3 Simple Weight-Loss Strategies
About 4 years ago, I was 60 pounds overweight and miserable. It really took a toll on my self-esteem. I didn’t like seeing myself in photos, and I knew deep down it wasn’t healthy.
My best friend had recently lost weight and recommended I try an app called MyFitnessPal. The app gives you a daily calorie limit, and you just enter what you eat that day and stay under the limit.
And along the way, I figured out some tricks for those who want to lose weight but don’t want to enter everything you eat into an app.
(However, if you’re serious about losing weight, I highly recommend using MyFitnessPal and tracking your calories. It doesn’t take long to figure out and it can get you to your goal much faster.)
#1 Low-Calorie-Dense Foods
These are foods that fill you up (because you can eat a lot of them), but don’t have many calories. My favorite example of this is spinach:
A 10oz bag of spinach fills an entire salad bowl and only has 67 calories.
Low-fat popcorn only has 100 calories per bag!
Here are some great low-calorie-dense foods:
Vegetables:
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Fruits:
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Protein:
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As for cooking veggies, steaming and sauteing are your best bet to preserve the nutrients and make them tasty.
#2 Swap Refined Carbohydrates for Veggies
It’s pretty difficult to eat too many vegetables. So instead of sandwiches, try making a wrap out of lettuce. Instead of spaghetti, try spaghetti squash (which is delicious). And instead of snacking on crackers, try snacking on carrots.
If you really love your bread, try ‘thin sliced’ bread. It generally has half the calorie
#3 Win the Mind Game
The mental aspect of weight loss is the hardest part. With fewer calories, you have less energy, and hunger cravings can put you in a bad mood. Your mind will try all sorts of tricks to get you to eat more, but you can win the fight by doing these things:
- Embrace Hunger: There’s really no avoiding it. If you’re losing weight, you’re going to be hungry. Our brain sees hunger as a problem to solve with more food. But instead of getting up to eat, try sitting with it and accepting “Yes, I feel hungry, but I’m not going to eat just yet.”
- Weekly Splurge: Replace one meal a week with whatever you’ve been craving. This gives you something to look forward to all week, which can help you stick to your goal.
- Believe You Can: You may think you’ve tried it all and there’s no hope. That’s what I thought, but as the weeks went by and the scale went down, my attitude changed. After a month, I knew I’d make it to my goal. Believe you can, give it your all, and take it one day at a time.
