foxfieldco
04-06-2004, 07:55 AM
Weight Loss For a Lifetime
Lose weight and keep it off
Lots of things make people finally decide to lose weight: Maybe they
want to be thinner for a wedding, or for bathing suit season. Or
perhaps it finally just occurs to them that they'd rather live their
lives the healthy way.
What was your reason? You may feel like you'd rather have your eyes
on the future, but reconnecting with the roots of your weight-loss
relationship is important. It can help you make decisions about how
to proceed, and can be a good place to look when your inspiration is
waning.
Re-Evaluate Your Weight-Loss Relationship
You've probably heard your Leader or other Meetings Members talking
about weight loss for life. It can be yours if you want it, but you
have to take the leap.
If you started your weight-loss plan for a particular "reason" — a
reunion, or example, or an important birthday — or for a "season,"
such as summer, making your results last for life will require that
you take it to the next level.
Think of it like you do relationships: With some, there's never a
question. You always know they'll last for life — a spouse, for
example, or a sibling or child. Others you meet for a reason, such
as a person in line at the grocery store, or an accountant. And
still others you befriend for a season, like a classmate or a
coworker.
The trick to making those shorter friendships last? Making the
commitment. And weight-loss relationships work the same way: Losing
weight for a reason or a season seems less scary because it's
temporary. But, even if you didn't start with a lifetime in mind,
you can develop a strong bond over time and maintain that
relationship for the rest of your life.
It simply requires a belief that you can do it, that you really can
keep the weight off for good. Check out Empowering Beliefs, a
powerful tool from Weight Watchers Tools For Living, for help
strengthening those beliefs. And at your next Meeting, ask the
friends around you what they're doing to make their weight-loss
efforts last a lifetime.
5 Ways to Stop Yo-Yo Dieting
Straight after the ho-ho-ho of Christmas, there comes the go-go-go
of the New Year with all its plans and resolutions — and then,
before you know it, it's yo-yo time again.
You lose the pounds, then gain them right back, over and over again.
The term yo-yo makes it seem more of a game than what it really is —
anything but fun.
But this is the year things will be different. After all, there's no
better time to decide to lose weight for keeps than at the beginning
of a bright new year.
The Truth about Yo-Yo Dieting
Weight Watchers chief scientist Karen Miller-Kovach defines yo-yo
dieting (also known as weight cycling) as "the repeated loss and
regain of weight." But she adds this good news: "While much has been
made of ill health effects of the phenomena, there is little science
to back it up."
Indeed, the National Task Force on the Prevention and Treatment of
Obesity from the National Institutes of Health convened an expert
panel on the topic — and concluded that there is no convincing
evidence that weight cycling in humans has adverse effects on body
composition, energy expenditure, risk factors for cardiovascular
disease, or the effectiveness of future efforts at weight loss.
"Yo-yo dieting is not dangerous in terms of hypertension,"
researcher Dr. Alison E. Field of Boston's Brigham and Women's
Hospital concluded recently in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Calling it "good news," Field asserted, "loss of weight is not a
risk problem. There is nothing wrong with going ahead and trying to
lose weight — what's important is the net weight change."
Yo-Yo No More
So how do you do that? Slow and steady. Check out these five great
keys for making your dieting success stay:
Don't let the risk of yo-yo dieting stop you from attempting to lose
weight if you need to.
Plot progress charts and learn from your own feedback. See if you
can see what you were doing differently in the weeks when you
started adding pounds back on.
Make your timeline. Write down from memory what your weight was each
year for the past ten or more. Try to see why it varied. Was it
stress, a new job, a new baby? Or did you work out more (or less)?
Get in fast with a solution. Weigh yourself regularly and take
immediate action if and when the scale is five pounds above your
weight goal.
Don't think "diet" — think "sensible eating plan." Make it a way of
life, rather than stopping and starting (or changing) your way of
eating every couple of weeks or months.
Keep It Off ... for Good?
Many weight-loss veterans know that once they reach that mystical
goal weight, some of the magic begins to wear off and old habits
sneak back into the picture. What was once a noble quest becomes a
daily dedication to a healthy lifestyle, and the applause and
compliments that accompanied the journey are often replaced with
worries and fears about staying at the final destination.
"Maintaining weight loss can be as difficult as losing weight, if
not more difficult," says Julie Meyer, a nutrition consultant for
WeightWatchers.com and a Weight Watchers Meetings member for three
years. "Members may feel that once they've reached their goal
weight, they've completed the weight-loss process and can revert
back to unhealthy eating habits."
