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Tips to Get You Started on Your Weight Loss Goals

As we enter the New Year surely many us will be looking at ways to improve our health. Weight loss not only makes us feel and look better but it has the potential to greatly improve overall health. Here are some of the most common habits that I address with people when helping them reach their weight loss goals. Remember, even a modest reduction of 5-10% of your weight can reduce the risk of certain chronic diseases such as diabetes so don’t “bite off more than you can chew”, small changes really add up over time and are associated with longer lasting results when compared with sweeping dramatic changes. Make sure you are realistic about the changes you are up for… chose one or two small improvements that you can make now, work hard and when you master that change, move on to the next one.

1. Increase Fruits and Vegetables - Eating fruits and vegetables is one of the most positive health habits that you can adopt. Virtually all national health organizations emphasize that people who eat a colorful variety of vegetables and fruits as part of a healthy diet are likely to experience a reduced risk of chronic diseases, including stroke, diabetes, and some types of cancer. For many people counting fruit and vegetable servings rather than calories can sometimes be enough to prompt weight loss. In trying to lose weight we are always focusing on what to cut out of the diet, with fruits and vegetables the more, the better. I have never seen anyone gain weight from eating too many. The fact is that the more fruits and vegetables you eat the more room you have in your diet for some of the higher calorie foods that most people love and don’t want to give up, read: pizza, burgers desserts, etc. I am not sure that I have ever had a client be able to lose weight and keep it off without increasing the amount of fruits and veggies they ate. Be creative about the way you increase, there is so much more to fruits and veggies than carrots and celery. Like most things putting in a little bit of time and effort in thinking about ways to increase your intake will really pay off. There are so many easy ways to sneak them in even if you are pressed for time. Toss veggies in soups, sandwiches, eggs, tortillas, etc. New products like steam in the bag vegetables make it easy and quick to get more in each day. Check out magazines, cookbooks and websites to spark your interest. One of the keys for losing weight and maintaining it is to have lots of variety in your plan, and fruits and vegetables are a great place to start. Be honest about how many servings you are getting now…ideally people should be eating between 5-9 servings a day, but like all things make small changes from where you are now. If you eat one or two a day, focus on how to get three or four and go from there.
   
   
2. Watch Out For Liquid Calories – This includes ALL beverages including coffee drinks, soda, sweet teas, sports drinks, lemonade and juice, yes juice! In general, people should not take in more than 6-8 ounces of juice per day. Juice does have more nutrients than soda, but the fact is that it is high in sugar and when taken in excessive amounts can lead to weight gain. Start adding up how many calories you take in from beverages each day. Many people are shocked when they find out just how many calories they are drinking away. If you cut out just one 20 ounce bottle of soda from your diet each day and replace it with water, you could lose 25 pounds in one year, not to mention the amount of sugar you would be cutting out. 20 ounces of Coke has 16 teaspoons of sugar! Would you ever drink coffee with that much sugar? In addition, liquid does not do much for making you feel full for any leagnth of time...in fact it makes the contents of your stomach empty faster so you are likely to get hungry again quickly. You are much better off eating solid foods to help keep you feeling full longer and make water or a calorie free beverage your number one choice.
   
   
3. Don’t be too Restrictive with Calories During the Day – This may be the number one way to sabotage weight loss efforts. When people embark on a “diet” many times they are bent on restricting calories during the day when will power may seem easier or perhaps they are just too busy to feel hunger, but by the end of the day hunger wins, they become ravenous and wind up making up for the calories they didn’t eat during the day, and then some. There is nothing harder than trying to eat appropriate portions of foods when you are famished, most people don’t have that kind of control. Waiting too long to eat also results in plummeting blood sugar levels and increased cravings for high sugar, high fat foods. The fact is that this pattern may be one of the hardest to break, but the most important to address if you are interested not just on weight loss but overall health. It may seem counterintuitive to some who are used to trying to restrict themselves, but EAT more during the day; eat breakfast, eat snacks and don’t forget to pay attention to your hunger, after about 4 hours your body probably needs food for fuel. Sometimes I recommend eating a snack on the way home from work; something like a piece of fruit with a small handful of nuts…this will really curb your appetite and help you make better decisions when it comes to dinner. When people complain they have no control at night, often times this can be attributed to over restriction during the day. Your body wants to play catch up, combine that with a house full of high fat/sugary snacks and it becomes hard to maintain weight control. It doesn’t make sense to expect your car to run on empty all day and then fill the tank up at the end of the day to sit in your driveway; it doesn’t make sense for your body either.
   
