I am thrilled that you are going to be joining me for 10 lessons about weight management. Deciding to take control of your weight (and of course, your health) can sometimes feel vulnerable and awkward because it’s such a personal topic. Know that these lessons provide a safe place to learn skills that will assist you on the journey and ultimately lead you toward confidence in managing your weight. My name is krishnasai damacharla, and I am a health coach, personal trainer, and owner of Emerge Health Coaching. I have worked with hundreds of people to achieve their goals and overcome obstacles that have prevented them from seeing lasting results in the past. As always, you should talk to your doctor before beginning any new exercise or diet.
Our first few lessons will go over the practical components of weight management by addressing the three biggest factors of managing weight: diet, exercise, and controlling emotional eating. The other lessons will go over some topics that can be pitfalls for some people when trying to manage their weight. We focus on these topics so that you can proactively address the risk factors that pull people off track.
Here is an overview of the lessons of this course:
1.Are You Ready? Understanding Behavior Change
2.Eating for Weight Management
3.Managing Stress Without Eating
4.Developing an Exercise Plan
5.The Secret Math of Calories
6.Tackling Your Goals
7.Tracking Your Progress
8.Planning Ahead
9.Developing a Support System
10.Taking Inventory and Staying on Track
In today’s lesson, we will focus on behavior change. You’ll learn the stages of behavior change and be able to see what stage you are on the readiness to change scale.
The transtheoretical model was designed by experts from different fields who came together with the belief that behavior change is holistic and needs to address the physical, psychological, and environmental components that factor into making lasting behavior changes. The model shows the stages of progression of making a behavior change. As you read through the stages, try to identify which stage you are in right now.
The stages of behavior change are:
>Precontemplation: Unaware of any weight management issues that could have a negative impact on life.
>Contemplation: Aware of the consequences of not taking actions and beginning to consider making changes.
>Preparation: A desire to make changes to improve weight management. May begin planning the practical steps of how to achieve the goal of addressing weight management.
>Action: Actively making changes to behavior to manage weight.
>Maintenance: Sustaining the behavior change over long periods of time.
>Relapse: Reverting to old habits. Person often returns to precontemplation phase.
Where do you fall on the chart? Many of the tools that you will find throughout the next nine lessons will allow you to move from contemplation into action. If you’re already taking steps to manage your weight, these lessons can help you to refine your strategy to be even more effective. Keep in mind that the tools you learn in these lessons will look different; some tools will be practical and knowledge-based, like calculating calories. Other tools will be psychological, such as techniques for managing stress that could otherwise lead to emotional eating. Still other tools will be based on practical, research-based recommendations, like gaining support. We want to address every factor that will lead to your success in managing your weight.
In tomorrow's lesson we will go over the most important factor for managing your weight: eating healthy. You’ll gain an understanding of the basics of what to eat and why it’s so crucial in managing your weight.
Cheers to your health.
#2(FAST AND SIMPLE)Episode #2 of FIRST POST:
Fast and Simple tracks are here,have you ever eaten junk food and then tried to work out? It’s miserable!
Of course, you wouldn’t put water into your car’s gas tank and expect the car to function correctly. The same goes for the body. It needs to be fueled correctly in order to perform and feel its best.
In our last lesson, we learned about the stages of behavior change. Today, we will focus on the most important aspect of managing your weight: your diet. We will go over the basic guidelines of a healthy diet, and you will learn a few things that you can do to improve the way you eat.
When you use healthy foods to fuel your body, you will feel energetic, be able to function in the activities you enjoy, and think clearly. On the flipside, an unhealthy diet can cause the body to feel sluggish, tired, and store excess calories as fat, and it contributes to health risks.
Get to Know Your Macros
Food is composed of three macronutrients (or “macros” for short): proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Each of these “macros” has a different function within the body: proteins are the building blocks of muscle, carbohydrates give the body energy and help the brain think clearly, and fats give the body long-term energy and help with hormonal balances. If you’re not eating a good balance of the macros, or if you’re not eating foods from natural sources, you’ll notice your body respond with some signals. These signals are fatigue, hunger, cloudy thinking, or a change in body composition.
The Basics
A healthy diet includes foods from each of the macro groups at every meal. That means that in every meal you should eat a source of protein, carbs, and healthy fats. You’ll also want to choose foods that look the way that they are found in nature: plants, meats, and non- or minimally processed foods.
With that in mind, it’s helpful to know which foods belong to which macro group. Here are some examples of each:
Carbohydrates:
Vegetables
Fruits
Potatoes
Beans
Rice
Oatmeal
Whole wheat bread/pasta
Proteins:
Chicken
Fish
Lean beef
Greek yogurt
String cheese
Lentils
Beans
Fats:
Nuts
Nut butters
Seeds
Oils
Cheese
Avocados
Eggs
Chia seeds
Now that you know what the body needs to function at its prime, let’s focus on how much to eat.
Calories
The average person needs 2,000 calories a day to have enough energy to meet their needs and maintain their current weight. This number will vary depending upon your height, weight, and how active you are. You can use this calculator to estimate how many calories you need per day.
Weight Loss
If you want to lose weight, you’ll need to begin using your body’s energy storage, which is literally the excess weight you can see on your body. In order to begin using that storage, you’ll need to trim off your overall daily calories, either by increasing exercise or decreasing the amount of calories that you eat. In most cases, for most people, it’s recommended to do both! We will go over this in more detail in Lesson #5, The Secret Math of Calories.
Tracking
Research by Kaiser Permanente found that people who track their daily food consumption lose twice as much weight as those who do not! It’s incredibly beneficial to use a system to track your calories every day. Tracking calories will allow you to see if you’re eating too much or too little and help keep you accountable to your established goals. The easiest and quickest way to track calories is to use an application, such as Loseit or MyFitnessPal, where you can record every meal to see an overview of your calories for the day.
Summary
The body functions best when it has each type of macro at each meal: carbs, proteins, and fats.
It’s important to choose unprocessed or minimally processed foods.
In order to lose weight, a person needs to have a deficit of calories. This can be done via trimming calories from the diet and exercise.
Logging calories is scientifically proven to be an effective tool when losing weight.
In our next lesson we will talk about emotional eating—how to recognize it and how to change the habit. Stay tuned!
#3(WORKS QUICKLY)Episode #3 of FIRST POST:
Have you ever caught yourself emotionally eating? Emotional eating can be identified in several different ways:
Eating when you’re stressed, bored, or lonely
Eating even when you’re already full
Feeling powerless to control yourself when eating
In order to manage your weight, it’s crucial that you have a way to manage your emotions that doesn’t involve eating. Today, our lesson will focus on strategies that you can use to identify and manage your emotions so that you only eat when you’re physically hungry. You will take away some valuable tools from this lesson that you can begin using with your next meal.
