“Eat right and exercise” – the formula to weight loss is so simple, yet so difficult to follow.
Our natural tendencies (or mine, at least!) steer us towards weight gain rather than loss. It’s much more fun to gorge on fast food and chocolates and avoid the gym. I’d rather have a cocktail than sparkling water.
However, I’ve made a commitment to being healthy, and though it’s not easy, hopefully it’ll be worthwhile in the long run. Here’s a long list of tricks that I use to try to stay on course:
- Motivation
I gravitate naturally towards chocolates, puddings and all things sugary. It’s hard for me to give those up, just as it’s hard for me to sweat out an hour-long workout. So I’ve had to think about this long and hard. Is it really worthwhile for me to go on a health kick? Should my days have more exercise and less dessert items?
I’m not that overweight, but I’d really like to be healthier. I’d like to live longer, and not come down with illnesses (like diabetes) that I can put off through a healthy lifestyle. I like the increased energy that a healthy lifestyle gives me, especially since I’m working a lot on things I’m passionate about (including this blog).
Looking at my reasons to want to be healthy, I can decide that it’s worth a few sacrifices. The first step towards sustainable weight loss is the determination that you’ll make it happen. - Lifestyle
After I took a decision to act more healthy, I changed my lifestyle. A healthy lifestyle sounds difficult – it means incorporating healthy decisions in every aspect of your day, every day. Starting from the morning, when I have oats or avocado on toast instead of cocoa pops, to avoiding fast food, to an afternoon workout. It’s a shift in the way you do everything. However, the funny thing is, when you turn your lifestyle around completely it’s much easier to be healthy, compared to if you occasionally deprive yourself of treats and force yourself to go to the gym.
A lifestyle change means adding things to your life, not just taking things away. For instance, I haven’t just removed sugary cereals from my breakfast, I’ve added healthy things that I like (avocado – yum!) A lifestyle change also means bringing your friends and family on board. - Clean Home
I don’t mean a physically clean home, I mean a home devoid of foods that I’m trying to avoid. The easiest way to cut down on ice-cream has been to not stock it in my freezer. I’m incredibly bad at self-control, so I make sure that I don’t need to exercise it frequently. If I do buy treats, I try to buy them in smaller quantities, or keep them out of sight. Occasionally, I’ll ask my husband to hide them somewhere out of my reach. - Home cooking
The easiest way to cut down calories is to cook at home. Most of the food served outside contain much higher levels of things like oil and sugar than home-cooking – because it’s their business to serve food that tastes good, not food that’s good for you. Cooking at home does take a bit of time, but I’ve grown to enjoy it, it’s incredibly frugal, and I’ve learnt a lot of shortcuts that make life easier. If you really don’t want to cook at home, at least try to buy food that’s marketed on its “healthiness” factor. - Eliminate the unimportant
What’s unimportant to you? For me it’s food that’s not of the highest quality. You know what I’m talking about: stale fries, chocolate that’s oily, custard, sweets that are too sweet, food that’s too starchy and too oily. These were the first things I got rid of. I’m also not that keen on alcohol, so I’ve more or less given up drinking.
It’s a value equation for me: unhealthy food that I’m not crazy about isn’t worth the calories. - Indulgences
After I eliminate the unimportant, I focus on the important. Being healthy is a marathon not a sprint, so I think about what I could never do away with in my life. I indulge myself regularly and have lots of food that I love. I eat what I really want to without any guilt. The first step towards incorporating these indulgences is… - Acknowledge my weaknesses
I love, love, love, love sweet food. My ideal day would be full of sweet foods. Chocolate, cakes, milkshakes, fudge, mousse: the list goes on. Of course, if I gave in to all my favorites, I’d be down with diabetes by now (it runs in my family anyway). What I do instead is ackowledge the fact that I love sweet food, not necessarily the cake or milkshake itself. And I try to make substitutions frequently: I have low-fat yoghurt, dried fruits and frozen berries.
I also love pizza. Once a week, I make pizza at home: it’s not quite as unhealthy, and it gives me my “oo I’ve had pizza” joy.
I adore chocolate, so I keep some dark chocolate at home: it’s healthier than chocolate bars, and a little bit gives me a lot of chocolateyness. - Home treats
Did I mention that I love sweets? To be slightly healthier, I try to make most of my treats at home, using low GI sugar. I often crave cake, so I make orange-poppyseed muffins at home. I use a lot of oranges and a lot less sugar and butter than the recipe calls for: it tastes awesome, but isn’t so bad for me.
At the end of the day, however, I treat my treats like treats. That means, I don’t eat dark chocolate all day, or have muffins for lunch. But when I feel like having dessert, I go right ahead. - No liquid calories
Liquid calories fall under “unimportant stuff” for me. However, it’s something I’ve had to consciously think about. One glass of soda contains ten teaspoons of sugar: I’d rather have five of my orange poppyseed muffins. One cocktail contains 200 calories on average: I don’t drink unless I’m going dancing and I know I’ll burn it off that night. I eat a lot of sugary food, so I have sugarless tea and coffee.
