10 Ways to Lose Weight and Keep It Off

Does this sound familiar?

“I’ll start that diet tomorrow”.

How many times have you said this or heard this:

“Diets don’t work”.

Or this:

“I’m just big boned and not meant to be thin”.

Instead of trying fad diets, unhealthy diet suppressants, or depriving yourself of meals, it's important to have the right mindset in order to lose weight and keep it off.

Let’s face it, if you want to want to lose weight, you have to cut calories and exercise. However, if you don’t have the right mindset, eating right and exercising won’t have the same effect. To prepare yourself to “think thinner”, consider creating a vision board with pictures, quotes, and sayings to represent what you want to achieve. It may sound corny but envisioning the end result is important in achieving your goals. Your vision board can be pictures that you tape to a poster board or a virtual vision board with a collage of images that you find online. No one has to see your vision board except you. Look at your vision board every day and believe in the end result.

Here are 10 ways to think yourself thinner!

1. Set Realistic Goals

When you set a goal for losing weight, be realistic about what works for “you”. Don’t necessarily follow what you read or see in magazines or TV ads.

Infomercials selling weight loss products are typically unrealistic when setting goals. You might hear ads that say “Lose 5 inches in 5 days!” or “Drop 10 pounds fast”. When you lose too much weight too fast, it can be frustrating and sometimes nerve-wracking trying to figure out how you will keep it off. First, set a realistic goal. Write down your goal and read your goal each and every day.

“I will lose 5 lbs. in the next month while learning how to keep it off forever”.

2. Replace the word “Diet” with “Healthy Eating”

Let’s face it, diets are pretty much, “temporary”. When someone says “I’m going on a diet”, it sounds temporary. Instead, change the way you eat by making more healthy decisions when eating.

This food pyramid below is representative of a “healthy” eating system, where the largest majority of food is the fruits and vegetable category. Next, make sure to include plenty of healthy protein in your diet, then grains, then fats and oils.

Try little things each day to slowly change your way of eating. Try things like this:

• Replace half-and-half with lowfat or nonfat milk in your coffee.
• Eat half of a bagel or muffin instead of the whole thing.
• Eat an apple every morning.
• Buy a smoothie machine and experiment with fruit and vegetable smoothies.
• Replace butter with healthy alternatives like coconut oil when cooking. Better yet, ditch the fats and oils and experiment with healthy fats like avocado, nuts, and chia seeds.
• Add more fish to your diet. If you are vegan, add protein-rich foods like beans and nuts.
• Eat half a sandwich and add a salad to your lunch or dinner meal.
• Drink ½ bottle of Snapple or other sugary drink and save the other half for another day. Another idea is to water down your drink. Better yet, switch to a healthier option like Bai Antioxidant Infusion Drinks.
• Put ½ of the amount of sugar in your tea or coffee for one week; after a while, your taste buds will get used to it and the original amount of sugar will taste too sweet. Try it and you will be surprised!

3. Think About What You Drink

Many of us gulp down cans of soda, bottles of sweet tea, and cups and cups of coffee with lots of sugar added without “thinking” about what we’re drinking. Our taste buds have been “trained” by us to “want” the sugar, and “crave” the taste. But can we re-train our taste buds?

Start small by experimenting with one new “healthy” drink. Here’s what I did: My favorite drink in the world used to be Snapple Peach Iced Tea. Over the years, I would buy a bottle from a machine at my workplace, or I would buy cases of Snapple at home. I would gulp down a whole bottle in one sitting. When trying to lose weight, I read over and over about how so many drinks contain a high content of sugar. I checked the sugar contents of my precious Snapple drink and came to realize that it was extremely high in sugar. I just never thought about it. So I cut back and only “treated” myself to a Snapple once in a while. Next, I tried drinking only half a bottle and I saved the other half for another time. Eventually, Snapple tasted too sweet so I started to water it down until one day I decided to move on to a more natural alternative. Costa Rica Clementine - Bai Antioxidant Infusion Drink is now my favorite beverage, along with water and unsweetened iced tea.

Remember - you don't have to deprive yourself of your favorite drink…just cut back and “think” about what you “drink”.

• Drink more water.
• Then drink more water!
• Try adding alternate drinks to your days, like unsweetened flavored teas. You may need to experiment with different types of teas or other drinks until you find one you like. I found one that I love called The Republic of Tea, Ginger Peach Black Tea. Although it's unsweetened, it's delicious!
• Create your own drink. Flavored water is expensive, so just add lemon or other fruit to water and create your own flavored drink.
• Don’t drink with meals, especially sugary drinks. Ask for water instead of soda at restaurants. It will not only save you money, but it will also save you lots of calories.

4. Remember to Treat Yourself

I often hear of people on “diets” say that they can’t wait for their diet to be over so they can back to eating their “real” food including all the desserts that they deprived themselves of during the “diet phase”. Instead of depriving yourself of sweets like chocolate, cookies and cake, remember to treat yourself with a small treat in between all your healthy eating. A research study from the University of Toronto showed that women who were on “diets” who deprived themselves of chocolate for one week had bigger chocolate cravings than women who weren’t on a diet, and ended up eating more chocolate in the long run.

