11 Steps to Help Lose and Manage Your Weight

 

11 Steps you Can Take to Lose and Manage Your Weight:

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  1. Build more lean muscle.   Muscle has a higher metabolism than fat does, so you want to work out and lose fat, gain lean muscle. Add weights to your exercise program.
  2. Fight off hunger with foods with fiber.  “Keeping that feeling of fullness can be done with foods with fiber— think fruits and vegetables, low-carb whole grains, and lean protein.
  3. Avoid temptation and plan ahead with foods at home and if you go out to eat.  There are many ways to avoid daily temptations, including planning ahead when eating out, eating out less, and banning your worst weaknesses from the house.
  4. Count calories. Use a journal such as My Calorie Counter to keep a running total throughout the day if that helps you keeps track of calorie consumption.
  5. Plan your meals in advance. A maintenance diet has a lot of the same components as a weight-loss diet. Having a meal-by-meal plan that you can stick to, although it has more calories than your diet plan did, can act as a guide to keep you on track.  I shop once a week with meals in mind for the week and plan my foods.  I always have Greek Yogurt, nuts, low-fat cheese, eggs and egg substitutes, low-carb pancake mix and syrup, salad mix, turkey slices, chicken breasts and bacon in the house.
  6. Consider adding minutes to your exercise plan. Experts recommend at least 30 minutes of physical activity five days a week, but emphasize that the more you exercise, the better able you are to maintain a weight loss. Participants in the weight control survey walked for at least 60 minutes daily — or burned the same calories with other activities — so aim for 60 to 90 minutes of physical activity every day.
  7. a. Measure your portions. A huge factor in weight loss success is  measuring portions of proteins and fats, the most caloric foods, in particular. This doesn’t mean you have to carry a food scale everywhere you go, but using it as often as possible at home will teach you how to eyeball portion sizes at restaurants and immediately know how much to eat, and how much to have as to-go.                              b.Let your plate be your guide. First off, use smaller plates.  this helps you to control how big your portions are.  When you can’t count calories or measure portions accurately,  A great tip for dieters, it works just as well for people on a maintenance plan– when you serve yourself using the Plate Method, at least half your plate should be vegetables and the remaining space should be divided evenly between lean protein and whole grains. If you go back for seconds, limit yourself to vegetables, fruit or low-fat dairy.
  8. Weigh yourself daily. You will be more successful in losing weight if you weigh yourself daily. Daily weigh-ins, which can be discouraging when you’re on a diet, can be a boon during maintenance; they let you see, and stop, any slow creep upward as soon as it happens.
  9. Include dairy in your diet.   Women in particular, this has the additional benefit of improving bone health.   However, low-fat dairy helps to fight of hunger pangs.
  10. Watch less TV. Dieters who watch fewer than 10 hours of TV a week were more successful in maintaining weight loss than those who spent more time vegging out in front of the tube.
  11. Eat breakfast. They call it the most important meal of the day for a reason. In the survey, women who regularly ate breakfast were more successful with long-term weight loss than those who skipped the first meal of the day. 

 

Breakfast Is The Most Important Meal of the Day For Concentration and Skinniness

Eating a balanced breakfast sets you up to succeed in your healthy eating and your focus for the entire day. Studies support that you need to start your day off with a healthy breakfast because there are many benefits to eating it.

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The benefits of breakfast include:

IMPROVED MOOD:

Eating breakfast can lift your mood. People who don’t eat breakfast are more tired and irritable.

MORE ENERGY FOR THE DAY:

Before you eat in the morning, your body (like a car with little gas) is running on empty. You get energy from high-quality protein, carbohydrates, and fats.

BETTER CONCENTRATION:

Eating breakfast also improves your ability to problem solve. You will be more productive and better able to handle tasks that require memory. Going to work or sending your kids to school sets everyone up for a mismanaged workload and poorer performance than those who eat a healthy breakfast (pop tarts is not healthy!)

WEIGHT MANAGEMENT:

Studies show that if you eat breakfast, you’re more likely to be at a healthy weight than people who don’t eat breakfast.

