Change Your Habits!

 

Change Your Habits!

I was just giving some advice yesterday that I thought was important enough to share. This really nice young lady was describing herself as the typical yo-yo dieter. She had no problems (Ok not many) in following a diet or weight loss program. She was able to reach her desired weight. BUT then… she’d slowly start to put all that weight lost back on. It’s a familiar story.

So what really is the answer to maintaining weight lost? I’m sure it’s slightly different for different people but in the end it comes down to habits that need to be broken. Here’s an example:

1.    The tired mom who has finally got the kids to sleep and now sits down to her favorite soapy WITH “______insert food here____”.

2.    The busy executive who gets home and the first stop is the fridge for a nibble before dinner.

3.    The teenage student that throws her books and a bag of chips on the bed to study.

Do you see the pattern? No one here is actually eating a meal at a table. Yet they will all consume far too many calories because they are in a habit. It’s what they do; it’s what they’ve done for months perhaps years. This is a program that needs to be deleted, because this is why they can’t lose the weight for good.

The solution is to swap one habit for another where eating isn’t possible. Instead of eating while watching TV, try giving yourself a facial. The type where the mask hardens and you can’t move LOL or start a craft project, knitting squares for instance.  If you are in the habit of cruising the fridge when you get home, change that to go straight for a shower instead.

The student needs to change and find a place to study where food is in appropriate. Study with a friend, study in the library, change the location to a public one and I can pretty much guarantee that you won’t eat that huge packet of chips in front of your friends and family.

The saying “old habits die hard” is true but if you’re serious about keeping those extra pounds off after your weight loss program then you’ll have to change those habits that have you eating for something to do while you’re doing something else.