5 Pound Alarm
Weight Watchers has a multitude of successful maintainers, and they
have fine-tuned their techniques for staying at goal. Some Lifetime
Members attend Meetings, many have incorporated regular exercise
into their lives, and almost all report that if their weight creeps
up to a certain point, they quickly start keeping track of what they
eat again. A vital component of the plan is the golden "five-pound
rule" — regaining five pounds should be considered a warning sign
and a nudge to return to Meetings.
"The five pounds may only be a temporary gain, but it could signal a
return to unhealthy eating habits," says Meyer. "Either way,
reviewing the basics and getting back on track is necessary."
To make sure you stay on the healthy path, consider these tips from
experts and successful members:
Exercise, exercise, exercise, says member Maria Bugler. "I have to
make a conscious effort as to when, where, and how I'll fit it into
my day," she says.
Attend Meetings. "I tell other lifers that attending Meetings is the
key," says Jodi Brown. "I've been a Lifetime Member for a year now,
and I weigh in every week and attend my Meetings no matter how off
I've been that week. It keeps me in control."
Track your POINTS® no matter what. "I've had more success in the
past few months because I've promised myself to write down
everything I eat," says Marcia J. Dalton. "If I have a 53-POINT day,
it gets written down. Surprisingly, though, 53-POINT days haven't
happened much because when you've made this commitment, it can stop
you from going overboard."
Shake it up. "I find I have to stay interested by mixing things up a
lot," says Ann Lombardo. "Reading new books, articles, the Web, and
working out with new buddies or on a new schedule keeps me going.
New recipes and shopping in new places do, too. I believe we're
entitled to infinite new beginnings."
Forever, amen. "Perceive lapses as isolated events and view healthy
eating as a permanent lifestyle versus a temporary measure," says
Meyer. "Once the weight has been lost and you get to goal, it's a
matter of taking a step back and understanding that healthy eating
needs to be a part of your lifestyle forever."
How to Make Exercise a Habit
"I don't think exercise will ever be an 'easy-come' habit for me,"
says one WeightWatchers.com Community user. "More like a necessary
evil. Some days I like it, some days I hate it, but I feel so much
better because of it. That's what keeps me going."
Sound familiar? All but the part about keeping it going, perhaps?
For many, exercise has a perpetual position at the bottom of the to-
do list, occasionally rising to the top for two-or-three-day bouts
of good will. You know you have to do it. You know it would help you
lose weight faster. You know you need it for good health.
But, at the risk of sounding like a whining four-year-old, you just
don't like it. Don't worry. We can help.
Forget the Myths
First of all, these common misconceptions about exercise may be what
are holding you back:
Myth # 1. Exercise is never fun.
Not only can exercise be fun (do you hate playing catch with your
kids? walking through the woods?), it can help fill gaps in your
life.
For example, "if you're around people all day long, you can choose
an exercise that allows you some alone time," says Robyn Stuhr,
exercise physiologist with the Women's Sports Medicine Center at the
Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. If you sit in front
of a computer, maybe exercise can be a social thing for you. If you
never see your husband, exercise with him.
Find something that works for you on a personal level, too, and that
will make exercise more fun. Plus, you'll be more likely to do it if
you look forward to it.
Myth # 2. Exercise is a major disruption.
"The bottom line is that exercise, unlike diet, is something you
have to make yourself do," says Stuhr. "Everybody has to eat every
day, but you have to purposely set aside time to work out. And it's
very easy to let other things get in the way."
But there's a bonus to working out that you won't notice until you
do it. When you exercise, you get more energy. And when you stop
(like many yo-yoers do), your energy level starts to drop, so it's
even harder to jump back in. Sticking with it helps, even if that
causes scheduling problems in the short term.
Make It a Habit
Making anything a habit — from exercise to eating right — is a
matter of having enough "want power," says Palma Posillico, general
manager of training and development for Weight Watchers
International. "Life gets in the way, so unless you do something
proactively, it's very easy to make excuses."
One strategy for acquiring a new habit is to imagine the benefits of
that habit – in the case of exercise, picture yourself in great
shape from becoming fit. This will help inspire you.
Here are some other tricks for making exercise a habit:
Understand that you have to start slowly, says Stuhr. An hour-long
power aerobics class on your first day will only discourage you,
maybe hurt you, and send you back to square one.
Find an exercise buddy. A workout partner can be immeasurably
helpful, because you have a responsibility to your friend not to
talk yourself out of exercising. Make sure you choose a buddy who's
in about the same shape as you.
Pick an exercise you like, then commit yourself to trying it
consistently for at least three months. If you still think you hate
it after that amount of time, give yourself permission to say, okay,
this isn't working. Then pick something different and repeat.