Two Types of Hunger
First, it’s important to recognize that there are two different types of hunger: emotional and physical. Emotional hunger is the one to look out for, as it can lead to emotional eating. Emotional hunger comes on suddenly and craves a specific type of comfort food. It often doesn’t result if feeling satisfied or full. Of course, there’s also physical hunger. Physical hunger is a slow buildup of hunger, and it results from the body needing food for energy and function.
It’s helpful to be able to recognize when you feel drawn to food because of emotion. If you’re not sure how to distinguish the difference between physical hunger and emotional hunger, check out this article which goes more in-depth and gives specific examples of each. Once you can identify what type of hunger you have, you can take action! Since physical hunger is pretty straightforward, our focus will be on emotional hunger.
Controlling Emotional Hunger
If you have emotional hunger, it’s important to take a minute to identify exactly what you’re feeling. Oftentimes, emotions give us small hints to what is missing in life. If you take time to pause and reflect on those feelings, you can address them. Once you have clarity on what exactly it is that you’re feeling, you can find an alternative to food that can meet your emotional need:
Are you feeling lonely? Take a few minutes to talk to a coworker or schedule a friend date.
This works quickly:Are you feeling stressed? Take a moment to journal or go for a walk.
Are you bored? Find a stimulating activity to do.
Are you craving comfort? Sip hot tea.
Taking a step toward addressing the root issue of your emotion is a tool that will allow you to manage your weight. Next, we will look at another strategy that can be beneficial if you’re an emotional eater.
Mindfulness
Being mindful is another tool that you can use to avoid emotional eating. Mindfulness brings your focus to the present and allows you to be in the moment and enjoy the depths of what you are engaging in. Mindful eating is the opposite of emotional eating. Developing the skill of mindful eating will allow you to eat for health and pleasure rather than using food as a coping tool.
Before you eat your next meal today, set the intention to be mindful. Start by taking a minute to relax. When you’re ready to eat, limit the distractions in your environment. Set space aside to focus on your meal, and put away your phone, Facebook, or emails. This will allow you to focus on the meal and enjoy the food. Notice the flavor, texture, and smell of each food that you eat.
Summary
Today you learned how to:
Distinguish between emotional hunger and physical hunger
Identify emotions and take action on them instead of engaging in emotional eating
Be mindful while eating
In our next lesson we will go over how the body breaks down stored fat to use as energy, then begin to develop your plan.
Cheers to your health.
#4(STEP-BY-STEP)Episode #4 of FIRST POST:
Today, the focus is on exercise, which is another important factor of weight management. By the end of the lesson, you will understand how the body uses fat storage to provide the body with energy (thus reducing body weight), and you’ll begin to develop your exercise plan.
What is Going on in There?
Imagine you are going to be moving to a new house and you want to get rid of some old, unused items that you had stored in boxes in the basement. You find the boxes and begin dusting them off, peering at the contents within. You begin taking out old items that you no longer want and make a donation pile on the basement floor. You then put those items into bags and carry them out of the house and to the donation center.
That is what happens to your stored fat when you exercise. When you work out, you literally begin breaking up your storage of energy (the fat), and once it’s broken up, it is converted into energy and is then exhaled and excreted through carbon dioxide, sweat, and urine. This video does a great job describing the process! Exercise will give you an opportunity to use stored body weight as energy, thus reducing your overall weight; most importantly, exercise will increase your overall health.
Another Reason Your Body is Awesome
The human body has the incredible ability to adapt to almost anything!
Every time you work out, there are physiological changes that take place in your body that help it to become more functional and adapt to the activity. The SAID principle is an acronym that stands for Specific Adaptations from Imposed Demands. Essentially, this principle states that anytime you place a demand upon your body, the body responds by changing itself to accommodate that demand. Here are some examples of those changes:
When a bodybuilder lift weights, the strained muscles develop small micro-tears. These small tears send signals to the body to grow back stronger to meet the demands being placed upon it, thus increasing performance, strength, and muscle size!
When a runner goes for a jog, their body sends a signal stating, “Hey it’d be nice if I could have more oxygen—this is hard!” The body responds by creating more red blood cells (which deliver oxygen) to help the body become more efficient at meeting the demands placed upon it. These changes allow a runner to increase their endurance.
The body is an incredible machine that we each get the honor of operating!(step-by-step-process)
Do What You Enjoy
Someone once said, “The best exercise is the one that you will actually do.” Keep that in mind when designing your exercise plan—make sure to find an activity that you enjoy and could see yourself doing long-term. If you have a hard time enjoying or following through with getting exercise, it may be helpful to work out with a friend, hire a personal trainer, or work with a health coach.
First, you’ll need to determine what activities you enjoy the most that you can see yourself doing long-term. If you’re not sure what you enjoy, this is your chance to sample the buffet of different activities. Once you’ve found one that you like, you’ll need to make time for it in your schedule. The American Heart Institute recommends people get at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days per week. If you have a full schedule, it may be helpful to look at taking two 15-minute breaks to exercise during the work day. Now take out your calendar and schedule when you can commit to working out!
Summary
In today’s lesson, you learned how the body changes in response to the demands that are placed on it, including how it burns fat as a fuel source. You also learned about the ideal frequency of working out and scheduled time for exercise in your schedule. In our next lesson, we will dive into understanding calories and the math behind weight management.
Cheers to your health.
#5(EASY)Episode #5 of FIRST POST:
So far, you have learned about the most important factors of weight management: diet, identifying emotional hunger, and exercise. Today, you will learn about the math of calories so that you will know without a doubt that you’re on track to see the results you want.
Did you know that it takes 3,500 calories to equal one pound of body weight? That means if you eat 3,500 calories beyond what your body needs to maintain its weight (remember, maintenance = 2,000 calories per day), you will gain one pound.
On the flipside, if you decrease your calories by 3,500 beyond what your body needs to maintain its weight (again, 2,000 calories per day), you will lose a pound.
That being said, weight gain isn’t usually due to one bad day, since it would be very difficult to eat an excess of 3,500 calories in just one day (unless, of course, it’s Thanksgiving). Gaining weight takes time and is often the result of a habit of consuming excess calories. Usually, weight gain takes about a week to notice, at minimum, on a scale.
