How to keep your resolution to lose weight
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- Elizabeth Somer , Registered Dietician and Author
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Elizabeth Somer
Registered Dietician and Author
How many times have you made a New Year's resolution to lose weight? Here's how to keep that resolution to lose weight, with a plan for success from dietitian and author Elizabeth Somer.
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Instructions
How to keep your resolution to lose weight
- Set modest goals. If you say, "I'm going to lose 30 pounds in January. I'll live at the gym and eat nothing but salad greens", you are just setting yourself up for failure and disappointment.
- Develop a plan for diet and exercise.
- If you fall 'off the wagon' just after starting, don't give up. Get right back on your plan.
- Keep a journal. For the first three days, keep a record of everything you eat-- when, where, how much. You may find that you only need to tweak a few things in order to get your diet back under control.
- Based on what you learn from your journal, make a specific eating plan. For example, if you find that you're not eating breakfast (as a way to 'save' calories), consider that research shows that people who do eat breakfast have an easier time both losing weight, and more importantly, keeping the weight off.
- Also make a specific, reasonable and graduated plan for exercise. Not, "I'm going to do a one-hour rigorous spinning class 6 days a week" if you haven't exercised in the past few months -- or ever exercised at that intensity or frequency. Start with walking 10 minutes a day, three times a week. Then gradually increase to 15 minutes, then 10 minutes twice a day, and gradually work up till you're doing 1 hour a day four to five times a week.
- Don't abandon your eating plan on weekends. (I'll eat prudently during the week, and then splurge on weekends...) People who maintain a significant weight loss over time eat a prudent diet virtually every day.
- Weigh yourself more often once a week. Traditional wisdom was that once a week was the right frequency to avoid becoming obsessive about the scale, yet avoiding the discouragement that came from day-to-day weight fluctuations. However, recent research suggests that people who are more successful at losing and maintaining weight loss weigh themselves more frequently. More frequent weighing does give you a 'wake-up call" at the first sign of weight gain (or not weight loss) so you can get right back on your plan.
- Above all, stay active. Recent research also suggests that women who remain vigorously active -- who hike, bike, walk briskly or run -- maintain a younger metabolism and don't have the same difficulties maintaining their weight as sedentary women. And there's a side benefit: They are perceived as being 10, 15 and even 20 years younger than their actual age!
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