- Fork in the road, not in the mouth.
Decide: Your decision to change must be authentic and self-generated. It may be triggered by a medical emergency or by a traumatic incident, such as a stranger asking you if you are pregnant (and you aren’t). The decision is inspired from inside you, it is non-reversible, and it will change your life. It is also renewable — when you drift away, a nagging sense that you are off track will bring you back. Your priorities are altered. Wherever you turn, you see validation for the changes you are making. Like the person who learns a new word and sees it everywhere, your commitment to fitness shows up all around you. Timing is everything. If you haven’t had this moment of truth, don’t despair. Keep looking for the opportunity to step out. You will know it the instant it occurs. - Tell the truth
Go Public: Your decision to get fit once and for all must be communicated as widely as possible. You need to tell your family, and certainly your spouse or significant other. Ask for prayers for your project in your church bulletin, or announce your goal at synagogue. You can make your resolve known in your social or service clubs or post it on the bulletin board at work. You can even take an ad out in a newspaper. Have fun! Trust me, you will find all sorts of people who will support your efforts, and some may even join you in getting fit. - Find “my people.”
Assemble a Team: I recently heard a psychiatrist talk about the importance of separating the people you come in contact with into two groups: “my people” and “not my people.” She said it makes life much more enjoyable if you surround yourself with “my people” and give up guilt about dissociating yourself from the others. It is easy to recognize “not my people.” They make you feel bad when you are around them; you shrink before their critical gaze. Their unhappiness is toxic. Stick with “my people,” who give you a lift and make you happy to be alive. Now that you have gone public and announced your decision to make a life change, the next step is to assemble a team for personal and professional support—a team of “my people.” The professional members might include a personal trainer, physician, physical therapist, psychologist, acupuncturist, and/or dietitian. Consider a hospital wellness center that offers a health and risk assessment. Work with your doctor, and get medical tests to find out if you have any issues or limitations that need to be addressed. Personal support might involve a Weight Watchers group, Take Off Pounds Sensibly (TOPS), classmates in a gym group, friends who want to join you in getting fit, your spouse, or neighbors. Remember—overweight or out-of-shape people are not scarce. You can create your support team from almost any group in which you participate. - From fat to fit.
Set Goals and Design Your Own Program: Once you have your team, you need to design your own unique fitness program. You must set goals and then decide how you will reach them. Here are some examples.
Weight Loss:
- I will lose thirty pounds in six months.
- My eating plan will include foods that I find enjoyable (within limits!) but with a focus on health and nutrition. This means a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables.
- I’ll eat breakfast daily and will record faithfully all that I consume.
- My diet will include a maximum of 1,500 calories a day.
- I’ll learn the calorie content of food and how to read labels.
Exercise:
- Unless I’m injured or sick, I will exercise an average of one hour a day, or a total of seven hours each week.
- I will find exercises that improve my flexibility, build strength through resistance training (weights), and engage in aerobic activities that provide overall conditioning.
- I will explore and find exercise that is intrinsically fun and rewarding.
Project Management:
- I will establish the number of inches I want to lose and measure myself at the start so that I have a benchmark.
- Each week I’ll take new measurements and record the changes. When pounds don’t drop as easily or as much as I want, I’ll take encouragement from my declining inches.
- Each week I will report my results to my fitness coach and will set new goals.
- I will make a list of healthy habits that I regularly need to observe to take good care of myself.
My first items are staying hydrated, flossing my teeth daily, wearing a seat belt, getting sufficient sleep, and balancing my commitments between work, family, and self.
- Regarding my mental health, I’ll find an opportunity to laugh each day, give attention to my spiritual needs, and maintain a fun, upbeat outlook.
- When people notice changes in me, I’ll use the opportunity to encourage them to join me in choosing a healthier lifestyle.
- In the card game of life, honesty trumps denial.
Establish accountability: Two kinds of accountability are necessary. Self-accountability means daily journaling of what you eat, how much you exercise, and what your attitude is. For this you need your own personal journal. One way is to manually log in daily information in a notebook that you have created. An alternative is to set up your reporting system on your computer. Or you can use a free Web-based program like the one you can find at fitday.com. For a small fee, you can also use a popular commercial site: myfooddiary.com. Keep handy a pen or pencil and something to write on, like a pad of paper, next to your favorite chair. Or buy a small notebook that you can fit into your purse or pocket. This makes it easy to journal wherever you are. You also need to report weekly to an outside source. This could be a team member, a supporter, or a personal trainer. Left to our own devices, we tend to deny unpleasant realities. Consequently, this last step is absolutely essential to reach your goals. - Become a student again.
