Lose Weight
Lose Weight – Learn research based strategies to lose weight and keep it off – permanently!
How to Lose Weight – 5 Key Strategies to Start Losing Weight Today!
Here are five strategies you can start using today to promote long term weight loss:
1. Don’t cut calories too low – Drastic calorie restriction can slow your metabolism.
2. Eat a well balanced breakfast everyday.
3. Strength train to build muscle mass and boost your metabolism.
4. Eat regular meals and snacks – Do not go more than 3-4 hours between meals/snacks.
5. Include healthy fats in moderation to promote a feeling of fullness.
All the best,
Lisa Nelson RD
Mini Diet Makeover
Sleep Weight Loss – Lose Weight by Getting a Goodnight’s Sleep
Do you get enough sleep? 7-9 hours each night? If you are struggling to lose weight, adequate sleep is essential.
Sleep deprivation affects the balance of two hormones that regulate appetite and satiety – leptin and ghrelin. Leptin is produced by fat cells and signals the brain when you are full. Ghrelin is produced by stomach cells and signals the brain when you are hungry and should eat. Studies show when you are sleep deprived, leptin levels decrease and ghrelin levels increase. This causes you to feel the urge to eat more when you do not get enough sleep.
Here are five tips to help you get a good nights sleep:
1. Exercise regularly.
Being regularly active during the day makes falling asleep easier. As little as 20-30 minutes of activity helps. Don’t exercise too late, which can actually stimulate the body and make sleep more difficult.
2. Avoid alcohol, caffeine, and tobacco.
Alcohol makes falling asleep easier, but reduces the quality of sleep you receive. Caffeine can still interfere with sleep up to 10-12 hours after consuming it. Nicotine found in tobacco acts as a stimulant which may disrupt sleep.
3. Select bedtime snacks that promote sleep.
A light snack before bed may promote better sleep, especially if it contains the amino acid tryptophan, calcium, and carbohydrates. Some good bedtime snacks include:
Warm milk with half a peanut butter sandwich
Low fat yogurt with granola
Hot chamomile tea with a piece of fruit
4. Avoid a large meal or too much liquid close to bedtime.
Consuming a large meal before bed can make sleep difficult due to the bodies focus on digestion. Too much liquid before bed can cause you to wake for frequent bathroom trips.
5. Keep a regular bedtime schedule.
This is one of the most important habits you can maintain to achieve adequate sleep. Go to bed and wake up at the same time each day, including weekends. This will make it easier to fall asleep and improve your overall quality of sleep.
What is one thing you can do this week to get more sleep?
Drs. Chris and Kara Mohr developed the 21 Days to Better Sleep program. I highly recommend it. Their videos with instructions are engaging and the content can be put to good use so you achieve quality sleep each night. Learn more and purchase the program here.
All the best,
Lisa Nelson RD
Weight Loss – Do you need to change the way you think to lose weight?
It’s the New Year and there’s a good chance you’ve set a weight loss goal for your New Year’s resolution. By losing weight you’ll dramatically reduce your heart disease risk, lower blood pressure, and lower cholesterol. However, according to studies, the chances of you achieving your weight loss goal this year are slim.
I want to increase your chance of success, but it might require a mind shift! I have a couple issues I want you to explore your thoughts on.
1. Dieting
The first is whether or not you should make a mental shift around the whole “dieting” issue. Let’s focus on the word itself – “diet”. I want you to think about and explore your reaction and feelings when you hear the word “diet” and when you think about “going on a diet”. What comes to mind?
Examples would be feelings of restriction, thoughts of the short-term, such as I’ll do the South Beach Diet for two weeks to jump start my weight loss, another thought may be limits, and thought’s of what you can and can’t have once you start a diet. Of course, it’s possible you have a more positive reaction, such as hopeful and excited about the possibilities. My gut reaction is negative, which is probably why I can come up with a longer list of negatives for examples! I feel a tightening in my stomach when I think about “going on a diet”. I immediately have thoughts about the foods I can’t have, I feel restricted, and I think about when the diet will be over.
Have you considered another option to reach your weight loss or other health goals besides dieting? Here’s what I want you to consider now and in the days to come. Do you have to go on a diet to meet your goals? Instead, could you focus on healthy living and making healthy choices. Generally the word diet implies a short term approach and gives short term results. If you like statistics, statistics show 95% of people who lose weight on a diet gain it back. That’s not very encouraging. If you make a commitment to healthy living or healthy choices you shift to a long term mindset. A type of thinking that supports small changes over time that lead to permanent results.
Take some time and explore your reaction to the two statements:
“I’m making healthy choices.”
Versus
“I’m starting a diet.”
Which has a more positive feel for you?
If this isn’t something you’ve considered before, it’s simply a shift in thinking I’d like you explore. See if you need to adjust your mindset.
2. All or Nothing Approach
Okay, let’s move on to the second issue I want you to consider – Does if have to be an “All or Nothing Approach”?
Do you have to change all your bad habits at once to be successful?
For example, going on a raw food diet is probably a drastic change for most of us. (FYI – I’m in no way recommending a raw food diet, simply an example.) Is that the type of approach you need or would you be more successful targeting one or two not so healthy habits to change at a time? Once you’ve successful changed those habits, you move on to new ones.
