Food logging can either make you or break you. Learn from the dotfit experts: Kate Barefield (lead Registered Dietitian) and Neal Spruce (founder and CEO) on the importance of food logging and some tips and tricks on how to log your food. Good luck and make sure you let me know if you have any questions or concerns about logging your food.
Studies have shown that having a support system can help you lose more weight than trying to do it alone. When you decide to start a weight loss program, one of the first things you can do is let everyone know that you are starting a weight loss program. The more people that know, the bigger the support system you will have in helping you accomplish your goal. Having the support is important just like logging your food. Without a support system it is hard to stay motivated and positive long enough to reach your goal. Make it a goal over the next week to let everyone you know you are starting a new weight loss program and encourage them to get involved with the program as well.
Successful people always have a plan in place to make sure they reach their goals. Being able to plan your meals ahead of time will help prevent you from overeating and give you more energy throughout the day. I know personally, when I do not take the time to plan ahead, I end up going to a fast food restaurant or settle for something quick and easy. I am not perfect by any means, but I try my best every night before I go to bed to plan out my meals for the follwing day. Since I started to do this, I never get those feelings of extreme hungar and have more energy throughout the day as well. An idea to prevent those quick fast food stops is have something on hand in your car, purse, etc. to suffice you until you get home. Some things I keep on hand for a rainy day: granola bars, beef jerky and almonds.
Portional control plays a key role in helping you reach your goal. Portion control allows you to eat foods you enjoy and sill lose weight. One way you can control your portions is by using a smaller plate during dinner. You can use a kids size plate and fill it up, giving you a full plate and eating less calories! When you go to a restaurant you get your favorite burger, cut it in half and have the waiter/waitress box up the other half to take home or split it with a significant other. Even though you are trying to lose weight, portion control allows you to eat foods you enjoy and cuts your calories in half, so you can still successfully reach your goal.
We all have things that keep us from reaching our potential. Now is the time to put those barriers on paper and find ways to overcome them. Some people have a desire to always drink soda, if you drink it too often and don't move, it will prevent you from reaching your goal. Rather than just dropping soda out of your diet completely, try to do it in moderation. When you have a desire to drink a soda, drink half of it and save the rest for later in the day or the next day. If you have a plan in place, you are more likely to stay on track.
Please take a minute and make a list of any barriers that are keeping you from your goal. After you do that, find a solution to help overcome that barrier. Until you are able to overcome those barriers, you will continue to struggle to reach your full potential.
This week try to challenge yourself to get in 10000 steps per day. Doing this will help you burn more calories to lose weight and continue to improve your health. If 10000 steps seem overwhelming at first, start with 5000 and add an extra 1000 everyday until you reach the 10000. Once 10000 is no longer a challenge for you, you can increase the number of steps.
Be creative in how you can get more steps in during the day: taking the stairs instead of the elevator, parking further away from a store entrance, go for a walk during your lunch break, if you are bringing in grocery's take less at a time, so you have to go back and forth to the car more often, etc. Trying to incorporate more steps in your daily activites will help you burn more calories without having to find time everyday to go to the gym.
I am working with a client who has a struggle always wanting to bake cookies. Once she makes them she tells me she ends up eating a lot of them herself and afterwards she feels horrible! We sat down to find a solution to help her overcome the desire to bake and eat cookies all the time. We came up with a solution to allow her to still bake, but rather than eating most of them and feeling horrible afterwards, we decided she will give most of them to her neighbors and family. By doing this, she can turn her craving and desire to bake cookies into a positive experience that makes her feel good rather than horrible everytime she bakes cookies.
I came across this little story about why goals are important. You need to know exactly how you want to achieve your goal in order to successfully complete the goal. Check out the story below that I got from http://great-motivational-stories.blogspot.com/
On the best sunny day, the most powerful magnifying glass will not light paper if you keep moving the glass. But if you focus and hold it, the paper will light up. That is the power of concentration.
A man was traveling and stopped at an intersection. He asked an elderly man, "Where does this road take me?" The elderly person asked, "Where do you want to go?" The man replied, "I don't know." The elderly person said, "Then take any road. What difference does it make?"
How true. When we don't know where we are going, any road will take us there.
Suppose you have all the football eleven players, enthusiastically ready to play the game, all charged up, and then someone took the goal post away. What would happen to the game? There is nothing left. How do you keep score? How do you know you have arrived?
I had someone post this video on my facebook page and had to share it with everyone. Hopefully no matter what is happening in your life, you can continue to do your best and still achieve great things.
Here is the link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=kZlXWp6vFdE
Eating healthy and moving more can help prevent heart disease, but that is not everything that you need to be doing in order to keep your heart strong. Check out this link and see if you have a habit of doing some of these unhealthy heart habits.
http://health.yahoo.net/experts/dayinhealth/worst-habits-your-heart
