Strategies to Help You Stick with Your Weight Loss Goals and Resolutions
It’s that time of year again when we are making our resolutions for the new year. If you’re ready to swear off all the bad stuff (sweets, alcohol, chocolate, bread) for life, you’re not alone. It’s totally normal & really exciting to create healthy resolutions, especially following what can be the over-indulgent holiday season.
According to Statistic Brain Research Institute (SBRI), the number one New Year’s resolution people made in 2015 was to lose weight. Interestingly, SBRI estimates that out of the 45% of Americans who make New Year’s resolutions, only 8% of those individuals achieve their goals successfully.
It’s tough to stay motivated come mid-January. This year, instead of giving up on your goals two weeks in, try implementing these easy and surprisingly fun strategies to help you stay on track to weight-loss success. Nu Year! Nu You! For real this time.
- Create SMART Goals.
Think about what you’d like to accomplish. Whether it’s losing weight, eating more whole foods, consuming less sugar, cooking & prepping regularly, or starting a new exercise plan and then create two to three challenging, but achievable goals. As we discussed during a previous Nu Inspiration Meeting, the best goals pass the SMART test, meaning they’re Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic & Timely. It’s important to create goals you can stick with, so start small. If your goal is too far out, it’s easy to lose momentum and procrastinate. Instead of committing to lose weight, a goal that’s well-intentioned but sometimes too broad, we suggest making a more specific goal to lose a certain amount of pounds each week. We would have discussed this during your initial consult, if you don’t remember ask a coach to look it up for you. We can provide you with the behavioral modification for creating smart goals, that walks you through the process step by step.
- Make a vision board.
A vision board is literally a visual representation of your resolution, with illustrated ways you plan to achieve it. It’s like a real-life Pinterest, only more focused and personal. Include encouraging quotes that inspire, yummy and healthy recipes to make, photos of exercises you plan to do, images of a thinner
you or a body shape you’d like to achieve. Include whatever empowers you to take control of your health & reminds you why you’re doing these things. Remember to focus your vision board on how you want to feel, not just how you want to look. The more you can visually represent how eating clean, drinking more water, exercising, sleeping more, enjoying life, etc., can make you feel like a better version of yourself, the more effective it will be at inspiring you to actually become that person. A Nu YOU. Be sure to hang it where you’ll see it every day.
- Make meal prep part of your routine.
Invest a few hours of your time each weekend or at the start of each week to plan and prepare as many of your weekly meals as possible. Keeping pre-weighed healthy foods on hand makes sticking to your goals way easier. If you have cut veggies, grilled protein, and fresh fruits in the fridge, you never have an excuse to cheat. Research shows that deciding what you’ll eat ahead of the point where you’re ravenous, can help you make healthier choices that are aligned with your weight loss program and goals. The same goes for when you plan to eat at a new restaurant. Look at the menu ahead of time and pick out the item that best fits the foods that you are required to eat on your program. Your NuYou Coaches can help you do this also.
- Exercise regularly.
Exercise and eating right go hand in hand. The more active you are, the more energized and empowered you’ll feel. While on a NuYou program exercise isn’t mandatory. You will be eating a cleaner diet with appropriate portions within a specific calorie range to lose the weight, however working out can rev your metabolism, increase your amount of lean muscle mass and help you maintain an overall healthier and high-functioning body. Exercise and increased daily activity (walking, taking the stairs, cleaning the house, riding a bike) can help improve sleep quality, mental outlook, self-esteem, and productivity. We suggest trying some of these daily activities without adding in any vigorous exercise routines while on a very low calorie diet. If you do decide to add in work-outs, please remember to communicate this with a NuYou wellness coach and discuss whether a (extra) Nutritional Supplement is needed.
- Schedule cooking dates with friends.
Eating healthy doesn’t have to be a chore. To make it easier and way more fun, set a weekly dinner date with a friend, or invite your neighbor over for a weekly meal prep session. You could chip in for ingredients and test out new healthy recipes you’ve both been wanting to try. If you make these tasks, (grocery shopping, chopping vegetables, stocking the freezer with already made meals) more social, you’ll turn catching up into something productive and positive for you and your friend. Be sure to come to our Nu Inspiration monthly meetings, held on Saturdays from 10 am – 12 pm, especially during your weight loss program. Our NuYou Chef is always coming up with fun, program and weight maintenance friendly recipes that are sure to please everyone and it’s a fantastic way to taste them before making them at home.
- Use your NuYou food tracker or an app to stay on track.
Our food trackers are specific to individual programs and they may seem tedious at times but we guarantee you are less likely to forget something when you’re writing everything down. This is a really good way for NuYou wellness coaches to make sure that you’re getting the correct amounts of everything in. We always encourage you “write it before you bite it”. Good or bad. It may present a pattern that you weren’t even aware of yourself and can then be focused on and redirected into a good eating behavior. Many times, people aren’t even aware of the measuring mistakes they are making. If writing isn’t your forte’ then use an app. You’re on your phone all day, anyway, you might as well use it to help you reach your weight-loss goals.
- Eat a nourishing breakfast.
Habits, both good and bad, have a domino effect, which is why it’s crucial to start your day off right by eating something healthy and satisfying. At NuYou we truly believe that if you set the stage early with a healthy breakfast, you’re more likely to make nutritious choices throughout the day. If you’re not a breakfast person, or your stomach often feels queasy in the morning, grab a NuYou meal replacement bar or shake and water. Or sip a smoothie made from one of our high protein Nutritional Supplements and berries.
- Build a support group.
The last half our Nu Inspiration Meeting is a Support Circle. This is a chance for you to listen to the weight loss and wellness journeys off all the people around you who are doing the exact same thing as you. Everyone is trying and learning how to become and live a Nu, healthy lifestyle. You are welcome to just sit and listen or share your story. If a group setting is not where you feel most comfortable then try and find friends who have similar nutrition goals as you, or at least just a desire to practice healthy eating and start a group email chain. Send an email once a week that invites everyone to share their current struggles and successes, no matter how big or small. Having a space where you can encourage one another, ask questions, and dispense advice makes you feel less alone and overwhelmed. Quite a few of us are on Facebook and Instagram multiple times a day. You can use social media as a positive outlet to support your wellness journey also. Post before and after photos on Facebook or Instagram, pin photos on Pinterest of healthy recipes you cooked or plan to cook, connect your results to Facebook via apps, and follow health and fitness figures who inspire you. We encourage you to “like” our NuYou Facebook page so that you can comment and support other NuYou clients as well as have the motivational quotes pop up in your daily news feed. You never know what will speak to you on a certain day. *We will always ask permission before posting any client photos to our website and Facebook pages.
- Record your progress in a wellness journal.
Each day, take two minutes to write down what you ate and how your body felt as a result. You can also include notes about dishes you loved, new recipes you tried, cravings you had, soreness you felt, how many blocks you made it during walking, or challenges you overcame. Journaling can not only help you lose weight or discover food in tolerances, but it can also help you fill in nutritional gaps you might not otherwise notice. Recording your journey can help you track your progress over time, and hold yourself accountable with your mini goals and overall wellness goal, especially when your motivation dwindles. If you have a streak of clean eating and workouts logged, and you have to break that for no good reason, marking “nothing” in your journal can feel depressing. You won’t want to look back on the past year and see a bunch of missed opportunities that you could actually have done something good for yourself. If you can get in the habit of keeping detailed notes on how you respond to the specific program or exercise regimen you’re following, you’ll start to see what works for you and what doesn’t. And, if it you need to make tweaks to your routine you’ll have a great place to start.