How to make weight loss easier
Who wants weight loss to feel easier? All of us. When you think of weight loss, do you envision calorie counting and working out for hours at a time? Maybe it’s cleaning out the pantry and swearing off your favorite foods? For so many of us, weight loss is a nasty list of to-do’s that feels hard. And when weight loss feels hard we convince ourselves that we need something magical like motivation or a special Monday to get started on it. But weight loss doesn’t have to be hard. Weight loss can feel a whole lot easier in just a few steps. Quit calling it hard Weight loss will feel infinitely easier if you stop calling it hard. Now before you write this off as ineffective, hear me out. Your brain has an amazing thing call the Reticular Activating System (RAS). The RAS filters the information that comes through our brain as important or unimportant. So in a busy restaurant, it filters out all the conversations around you until you hear someone shout your name, then you turn and pay attention. The RAS is tuned into your name as an important piece of information so it can pick it out of a noisy restaurant. When you tell yourself over and over that weight loss is so hard, your RAS takes that as important information and goes to look for the supporting evidence that losing weight is hard. For instance, it will key in on how much you sweat during a workout or how deprived you feel when you can’t have a brownie. You think weight loss is hard and your RAS finds all of the evidence of hard for you. If you quit saying weight loss is hard, your RAS will stop looking for all the evidence that weight loss is hard. Start calling it easy The next step in making weight loss feel easier is to call it easy. Hold on…I can hear you now….. but it’s not easy! Ok. But are some parts of it easy? Be sure to point that out to yourself. Even if it is just filling up your water bottle, remind yourself that was easy. Driving to the gym? That was easy. Maybe you completed a workout and it didn’t kill you like you thought it would, tell yourself “That was easier than I thought it would be.” Give your RAS the challenge of finding easy things about weight loss and pretty soon you’ll be feeling that weight loss doesn’t feel as hard as it did before. Make it enjoyable Typically the things you enjoy in life are things you want to do more often. Enjoyable tasks are not difficult or hard. What can you do to make weight loss more enjoyable? Start thinking outside of the box. Weight loss doesn’t have to be cutting carbs and running long distances. Think about what you really enjoy eating and drinking. Is there a way to modify them to make them healthier? What exciting, healthier recipes are out there just waiting for you to try them? Another sure fire way to make weight loss feel easier is only moving your body in ways you actually enjoy. Running or the stair machine are not your only options. There are literally thousands of options out there. Walking, chair yoga, Zumba, water aerobics, pole dancing or Tai Chi to name a few. There are different speeds and flavors for everyone. When movement is enjoyable, it makes weight loss feel easier and you’re more likely to stick with it. Need more ideas? Check out this blog post. Recognize your accomplishment I find it so much easier to do things for my family when they give me a quick Thank You for my efforts. When was the last time you thanked yourself for making healthy choices? We all want to feel like what we do matters. Recognition does a long way in increasing the chance we repeat that action. Have you ever thought about why you can’t stop yourself from reaching for the potato chips or the chocolate? It’s because it feels good! They are tasty, the experience of eating it is fun and afterwards we get a dopamine hit. When you are losing weight we often have to resist those foods that we love and are so fun to eat. And what’s the reward?? Getting to resist it the next time we want it too. Giving yourself recognition when you make a healthy choice is paramount to making weight loss feel easier. When you recognize your efforts and give yourself a pat on the back, you want to do more of that activity in the future. And don’t just stop at the proverbial pat on the back. Find other ways to recognize yourself. Plan for rewards after a certain number of workouts completed or pounds lost. Give yourself a high five in a mirror and say “I’m proud of me!” So give yourself a Thank You. Even if it was just for reading this blog post and opening your mind to the possibility that weight loss can be easier. Your Coach, Andrea
How to accept any number on the scale
Far too many of us hold the scale as the final authority on whether or not we are doing weight loss right. If we see a loss less than the gold standard of two pounds, we tell ourselves it’s “just” a pound or not really a loss at all. Here are three ways to accept any number on the scale. Remind yourself that fluctuations happen Lots of things can affect your body weight. Water consumption, salt intake, time of the month, illness, and bowl movements can all affect the number on the scale. It’s important to remind yourself that not all blips on the scale are a result of our habits. Weight naturally fluctuates anywhere from two to four pounds day to day. Embrace this as a part of your journey and don’t freak out. Don’t reside in La-la land either. Blips week after week on the upward trajectory is a sign of weight gain and needs a closer inspection of your daily habits. In either case, you can accept the number on the scale by reminding yourself that this number is never fixed. The number is meant to go up and down and you can always take action to change it. Always err on the positive side Small, downward blips can also be attributed to natural fluctuations but you get a choice to count it towards progress