Kick-Starting Your Low-Calorie Plan
In This Chapter
� Assessing your habits
� Taking active steps to change your ways
� Gearing up with a good attitude
� Monitoring your progress with handy tracking tools
� Being mindful of your new lifestyle
You’re probably familiar with the expression, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” It’s a cousin to the saying, “Old habits die hard.” No matter how you say it, change doesn’t come easy to most people, and yet change is essential to weight-loss success. My attitude is this: I can teach anyone some new diet tricks, but some people take more time than others to get it right. And although breaking old habits isn’t always easy, if you work hard enough to replace them with new, healthier habits, doing so is certainly possible.
In this chapter, you assess your eating and exercise habits, establish your short-term and long-term weight goals, check your attitude, set up a monitoring system, and mentally prepare yourself to live a low-calorie lifestyle. This chapter is the essential groundwork you need to map out a plan that can ensure your long-term success because it prepares you for making necessary changes in your eating, exercising, and thinking patterns.
Examining Your Current Diet Habits
You may be very open-minded, and consider yourself to be quite flexible, but still, deep down, you may not be completely comfortable with the idea of changing your diet, which is normal. Change comes hard to most people because it usually means giving up something. In this case, you’re giving up precious calories. Some change is necessary and inevitable, though, if you’re going to break free once and for all from unhealthy behavior patterns like overeating, underexercising, and thinking self-defeating thoughts.
In the following sections, I show you how to recognize your unhealthy behaviors and typical dieting styles.
Recognizing problem behaviors
Sometimes you may do something for no reason other than you’ve been doing it that way for so long. You form habits — good and bad —by repetition. You may have acquired your earliest habits first from family members and later from friends, but they became embedded in your lifestyle by years of repetition.
The types of food you eat, your eating patterns, your exercise routine, the way you think about yourself, and the way you view the world around you, are all habits you’ve developed by eating the same foods, making the same choices, coming up with the same motivations and the same excuses, and thinking the same thoughts, over and over again, throughout your life. These behaviors shape who you are. They also help determine your shape!
Know thyself
Your first step toward developing healthier habits is to look inward and think hard about changing your ways. Thinking about change is an important part of the process of enacting real change, so if all you can do right now is think about it, you’re still on the right track. For more about making healthy changes, see “Giving Yourself a Lifestyle Makeover,” later in this chapter.
You’re probably wondering why you need to do all this soul searching. Why not just skip straight to Chapter 6 and go on a low-calorie diet? You need to search inside because a successful weight-loss plan is about making lifestyle changes, and you can’t change what you don’t know or understand. The better you know yourself, the better your chances of getting to the root of your weight problem to conquer it once and for all.
Breaking your bad habits
It wasn’t a banana that made you overweight. It wasn’t your grandmother’s lasagna, the slice of chocolate cake at a birthday party, or that double cheeseburger you devoured on your way home from work. No individual food is possibly responsible for your weight gain, but your habit of overeating some of these foods probably did you in.
Which of these behaviors contribute to your bad eating habits? Check the ones that apply to you.
❑ I eat randomly.
❑ I eat too much food at once.
❑ I eat when I’m sad.
❑ I eat out often.
❑ I routinely skip meals.
❑ I eat on the run.
❑ I eat at fast-food restaurants.
❑ I eat when I’m lonely.
❑ I eat too quickly.
❑ I eat when I’m not hungry.
❑ I eat when I’m bored.
❑ I eat late at night or just before I go to bed.
❑ I eat snacks all the time.
❑ I wait more than four or five hours before eating.
❑ I eat a lot of high-fat foods.
❑ I eat a lot of high-calorie foods.
❑ I eat when I’m angry.
The habits you checked are the eating habits you need to focus on when you’re thinking about the lifestyle changes you have to make to accommodate your low-calorie lifestyle.
Eating, exercise, and other lifestyle habits don’t change overnight. You can’t just suddenly cut your calorie intake in half without some mental preparation. You can’t just get up one morning and run a marathon if you haven’t been training. Changing the thinking patterns that dictate your behavior takes time, patience, and a fair amount of retraining.
Playing diet games
Everyone I’ve ever counseled about weight control has admitted to some type of self-defeating behavior. One time it was a woman who secretly snacks on the types of foods she knows will kick off a binge. Another time it was a guy slacking off on the exercise routine that was just beginning to show results. If you know your own weakness, you can renew your commitment to change the behavior that’s blocking your weight-loss success.
