Weight Loss Tricks

Here are some of my sustainable weight loss tricks:

0.5) Read "Healthy Living" entry first before proceeding. :)

1) Get enough sleep! I realized that I was chugging calorie-rich lattes and was fueling myself with a sugar-rich diet mostly to compensate for the lack of energy I had from not getting enough sleep. As soon as I began sleeping more, I found that my appetite was slightly less, and I craved the lattes and junk food less.

2) Reduce your stress levels. Give yourself permission to be human! Learn to be compassionate toward yourself, for you cannot love and be compassionate toward another unless you love and are compassionate toward yourself first! Honestly. I wish I had learned this lesson sooner. Learning that I didn't have to stress out over getting an A on every single paper has made me feel like a slacker, but not so! I've learned to just do my best and let that be enough, and *here's the shocker* I've STILL managed to keep a 4.0 this semester! I've learned that I need to make time for my emotional health (calling friends, making time to get together with people, doing fun things I love to d0 even when my homework isn't done yet... ) and that's helped me to stop emotionally eating. When I wasn't taking the time for self care in these crucial areas, I tended to fill up the emotional void with food. Emotional eating is probably one of the biggest reasons (at least, it was for me) of being overweight. Before eating something, I would ask myself: Am I hungry? Angry? Lonely? or Tired? (H.A.L.T.?) If I wasn't hungry, I would say, "well, don't eat then." And if I was Angry, Lonely, or Tired, I'd go take a shower, put on some happy music, or go call someone or go journal or take a nap or whatever I needed to feel better instead of eating.

3) Eat at least 5 servings of fruits and veggies a day. This is something to strive for - but to be honest, I don't always reach it. I usually eat about 2 bananas a day (they're cheap, and they're packed with nutrients and are filling!) - one at breakfast, and one as an afternoon snack. Then, I usually have at least one or two cups of steamed hot vegetables or a salad with every meal.

4) Drink water or milk (2 or 1% is best) with meals instead of soda/pop or juice. The milk will take the edge of hunger off and give you some calcium and protein, too.

5) A serving of protein is about the size of a deck of cards. Choose lean proteins like fish, chicken, or tofu as opposed to pork / beef. You really don't need to eat meat every day. That is an American thing which is making us extremely unhealthy. Animal products have lots of cholesterol and are often produced in factory farms which treat animals poorly and which destroy the environment. Just a few more reasons why we should cut back on our meat consumption! (see http://www.goveg.com/vegetarian101.asp) for more info: yes, I know it's from PETA... don't judge! ;) ).

6) Eat until you are full and then STOP. Hint: there will usually be something left on your plate!

7) When you see an amazing dessert that you MUST have - eat half and save the rest for later! Or just have a few bites, then throw the rest out. Either way, it's going to waist / waste. You pick which one: yours or the trash can! Inevitably, there is some amazing dessert in the dining hall every single day that tempts me. I finally came to the realization that they're not "treats" if you have them every day! Usually, I would talk myself out of eating the dessert by saying: "Look, it's not a "now or never" deal. If you don't get one today, they'll have it again in two weeks." That way, I could pass it up now and wait for something really good.

8) Don't deprive yourself. This might work for a short time and give you quick results, but you will backslide and probably gain back more than you lost. If your body is really craving something, go ahead and eat it! No foods should be forbidden. But keep in mind the suggestions in #7.

9) Fall in love! It makes you lose your appetite. I lost mine for about 2 or 3 weeks. I was seriously getting concerned... but it finally came back! Having no appetite makes it easy to eat smaller meals...

10) Find a physical activity that you love and do it just because you love it, not because it's exercise! I found that I love iceskating- and three days a week they have open skate on campus. I started going every friday with a good friend of mine in the MDiv, killing two birds with one stone: I had time to hang out and catch up with my friend, and I got some exercise! For me, I found out that I hate sweating. I like activities that get my pulse up, make me breathe a little bit more but don't make me exhausted, sweaty, overheated, etc. Skating for an hour is a great workout, but doesn't leave me feeling whipped! As the weather has gotten better, I often take leisurely walks around the two lakes here on campus (a two-mile loop) - sometimes even with my beau! It's romantic and healthy!

11) Only eat when you are hungry! It is terrible, but we sometimes eat three meals a day simply because that's the thing to do and it's habit. I started paying attention more to whether I was actually hungry or not, and only ate when i was really hungry. As a student, I always get what I call the "munchies" (cravings for snacks while studying - not the side effect of a drug induced high) and I realized that I don't have to eat something every time i get the munchies. seriously! If i have a cup of tea, it goes away. We have to learn to ignore those little hungers and wait until we're really hungry (you don't want to wait until you're at the point where you are famished, low blood sugar, cranky, ravenous, etc. but you do want to wait until you're really hungry before eating.) This will make your meal times more satisfying (the food tastes better when you're hungry!) and will get your body to a place where it is ready to digest and use the food for energy as opposed to storing it as fat.

12) Fast. This is a spiritual discipline which can give us more control over the appetites of the flesh. I hate fasting, and I am terrible at it. Every year I dread Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, mostly because I get all shaky and get headaches every time I try to fast, and also, then I obsess about when I can eat, and what I can eat, and whether what I'm eating is equivalent to one normal meal and two smaller meals which do not equal the one normal meal... yes, I'm a bit scrupulous. Anyway, the way for me to get over all of this craziness is to remind myself that there are plenty of persons around the globe who do not have access to healthy food every day. While I fast by choice, they fast because they have no choice. My discomfort for the two days a year I am asked to fast reminds me of the discomfort they experience daily, and this fasting, if it is the type of fasting which God wants from us, ought to lead us to greater solidarity and solicitude for the poor. For ways to help, check out http://www.foodforthepoor.org/ or http://www.crs.org/.

I think this last point is important because we can get so hung up on our own struggles with food that we forget that there are others whose struggle is greater. When we think only of ourselves, we lose perspective, and we miss an opportunity for growth in our union with God and with our brothers and sisters in the human family.

13) If you don't want to eat it, don't keep it in the house. For example, if I buy chocolate, I eat it in a day. Therefore, if I don't want to eat a whole bag of dove chocolates in a day, I shouldn't buy it. Or else, if i do buy it, I share! It's ok to want chocolate once in a while (especially at certain times of the month) but when you buy it, either buy it in single-serving quantities or eat one serving and then give the rest away! This was easy for me to do, seeing as I live and work in a women's residence hall, and the fact that I regularly put a bowl of chocolates outside my room was probably one of the things the residents liked most about me this year! Anyway, not having icecream around all the time or chocolate around made me really appreciate it when I did have it! (absence makes the heart grow fonder... hehe).

14) Portion size. Our idea of portion size is way out of control. Typically meals which we get in a restaurant are sooo big there is enough for 2-3 meals. Try cutting your meal in half (or thirds) before you begin and only eating a portion of it. At home, put less on your plate to begin with. If you're still hungry when you finish, you can get more. But more than likely, you'll be surprised that your hunger is satisfied, and you've avoided eating all those extra calories that you would then have to burn off by 4.5 hours of running, jogging, heavy labor, etc... which is NOT fun. It's easier to not eat things than it is to burn it off later.