Diet. Exercise. Sleep. Stress. Psychology. These are five domains I consider important with respect to weight loss and maintenance, which I’ll go into more detail later. Once you’ve made that initial commitment to losing weight, the next step is setting a goal. You may have come across SMART goals. Depending on where you’ve read about it, the acronym stands for slightly different things, but in this context:
- S = Specific
- M = Measurable
- A = Achievable
- R = Realistic/Relevant
- T = Time-bound
An example of a SMART goal would be: I want to lose 5kg over the next 6 months, or I want to train for the 10km Sydney Bridge Run (in September).
Poor examples of goal setting are: I want to look skinny, or I want to look good in body-con dresses.
As a guideline, I would consider weight loss of 0.5kg every 1-2 weeks a reasonable and realistic goal. Losing weight at a faster rate than this can put too much strain on your time and body, as well as require you to restrict yourself too much to the point where you’re not enjoying what you eat.
Here are a few strategies for the five domains I mentioned earlier:
Diet
Eat at home. If possible, it’s best to prepare your own food because you know exactly what you’re putting in it. However, you don’t need to be too strict with yourself. If you’re invited to a restaurant for dinner, don’t let your weight loss goal stop you. Sometimes when we are too focussed on weight loss, we can become anti-social. Keeping a healthy social life is important in overall happiness, too.
Eat mindfully. This is something that I’ve grown up with. I take small bites, eat slowly, and really savour what I’m eating. I think about what ingredients are in it, and really appreciate the love that went into making the food. I always make sure I am not doing something else whilst I’m eating. The classic example is eating popcorn at the cinema. Your eyes are fixated on the movie screen and before you know it, you’ve eaten all the popcorn before you’re even halfway through the movie. This can make you over-eat… which brings me to the next point:
Don’t over eat. As well as eating mindfully, stopping when you’re about 80% full will stop you from over-eating. There’s usually about a 20-minute delay before you feel full, so once you think you’re about 80% full, stop and pause. After 20 minutes, you will feel full, and that will stop you from eating more.
Drink water. Sometimes we eat when we’re actually thirsty, not hungry. Make sure you’re always well hydrated so that this does not happen. In addition, it’s good to drink water during meals, which will expand your stomach more and promote satiety.
Only eat when you’re hungry. Don’t eat for the sake of eating. If you’re not hungry, then why are you eating? Also, don’t eat just because you’re offered something. You know that little cookie that comes with your coffee? Don’t eat it. I know it was free and it’s only a small cookie, but you didn’t order it. You just ordered coffee. It’s these small daily decisions that make a big difference.
Make healthy food tasty. I’ve recently changed from being a meat-eater to eating a plant-based wholefoods diet. It has aided my digestion, as well as increased my vegetable intake. Vegan or vegetarian food can put a lot of meat eaters off, but it can be really delicious! I’m really into toasted nuts and seeds at the moment. I toast pine nuts, sunflower seeds and pepitas. It’s so easy to do, and adds so much flavour and texture to my meal, which makes it more fun to eat! I sprinkle them onto practically every meal. In addition, pine nuts can suppress appetite and are a good source of magnesium, which can boost your energy levels.
Consider keeping a food diary. You’d be surprised at how much you actually consume. You might think a sneaky little snack here and there aren’t a big deal, but if you keep a log of what you eat over a few days, you’ll see where all those extra calories are creeping in. Consider healthier snack options like nuts or a piece of fruit.
Exercise
Make exercise fun. Dancing is a great way to burn calories. If you love dancing, it totally counts as exercise. Music also makes exercising more fun – you could go to a group fitness class, which always plays upbeat music, or run to your own music. Nowadays I run without music, but I used to have a “Running” playlist on my iPod to run with.
Make exercise social. I go to group fitness classes with my “gym club” friends, and we go out for brunch afterwards, which is how I get my social fix. By combining exercise with catch-ups, it’s a great way to connect with the people you enjoy spending time with, as well as getting your exercise in.