When making a commitment to losing weight, some people play destructive mind games with themselves. Here are some examples:
� The “if only” game: “If only I had a faster metabolism.” “If only I had enough money to go to a spa.” “If only I were taller and could carry more weight.” “If only I had more time, I’d go to the gym more often.” These excuses really don’t fly, however, because getting fit isn’t about day- dreaming. It’s about being determined, taking action, and staying motivated. No one stays in shape without having to work at it.
� The blame game: This game really is a trap that prevents you from taking responsibility for yourself and your weight. Here’s how it goes: “I had a fight with my husband so I ate a large bag of potato chips.” “My kids drove me crazy all day so I devoured a pint of ice cream after they went to bed.” Sound familiar?
� The “pity me” game: Feeling sorry for yourself helps you avoid commit- ting to a fitness plan because you can just point at everything that’s wrong with you and decide you’re not worth helping. “It’s too late.” “It’s too hard.” “Why bother?” In some ways, you may even enjoy the attention you get for being “poor you” and may be reluctant to give it up.
Your diet personality is probably a lot like your overall personality with respect to how easily you make commitments and motivate yourself to approach difficult tasks. If you answer “yes” to any of the following questions, you may be standing in your own way of getting to a healthier weight:
� Do you think someone else is responsible for the way you eat?
� Do you believe other people lose and maintain weight easier than you?
� Do you look for quick-fix solutions?
� Do you live a life of deprivation, eating foods you don’t like and avoiding those foods you do in an attempt to lose or maintain weight?
� Does the prospect of following a diet and losing weight overwhelm you?
� Do you try to lose weight on your own, without ever seeking help?
� Do you give up easily?
� Do you feel like a failure when you fall off the food wagon and eat too much?
The best fitness plan is one that you fine-tune to fit your personality and lifestyle. After you answer the preceding questions, ask yourself the following questions so you can tailor the plan in this book to suit your diet personality.
� Are you a joiner, or do you like to go it alone?
� Are you a grazer who nibbles all day long, or do you normally sit down to three full meals and a formal snack or two?
� Do you want someone to tell you what and when to eat in a prescribed plan, or would you rather have a flexible diet that allows you to make on-the-spot food decisions?
Giving Yourself a Lifestyle Makeover
The more you know about who you are as an individual and the better you identify your habits, the easier making those necessary changes and commit- ting to a lifelong plan of healthier eating and living will be. The following sections help you start a low-calorie lifestyle today.
Making changes one step at a time
When you’re clear about which aspects of your life actually need to be changed, you can begin taking real steps to enact those changes.
The best place to start is with a commitment to yourself. Promise yourself that you’re never going to give up on yourself. Acknowledge now that cutting back on the amount of food you’re used to eating won’t be easy. At the same time, keep telling yourself you can do it! Be your own cheerleader. Promise yourself that you won’t kick yourself when you fall off the food wagon. Successful dieters don’t scold themselves or give up. They give themselves a pep talk and jump right back on.
Make small changes, one at a time, at your own pace, and allow yourself to get used to one change before moving on to the next. For example, your first change may be to switch from regular salad dressings to low-calorie dressings. Or, you may decide to steam vegetables instead of stir-frying them to save calories from added fat. If both of those changes appeal to you, make one change today and the other tomorrow.
When a person takes real-life steps to make permanent lifestyle changes, scientists call it behavior modification. The following examples of eating behavior modification techniques can help you start your low-cal lifestyle:
� Eat before you go food shopping. When you’re hungry, you’re more likely to make impulse purchases of foods you don’t really want to eat.
� Make a shopping list when you go to the grocery store and stick to the list when you get there. Don’t allow yourself to buy “indulgence” foods likes snacks and junk food that aren’t on the list. In Chapter 6 you find low-cal menus that you can work from when writing up your list.
� Don’t buy “indulgence” foods or any calorie-laden foods. These foods can contribute to overeating when you’re first starting a new diet. (See Chapter 5 for more tips on shopping for a low-calorie diet.)
� Keep healthier foods on hand and ready to eat in your refrigerator and cupboards. Doing so gives you options other than junk food when you’re looking for an easy snack or a quick meal.