Maintaining Weight Loss
Taking pounds off is only the first part of the weight-loss journey.
Keeping them off is as important, and for some people, can be even
more challenging than initial weight loss. "While you're losing
weight you're very focused — there's a specific end goal," says
Suzanne Henson, RD, director of the EatRight Weight Management
Program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. "But when it
comes to maintaining weight loss, you have to have a different
mentality."
While you're losing weight, you have the gratification of watching
the numbers on the scale get smaller and of hearing compliments from
friends and family. Maintaining weight loss is less glamorous,
however, and you have to figure out ways to replace that outward
gratification and praise from others with an internal reward system.
Instead of being motivated by the numbers on the scale, motivation
has to start coming from how you feel — stronger, more energetic and
less moody.
Sometimes, reaching a goal weight can be scary. "Some people are
afraid of success," says Dale Reynolds, author of A Slim Book on
Weighty Matters (Woodland Hills Publishers, 2003). They worry that
their lives will change, that they won't be able to maintain their
weight loss, or that relationships with friends may change —
particularly if those friendships revolved around food, she says.
Others, says Henson, think that losing a certain amount of weight is
going to solve the problems in their life. "But that is just not the
case."
How can you maintain your weight loss? Here are some tips:
Be realistic. Losing weight will improve your health and give you
more energy, but it won't cure a bad marriage or make a disliked job
bearable. If weight loss brings up issues that you aren't sure how
to handle, talk them over with a trusted friend or see a therapist
for help.
Exercise. Regular exercise is the key to maintaining weight loss.
Record how often you walk, run, swim or cycle and refer back to it
if the pounds start to creep back on. You'll probably find you're
letting workouts slip.
Weigh yourself regularly. Hop on the scale daily, weekly or monthly —
whatever you're most comfortable with. If you've gained a pound or
two, look back. Have you been eating larger portions? Exercising
less? Figure out where you've strayed, and get back on track
fast. "It's much easier to deal with two to five pounds than with
twenty," Henson says.
Reward yourself. Treat yourself to a manicure, a vacation, an
afternoon in the hammock or a day off from work to celebrate
maintenance milestones.
Keep up the good work. Continue to read labels, measure portions and
track what you eat. "This is a journey, not a destination," Reynolds
says. "You have to keep working."
Lose weight and keep it off
Lots of things make people finally decide to lose weight: Maybe they
want to be thinner for a wedding, or for bathing suit season. Or
perhaps it finally just occurs to them that they'd rather live their
lives the healthy way.
What was your reason? You may feel like you'd rather have your eyes
on the future, but reconnecting with the roots of your weight-loss
relationship is important. It can help you make decisions about how
to proceed, and can be a good place to look when your inspiration is
waning.
Re-Evaluate Your Weight-Loss Relationship
You've probably heard your Leader or other Meetings Members talking
about weight loss for life. It can be yours if you want it, but you
have to take the leap.
If you started your weight-loss plan for a particular "reason" — a
reunion, or example, or an important birthday — or for a "season,"
such as summer, making your results last for life will require that
you take it to the next level.
Think of it like you do relationships: With some, there's never a
question. You always know they'll last for life — a spouse, for
example, or a sibling or child. Others you meet for a reason, such
as a person in line at the grocery store, or an accountant. And
still others you befriend for a season, like a classmate or a
coworker.
The trick to making those shorter friendships last? Making the
commitment. And weight-loss relationships work the same way: Losing
weight for a reason or a season seems less scary because it's
temporary. But, even if you didn't start with a lifetime in mind,
you can develop a strong bond over time and maintain that
relationship for the rest of your life.
It simply requires a belief that you can do it, that you really can
keep the weight off for good. Check out Empowering Beliefs, a
powerful tool from Weight Watchers Tools For Living, for help
strengthening those beliefs. And at your next Meeting, ask the
friends around you what they're doing to make their weight-loss
efforts last a lifetime.
5 Ways to Stop Yo-Yo Dieting
Straight after the ho-ho-ho of Christmas, there comes the go-go-go
of the New Year with all its plans and resolutions — and then,
before you know it, it's yo-yo time again.
You lose the pounds, then gain them right back, over and over again.
The term yo-yo makes it seem more of a game than what it really is —
anything but fun.
But this is the year things will be different. After all, there's no
better time to decide to lose weight for keeps than at the beginning
of a bright new year.
The Truth about Yo-Yo Dieting
Weight Watchers chief scientist Karen Miller-Kovach defines yo-yo
dieting (also known as weight cycling) as "the repeated loss and
regain of weight." But she adds this good news: "While much has been
made of ill health effects of the phenomena, there is little science
to back it up."
