New Year, New Weight Loss Habits

You can lose the weight! But can you keep it off?

Losing weight may be easy for some, and harder for others. While there are several tips and tricks to use when it comes to quickly needing to shed some extra pounds, you should be aware that they are usually shortcuts and end up not being healthy practices which ensure the weight lost will remain gone. 

Several variables must be considered when it comes to losing your desired amount of weight and keeping it off. These include:

• Poor Diet: Eating culturally, habitually, or following the recommendations of the processed food and fast food industries may keep you satisfied, but not for long. These industries and practices encourage us to eat much more than we need to and more poorly than we should. This also increases oversized food portions being served.
• Lack of Exercise: The purpose of food is to provide us with the energy that we require for activity. Consuming more calories per day than what we expend in activity is harmful to our health as our body will quickly begin storing excess calories as fat. As you increase your amount of physical activity, you will decrease your percentage of fat.
• Lack of Accountability: Being accountable to someone is extremely important during your weight loss journey. You may not be familiar with all the information there is to consider and learn through your body. 
• Failing to Commit: Successful, healthy weight loss requires a commitment of at least six months to two years of practice good habits, with a LIFETIME commitment to new healthy lifestyle choices to keep it off.
• Psychological Make-up: Food is often used as a reward mechanism and is common in American culture. Food should not be seen or viewed as a reward, but rather something that will meet nutrition requirements or not.
• Genetic Make-up: Research has found that some individuals possess a genetic profile which makes it difficult for them to lose weight. However, genes only indicate predisposition; they do not necessarily mandate outcome.
• Hormones: There are a number of hormones that can come into play and either aid in or harm your ability to lose weight, including thyroid hormones, adrenal hormones and dopamine. Hormones can impact metabolic rate, weight gain and food craving.

What ANY animal is designed to eat for a healthy life is known as its diet. A weight loss plan shouldn’t be considered a diet, but rather a special program designed to encourage consumption of calories that are being stored in the body as fat. A weight management diet is used to retrain and recondition the body so that your lost weight does not return. Popular weight management diets are the Mediterranean Diet, the Elimination Diet, the Gluten-Free Diet and the Paleolithic Diet. Generally, a weight loss plan is used for 30 days and then followed by 30 days of a weight management diet, with the sequence repeated until the desired weight is lost. For successful weight loss, an individual cannot return to the diet that created the weight gain to begin with. This means elimination of unhealthy habits is a must! In designing your personal weight loss plan you should:

•  Correct all variables to ensure that you have the ability to undertake a serious weight loss plan 
• Design a nutritionally sound meal replacement weight loss plan. 
• Limit the weight loss plan to no longer than 4 weeks. Then, move on to the weight management diet for 3-4 weeks. The weight management diet will support the weight loss that occurs during the weight loss plan. 
• Repeat this cycle until desired weight is lost.

To ensure that your weight loss plan and your weight management diet are nutritionally sound, let us help you! Together we can help you navigate your concerns and provide you with a fully customized plan for your better health. To book your pharmacy consultation, call 361-575-4713 or Wellness.Balance.You. at 361-571-4173.

To your good health,

Cherise