Of course, the inverse rule goes for exercise. If you want to lose one pound of stored body weight, you need to have a deficit of 3,500 calories. If you space that calorie deficit over the span of a week (the recommended timeframe), that means you would need to shave off an average of 500 calories per day to lose one pound in a week.
2,000 calories - 500 calories = 1,500 calories per day to lose one pound per week
This 500-calorie deficit results when you:
Cut back either the number of calories you consume and/or
Increase the number of calories you burn through exercise
There are different variations of what shaving off 500 calories per day could look like. Here’s an example:
The diet consists of 1,800 calories per day (for a 200-calorie deficit from the regular 2,000). Exercise burns 300 calories per day (for a 300-calorie deficit). All together, the net calories are 1,500. This 500-calorie deficit per day equates to having a deficit of 3,500 calories in a week, putting the person on track to see a weight loss of one pound for the entire week, assuming they repeat that same pattern every day.
This leads us back to the point that it’s important to use a tool to track both your calories consumed and your calories burned. If you use an app, it will do the math for you, so you don’t have to worry about calculations!
Basal Metabolic Rate
The (average) human body needs about 2,000 calories per day from food to be able to maintain its current weight. Within this 2,000 calories a day, a very large portion—about 1,400 calories (average)—is used to help the body do its normal, basic functions, like breathing, pumping blood, and essentially the functions that are needed to stay alive. This calorie requirement is called the basal metabolic rate, or BMR. You can calculate your specific BMR here. BMRs will vary slightly depending upon your weight, height, and activity level. You should never decrease your daily calories below your BMR, as doing so can cause long-term metabolism issues!
When you add in other activities to your life, such as working, walking, cleaning, etc., those activities add to the overall energy expenditure, bringing your total daily calorie needs to about 2,000.This is easy way isn't it?
Summary
Today you learned about the secret math of calories. Here’s a quick review:
It takes 3,500 excess calories to equal one pound of body weight.
To lose one pound of stored body weight, there needs to be a deficit of 3,500 calories.
A calorie deficit can be the result of cutting out calories from the diet and increasing exercise.
You should never make your total daily calorie intake less than your specific BMR.
Cheers to your health.
So far, you have learned about the most important factors of weight management: diet, identifying emotional hunger, and exercise. Today, you will learn about the math of calories so that you will know without a doubt that you’re on track to see the results you want.
Did you know that it takes 3,500 calories to equal one pound of body weight? That means if you eat 3,500 calories beyond what your body needs to maintain its weight (remember, maintenance = 2,000 calories per day), you will gain one pound.
On the flipside, if you decrease your calories by 3,500 beyond what your body needs to maintain its weight (again, 2,000 calories per day), you will lose a pound.
That being said, weight gain isn’t usually due to one bad day, since it would be very difficult to eat an excess of 3,500 calories in just one day (unless, of course, it’s Thanksgiving). Gaining weight takes time and is often the result of a habit of consuming excess calories. Usually, weight gain takes about a week to notice, at minimum, on a scale.
Of course, the inverse rule goes for exercise. If you want to lose one pound of stored body weight, you need to have a deficit of 3,500 calories. If you space that calorie deficit over the span of a week (the recommended timeframe), that means you would need to shave off an average of 500 calories per day to lose one pound in a week.
2,000 calories - 500 calories = 1,500 calories per day to lose one pound per week
This 500-calorie deficit results when you:
Cut back either the number of calories you consume and/or
Increase the number of calories you burn through exercise
There are different variations of what shaving off 500 calories per day could look like. Here’s an example:
The diet consists of 1,800 calories per day (for a 200-calorie deficit from the regular 2,000). Exercise burns 300 calories per day (for a 300-calorie deficit). All together, the net calories are 1,500. This 500-calorie deficit per day equates to having a deficit of 3,500 calories in a week, putting the person on track to see a weight loss of one pound for the entire week, assuming they repeat that same pattern every day.
This leads us back to the point that it’s important to use a tool to track both your calories consumed and your calories burned. If you use an app, it will do the math for you, so you don’t have to worry about calculations!
Basal Metabolic Rate
The (average) human body needs about 2,000 calories per day from food to be able to maintain its current weight. Within this 2,000 calories a day, a very large portion—about 1,400 calories (average)—is used to help the body do its normal, basic functions, like breathing, pumping blood, and essentially the functions that are needed to stay alive. This calorie requirement is called the basal metabolic rate, or BMR. You can calculate your specific BMR here. BMRs will vary slightly depending upon your weight, height, and activity level. You should never decrease your daily calories below your BMR, as doing so can cause long-term metabolism issues!
When you add in other activities to your life, such as working, walking, cleaning, etc., those activities add to the overall energy expenditure, bringing your total daily calorie needs to about 2,000.This is easy way isn't it?
Summary
Today you learned about the secret math of calories. Here’s a quick review:
It takes 3,500 excess calories to equal one pound of body weight.
To lose one pound of stored body weight, there needs to be a deficit of 3,500 calories.
A calorie deficit can be the result of cutting out calories from the diet and increasing exercise.
You should never make your total daily calorie intake less than your specific BMR.
Cheers to your health.
#6(QUICK) Episode #6 of FIRST POST:
Setting goals is important because it allows you to see if your efforts have been effective. When you set a goal, it’s important to be detailed so that you can have a clear guide of exactly what you are hoping to accomplish. If your goal is simply to “manage my weight,” it can be hard to know when you have achieved the goal, because it’s vague. The objective of this lesson is for you to learn how to set a SMART goal that you can begin working toward this week.Here is quick guild.
Setting SMART Goals
SMART is an acronym that highlights guidelines when setting a goal so that you can know exactly when you have accomplished it. Following the guidelines will ensure that your goal is detailed, relevant, and possible. Get out a pen and paper or digital note, and then think of a goal that you would like to accomplish in the next week. Run it through the guidelines below:
Specific: What exactly do you want to accomplish?
Measurable: How will you know if you’re making progress? Many weight management goals measure weight, inches, body fat percentage, or an increase or decrease in a specific quantity.
Attainable: It’s very important that your goal is realistic. If you’re not sure what is realistic, be conservative with your estimate. For example “I’d like to lose three pounds a week” isn’t realistic (or healthy). It might be more realistic to say “I’d like to lose one pound every week.”
Relevant: Does it make sense to pursue this goal at this time in your life? For example, if you don’t have transportation to the gym, it might make the most sense to focus on workouts that you can do at home or nearby.
Timeframe: Make sure your goal has a specific time that you’d like to take to accomplish it. Short-term goals can be accomplished in a week to a month, and long-term goals may need more time. It may be helpful to break down long-term goals into shorter goals.