Indeed, the National Task Force on the Prevention and Treatment of
Obesity from the National Institutes of Health convened an expert
panel on the topic — and concluded that there is no convincing
evidence that weight cycling in humans has adverse effects on body
composition, energy expenditure, risk factors for cardiovascular
disease, or the effectiveness of future efforts at weight loss.
"Yo-yo dieting is not dangerous in terms of hypertension,"
researcher Dr. Alison E. Field of Boston's Brigham and Women's
Hospital concluded recently in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Calling it "good news," Field asserted, "loss of weight is not a
risk problem. There is nothing wrong with going ahead and trying to
lose weight — what's important is the net weight change."
Yo-Yo No More
So how do you do that? Slow and steady. Check out these five great
keys for making your dieting success stay:
Don't let the risk of yo-yo dieting stop you from attempting to lose
weight if you need to.
Plot progress charts and learn from your own feedback. See if you
can see what you were doing differently in the weeks when you
started adding pounds back on.
Make your timeline. Write down from memory what your weight was each
year for the past ten or more. Try to see why it varied. Was it
stress, a new job, a new baby? Or did you work out more (or less)?
Get in fast with a solution. Weigh yourself regularly and take
immediate action if and when the scale is five pounds above your
weight goal.
Don't think "diet" — think "sensible eating plan." Make it a way of
life, rather than stopping and starting (or changing) your way of
eating every couple of weeks or months.
Keep It Off ... for Good?
Many weight-loss veterans know that once they reach that mystical
goal weight, some of the magic begins to wear off and old habits
sneak back into the picture. What was once a noble quest becomes a
daily dedication to a healthy lifestyle, and the applause and
compliments that accompanied the journey are often replaced with
worries and fears about staying at the final destination.
"Maintaining weight loss can be as difficult as losing weight, if
not more difficult," says Julie Meyer, a nutrition consultant for
WeightWatchers.com and a Weight Watchers Meetings member for three
years. "Members may feel that once they've reached their goal
weight, they've completed the weight-loss process and can revert
back to unhealthy eating habits."
5 Pound Alarm
Weight Watchers has a multitude of successful maintainers, and they
have fine-tuned their techniques for staying at goal. Some Lifetime
Members attend Meetings, many have incorporated regular exercise
into their lives, and almost all report that if their weight creeps
up to a certain point, they quickly start keeping track of what they
eat again. A vital component of the plan is the golden "five-pound
rule" — regaining five pounds should be considered a warning sign
and a nudge to return to Meetings.
"The five pounds may only be a temporary gain, but it could signal a
return to unhealthy eating habits," says Meyer. "Either way,
reviewing the basics and getting back on track is necessary."
To make sure you stay on the healthy path, consider these tips from
experts and successful members:
Exercise, exercise, exercise, says member Maria Bugler. "I have to
make a conscious effort as to when, where, and how I'll fit it into
my day," she says.
Attend Meetings. "I tell other lifers that attending Meetings is the
key," says Jodi Brown. "I've been a Lifetime Member for a year now,
and I weigh in every week and attend my Meetings no matter how off
I've been that week. It keeps me in control."
Track your POINTS® no matter what. "I've had more success in the
past few months because I've promised myself to write down
everything I eat," says Marcia J. Dalton. "If I have a 53-POINT day,
it gets written down. Surprisingly, though, 53-POINT days haven't
happened much because when you've made this commitment, it can stop
you from going overboard."
Shake it up. "I find I have to stay interested by mixing things up a
lot," says Ann Lombardo. "Reading new books, articles, the Web, and
working out with new buddies or on a new schedule keeps me going.
New recipes and shopping in new places do, too. I believe we're
entitled to infinite new beginnings."
Forever, amen. "Perceive lapses as isolated events and view healthy
eating as a permanent lifestyle versus a temporary measure," says
Meyer. "Once the weight has been lost and you get to goal, it's a
matter of taking a step back and understanding that healthy eating
needs to be a part of your lifestyle forever."
How to Make Exercise a Habit
"I don't think exercise will ever be an 'easy-come' habit for me,"
says one WeightWatchers.com Community user. "More like a necessary
evil. Some days I like it, some days I hate it, but I feel so much
better because of it. That's what keeps me going."
Sound familiar? All but the part about keeping it going, perhaps?
For many, exercise has a perpetual position at the bottom of the to-
do list, occasionally rising to the top for two-or-three-day bouts
of good will. You know you have to do it. You know it would help you
lose weight faster. You know you need it for good health.