“Strict diets” and “all or nothing approaches” generally fail. It is unrealistic to expect yourself to stick with a strict diet plan forever. Many people are gung ho at the beginning of a diet, after a week or two they start to slack off and “cheat” on the diet. Feelings of guilt and failure come in and thoughts of “well I’ve already blown today, I’ll start fresh tomorrow”, and then the gradual plummet back to old unhealthy habits.
So, I encourage you to consider a more open approach to achieving your health or weight loss goals. Does it have to be all or nothing?
Receive nutrition coaching from dietitian Lisa Nelson, as well as heart health and weight loss tips when you sign up for The Heart of Health. Subscribers receive the free bonus report “Stop Wasting Money – Take Control of Your Health”.
All the best,
Lisa Nelson RD
Best Weight Loss Plan – Team Member #4
If you’ve been following along, here is the fourth and final member to put together your best weight loss plan and complete your team. We’ve already covered:
1. Doctor
2. Nutritionist
3. Personal Trainer
Successfully losing weight and maintaining the weight loss requires several different factors all working together. Get a team of experts behind you to successfully to achieve the long-term weight loss you desire.
Support Group
One of those factors is a strong support system to encourage and support you as you work towards your goal. Losing weight doesn’t have to be tackled by yourself and you drastically increase your rate of success by surrounding yourself with individuals supporting you, such as what you receive from the NewU group dietitians and members. Changing your habits, such as cutting back on portion sizes, selecting healthier options, making time to workout by yourself can lead to feelings of loneliness and possibly after time depression. And where does depression lead? That’s right, to some good ole comfort foods that are usually not the best choices to go overboard on if you want to lose weight! Participating in a support group is critical to overcoming the challenges everyone faces on the road to weight loss.
Family and friends are not always the best option for support. Usually because they’ve been apart of your unhealthy lifestyle and they may unconsciously sabotage your efforts, such as inviting you out for drinks or dinner. You find yourself being “different” than the group, which can be difficult. Not that you’re going to cut off your current family and friends, just know they can present an unexpected obstacle. You can persuade your friends to join you by explaining why and what you’re doing and ask them to be supportive and finding alternative activities you can do together, such as instead of dinner meeting at the park for a walk.
Also, remember your family and friends will have their own opinion about what you should and shouldn’t be doing when it comes to weight loss. Not necessarily the best source for nutrition and fitness advice, which is why you want all your necessary weight loss team players in place!
Team Member #1
Team Member #2
Team Member #3
All the best,
Lisa Nelson RD
Top 5 Key Strategies to Lose Weight Permanently
Best Weight Loss Plan – Team Member #3
All right, we’ve covered two critical members of your weight loss team – your doctor and your nutritionist. We’re ready to talk about weight loss team member #3.
Personal Trainer
Healthy eating and physical activity go hand-in-hand if you want to successfully lose weight. But, how much cardio do you need? Should you be lifting weights? How often do you need to workout? How long do you need to workout? A personal trainer can design a fitness routine and make sure you’re doing the exercises correctly.
Meeting with a personal trainer can be pricey, but there are alternatives – phone and/or internet coaching for half the cost (or less). There are many programs online that allow you to enter information and download workout routines based on your information. Many programs also allow you to track your progress. For best results, I encourage you to consult with a trainer in person for one or two appointments. This will allow you to have a fitness assessment and time to discuss your goals with your trainer. The trainer will also go through the recommend workout routine with you to make sure you understand all activities and are using the correct form and technique. After this, you can check-in with your trainer via phone or email to monitor program and answer questions. Some trainers even review video footage of workouts.
Don’t worry that working with a trainer means you have to have a gym membership. Trainers can develop a program for you at a gym or based in your home. You can get in a great workout anywhere – gym, home, park, etc.
Another lower cost option would be group training in which a small number of people work with a trainer at one time.
Just as with a nutritionist, make sure your trainer is qualified and has a current certification from a respected organization, such as the American College of Sports Medicine.
Weight Loss Team Member #1
Weight Loss Team Member #2
Weight Loss Team Member #4
All the best,
Lisa Nelson RD
Top 5 Key Strategies to Lose Weight Permanently
Best Weight Loss Plan – Team Member #2
Like I mentioned in the previous post, losing weight and maintaining the weight loss requires several different factors all working together. To increase your success you need a team of experts behind. We already covered consulting your physician as team member #1. Let’s move on to weight loss team member #2.
Nutritionist
There is so much information available on weight loss and what foods to eat it can be very overwhelming to figure out exactly what you should be doing to successfully lose weight.
A trustworthy source to help you sort through the information is a registered dietitian.
Be aware that anyone can call themselves a nutritionist, but a dietitian has received the education and training you’re looking for. There are several options for working with a dietitian. Health departments usually employee dietitians who may be available to work with you at lower fees. I’m available via online forums, such as the Mini Diet Makeover and Balance Program. Being able to offer a service via the web drastically saves on overhead costs (such as office space, utilities, etc.) that the cost of online services are much lower than office visits and still provide the same quality interaction and feedback. Also, some health insurance plans will reimburse the cost of your appointments with a dietitian, especially if you’re are referred by your physician.
A dietitian can assess your current dietary intake, nutrient needs, and assist you with establishing a realistic, practical plan towards meeting your nutrition and weight loss goals. The guidance you receive can range from daily meal plans to not regressing during the holiday’s to healthy cooking tips and much more.
Weight Loss Team Member #1
Weight Loss Team Member #3
All the best,
Lisa Nelson RD
Top 5 Key Strategies to Lose Weight Permanently
