It is four weeks into January (!!!), how is that resolution to lose weight going? Let’s keep the weight off for good by follow my 15 tips for permanent weight loss and make 2014 the last year you make the resolution to lose weight.

Marian’s 15 Tips for Permanent Weight Loss

1. Move. Movement is absolutely essential not just to weight loss, but overall health. We are designed to move. Research has shown that a sedentary lifestyle leads to all kinds of preventable health problems including sluggish metabolism, contributing to heart disease, more likely to get cancer, hypertension and more. Moving your body regulates your blood sugar, appetite, gives you an endorphin high, reduces stress, reduces inflammation, improves your sleep and heals your brain. It doesn’t have to be boring either. Find something fun to do that involves getting off the couch and/or computer chair. Going for walks, swimming, dancing, strength training, climbing, hiking, taking the stairs, parking far away as possible everywhere you go, frisbee, golf, softball, football, horseback riding, and the list just goes on. Find something fun and do it often!

2. Avoid One-Size-Fits-All Diets. Every person is completely and totally unique. There are some general rules of thumb but from there bio-individuality takes over. When a person enters into a calories in, calories out mentality, true nutrition falls to the wayside. Something may be worth 0-2 points but is it giving your cells what they need? The food might be full of protein and pre portioned and thoughtless, but is it nutritionally dense? Maybe you need more fat and less carbs and less protein. Maybe you need more protein and more carbs. Your best bet is to stick with real food and not factory made food like products.

3. Eat enough calories. Many people think that the less calories we eat the better when it comes to weight loss. This just isn’t true. You have to eat enough calories to function plus take into account your activity level. If you have a desk job, then go home and sit at the computer or watch tv until bed, you need less calories than someone who works at a factory or is on their feet all day. I will say that no matter how inactive your daily life is, 1200 calories isn’t going to cut it. This leads into number 4.

4. Eat the right kind of calories. The amount of calories is important to some degree, however, where the calories come from is much more important. The right kinds of fats, protein and carbs in the right ratios for your body will give you the body you desire with the least amount of effort to get there and maintain it. No matter what though, too many carbs, even the “healthy” kind, you’re not going to loose. This will be discussed more in depth on number 13.

5. 90/10 Rule. This means 90% of the foods that fuel your right and 10% of the stuff that does not. Nothing is off limits, which means no craving of foods just because you “can’t.” You can have that dessert….once or twice a week. You can have that favorite fattening, completely unhealthy meal of choice….once a week. There are no cheat “days,” just 10% of the time eating the foods you “just can’t give up.”

6. Know Your Cravings. There are two types of cravings: Physical and Emotional. It’s important to really pay attention to what your cravings are telling you. I crave Starbucks when I’m stressed. It has nothing to do with the coffee itself but all the memories of spending lazy afternoons with friends. So the memory associated with Starbucks calms me.  You will find by realizing an emotional cravings and satisfying that instead of filling the need with food that doesn’t satisfy. There are physical cravings too, when we need nutrients or calories. We are often times low on B vitamins, magnesium, and choline.

7. Identify Your Trigger Foods. We all have a food that if we eat it, it causes a downward spiral. It is our “gateway food” so to speak. We all have one. Once you identify it, avoid it. Otherwise you’re going to continually sabotage yourself and not reach your goal.

8. Eat to 80%.  This means eat until you are 80% full. It takes 20 minutes for our stomach to tell our brain it is full. The best way to include this rule is to take the time to really chew your food. Take a bite, chew it, smell it, taste every flavor, let the saliva start doing it’s work, use the teeth you were given to mash up your food, then swallow. This not only allows you to truly enjoy your meal, it gives your body a chance to do what it needs to do to get the “juices” flowing and the stomach and brain to communicate that food is coming in and when it’s full. If you eat too fast and to 100% full in 20 minutes you’re going to feel nauseous, bloated and uncomfortably full.

9. Probiotics. Having a healthy gut flora is essential for optimal nutrient absorption, reducing bloat and having regular, comfortable bathroom breaks. This in turn leads to weight loss. When our guts are healthy, our immune system is on attack mode. This means we are less inflamed. When we are not inflamed we automatically are able to process out toxins which are stored in our adipose tissue. When our guts are healthy, we do not experience bloating, water retention or a backed up system. When we are getting the nutrients we need, we are less hungry because our cells are being fed with what they need. They aren’t screaming for fuel even though you just ate a 1000 calories meal from Subway. You can learn more about probiotics here. 

10. Do not give up. All too often we do not get the results we want fast enough and decide whatever we are doing isn’t working. Weight loss isn’t as cut and dry as calories in/calories out. There are toxins that need to be processed out, inflammation reduced, metabolism healed, adrenal glands supported, feeding your starving cells with nutrients and allowing them time to get back on track, supporting your thyroid health and getting your hormones back on track. A couple weeks isn’t nearly long enough to know if what you are doing is working but after a month or so, if your energy levels have no increased, you are not sleeping better and bloating is not reduced, then some modifications are probably needed.

11. Lemon water. My favorite weight loss aide. Not only does it taste good, water is completely essential for weight loss and lemon aides in detoxing. Most Americans are chronically dehydrated. The signals for dehydration feel like hunger signals. People tend to reach for food before a glass of water. Adding lemon gives water an extra punch. Lemon is alkalizing inside our body and by alkalizing our body it boosts our immune system, supports our liver which is our detoxing organ, gives us energy and all this leads to weight loss in the form of toxins leaving our fat cells and the energy boost.

12. Eat Your Fats. If you want to lose weight, you have to eat healthy fats. Swap out inflammatory vegetable oils for anti-inflammatory brain and cell food fats. You can literally not over eat on fats. Your body will stop you. Yet that bread bowl will be gone and you’ll still be craving more, am I right? Healthy fats include extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), avocado, grass fed butter, wild caught salmon, nuts, chia seeds, hemp seeds and flax seeds. Research suggests we eat anywhere from 50-70% of our diet from healthy fats and less than 30% from carbs and 15-30% of our calories from protein.

13. Journal. Journaling is really a catch 22. It’s easy to become obsessed with numbers and stressing when we miss the mark we expect from ourselves. On the flip side, it can be a useful tool in seeing if there is conflict between what you think you are eating and what you actually are eating. There is a wonderful app out there that not only counts calories but the main focus is nutrients and you can set percentages you want to meet. It will let you know if you are under or over the goal you set for yourself. It’s a great “check in” tool as I like to call it. www.cronometer.com is the app. You can download it to your phone but to set up your profile and goals, you can to log in on a computer.

14. Identify Food Sensitivities. When we consume foods our bodies don’t like, it damages the villi in our guts. This affects our ability to absorb nutrients. It also creates holes in our intestines, called leaky gut, and allows food particles into our bloodstream that normally wouldn’t and shouldn’t. Taking the time to find out what bothers us and taking the steps necessary to avoid those foods will do more for your energy level, immune system and weight loss than killing yourself at the gym and starving yourself ever will.

15. Get enough Vitamin D. This pre hormone is completely essential in all areas of health at the cellular level. We need a lot of it too. Most of us sit inside all day long and do not get outdoors during the peak times for sunlight (10-2) plus we’re often covered up either by clothes and/or sun screen. We need at a minimum 15-30 minutes of direct, unprotected sunlight daily between the hours of 10a-2p to get the minimum amount of vitamin D. When we sunburn, it means we were out for too long. Another great way to boost your vitamin D, in addition to time outside, is to eat foods rich in vitamin D including fatty fish, mushrooms and fermented cod liver oil.

Live Healthy and Whole,

Marian

Image from http://fitterwithritter.blogspot.com