or something fleeting. Always erring on the positive. Count it towards your progress. Why? Because when you tell yourself you’re a little closer to your goal, you’ll feel more motivated to take more action and confident that you will eventually hit your goal. When you tell yourself that it’s not really a loss or that it’s just a weight fluctuation, you’ll feel inadequate and disappointed. It’s much easier to accept the number on the scale when you tell yourself that it’s evidence of progress. There is no downside to counting it. Embrace every win, no matter how small and insignificant you may think it is. You are in control When the number goes up, and it will, remind yourself that no number on the scale is ever final. This helps accept the number for what it is: temporary. As mentioned before, normal weight fluctuations will move the number up and down regularly. Even if you gained a large amount of weight, it serves you to remind yourself that no number is final. A change in your habits caused the weight gain and a change in your habits can help you lose it. Seeing a number on the scale and lamenting that you’ll never be able to lose the weight is a sure way to quit. Reminding yourself that no number is ever final can crack open hope for you to believe that you can see a lower number in the future. It reclaims the power back from the scale and puts it back in your hands. The number on the scale is a reflection of your habits. You are always in control. The number on the scale doesn’t mean anything until you think something about it. It’s your choice. The sooner you accept it, the sooner you can continue on your journey in a positive direction. Fighting against reality never wins. Your Coach, Andrea
Creating consistency in weight loss
Action is the currency of weight loss. You can’t do the same things you’ve always done and expect different results. And you most certainly cannot take different actions only once in a while and expect consistent results. If you want to reach your weight loss goal, you must be consistent. Consistency is what I coach clients on the most and so I have put together this list of five things you need to know for creating consistency in weight loss. Consistency is NOT perfection My clients often say they are not able to be consistent, when really they are being pretty consistent. Let’s say the goal is to drink 64oz of water each day and they are only doing it five days, instead of seven. Hate to break it to you but that IS being consistent. That is consistently meeting the goal for five days. There is a difference between wanting to increase the number days you meet the goal and being consistent. Too often we believe we are not being consistent in weight loss when we aren’t perfect. But that’s not the case! Consistency does not equal perfection. In fact, thinking you are not consistent because you aren’t perfect is defeating and causes you to quit. So recognize when you ARE being consistent and that will increase your desire to continue to be consistent as well as take more positive action towards your weight loss goal. Only make small, doable changes I get it. Being overweight can feel terrible. There is likely an urgency to want to be thinner NOW. But when you try to change everything about you, your routines, the foods you eat and the life you live, it takes a lot of energy and won’t last for long. Too many weight loss journeys fail because they are trying to use willpower to muscle through changing everything about themselves and their lives. Don’t do that to yourself. The greatest gift you can give yourself is acceptance of where you are. Take the pressure off of needing to be anything else. You can accept where you are and still make positive change. The best way to make that positive change is to make the changes small and level up when you get really good at that change. Small, doable changes make weight loss feel really manageable and allows you to collect tons of wins. And when you are winning, you know what? You feel like taking more action. And taking more action leads to more weight loss. Use multiple ways to measure your success The scale is not king of your weight loss journey. The diet industry has brainwashed us all by using the scale as the number one measurement of success. But you’re setting yourself up for defeat if that is the only way you measure your weight loss. Scales are a lagging measure of the actions you take. It may take weeks for the scale to reflect the fruits and veggies you’ve been eating or the workouts you completed. I highly recommend using a habit tracker to measure your actions and use that as a sign of your weight loss progress. You can also track your moods, body measurements, clothing fit and use before and after photos too. Expect to not feel like it Consistency often wains when we “don’t feel like it.” But what if “feeling like it” wasn’t required? What if you could take action anyway? Well, you can! It’s great to feel motivated and excited when you first start a new diet or exercise plan, but once that wears off and boredom sets in, it can feel difficult to keep taking action. It has taken over 3 years for me to reach my weight loss goal. There have been a lot of times that I didn’t want to work out or eat the food I planned. And you know what? I was still able to do it. When motivation wains (and it will), you have to be able to rely on commitment and discipline to see it through. One of the greatest gifts you can give yourself is to remain committed and disciplined through that time. As you continue to take action, even when you don’t feel like it, that motivation will return and this time with a giant side of pride. Remain focused and keep going no matter what When you focus on the problem on your weight loss journey, you’ll find more of them. When you focus on the solutions, you’ll find more weight loss. Recognize when you are being inconsistent and figure out what you can do to become more consistent. Focusing on how to be more consistent creates more consistent action and more consistent results in your weight loss journey. When I started my weight loss journey in 2019, I simply decided that I was going to figure it out no matter what. When I overate or missed a workout, I got curious with myself and figured out how to move forward. You can choose the same. There is no need to beat yourself up for being inconsistent. Remain focused on your weight loss goal and allow yourself to be curious and find a different way going forward. After all, if you continue to do the same things, you’ll get the same results. What’s getting in your way of being consistent? Your Coach, Andrea
