Top 10 Tips for Successful Weight Loss and Maintenance

Recently, a friend on Facebook asked me for some tips and advice on weight loss and keeping it off. I have been writing to re-write a new blog post with my top 10 tips for some time now; however, her comment on wanting advice on this particularly motivated me to write my top 10 tips for weight loss and maintenance success. I have had lots of experience on this subject (personal, profssional, and educational).

Lets start this off with one of the most important tips:

#10: The "Weight Loss Formula"

People popularly believe that to loose weight, it is only made up of 2 components: food and exercise. While both are in that equation, there is a VERY important component I believe popular belief and society has been missing within that equation. This important component is a combination of both our psychological (or mental) state and our spiritual side. Firstly, our spiritual self is infact different from religion; you do not need religion in order to be spiritual (honestly, you do not even need to believe in God or a higher being to be spiritual). Here are the definitions of "spiritual," curtosy of dictionary.com:

In sum, yes religion can be intertwined and mixed with spirituality, but again, to be spiritual you do not have to be religious or believe in religion. Our spirituality is our soul; our core. Our spirituality determines our beliefs, morals, life outlook, life purpose, and what is as one of the definitions states, what is "sacred" or important to us. Our spirit is really what determines how well we know our inner self, how we think, and analyze/determine things that occur throughout our life. Many people get to know themselves spiritually in many different ways. Some take the religious route by attending church and following their religious text, while others find their spirituality through meditation, psychics/meditation/numerology/astrology/etc., and others still take drives, or go to relaxing places to "clear the mind" or to think (and then) "find" themselves. And then our psychological state comes into play because when we truly know ourselves on the inside, know what our outlook on life and outlook on our beliefs are, we tend to be in a much more happy or positive state of mind/psychological being. We think clearer, we think highly of ourselves, and have things such as motivation and confidence. Without a balanced and positive spiritual and psychological being, weight loss and fitness simply cannot successfully happen, due to negative thoughts, feeling "lost" (not knowing our self), and negative self-talk (lack of confidence). Then, the second common misbelief in the weight loss equation (the common misbelief) is that exercise and physical activity is more important than the food we consume, which is quite far from truth. In sum, what we eat is more important than exercise and physical activity. The "why" to this statement can be simply summed up as: you CANNOT out-exercise unhealthy eating/eating habits. Someone can look thin and fit on the outside, but if they only consume pizza, burgers, and candy bars as their fuel, you can bet they will gradually have adverse health effects that cannot physically be seen (i.e: high blood pressure and cholesterol, clogged arteries, heart palpitations (if they have clogged arteries, even if thin or fit, their heart will naturally have to work harder due to sections of the arteries being blocked by plaque), and so forth). Therefore, I believe that the proper equation for BOTH weight loss and maintenance is as follows (for a total make-up of 100%): 40% is our psychological and spiritual states, 40% is what we choose to fuel our bodies with/the food we consume, and the remainder 20% is the activity and exercise portion. Remember this formula, follow it, and depending on your goal you are bound to have success.

#9: Eat Small Portions More Frequently

I do not believe in the 3 meals/day way of eating. I absolutely believe to stay satisfied throughout the day we need to eat smaller meals/portions, but more frequently throughout the day. The body on average tends to get hungry within a range of every 3 to 5 hours. I believe it is much more effective to eat 5-7 times/day (range is depending on what a person decides to eat and the size of the portion/food(s) they are eating) than 3 times a day. For myself on my weight loss journey, this is exactly what I have been doing, eating 5-7 times/day. Depending on my state of hunger and what I'm in the mood for (because when I eat my portions do vary in size) my "meals" will range between 100-450 calories (the 100-200 calorie "meals" are more-so a snack to curb smaller hunger pangs). This way of eating I have found personally works much better and keeps me much more satisfied throughout the day. This way of eating I have found also seems to keep unhealthy food cravings or desires away from my mind even thinking about them (I honestly have basically given up most sweets/junk food and alcohol, and very surprisingly, due to my eating patterns/habits/eating smaller amounts more frequently, I haven't thought about or craved alcohol once, and I full heartedly think it is due to eating in this manner/style).

