Sunday Setback Savvy

Monday is the unofficial day to start a new diet. Monday is tomorrow! That makes Sunday a good day to evaluate the last diet cut short before reaching goal. Many diets end with reaching goal but the new lower weight isn’t maintained because once the goal weight is reached, the weight-loss diet gets replaced with the former (weight gaining) diet.

Setback savvy is about learning from what you did right and didn’t do right from past diets. The goal is to create a way to eat and exercise that’s in harmony with your lifestyle and preferences.

In other words, you’re finding a way to lose weight that will become your way of living to enable you to maintain your loss. You can think of preparing for this lasting weight loss attempt like packing a bag to go on an extended vacation.Untitled 4baggy

Every time you came “home” from a diet (e.g. stopped your weight loss actions and gained back weight) you left stuff in your bag instead of unpacking it and putting it away empty. With each new attempt more stuff gets put into the bag. So first step is taking everything “out of the bag.”

The only things go back in the bag are things that you are sure will be useful to not only lose weight but also to keep it off. Frozen diet meals, for example, may be helpful to pack for lunches or dinners when you’re time-crunched. You may not want to rely on them for every meal as your major weight loss strategy. They tend to get boring if you’re only eating microwaved meals, while those around you are enjoying “real” food.

“Starving,” “brutal workouts”, and “expensive health food” have no place in your bag. The truth is those actions are not going to sustain lasting weight control and they aren’t even necessary to lose weight. Untitled 4baggy2

A good food plan lets you eat what you want and guides you to ensure you’re getting adequate nutrition while achieving a reduction in calories to allow successful weight management. A good plan does not categorize foods by those you can eat and those you can’t eat. It gives you freedom to make choices from all foods and food groups.

Fun physical activity are all things you enjoy that involve moving your body. It can be any sports, walking, hiking, playing, skating, skiing, horseback riding, or bowling. The important things are it’s fun, and you do things to keep you active every day.

Good cookbooks help you enjoy delicious meals and variety while monitoring calories. Boredom is a major reason for setbacks. Discovering new foods and lower-calorie ways to prepare favorites supports long-lasting weigh management better than zapping diet meals every night will ever do.

Satisfaction is key! If you are hungry or eating foods you don’t particularly enjoy this diet simply won’t last. Humans are hard-wired to eat what tastes good!  It’s an unfortunate fact that some diets are built on the premise that if “the food doesn’t taste very good it will be easy to eat less. There’s a fear of eating favorite foods among dieters. The fear is, “I can’t stop.” The reality is that “we can stop and the more we practice balance and moderation and flexible restraint the better we become at it!

Sunday is the day before you “start a diet on Monday.” Setback savvy, or understanding what caused your setback(s), is a good way to ensure that this diet is the one that lasts a lifetime!Screen Shot 2014-05-04 at 6.51.14 AM

 

Jackie Conn

About Jackie Conn

Jackie Conn is married and has four grown daughters and four grandchildren. She is a Weight Watchers success story. She's a weight loss expert with 25 years of experience guiding women and men to their weight-related goals. Her articles on weight management have been published in health, family and women's magazines. She has been a regular guest on Channel 5 WABI news, FOX network morning program Good Day Maine and 207 on WCSH.