� Prepare strict single portions so you aren’t tempted to overeat (and consume more calories) if you’re cooking for yourself only, and not following a recipe. When you’re cooking for yourself from a recipe that makes more than one serving, wrap up the additional servings and put them in the fridge or freezer as soon as possible so you’re not tempted to go back for seconds.
� Use smaller plates. Low-calorie meals tend to look lost on larger plates and may make you feel deprived.
� Always sit down when you eat, even if you’re just having a quick snack, so that you pay attention to how much you eat. You can easily forget about the calories you consume when you eat on the run.
� Leave the table when you’re finished eating what’s on your plate.
Doing so reduces the temptation to go back for more food.
� Don’t skip meals. If you do, you may overeat at your next meal or snack too much in between.
In the section “Using Tracking Tools As You Get Started,” later in this chapter, you discover how to document and evaluate your eating habits and identify those that need changing. At that point, you can figure out where to make small changes in your diet and begin to shift the eating behavior patterns that are working against you.
Knowing your diet limits
When you go to your favorite south-of-the-border restaurant, do you order the steamed fish and vegetable special? Do you get a baked potato on the side and top it with a lowfat yogurt–sour cream blend? No? I’m not surprised because, frankly, I don’t know anyone who does. Everyone I know who enjoys Mexican food goes for the gusto — the cheese nachos, the beef tacos, the chile rellenos, not to mention the margaritas and the lime-infused brew. How do you handle that on 1,000 calories a day? Very carefully, I’d advise, or not at all until you feel confident that your can order sensibly.
Some people can eat just one. No matter what they’re offered, whether it’s a tortilla chip or a chocolate chip cookie, they take a small sample and never go back for more. However, most people aren’t like that. If you’re watching your weight, you may need to avoid most convenience food stores, your supermarket’s snack section, and all Mexican restaurants.
Adjusting your food plan through the seasons
Just as you need a change of wardrobe when summer gives in to early fall, you may need to change your food plan when one season fades into another. Food availability changes with the seasons and so might your physical needs. You may be more active in spring and summer than in winter, and you may cook more in the winter than in the summer or crave heartier foods. You may routinely take your vacations midsummer and late fall, and these vacations may be opportunities to enjoy new and different foods. These seasonal, and temporary, lifestyle changes can affect the way you eat.
For many people, a change in seasons also means a change in mood. If you suffer from winter blues, your diet may suffer, too. The best way to prepare for any seasonal changes in your lifestyle that affect your diet is to look ahead and have a plan in place.
Remember, too, that some things don’t change with the seasons. You need to drink as much water in the winter as you do in the summer, and your body needs good nutrition and a good physical workout all year round.
When you know you won’t be satisfied with small portions of your favorite foods, stay away from them until you’re feeling stronger. Never say “never,” but definitely figure out how to say “not right now.”
Even if you’re an independent operator and you’re used to making decisions on your own, don’t be afraid to admit if you can’t handle this one alone. You can find a diet buddy or an exercise buddy, join a gym, join a weight-loss pro- gram, or seek professional counseling. Whatever it takes for you to start and stick to your low-calorie lifestyle, do it. (See Chapter 11 for more information and advice on asking for and getting the right type of help.)
Keeping your diet fresh
Initially, you have to make all sorts of changes in your diet and perhaps other areas of your life. Then what? In time, your new low-cal lifestyle will get old and you’ll have to reevaluate your plan to keep it from getting stale.
Boredom is a common trigger for overeating. Sometimes, feelings of boredom are actually a habit of your mind. You’re in the habit of telling yourself that you’re bored, so you feel bored on a regular basis. If that’s the case, you have to make a huge effort to push past those thoughts as soon as they enter your mind and find something interesting to do.
If you spend too many nights sitting around eating and can’t think of anything else to do, sign up for an evening cooking class (preferably a healthy cooking or low-cal cooking class). With a class, you can still eat but you’ll be spending most of your time learning about food and preparing food in a social setting. You may even discover something new that can help keep your diet interesting. (For more ideas on how to keep your new diet and lifestyle fresh, check out Chapters 7 and 9.)
Checking Your Attitude
When following a low-calorie diet and controlling your weight, attitude is everything. Well, almost everything. To succeed, you definitely need a positive attitude and a good, steady supply of resolve. That means paying as much attention to what’s in your head as you do to what’s on your plate.
