How to Lose Weight

Want to know how to lose weight and keep it off? As a clinical psychologist, I have found these tips to be very helpful: Tip 1 Write down five reasons YOU want to lose weight on a postcard and stick it on your refrigerator. Copy this list on some more postcards and stick one in each place that you eat. Keep one with you in case you go out. These will remind you of YOUR REASONS for losing weight and will increase the chance that you’ll resist the temptation to either overeat or eat the wrong foods. Tip 2: Identify triggers to overeating or eating the wrong foods and avoid them for one week. These might include certain places, like fast food restaurants or even some people. If you overeat due to an emotional feeling like boredom, do something different like call a friend or take a brisk walk. Remind yourself that an urge to eat for the wrong reason WILL pass. Tip 3: Take small bites, eat slowly, at set times and places. The brain takes about 20 minutes to get the message that you’ve had enough to eat. Eating slowly will help prevent you from feeling uncomfortably full. This will greatly help with portion control, which is one of the main reasons people are overweight. Tip 4: Do 20 minutes of moderate cardio exercise every day. Anything that gets the heart pumping is good for you losing weight. The good news is that you don’t have to bust a gut to get its benefits. In fact, moderate paced exercise like fast walking burns off calories even better than vigorous exercise. So, take it easy, but do it EVERY DAY. Exercise will help you lose weight but also has a major influence on maintaining your lower weight. Tip 5: Drink more water and eat more soup. Drinking water before a meal will help you to feel full, which in turn will help prevent you from overeating. Having a glass of water as soon as you get out of bed in the morning will also get your metabolism started. Research has shown that the more (non-creamy) soup people eat at lunch or dinner, the more weight they lose. This is because water makes up the large proportion of soup. Tip 6: Put $10 in a plastic container for every pound that you lose. Money is a great motivator for most of us. Put the container somewhere you will see it every day, like in your kitchen. Decide now what you’re going to buy with all the extra cash. rnTip 7: Eat when you’re hungry and stop eating when you’re full. This is using internal, not external, cues to eat. If you go to the office and see muffins and donuts in the kitchen, you may be tempted to eat them because they look appetizing, not because you’re hungry. Eating at set times will help you to resist temptation. Tip 8: Eat breakfast like a prince, lunch like a king, and dinner like a pauper. You want to give your body as much time as possible to burn up the calories that you eat. As they say, obesity starts at 6 o’clock. So, you don’t want to eat your largest meal in the evening. Tip 9: When you snack, have a protein and a carb. Have a snack mid-morning and mid-afternoon, but make sure it’s healthy and ideally a combination of a protein (like yogurt or nuts) and a complex carb (such as fruit). rnIf you have more serious issues around food, or need some extra help, consider seeing a psychologist for some short term therapy. No food tastes as good as being healthy feels!