Author: Shelly Stinson, Guest Writer
According to Statistic Brain, the top New Year’s resolution for 2015 was to lose weight. That’s no surprise really because weight loss is a multi-billion dollar industry, proving that there is a lot of people who are unhappy with the number on the scale.
However, if you were one of them and you didn’t quite reach your goal, or even if you weren’t but you’re ready to shed those extra pounds you packed on this past year, there are four tips that can help you make 2016 your best year yet (weight-wise, at least).
#1: Know Why You Want to Lose Weight
Fully understanding why weight loss is so important to you is critical to being successful when it comes to reaching this particular goal. In other words, it isn’t enough to know that you want to weigh a certain amount or wear a specific pant size. You also need to know why it is you want these things.
Is it vanity related? Health related? Because you want to be a better role model for your children? No answer is wrong here. It’s just a matter of figuring out why this goal is important to you, because this is what will keep you moving forward when all you want to do is give up.
#2: Avoid Fad Diets
Although you may feel like you’re doing yourself a favor by going on the latest diet craze in an attempt to lose weight, health professionals like FamilyDoctor.org recommend against fad diets as they “typically don’t result in long-term weight loss and they are usually not very healthy.”
Instead, good old fashioned healthy eating and exercise are the best ways to not only lose weight initially, but also to maintain the loss. This means choosing to eat more nutritious foods and increasing your physical activity levels. It may mean more work, but the long-term payoff is more than worth the effort.
#3: Watch Your Beverage Consumption
It used to be that the only beverages available to consume were water, coffee, tea, and a handful of other options. Now, most any convenience store you go into has shelf upon shelf of drinking options and that doesn’t even take into consideration the beverages available at specialty places like Starbucks, Jamba Juice, and others. While some of these newer beverages to hit the market aren’t so bad, others offer a high-calorie and/or high-fat punch.
That’s why one tip that College News provides to students wishing to avoid The Freshman 15 is, “If you’re going to drink, go low calorie.” While they speak specifically about the calorie count in most alcohols, this same good advice applies across the board. Look for low-calorie options of your favorite beverages and the needle on the scale should start to fall.
#4: Keep Yourself Motivated
Part of the reason that people give up on their weight loss goals is that they lose the
motivation they had when they first started. While some chalk this up to weak willpower, the truth is that motivation is like a fire. It needs to be constantly stoked in order to continue to burn hot and strong.
Some options that can help you stay motivated include starting a blog to help motivate others (which motivates you in return), keeping track of your progress on a chart that you look at often, and taking photos of you at various intervals so you can see how far you’ve come. Doing these types of things can keep you inspired to not stop until you’ve hit your final weight loss goal.
