“There are over 1 billion adults, and roughly 17.6 million children under the age of five worldwide who suffer from being overweight or obese today.”
Irene Strychar, Canadian Medical Association Journal
Do you desire to have a manageable weight? Are you tired of holding extra fat and being overweight? Are the newest hottest diets getting to be overwhelming?
Here are 7 ways to combat being overweight, and finally get rid of the stubborn fat after YEARS of trying!
For starters, to combat being overweight and obesity-related weight problems, you must be proactive. This means that you have to prepare ahead of time instead of responding once you have had a mishap. For example, if you know that you love eating a donut every morning.
Mentally prepare yourself to say “no” to having the donuts in your home or stopping at the nearest coffee shop. This is a major mental battle in the weight loss process that we will address today.
1. Address The Source Of Your Food Habits
Your food habits are heavily rooted in the mental and emotional state of your health. If you reach for pizza when you are sad or treat yourself to ice cream when you reach a new goal at work, you are an emotional eater.
This is a hard pill that I and a vast amount of others have had to come to grips with. From a young age, we are taught that food is a necessity for every moment and emotion we experience. This means that we fellowship, celebrate, and mourn with one another through an eating experience.
One thing that I have learned on my holistic health journey is that the only necessity is nutrients. Food is simply the vehicle we use to receive those nutrients in full. You can give up the processed food/snacks like Doritos, Fruit Rollups, Oreos, etc., yet still, lose no nutritional value. There is little to no nutrition in foods that lack an organic water content.
Thus, when thinking about what you normally eat in a day or week, write down each meal and snack. Also, I would advise writing down how you were feeling before and after eating those food items.
This will give you a great idea of the way you view different food, and how your emotions play a part in that. Once you know the source of your overeating and/or unhealthy eating habits, you can begin to address the real cause of it.
2. Determine your personal health and weight goals
Next, once you have identified your unhealthy eating habits, you must set clear goals and expectations. This is the only way you will ensure success on your journey by beginning on the right foot.
Your goal needs to be reachable, achievable, timely, and backed by a plan. Whether your goal is to no longer be overweight for disease prevention or to see a certain number on the scale. It is very possible with a plan!
For example, if you have a weight loss goal of 20 pounds then you may need to restrict calories. This can look like consuming only 1500 calories per day to begin your journey. Then you can gradually move down to 1000 or fewer calories per day until your goal is achieved.
“You have to be committed from the beginning because it will never be easy.”
Alexis Holt
The research shows that for anyone struggling with obesity if you decrease your weight by even 5-10% your risk for heart disease and stroke decreases as well. This is the reason that you have to take your weight loss goals seriously because it just may save your life.
3: Find a meal plan that works for your lifestyle
Once you have your goal written down, you have to establish an eating plan to make it happen. About 75% of your weight loss journey will take place in the kitchen, and 25% being active. So this goes to show just how important it is to regulate your eating from the beginning.
It has been proven that a low-carbohydrate diet is more efficient for weight loss within a shorter time frame. If you are someone looking to lose weight in a timely manner then consider limiting the refined carb intake.
You can do this by limiting your consumption of bread, pasta, cakes, and heavily floured foods. This can be hard at first, but not impossible.
On the contrary, it is shown to not be sustainable to focus on calorie restriction as a form of weight loss. In the long run, weight maintenance was seen as less sustainable on this diet. This is why I believe it is very important to find a way of eating that works long term.
I consider it a “lifestyle shift” because it has to be a diet plan that will be more sustainable through any and every season of life.
4: Write out a plan for weekly workouts
The next step is to plan out your workouts for the week. This will help you stay on track even when the week gets very busy. When desiring to no longer be overweight, working out will be a crucial part of your life. Things happen and we can be easily pulled off track so having a reference is a lifesaver.
I recommend typing this out on the computer or writing them down in a designated notebook. Think about what time of day is best, the type and how much time can you dedicate.
You can search for specific workouts on YouTube or any workout app, there are a plethora out there! Once you have established a routine for the week, you are all set up for success.
5: PURGE, PURGE, PURGE your fridge and pantry
Next, this step is the most important and that is to JUST. GET. RID. OF IT. Any food and/or snack that you have just learned are unhealthy for you, just throw it away. Do not say you are going to do it tomorrow or even next month, do it now! This will be the only way to ensure that you will make the change necessary for growth.
One thing that my husband and I did when we decided to embark on this healthy living journey was to clean out everything. This includes everything in our freezer, fridge, and pantry that we knew was going to be contradictory to our journey. It was no walk in the park, but worth every effort.
We have been able to lose a significant amount of weight and actually keep it off by implementing this practice. I will talk more about our journeys in the future.
6: Find accountability in someone you trust
One thing that life has taught me is that successful people do not go through life alone. The same holds true when it comes to losing the pesky weight, and becoming a healthier you. Find someone that is possibly on a similar journey, or has already achieved what you are aiming for.
Find someone that you can trust who will hold you accountable even when you want to give up. Once you and that person have made a commitment to accountability, now game on!
You can possibly have weekly check-ins to make sure that you are staying on track. Also, you could have set times to meet up throughout the week where you talk through the process.
“The toughest part of making a drastic lifestyle change is deciding if you want it bad enough.”
There is only one way to get it done, and that is to actually do it. This means that you have to control your emotions when your accountability partner says that you are slipping. Take the criticism and use it for self-improvement. This will be a very beneficial step in the journey to weight loss and becoming healthier overall.
7: Trust the process; not the scale
Lastly, during your weight loss process, you must remember that your weight WILL fluctuate on this journey. That is okay as long as you are on a downward trend. Often times we can get so caught up in the number that we forget the ultimate goal in mind. And, that goal is total health.
With weight loss comes more stable blood pressure, and blood sugar levels, a decreased risk for stroke and heart attacks, and irradicating obesity.
This will almost guarantee a better quality of life for you as a result. The amount of pounds you weigh is just a small portion of the completed portrait. You will gain much more as a result of surrendering your unhealthy habits for a lifestyle of choosing health.
Following these steps will ensure that the process will be achievable. That is not a guarantee that it will be easy, however. When you have determined in your heart to no longer be overweight, actionable change has to be inevitable.
Are you ready to start this process of no longer being overweight or obese? If not, what is holding you back? Do not let fear rob you of a life of health.
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