Learn, experiment, and celebrate: Be prepared for a major learning curve in all areas of your life. You will need to learn new ways of cooking and dining out. Make notes of how different foods affect your body. Make a ritual of eating, paying special attention to portion size. (For fifty-six tips on cooking and eating, see appendix A.) Experiment with different forms of exercise. Celebrate progress. As you lose weight, make adjustments in your wardrobe by donating clothes that are too big. (I found consignment stores great places to find an interim wardrobe while I was going down in sizes.) Continue to research fitness through a variety of sources—books, magazines, Web sites, your physician and pharmacist, and your local fitness center. (See appendix B for Web site sources.) Learn to accept and enjoy change, variety, experimentation, and the joy of celebration. The journey of learning, growing, changing, and adapting is one that will last for the rest of your life. - Recruit or regress.
Promote and institutionalize: “Sell” fitness to your family members and business associates and to members of groups you belong to. Become the self-appointed fitness advocate in your circle of friends and neighbors and in the larger community. Find a group of people who will reinforce your new lifestyle, and make them your new friends. To institutionalize your own changes at home, keep only one size of clothing in your closet. Show guests the kitchen cupboard along with the refrigerator. Their contents reflect your new way of eating. Use every opportunity you can to encourage others to join you in leading a more healthful life.
What’s the best weight loss advice you ever received? Share it below! 25 members who post will be selected at random to receive a FREE COPY of Carole’s book, From Fat to Fit.
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Do not hide your light so that others won't feel insecure around you. And as you let your light shine, you unconsciously give others the right to do the same.
Organic coconut oil. I was introduced to it by a VN sister a while back. It makes my skin SO smooth and it is great for my thick, curly hair! It has a hundred uses (just look it up online) and it costs so little.
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I love this….Now to be dedicated enough to DO it! =]
Sometimes my stomach acts like a spoiled child. And I hate spoiled children! So I ignore it when it tells me it wants more!
Eat whole, unrefined in moderation. Eat good fats, not a low-fat diet. Reduce salt. Exercise.
I hit post too quickly. Eat whole unrefined foods. Sorry.
What’s the best weight loss advice I have every received? I feel guilty even answering since I’ve put on weight this past year! First Mom passed away and then I had surgery. With all the comfort food, grief, and inactivity during recovery, I’ve packed on the pounds. I need to go back to the tried and true: 1) be physically active every chance you get: take the stairs, not the elevator; park at the back of the lot; get up from the desk at least once an hour and take a walk down the hall; make time in your day for at least a 15 minute bout of exercise that makes you sweat! Plus, drink lots and lots of water: a glass before every meal, and a full glass every hour. Another great advice is concentrating on pure foods and leaving off sauces and gravies and condiments (unless it’s salsa or pure spices with no butter). Thanks for the boost. I’m going to sit down and make some goals today!
My husband encourages me to exercise regularly and eat well. The most important thing, he says, is to concentrate on being healthy not skinny!
How easy it is to fall into the “fat gap.” The fat gap is the distance between self-perception in terms of weight/fitness and reality. I lived in the fat gap for many years, telling myself that I was pudgy, not fat. Then one day the number on the scale reached 183 pounds (and I am only 5’1″). Then the scale broke! I considered the broken scale a message from the Universe that it was time to get fit. I decided to climb out of the “fat gap.”
The fat gap is a powerfully seductive place to reside. In one study in England, only 1 person in 10 saw themselves as overweight; yet 1 in 4 is. The greatest enemy we face in getting fit (and I emphasize fitness and health with weight loss as a natural byproduct) is denial. A pound here, a pound there, we say, makes no difference. It’s just water retention. A skipped exercise opportunity here, then another one tomorrow. I’ll resume exercising any day now, we tell ourselves, and we don’t. That’s what life looks like in the fat gap.
Whatever system keeps us telling the truth to ourselves, however difficult that truth is to accept, is the best system for keeping us on track. For me, that means food journaling, weighing myself daily and encouraging others to join me in a quest for fitness.
Many of the ideas posted here are excellent. I hope others will be added. Each action we take that supports our goals–and ideas that we share with others–moves us along in our quest for healthy, trim and fit bodies.
This is so timely! I had a Dr’s appt this morning and returned home with a script for a blood pressure medication AND a cholesterol lowering med! Over the years I’ve gained (and lost) so many pounds. How neat to find this online at this moment!! Life is sure full of irony.
My best overall diet tip is to increase fluids. It is healthy AND helps you to feel full. I used to make lots of blender drinks that included flavored water, fresh fruit, ice and Splenda. Sometimes I would add fat free/sugar free yogurt to it for a creamy drink. It really helped to satisfy my craving for something sweet.
