Three Ways To Stop Making The Same Weight Loss Mistakes

Good morning!

Hope you’ve enjoyed a lovely weekend.

Last week in my newsletter I was talking about how when we want to lose weight we tend to launch ourselves in to a potentially restrictive way of eating. Our instinct is always to ban things and cut things out – it’s like we’re punishing ourselves for what we see as previous excess. One of the big problems is that these diets are not things we can keep up with so we go back to what we were doing before.

We lose weight, we gain weight, we gain a bit more weight. It’s a repeating cycle and the evidence shows that people who diet more often end up weighing more than people who don’t.

The last newsletter busted a few diet myths and I ended by saying that the key to sustainable weight loss is to do it in a way you can keep up for the long term, using food that you enjoy and a level of activity that you can keep up. So more on that now!

A Way You Can Keep Up For The Long Term

If you’re hungry and craving sugar then only willpower will stop you from eating. And willpower is rarely infinite, so eventually you will cave. That doesn’t make you rubbish. It doesn’t mean you’ll never lose weight. It doesn’t mean that you may as well give up. It means you need to rethink, to do things in a different way – to set yourself up for success.

The most important thing is to think of what you’re adding in before you think of what you’re taking out. If all you do is take things out then yes you’ll be eating less, but as discussed last week, calories in versus calories out is only part of the equation.

So add in protein for breakfast in the form of nuts, seeds, eggs, smoked salmon or natural yoghurt. This will help you feel full and will help to reduce cravings.

Then try swapping some of your unhealthy foods for healthier alternatives. For example swap your milk chocolate snack to some dark chocolate with a handful of almonds. If you just take it out it will always feel like something is missing. The calories may not be much different but the effect that food has on your body will be.

Feeling full and not feeling as if you’re missing out means you can keep things up for longer.

Food That You Enjoy

Whilst green smoothies for breakfast seemed like a good idea while you were planning your new diet, they’re not going to be around for long if the sight of them makes you feel sick. And there’s no point committing to daily kale eating if really you’d like to put it in room 101 along with cavolo nero.

At the same time as not committing to eating foods that you hate, don’t completely ban things that you love but see as unhealthy. Yes cutting out bread, pasta and all sugary foods will often lead to weight loss but you’ll regain all of that weight when you go back to them.

Instead focus on the healthy foods that you do like and eat more of those. And find ways to include the foods that you love so that you don’t feel deprived of them. For example instead of two slices of toast with jam for breakfast swap to one slice of toast with scrambled egg. You’re still eating the bread that you love but you’re including protein that will help you feel fuller and less likely to crave snacks later.

Losing a stone on a diet that you hate is pointless. It’s pointless because you won’t be able to carry on with it.

A Level Of Activity You Can Keep Up

Exercise is great but it has to be the right exercise for you. You have to enjoy it and it has to fit in with your day to day life. Exercise can be running, cycling, the gym, yoga or Pilates, but remember it’s activity that’s the key. So walking, gardening, dancing and hiking are also up there as good options.

Before you commit to anything think about what you enjoy, where it fits in to your life and how you can make it easy for yourself. I joined a gym years ago because I wanted to get fit, but the truth is I only went a couple of times after my induction. I just didn’t enjoy it and the motivation required to spend half an hour getting there before I even started with the exercise part wasn’t there. So more recently I started running – I love being outdoors and I can be exercising straight from my door, which is more time efficient and much easier for me to commit to. I’m not saying it’s always easy but it’s definitely a better option for me.

Nutrition with Jo Membership

If you’re making the same mistakes over and over then I’m here to support you to do it differently. I’m really excited to be launching my brand new membership on 1st July to support you in making changes that stick.

Research shows that most of us can't make significant changes on our own - even if our lives depend on it. However, when you have a supportive group of people who you can relate to, who believe that you can change, who give you the tools to change and who encourage you to keep going with your goals you are more likely to stick to those changes in the long term.

That's why I've designed this membership. It's for women who are fed up of the 'on again off again' healthy eating hamster wheel. For women who want to enjoy their food and not feel like they have to say no to things they love.

For women who want to change but struggle to do it for the long term.

It’s just £35 a month and you can find full details here - https://mailchi.mp/fc95c4e633be/nutrition-with-jo-membership.

Take charge of your health…

Jo

www.cardiffnutritionist.co.uk

If you found this helpful why not share it with others so that they can also benefit. If you need support making small, manageable changes to your health get in touch, I’d love to talk.