Here are a few examples of SMART goals:
My goal is to lose two pounds over the next three weeks, by July 1st.
My goal is to log all of my foods over the next five days so that I can see my total calories consumed during those days. I’ll use an app on my phone to help me log every time I eat.
My goal is to eat 1,950 calories per day and cut out sugar. I want to do this for one week to see if I have more energy. I’ll rate my energy levels using a scale of 1-10 before I start the goal and while I’m cutting sugar for a week to see if it has a greater impact on my energy levels.
Do you have your goal in mind? If you haven’t already, take a moment to write down your goal following the SMART goal guidelines. Also jot down why this goal is important to you. What difference would it make if you accomplished it? This extra step can serve as a reminder of why you were passionate about the goal in the first place. It can be helpful to reference the why when challenges arise.
Example: My goal is to make it one week without drinking any soda. I will start on Sunday the 10th and end on Sunday the 17th. I know I can make it at least a week without it, because I have before. In place of soda, I’m going to drink sparkling water and coffee. I want to do this so that I can begin developing healthier habits, lose weight, and set a good example for my kids. I don’t want them to be overweight or at risk for Type 2 diabetes like I am.
In our next lessons you will learn how to track your progress and gain support from others toward your goals.
Cheers to your health.
#7(SMIPLE)Episode #7 of FIRST POST:
“YEEEESS!” Mark yelled joyously, grinning and raising his arms in a victory pose. He had just stepped off the scale and saw that he had lost the last five pounds toward his goal. Mark is someone I had worked with for months, and he had stopped by to visit me once a month to track his progress by stepping on the scale, measuring his body fat, chatting about his progress, and making adjustments to his exercise plan. His hard work had finally paid off!
As with any goal, it’s extremely important to track your progress. Tracking will objectively allow you to see the fruits of your labor and give you something to celebrate! In long-term goals, such as weight management, it’s important to have a tool to measure progress.
What Should I Track?
For weight management, it’s important to track your weight once a week. You’ll need to use a scale. Be sure to weigh yourself at the same time each week. Measuring in the morning is the most consistent, because the body hasn’t just eaten a meal. It is also helpful to track your BMI. BMI is a ratio of your height and weight, which will allow you to see if you are in the “healthy,” “normal,” “overweight,” or “obese” categories. You can calculate your BMI using this tool. As your weight changes, your BMI will as well. Tracking weight and BMI are essential for knowing if you’re seeing results. You can keep a record of your weight using an app or using an old-fashioned method like pen and paper.
Some people find it helpful to track additional measurements, because it allows them to see more specific information, such as what areas of their body are losing fat and/or gaining muscle.
Here are some optional measurements you can take:
Progress photos (front, side, and back).
Inches with a tape measure. You can find out how to measure your inches here.
Body fat percentage. Using fat-pinching calipers is the cheapest way to measure your body fat.
Celebrate
When you see that you’re making progress in managing your weight, you should celebrate! Seeing results in your tracking means that your hard work in developing new healthy habits is paying off. How do you celebrate? That’s up to you, but experts recommend that it’s something healthy; don’t go out and order an unhealthy meal. Treat yourself to a new shirt, tell a family member, give yourself $5 to spend on a fun item, or, if you’re brave, post your progress on social media!
Today we talked about the importance of tracking your progress. In our next lesson, we will go over one thing that often deters people from sticking with their weight management goals long-term: not planning ahead. You’ll learn some tips and tricks for planning ahead so that you can stay on track with your goals.Do you enjoy this simple post?
Cheers to your health.
#8 WM(UPDATE) Episode #8 of FIRST POST:
Have you ever tried to give a presentation without preparing? Chances are that you survived, but it was a lot less impactful than it could have been. Planning ahead allows for the opportunity to maximize potential. Today’s lesson will focus on four ways you can plan ahead for successful weight management. The more you’re able to plan ahead, the higher your chances of being successful in managing your weight.
Set aside a block of time one day a week to map out your meals. During this time, find healthy meals that you would like to eat over the next week for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Add the ingredients to your grocery list and take your weekly shopping trip. If you have a busy week, it may be helpful to prep your food ahead of time by cooking before the work week begins.
Put your physical activity on the schedule. Plug in some space on your calendar to do activities that you enjoy and that give you exercise. Maybe you can set time aside on a lunch break to go for a walk or join a bowling league that meets once a week. Find something that is realistic to commit to and go for it!
Anticipate what could come up during the week that could get you off track. Are there any work events that will cause a major temptation? Could there be any stressful interactions that that could trigger emotional eating? Take a few minutes to imagine how you would like those events to go in your ideal world and how you can set boundaries to stay on track with your goal of managing your weight. If it’s helpful, set a reward for yourself if you’re able to overcome a challenge: I can have one small slice of cake at the work party on Tuesday, and if I only have just one, then I can watch my favorite show on Netflix after the party.
Eating Out? If you have plans to eat out at a restaurant or somewhere that you would like to indulge more than usual, you can plan ahead to make calorie adjustments earlier in the day. Having a smaller lunch and afternoon snack can help balance out a higher-calorie dinner.
Do you have an idea of how you can plan ahead? Good. Now take out your calendar and get to it!
Cheers to your health.
#9 Weight Management Definition Episode #9 of FIRST POST:
In our last lesson, we learned some tools for planning ahead, which is a major factor in being successful with weight management. Another factor in being successful is having long-term support.
In today’s lesson, we will focus on developing the support you need to stick with your goals and lifestyle changes. By the end of the lesson, you will select an individual in your life that you can go to for support while you embark on your weight management journey.
A huge part of being successful in managing your weight—and with any goal in general—is having support. A study done by psychology professor Dr. Matthews at the Dominican University of California measured the likelihood of successfully achieving a goal with and without the support of a friend. Her research found that people who updated their friend on their progress once a week had a 70% chance of achieving their goal! People who kept their goal to themselves only reached their goal 35% of the time.
It’s important that you have at least one person that you can talk to about your weight management journey. Here’s a simple framework that you can use to ask for the support of a friend or family member:
I’m setting a goal of managing my weight. In the next month I am going to log my food and start tracking my weight. I would love your support! Would you be willing to _______ (walk with me, help me plan a healthy grocery list, encourage me, check in on me via text) once a week? It would mean a lot to me.
If you don’t have someone you feel comfortable asking, you can look at other resources: hiring a health coach, talking to a counselor (especially helpful if you feel your weight is related to underlying emotional issues), or finding a support group. One popular, nationwide support group is Overeaters Anonymous. There are also groups dedicated to people who enjoy a similar activity and want to get to know other like-minded people on Meetup.
