Learn about healthy eating. Find exercise you enjoy. Then get out of your own way and live an amazing life.
Almost everybody needs to lose some weight. Almost everybody wants to lose weight. Almost nobody has an easy time of it.
It’s easy to understand why. So much advice and information swirls around us, much of it conflicting with each other. So many gimmicks, some of which are downright unsafe.
There is a way to eat yummy foods and lose weight steadily as you do it. You don’t go on a diet, you eat healthy. It’s actually fun and a lot easier than you might think.
You sample your way through the healthy options and find things you like. You build variety into your daily menu planning. You get to eat a lot, and often. Rather than feeling deprived, you feel good, with more energy than you used to have.
Now mix in regular exercise, which is an amazing fat fighter, and just let time roll on. Enjoy your life and watch your weight drop. Once you arrive at a healthy weight, keep it there by checking the scale and checking in with yourself.
At UpLift, we talk with our members every day about how their eating is going. We hear the same stories a lot, about how they have tried everything and just can’t lose any weight.
We show them our way of eating, developed with our staff nutritionist, Christina Swigart, and help them get started. We build regular exercise into their lives. If they stick to it, the weight-loss sticking points they’ve dealt with in the past have a way of melting away.
“This is the first time in my life I have been able to lose weight without writing everything down or counting points or calories, which is incredibly liberating for me,” wrote Mary S, one of our UpLift members, just the other day. She had told us that she’d tried everything and couldn’t lose weight.
She tried our way and one month later had lost 10 pounds.
“Woo-hoo!” she wrote to Jill Strand, who had been working with her closely on her diet. “Thanks for your support and the nutrition talk we had. I am not sure what is making the difference, but have a hunch it’s the no bread – no sugar (except in fruit) plan I am sticking to.”
Jill said the difference for Mary is that she is planning meals loaded with good, nutrient-dense foods. “That takes time,” Jill says, “but now her weight is coming off easily.”
Mary’s accomplishment is worth celebrating, and the healthy weight loss will continue as long as the healthy eating does.
“And sure, she will go through plateaus,” adds UpLift’s Chris Radke, “but after a while you don’t really notice them. If you switch over to eating healthy, time takes care of the weight issue. The pace of weight loss can (and does) vary, but you aren’t on a diet. You’re just enjoying your life and keeping exercise in it. We don’t want you to live in the gym, and we don’t want you to deprive yourself by going on a diet.
“We want you to live a great life and find the joy of getting to a healthy weight. It’s amazing how good you feel, and how many aches and pains go away, too.”
Up or Down, Thank the Scale
Don’t ‘duck the scale’ when you’re trying to eat healthy and lose weight.
In fact, step on it regularly. Make note of how much you weigh first thing in the morning and a few other times during the day. “Thank it when it’s up,” says Jill Strand, “and thank it when it’s down.”
Why thank it when it’s up? “Because we know we have to tweak something,” says Jill. “It might be your eating, exercise, sleep schedule, stress levels, or a number of other things. If you think you are eating well and are exercising consistently, but your weight is not changing, something needs to change or you will continue to get the same results.”
And rather than thinking of the scale as a tool only used when you’re trying to lose, keep stepping on it after reaching your goal weight. UpLift trainers use the scale to stay at their ideal weight, so they can make sure it doesn’t move up.
Once you’re at your goal weight, set a 3-4 pound target range and use the scale to stay there. If you see a number out of your range, it’s time to rein it in and evaluate your eating and exercise habits. Your weight will never go more than 2 pounds on either side of where it should be, if you use the scale to keep tabs on it. If you find your weight is more than 2 pounds higher than your ‘acceptable range,’ make changes to your exercise and nutrition.
What might those changes be? A good place to look is sugars; it’s easy to start taking in too many sugars. If you haven’t been eating a good protein-based breakfast, get back to that.
It sounds simple and it is. It takes consistency, but you can do it!