In the following sections, you find tips you can use to help keep your attitude happy, healthy, and in check.
Finding and maintaining your motivation
Different things motivate different people to start a low-calorie diet and stick to it. You have to find your own best personal motivators by figuring out what matters most to you and what makes you feel good about yourself. Do you want to be healthy, look good, live longer, and feel the tremendous sense of accomplishment that comes from breaking bad habits and developing good ones? The motivators you believe in are the ones that will work for you.
For example, if you believe that eating a low-calorie diet is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle, and you want to be healthy, then good health is a motivator that works for you. When you’re tempted to eat that second piece of cake, you can remind yourself that eating double helpings of dessert isn’t a healthy habit because the fat in that cake may raise your cholesterol levels. Or if you’re driven by a desire to look your best, you can remind yourself that double helpings of dessert end up as double helpings of fat on your thighs.
Loosening up
Yes, following a low-calorie diet takes a good deal of determination and self- discipline, especially if you have a great deal of weight to lose and plan to stay on your diet for some time to come. You have to be strict about the amount of food you eat, and willing to follow a new set of lifestyle rules.
But at the same time, changing your thinking, eating, and exercise patterns takes flexibility and open mindedness. Be open to new ideas. After all, what- ever you’ve been doing up until now hasn’t been working for you, so clearly you need to try something new.
You can help yourself adjust to the idea of change by challenging yourself in small, nonthreatening ways. For instance, if you normally eat the same break- fast every day, try something new, just for one morning. (You can find plenty of ideas in Chapters 6 and 12.) Think of ways you can be open-minded that have nothing to do with food, too. Buy a shirt in a color you don’t normally wear but that you think looks good on you and wear it. One of the things you’re teaching yourself with these types of challenges is that you can sur- vive change, and you may even enjoy it. After you open up your mind to these smaller, temporary changes, you may feel more confident approaching the larger lifestyle changes with a low-calorie lifestyle.
Staying positive
With the right attitude, your chances of succeeding, sticking to your plan, and losing weight greatly increase. A negative attitude, on the other hand, only prevents you from pushing on and moving forward in your new lifestyle. If you have trouble replacing negative thoughts with positive thoughts, the section “Thinking mindfully,” later in this chapter, can help.
Are you ready? If all or most of the following statements are true for you, then what are you waiting for? Start managing your weight today.
� I can make a commitment to myself to follow through on my diet, no matter what else is going on in my life.
� I can make the necessary changes in my diet and exercise program.
� I can spend time at the beginning of each week planning my meals and exercise routine for that week.
� I can continue to find ways to stay motivated until I reach my goal weight.
� I can assess my plan from time to time to make sure it’s still working for me.
� I can figure out how to accept lapses and setbacks as opportunities to come up with new goals and strategies, not to use them as excuses for giving up.
Any “false” answers point out the areas that need special attention. To work on those areas, use the goal-setting tools in the next section.
Using Tracking Tools As You Get Started
One benefit of using a self-help weight-loss method like the plan in this book is that you have plenty of flexibility within the plan, and you don’t have to answer to a nutritionist, a group leader, or a weight-loss counselor. But because you’re going it alone, you have to do a little more thinking for your- self. You have to set yourself up on a personalized program and to do that, you need to use the same tools any professional would use to set that plan up for you. These tools include goal setting, journaling with a food diary, and keeping track of your weight.
You don’t have to use every tool in the book or answer every question in every quiz, but the more you discover about yourself and your eating habits, the better your chances of developing a plan that works for you.
Establishing your weight goals
The amount of weight you want to lose, the lifestyle changes you’re willing to make to help you lose it, and all the little steps you’ll take along the way make up your long-term, intermediate-term, and short-term goals. (Before you settle on your goals, you can use the formulas in Chapter 2 to figure out how much weight you want to lose.)
� Long-term goals: Your first long-term goal is the total amount of weight you want to lose, or, if you prefer to put it another way, the final weight you want to reach. Your primary long-term goal may also be a normal Body Mass Index (BMI), which is a measure of weight for height that may be a little more accurate than most standard weight charts. (Flip to Chapter 2 for more about BMI.)