If I really want a cola, I have something diet. If I want a cocktail, I have juice (lemon or orange usually) mixed with a lot of soda/tonic water. Substitutions rule. Of course, mostly I just drink lots of water. - Snacks
I am a chronic snacker. I get hungry all the time; I also eat for fun. I’ve accepted this as one of my weaknesses, and I do my best to work around it.
I keep healthy snacks (fruit, nuts) ready for between-meals hunger, and I try to limit the amount of snacks I eat. I also take into account when my next meal will be: if lunch is a long way off and I’m starving, I have some oats or a bit of bread. If dinner is just around the corner, I’ll have fruits.
I also check whether I just want to eat for fun and I’m not really hungry. If that’s the case, I’ll have a soda with juice or some green tea; I used to have chewing gum. - Be prepared
You’re at work, you’re hungry and you have no food. The nearest food source is the vending machine. Before you know it, there’s a bag of chips in you. And you’re not even that fond of chips.
I protect myself from vending machine attacks by carrying a tiny box of nuts or dried fruit with me. You might like to carry a protein bar. Whatever it is, make sure it stays in your bag.
I also like to keep frozen meals in my freezer to stop my Happy Meal runs: I cook up a big batch of food and freeze some of it for days when I don’t have time to make anything. - Make time
Losing weight and being healthy takes time. That’s time you have to carve out somehow: time for exercising, cooking, baking. I’ve already determined that being healthy is a priority for me, so now I somehow have to fit it into my day!
This is how I do it: On Friday afternoon, I do my baking. I love baking and find it relaxing, so I do it as a TGIF celebration. I bake heaps, and freeze the excess. I cook over the weekend, and freeze some for weekdays. I also cook once or twice in the middle of the week. I’m lucky that I’ve got my partner to help me out, but I used to do something similar when I was single.
I also decide that I’ll dedicate an hour or so a day to exercising – daily. - Portion-limit
In his book, Mindless Eating, author Brian Wansink talks about how we over-eat and make unhealthy choices without even realizing it. One of the major things I learnt from this book was: bigger plates and glasses lead to bigger servings. In my experience, I’ve also found that bigger spoons lead to more eating as well.
I trick myself into eating less by not using huge plates and using smaller spoons to eat foods like icecream and yoghurt.
I try my best to be conscious of what and how much I’m eating: it’s not always possible, but I try to check that I’m not just randomly eating heaps of food without realizing it. For instance, I try to consciously notice how many spoons of something I’m serving myself: since I like yoghurt, I limit myself to three tablespoons each time. - Eat less
Along with limiting my portion-size, I try to consciously eat less at meals. I’ve already mentioned that I’m a snacker, and I get lots of calories in between meals. At major meals, I try to not to overdose on carbs: I don’t go hungry, but I try not to eat more than I have to. It’s been quite easy for me to have one sandwich rather than two, and half a plate of rice or pasta rather than a whole bowl.
I also do this when I’m having a “treat”, usually something sweet. The most pleasure comes from the first two bites or so, so when I bake muffins, I make them small. I cut up my big chocolate bars into smaller pieces so that I don’t have a big chunk by default. Eating less has been an incredibly painless way for me to eat healthier. - Make exercise fun
Ugh, I never thought I’d put the words “exercise” and “fun” next to each other. There’s so much I don’t like about exercise: it’s either boring (walking, slow weight reps) or really difficult (pushing yourself to run that extra mile). However, there are ways to make exercise less painful. The first thing is to do something you love: for me, that would be dancing. You might love swimming, or kickboxing. Try to find an activity you actually enjoy.
Make what you’re already doing fun: music is the easiest way to brighten up a boring workout, especially if you’re outside running or walking. You might also try doing a “workout meditation” and clear your mind during your workout – this often works for me! At this point though, my major cheat is tv shows: I ask my partner to have episodes ready (you can do this via Netflix or DVDs) for me to watch when I’m sweating it out on the elliptical. Now I don’t dread my forty minutes of exhaustion so much: it’s my excuse to watch another couple of episodes of Family Guy. - Make time for exercise
Exercise involves a time commitment. I only work out after I’ve determined that I really can’t get by without it, and I’ll have to squeeze it into my day somehow.
