Hi! I’m back! Did you miss me? (Oh, you didn’t notice I was gone, huh? Well I was! And now I am here again!)
Also, I am fresh back from the Fitness and Health Bloggers Conference in Denver, Colorado, an absolutely amazing experience where we discussed health, fitness, responsible reporting, what REALLY works in “dieting” and took fitness classes (like Zumba!)
I interviewed a wonderful registered dietician named Rebecca Scritchfield and we talked about all sorts of things like fuel for training and recovery and nutrition for weight-los, but the one thing I loved was her advice on the skill-building you need to do in order to start the weight-loss process.
Cause it ain’t easy. As we all know.
In order to purchase a one-way ticket to the land of “goal weight”, you really have to decide you want it first. But decide it in a way that this time is the time. No more fooling around.
No matter what point we are starting from, we have some mad skillz to build, yo. It doesn’t always come naturally, we have to build these skills over time and really work at it, with the end goal in mind.
Here are some of those skills that will help you on your journey toward goal. You see, you’re already packed and ready to go head out on that journey, so think of this as your ticket and/or the comfy yoga pants you need to travel in. You know, tools.
- First of all: MAKE SMALL CHANGES. Don’t go all or nothing, that rarely works for anyone, at least for the long term. Besides, it’s overwhelming to do everything at once. Add something first, THEN take away. You can add more greens to dinner, do that for a few days, then decide you will only do dessert for two nights a week instead of five. Or add in moving around more and by moving more I don’t even necessarily mean exercise, I mean “activity.” and skip the Starbucks. The key here is to be able to maintain the changes for the long term. But first you have to get in and feel the water! Before you know it, it’ll feel pretty darned good.
- Weigh in WEEKLY. Not daily. Yeah, right? I know. That’s a toughy. The theory behind this is listening to your body, embracing it and trusting in your habits. Actually, Rebecca first said she actually recommends weighing in yearly or only when going to the doctor. Do you think you could do that? I had to ask her if there was another option, to which she said if we MUST weigh in, it should just be weekly. I concur.
- Surround yourself with people who support you. #theend.
- Try to control impulses. You know. It’s just sitting there staring at you from the glass case, calling your name, right? No it isn’t. It doesn’t talk. Walk away. You can do it.
- Measure. This isn’t a secret, we talk about that here all the time. It might feel like a big pain in the arse sometimes to measure out your portions and your food but eventually there will come a time where you don’t have to. You can just look at it and KNOW what your portion size should be. This helps when you dine out too, you will have portion sizes imprinted in your wonderful brain and you will be able to recognize.
- Change your language. Stop calling foods “bad” and stop feeling “guilty.” Don’t even use those words anymore. You don’t need to feel bad about yourself for choices you’ve made.
- Use REAL FOOD. If you have that dessert and it is made from whole ingredients that you had in your house or it’s made of all ingredients you can pronounce without any “flavoring” or artificial sweetener or anything like that, it’s better than having the fake stuff. Make your meals with real, whole foods and make them count. Use actual butter, not margarine. Healthy oils. You can still watch calories but you will have the peace of mind of having actual real food. And you don’t want to HATE your food! Our bodies do actually need some fat, which is good, I mean, have you ever tried fat-free cheese anyway? It’s disgusting! Something happened somewhere along the line where now we think “real food” is bad because it has fat in it. IT’S NOT!
- Assemble your menu and food ahead of time. Menu planning does take a lot of time, but just think how much time you’ll be saving during the week when you can just whip up something healthy in a jiffy. Are you visiting us at the Shrinking Kitchen? Clink the link for some amazing recipes at Shrinking Kitchen! And to see our menu plan for the week!
Which of these skills do you think you can you incorporate into your life this week?
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