When you think about weight loss what comes to mind? Challenging? Restrictive? Confusing? That’s understandable because that’s what we’ve been taught or what we’ve experienced, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Here are some ways to reframe weight loss into a more positive experience.

 

•  Experiment. How do you know what works best for your body if you never try anything new? Experimenting is a great way to develop the right eating and exercise plan for you and it keeps things a bit more exciting. Changing up your diet and exercise also helps to avoid long-term plateaus. How do you feel when you follow a vegetarian or vegan diet? What changes with your digestion when you avoid gluten or dairy? What gives you more sustained energy after your first meal - a protein smoothie or oatmeal? Does yoga or ballroom dancing feel better for your body right now? You won’t know what feels best for your body and mind unless you try something new.

 

•  Reframe ‘bad’ days. Weight loss doesn’t have to feel like you’re punishing yourself. It’s self-care discovering what is best for your body and mind. And having a day when you eat so much chocolate you feel sick to your stomach isn’t a failure. It’s an opportunity to learn more about yourself. Instead of beating yourself up ask why you ate that much chocolate. Was there anything you could have done differently? After the self-reflection let it go.

 

•  Focus on more than just food and exercise. So often we get caught up in avoiding certain foods or beating ourselves up for not exercising, that we forget to look at our day to day lifestyle. Healthy weight management is holistic and should include an assessment of sleep habits and stress management. Poor sleep and chronic stress can both impact your ability to lose weight and sometimes can cause weight gain.

 

•  Use multiple measures of success. Stop obsessing over what the scale says. It is only one small way of assessing how you’re doing and it’s not always very reliable. So often we feel like we’re eating well and exercising and then when the scale doesn’t reflect that, we feel that the good things we’ve done for ourselves don’t matter anymore. Weight fluctuates for lots of reasons and it’s not typically because we’ve gained fat, especially from day to day.

 

•  Set reasonable expectations for yourself. If your sister’s apple pie is your favorite dessert in the world and she’s serving it at a dinner you’ll be at, plan on eating the pie. Don’t torture yourself by trying not to eat it. Eat a balanced dinner, savor the pie, be grateful your sister made it, and move on.

 

Sarah Glunz, MS, CNS, LDN is the nutritionist at Natural Paths to Wellness in Camp Hill. She is available for individual nutrition consultations and weight loss support. For more information about Sarah and the Natural Paths To Wellness – Whole Body Reset, 6 Week Weight Loss and Rejuvenation Program, call 717-494-4500 or visit NaturalPathsToWellnes.com