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With Valentine’s Day just a week away, it’s time to spread a little love! We know that losing weight and keeping it off requires planning, commitment, and hard work – but there’s no reason it shouldn’t be fun! To help you achieve your goals, we’re sharing 8 ways to lose weight and love doing it.
1. Find Healthy Substitutes
Eating well doesn’t mean avoiding all of the foods and flavors that we used to enjoy. By planning ahead and getting creative in the kitchen, we can keep the menu diverse. Re-inspire those formerly off-limit meals by swapping out fatty ingredients like mayonnaise for lighter options like Greek yogurt, or using vegetables as nutrient-rich “noodles.”
Want to see how substitutions work in action? Cauliflower – this fiber and antioxidant-rich vegetable is versatile! It can take the spotlight as a meat substitute or serve as a quick and easy alternative for starchy rice or potatoes. Try it as a base for tortillas or pizza crust for a tasty, bariatric-friendly take on a classic that everyone will love.
2. Eat Mindfully
Losing weight isn’t just about what we eat, it’s also how we eat, and eating mindfully is the best place to start. According to Healthline, practicing mindfulness “helps you recognize and cope with your emotions and physical sensations.” Harvard Health has found that this technique can help improve people’s mindsets towards food while aiding weight-loss efforts.
Taking a slower approach to dining seems reasonable enough, but exactly how does one eat mindfully? By:
- Setting aside 20 minutes to eat slowly and without distractions
- Listening to hunger cues (eating only when hungry and stopping when full)
- Noticing the colors, textures, and tastes of food
- Learning about (and avoiding) our triggers to eat when not hungry
- Focusing on our overall health and well-being
When it comes to mindful eating, a little goes a long way! Even something as simple as placing the fork down between bites can help us slow down and listen to what our bodies are trying to tell us.
3. Track Your Day/Keep a Journal
Keeping an eye on what we eat and what we do throughout the day can help us identify ways to improve our weight-loss efforts. Journaling at night or creating a food/exercise diary offers a bird’s-eye view of what we eat, as well as the emotional states that affect eating.
To track habits properly, journaling should happen throughout the day as opposed to all at once. If we wait until nighttime to write everything down, we’re likely to forget any extra calories we consume, like that handful of chips, extra dressing at lunch, or a candy bar after dinner. Tracking everything can help us avoid future temptations while developing better habits.
To take it a step further, try tracking exercises. Even 10 minutes here and there adds up. This way, we can see where we are succeeding, where we can improve, and how far we’ve come, which can inspire us to work even harder!
4. Choose Exercises You Enjoy
Speaking of working out, the best way to create a regimen we’ll actually follow is by choosing exercises we enjoy. It doesn’t matter if running can help promote weight loss, improve knee health, and help us sleep better – odds are, if we don’t like running, we won’t stick with the routine!
Instead of struggling through something that wears on us, look for other ways to move that have similar benefits, like swimming, biking, or walking – anything that elevates heartrates!
If exercising indoors isn’t inspiring, take the workout outside for some extra fresh air. Too tired to hit the gym after work? Take 10 minutes for stretching or extra movements at work. There’s no perfect exercise routine – the important part is finding one that works for your particular needs and lifestyle.
5. Foster Positive Relationships
No matter how isolating it can seem be, it’s important to recognize that you aren’t alone on your weight-loss journey! Friends, family, medical professionals, and so many more people want to help offer support to those working to better themselves and that support is more valuable than it may seem.
A study by Stanford University highlighted the benefits of having a workout buddy. Just answering a simple question about how much we exercise in a week can actually increase the amount that we do by 78%! Working out with a partner offers a variety of benefits, including increased safety and having more fun.
In fact, a support network is beneficial all around. By informing those close to us about our health goals, we are motivated to stay on track to achieve them. Our network can inspire us to work harder and protect us from falling back on bad habits.
6. Avoid Negative Stressors
There are two sides to every coin, and just as crucial as promoting positivity in our lives is avoiding negativity. It’s an unfortunate reality, but people aren’t always supportive when we choose to change our lives for the better. Some family members and friends may try to push us towards bad habits or try to put us down for our successes.
As difficult as it may be, avoiding these stressors is the best tactic. This negativity can wear on both mood and determination, which can lead to skipped exercises, overeating, and, eventually, weight gain.
The same goes for those situations and places that we subconsciously connect to bad habits. For example, if someone goes for a second helping on every dessert or snacks too much while watching TV at night, the best thing to do is avoid dessert altogether or snack on carrots while watching the game. The best way to resist temptation is to avoid temptation in the first place. Not only will this keep us on track to reach our goals, it’ll improve our overall outlook.
7. Focus on Positivity
Every weight-loss journey has its ups and downs, but with the power of positivity, it’s nothing we can’t handle! Stay on track through difficult times by remembering the WHY. Whether this journey started with a goal to live longer, feel better, or move more easily, focus on that desire when things get tricky Take time to recognize progress and look forward to the future.
8. Choose Weight-Loss Surgery
Weight-loss surgery is simply the best way to live healthier, live longer, lose weight, and love the journey! Surgical procedures can help patients lose 50 to 80% of their excess weight and help them keep it off long-term. These surgeries also reset metabolisms to achieve a feeling of fullness with less food while experiencing hunger pangs less frequently.
For those seeking a less-invasive solution, we offer non-surgical options like gastric balloons. These weight-loss programs do not permanently alter anatomy, but still assist with weight loss, feeling full on less food, and lifestyle changes. During the 6-month period while the balloons are in the stomach, we teach life-long healthy habits to lose weight and keep it off!
Want to learn more? Click here for our procedures.
COME TO NYBG.
When it’s time to start a successful weight-loss journey, it’s time to call NYBG! We’re the best practice around and our numbers prove it:
- 13 skilled surgeons leading the field of bariatrics
- 15,000 successful procedures performed, with more occurring each day
- The #1 gastric balloon practice in the country by volume – most balloons placed in the United States
- 24/7 access to online seminars
- 100s of videos for patients and their support network explaining procedures, answering common questions, and showcasing previous patients’ successes
- Multiple offices located in three states; NY, NJ, CT
- Since 2000, we boast 18 years of success!
Our commitment to patient success and excellence has earned us accreditation from the Metabolic Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program (MBSAQIP). This prestigious achievement recognizes only the top bariatric practices. Stop waiting; start achieving better health today.
