Tuesday 4 November 2014

Where to even begin a weight-loss journey! Part 1: Useful Guidelines

As I embark on my journey of losing the baby weight I always knew how I would go about it. Safely, smartly and sustainably!
 Although I don't agree with some of the information that is taught in my Human Nutrition Masters course I do agree with the principles! No matter what way you choose to lose weight the principles are always the same.

1) Make changes that are sustainable
          - Extreme dietary changes and high volume exercise may give you fast results, however they are not sustainable and once you finish/fall off the wagon the weight will come back and more often than not a few extra kgs will be added on top of what you began with initially 
          - Keep in mind that 80% of people put weight back on after losing it. Why go to all the effort just to be back at square one! 


2) Support is Critical. 
          -  First and foremost there needs to be support in the home or family. It is very hard to try and make healthy dietary changes if there are bad foods in the house for the children/partner/housemate/spouse. Some may say that why should the children go without just because the adults can't control themselves. I believe the health of the entire family is much more important. The children must understand that a healthy change is important and they too need to be supportive. The significant other in a persons life can be their biggest influence both positively and negatively. Making healthy changes when working in an office can be so difficult as there are people to ridicule your efforts and sometimes many offices have morning teas or biscuit tins that can be hard to resists so knowing that there is a safe place at home can make the willpower at the office a lot stronger. 

3) Portion Size is the biggest problem. 
          - understanding and following portion sizing can be the most powerful thing in weight loss. Don't deprive yourself of delish healthy foods, just eat the right amount.  
          - you may think you're eating healthy but if your portion sizing is out of control then you could be slowing or even sabotaging your weight-loss efforts. 

4) Watch out for processed food, sugar and salt
           - The more processed the food, the more opportunities there has been to tamper with the food. More things (chemicals, additives, stabilizers) need to be added to the food to ensure it survives each process. Sugar and salt is added to enhance lost flavour and to help prolong shelf life. All these additives can effect each person differently and many times it can react to your body and cause you to slow, stop or even reverse your weight-loss efforts.
          - The closer the food product is to its natural state the better it is for you. It is also quite hard to eat an excess of calories of 'real food' as you will feel full quicker due to the fat content (meat, diary) and the high amount of fibre.

5) Don't completely rule out 'bad foods'. Cheat days/meals can be great family fun and quite an eye opener.
          - My own personal experience is that I need rules to follow otherwise I can veer off quite easily. This is where a cheat day/meal is perfect!! As an example my husband and I eat very clean and simple during the week, we portion all our meals and have no sugar Monday to Saturday. Then on Sunday we pretty much have whatever we feel like. The funny thing is after being good for 6 days we often don't want to mess it all up so the cheat food ends up being healthier than we originally planned. We also make the cheat food a bit of an event. We look up recipes and head out Sunday morning and buy all the food and have a big cook up together. We can't wait until our daughter can join in with the cooking. 
          - Although many times we end up having a healthier cheat food, if we feel like a big feed of pizza, fried chicken, ice cream etc we happily indulge without guilt and then Monday morning it's back to normal.

6) Stay away from liquid meals!!!!
         - There are many weight-loss companies and fitness personalities out there that push their shake/juice diets claiming fast weight loss. If you drink your calories then you will definitely lose weight fast however as soon as you start eating again the weight will come back. 
          - These liquid diets don't teach you how to eat real food so you never learn anything new or different in order to help you with long term weight-loss. There is no mention of portion control or which foods are healthier than others or how to combine foods to feel fuller for longer. Nothing to help once you stop the shakes/juices as they are not something you can do forever/long-term.

Even though I have passed my units with high distinctions I still feel like I can't give advice on weight-loss until I have been through my own weight-loss journey. I understand the struggles, the day to day mental battle of choosing to eat healthy and also the elation of seeing the weight and cms reducing not to mention the little lump in your throat and the sinking feeling you have when the numbers have gone the other way. There are so many different ways to lose weight and each persons body is different so trying to find what is not only best suited to your body but also easy to incorporate into your daily life can be a struggle. However once you are on your way, following these simple guidelines can help to keep you on your journey of long-time successful weight-loss. 

Keep a lookout for my next post about my personal weight-loss experience after having my daughter.

:)