Tips. The Get Skinny Kind.
Because little tips are just the kind of direction you are looking for…
Here are 5 Get Skinny tips for your weight loss pleasure.
1. Don’t diet. The longer that you diet, the tighter your body clings to your extra weight. This makes losing weight incrediblydifficult (which is why you’re reading this and not thin from that last diet you tried). You’re body still thinks that you live in a cave, so restricting your food and increasing physical exercise (i.e., going on a diet) triggers your body’s ancient survival instincts to keep weight on at all costs. This helped your ancestors survive when food was scarce, but little does your body know that you’re living in the world’s fattest nation and simply trying to squeeze into smaller pants.
2. Follow your appetite. Instead of dieting, eat only when you’re hungry and stop when you’re full and you will lose any extra weight. The key is to eat when you just begin to feel hungry and stop eating when you’re lightly full. This is how “naturally thin” people eat. With frequent fuelings, your cave-dwelling body is satisfied that there is no threat of famine or predator, and it will happily release your extra pounds.
3. Feelings are not for eating. There’s never a good reason to eat when you’re not experiencing hunger. When you’re torso deep in the refrigerator and don’t know how you got there — but the chocolate pudding has mysteriously disappeared — the culprit is usually your feelings. Overeating is a great distraction from your stress, loneliness or any other uncomfortable emotion. But if you want to lose weight, feel your feelings instead of eating through them. Put down that pudding spoon — no emotion is so awful that it’s worth a lifetime of weight struggle.
4. Eat foods that you love every day — seriously. I lied in #2 — there is one time when you can eat when you’re not hungry. Because making any food “off limits” leads to pigging out (remember the chocolate pudding incident?), don’t deprive yourself of foods that you love. Instead, make 10% of what you eat each day food that you truly enjoy, whether or not you’re hungry at the time. The only rule is that you must enjoy every bite, and stop eating the second you stop enjoying (or your 10% is up — whatever comes first).
5. Do the bare minimum. There’s a name for people who exercise strenuously 5 to 6 times per week — it’s “injured.” Skip the boot camps and create a weekly exercise baseline that you can keep no matter what is going on in your life. My baseline is moderate exercise for 30 minutes, 3 times per week. I often do more than that, but I never do less. Commit to doing your baseline, and you’ll stay trim and toned all year-round.
This is awesome. I like #5 — because I’m kinda lazy. But, I like working out, too! Because of being a roller girl and all. You know.
[...] stress sucks. I’ve been thinking about all of the ways it brings us down: stress makes you fat, it leads to chronic illness, it feels awful, and it turns us into [...]
Great post Laurie. Stopping and thinking why/when we’re doing something is hard to do but by adding that extra time before diving in we can help ourselves to break the cycle of just doing it.
I’d like to add a few words to this sentence in your number 2 tip above that I find helpful as well. “The key is to eat when you just begin to feel hungry (take small bites, chew slowly and pause between each bite) and stop eating when you’re lightly full.”
I find that this extra time between bites gives your body the opportunity to recognize your intake and that you will begin to feel fuller with a fewer number of bites. If you were to eat quickly and less thoroughly then your body doesn’t have time to catch up and realize the amount of food that is in your stomach – thus you don’t start to feel full until it’s too late.
You’re a great help to those reading your blog – thanks for sharing. – Bruce