Find a place that’s convenient for you to exercise. As part of my job, we would move every 6-12 months to different hospitals. Every time I was starting a new rotation, the first thing I would do was to see if there were any gyms that could break up my commute. Last year, my commute was 40 minutes long, and I found a gym that was exactly halfway to work. It was great – I broke down my commute to two 20-minute drives and got my exercise in. I prefer to exercise in the mornings, so it worked well for me, and the gym had a boxing bag. Boxing is very therapeutic, and also burns a lot of calories!
Sleep
As well as giving yourself a rest, a lot of important things happen whilst you are sleeping. One of these is hormone regulation. Two hormones that are particularly important in weight control are cortisol and leptin, which I have mentioned in a previous post. When you are sleep deprived, cortisol levels rise and leptin levels fall. Cortisol is a stress hormone, and encourages the liver and muscles to release sugar and fat into the circulation to give you more energy to fight the stress; long term, this leads to weight gain.
Cortisol also affects the part of the brain responsible for mood. Therefore, sleep deprivation can affect your motivation to exercise. You may also just be too plain tired to exercise.
Leptin is a hormone that tells your brain that you are full. Therefore, decreased levels seen in sleep deprivation mean that the brain doesn’t receive the message, making you more likely to over-eat and gain weight.
Sleep deprivation also affects your gut flora, reducing the “good” bacteria and promoting the growth of bacterial strains that cause weight gain.
Stress
The effects of sleep deprivation and stress on the body are quite similar (I guess when you’re sleep deprived you become stressed easily). Stress causes an increase in cortisol, as well as adrenaline. Adrenaline, like cortisol, increases fat and sugar in your body. Stress management is therefore an important part of the overall picture. I will write a blog post soon about how to detect burnout early and ways in which we can reduce stress.
Psychology
Get pumped! Your attitude to weight loss will make a difference to your enjoyment of the process, as well as your long term maintenance of a healthy weight. We are all susceptible to negative self-talk sometimes, but when you notice yourself thinking things like, “oh gosh my fat rolls look so bad in this top”, or “why am I so much fatter than my friends?”, stop yourself. Putting yourself down doesn’t help. Instead, phrase things in a positive way, like “I’m excited for my first Muay Thai class today. I love learning something new!” or “I’m so proud of myself for getting up a bit early to go for a jog on this beautiful morning”.
Buy yourself some nice activewear. This may sound superficial, but it makes a massive difference psychologically. I consider dressing yourself in something you like a form of self love. If you feel good in your exercise gear, you’re more likely to enjoy exercise. If you dress up in a baggy T-shirt with a hole in it and some old shorts, it’s not exactly inspiring you to smash your exercise goals. You don’t have to buy expensive gear to feel good. Below are six items I bought from Cotton On Body, which is a cheap brand. I bought all items in the same colour scheme (pink and grey) so that I can mix and match the 6 pieces to form a variety of outfit combinations.
Do something that aligns with your values. For me, it’s very important to do something for charity at least once a year. Deciding to sign up for a fitness event to fundraise for a cause is a really great thing to do. It makes you feel like a good human, and it gives you a fitness goal to work towards. I’d always wanted to run a marathon, and I said that my first one would be for a charity, and that I would dress up as a fairy! This gave me two things to look forward to: choosing a meaningful charity to fundraise for, and the excitement of planning my fairy outfit!
A close friend of mine lost her husband to an aggressive brain tumour called glioblastoma multiforme, so I asked her if I could fundraise in his memory and donate to the Cure Brain Cancer foundation. She was supportive of this idea, and was touched by my gesture. Dedicating an event to someone gives you a greater sense of purpose and meaning. I thought about my friend’s husband the entire way, as I had gotten to know him very well through her. I also love a good dress-up so I ran with a tutu and a fairy wand, and put some stars on my face:
The elation of participating in a community event is addictive! I sign up for various events each year, so hopefully once you’ve done your first “fun run”, it’ll motivate you to keep going each year. It’s something fun to look forward to, it keeps you motivated to train leading up to the event, and it’s even more fun when you do it as part of a team. Maybe enter with some work colleagues, or your social group!
I hope that this post has given you some food for thought.
Take care,
Miko xx
