Losing weight requires time and patience because there aren’t any shortcuts. If you need to lose a few pounds, it will take a minimum of several weeks. Significant weight loss goals can require several months.
Keeping your motivation high will make it easier to weather those tough days when your weight loss goal seems out of reach.
Use these tips to maintain your motivation and shed those pounds:
1. Place your favorite inspirational quotes on your mirror or refrigerator. A quick pick-me-up can save the day when your motivation is waning. It can also be an effective way to start your day.
* Tape a few quotes to the bathroom mirror. Doing the same on the refrigerator door can prevent a dietary lapse in judgement.
2. Keep track of your progress. Keeping track of your progress is motivating and smart. How will you know if your diet and exercise plan are effective if you’re not taking regular measurements?
* There are many ways to track your progress. Find and use the one that motivates you the most.
3. Use weight-loss jars as a visual reminder. Keeping written records of your weight loss is an effective exercise, but sometimes it’s difficult to appreciate a 2-pound loss in the mirror.
* Fill a glass jar with decorative stones or marbles. Each one is equivalent to a pound you wish to lose. As you lose weight, move your marker from the full jar to an empty one. It’s exciting to watch the contents of one jar shrink as the other increases.
4. Hire a personal trainer. Getting to the gym regularly isn’t easy. Most of us are skillful at coming up with reasons why it makes sense to stay home. Knowing that your personal trainer is expecting you at the gym greatly increases your incentive to show up.
* A good personal trainer will also track your progress and hold you accountable.
5. Find a workout or weight loss buddy. Losing weight can be a lonely process. Considering the obesity rates in first-world countries, there are plenty of others in the same situation. Find a buddy with whom you can communicate on a regular basis. Ideally, you can also find someone to join you for workouts.
6. Purchase new work out gear. Some new workout clothes and shoes can inspire activity. If your workouts are lagging, a new outfit might be just the motivation you need.
7. List your reasons for losing weight. After a few weeks of dieting, it’s typical to lose track of your original motivation. Make a list of all the reasons you want to lose weight. No reason is too small or petty, as long as it’s true.
* Do you want to look better? Enhance your health? Fit into your old jeans? Write it down and review your list regularly.
8. Provide small rewards along the way. It could be a bad idea to wait until you’ve reached your final goal to reward yourself. Begin with small goals to get yourself started. Dieting becomes tougher after a while, so give yourself larger rewards as you progress.
Keeping your motivation high is an important part of reaching any weight-loss goal. Losing weight is a slow process and progress can be difficult to see at times. Motivation is personal. What works for others might require a little tweaking to be effective for you.
Stay focused on all the great progress you’re making and continue looking forward. A small amount of attention and motivation each day can keep your spirits and expectations high.
Focus on eating a low-GI meal. Although eating a medium-GI meal now and then will do your diet no harm. This is not meant to be a strict dietary regime that is endured for a few weeks and dropped, but a healthy eating plan for life. So choose the meals that entice you. Here follow Ten Tips to Lower the GI of Your Diet The following are practical tips to help you make the change to low-GI eating. There is no specific order. Basically, you should attack the changes that you think you’ll find easiest first. Make the changes gradually – it can take 6 weeks for a new behavior to become a habit.
1. Aim to eat 7 servings of fruit and vegetables every day. Preferable of 3 or more different colors. Make sure you fill half your dinner plate with vegetables.
2. Cut back on potatoes. Have one or two boiled new potatoes, or make a cannellini bean and potato mash, replacing half the potato with cannellini beans. Try other lower GI starchy vegetables for a change, like a piece of sweet potato.
3. Choose a really grainy bread, such as stoneground whole meal, real sourdough bread, or a soy and linseed bread. (Look for the GI symbol on the breads when you buy.
4. Start the day with smart carbs, like natural muesli or traditional (not instant) porridge oats, or one of the lower GI processed breakfast cereals that will trickle fuel into your engine.
5. Look for the lower-GI rices (basmali, Doongara Clever rice or Moolgirl) , and choose low-GI whole grains such as pearl barley, buckwheat, burghul (bulgul) ,or quinoa.
6. Learn to love legumes and eat them often. Add red kidney beans to a chili, chickpeas to a stir-fry, a 4-bean salad to a barbecue, and beans or lentils to a casserole or soup.
7. Include at least one low-GI carb food at every meal and choose low-GI snacks.
8. Incorporate a lean protein source with every meal, such ass lean meat, skinless chicken, eggs, fish and seafood, or legumes and tofu if you are vegetarian.
9. Use the GI-lowering effect or acidic foods like vinegar, citrus fruit and sourdough. Add vinaigrette dressing to salads and sprinkle lemon juice on vegetables like asparagus. Acids slows down the digestion of carbs and lower the overall GI of the meal.
10. Limit (preferably avoid) high-GI refined flour products, whether from the supermarket or home-baked, such as biscuits, cakes, pastries, crumpets, crackers and biscuits. As a general rule of thumb, the less processed a food is, the lower it’s GI value. The more work the body has to do in digesting it, that means the slower the sugar is released – and that is good news for keeping blood glucose levels steady.
After a few weeks of eating the GI way you’ll wonder why you didn’t start sooner as you may feel more energetic. And if the nutritionists are correct, adopting the low-GI eating plan may be the best thing you’ve ever done for your health.
This is one chapter out of my new book:”Recipe for a Long, Healthy Life.” You can order the book by visiting: www.yourhealthylivingguide.com
