How to make weight loss a priority

A priority is something we believe is more important than another thing. Why do we need to make something a priority? Priority helps us make daily choices that reflect our values.

If you look at every choice you have ever made in your life, you made those choices based on what was important and unimportant to you. What was more important versus what was less important. What you considered a high priority and what you considered a low priority. What you cared about and what you didn’t.

Our choices are based on what we want. Only when we want it we are truly motivated to go after it. What is it that we want? As practical as it might be, if it is important to us, then it is also motivating.

We love our food. We like our traditions. We have habits. We do not really want to change. When you determine that losing weight is more important than anything else, you will be able to make choices that lead to weigh loss and getting your life back.

Whatever it is that moves you, whatever it is that you so desperately want and desire, let it be the spark that fires you up to chase your weight loss goal and get your life back. Keep you “why” handy. What ever it is that moves you to take action, keep it fresh and in front of you as you make weight loss your priority #1.

It is like a cancer patient with one- or two-year life expectancy would do anything to live a little longer. When you faced with death, our comforts and wants and preferences do not seem as important as they once were.

Making weight loss a priority is the only way you will be able to get the permanent weight loss results you want!

It means working on your mindset every single day to ensure your thoughts are creating feelings that will drive actions to produce the results you want.

Are you currently living in a way that reflects weight loss as a top priority? 

Seeing clearly what needs to be done

One of the hardest things to do is to look objectively at yourself and assessing what type of change you need to make. You have to look the facts in the face before you can do anything about them.
If your answer is that you need to lose weight, take a piece of paper and write the answer.

Be brutally honest with yourself. You may hesitate at first. When I recommend this to individuals who talk to me about weight loss, they usually don’t want to write this staff down. They don’t want somebody to see it.

What I tell them if they were concerned to just tear it up and throw it away as soon as they were done. Keeping it isn’t the point. What matters is the act of writing itself, seeing your thoughts and fears if front of you and being honest about them. Only by getting out what is inside can we start to gain perspective. This is how change can take place. Not seeing clearly leads to inaction.

Change doesn’t happen at all if you don’t make the decision to do so. The only way positive change can come into your life is if you make it priority. How do you make it priority? I will write about it in my next post.

Stress is a normal part of life

Stress is known as a part of normal life and it is sometimes good for you. In small amounts, stress may maintain your energy and also improve your performance.

However, stress can cause negative effects for you. Trying to avoid dealing with stress might seem sensible, but it usually just makes things worse.

There are lots of practical, positive steps we can take to deal with stress. The common stress response is to eat comfort foods, foods that include high sugar, salt or fat foods such as chocolate, potato chips, soft drinks and snack foods.

While eating comfort food, when you are stressed out might actually help, it is not beneficial when you try to lose weight. You will get benefits in terms of stress reduction, but it will not support your weight loss efforts.

You can do plenty of things to de-stress. A good model of stress management is to do something about it and get beyond it. A bad model is to avoid it and let is accumulate.

Make sure most evenings include rituals that actively help you unwind.

Try something new

If what you are doing is not working, try something new. If you never take a step in the right direction, you will stay right where you are.

If you don’t know what to do, I can recommend that the first thing you need to do is to eat real food. Food that supports weight loss.

If you are not happy with your weight, you can chose to take control or you can choose to do nothing to change the situation.

You can take action or continue to use defense mechanism, like thinking that weight loss is too difficult to justify why you should not do anything to change your situation.

Making a conscious effort to eat real food that supports weight loss every time you decide what you eat is behavioral change that will make a big difference. That behavior change can help shift your attitude.

Planning is the key to success - lesson learned

There is a direct link between planning and achievement. Weight loss is no exception. 

To start my day off right I always eat breakfast and that sets me for success during the day.

Unfortunately, I finished all turkey breast and had nothing for breakfast this morning. For a moment I thought about having butter toast with jam. I knew that if I had this for breakfast, I would experience sugar carvings later. 

When a similar situation occurred in the past, I had six white toasts with jam. I just could not stop. Normally, I have one whole wheat toast with chicken or turkey breast.

While reaching for jam jar, I discovered that I had a can of  tuna fish. I put tuna on toasted 100% whole wheat bread and had good breakfast. Breakfast that supports my weight lose.

Survived difficult moment and learned another lesson to always pre-plan what I will eat and have food consistent with Eat Like Me approach available. 

Posting photo of my today’s breakfast.

Sugar dependence is real

If you’re like most Americans, you eat more sugar than is good for you. Sugar makes us hungry and fat because it is an effective agent that produces excess calories and stimulates further eating. People generally know that sugar isn't good, but they don't appreciate how powerfully negative it really is.

Sugar is the driving force behind the diabetes and obesity epidemics. In addition, when the body can’t manage the amount of sugar in the blood, the sugar begins to damage artery walls, increasing the risk for heart attack and stroke.

Why does sugar have such a powerful hold on us?

Consuming large amounts of added sugar activates the reward center and makes us want to eat that food again. Past memory of eating sweet things produces cues that induce the craving for more. Sugar can also change how you feel. When this happens, you can have increased cravings for sugar and feel a lack of control when around sugar. It resembles other abused substances because it is reinforcing.

While sugar is everywhere — in cookies and crackers, breads and pasta sauce — the single largest source in the American diet is sugary drinks.

Who should you believe

Years ago, when I posted on a popular website that losing weight was possible without exercise and that losing weight fast was good, it was treated as heresy. I was advised to read other posts before posting.

Another person posted that I did not know what I was talking about. A person with over 3000 posts in her profile suggested that my post should be ignored because I was trying to create a buzz. Even though I posted what I believed in, and more important, what worked for me, my message was not well received.

I understand that advocating losing weight without high-priced diet products, personal trainers and expensive gym memberships was not welcomed at that site. Many weight loss gurus like to emphasize long, steady weight loss. While they were coaching you through this weight loss, they are also likely draining your bank account in a long, slow fashion, too.

Widely popular assumption that in order to lose weight you must exercise has been the foundation of many weight-loss programs. The advice to exercise more to lose weight is simply not realistic. Some find it hard to accept but exercise isn't necessarily helping us lose weight. Even if you exercised every day, in order to achieve any noticeable weight reduction, you would have to do it for hours each day. Exercise is great for our physical health and state of mind, but it has a disappointingly small effect on weight loss.

While most weight loss "experts" still claim that losing weight quickly is not sustainable, study after study show that shedding weight fast leads to a greater weight loss and longer-term success of keeping it off.