Take the Long-Term Approach

It’s estimated that over 95% of all people who lose weight on a diet, gain it back. They started a diet and gave up feeling discouraged when they don’t lose much weight, or they started a diet, lost weight, gained back more weight, and then gave up in discouragement. Or some started on a different diet and repeated the same depriving, discouraging, demoralizing process.

If you want to be successful at not only losing, but keeping the kilo’s off, you need to take the long term approach: Look at what you are about to undertake not as a short term, quick, weight loss, but rather a change in lifestyle to last a lifetime. Remember, you did not go to bed skinny one night, and woke up the next morning, grossly overweight!

Deprivation diets don’t work long-term, because you just end up with a bigger craving for what you have cut back on. Yes, you will lose weight in time for that big event you were targeting to lose weight for, but after that, you will pile on the kilo’s again as you double your intake on what you felt “deprived” of.

That’s why I recommend you to work with a weight loss or health coach who can tailor an integrative program just for you, based on your specific lifestyle – what you eat, when you eat, even how you eat, what physical activities you do. You will begin to make more nutritious food choices, add exercise, and cut back somewhat – no more than 20% – on your eating.


If you falter along the way, you don't need to look at it as a failure because you know that you have a long time to make the changes. For example, if you go for a big Chinese wedding dinner, and you indulge in more than what you normally take, there is no need to feel guilty because you know that eating so much is not a regular habit, and that at the next meal you will eat more sensibly.

What you can also do is, at each meal, take 20% less than what you normally take on your plate, eat slowly, taking care to chew your food well, and enjoy it. More often than not, you will find the amount is actually enough. For many of us, why we overeat is because we have been taught from young to finish the food on our plate and not “waste” it. Also, our brain takes at least 20 minutes to get the signal from our stomach that we are full, so if we eat too fast, we tend to overeat.

"The best diet is the one you don't know you are on." Dr Brian Wansink

THIS WEEK'S LESSON:
Set a realistic goal for yourself how much weight you want to lose or how many inches you want to take off your waist in the short as well as long-term. A good goal is to lose only 5-10% of your body weight at a time. Also, your waistline should be less than half your height, so if you are 5'2", your waist should be below 31".

The key to successful weight loss is to enjoy what you eat. So start looking for healthier options and learn to enjoy the taste. You can go to my website Healthylicious Meals to get some great recipes you can try.