5 habits that will ACTUALLY help you lose weight
When you want to lose weight the first thing that a lot of us do is google weight loss tips or weight loss habits and discover that there is a huge amount of advice available. Low carb, recommendations to eat fruit and veg, told not to skip breakfast, the list goes on and on. As a weight loss coach I am here to tell you that there are five habits you need to create to start losing weight and keep it off forever. So here is the list:
1. Use a hunger scale
View how hungry you are on a scale of -5 to +5. 0 means you have no thoughts of food. -5 is absolutely starving, maybe you have been poorly and not eaten for a few days and then when you get your appetite back you are ravenous. +5 is Christmas day plus. You really can not stuff a single thing more into your mouth, if you do you will explode. The aim is to eat when you are at a -2/-3 and stop when you are at a +2. Spend some time getting used to how this feels. Most clients find the “full part” the hardest bit of the scale. They can recognise how they feel when they are hungry but it may take them some time to find out how much they need to eat to feel +2. This is fine, there is no rush but it is a very useful skill and one that it is worth spending time practising.
2. Don’t use food as a reward
The amount of clients I speak to who weigh themselves then reward their weight loss with a food treat. I have to remind them that the reward is losing weight, you don’t need to add another reward on top of that. We do this all the time, use food to reward behaviour we think of as “being good” when it comes to weight loss. So a trip to the gym, not having pudding at dinner time, ordering the salad at lunch can all lead to a food treat later as a reward. Instead allow yourself to celebrate your success, tell a friend, your weight loss coach, write it down. Give yourself a thumbs up, a smile, a celebration dance. Whatever it takes to make you feel that you are rewarding the behaviour that has led to your weight loss.
3. Find what gives you joy
Most people rely on food and drink to cheer themselves up after a long day or a bad day or a stressful day. If you are cutting down on these treat foods then you will need to find something else that helps with these emotions rather than sugar, fat and alcohol. Again, you will need to spend some time working out what this is because for so long you have probably performed the habit of eating or drinking when you feel this way. Interrupting this habit is hard but the advantage of finding another form of joy is that it can actually help with the emotion in the longer term. Whether this is going for a walk, having a cuddle with someone, having time alone, exercising or reading a book, find out what you enjoy doing when you take food and drink away. This will help you when you are trying to change the habit of comfort eating or drinking.
4. Drink water
What weight loss list wouldn’t be complete without including drink water?! But I’m not including it for the reason you would probably think. Studies have shown that only a very small drop in your hydration levels can create a low mood. If your habit is to reach for the high calorie foods when you are feeling low then remembering to drink water could be very useful. Keeping hydrated will help your digestion, levels of concentration, energy levels and mood regulation so what is not to love? Drink up!
5. Be kind to yourself even if you slip up
Because you will, slip up. Think of weight loss as learning a new skill, you won’t be perfect at it straight away and that is fine, there is no rush to learn the skills and it will take practice. I always recommend to my clients that they talk to themselves the way they would talk to a friend. Would you say mean things to a friend who has just confessed that they have been raiding the cupboards for the past 2 hours? No of course not, you would be supportive, help them, be kind. You need to apply the same amount of kindness to yourself. If you have fallen off your plan then use it as an opportunity to learn about your eating habits. Ask yourself questions. Was there a trigger? What thoughts did you have going through your mind when you started eating? Then use this information to help you to get back to the plan and move forward. Beating yourself up for making a mistake will only make you feel even worse and make you look to food to feel better about yourself or worse stil,l will make you think losing weight is too hard and give up.