The ONE thing you need to start losing weight
People overcomplicate weight loss all the time. But to get started and to keep going, you really only need one thing: Belief. It’s absolutely true. Believing that you can lose weight is the ONE thing you need. You don’t need a food scale, a bathroom scale or a calorie counting app to get started. All you need is to believe. You might be thinking, it’s really not that easy. But I promise that to begin your journey, that’s all you need. You would never start a diet if you didn’t believe YOU could do it. You would never start an exercise routine unless you thought YOU were capable of getting results from it. It all starts with belief. And you know what? It all ends when belief goes away. You stop following the diet when you believe it is no longer working. You stop working out when you stop believing that you’ll get the results you desire. Belief is the fuel for you weight loss journey. When you believe in yourself and the ability for you to get results, you take action. If that belief falls away, then you stop taking the action. It was a very powerful moment in my life when I realized that belief was fueling everything. I had experienced success on diets before and couldn’t seem to figure out why I eventually stopped being successful and put the weight back on. Then one day it hit me: I quit believing in it and stopped taking action. There was nothing wrong with me. I wasn’t broken. I wasn’t doomed to be fat for the rest of my life. I simply stopped believing. Just as easily as I can choose to believe in something, I can choose not to believe too. And whether or not I believe, determines how I’m showing up and the results I get. As scary as that might seem, it’s actually the best news ever. I no longer had the responsibility of finding the perfect diet or exercise plan. I simply needed to practice belief. Belief in myself and belief that I could figure this out no matter how long it took. With those beliefs I found safety in trying new things and seeing what worked well with my life. I was able to look at my habits and see which ones were helping on my weight loss journey and which ones weren’t. I could take my time and figure it out because I had the belief that I would figure it all out and reach my weight loss goal no matter what. If you are struggling with belief in yourself, here are a few things to try: Read other people’s weight loss success stories for inspiration Write a list of 100 things you’ve been successful at (nothing is too small) Use motivational quotes to inspire you Begin with practicing the thought “I’m willing to believe I can do this” Reach out for help by scheduling a call with me! How do you practice belief in yourself? Your Coach, Andrea
Five things for successful weight loss
Millions of people try losing weight each year with the end goal in mind. A certain number of pounds lost, a particular pant size or a dress they are trying to wear for a special occasion. But it’s much more important to have the right start to your weight loss journey. Here are five things you need to be successful in weight loss: Belief that you can do it It’s essential for successful weight loss that you believe YOU can do it. This is different than thinking you found the right diet that will shed pounds quickly or the right exercise routine that will give you washboard abs. This is the belief that you can follow the plan and stick with it. This is the belief that you are willing and able to do the work. Fake it until you make it doesn’t apply here. That will only lead to success over a couple of months then inevitably quitting and undoing any progress you made. Don’t worry. If your belief is a little shaky, that’s OK. You don’t have to believe that you are able to do it for your ENTIRE weight loss journey. But can you start with the belief in you today? Can you stick to it today? Then ask yourself the same question for tomorrow….then the next day and the next…and before you know it you’ve grown your belief in your weight loss abilities. Acceptance that you won’t always be perfect Decide right from day one that you won’t always be perfect and that’s OK. I have lost over 90 pounds and I had many days that I ate off plan or overate. I decided that I wouldn’t let that be a reason to think I was broken or incapable of losing weight. I simply made that mean that I was a human that made a choice that didn’t align with my goal. I didn’t have to be perfect but I did need to get back on-track as soon as possible. You won’t always be perfect either. Accepting that from the beginning takes a lot of the drama out of it. Treat it as an event you knew was coming then get back on track as soon as possible. It’s like being on a car trip. You might get a flat tire at some point. It’s something that happens but isn’t a reason to quit going onto your destination and live on the side of the road for the rest of your life. You put your spare tire onto the car and get moving again. You have that choice on your weight loss journey as well. You can choose to eat on plan for the