Weight loss is a common goal, especially as the new year begins. The path to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight is often fraught with challenges and setbacks. However, it's important to remember that even small improvements are worth celebrating and mistakes are just part of the journey, so there’s no need to overreact.
Understanding the Challenges
Many people struggle with weight throughout their adult life, experiencing lots of ups and downs. A common misconception is that we can simply exercise and eat whatever we want, as we might have done in our younger years. While exercise has numerous benefits, it's not always the key to weight loss. To lose weight, you’ve got to change your relationship with food. It’s hard to come to terms with the amount of food you actually need once you hit your 50s and beyond, which ain’t much.
The Importance of Planning and Realistic Goals
If you want to make a change that will stick, you have to do more than set a goal. You have to make a plan for when things don’t go as planned. Try not to set yourself up for failure by aiming for unrealistic targets, such as reaching your high school fighting weight, which isn’t likely or necessary. Instead, focus on achievable goals. If you’re 200 pounds and you lose 5 or 10 percent of your body weight (10-20 lbs), that would reduce your risk of cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure and several other chronic illnesses.
Exercise: Quality Over Quantity
Exercise has plenty of benefits, but you do not need to run several miles a day to get healthy. You can get 70 percent of the benefit if you walk the same distance like you mean it. In fact, if you walk around the block every night after dinner, it’ll help with digestion and drop your blood sugar dramatically. If you struggle with motivation, find a friend, a buddy (maybe your dog) who will make you walk that block. If you plan to exercise to feel better, that’s wonderful. If you think exercising more will melt away your extra pounds, it won’t.
The Crucial Role of Diet
If you want to lose weight, you’ve got to change your relationship with food. It’s hard to come to terms with the amount of food you actually need once you hit your 50s and beyond. To manage your weight effectively, it's essential to address the emotional aspects of eating and have a plan for when you’re tempted to cheat. In some ways, it’s easier to quit smoking or drinking, because at least with those you can go cold turkey.
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Addressing Emotional Eating and Temptation
If you don’t solve the emotional piece and you don’t have a plan about what to do when you’re tempted to cheat, it’s hard to win. Pay attention to your patterns and plan for them. Feel hungry when you get home from work most days? Have healthy (and yummy) snacks ready to go. Know you love soda and you’re going to cheat from time to time?
The Challenge of Accurate Calorie Tracking
It can be hard to recognize how much we’re actually eating. Even highly trained Olympic athletes who are both disciplined and motivated often underestimate their calorie intake by about 30 percent-and these people are good at the nutrition game. So, the average person can snow themselves pretty easily. For example, one glass of wine is considered 3-5 ounces, but we pour 8 ounces and don’t realize it. You can have a glass of wine, but measure half a cup.
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