#8: Have Your Craving, Within Reason

Studies have shown that it is better to allow yourself a small daily indulgence than to try to resist it all together. For example, the sweet I was most obsessed with was dark chocolate (which, in small portions can be healthy), so instead of trying to cut it out all together, I would have 1-2 squares daily of dark chocolate. Have a salty snack craving? Allow yourself daily 1/2 of one serving of whatever your favorite salty snack. Having your craving in this manner satisfies that psychological craving, but keeps those who want to weight an outlet to have a little of their craving without "blowing" their eating/food consumption for the day.

#7: Set Small Goals For Yourself, and FORGET About The "Large Picture"

This is one of my favorite ones of all, most likely because you can apply this to most things in life. I am on my own weight loss journey, and I feel I have in part gotten this success because I too strictly follow this piece of advice. Say you want to loose a total of 60 pounds, applying this principle simply means to take that larger goal and to break it down into small and manageable chunks. I think if a person has the desire to loose 40 or more pounds, they should break down that goal into 10 pound increment chunks. Ten pounds is a much more attainable and foreseeable goal than trying to stick with the larger picture of 40 or more pounds; in part this is because thinking of only loosing 10 pounds is much closer to what we currently weigh than trying to imagine loosing 40 or more pounds. This keeps us motivated to continue on our journey and to get their in a slow and steady manor.

#6: Slow and Steady Wins The Race

What this means is simply that to loose weight successfully (and to keep it off) we have to loose weight gradually. Besides for the first week or two, when we are still loosing a lot of water weight (when it is okay or normal to sometimes loose 5+ pounds, especially if a person has a lot to loose), we should be aiming at maximum to loose about 2 pounds per week. This is because any amount consistently greater than that we will be much more likely to put all the weight we lost back on. The body if loosing more than two pounds a week will typically begin to feel like it is being put into a fasting or starvation mode where once the "goal weight" has been reached and you are trying to maintain that weight, the body will be fighting to increase in weight because the body does not like consistently feeling like it is in starvation mode. Plus, if you are restricting caloric intake so much that you are consistently loosing beyond 2 pounds a week, you as well will feel the urge much more strongly to binge on food than someone loosing weight at a slow and steady rate because they are not restricting themselves at such an intense level. Intense restriction is just as unhealthy as binging on junk/processed food.

#5: Do Not Beat Yourself Up

There will be occasional days or weeks where we slip up. Maybe eating more than planned, or skipping one extra day on the workout routine. It is bound to happen to all of us at some point. This goes back to number 10 when I was talking about the importance of having a positive and good psychological and spiritual balance within our lives. Talking down to yourself or insulting yourself is not going to help to keep yourself on track or to do better the next day. In fact, tearing oneself down makes the chances much greater that one will continue down a negative path, continue to put off exercise or binge eat; this is because with negative self-talk subconsciously the mind will take that into consideration to the point where we may really start to believe we are not worth it and that we do not deserve good health or a happy life. Instead of beating yourself up for making a mistake or slip up, either enjoy that extra cookie and savor it or enjoy the one extra day of exercise off with the reminder that you know that good overall health is a LIFE JOURNEY. It is not some trend or fad that you are going to forget in a week. So just tell yourself you will enjoy this moment and simply will get back at a healthy diet or your workout routine the next day. Being positive and realistic with yourself also reaps many benefits not just for weight loss, but also in having a fulfilling and happy life.

#4: The "Do Not Eat After 6pm-7pm" Myth

This is a very popular myth that is floating out in the health and wellness world, and it simply is not true. The correct information is really that you should not eat 2 hours prior to going to bed. So really, if you go to bed at 11pm, it is okay to have a healthy snack at 8:50, just stop eating at 9pm.

#3: Start Off With Diet First

I believe that if a person trying to loose weight starts right off the bat diving into changing their eating AND exercise habits together, their is much higher risk for the feeling of burnout or frustration to occur, and typically at a more rapid rate. Going back to the "weight loss equation" it is best for people to begin with changing their diet and eating habits first (since diet weighs in more than the activity) and then add in the exercise. When should one add in exercise? Typically it takes the body about two weeks to get used to a new routine of eating, therefore, it is safe to begin to incorporate exercise after you are two weeks into the change of your eating habits.

#2: Who Are You Doing It For?