   
4. Plan Your Meals and Snacks – If you keep finding yourself at the vending machine at work or tempted to stop at fast food on the way home from work because you are famished with nothing quick to prepare at home, than a little bit of planning is going to be imperative for any weight loss effort. Taking the time once a week to plan your meals and snacks and shop carefully will enable you to have the right foods at the right moment, especially important for most of us who have a very busy schedule. You don’t have to cook for hours to create a healthy meal. A bag of spinach, a can of beans, a tortilla and a bit of salsa can be a great quick meal, add some chicken that you cooked earlier in the week or an egg that you scrambled in about 2 minutes and you have a complete meal. At the supermarket read those food labels to make sure the foods you are bringing in to your home are healthy. Think of quick grab and go type foods that you can keep in your bag or at the office; fruit, nuts, cheese, whole grain crackers, etc... so you don’t succumb to the candy bar mid-day to keep you fueled. Think of easy dinner ideas that you can throw together quickly. When you do have the time take advantage, cook double portions and freeze it, chop extra veggies and fruits. Always be thinking one meal ahead…at dinner think about lunch and snacks for the next day. Put the time in when you can so that when you have to rush out the door you can grab something healthy and quickly. Eating healthy takes effort, but it’s worth it.
   
   
5. Be Mindful When Eating Out – Eating out for a special occasion is one thing, eating out every night and having the mindset that it is a special occasion is a big problem. Restaurants cook so that their food tastes good which often means adding lots of fat/sugar/salt etc. Most restaurants also serve portion sizes appropriate for two or even three meals. If you start looking on restaurant websites that provide nutrition information it can be shocking to find out the calorie counts. Portions, no matter what you are eating, even salads, are so big that unless you have incredible restraint, you will almost always wind up eating too many calories, even with the best intentions. People balk, but I recommend eating a small snack before you go to eat just to curb the appetite enough to make smart decisions off of a menu, split entrees, order appetizers or kids’ meals instead of entrées; believe it or not, this is usually the appropriate portion size for an adult. Another tip I recommend to people is that when you are home use a measuring cup to see what a cup of pasta or rice looks like, or what a tablespoon of salad dressing looks like on your salad so that when you go out and you look at your plate you can make an educated estimation of how much food is really there. If you are going out because you don’t feel like cooking rather than it being a special occasion then treat it that way so you don’t have that indulgent mindset. Don’t be afraid to speak up to the waiter and ask for modifications to dishes on the menu to make it a more healthful dish. In general people who are successful at weight loss eat out two to three meals per week; this includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.
   
   
6. Watch your portion size - There is no food out there that will prevent you from losing weight if eaten in an appropriate portion size. Easier said than done, right? Well, if you follow some of the tips above, like eating regularly and becoming aware of how distorted restaurant portion sizes actually are, this alone will help you curb the amount of food you are eating in one sitting. Portion sizes have grown so much over the last 20 years and consumers need be hyper aware of this so that they don’t think that a 20 ounce serving of coke( not to mention a 32 ounce serving in a Big Gulp) or a 5 ounce muffin is equal to one serving. Become educated about the foods that we are offered on a daily basis, this will be your best defense.

For more in depth information on all of these topics plus much more enroll in my Nutrition 101 class at Oak Brook Parks District. Here you will get lots of support and personalized analysis of your own barriers to weight loss and ways to overcome them.

Lisa Zucker, MS, RD