Your challenge today is to talk to at least one person or commit to doing one thing that can allow you to find a friend to gain support from. It’s scientifically proven to be effective in keeping you on track with your goals!
Cheers to your health.
#10 (If your new please start from #1) Episode #10 of FIRST POST:
Our first few lessons will go over the practical components of weight management by addressing the three biggest factors of managing weight: diet, exercise, and controlling emotional eating. The other lessons will go over some topics that can be pitfalls for some people when trying to manage their weight. We focus on these topics so that you can proactively address the risk factors that pull people off track.
Here is an overview of the lessons of this course:
1.Are You Ready? Understanding Behavior Change
2.Eating for Weight Management
3.Managing Stress Without Eating
4.Developing an Exercise Plan
5.The Secret Math of Calories
6.Tackling Your Goals
7.Tracking Your Progress
8.Planning Ahead
9.Developing a Support System
10.Taking Inventory and Staying on Track
In today’s lesson, we will focus on behavior change. You’ll learn the stages of behavior change and be able to see what stage you are on the readiness to change scale.
The transtheoretical model was designed by experts from different fields who came together with the belief that behavior change is holistic and needs to address the physical, psychological, and environmental components that factor into making lasting behavior changes. The model shows the stages of progression of making a behavior change. As you read through the stages, try to identify which stage you are in right now.
The stages of behavior change are:
>Precontemplation: Unaware of any weight management issues that could have a negative impact on life.
>Contemplation: Aware of the consequences of not taking actions and beginning to consider making changes.
>Preparation: A desire to make changes to improve weight management. May begin planning the practical steps of how to achieve the goal of addressing weight management.
>Action: Actively making changes to behavior to manage weight.
>Maintenance: Sustaining the behavior change over long periods of time.
>Relapse: Reverting to old habits. Person often returns to precontemplation phase.
Where do you fall on the chart? Many of the tools that you will find throughout the next nine lessons will allow you to move from contemplation into action. If you’re already taking steps to manage your weight, these lessons can help you to refine your strategy to be even more effective. Keep in mind that the tools you learn in these lessons will look different; some tools will be practical and knowledge-based, like calculating calories. Other tools will be psychological, such as techniques for managing stress that could otherwise lead to emotional eating. Still other tools will be based on practical, research-based recommendations, like gaining support. We want to address every factor that will lead to your success in managing your weight.
In tomorrow's lesson we will go over the most important factor for managing your weight: eating healthy. You’ll gain an understanding of the basics of what to eat and why it’s so crucial in managing your weight.
Cheers to your health.
#2(FAST AND SIMPLE)Episode #2 of FIRST POST:
Fast and Simple tracks are here,have you ever eaten junk food and then tried to work out? It’s miserable!
Of course, you wouldn’t put water into your car’s gas tank and expect the car to function correctly. The same goes for the body. It needs to be fueled correctly in order to perform and feel its best.
In our last lesson, we learned about the stages of behavior change. Today, we will focus on the most important aspect of managing your weight: your diet. We will go over the basic guidelines of a healthy diet, and you will learn a few things that you can do to improve the way you eat.
When you use healthy foods to fuel your body, you will feel energetic, be able to function in the activities you enjoy, and think clearly. On the flipside, an unhealthy diet can cause the body to feel sluggish, tired, and store excess calories as fat, and it contributes to health risks.
Get to Know Your Macros
Food is composed of three macronutrients (or “macros” for short): proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Each of these “macros” has a different function within the body: proteins are the building blocks of muscle, carbohydrates give the body energy and help the brain think clearly, and fats give the body long-term energy and help with hormonal balances. If you’re not eating a good balance of the macros, or if you’re not eating foods from natural sources, you’ll notice your body respond with some signals. These signals are fatigue, hunger, cloudy thinking, or a change in body composition.
The Basics
A healthy diet includes foods from each of the macro groups at every meal. That means that in every meal you should eat a source of protein, carbs, and healthy fats. You’ll also want to choose foods that look the way that they are found in nature: plants, meats, and non- or minimally processed foods.
With that in mind, it’s helpful to know which foods belong to which macro group. Here are some examples of each:
Carbohydrates:
Vegetables
Fruits
Potatoes
Beans
Rice
Oatmeal
Whole wheat bread/pasta
Proteins:
Chicken
Fish
Lean beef
Greek yogurt
String cheese
Lentils
Beans
Fats:
Nuts
Nut butters
Seeds
Oils
Cheese
Avocados
Eggs
Chia seeds
Now that you know what the body needs to function at its prime, let’s focus on how much to eat.
Calories
The average person needs 2,000 calories a day to have enough energy to meet their needs and maintain their current weight. This number will vary depending upon your height, weight, and how active you are. You can use this calculator to estimate how many calories you need per day.
Weight Loss
If you want to lose weight, you’ll need to begin using your body’s energy storage, which is literally the excess weight you can see on your body. In order to begin using that storage, you’ll need to trim off your overall daily calories, either by increasing exercise or decreasing the amount of calories that you eat. In most cases, for most people, it’s recommended to do both! We will go over this in more detail in Lesson #5, The Secret Math of Calories.
Tracking
Research by Kaiser Permanente found that people who track their daily food consumption lose twice as much weight as those who do not! It’s incredibly beneficial to use a system to track your calories every day. Tracking calories will allow you to see if you’re eating too much or too little and help keep you accountable to your established goals. The easiest and quickest way to track calories is to use an application, such as Loseit or MyFitnessPal, where you can record every meal to see an overview of your calories for the day.
Summary
The body functions best when it has each type of macro at each meal: carbs, proteins, and fats.
It’s important to choose unprocessed or minimally processed foods.
In order to lose weight, a person needs to have a deficit of calories. This can be done via trimming calories from the diet and exercise.
Logging calories is scientifically proven to be an effective tool when losing weight.
In our next lesson we will talk about emotional eating—how to recognize it and how to change the habit. Stay tuned!
#3(WORKS QUICKLY)Episode #3 of FIRST POST:
Have you ever caught yourself emotionally eating? Emotional eating can be identified in several different ways:
Eating when you’re stressed, bored, or lonely
Eating even when you’re already full
Feeling powerless to control yourself when eating
In order to manage your weight, it’s crucial that you have a way to manage your emotions that doesn’t involve eating. Today, our lesson will focus on strategies that you can use to identify and manage your emotions so that you only eat when you’re physically hungry. You will take away some valuable tools from this lesson that you can begin using with your next meal.
