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10 Tips for Weight Loss Success

By on March 27, 2015
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By Katrina Bertol from Naturally Savvy

Image: Leandro Müller

There are diet fads, diet pills, products, and strict protocols that will help you lose weight quickly and then gain it back twice as fast. We develop relationships with food over the course of our lives, and many turn into addictions and routines. What we eat, when we eat, how much we eat, how we eat and why we eat are really the magical missing pieces of weight loss puzzle. If we are not aware of these questions and answers, then no diet, weight loss routine or supplement will ever work. These tips will help you achieve your weight loss goals.

1. Set And Record A Realistic Goal

Whether you want to reduce bloating, lose five pounds, 10 pounds or much more – you first and foremost need to set a goal and write it down. Without concrete goals, it is difficult to succeed. If you want to lose five pounds, write it down. When do you want to lose this weight by? Jot that down as well. Be realistic. 1 lb of fat is 3500 calories, which means if you cut 500 calories each day (by exercising and watching your portion sizes) you can easily lose 1 lb per week!

2. Buy Yourself A Journal

I suggest buying a small pocket-sized notebook that looks nice, so that you will actually want to carry it around and write in it. Use this to record what you are eating every day for two weeks. I guarantee you will eat less and make better food choices. There is something sobering about seeing your daily food intake recorded on paper. You will think twice about how much and what you eat so that you can honestly record a healthy food day.

3. Stop Putting Limitations On Yourself

We all generate some absurd statements about what we can and cannot do: “I am not a runner”, “I need sugar and coffee to survive”, “My body just doesn’t want to change” and “I can’t, I’m not, I shouldn’t”. If you identify yourself with such limitations, you will stay in the same patterns and weight loss (or any personal growth) will be hard to achieve. Ask yourself what you have been avoiding and why, then challenge yourself to destroy those negative self-limitations.

4. Don’t Ever Stuff Yourself

We are not cave people hunting, gathering and filling our stomachs as much as possible because we don’t know when the next meal will be. In our modern day society, food is one of the most readily available products. You are never really more than a few minutes away from food. It is interesting that we have, over thousands of years, stuck with the mentality of eating until we are full. Studies show that eating until you are 80% full leads to lifelong weight control, better health status, more energy and can actually add years to your life!

5. Get Moving

Lift weights, join a sports team, try out different fitness classes, dance, get up from your desk and stretch those poor stiff muscles. Our bodies are meant to move – and not just from the car to the office with the occasional lap around the grocery store. If you are stuck with your fitness routine (or are just completely unmotivated), hire a certified personal trainer to help get you started or attend a fitness class at your local gym. One of the easiest ways to drop a couple of pounds if to go for a brisk 20 minute walk before or after dinner to help digestion and to increase metabolism.

6. Control Your Portion Sizes

Our eyes are usually much hungrier than our stomachs. Try using a small plate instead of a regular dinner plate. When you have a large plate and put a small amount of food on it, your eyes become sad and hungry and your brain tells you that you are getting ripped off. If you have a nice full small plate of food your eyes will be satisfied, your brain at peace and you will keep those extra pounds off your waistline.

7. Eat Slowly and Calmly

If you eat on the run, while stressed out or upset, digestion will be compromised; gastric juices will not have time to be secreted properly and intestines will be contracted leading to indigestion. Digestion starts in the mouth with the salivary glands producing amylase to start the breakdown of food. The more you chew (try at least 20 chews per mouthful) the less work it is for your stomach and intestines. This translates into more energy to break down fat, not food particles. The slower you eat, the less you will eat in one sitting.

8. Snack Consciously

Don’t get me wrong, snacking is important when you are actually hungry and choosing wholesome foods in the right portion sizes, and at the right times. But how many of us eat while we are in the kitchen cooking? A little taste of this, a bite of that, a piece of cheese to “tide you over” and before you know it you have consumed an extra 400 calories before your actual meal! If you are hungry when preparing dinner, have a large glass of water and cut up an apple or veggies. Enjoy this small snack with awareness while sitting down at the table.

9. Think Twice Before Going Back For Seconds

“Mmm that food sure was tasty!”, you think after polishing off your plate. Before you reach for the second serving wait 10 minutes. Ask yourself, “Am I really still hungry, or do I just want to satisfy my taste buds?” It takes about 10 minutes for the receptors of the brain to realize that you are satisfied with what you have already consumed.

10. Don’t Eat Late At Night

Metabolism slows down in the evening hours and your body needs energy to detoxify and rejuvenate organ system function during sleep. Try to finish your last meal before 8pm or at least three hours before bedtime. Eating before bed will cause energy to be spent on digestion and not on much-needed detoxification. And instead of using those calories as energy to move during the day, your body will store them as subcutaneous (surface) fat on your body.

 

katrinaKatrina Bertol is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist, Registered Nutritional Consultant Practitioner, Certified Personal Trainer, Pilates Instructor and Reiki Practitioner. Katrina has an undergraduate degree in fitness and nutritional sciences and an advanced diploma in Holistic Nutrition.

Inspired by her father, who died at an early age from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), Katrina decided to turn her passion for health into a commitment to helping others balance their lives and find whole health through a combination of nutrition, fitness, meditation and reiki. She has combined her love for travel and her interests in alternative health therapies and has done courses in Yoga, Reiki, Ayurvedic Medicine and Cooking throughout India, South-East Asia and Europe.

Katrina has worked in corporate wellness, rehabilitation, pre and post-natal fitness, as the nutrition expert for the Canadian Society of Crohn’s and Colitis, in home and studio group and individual training, and currently operates her Nutrition and Reiki practice. She offers Nutritional Consultations, Holistic Food Preparation Classes and Personal Training Packages.

As a practitioner, Katrina looks at her client’s whole health and individual genetic profile. She believes that no two clients are ever the same. By careful analysis of structural, organ and system function, lifestyle assessment, nutritional profile and dietary habits, Katrina’s goal is to help her clients achieve whole health with real life strategies. Katrina specializes in Weight Loss, Allergies, Detoxification, Pediatric Nutrition, Sports Nutrition, Fertility Health, Irritable Bowel Disease, Urinary Tract Infections and Whole Foods Cooking Preparation.

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