Happy New Year! It’s that time when we set new goals, especially to improve our health. Many of us make weight-loss resolutions at the beginning of the year, and we start the new year off with lots of motivation…but we can often lose steam after a few weeks.
We gathered together nine renowned health experts to share their number one tip for maintaining weight loss resolutions right through the year (not just in January!).
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Check out these amazing tips & make 2016 the year you get the body you always wanted!
Have realistic ways to measure your success! Start by finding that one pair of jeans that are tight and try them on. You’ll be much happier than seeing the numbers on the scale slowly budge but when you zip up your jeans and they are looser, you’ll smile more and be motivated to keep going.Sometimes people are discouraged when they are only losing a few pounds over the months. But remember that your shape can change faster than the numbers on the scale.
To lose weight, remember that decreasing inflammation is key – try to focus on eating more of those foods like: oatmeal, greek style yogurt, peppers, kale, almonds, and water.
Exercise should be a daily matter. Better to do something for 10-30 minutes everyday than to workout 60-90 minutes 2-3 times per week.
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Andrea Metcalf | AndreaMetcalf.com
Get your sleep. The one thing that disturbs our weight loss efforts the most is being tired and burned out because it causes us to overeat, snack, and eat fast carbs for energy. So for sustainable weight loss and health get your 7-8 hours of shut eye every night.Jeanette Bronée from Path for Life
In order to maintain your weight loss goals for 2016, one of the best techniques to employ is the concept of shaping. Instead of looking at your weight loss journey as a long term process, think of it as a number of small daily or weekly goals that lead to daily or weekly successes. Often when people are trying to lose weight they focus on a far away number instead of the shaping of the small behaviors on a regular basis that leads up to the long term goal. For example, with exercise focus on creating a daily or weekly schedule of exercise. Don’t just go to the gym and hope for the best. Plan out what you will do or hire a professional to help keep you accountable, but keep it to just a daily or weekly goal so that you don’t feel overwhelmed by the long term process.
Additionally, I would highly recommend using a reflection log after each workout or a week’s worth of workouts. This will keep you in touch with how you are feeling during the process. You can look at it regularly and see what you were doing that made you feel energized during a particular day or week of exercise.
Darian Parker | LinkedIn Profile
“Diets” don’t work very well, and are in fact a major risk factor for future weight gain. Instead, make it a goal to change your lifestyle for the long-term. Nourish your body with healthy, filling foods and let weight loss follow as a natural side effect.Kris Gunnars from Authority Nutrition
My #1 tip is to keep yourself accountable! If you are not keeping yourself accountable for your resolutions or goals, everything else will not matter. Whether it be letting your family, friends, coworkers, or even your healthcare provider know about your goals – do it (Bonus: getting a buddy to do it with you is even better!). Check in regularly (I suggest a weekly inventory) to see how you have been doing, what got in the way and see what you might need to adjust. After you’ve reached your goal, continue to check in every month or so to make sure you are still on track and maintaining those healthy habits!
If you have slipped a little bit that’s okay, just do another inventory to figure out why and check in more frequently until you are back where you want to be. It’s a continual process – but the journey to health is worth it!
Brittany Poulson from Your Choice Nutrition
My number one tip for weight loss and maintaining your weight loss is….. Drum roll please.. To add a green smoothie to your diet daily! There is nothing more powerful or effective for maintaining weight loss than adding in a gorgeous green smoothie to your weight loss plan. Green smoothies are nature’s gift to us. Green smoothies are easy to make, take less than 1 minute to prepare and the nutritional benefits they give the body are off the charts.Laura London from Laura London Fitness
“Make friends with fat. Consuming high quality fats like avocado, coconut oil, walnuts, and even butter can be helpful in reducing any damage that was done during the holidays (it happens to the best of us, right?). Fat helps heal the inflammation in our body, along with giving you energy and brain power. It also helps keep our blood sugar levels stable, which is super important with a weight loss goal. It is about time to change the way we think about fat and overcome our unhealthy fear of it.”
Cassie Bjork from Healthy Simple Life
Balance Metabolic Hormones! Calories in vs. calories out is NOT the whole picture of weight loss. The key to sustainable fat loss comes in both a caloric deficit AND balanced metabolic hormones.For weight loss seekers who have damaged metabolisms after being caught up in the yo-yo dieting trap, or who are already eating in a caloric deficit but are still stuck at a fat loss plateau, the hormonal balance piece of the puzzle becomes even more important.
Kate Horney from Do Fitness Better
Start having a conversation with your body. Don’t assume you know what it needs. Get quiet, tune in and ask your body “what foods do you need more of?” “what foods aren’t serving you that I’m eating?” “how can I move or rest to make you feel your best?”. When we begin that dialogue we honor that our body knows best, we just need to remember to ask it first.