Two Types of Hunger
First, it’s important to recognize that there are two different types of hunger: emotional and physical. Emotional hunger is the one to look out for, as it can lead to emotional eating. Emotional hunger comes on suddenly and craves a specific type of comfort food. It often doesn’t result if feeling satisfied or full. Of course, there’s also physical hunger. Physical hunger is a slow buildup of hunger, and it results from the body needing food for energy and function.
It’s helpful to be able to recognize when you feel drawn to food because of emotion. If you’re not sure how to distinguish the difference between physical hunger and emotional hunger, check out this article which goes more in-depth and gives specific examples of each. Once you can identify what type of hunger you have, you can take action! Since physical hunger is pretty straightforward, our focus will be on emotional hunger.
Controlling Emotional Hunger
If you have emotional hunger, it’s important to take a minute to identify exactly what you’re feeling. Oftentimes, emotions give us small hints to what is missing in life. If you take time to pause and reflect on those feelings, you can address them. Once you have clarity on what exactly it is that you’re feeling, you can find an alternative to food that can meet your emotional need:
Are you feeling lonely? Take a few minutes to talk to a coworker or schedule a friend date.
This works quickly:Are you feeling stressed? Take a moment to journal or go for a walk.
Are you bored? Find a stimulating activity to do.
Are you craving comfort? Sip hot tea.
Taking a step toward addressing the root issue of your emotion is a tool that will allow you to manage your weight. Next, we will look at another strategy that can be beneficial if you’re an emotional eater.
Mindfulness
Being mindful is another tool that you can use to avoid emotional eating. Mindfulness brings your focus to the present and allows you to be in the moment and enjoy the depths of what you are engaging in. Mindful eating is the opposite of emotional eating. Developing the skill of mindful eating will allow you to eat for health and pleasure rather than using food as a coping tool.
Before you eat your next meal today, set the intention to be mindful. Start by taking a minute to relax. When you’re ready to eat, limit the distractions in your environment. Set space aside to focus on your meal, and put away your phone, Facebook, or emails. This will allow you to focus on the meal and enjoy the food. Notice the flavor, texture, and smell of each food that you eat.
Summary
Today you learned how to:
Distinguish between emotional hunger and physical hunger
Identify emotions and take action on them instead of engaging in emotional eating
Be mindful while eating
In our next lesson we will go over how the body breaks down stored fat to use as energy, then begin to develop your plan.
Cheers to your health.
#4(STEP-BY-STEP)Episode #4 of FIRST POST:
Today, the focus is on exercise, which is another important factor of weight management. By the end of the lesson, you will understand how the body uses fat storage to provide the body with energy (thus reducing body weight), and you’ll begin to develop your exercise plan.
What is Going on in There?
Imagine you are going to be moving to a new house and you want to get rid of some old, unused items that you had stored in boxes in the basement. You find the boxes and begin dusting them off, peering at the contents within. You begin taking out old items that you no longer want and make a donation pile on the basement floor. You then put those items into bags and carry them out of the house and to the donation center.
That is what happens to your stored fat when you exercise. When you work out, you literally begin breaking up your storage of energy (the fat), and once it’s broken up, it is converted into energy and is then exhaled and excreted through carbon dioxide, sweat, and urine. This video does a great job describing the process! Exercise will give you an opportunity to use stored body weight as energy, thus reducing your overall weight; most importantly, exercise will increase your overall health.
Another Reason Your Body is Awesome
The human body has the incredible ability to adapt to almost anything!
Every time you work out, there are physiological changes that take place in your body that help it to become more functional and adapt to the activity. The SAID principle is an acronym that stands for Specific Adaptations from Imposed Demands. Essentially, this principle states that anytime you place a demand upon your body, the body responds by changing itself to accommodate that demand. Here are some examples of those changes:
When a bodybuilder lift weights, the strained muscles develop small micro-tears. These small tears send signals to the body to grow back stronger to meet the demands being placed upon it, thus increasing performance, strength, and muscle size!
When a runner goes for a jog, their body sends a signal stating, “Hey it’d be nice if I could have more oxygen—this is hard!” The body responds by creating more red blood cells (which deliver oxygen) to help the body become more efficient at meeting the demands placed upon it. These changes allow a runner to increase their endurance.
The body is an incredible machine that we each get the honor of operating!(step-by-step-process)
Do What You Enjoy
Someone once said, “The best exercise is the one that you will actually do.” Keep that in mind when designing your exercise plan—make sure to find an activity that you enjoy and could see yourself doing long-term. If you have a hard time enjoying or following through with getting exercise, it may be helpful to work out with a friend, hire a personal trainer, or work with a health coach.
First, you’ll need to determine what activities you enjoy the most that you can see yourself doing long-term. If you’re not sure what you enjoy, this is your chance to sample the buffet of different activities. Once you’ve found one that you like, you’ll need to make time for it in your schedule. The American Heart Institute recommends people get at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days per week. If you have a full schedule, it may be helpful to look at taking two 15-minute breaks to exercise during the work day. Now take out your calendar and schedule when you can commit to working out!
Summary
In today’s lesson, you learned how the body changes in response to the demands that are placed on it, including how it burns fat as a fuel source. You also learned about the ideal frequency of working out and scheduled time for exercise in your schedule. In our next lesson, we will dive into understanding calories and the math behind weight management.
Cheers to your health.
#5(EASY)Episode #5 of FIRST POST:
So far, you have learned about the most important factors of weight management: diet, identifying emotional hunger, and exercise. Today, you will learn about the math of calories so that you will know without a doubt that you’re on track to see the results you want.
Did you know that it takes 3,500 calories to equal one pound of body weight? That means if you eat 3,500 calories beyond what your body needs to maintain its weight (remember, maintenance = 2,000 calories per day), you will gain one pound.
On the flipside, if you decrease your calories by 3,500 beyond what your body needs to maintain its weight (again, 2,000 calories per day), you will lose a pound.
That being said, weight gain isn’t usually due to one bad day, since it would be very difficult to eat an excess of 3,500 calories in just one day (unless, of course, it’s Thanksgiving). Gaining weight takes time and is often the result of a habit of consuming excess calories. Usually, weight gain takes about a week to notice, at minimum, on a scale.
Of course, the inverse rule goes for exercise. If you want to lose one pound of stored body weight, you need to have a deficit of 3,500 calories. If you space that calorie deficit over the span of a week (the recommended timeframe), that means you would need to shave off an average of 500 calories per day to lose one pound in a week.