This is a very important key point in the healthy journey. So many times people loose weight for "outside factors," this means for people or circumstances other than themselves. If you are NOT at a point mentally yet where you want to change your lifestyle and loose weight SOLELY for yourself and NOBODY else, then I would not recommend beginning your journey yet. Studies out there have shown  that people loosing weight to make others happy, or who are doing it for some "reward" at the end do NOT end up keeping their weight off; and why is this? Because they are not loosing weight for themselves or because they want to; they are letting outside factors motivate them, but tend to not have the drive or motivation to make the change for just themselves.

#1: Incorporate Strength Training With Your Exercise

Again, another important myth that needs to be busted. It is false popular belief that cardio alone is enough for weight loss, which cannot be further from the truth. Successful weight loss needs to have strength training incorporated into the exercise and activity routine. If you think about it, it also makes sense. Cardio works on endurance and the strength of our heart. Strength Training is what works on all of our other skeletal muscles. We need strong muscles to live and lead long and healthy lives. Atrophied muscles (weakened muscles due to not being used enough) are what causes (as example) falls within the elderly; it occurs because throughout that person's life they did not work on keeping their muscles toned and allowed them to atrophy. Weak muscles will even cause problems with our cardio workouts. If we have atrophied muscles in the lower portion of the body you most certainly cannot run and walking will become a difficult task. Strength training (with flexibility work or stretching) helps us to maintain good functional fitness (functional fitness is being able to do daily activities, such as walking with ease). If I were to recommend a workout routine for a beginner just starting out I would recommend a six day fitness routine, with one rest day (or gentle yoga day since flexibility is so important). Three of those days I would split as cardio days (5 minute warm up, 20 minutes in a brisk-paced zone, 5 minutes cool down, and a 5 minute stretching session after). Then having the three remanding days as total body strength training, starting off with light weights (5 pound maximum to start, and a 5 minute warm up by doing brisk walking or a light jog to get muscles and joints warm, flexible, and ready to move, 20 minutes in the zone of strength training, and 5 minutes of stretching afterwards). Then finally, the seventh day can be used as a total rest day OR it can be used to do gentle yoga, as keeping up with flexibility in the fitness routine is always a good idea.

Those are my top 10 tips for weight loss and maintenance. I hope everyone who reads these finds some comfort and good advice with these tips.

Stay Forever Fit & Healthy, xoxo
-Sarah

Reply To Article on Pokemon Go, Why This Game is NOT Good For One's Physical Health

So, I publically announced on my facebook that I was going to write a response to this article:
http://www.attn.com/stories/9779/pokemon-go-affecting-players-mental-health 

Firstly, I will admit I am not a fan of this game at all (putting that out there right off the bat), in part because I was never into Pokémon as a kid (or many television shows for that matter), I was always more of a play outside, get down and dirty in the dirt, play outdoors kind of kid. I mean geez, not to put myself out there on a hated/shocked limb but, just as an example how not into television and movies I was as a kid; The Breakfast Club is going on what? Thirty or so years since its debut? Yeah, so I have watched bits and pieces of it before, however, I literally just watched the entire movie, beginning to end today...only about eight to nine hours ago (fantastic movie by the way).

But, back on topic to my issue with this article this woman typed up: I was all for her article at first because even though I do not like or appreciate the game, I do appreciate and can see how it could help those struggling with mental health issues such as depression and/or anxiety. Then, she wrote this:

My issue with this generalization firstly comes from the fact that I am working on entering the preventative healthcare industry by being a personal trainer, health coach, and perhaps at one point a nutritionist as well (my bachelors is in Health Sciences with a minor in Biology, and yes my courses all focused on Human Biology). This means my qualm with this statement comes all from a professional point of view.

I do not like people trying to "put out there," or perhaps "advertise" that this game has physical benefits. Unfortunately, my fiancé likes the game; granted not as much as some, but I have seen first hand what he is doing to "catch" these things (I know so little about Pokémon I don't even know for intellectual's sake what to call the creatures. Are the creatures all considered "Pokémon"? Is only the yellow guy Pikkachu a Pokémon because he is the main character, and I'm assuming has some special trait about him?). The "walking" that occurs, just from watching what he was doing from our apartment window (Had to stay there because my dog has incredibly high anxiety when he or myself leaves, especially when we leave and she can still see us through the window. She wouldn't get away from the window until he came back in from getting the creatures, so I had to pet her, hug her, and reassure her that her daddy was in fact returning.) was not enough to cause any real physical benefit for a few reasons:

(1) The walking was very stop and go, and when do physical activity, stopping and going will not reap any physical benefits, not to mention when doing any kind of physical activity, even walking, you NEVER want to just stop (especially if one is obese and has a lot to loose, just abruptly stopping even light activity is not good for the heart especially).

