In the ideal world, we’d lose weight with a snap of our fingers. In the real world, it takes a lot more time and perseverance to successfully keep the weight off. Health experts have dubbed it the “false hope syndrome”—the trend where dieters tend to have unrealistic expectations of how long it will take them to reach their ideal weight.
This doesn’t seem like that big of a problem until you consider that else the experts say: having impractical ideas about weight loss can actually contribute to weight gain because setting too high expectations can often trigger failure. Experts have been saying for years that the best way to lose weight is to do it slowly by setting small, realistic goals for yourself. By setting mini-goals, you will be able to take pride in the little accomplishments, which will give you the confidence you need to lose the weight for good.
Still having trouble? Try these 5 ideas to help you set do-able goals:
1) Control your appetite to control your weight! After the holiday season food fest, taking control of your portions and eating smaller meals can be difficult. Your body gets used to constant snacking and those cravings can be such a nuisance! Powerful new Hoodia 24k™ is a 100% natural formula that stops cravings and hunger fast! In fact, you will eat up 1000 fewer calories each day! The results? You’ll lose weight and feel amazing. Only Hoodia 24k™ contains the most superior blend of Hoodia Gordonii available, making losing weight in the New Year quick and easy, and without side effects! (Psst....here's a hint...you can get a free sample from this site! )
2) Celebrate the short-term accomplishments! Sure, you might have 25 pounds left to lose, but instead of focusing on the “big picture,” take some time to commemorate the first five pounds that you’ve lost! You’re on the right track!
3) Keep yourself on track. Keep a record of your goals and accomplishments in a journal, so you can reflect on your successes when you’re feeling discouraged.
4) Slowly, but surely…make a conscious decision to lose 1-2 pounds a week. This may seem too slow for some folks, but studies show that the faster you lose weight, the faster that you’ll just pack it back on. This means that you’ll have to be realistic about a time-frame. For instance, if you need to lose about 25 pounds, figure that you’ll need at least five months to reach your goal.
5) Change your habits to lose weight. Remember, by making the decision to lose weight, you are choosing to change old eating habits and forge new ones that will keep you healthy and happy. When you focus more on changing behavior, rather than losing a set amount of weight, you will find that these new eating habits will motivate your desire to attain your weight-loss goals!
This doesn’t seem like that big of a problem until you consider that else the experts say: having impractical ideas about weight loss can actually contribute to weight gain because setting too high expectations can often trigger failure. Experts have been saying for years that the best way to lose weight is to do it slowly by setting small, realistic goals for yourself. By setting mini-goals, you will be able to take pride in the little accomplishments, which will give you the confidence you need to lose the weight for good.
Still having trouble? Try these 5 ideas to help you set do-able goals:
1) Control your appetite to control your weight! After the holiday season food fest, taking control of your portions and eating smaller meals can be difficult. Your body gets used to constant snacking and those cravings can be such a nuisance! Powerful new Hoodia 24k™ is a 100% natural formula that stops cravings and hunger fast! In fact, you will eat up 1000 fewer calories each day! The results? You’ll lose weight and feel amazing. Only Hoodia 24k™ contains the most superior blend of Hoodia Gordonii available, making losing weight in the New Year quick and easy, and without side effects! (Psst....here's a hint...you can get a free sample from this site! )
2) Celebrate the short-term accomplishments! Sure, you might have 25 pounds left to lose, but instead of focusing on the “big picture,” take some time to commemorate the first five pounds that you’ve lost! You’re on the right track!
3) Keep yourself on track. Keep a record of your goals and accomplishments in a journal, so you can reflect on your successes when you’re feeling discouraged.
4) Slowly, but surely…make a conscious decision to lose 1-2 pounds a week. This may seem too slow for some folks, but studies show that the faster you lose weight, the faster that you’ll just pack it back on. This means that you’ll have to be realistic about a time-frame. For instance, if you need to lose about 25 pounds, figure that you’ll need at least five months to reach your goal.
5) Change your habits to lose weight. Remember, by making the decision to lose weight, you are choosing to change old eating habits and forge new ones that will keep you healthy and happy. When you focus more on changing behavior, rather than losing a set amount of weight, you will find that these new eating habits will motivate your desire to attain your weight-loss goals!
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3 comments:
The idea of changing behavior is very important for long term success and I personally think that's why "fad" diets don't work and put us into a YOYO syndrome. Sure the old "cabbage diet" might knock the pounds off quickly but then when we go back to "real world eating", ZOOOM up goes the scale because in part much of the lost pounds are fluid/water pounds and we've still got our poor eating habits everything from being "grazers" to having "portion distortion". I can't speak for others but for myself if I've lost weight quickly on that type diet, I not only gain back what I lost but somehow seem to manage adding an extra 5 to 10 lbs and THAT is very discouraging to say the least!!
A fun thing to try with tracking goals is to go back to your childhood - by this I mean write down your weekly goals on a calendar and track the number of times you meet them with gold (or another color) sticky stars.
Visualizing your progress is very powerful and motivating! Just when you feel like you not making any progress, you can look back on your calendar and actually see your progress and remind yourself of how well you are doing.
Another trick for making more out of those 5 pounds lost is to pick up a 5 pound bag of flour or rice the next time you are in the store. 5 pounds weights a lot and it is 5 less than your were carrying before!
~Shauna, RD
I agree that to have real success we've got to change our habits and as much as I'd like to see this fat of mine gone overnight I know that's so NOT gonna happen. First of all I didn't gain it all overnight and then if I DID lose quickly I know it would not stay off because I still am fully ingrained into being a major grazer/snacker so I need to re-educate myself as to HOW to eat properly and I am hoping that by being a regular here and a part of the "A year for me" support group I'll learn to do change habits. I really think it's gonna work this time for me!!
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