2,000 calories - 500 calories = 1,500 calories per day to lose one pound per week
This 500-calorie deficit results when you:
Cut back either the number of calories you consume and/or
Increase the number of calories you burn through exercise
There are different variations of what shaving off 500 calories per day could look like. Here’s an example:
The diet consists of 1,800 calories per day (for a 200-calorie deficit from the regular 2,000). Exercise burns 300 calories per day (for a 300-calorie deficit). All together, the net calories are 1,500. This 500-calorie deficit per day equates to having a deficit of 3,500 calories in a week, putting the person on track to see a weight loss of one pound for the entire week, assuming they repeat that same pattern every day.
This leads us back to the point that it’s important to use a tool to track both your calories consumed and your calories burned. If you use an app, it will do the math for you, so you don’t have to worry about calculations!
Basal Metabolic Rate
The (average) human body needs about 2,000 calories per day from food to be able to maintain its current weight. Within this 2,000 calories a day, a very large portion—about 1,400 calories (average)—is used to help the body do its normal, basic functions, like breathing, pumping blood, and essentially the functions that are needed to stay alive. This calorie requirement is called the basal metabolic rate, or BMR. You can calculate your specific BMR here. BMRs will vary slightly depending upon your weight, height, and activity level. You should never decrease your daily calories below your BMR, as doing so can cause long-term metabolism issues!
When you add in other activities to your life, such as working, walking, cleaning, etc., those activities add to the overall energy expenditure, bringing your total daily calorie needs to about 2,000.This is easy way isn't it?
Summary
Today you learned about the secret math of calories. Here’s a quick review:
It takes 3,500 excess calories to equal one pound of body weight.
To lose one pound of stored body weight, there needs to be a deficit of 3,500 calories.
A calorie deficit can be the result of cutting out calories from the diet and increasing exercise.
You should never make your total daily calorie intake less than your specific BMR.
Cheers to your health.
So far, you have learned about the most important factors of weight management: diet, identifying emotional hunger, and exercise. Today, you will learn about the math of calories so that you will know without a doubt that you’re on track to see the results you want.
Did you know that it takes 3,500 calories to equal one pound of body weight? That means if you eat 3,500 calories beyond what your body needs to maintain its weight (remember, maintenance = 2,000 calories per day), you will gain one pound.
On the flipside, if you decrease your calories by 3,500 beyond what your body needs to maintain its weight (again, 2,000 calories per day), you will lose a pound.
That being said, weight gain isn’t usually due to one bad day, since it would be very difficult to eat an excess of 3,500 calories in just one day (unless, of course, it’s Thanksgiving). Gaining weight takes time and is often the result of a habit of consuming excess calories. Usually, weight gain takes about a week to notice, at minimum, on a scale.
Of course, the inverse rule goes for exercise. If you want to lose one pound of stored body weight, you need to have a deficit of 3,500 calories. If you space that calorie deficit over the span of a week (the recommended timeframe), that means you would need to shave off an average of 500 calories per day to lose one pound in a week.
2,000 calories - 500 calories = 1,500 calories per day to lose one pound per week
This 500-calorie deficit results when you:
Cut back either the number of calories you consume and/or
Increase the number of calories you burn through exercise
There are different variations of what shaving off 500 calories per day could look like. Here’s an example:
The diet consists of 1,800 calories per day (for a 200-calorie deficit from the regular 2,000). Exercise burns 300 calories per day (for a 300-calorie deficit). All together, the net calories are 1,500. This 500-calorie deficit per day equates to having a deficit of 3,500 calories in a week, putting the person on track to see a weight loss of one pound for the entire week, assuming they repeat that same pattern every day.
This leads us back to the point that it’s important to use a tool to track both your calories consumed and your calories burned. If you use an app, it will do the math for you, so you don’t have to worry about calculations!
Basal Metabolic Rate
The (average) human body needs about 2,000 calories per day from food to be able to maintain its current weight. Within this 2,000 calories a day, a very large portion—about 1,400 calories (average)—is used to help the body do its normal, basic functions, like breathing, pumping blood, and essentially the functions that are needed to stay alive. This calorie requirement is called the basal metabolic rate, or BMR. You can calculate your specific BMR here. BMRs will vary slightly depending upon your weight, height, and activity level. You should never decrease your daily calories below your BMR, as doing so can cause long-term metabolism issues!
When you add in other activities to your life, such as working, walking, cleaning, etc., those activities add to the overall energy expenditure, bringing your total daily calorie needs to about 2,000.This is easy way isn't it?
Summary
Today you learned about the secret math of calories. Here’s a quick review:
It takes 3,500 excess calories to equal one pound of body weight.
To lose one pound of stored body weight, there needs to be a deficit of 3,500 calories.
A calorie deficit can be the result of cutting out calories from the diet and increasing exercise.
You should never make your total daily calorie intake less than your specific BMR.
Cheers to your health.
#6(QUICK) Episode #6 of FIRST POST:
Setting goals is important because it allows you to see if your efforts have been effective. When you set a goal, it’s important to be detailed so that you can have a clear guide of exactly what you are hoping to accomplish. If your goal is simply to “manage my weight,” it can be hard to know when you have achieved the goal, because it’s vague. The objective of this lesson is for you to learn how to set a SMART goal that you can begin working toward this week.Here is quick guild.
Setting SMART Goals
SMART is an acronym that highlights guidelines when setting a goal so that you can know exactly when you have accomplished it. Following the guidelines will ensure that your goal is detailed, relevant, and possible. Get out a pen and paper or digital note, and then think of a goal that you would like to accomplish in the next week. Run it through the guidelines below:
Specific: What exactly do you want to accomplish?
Measurable: How will you know if you’re making progress? Many weight management goals measure weight, inches, body fat percentage, or an increase or decrease in a specific quantity.
Attainable: It’s very important that your goal is realistic. If you’re not sure what is realistic, be conservative with your estimate. For example “I’d like to lose three pounds a week” isn’t realistic (or healthy). It might be more realistic to say “I’d like to lose one pound every week.”
Relevant: Does it make sense to pursue this goal at this time in your life? For example, if you don’t have transportation to the gym, it might make the most sense to focus on workouts that you can do at home or nearby.
Timeframe: Make sure your goal has a specific time that you’d like to take to accomplish it. Short-term goals can be accomplished in a week to a month, and long-term goals may need more time. It may be helpful to break down long-term goals into shorter goals.
Here are a few examples of SMART goals:
My goal is to lose two pounds over the next three weeks, by July 1st.
My goal is to log all of my foods over the next five days so that I can see my total calories consumed during those days. I’ll use an app on my phone to help me log every time I eat.
