21 Days | Think About Your Choice

22 Days | Bottoms Up!

How are you doing with your water consumption?  Do you know there is a direct correlation between what you eat and what you drink?  It's true!

The more water you drink, the fuller you feel.  But that's not all.  You FEEL better and you THINK more clearly, and those two things lend themselves to making better, healthier choices throughout the day.  

So, set a goal for yourself today!  Challenge: Can you drink a gallon of water?  Not that you HAVE to, but if you challenge yourself to do it, you'll drink FAR more water and be FAR more successful and mindful of your water consumption than if you didn't challenge yourself at all.

Make drinking water an event!  I recently threw a party and had my pretty drink dispenser out on my counter.  Instead of putting it away, I filled it with water.  Every time I fill my cup, it feels like a party!  I even put some ice and some orange circles in my water.  It makes me feel special.  

Don't forget all of the benefits of drinking your water!  Bottoms up!

23 Days | 5 Signs You'll Reach Your Goal

Where to you have room to improve? How can I help you achieve your goals? What are you celebrating today?  I’m here for you!

If you monitor your weight loss progress, you probably look to your bathroom scale for feedback. Or perhaps you gauge pounds lost by how your clothes feel. While these visible indicators show you’re releasing weight, they don’t reveal the whole story. As any yo-yo dieter knows, these progress markers can come and go. Some other signs of success, however, aren’t so obvious, but once you achieve them they’re with you forever. A missing element in many weight loss approaches is developing your inner strength. You’ll reach your weight loss goal more easily when you erase negativity and doubt from your mind. Here are five signs that prove you’ve done so.

1. You Have Patience
Many people feel discouraged when they hit a plateau or the pounds don’t come off fast enough. They then give up too quickly. Permanent weight loss takes time. When you feel defeated re-evaluate your nutrition and exercise plan, and have patience. The longer it takes to release weight, the more time you have to change old ways of thinking that contributed to gaining weight in the first place. Patience helps you do that. You not only lose weight responsibly, you become a more confident person in the process.

2. You Persevere Through Set-backs
As you develop new lifestyle habits, you may falter sometimes. We all do. It doesn’t matter that you slip; what matters is what you do about it. Use set-backs as a valuable opportunity to strengthen your strong side. For example, if you missed exercising for several weeks, tell yourself with no judgment, “Tomorrow is a new day to keep moving forward.” Each time you persevere, you develop confidence. You weaken that taunting inner voice that says, “See, you can’t do this.” Perseverance responds, “Yes, I can”.

3. You Accept Your Body
Accepting your body doesn’t mean you tolerate being overweight. It means you honor your body as it is, while helping it become the best it can be. If it’s a big leap right now to “love” or even “like” your body, that’s OK. What’s important is to respect it. That means speaking to your body with kind words. It means giving it nutritious foods and movement so it thrives. You’ll reach your weight loss goals when you stop rebelling against your body. As you accept your body as the treasured gift it is, taking good care of it becomes your only option.

4. You Focus on Your Goal
Focus on where you’re headed instead of obsessing about where you are. You can’t move forward if your mind dwells on self-critical thoughts about being overweight. What we focus our attention on grows. Shift negative attention away from your current weight and concentrate on the positive lifestyle changes you’re making. This inspires you to succeed. When your desire to look forward overshadows the tendency to complain about where you are, you’ll reach your goal more easily.

5. You Make Yourself a Priority
To achieve weight loss success, your well-being must be of prime importance. This means setting boundaries. For example, if you plan to exercise after work and your friend asks to go shopping, what do you do? Do you skip exercise or do you skip shopping? If breaking promises to yourself becomes a pattern, you’re either not committed to your goals or you make other people’s needs more important than your own. When you make yourself a priority, however, you’ll not only reach your weight loss goal, your success will last forever.

~Diane Petrella, MSW

24 Days | Weight Loss Plateau?

By Jennifer Christman, RD, LDN, Corporate Dietitian/Medifast-TSFL

What is a true weight loss plateau?

We generally define “plateau” as no weight loss for 2 or more weeks.

Some individuals who lose a large amount of weight loss in a very short period of time (i.e. 9 pounds in the first week) will find that some of that initial weight loss was water (in addition to fat) and that in subsequent weeks, it may be that the body is reestablishing the optimal cell hydration status (i.e. they may hold on to water slightly differently compared to the first week when much was flushed from their system). For these individuals, their bodies are still continuing to lose weight (from fat), but on the scale it may appear otherwise (as the scale does not differentiate where the weight is coming from and may not reflect as a “loss” on the scale.

