My Top 10 Weight Management Strategies for 2012

Are you ready to jumpstart your weight loss in 2012? Chart your way to lasting success using my Top 10 Permanent Weight Management Strategies for 2012. 1. Rekindle your wellbeing. How? Rejuvenate yourself. Sit and relax for 10 minutes a day, meditate, or do T’ai Chi or Yoga. 2. Rediscover yourself. How? Infuse your life with more love, joy, and meaning. Take time this week and figure out what matters to you most. Connect with what gives your life meaning and purpose to stir your enthusiasm for 2012. Then step back and identify how losing weight will contribute. 3. Savor Life. How? Begin living in the Now instead of the past or future. Start by savoring your food. Slow down, chew, and enjoy the tastes. It will help you eat less. 4. Set a goal. How? Establish a realistic weight loss goal for this year. Start with an initial target to lose 5 – 10% of your body weight instead of trying to lose a large amount of weight to increase your likelihood of having lasting results. 5. Monitor what you eat and drink and your physical activity. How? Keep track of what you eat and drink. Buy a food and exercise journal or find one online. Record everything you consume for at least 3 days. Review and decide what changes to make. Weigh, and measure what you eat and drink. Add up each day’s calories because they count. Look up the calories in a book, online, or use the nutrition facts panel of the food label to figure out how many calories is in what you consume. 6. Change your outlook. Choose abundance. How? Embrace life. Live by moving toward what you want in life. Avoid excessive hunger and feeling guilty about what you eat and drink. Savor the foods you love selectively. 7. Adopt the right mindset. How? Be a learner. Let go of fixed ideas and limiting beliefs and seek out new things to learn each day knowing that intelligence can be cultivated. 8. Replace emotional triggers to overeating. How? Discover negative emotions that cause you to overeat and replace them. When you have the urge to eat, notice what emotions go with it. Ask yourself, is this an emotional trigger? Then create an action plan and follow-through. Example: I eat when bored. Action plan: Call a friend (instead of eating). 9. Choose a food plan that’s right for you. How? Choose a food plan that fits your lifestyle or create your own. Start by filling half your plate with fruits and vegetables. Then make at least half of your grains whole. 10. Boost your physical activity. How? Get started. Choose activities you enjoy, because some physical activity is better than none. Gradually build up to at least 2 hours and 30 minutes a week of moderate aerobic activity (or the equivalent) along with strength training twice a week. Start with as many as three of these strategies. Choose those that are realistic and that you can make part of your lifestyle. Then, it will be easier to make and keep your New Year’s resolution this year to get off the weight loss Merry-Go-Round and lose weight once and for all. Which of these strategies will you pick to jumpstart your weight loss in 2012?