My goal is to eat 1,950 calories per day and cut out sugar. I want to do this for one week to see if I have more energy. I’ll rate my energy levels using a scale of 1-10 before I start the goal and while I’m cutting sugar for a week to see if it has a greater impact on my energy levels.
Do you have your goal in mind? If you haven’t already, take a moment to write down your goal following the SMART goal guidelines. Also jot down why this goal is important to you. What difference would it make if you accomplished it? This extra step can serve as a reminder of why you were passionate about the goal in the first place. It can be helpful to reference the why when challenges arise.
Example: My goal is to make it one week without drinking any soda. I will start on Sunday the 10th and end on Sunday the 17th. I know I can make it at least a week without it, because I have before. In place of soda, I’m going to drink sparkling water and coffee. I want to do this so that I can begin developing healthier habits, lose weight, and set a good example for my kids. I don’t want them to be overweight or at risk for Type 2 diabetes like I am.
In our next lessons you will learn how to track your progress and gain support from others toward your goals.
Cheers to your health.
#7(SMIPLE)Episode #7 of FIRST POST:
“YEEEESS!” Mark yelled joyously, grinning and raising his arms in a victory pose. He had just stepped off the scale and saw that he had lost the last five pounds toward his goal. Mark is someone I had worked with for months, and he had stopped by to visit me once a month to track his progress by stepping on the scale, measuring his body fat, chatting about his progress, and making adjustments to his exercise plan. His hard work had finally paid off!
As with any goal, it’s extremely important to track your progress. Tracking will objectively allow you to see the fruits of your labor and give you something to celebrate! In long-term goals, such as weight management, it’s important to have a tool to measure progress.
What Should I Track?
For weight management, it’s important to track your weight once a week. You’ll need to use a scale. Be sure to weigh yourself at the same time each week. Measuring in the morning is the most consistent, because the body hasn’t just eaten a meal. It is also helpful to track your BMI. BMI is a ratio of your height and weight, which will allow you to see if you are in the “healthy,” “normal,” “overweight,” or “obese” categories. You can calculate your BMI using this tool. As your weight changes, your BMI will as well. Tracking weight and BMI are essential for knowing if you’re seeing results. You can keep a record of your weight using an app or using an old-fashioned method like pen and paper.
Some people find it helpful to track additional measurements, because it allows them to see more specific information, such as what areas of their body are losing fat and/or gaining muscle.
Here are some optional measurements you can take:
Progress photos (front, side, and back).
Inches with a tape measure. You can find out how to measure your inches here.
Body fat percentage. Using fat-pinching calipers is the cheapest way to measure your body fat.
Celebrate
When you see that you’re making progress in managing your weight, you should celebrate! Seeing results in your tracking means that your hard work in developing new healthy habits is paying off. How do you celebrate? That’s up to you, but experts recommend that it’s something healthy; don’t go out and order an unhealthy meal. Treat yourself to a new shirt, tell a family member, give yourself $5 to spend on a fun item, or, if you’re brave, post your progress on social media!
Today we talked about the importance of tracking your progress. In our next lesson, we will go over one thing that often deters people from sticking with their weight management goals long-term: not planning ahead. You’ll learn some tips and tricks for planning ahead so that you can stay on track with your goals.Do you enjoy this simple post?
Cheers to your health.
#8 WM(UPDATE) Episode #8 of FIRST POST:
Have you ever tried to give a presentation without preparing? Chances are that you survived, but it was a lot less impactful than it could have been. Planning ahead allows for the opportunity to maximize potential. Today’s lesson will focus on four ways you can plan ahead for successful weight management. The more you’re able to plan ahead, the higher your chances of being successful in managing your weight.
Set aside a block of time one day a week to map out your meals. During this time, find healthy meals that you would like to eat over the next week for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Add the ingredients to your grocery list and take your weekly shopping trip. If you have a busy week, it may be helpful to prep your food ahead of time by cooking before the work week begins.
Put your physical activity on the schedule. Plug in some space on your calendar to do activities that you enjoy and that give you exercise. Maybe you can set time aside on a lunch break to go for a walk or join a bowling league that meets once a week. Find something that is realistic to commit to and go for it!
Anticipate what could come up during the week that could get you off track. Are there any work events that will cause a major temptation? Could there be any stressful interactions that that could trigger emotional eating? Take a few minutes to imagine how you would like those events to go in your ideal world and how you can set boundaries to stay on track with your goal of managing your weight. If it’s helpful, set a reward for yourself if you’re able to overcome a challenge: I can have one small slice of cake at the work party on Tuesday, and if I only have just one, then I can watch my favorite show on Netflix after the party.
Eating Out? If you have plans to eat out at a restaurant or somewhere that you would like to indulge more than usual, you can plan ahead to make calorie adjustments earlier in the day. Having a smaller lunch and afternoon snack can help balance out a higher-calorie dinner.
Do you have an idea of how you can plan ahead? Good. Now take out your calendar and get to it!
Cheers to your health.
#9 Weight Management Definition Episode #9 of FIRST POST:
In our last lesson, we learned some tools for planning ahead, which is a major factor in being successful with weight management. Another factor in being successful is having long-term support.
In today’s lesson, we will focus on developing the support you need to stick with your goals and lifestyle changes. By the end of the lesson, you will select an individual in your life that you can go to for support while you embark on your weight management journey.
A huge part of being successful in managing your weight—and with any goal in general—is having support. A study done by psychology professor Dr. Matthews at the Dominican University of California measured the likelihood of successfully achieving a goal with and without the support of a friend. Her research found that people who updated their friend on their progress once a week had a 70% chance of achieving their goal! People who kept their goal to themselves only reached their goal 35% of the time.
It’s important that you have at least one person that you can talk to about your weight management journey. Here’s a simple framework that you can use to ask for the support of a friend or family member:
I’m setting a goal of managing my weight. In the next month I am going to log my food and start tracking my weight. I would love your support! Would you be willing to _______ (walk with me, help me plan a healthy grocery list, encourage me, check in on me via text) once a week? It would mean a lot to me.
If you don’t have someone you feel comfortable asking, you can look at other resources: hiring a health coach, talking to a counselor (especially helpful if you feel your weight is related to underlying emotional issues), or finding a support group. One popular, nationwide support group is Overeaters Anonymous. There are also groups dedicated to people who enjoy a similar activity and want to get to know other like-minded people on Meetup.
Your challenge today is to talk to at least one person or commit to doing one thing that can allow you to find a friend to gain support from. It’s scientifically proven to be effective in keeping you on track with your goals!
Cheers to your health.
#10 (If your new please start from #1) Episode #10 of FIRST POST:
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