Looks like I’ll be dragging out the blender again! Now………if I could only get motivated to start an exercise program!!!!! Lol
What is the best weight loss advice I ever received? I’m 53 and I’ve been struggling with weight since I was in my 20s. I really think the best advice I ever got was to keep a food journal, not to deprive myself all treats, instead to allow a few bites…which will usually help me not to crave so much (as long as it’s not too often).
My problem is sticking with any one plan. Since last January I’ve slowly and I mean very slowly been losing weight. I think maybe one or two weeks a month I’ll actually work at it and the rest of the time I’m guilty of losing interest. Yet when I do a food journal I’ll reach for a muffin or something forbidden and before my hand touches it I”m backing off because I know I have to write it down and I don’t want to write it down so I walk away. When I journal my food intake I get the best results.
I lost 25 lbs. by following the Mediterranean diet then hit a plateau I just couldn’t shake. I happened to be researching home remedies for hair loss (another problem) where I found advice to take 1 tbsp. of apple cider vinegar in water and drink daily. A pleasant side effect would be weight loss and after doing this for 2 weeks, I have lost 3 lbs. What a surprise! Now I haven’t noticed any new hair but I’m definately going to continue and hope I lose more weight and hopefully retrieve some lost hair follicles!
I noticed the comment about the Mediterranean diet and wanted to respond. Research on the effect of different fats on the appetites of rats seems consistent with the impact of these same fats on the human appetite. Rats who ate fats equivalent to our french fries and cheeseburgers did not produce the ncessary hormones telling the brain that they had eaten enough. So the rats ate themselves into obesity. But rats who ate healthy fats, such as olive oil and fats found in the Mediterranean diet, produced the hormones that create a sense of satiety, evidenced by the fact that the rats quit eating and remained trim. This may explain why we can eat “junk” food until we are stuffed and still not feel satisfied. This research argues for a Mediterranean-style diet. As for the apple cider remedy, several people have anecdotally reported similar reports to me. Thanks for sharing your idea.
My favorite doctor’s advice to me “Eat less and exercise more” works
it is sim;pe, what goes in your mouth is what counts.especially for me. i am a stroke survior,so i can’t do much exercise
Kathy Crandall ohio,nailstwo@windstrean.net
I’ve yet to see any one of us attempt a fitness make-over without facing obstacles–a divorce, lossed job, a child’s illness or our own. I call these phenomenon UFOs (unwanted fitness obstacles). But face them we must. In your case, a stroke has made your journey difficult–but not impossible. I’m cheering for you.
Coach Carole
The BEST advice I ever received for losing weight was this: You need to get your mind in gear for losing weight. Find out what your mind is telling you about why you are overweight to begin with. When you know what’s keeping the weight on, you can deal with getting rid of that baggage. Then your weight loss journey becomes easier because you no longer have those emotional obstacles in the way. You may not be able to get rid of all of the baggage, but anything you lose will definately help in the long run. Make your weight loss be for your health more than for your looks and it will go easier for you as well.
Your makeover program can be fun (rather than grim), individualized for you (rather than a diet prescribed by someone else for millions) and undertaken together with others (rather than trying to do it alone). The acronym F.I.T. reminds us to make our quest
F = Fun
I = Individualized
T = Together
After tracking calories by using fitday.com or on sparkpeople.com, the best advice is to take it one day at a time. One Day at a Time is how I quit smoking. I could Never have quit had I thought of going the rest of my life without a cigarette. Same with eating right every day. I eat right and exercise right toDay….tomorrow I will make that decision again. I can’t say I will never eat cookies again; only that I will live in moderation each day. When I take things one day at a time, each day builds momentum, and gives me the motivation to continue.
To eat three meals and two snacks a day. Exercise , weight training, three times a week and aerobic the other days. Give yourself a free day. Count inches and not pounds, especially when you are in menopause. I am sure there is more advise, but that’s a good start…=]
Lots of good ideas here. The common thread is that each person found a way (or should I say “weigh”) to achieve fitness that works for their individual situation and unique body.
Carole Carson
I have spent years loosing and gaining over and over again (a little more each time). I have recently hit my “fork in the road”; of course it is not the first time I hit a “fork in the road.”
The last few weeks I have been feeling so down because I have been steadily been gaining weight and now none of my clothes fit….I actually got mad the other night and went through my closet and took out everything that was too small and put away. Well!! My closet is nearly empty….not even enough clothes to get me through a 5 day work week. What a “fork in the road!”