I actually went through a lot of thinking to decide on the type of exercise I’d do. I had to eliminate the option of going to the gym, since I don’t want to waste time (and money) travelling. I decided that it would be easier for me to work out from home. So now all I had to do was fit it in. I don’t want to exercise just after a meal, so I try to pick a time that’s a while after I’ve eaten: possible options for me are before breakfast, mid-morning, afternoon, or way after dinner. - Don’t insult your intelligence
These are all little things I do to make life easier when I’m trying to be healthier. However, you’ll note that I’m not about to mention “get off 15 minutes away from your destination and walk the rest of the way”. That just wouldn’t work for me: I know why I’m doing that, and I couldn’t be bothered, I’d rather do a big chunk of exercise than waste travel time. It might work for you, but don’t fool yourself into doing something – it won’t work on a consistent basis. Try to think about the reason behind what you’re doing: don’t eat Subway regularly because it’s healthy fast food. Think about why you want fast food in the first place: it may be a cheese craving, in which case you’re better off having crackers and cheese with sundried tomatoes. - Do what works
Since I started trying to be healthier, I’ve found out that lots of things don’t work for me. For instance, exercising first thing in the morning has many benefits, but I just can’t do it: early morning time has a high premium for me, and I use it to write. On the other hand, I’ve found that if I jump onto the elliptical soon after coming home from work, I can get my daily workout over with easily.
When I lived in the outer suburbs I used to go running, but now that I live in the inner suburbs I can’t find a nice place for running. In addition, I keep wondering if it’ll start to rain just as I’m at my run mid-point. So running just doesn’t work for me.
By a process of trial and elimination, I’ve arrived at what works for me. You should probably do the same: look for a better alternative when something isn’t going well. - Buddy up
Peer pressure is an awesome motivator. One reason gym classes work so well is that you don’t want to look like a weakling who stops in the middle of a workout.
An easy way to buddy up is to work out with your partner, or a friend: outside of group exercises, running and cycling are two activities that are easy to do with a friend. - Get gear
I’ve found that having appropriate gear makes me more likely to exercise: it doesn’t have to be very expensive either.
I like spending on activities – dance class being next on my list. Most recently I’ve purchased an elliptical machine to work out at home; I don’t feel guilty because it’s been cheaper than a gym membership, and it gets used almost every day.
I like having workout clothes: when I put them on, I know I’m going to exercise. If I’m exercising in public (running or at the gym) I don’t have to waste energy wondering if my clothes are ok.
The important thing is to not stop after buying the equipment or gym membership: put it to use. - Fast/Detox
Note: this could be risky.
Losing weight is demotivating because it takes forever to see any results. This time round I decided to cheat a bit. I’d read a lot about fasts and detox diets (acai berry, cabbage soup diet, lemon detox etc) and after doing my research I decided to go on a shake diet. Now, this isn’t a lifestyle change or something sustainable, but it gave me quite a nudge. I made fruit shakes at home using frozen berries, oranges, milk, soy milk, oats, lemon and salt (not all at once!). I liked the shakes because they were sweet, and they filled me up. I made sure to have a multivitamin daily as well. I kept it up for about three days, and I didn’t feel any side effects. The only reason I stopped was because I wanted to chew my food again! In three days, I lost quite a bit of weight, which I haven’t put back on. Since my home-made fruit-shake diet went so well, I’d like to try one of the commercially available detox diets at some point in the future. - Exercise daily
I can’t always make it, but I try to exercise every single day. If I allocate days of the week, e.g. I’ll work out on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I try to bargain with myself, or put it off till tomorrow. I allocate a time of day and a type of exercise and I do it every single day. Sure, some days I’ll also do yoga. Some days I’ll throw in a bit of strength training, and somewhere down the line I’ll go to dance class. Those are novelties for me, but exercising is part of my daily routine. - No 2 days off
Having said that I try to exercise daily, I’ll admit that sometimes I can’t fit it in. About once a week a major distraction comes up. But when I miss one day of exercise, I’m extra careful to ensure that I exercise the next day. I’ve found that when I skip two days in a row, it’s even more difficult to get back into the routine, and more tempting to take it easy. In addition, my stamina goes down, and I just can’t work out as long. - Allow for imperfections
Shit happens. Sometimes it rains when you want to go running, or your workout buddy fails to show up. You need to be flexible enough to take these things in stride and still exercise. For instance, the other day I didn’t have two episodes of Family Guy ready for watching. I had to take a deep breath, and decide to do a workout meditation instead. - Forgive your failings
One day my partner came home with a block of Lindt chocolate with crunchy carameley bits in it. I didn’t even like it that much. I finished it in two sittings.
Sometimes we do stupid things, things so far off the realm of what we want to do to be healthy and lose weight. However, a single failing isn’t a great tragedy in the scheme of things. It’s only a tragedy if you tell yourself that this time you’ve failed, and there’s no point in trying so hard to be healthy. You defeat yourself not by failing, but by continuing to fail. So if you do give in to the voice that tells you to skip the gym and eat a huge pizza, look back, forgive yourself, and move on.
