) per day. Liquids such as unsweetened coffee, tea,
and seltzer can also count in your daily tally.
But keep in mind that caffeinated beverages, though
acceptable, are also diuretics, meaning the caffeine
dehydrates your body and makes you
pee. A good way to offset this effect is to drink a glass of water for each cup
of coffee or tea you consume. Make the water ice cold, because drinking cold
water revs up the metabolism even more. Your body has to work harder to
stabilize its temperature and, in so doing, burns more calories for you. Winner!
To add pizazz to water and seltzer, make
grape-cubes. Place a grape or two in each section of an ice cube tray, and then
fill with water. Once they're frozen, pop these grape-cubes into water for a
refreshing, tasty drink. This works for cut pieces of almost any of your
favorite fruits. Think pineapple, mango, berries, peaches, nectarines, and
melon.
Adapted from Lose Your Final 15