very next meal and keep on moving onto your weight loss goal. Be open to trying different things If you do the same things you have always done, you’ll get the very same results you already have. Being success in weight loss requires eating and drinking in ways that are different than what you’ve been doing. It doesn’t take a complete 180-degree turnaround to get different results but it does require small changes. The very first thing I ask my clients to do is to ask themselves before every meal “Am I hungry?” If the answer is yes, eat. If the answer is no, wait until you are hungry. They are amazed at what a difference it makes just asking themselves this small question. Really open your mind to all the possibilities for change. You could drink a few more sips of water, leave a couple bites behind at each meal, switch to whole grain bread or walk for fifteen minutes each day. Be careful not to think that these actions are too small to amount to any weight loss. Every small action adds up. Plus it makes your journey more enjoyable since you aren’t having to rely on Herculean willpower to muster through. Decide to figure it out Maybe the things you tried didn’t result in weight loss. Again, not a big deal. Change it up and see what DOES work. The problem with diets and exercise plans is that they don’t take into account the individual person. The way I teach weight loss is custom to YOU. You are the expert in your weight loss and I help you find that inner wisdom that defines weight loss on your own terms. Because when you define weight loss on your own terms, you lose all your weight without any fear of it ever returning. So get curious when you stop losing weight. Ask yourself what contributed to that. Find something new to try next that will give you a different result. Your weight loss journey will change along the way and willingness to figure it out is required to be successful. Love yourself no matter what Starting your weight loss journey with self-hate or loathing for your body is a recipe for disaster. You don’t have to go from hating yourself to loving yourself. Just stop the hateful comments. When I was 250-pounds and hated the way I looked, I simply made an agreement with myself to stop saying hateful things. I didn’t have to change it to something loving. I just said to myself “I don’t think that way anymore.” Then as my journey progressed and I gained for confidence and love for myself, I was able to say loving things instead. The amazing thing is that your brain cannot think two thoughts at the same time. As soon as you start thinking something new, the other thought is gone. Here’s why loving yourself is so important. Think about going in for a performance evaluation and your boss tells you how much he hates you and everything you do is wrong. Then he demands that you make huge changes. How likely is it that you will rise up to meet his demands? I don’t know about you but I’d be searching for a new job! Now imagine that a
How visualization can help you lose weight
A powerful tool you can use on your weight loss journey is visualization. I often tell my clients that our thoughts are the instruction manuals for our brains but that doesn’t just include the sentences we tell ourselves. Our brains are powerful machines. You can reinforce those thoughts, create more desire, strengthen commitment and increase motivation by using visualization. Here is how visualization can help you lose weight: Instructions for your brain First, visualization is a process of seeing images in your mind. If you think about a tree, chances are you are able to visualize a tree in your mind. Words when paired with visual images tell a complete story. Your brain has a complete story of what you want on your weight loss journey when you pair your thoughts along with visual images. When your brain clearly understands the goal, it is free to start going after the solution and paving a way to achieve that goal. If you are unsure of where to begin with visualization of your weight loss goal, start with visualizing yourself looking into a mirror. Visualize how your stomach is smaller, your legs slimmer and maybe your cheeks less round. You can envision yourself in smaller clothes or maybe even visualize your current clothing fitting looser on your smaller-sized body. For more advanced visualization, envision yourself going throughout your day. How do you get out of bed? How do you go down the stairs? What does it look like getting in and out of your car? Envision yourself going through these daily activities in your slimmer body. Create desire Visualization also helps create desire on your weight loss journey. Many of my clients blame their reason why for not being compelling enough and why they choose to quit. More often it is because they have not spent enough time thinking about their why and creating a strong relationship with it. The more you think about the reason why you want to lose weight, the more important and desirable it becomes to you. Thinking about your reason only on January 1st is a recipe for remaining the same. But if you think about your reason every single day of the month for an entire year, you’ll build desire and commitment to that goal. Another great way to build that desire for your weight loss goal is to visualize yourself at your goal weight daily. Envision yourself enjoying your new slimmer body. Think of the different activities you’ll engage in, that your weight currently holds you back. Visualize yourself in clothes that you love and feeling confident in them. Create a vision in your mind of yourself that you truly want and are excited to experience. Find solutions to obstacles You can also use visualization as role play for situations you find tough to deal with in real life. Let’s say that you struggle with leaving restaurants overly stuffed. Visualization can