VITAMINS AND MINERALS:

Having an egg or two, with some low fat cheese or turkey (I put vegetables and/or spinach in mine) and a piece of fruit will give you great protein, minerals and vitamins. If you are able to put in some flax, chi or other seeds into your eggs, then you are adding good carbs and fiber. For those who are able to fit in the carbs for the day count of 50 to 100, you can have a slice of whole grain bread or just a small measured portion of oatmeal (depending on the brand is oatmeal, a cup of oatmeal is about 30g of carbs), whole-grain cereal (not the high sugar Honey Nut Cheerios). Try a little almond butter instead of butter. 2 tablespoons of peanut or almond butter equals 6g of carbs. Another great breakfast option is Greek yogurt. Strawberries and blueberries are great in yogurt, cereal and oatmeal.

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Please pull out a measuring cup and become acquainted with how small a cup is vs. what you might thing a cup looks like in your mind.

Basics of a Quick and Balanced Breakfast

One of the most common excuses for not eating breakfast is being short on time to get to work or school. But breakfast doesn’t have to be fancy or time consuming. You can wake up just a little earlier to fit in a nutritious breakfast. The small investment in time in breakfast (and in you) pays off through the whole day.

If you really love cereal, then compromise and put a few for flavor and texture in your oatmeal or your yogurt.

Next time you’re racing against the clock, try these effortless and healthy breakfast ideas:

*You can make a quick smoothie with yogurt and fruit, with some ice cubes. Throw in some chi or flax seeds.
*Western Bagel and some low carb places sell low carb bagels. The Western Bagel Perfect 10 bagel is really good. Lots of fiber and protein and 10g net carbs. Get them at Westernbagel.com and refrigerate them.
*Have hard-boiled eggs available and ready to grab on the run. Places like some selected Costco and Trader Joes has them already hard-boiled and peeled, in bags, for those who really are super busy.
*Low carb shakes in a can (like Pure Protein) or low carb protein bars (like Power Crunch or Nature Valley Protein Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate).
*Low carb Greek yogurt in a small ready-to-go containers (like Dannon Greek Light and Fit)
**Come on, scrambled eggs don’t take that long.

Weight Management Success Tools

How much do you want to lose weight?  Do you really want to do it?  Then, you have to work for it.  You can’t do anything half-assed and expect full results.  So, here are some suggestions to do it and do it well.

WEIGHT MANAGEMENT SUCCESS TOOLS:

1.  Plan and prepare your meals for each day.  You gained weight because of BAD choices or UNINFORMED choices, so this is not a diet, this is a change of LIFESTYLE.  You have to plan what you will eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner and your three protein snacks in between and after dinner.  You have to prepare to eat something with protein every 3-4 hours, four small vegetable servings a day, two small vegetable servings a day and two small salads a day.  You can even make part of your plan to go out, but have in mind what you would order that will fill your daily requirements.  If you eat pasta, rice, wheat products or starchy vegetables, you might be ruining your chances for success.

2.  Your in-between meals can be snacks that are protein-based like a protein bar, but choose snacks wisely.  Low carb choices have to be the way to go.  Even yogurt needs to be a good choice.  Dannon Greek Lite and Fit has 8 g of carbs and Chiobani has 20g of carbs.

3.  Try to eat items that have a lot of fiber.  Some protein bars have fiber.  Good vegetables have fiber.  Fiber makes you feel full and less like snacking.  You can even use a fiber supplement like Metamucil.

4.  Shop smart.  “When I go shopping, I read labels. I look at carbohydrates, and I don’t buy anything that’s over 20 carbohydrates.  I Don’t buy large quantities of food because then you don’t overeat.

5.  Find an enjoyable exercise.  I prefer Pilates, Yoga and the elliptical if I can use my IPAD while on the machine (killing two birds with one stone.)  Some people hate all of that and love Zumba or dance, or even swimming.  Some people like group social hikes.  Some people only like walking their dog.  Find something and do it.  No more excuses.  Moving your body is good for being youthful, healthy in body and mind.

6.  Portion control!  4-6 ounces of meat/protein per serving, six servings of protein a day.  And the alloted vegetables, fruit and salad (see number 1)

7.  Educate yourself.  I learned a lot by going to Lindora and reading their books.  I read online a lot about carbohydrates, glycemic loads, etc.  Read Skinny-Rules to learn.  You need to learn what to do to lose the weight.

8.  Get support.  The nurses at Lindora were excellent support for me.  Some like groups like Weight Watchers or Overeaters Anonymous.  Look into a support group, person or website.

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