Let me back up a little. Just over a month ago, I tripped and fell down the stairs at work; luckily nothing was broken but my legs were cut up pretty bad and lots of stitches and many more bruises and sprains to other parts of my body. At first I was so happy that I had not done worse damage and the scars will mean I survived as I could have been killed or paralyzed. Then the reality of not being able to move around hit me. I could not walk any where, could not exercise and so I read, watched TV and ate. You would be amazed how much weight you can gain in a month doing nothing. I had weight on before the accident.
I went to a friends birthday party this past weekend and 2 days later a friend had posted pictures from the party on facebook. I broke down and cried when I looked at them. I could not believe how much weight I had gained; some how I have been able to ignore the numbers on the scale….lol.
I have always had problems but always manage to overcome them. I am an asthmatic and deal with all the associated problems and the steriods do not help. For some reason even that does not affect me the way this accident has.
It is going to be really difficult this time as I am just starting to be able to walk more than from the car into my house or office. I did go for a walk on Monday outside (as it was a sunny and not too cold day), a very slow walk but a walk…a start.
I know I have not answered your question as to the best weight loss advice. The best advice someone gave me was to keep trying no matter how many set backs. I am looking at that fork in the road and I need to move ahead; intellectually I know what I have to do but for some reason, I am mentally having trouble moving ahead. I am going to find my people!
I can sympathize with your situation but let me help you start…5 mths ago I finally got tired of felling sick and tired..I suffered from high blood pressure, high chlorestoral, had both knees replace within the last year, a synovial cyst on my spine from arthritis, degenerative disc disease, bursitis in my shoulder, headaches cause by arthritis in my neck and finally sleep apnea. Oh yes and I weighed almost 300lbs. My dream had been to go on a trip with my daughter when she graduated but I could not walk, sit ,stand or sleep for very long and was in constant pain. I started by finding a diet that replaced sauces with herbs and spices and discovered food tastes good and my comfort food is home made vegtable chicken soup. My exercise program started with…now don’t laugh…3 mins on a recumbent bike and now I can go for 20mins on the bike, 10 mins on the tread and a 40 min weight resistant program 3 x a week and 3x a week doing water exercises. I have lost 36 lbs and no longer need the cpac machine for sleep apnea and have reduced my blood pressure meds …It is just a start but trust me , if I can do it anyone can…good luck
You could not have said anything better than this: “If I can do it, anyone can.” I feel the same way. If you and I could get on track, then others can as well. That’s the whole point of sharing our story–not to brag about how well we’ve done or to claim success, but to rather to encourage others to join us.
And I hope they will.
Thanks Christine for your advise and congrats on your progress so far. You are right, I can do it and I know I can do it. I got to go for another short walk yesterday and it was at a little faster pace…almost a turtle from a snail…lol. I am also walking around the house and work much better now so I am on the mend. I am going to get my treadmill put into our spare room and I am going to walk every night until I can build my stamina back up. Again, thanks.
Thanks Carole for your words too. I am doing my best to get back on track and am now very determined. Again thanks.
Be sure to find someone to team up with. Maybe your best friend? Someone at work? A family member? Getting fit and losing weight can be fun when tackled as part of a team effort, but as a solo effort, it can become grim and you may give up when you get discouraged. My friends keep me moving, just as I keep them on track. This may be the most important idea I have to contribute here.
Carole: I just finished reading your book and I have to say it was very motivating. I have gotten off my ass and started moving. My husband bought us a Wii fit plus for Christmas and I am having a ball using it. I am also walking after work with my husband and our dog, Bella….not every day but as many as I can. Today we had a wind chill of -20 C outside and I bundled up and covered my face with a scarf (as my asthma does not do well in the wind and cold).
I have started a weight loss challenge at my office and I have 27 members signed up so far. We weigh in each week and I send out motivational emails to the group. Each person pays $5 per week. At the end of 13 weeks, the top male and top female will take 35% each of the pot; third place person will get 20% and 10% will go to charity of the choice of the top loser. Everyone is talking about what they are doing to loose weight and to get in shape. I am hoping to start up a few activities to get people moving. This is not the first challenge of have led but it seems to be the most inspired one. Now I just need to keep everyone motivated, including myself…….
Thanks again for sharing your story. And thanks for Vibrant Nation for sending me your book. Much appreciated.
Cheers, Milly
The best weight loss hint I ever heard was my doctor (who is bariatric certified) saying when you fill your plate, pretend you are serving a small child and eat only those portions. I’ve done that and I’ve lost 35 pounds.
What a good idea! Thanks for sharing. I’ll pass this one along to members of our AARP Fat 2 Fit online community.