be an amazing tool to walk through going to the restaurant and taking a to-go box home with half of your meal inside. It’s a lot easier to visualize that action in your mind when the delicious food isn’t sitting in front of you. Again, the visualization becomes the instruction manual for real life. Once you get comfortable packing up half of the meal into the to-go container in your mind, you can do it more easily in real life because your brain already knows the clear instructions on how to do it. Help keep yourself going Motivation can come and go on your weight loss journey and that’s totally normal. Sometimes getting your shoes on is the hardest part of the workout. Visualizing yourself putting on the shoes, completing the workout and seeing yourself be proud of that accomplishment can be a great way to get yourself motivated to take that positive action again. Not only that but visualizing yourself at your goal weight helps remind yourself of what today’s action can result in. If you are lacking in motivation, you can return to feeling motivated by visualizing a time when you felt really motivated. Picture where you were, what you were doing and how the feeling of motivation felt in your body. Of course, along with that visualization, tap into the thoughts you were telling yourself at that time so you have a really clear picture of that motivation. Together these two things are a great way to return to that motivated state and keep yourself going on your weight loss journey. Have you tried visualizing yourself at your weight loss goal? Comment below. Your Coach, Andrea
How to create a successful weight loss plan in 5 easy steps
Weight loss can be very overwhelming especially when you have over 100 pounds to lose. You may get confused on where to start or which food and exercise plan is the best. There are thousands of options out there and it can seem impossible to know which one is right for you. Here are five easy steps to creating a successful weight loss plan especially made for YOU: 1. Figure out where you are beginning When you get directions to a new place you’ve never been, you have to plug in the starting address first. To begin your weight loss journey, you have to do the same. Start by asking yourself the following questions: What is my current weight? If I had to guess what brought me to this weight, I would say it’s because…. What is my routine eating schedule? What are the foods I eat in a normal day? How much am I routinely moving my body? Do I believe I am capable of making the changes to lose my excess weight? These questions are great ways to determine where you are starting with your diet, exercise and mindset. Be careful not to get too overwhelmed or upset about how far you are from your ultimate goal. Don’t let this be a time where you plan for incredible acts of willpower or drastic measures that will get you to your goal the fastest. Remember when you are getting directions somewhere, they are given in multiple steps. If you were traveling across the country, you wouldn’t get upset because there are multiple roads and highways you have to take so don’t let that be a reason to be upset on your weight loss journey either. Especially when you have a lot of weight to lose, it helps to accept that the process is going to take time. Taking things slower ensures you don’t burn out and quit. 2. Make a list of what you are willing to do to lose weight Remember to start where you are! It’s very easy to look for a diet and exercise plan that promises the results you want. Just remember that every diet out there works if YOU continue to work it. You have probably lost weight before on these other plans but ultimately failed because you stopped following it. You weren’t willing to continue to follow the diet rules. This time around you need to figure out what you are willing to do for the rest of your life to maintain a healthier weight. If you are currently eating McDonald’s three times a day, changing to eating only salads that you make at home isn’t realistic and will feel terrible. Instead look for the small things that you are willing to do. Maybe it is ordering a smaller size fry or a regular hamburger instead of the Big Mac. You could also order your same meal and leave a few bites behind each time. Just make a list of all the ways you are willing to eat a little less, move a little more and explore why you are overeating in the first place. Once you have a giant list (don’t stop until you have at least 20 things on it), figure out which ones are going to be the easiest to do and start with one of them. Yep, just one. Do one thing until you get really good at doing it and then layer in the next easiest thing. Small quick wins are a great way to start changing your habits, getting the weight loss ball rolling and not feeling like your life was turned upside down. Those quick wins will add up and before you know it you will be doing many of these new habits and it won’t feel difficult at all. 3. Create an action plan for when you fail You are human. You will make mistakes. You will not do it right ALL the time. And that’s OK. The problem is that when you make a mistake, you ruminate on how terrible you are and how you’ll never make the changes needed to lose your weight. It becomes a catastrophe rather than a moment in time. That’s why it is important to create a plan for getting back on track as quickly possible. Having this plan in place ahead of time makes it so much easier to follow when you are in the thick of things and shortens the amount of time it takes to “get back on the wagon.” First, create a list of thoughts that help get you get your mind in the right place to take your next best action. This was just a moment in time. I can learn from this and move on stronger and better equipped. No matter what happened, I can always make my next best