Try this:

• For breakfast, eat a cutup apple, ½ bagel with a healthy vegetable omelet.
• For lunch, eat a large garden salad with vinaigrette dressing, and add some protein like nuts, or low-fat cheese (including vegan options); add some multi-grain crackers instead of croutons or bread.
• For an afternoon snack, have some hummus and fresh vegetables.
• For dinner, eat one piece of broiled fish (your choice) seasoned with one tablespoon of olive oil and lemon pepper seasoning and a large side of grilled veggies. If fish is not your thing or you are vegan, supermarkets and some restaurants now offer vegan tuna made with chickpeas!
• Then comes the treat! For dessert, treat yourself to 2 mini-chocolate croissants, or one brownie (save the ice cream for another night). My favorite vegan treat is So Delicious Double Chocolate Cashew Ice Cream Novelty.

5. Think and Eat Like a Bird

What does “Eating like a bird” mean? It typically means to eat in small amounts, which isn’t a bad idea to do sometimes. This will not only cut down on calories, but it will also help to reduce or even prevent that feeling of “bloatedness” when we overeat.

I have read that eating 6 smaller meals is better than eating 3 large meals. Sometimes that isn’t easy especially when you have a busy schedule. When you can, eat a little less and drink a little more water.

Pick, pick, pick! Like a bird, but when you pick remember to make healthy choices when eating small meals.

6. Practice Self-Control and Don’t Give In To Temptation

To reach any goal, you need determination and self-control. And lastly, don’t give in to temptation. This includes refraining from eating bad foods (at least most of the time), and getting rid of negative thinking.

Instead of negative thoughts like “I don’t have enough willpower”, turn it around and think “I have all the willpower I need”.

Instead of thinking “I will always be this weight”, say “I can reach my weight loss goal”.

7. Have Confidence in Yourself

Know that you have confidence to reach your goals. Believe you will make your body healthier and stronger!

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, courage is defined as the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty or pain without fear.

The greatest challenge that holds us back from achieving our goals is fear.

To overcome fear:

• Be brave.
• Have faith.
• Write down your fears and face them.
• Let go of your fears.

9. Be Practical

Having the right mindset…thinking positive… having a vision board…and deciding to eat like a bird…are all ways to think yourself thinner, but you also have to add some practicality into the mix.

The definition of practical is: being concerned with the actual "doing" of something rather than with the theory and ideas.

Be practical about reaching your weight loss goals by actually “doing”. Doing the practical things to help you lose weight not only includes eating right but more importantly, being active. This may mean joining a gym and committing to going to the gym twice a week or exercising at home. In addition to cardio, it’s important to strengthen your body. Consider strength training using free weights. Join a weight training class, or purchase a strength training video and invest in some free weights for use at home.

If joining a gym is out of the question, you need to find some way to burn calories and strengthen your body.

Ideas to burn calories:

• Join a gym.
• Work out at home.
• Start taking walks around the neighborhood or at a nearby park.
• Take up weight training.
• Ride a bike.
• Join a swim club and swim several laps a week.
• Exercise with family and friends.
• Go jogging.
• Climb stairs instead of taking the elevator.
• Go hiking.
• Book some sightseeing trips with walking tours.
• Head to the beach (weather permitting) and take long walks on the beach.
• Take up kickboxing.
• Train for and then run in a marathon.

10. Visualize Your Success

The power of positive thinking can help you succeed in your weight goals. Through visualization, picture yourself looking and feeling thinner. Pull out that old bathing suit that you want to fit into…picture yourself walking on the beach and feeling wonderful. Believe that you can make a difference by changing your eating habits and reaching your goals.

Don’t stop there. Print positive sayings and post them on your desk or refrigerator. Cut out pictures from magazines of people exercising, smiling, and feeling good about themselves.

Look at your vision board daily and reach all the saying in it.

Visit thesecret.tv or buy The Secret book or DVD and watch it several times.

Are you ready to think thinner?

Once you reach your goal of 5, 10 or 25 lbs. (and believe me, you can do it), how will you keep the weight off?

The answer is by committing to make lifestyles changes:

• Continue going to the gym and attend classes with others on a weekly basis.
• If you can’t get to the gym, work out at home.
• Keep active, whether that means taking a walk outside everyday, or taking on a new sport, like swimming, bike riding or hiking.
• Eat right everyday! Make a commitment to make healthy food choices everyday.
• Cut back on sugar and processed foods.
• Eat more fruits and vegetables.
• Drink more water.
• Think healthy and be healthy.
• Believe in yourself and know that you can meet your goals. And remember it’s ok if you adjust your goals once in awhile. Reaching mini-goals will help you reach the big goals.
• Reward yourself in small quantities. Treat yourself to a little bit of dark chocolate once a week!

Be happy and enthusiastic about life!

This is #25 of 30 of my 30 Hubs in 30 Days Challenge.