What can “cause” a weight loss plateau?

There are many factors that affect a person’s weight loss efforts including fluid status, age, gender, exercise habits, genetics, menstrual cycle for women, medical conditions, medications and compliance with the plan. Some weeks are better than others. Sometimes after a period of rapid weight loss your body needs to adjust to the change and you might not lose for a period of time after that, or it might slow down.

What can you do if you hit a true weight loss plateau?

1.     Monitor your intake. Check out your compliance with the plan. Remember that grains, fruit and dairy are eliminated during the weight loss phase of the 5&1. Are you measuring or weighing your Lean and Green meal? This is a great way to ensure proper potion sizes. Journaling or recording your intake helps keep you accountable for your intake. A great resource is tsflsupportinmotion.com  This allows you to input your exact intake. It will tell you how many calories, carbohydrates, fat, sodium etc you have eaten in a day.

2.     Are you exercising? During the first 2-3 weeks, if you haven’t started exercising, we recommend to wait. This allows your body to adjust to the lower calorie level and the fat burning state. If you are not exercising and your have been on plan for at least 2-3 weeks, you may start to incorporate exercise. Sometimes changing exercise up can help to jump start your metabolism. Remember, you can exercise up to 45 minutes per day.

3.     You may consider up to 3 of our Essential One Calorie Burn product line. With 100 milligrams of caffeine (about the amount found in one 8-ounce cup of coffee) and 90 milligrams of EGCG (a potent green tea antioxidant), these products have been specifically designed to help increase thermogenesis, boost metabolism, and control appetite. You may drink up to three (total) CalorieBurn by Medifast products daily. (Consult with your doctor before use. Essential 1 Calorie Burn products may not be appropriate if you are sensitive to caffeine, advised by your doctor to limit caffeine, under the age of 18, pregnant or nursing.)

4.     If you hit a weight loss plateau, take a look at your medication list. Some medications, including thyroid medications, may need to be adjusted and can hinder weight loss. Consult with your personal physician regarding the need to medication adjustment.

5.     In addition, remember to stay hydrated by drinking at least 64 ounces of water. Eating every 2-3 hours will help deter hunger and keep your metabolism going.

6.     Also, please make sure to measure progress not only in pounds. Inches lost, how your clothes fit, your energy levels, etc are all measures of success that many people overlook.
Keep in mind also, that has you get closer to your ideal body weight the weight may come off a bit slower. Of course your ideal body weight depends on height and frame size.

25 Days | Remembering Habits

Remember back when we first started?  We placed an emphasis on practicing habits.  How are you doing with practicing?  Not with being perfect...but with practicing?

“When we have the same thought again, the line of the original thought is deepened, causing what's called a memory trace. With each repetition the trace goes deeper and deeper, forming and embedding a pattern of thought. When an emotion is tied to this thought pattern, the memory trace grows exponentially stronger.” 
― Lysa TerKeurst, Unglued: Making Wise Choices in the Midst of Raw Emotions

26 Days | How Is Your Consistency?

27 Days | DYOH Book Study Chapters 11 & 12

Chapter 11 – Integrating the Habits of Health into Your Life

Create Your Master Plan

Where are you now? – Chapter 2

Where do you want to go? – Chapter 7

Creating a Structural Tension Chart

Step 1 – What is your desired outcome?

Step 2 – What is your current reality in relationship to your desired outcome?

Step 3 – Write the desired outcome and current reality on your chart and simultaneously visualize it in your mind.

Step 4 – Write down your action step or secondary choices that support your primary vision or goal.

Step 5 – Write down due dates that quantify when you will reach the different action steps or secondary choices that support your primary choice or desired outcome.

Cycle of Success

Action

Result

Review

Correct

Repeat

Fundamental Deal Breakers

Smoking

High BMI and Waist Circumference

Chapter 12 – Discover the Habits of Healthy Weight

Loss

Safe and Effective Weight Loss

Reduce the Energy You Put in Your Body

• ·      Count calories
• ·      Visually reduce portions
• ·      Use prepackaged foods
• ·      Use glycemic index
• ·      Use a combination

Increase Your Energy Expenditure

• ·      Mindful and purposeful activity
• ·      Add activity incrementally as you lose weight

Balance Your Energy for Life

• ·      Healthy Eating
• ·      Healthy Motion
• ·      Healthy Sleep
• ·      Healthy Mind

For further reading:

Dr. A’s Habits of Health

Chapter 7:  The catalyst to Reaching a Healthy Weig

ht

Chapter 8:  Dr. A’s Healthy Eating System