The Best Strategy for Weight Loss

To lose weight is one of the most popular goals people set at the beginning of the year. This goal fuels the weight loss industry, as there are many products and solutions out there to help people reach their goals. At least so some claim.

I am writing this article because it’s the second month of the year and I do not want your efforts to be in futility. Anything worth doing is worth doing well and should have tangible results. So, it may be time to review the steps you are taking.

Whatever weight loss strategy you have decided to embark upon, remember that if it is not sustainable, even if you lose the weight, you will gain it back and it might get harder to lose again.

Weight loss is the overall goal for some people, while for others maintaining the new weight is the real issue. Either way, I have outlined 4 critical things that you must consider in achieving weight loss:

1. HAVE A BROADER GOAL

From my personal experience and from reading scientific literature, what I have identified is that the ‘weight loss goal’ is a short-sighted one. This is because after losing weight, what next? You would need to great a plan for maintaining the new weight. The goal should be about reaching or maintain a healthy weight all through life. Weight loss then should just be an objective under this goal. There are other objectives necessary to reach and maintain a healthy weight all through life. This changes the way you think about your quest for weight loss.

For those who know about smart objectives and goals, you can go back to your notes and draw up one.

2. UNDERSTANDING THE BASICS OF HEALTHY LIVING AND MAINTAINING A HEALTHY WEIGHT

By now, since the focus is not so much on weight loss but on the broader goal, you need to focus on the broader goal while tackling the objectives step by step. To focus on the broader goal, you have to understand what the basics of healthy living and maintaining a healthy weight are so that you can abide by them. Once you have discovered the basics, you have to personalize and incorporate them into your everyday life. It becomes a part of you. This way, it is sustainable and you have the mindset that healthy weight throughout life is a lifetime commitment.
How can you make these changes easy for you so that you do them everyday?

3. THE ‘WHY’ OF YOUR WEIGHT LOSS MUST BE STRONG

Your weight loss is now an objective. Think of your weight loss as a business case. You want to lose weight. Why? Those who have a stronger and urgent reason to lose weight e.g. health scare, job loss, an emotional personal story, are likely to stay more committed. When your ‘Why’ is strong, you would do all it takes to achieve what you want, No excuses. If you can’t think of one, create one. I have heard people say, “yes, I know how to lose weight but I have not had the time to do some exercise or to modify my diet.” When you have that reason/story, hold on to it.

4. YOUR STRATEGY MUST BE SUSTAINABLE

This means that everyday of your life, you can abide by the strategies that you have chosen. For example, if you are on a fruit and vegetable diet, you can see that this cannot sustain you forever. Apart from the fact that you would miss out on ‘ponmo stew’ and Ofada rice’, the diet is an incomplete one and thus can create more health problems for you.

As you grow older, your weight requirement changes and your strategy should be such that it takes into consideration these changes. These strategies would not be a week-day strategy, it would be everyday of your life. It would not require will power (although at the beginning you might need this).

You can also help yourself by creating an enabling environment to achieve your goal such as having an accountability partner or a support group.

Personally, I have lost about 8.0kg in 6 months. It was a slow and steady process. It involved all these things I have mentioned above and since my focus is on maintaining a healthy weight, the things that I did, did not end when I achieved the weight loss objective. They have become a habit.
I did not drink any strange tea or eat strange meals (with the exception of my food experiments made from local foods). I was eating everyday local meals with modification (since I understand the basics of weight loss). Most importantly, I have a mindset change and this has helped to transform me mentally first and then physically.

You can do it also. If you need help, don’t forget to buzz me. It attracts a token. My email is yessydey@gmail.com . Don’t forget to eat better and live better. weight loss