decision. It’s not the mistake I made but how I respond to it that determines my success in weight loss. Then create a list of the small decisions that you can make to get your weight loss ball rolling again. Keep these really simple and something you can do in under five minutes. Some ideas are drink a glass of water, go for a five minute walk, write in your journal or listen to a motivational podcast. Finally and most importantly after completing one of these actions remind yourself that you are doing what it takes to lose weight again. Tell yourself how proud you are for getting right back at it! 4. Decide on how you will measure your progress Please don’t just say the scale! The scale will not accurately reflect all of your efforts. You cannot control the scale. You can only control your actions so using a habit tracker is a much better way to measure progress. A habit tracker can show you that you worked out twice last week but you completed three workouts this week. That’s progress! You can also track sleep, adherence to food plans, overeats
Five tips to drink water when you HATE it
It’s no secret that drinking water is a vital part of weight loss. Our bodies are up to 60% water AND one of the steps of fat loss is hydrolysis (hydro = water). So to be the most effective at losing weight, you have to drink water. But what can you do to get yourself to drink more water when you HATE it? Here are five simple and effective tips for drinking more water: 1. Start where you are One of the best gifts you can give yourself on your weight loss journey is to meet yourself where you are. If you are only drinking sugary, caffeinated drinks and the thought of drinking a glass of water cues your gag reflex, then it will be really hard for you to start drinking 64oz of water each day. If that’s you, start small. Plan to drink just one 8oz glass of water each day. You can even spread out that 8oz if it feels better to just take a sip here or there. Don’t worry about how you are not getting “enough” or you are “supposed” to be drinking more than that. Once you get really good at drinking the 8oz in a day then you can increase it slowly but surely. When you start something that is so drastically different from where you are beginning, it takes a ton of motivation and willpower to do it. You spend all your time trying to force yourself to do something that feels unnatural and often times don’t enjoy. Instead, be OK with starting smaller and remind yourself that just because you start small doesn’t mean that’s where you will finish. 2. Pair it with a reward Doesn’t it feel good to be rewarded for our efforts? Of course it does! But far too often we don’t tell ourselves “good job” or sit in the pride of knowing that we did something good for ourselves. Instead the effort goes largely unnoticed and the only “reward” we get is the mental chatter about it dies down for a bit. Rewards help to reinforce actions we want to take in the future. They are really useful when you want to create new habits. So to create a new habit of drinking water and making it more enjoyable, incorporate a reward! Now this doesn’t need to be anything that you buy. In fact, it could be simply pairing drinking water with something you like to do that is already a part of your every day routine. For instance if you love drinking soda, you could pair drinking a glass of water with the reward of having a soda. You could also allow yourself to watch an episode of your favorite TV show once you have drank all of your water for the day. Remember gold stars from school? A reward could be as simple as a pretty sticker on a chart or a check mark on your habit tracker. To make it extra impactful, remember to say to yourself “I’m so proud of myself for drinking water.” 3. Don’t prolong the misery If every sip of water is pure misery for you, then don’t sip your water throughout the day. Guzzle it. There is nothing saying that you have sip slowly and consistently throughout the day. It’s just important that you drink it. I rarely take a single sip of water. I usually take ten sips at a time just because I know that means I am taking in lots of water at once and that increases my likelihood of drinking 64oz. Another great tip to get it done quickly: get started early. After you wake up, start drinking water. Your body is actually dehydrated when you wake up because of the hours you’ve spent sleeping and using the water in your body. Put a cup in your bathroom right next to your toothbrush then immediately drink at least one full cup of water after brushing your teeth. This is called habit stacking and is a great way to remind yourself of that new habit of drinking water. Getting started early in the day with drinking water means that you finish earlier and can enjoy the rest of the day drinking the beverage of your choice. 4. Disguise it Water doesn’t have to be plain to be helpful. Juice lovers can pour a glass 3/4 full of juice and then top the rest of it off with some water. After doing that for a while, you can change the ratio to 1/2 juice and 1/2 water. Keep increasing the ratio until you get mostly water. There are really great water enhancers that can be used to flavor your water as well. Use the same method of adding the amount you enjoy and then slowly decreasing it over time so you are drinking mostly water. There are tons of spa water recipes that you can try too. Spa water incorporates fresh fruits and herbs to flavor your water and make it more fun to drink. You can also incorporate herbal teas as a way to get in more water (just be careful with what you add to it!). I personally love dessert teas from Bigelow teas that have flavors reminiscent of lemon pound cake and chocolate macaroons. 5. Think sexy thoughts about water Ruminating on how much you HATE water will never help you drink more of it. It will make you feel angry and resentful that drinking water is something you HAVE to do even though you hate it. It will feel like a chore and a burden in your life. Try to find something that you like about drinking water. Get your brain primed to see the benefits by listing as many good things as possible about drinking water. Finally, make a commitment to yourself to stop saying you hate water. It may feel true but it will never help you drink more of it. Instead find some other thoughts you can practice thinking