� Intermediate goals: These goals are the ones that you establish and change along the way. Right now, one of your intermediate goals may be the weight you hope to be when you’re halfway to your long-term goal. For example, if you want to lose 60 pounds by this time next year (a very reasonable long-term goal for someone with 60 pounds to lose at the rec- ommended rate of 1 to 2 pounds a week), then two of your intermediate goals may be to lose 15 pounds in the next three months and 30 pounds six months from now.
Unless your weight seriously compromises your health, for example if your BMI is 30 or higher or if your doctor has told you that you’re already at risk for developing obesity-related medical problems, your goal needs to be gradual weight loss, which means losing 1 to 2 pounds a week. If your weight is putting you at immediate risk of health complications, you may want to consider faster weight loss in a medically supervised pro- gram. Speak to your doctor about your health risk and to find out what
type of weight-loss program is right for you. (See Chapter 11 for more on medically supervised programs.)
� Short-term goals: These goals are immediate goals you focus on from day to day. For example, you can set a goal to lose 11⁄2 pounds this week.
Establishing mini-short-term goals to help you reach your short-term goal and to satisfy any need you may have to do something about your weight right now is a good idea. For instance, deciding to eat steamed fish for dinner tonight is a mini-short-term goal that can help lead to your 11⁄2 pound weight loss goal for the week. Another mini-short-term goal may be to buy a pocket-size calorie count book today, make copies of the calo- rie counter pages in Appendix A and Appendix B, or locate calorie-count information on the Internet so you have it available wherever you are.
Setting up your lifestyle goals
In addition to your weight goals (see the previous section), several other types of goals are essential to the long-term success of a low-calorie lifestyle plan. They include your
� Food goals: These goals are the changes you want to make to your diet, such as how much you eat, the types of food you choose to eat, and the amount of calories you consume.
• Your long-term food goal is to make a low-calorie diet plan part of your permanent lifestyle.
• Your intermediate-term food goal may include preparing and eating more low-cal meals at home.
• In keeping with these far-reaching goals, one of your short-term food goals may be preparing a low-calorie dinner tonight. (See Chapter 14 for several ideas.)
� Behavioral goals: When your long-term goals include eating better and permanent weight loss, behavior modifications are necessary for those goals to become permanent changes.
• Your long-term behavioral goal may be to eat mindfully, that is, pay more attention to what and how you eat (see “Eating mindfully,” later in this chapter for details).
• One intermediate-term goal may be to take your time and eat slowly.
• A short-term behavioral goal toward that end may be to start practicing putting your fork down between bites at your next meal.
See “Giving Yourself a Lifestyle Makeover,” earlier in this chapter for more about changing your overall eating habits.
� Psychological goals: If you’re going to change the way you eat forever, you probably have to change your emotional relationship with food.
• Your long-term psychological goal may be to avoid emotional eating and overeating, the type of eating you do when you’re sad, angry, or lonely.
• Your intermediate-term goal may be to find something else to do other than eat when you’re not happy or to seek professional help to make changes you can’t make alone.
• Your short-term goal may be to dig out those knitting needles, paintbrushes, or toolbox, and get to work right away on a new pro- ject that can keep your hands busy tonight.
See Chapter 9 for more about adjusting your mindset.
� Exercise goals: If you’re going to supplement your low-calorie diet with increased activity, exercise goals can help you pace yourself.
• Your long-term goal may be to swim 15 laps at least four times a week.
• Your intermediate-term goal may be rearranging your schedule so that you have time to add that much swimming to your exercise routine.
• Your short-term goal may be joining a gym that has a pool or to start using the pool at the gym you already attend.
See Chapter 8 for advice about how to work more physical activity into your daily life.
When setting your goals, keep these two important points in mind:
� Make sure your goals are realistic. You want to be able to complete your goals within the timeframe you give yourself. For example, if you say you’re going to cook a low-cal dinner tonight, be sure you have the ingredients on hand when you get home. If you find that any goal is unrealistic, don’t stress out. Redefine the goal.
� Make sure your goals are as specific as possible. The clearer your goals, the easier it is to measure your progress along the way. For example, you don’t just want to be thinner; you want to lose 60 pounds. You don’t want to simply cut back on the number of calories you consume; you want to stick to a 1,200-calorie plan.
Putting your goals in writing can help you clarify them. Make a goal organizer, something like the one in Figure 4-1, to jot down your long-term, intermediate- term, and short-term goals in each lifestyle category.