(2) The walking was low, to maybe light intensity at best. This is the definition of light intensity physical activity:

I am studying about this now for my personal trainer exam, I hope I don't quote this wrong, but I believe METS go up to 10-12 (apologies if off, do not have my book directly near me at the moment). Light intensity activity for those under the age of about 60 doesn't reap many physical benefits at all. However, there are some benefits to light intensity physical activity, however, they are all mental benefits (i.e.: clarity of the mind, feeling more positive/upbeat, having more energy, decrease in feelings of anxiety and depression, etc.). Again, mental benefits are excellent, and we do need to make sure our mental health is in good balance for most other things within ourselves to fall into place and become positive/beneficial. However, this means there is no reaping of physical benefits from Pokémon Go, as was said within the article.

Secondly, this game has only been out for about what? One to two weeks at maximum? There is no way that in that short of time there will be any credible or educational studies done and/or out on if Pokémon Go really does have  any physical benefits. Doing proper, credible, and citing-worthy research at best (for really motivated researchers) may take six months to a year, with that number for some studies taking a few decades to properly complete.

Thirdly, when people are playing this game they are COMPLETELY engrossed in their phones. They are not paying attention to their movements, steps, if they are doing the activity of walking properly (yes, believe it or not, there are proper and improper ways to walk), where they are going, and to their surroundings. All of these things that players of this game are NOT paying attention to is EXACTLY why it is not smart or safe to try to say or promote this game of having physical benefits. First, lets look at the definition for physical activity:

As we can all see, the words movement, skeletal muscles, and energy expenditure are all within this definition. If one is doing any kind of activity that involves moving, and the use of skeletal muscles AND energy you simply HAVE to be present in that moment in what you are doing and how you are moving; not doing so is INCREDIBLY unsafe and dangerous for one's own body. Not paying attention to how the muscles are moving is how very easily preventable injuries occur. I'm sorry, but NO cell phone game is with a possible permanent injury that could have been easily avoided had that person just paid attention to their movements and what they were doing. Plus when people think of, or have the desire to do physical activity, they are thinking of doing something that will reap physical benefits for them in some form or another. This again (cannot re-iterate this enough) should not and really cannot happen if one is NOT paying attention to their movements or what they are doing. If people do not pay attention, their movements at best will be sloppy, without purpose, not in correct form, and thusly (again) most likely quite dangerous which again, can lead to injuries that could have been easily prevented.

The final piece I have for everyone is what is it then that makes physical activity beneficial? Typically to have physical benefits from physical activity or exercise, the intensity has to be either at moderate or vigorous intensity. It is recommended by the AHA (American Heart Association) for physical benefits of exercise/activity for one to get in at least/at minimum 30 minutes/day or 150 minutes/week (this is for adults: if you break that down at least 30 minutes, 5 times/week) of at least moderate intensity exercise or activity. To get to moderate intensity level of exercise or activity, a person has to do an activity that is getting their HR (heart rate) at 65% of their maximum HR capacity, while vigorous exercise is getting ones HR at 80% of their maximum HR. Heart rate capacity is found with the simple formula of 220 - your age. Below is an example of this using my age: 

So, that is all I have to write on this issue at hand. In sum, though I do not like or ever intend to play Pokémon Go, I can still appreciate and see how this game can benefit one's mental health (especially for those with bad anxiety and depression, using those examples because I have chronic moderate anxiety and mild depression. Since I have both, if I liked Pokémon, I could see how this game would possibly be able to help my mental health since it forces one to get out of the house.). However, as a PSA: please people of the general public, do NOT be advertising this game as having physical benefits, it will give people the wrong idea, and is simply just NOT a safe way for people to try to get physical activity into their day since people are typically NOT paying attention to their movements or how they are moving; which is simply dangerous and is a recipe for injury and potential disaster.

Keep Healthy and Fit Everyone!

<3 Sarah