How To Lose Weight And Keep It Off
There’s a reason the expression “yo-yo dieter” exists. Many people start on and stick to diets and exercise regimens only to fall off the wagon and end up gaining weight and feeling worse than they did before they started a weight loss plan. It may feel like how to lose weight and keep it off is a mystery, but it’s not. It takes the right mindset, support, and sometimes, wizened healthcare professionals to help you lose weight and keep it off for good (seriously this time).
Choosing a Change Mindset for Weight Loss
The hardest part of weight loss for many is mental. Equally hard is the emotional aspect of weight loss. People eat out of habit and for comfort. Changing a habit, changing a lifestyle is incredibly difficult especially when consciously or not, chips and a bowl of ice-cream are where you really get your hug and cuddles each night.
Change, especially when something provides a great deal of comfort, can be incredibly difficult. It takes a lot of fortitude as well as self-awareness to admit we have a problem with something. In this case, the problem is with our weight.
- It helps to get into the right mindset for weight loss by making a list. Write down all of the pros and cons of changing.
- Next, write down all of the ways that you deceive yourself when it comes to your weight and your diet and exercise habits.
- Finally write down what it would mean to you to lose weight. How would your life change?
Look at your lists. What are you giving up that is hard or scary to let go of? Is it a habit? Familiarity? Comfort?
Consulting a psychologist and a dietician can help. One method employed by cognitive behavioral therapists involves personifying your bad habit. Patients with disordered eating habits have had success by naming their disordered eating habit and then journaling to that personified disorder. This practice helps you detach from your habits and see yourself as being separate from your struggle.
In other words, you are not your weight issue. That is not who you are. If you are not happy with weight or your relationship with food, then address it as an “other” outside of you. Again, a therapist and a dietician can help.
Keep a Food Journal
When it comes to how to lose weight, food journals are very helpful. Just as with personifying disordered behaviors, food journals help us see clearly where trouble areas are. Knowing what the issues are and how to address them can help you create new habits and a plan for reframing those unsavory habits, which will help you start to lose weight.
Make Habit Changes for Weight Loss
Once you recognize your habits and have committed to changing, you can actually implement the changes. It helps to put reminder notes up in mirrors or on the fridge or the pantry door to help you stick to your plan.
Part of your therapy may have included visualization. Stay committed to your goal and your vision, to what you want. It’s easier if you can get rid of the more unhealthy temptations in your household, but if you can’t, the notes will help.
Talk to your therapist or your dietician about strategies as they can make even more specific recommendations that will help you kick start your weight loss journey. Early weight loss is always a great motivation to keep going.
Weigh Yourself Daily
Another way to lose weight to keep it off is to weigh yourself daily. As you start to see progress, you’ll be motivated to keep seeing those numbers on the scale tick down. That’s very rewarding. Once your clothes start fitting more loosely, you’ll really be encouraged to ditch all of those bad habits and to embrace your new lifestyle.
Work with a Doctor to Explore Your Options for a Gastric Balloon
Finally, in addition to talking to your dietician and a counselor, speak with a specialist who can discuss additional options to help you safely expedite your weight loss. In cases with individuals who want to know how to lose weight and keep it off but who also have a substantial amount of weight to lose, non-surgical options like gastric balloons are very helpful.
Gastric balloons are implanted into the stomach. They expand and create a sensation of fullness. You thus eat fewer calories and naturally lose weight. As you continue to lose weight, you also develop healthier eating habits, craving fewer calories and less food to feel full and to be satisfied.
Ideally, you’ll also find other ways to fulfill any emotional voids in your life such as light exercise or a creative outlet such as painting. By doing this, you guarantee that you will keep the weight off once the gastric balloon is removed.
Weight loss that’s permanent is possible with or without a gastric balloon; the gastric balloon just facilitates the process and helps you learn new habits that are in alignment with your weight loss mindset. It is possible to lose weight and to keep it off.
Are you serious about losing weight and keeping it off? If you have a weight loss mindset, contact Spatz Medical to consult with us and to determine if our revolutionary Spatz3 Adjustable Gastric Balloon can help you lose weight and never find it again.
