Getting Your Diet Off to a Great Start
You’ve been carrying some extra weight for years. Perhaps you’ve always been a little dissatisfied with your size, or your fitness levels. You may have been on diets in the past, only to give up quickly. But you’ve decided that now, it’s time to do something about your extra weight – for good.
When we start off a journey towards a new goal (such as losing 50lbs), we might feel like nothing can stop us. We feel motivated and energized to do whatever it takes to get to our target weight. Harness that motivation at the start of your diet, and make sure you start getting good habits and routines in place, so that you’re helped along when your willpower fades.
Step 1: Weigh and Measure
Many of us dread stepping on the scales. But weighing yourself at the beginning of your diet lets you know your starting point – meaning you can measure your progress, week by week.
As well as jotting down your starting weight, it’s a good idea to take your waist and hip measurements too. Not only does this let you measure the change in your physical shape, week by week, it’s also generally agreed now that your waist measurement is a more important indicator of health than your weight.
You may already have a “before” photograph (many dieters are prompted into losing weight by the shock of a bad photo), but if not, take one. You’ll want to be able to see how you’re changing over the course of your diet.
Step 2: Set a Specific, Achievable Target
Telling yourself that “I want to be thin” or “I want to lose weight” is too vague. Besides, when will you know when you’ve reached your goal?
Instead, set a very specific target: for example, losing 10% of your starting weight is a good initial goal. (You can always decide to carry on and lose more weight once you reach it.) Give yourself a date by which you’re aiming to reach that goal.
Make sure your target is realistic and achievable: don’t expect to lose 20lbs in a month! A safe rate of weight-loss is 1lbs-2lbs per week. If you don’t have much weight to lose, your rate of loss is likely to be more like ½ lb-1lb each week.
You may want to pick a particular event – such as a wedding, or Christmas, or a vacation – to help you focus.
Step 3: Make it Easy to Track What You Eat
One great dieting habit is to keep track of what you eat, ideally recording the number of calories you eat per day. The way to lose weight is to create a calorie deficit (to burn more calories than you’re taking in).
The problem with tracking what you eat, though, is that it can be a hassle. On busy days you’ll be tempted to let it slide. Also, seeing your daily intake written down in black and white can be a bit of a shock. On bad days – those days when you scoff down a couple of chocolate bars and a family bag of chips – you’ll want to “forget” about your food diary.
It’s important to make sure your food tracking is easy. One good way to do this is to calorie-count your favourite meals, while you’re still in the initial enthusiastic phase of your diet. Sit down with a calculator or a spreadsheet, look up all the ingredients (many websites list calories in different items of food, like Calorie King), and work out how many calories per portion your meals have.
If you come across any nasty shocks, now’s the time to make some changes to what you eat! Reducing pasta and rice portions, using low-fat tomato-based sauces and cutting out oil are all ways to slash calorie counts.
Step 4: Find a Support Network
One of the best ways to keep on track with your diet is to have some supporters. You might join a weight-loss club locally, or a dieting forum online. You could also a colleague or friend to workout with you, or you could encourage your whole family to adopt healthier habits.
You may want to avoid talking about your diet plans to certain people, if you know they’re likely to be negative or dismissive – but do find some close friends or relatives who you can safely tell. If you know that someone else is interested in your progress, then you’ll be more likely to make it through the times when you’re tempted to give up.
Good luck with your dieting journey – and here’s to a great start!
Written by Ali HaleRelated posts:
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