Strategies for Successful Weight Loss and Maintenance

admin — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:07:17 +0000

Year after year, many people make a New Year’s resolution to lose weight. For many, this resolve simply means “going on a diet.” Although diet is an important component of a weight management program, it is just that—one component. Physical activity is an essential ingredient of a weight management program that many people often overlook or ignore. Individuals who incorporate regular physical activity into their daily lives are more successful at weight management than those who do not.

One possible reason that individuals do not include regular physical activity in their weight management program may be that they don’t understand what being physically active means. Separating the facts from the fiction is not always easy. For years, Americans were told that they had to exercise 30–40 minutes, at least three days a week, at 80 percent of their maximum heart rate to realize any benefits from exercise. We now know this is not true. How much do you know about physical activity and its effect on weight management? Can you separate the facts from the fiction? To test your knowledge, take the Physical Activity Quiz.

What can you do to achieve your weight loss weight goals this new year? In this article, I discuss many techniques to help you get started and to keep you going. I focus on the importance of lifestyle activity. Let’s begin with a closer look at the specific lifestyle changes in physical activity that promote weight loss and maintenance.

One Thing That May Help You to Lose Weight

admin — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 09:13:00 +0000

What is one thing that joining a weight-watching group offers you? Accountability and someone to report to. It’s the one thing which is often missing when you set out to lose weight on your own. When you know you must attend a group on a specific day, you can focus on this and you’re more likely to stick with your commitments. The knowledge you can report on how you’redoing to someone else will help to strengthen your commitment.

One of the things which helps keep you on track to lose weight is being accountable to someone. This is often missing when you’re losing weight on your own and not as part of a group. Ideally, in the end, I want you to be accountable to yourself. However, most people find it useful to be accountable to someone else. Either by saying to someone I will do X by next week. Or promising I’ll attend an exercise class with you or go for a walk on a specific day. Knowing you have to report to someone often helps keep you in check. It keeps you focused on a shorter period of time. It’s much easier to commit to eating a piece of fruit each day for the next week and then to keep it up for a further week, continually adding to it, instead of committing to eating a piece of fruit every day for the rest of your life. Small steps are easier to keep to, taking one day at a time. When you make the commitment to another person, this offers you someone to report to and also someone to encourage you. This sense of being accountable to someone takes away the excuses and the many reasons we often find not to do something. If you find yourself procrastinating, then enrolling the support of someone and being accountable to them can help move you forward.

The people we surround ourselves with can make a huge difference in our lives. When we choose to build relationships with such people in order to feel accountable to them, the support we feel can make the difference between doing something or not. One of the relationships you can build is to choose people whom you contact on a regular basis, perhaps weekly, to check in with them. Checking in gives you the opportunity to let them know what you achieved during the past week. And also, you can share with them what you want to achieve in the next week, and outline your plan of how that will happen. You may choose to do this with each other. Although you may want to talk mainly about your health and weight loss plans, they may want to talk about starting or running their business, moving house, decorating, gardening or whatever it is they need support with.

You may decide you want to work with a professional and in this respect, a coach is an ideal person to be held accountable to. It’s surprising how much more you achieve when you know you’re going to speak to your coach each week. Even working with a coach in a group setting adds accountability. There’s also the sense of being accountable to other people in the group.

What I want is for you to become accountable to someone in order to achieve good health and weight loss.

HALLWORLDHISTORY.COM » Weight Loss

Strategies for Successful Weight Loss and Maintenance

One Thing That May Help You to Lose Weight