Nine lessons learned from losing 90 pounds
When you lose over 90 pounds, the process will change you. You learn things about yourself, see yourself in a new light and even evolve into a better version of yourself (and not just because you lost a ton of weight). I’m going to share with you nine lessons I have learned on my journey to losing over 90 pounds in hopes that they can help you on your journey. I enjoy sweets and treats more the less I eat them On my journey, I didn’t restrict any types of foods, including sweets. In fact, at the beginning I was eating sweets multiple times a day. Eventually I began to focus on foods that really gave me sustained energy and the sweets became less of my daily routine. And you know what? Creating more space and time between the sweets really allowed me to create desire and anticipation for the treat. I savored them more and they were much more enjoyable when they were just a standard part of my day. Emotional eating comes in many forms I was aware that I was an emotional eater but as I began to check in with myself more regularly before eating, I realized I was emotionally eating ALL. THE. TIME. If I was stressed about the kids being crazy kids, let’s look for some relief in the pantry. Work task that I didn’t want to start? Hmm…. maybe I should grab a snack before I get started. Bored? Let’s eat. Tired? A quick bite might energize me. If I was having a disagreement with my husband, I’ll show him by eating the last of the cookies! Feeling proud of my kids school performance? Let’s get ice cream! Becoming aware of all the times I was eating when I wasn’t truly hungry helped me figure out the real solutions for those problems. Now I take a power nap if I’m tired or go to my room for a quick breather when they kids are being crazy. Solving for the true problem allows me to feel better while also losing weight in an enjoyable way. It was time to parent myself My high weight of 250 pounds came from a lot of emotional eating and a side of “I don’t wanna.” I didn’t want to deal with my emotions. Eating fresh fruits and veggies didn’t sound fun. 11,000 steps each day sounded hard. I didn’t want to stick to a food plan. I basically conditioned myself to be a big baby whose brain would throw a fit at the thought of what it would take to get healthier and lose weight. I wanted pleasure and I wanted it NOW. I realized that many of the things I was allowing myself to do (like eat entire boxes of cookies or sit on the couch all day) were things I would never let my kids do. I know that moving your body, getting sunshine and eating a well balanced diet is key to good mental and physical health. Somehow I had convinced myself that because I already KNOW these things that meant I could be exempt from actually doing them. Not only was living my life that way taking a toll on my body but I was increasing mom guilt as I knew I wasn’t practicing what I was preaching to my kiddos. So I started to parent myself. I would acknowledge that I was making changes and that changes are often uncomfortable. That’s OK. It wasn’t going to kill me. In fact the more I practiced this new way of living, the more I would become comfortable with it and even appreciate it. I also made an agreement with myself that just because “I didn’t wanna” didn’t make that a valid excuse for not doing something. Logically I knew these actions were all what was best for me and I could do them even if “I didn’t wanna.” The scale is just one piece of data Yep, it’s been said before and I’m saying it again. The scale is just a number. And it is only one number to consider on your weight loss journey. From the beginning of my weight loss journey, I made sure to track other measurements too. I took body weight measurements, used habit trackers and took progress pictures. These were invaluable as I had weeks were the scale didn’t move (or gasp, went up!). These other measurements helped me stay grounded as I could reflect on the efforts I was putting forth and other changes that my body was making. Other ideas for non-scale measurement are body fat measurements, changes in how much you can lift and cardio endurance. Not sure how to measure cardio endurance? Climb a flight of stairs each month and record how long it takes, how long it takes you to catch your breath and how you feel afterwards. You can also track your mood throughout the process. Every morning record your mood in a journal. Exercise has been proven to elevate your mood so when you start noticing more happy and content days, that’s progress! The only diet drama comes from my own head This lesson took me a little longer to learn. When you are 100 pounds overweight, the beginning of your weight loss journey can be very thrilling. I made very little changes to my diet (I only stopped eating when I had enough, instead of being full) and the weight seemed to fall off. Eventually more changes had to be made to keep losing weight and certainly it was falling off me anymore. Cue the drama! I realized that the weeks where the scale didn’t drop “enough,” stayed the same or went up a bit were really difficult for me. All the sudden my motivation would disappear and I would start questioning if I would ever be able to reach my goal. I knew this was a normal part of the weight loss journey but it felt terrible. So I
Which Weight Loss Plan Is Best For Me?
