It’s Monday. If you are anything like the rest of the world, today is the day that you are ready to make a change. You ate and drank too much over the weekend, you feel stuck in a food rut, you haven’t had a good routine with meals in awhile…whatever your reasons are, you have made the decision that you want to seriously buckle down and lose some weight. OK, where do you start? Disclaimer: If you have a medical condition or need a complete diet overhaul, then stop reading now and we can chat privately to help you achieve your goals. This post is for those with no pre-existing medical conditions who are looking to drop a few pounds.
- Check your beverages. Before you even try to change what you are eating, look at what you are drinking. You may find that you don’t have to change how you are eating–you could make a simple adjustment in the beverage world and it could make all the difference. It’s a pretty short list of what you should be drinking: water, coffee, or tea (if you need some caffeine in your life). Water? Great, how much? Aim for as many ounces as half your body weight (If you are 200 lbs, that would be 100 oz/day…) Do you drink coffee? Fine, but is it coffee coffee, or a grande Pumpkin Spice Latte? Because that fall favorite is costing you about 400 calories for that one drink alone, which means that if you could get rid of that and change nothing else in your diet, you would lose one pound in a little over a week. But maybe you drink regular old coffee. Look what’s in it…a splash of milk is fine (I don’t have a problem with cream either)–I do take issue with creamers (hi, Coffeemate!) , which contain tons of nasty ingredients that we can talk about at another time. Also, Equal, Splenda, Stevia, Sugar….not so great for weight loss. Are you a tea lover? See above the above comments on coffee. Finally, a word on alcohol–great to be enjoyed in moderation, but, BUT, if you are really serious about trying to lose some weight then you realize that you are drinking unnecessary calories. This article is great at summarizing the effects that alcohol has on your health (the video is short but equally as useful). Bottom line, if you can, scale back the drinking or better yet, try going without it for a week or two and assess how you feel.
- Protein. Once you have your daily beverages in check, you can move onto food intake. Protein is called “the building block of life” and it does a bazillion wonderful things. We can talk a lot more about why it’s essential, but for the purpose of this article, let’s keep it concise–you need it because it will help you to feel fuller, longer (i.e. it will help you not mindlessly snack throughout the day). Aim for a source of good, lean protein with each meal. Eggs, whole wheat toast, plain yogurt, meat, beans, nuts, cheese, tofu–all great sources of protein. Try to incorporate one with each meal and take note–some of these items will make you feel full and others won’t–experiment to see which protein your body feels the most full with. Please note, just because I said the word “protein” doesn’t mean I said “protein powder, shakes or bars.” I listed whole food sources because that’s what I want you to focus on. We can chat shakes and bars another time.
- Take one minute before you get out of bed in the morning and go over the upcoming day in your head. What time are your meetings, when are drop offs and pick ups, what time do you think you could eat dinner? Then, make a tentative plan accordingly. Tentative, because, obviously life happens, and we sometimes have to adjust, but try and think about your meals before your day starts and how you would like to be eating and you are more likely to stick with it.
Obviously, there are many other factors to weight loss and I would love to help you reach whatever goal you have, but here are three very basic starter points to help you launch. So, off you go!
