Weight Management Tips

Working on Losing Weight?

Are you currently working on weight loss? Here are 12 things to think about now that will help you pinpoint the strategies that you have put in place so that you keep the weight off long term.

1. What types of things have you set up to make it easier for you to succeed in difficult situations? Examples – if you have a hard time with evening eating, what are your strategies to keep this in check? Do you have healthy food immediately available when you arrive home from work, ensuring that you don’t dive into the closest, perhaps highest calorie option in the kitchen?

2. Do you know what your trigger foods are? Are you one who enjoys more than a little bit of popcorn, or nuts? Have you been completely avoiding them, or are you able to keep your quantities in control? How are you doing this? Substituting other foods, other activities?

3. Identify the “absolute must do’s” in order to lose weight. For example, you must get x # of minutes of physical activity every week, or you must consume less than X calories, or perhaps more than x fiber, or you must control your portions at every meal. Then, identify how you are getting those things done. How do you keep your portions small?

4. How is alcohol playing a role in your success? Are you consuming some? None? How much? How are you doing this? In social situations where you would previously have had alcohol, what are you doing to keep that to zero or a small amount?

5. What type of support system do you have? How is your spouse helping you? Your kids? The rest of your family? Are they helping cook or prepare? Are they helping to prepare their own meals so that you don’t have to spend so much time in the kitchen? Are they “dieting” right along with you?

6. Do you have boredom or unstructured time that you’re finding other ways to fill aside from eating? If so, what are those other non-food things?

7. Are you keeping track of what you’re eating? How? With a Smart Phone ap? A piece of paper? An electronic note pad? When do you track? As you eat? Afterward? Before?

8. Do you have any type of accountability? Do you have a friend who expects you to meet at the track every Friday morning? Do you have a friend or professional who you have told what your daily or weekly goal is?

9. When and how are you planning your week? Are you looking ahead at your week before it starts to think about how you’re going to eat healthy, given the specific challenges that the week has in store?

10. How are you getting your food? Are you shopping at the grocery store? Market? Online? Delivery? Are you giving someone a list and they shop for you?

11. What is specific about your work situation that is fostering your weight loss? Are your co-workers dieting with you? Is there challenging food around? How are you avoiding it?

12. Are you taking cheat days? Is that working? What makes it work? Only specific days or situations? What other stipulations have you built around it?

As you can see by this list of questions, there are many other things aside from the actual food that goes into your mouth (or the exercise you’re getting) that contributes to a successful diet. Once you have pinpointed some of your success strategies, write them down and put your notes in a safe place so that you can refer to these notes at some point if your weight starts to creep up. The behavioral strategies that you are undertaking are the pre-cursors to successfully losing weight and keeping it off.

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