There are literally endless options when choosing a weight loss plan. By the time I reached my highest weight of 250 pounds, I had tried them all. Weight loss plans based on your body shape, counting points, counting calories, counting carbs, counting macros, cabbage, the military….the list goes on and on and on. How do you decide which weight loss plan is best for you? Choose from love, not impatience. So many of my clients get to a point of desperation about the way their body looks and frustration with their inability to “make the right choices” that they choose a plan based on what will get them the results fastest. While it may seem like a great idea to really buckle down and tough it out, this results in extreme discomfort (with a side of weight loss) for the near future and long term misery (regaining the weight and then some) thereafter. Yep, you can generally follow any plan for a short period of time but those results will be just as short if the plan is not something you can enjoy doing. As humans, we like to feel good. So if it not a plan that you will enjoy following, then it’s not the plan for you. Choose a plan that includes your favorite foods. Nothing will set you up for weight loss failure as much as trying to avoid your favorite foods. It’s just not realistic. Yeah, some people just plan for cheat days but does that really feel any better? Who are your cheating on? Yourself and your goals? Plus when you avoid the foods you really enjoy it creates a feeling of restriction and deprivation that make those foods seem even more delicious and crave worthy. It basically guarantees that when you do finally give into those cravings, you’ll gorge yourself on them and feel immense shame and guilt afterwards. I don’t know about you but shame and guilt are not great motivators for making good choices but rather key ingredients for giving up on weight loss…..once again. Choose a plan that you can do FOREVER. Uh huh, you’ve heard this one before. It’s not about the perfect weight loss plan. It’s about a lifestyle change. If you go on a diet expecting to lose your weight and then go back to your normal ways of eating once you get to goal weight, then you can definitely expect to go back to your original starting weight. That’s why it’s even more important to follow the previous criteria of choosing a plan that includes your favorite foods. If you have no intention of leaving pizza behind as a thing of your past, then you should definitely choose a weight loss plan that includes pizza. Choose a plan that goes beyond exercise and food. It’s really easy to choose a plan that promises to tell us what to eat, how often to exercise and what exact exercises to do. Many of us just want to be told what to do. We don’t want to figure it out for ourselves or don’t TRUST that we can figure it out on our own. But what happens when stress is piling on every day and we are following the plan perfectly and the scale remains the same. What happens when you start telling yourself you “just don’t feel like it anymore.” So many things affect our ability to lose weight and stick to a weight loss plan. To be effective, the weight loss plan that you choose should encompass thought work. In my coaching with clients, I teach that our thoughts create our feelings. So if you are short on motivation, there’s a thought for that! (Try: I am figuring this out! This will result in weight loss! I’m a freaking weight loss machine!) Feeling stressed out and don’t wanna? Take a look at your inner thoughts and see where your thoughts are depleting your desire to make great choices. It may seem surprising but taking responsibility for your emotional life can help you conquer the scale. Choose a plan that doesn’t exist. What does that even mean? Create a plan that is specific and customized to you. Start with where you are and make small, incremental changes to a healthier lifestyle. Start by documenting what you are normally eating and drinking throughout the day and then get curious. What would I be willing to do tomorrow to be 1% healthier? Yes, just 1%. Something so small and seemingly insignificant. Something that you probably dismiss right away as too small to make a difference. But if you commit to changing 1% each day for a year that will result in 365% of change towards and healthier you and a very easy, manageable change each day. (OK, maybe the math doesn’t exactly work out that way but you get what I mean) Remember, the best weight loss plan for you is the one you stick to. Your Coach, Andrea