But, at the risk of sounding like a whining four-year-old, you just
don't like it. Don't worry. We can help.
Forget the Myths
First of all, these common misconceptions about exercise may be what
are holding you back:
Myth # 1. Exercise is never fun.
Not only can exercise be fun (do you hate playing catch with your
kids? walking through the woods?), it can help fill gaps in your
life.
For example, "if you're around people all day long, you can choose
an exercise that allows you some alone time," says Robyn Stuhr,
exercise physiologist with the Women's Sports Medicine Center at the
Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. If you sit in front
of a computer, maybe exercise can be a social thing for you. If you
never see your husband, exercise with him.
Find something that works for you on a personal level, too, and that
will make exercise more fun. Plus, you'll be more likely to do it if
you look forward to it.
Myth # 2. Exercise is a major disruption.
"The bottom line is that exercise, unlike diet, is something you
have to make yourself do," says Stuhr. "Everybody has to eat every
day, but you have to purposely set aside time to work out. And it's
very easy to let other things get in the way."
But there's a bonus to working out that you won't notice until you
do it. When you exercise, you get more energy. And when you stop
(like many yo-yoers do), your energy level starts to drop, so it's
even harder to jump back in. Sticking with it helps, even if that
causes scheduling problems in the short term.
Make It a Habit
Making anything a habit — from exercise to eating right — is a
matter of having enough "want power," says Palma Posillico, general
manager of training and development for Weight Watchers
International. "Life gets in the way, so unless you do something
proactively, it's very easy to make excuses."
One strategy for acquiring a new habit is to imagine the benefits of
that habit – in the case of exercise, picture yourself in great
shape from becoming fit. This will help inspire you.
Here are some other tricks for making exercise a habit:
Understand that you have to start slowly, says Stuhr. An hour-long
power aerobics class on your first day will only discourage you,
maybe hurt you, and send you back to square one.
Find an exercise buddy. A workout partner can be immeasurably
helpful, because you have a responsibility to your friend not to
talk yourself out of exercising. Make sure you choose a buddy who's
in about the same shape as you.
Pick an exercise you like, then commit yourself to trying it
consistently for at least three months. If you still think you hate
it after that amount of time, give yourself permission to say, okay,
this isn't working. Then pick something different and repeat.
Maintaining Weight Loss
Taking pounds off is only the first part of the weight-loss journey.
Keeping them off is as important, and for some people, can be even
more challenging than initial weight loss. "While you're losing
weight you're very focused — there's a specific end goal," says
Suzanne Henson, RD, director of the EatRight Weight Management
Program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. "But when it
comes to maintaining weight loss, you have to have a different
mentality."
While you're losing weight, you have the gratification of watching
the numbers on the scale get smaller and of hearing compliments from
friends and family. Maintaining weight loss is less glamorous,
however, and you have to figure out ways to replace that outward
gratification and praise from others with an internal reward system.
Instead of being motivated by the numbers on the scale, motivation
has to start coming from how you feel — stronger, more energetic and
less moody.
Sometimes, reaching a goal weight can be scary. "Some people are
afraid of success," says Dale Reynolds, author of A Slim Book on
Weighty Matters (Woodland Hills Publishers, 2003). They worry that
their lives will change, that they won't be able to maintain their
weight loss, or that relationships with friends may change —
particularly if those friendships revolved around food, she says.
Others, says Henson, think that losing a certain amount of weight is
going to solve the problems in their life. "But that is just not the
case."
How can you maintain your weight loss? Here are some tips:
Be realistic. Losing weight will improve your health and give you
more energy, but it won't cure a bad marriage or make a disliked job
bearable. If weight loss brings up issues that you aren't sure how
to handle, talk them over with a trusted friend or see a therapist
for help.
Exercise. Regular exercise is the key to maintaining weight loss.
Record how often you walk, run, swim or cycle and refer back to it
if the pounds start to creep back on. You'll probably find you're
letting workouts slip.
Weigh yourself regularly. Hop on the scale daily, weekly or monthly —
whatever you're most comfortable with. If you've gained a pound or
two, look back. Have you been eating larger portions? Exercising
less? Figure out where you've strayed, and get back on track
fast. "It's much easier to deal with two to five pounds than with
twenty," Henson says.
Reward yourself. Treat yourself to a manicure, a vacation, an
afternoon in the hammock or a day off from work to celebrate
maintenance milestones.
Keep up the good work. Continue to read labels, measure portions and
track what you eat. "This is a journey, not a destination," Reynolds
says. "You have to keep working."