These pointers can help you use your organizer to its fullest potential:
� Separate your goals into food, behavioral, psychological, and exercise categories. Write down any steps you can think of, big or little, that you can take to reach that goal.
You can write down as many goals as you want, but remember, you don’t have to work on them all right now! Your goals reflect the changes you’re going to make over the next few days, weeks, months, and, in some cases, years.
� As you reach each goal, write down the date. Doing so helps motivate you when you look back over your goals and see what you’ve accomplished.
� Review your goals weekly to remind yourself which areas still need work. As you reach your current goals, you may want to establish new ones and write them down in your goal organizer.
Keeping a food diary
Whenever I counsel new clients, I ask them to keep a food diary (a record of all the food they eat) for at least three days before their first appointment. At this point, I’m asking you to do the same. Your food diary doesn’t have to include three consecutive days, but it needs to cover three days that honestly represent the way you eat. I usually suggest documenting at least two weekdays (workdays) and one weekend day (one day off).
Most people think they eat less food than they actually do, and if that’s the case, the number of calories that shows up when they start keeping track surprises them. They also think they eat less fat, sugar, and salt than they actually do. A food diary is such an important tool because it helps you see all this information. In the following sections, I show you how to keep a food diary and what you can find from the information you gather from having one.
If you start your food diary before you start your diet, you’ll use it to assess your current eating habits and figure out where you have room for improvement. At the end of the day, when you look at your diary, you’ll have most of the information you need to set behavior goals, reshape your diet, refigure your calorie allowance, and keep track of your progress.
How to keep a food diary
You have several ways to keep a food diary, and how you do it depends on how much you enjoy documenting your own life and how much time you can devote to record keeping. When you’re busy, a food diary can be as simple as a scrap of paper on which you write down everything you eat and how much of it you eat. You can carry a piece of paper in your wallet for each day you maintain a record.
A better way, however, is to buy a special pad or notebook and fill it with as much information as you can about what, when, why, and how you eat. The more time you spend documenting and reviewing your diet now, the more you can discover about yourself and your diet and the less necessary it will be to write it all down as time goes on.
Each page in a proper food diary has a minimum of five columns. (See Figure 4-2 for an example.) Write the day and date at the top of the page. Then fill in your diary entries every time you eat, as soon as you eat, whether it’s a full, sit-down meal or a snack. (You can fill in the actual calorie counts at the end of the day or whenever you find time.)
If you wait until the end of the day and try to remember what you ate, you may not remember everything from every meal or snack. You may forget about food you ate on the run.
The following list details the five columns in a food diary and explains what you need to record.
� The first column is for the time. Here you write down the time you started eating.
� The second column is for listing the food you eat, as specifically as possible. Don’t forget to include drinks. You can even include water and other noncaloric drinks so you can get a sense of how much fluid you drink each day. Try to separate the components of foods. For example, instead of cheese sandwich, enter whole-wheat bread, cheddar cheese, tomato, and mustard. Doing so makes it easier for you to figure out the calorie counts on some foods.
� The third column is for guesstimating the amount of food you ate.
Write down the size, quantity, volume, or weight of each food you listed in the previous column. Using your cheese sandwich as an example, you may put 2 slices next to the bread, 2 ounces next to the cheese, 4 thin slices next to the tomato, and 1 tablespoon next to the mustard. You can refer to Chapter 3 for help figuring out the portion sizes of different types of foods.
� The fourth column is for approximating the number of calories pro- vided by those foods. Obviously, the more you know about weights, measures, and calorie counts, the more accurate you can be with this information. Appendixes A and B are full of calorie count info.
� In the fifth column, write your reason for eating and any other rele- vant information such as whom you ate with and how you were feeling when you ate. For example, if you’re eating simply because it’s lunchtime and you’re hungry, then you can just put “hungry” or “lunchtime” in the reason column, or nothing at all. But if you’re eating because you don’t want to offend your grandmother or because you’re angry with your boss, then noting the reason why you ate is important so that you can work on finding other ways to deal with emotional situations. (Chapter 9 covers these types of “trigger” situations and provides suggestions for how to deal with them.)
While you’re keeping an initial food diary:
� Eat normally; that is, eat what you ordinarily eat throughout the day.
Don’t try to make changes in your diet or eating habits while you’re keeping your initial food diary. At this point, you’re simply assessing your current eating habits and food preferences, many of which can be incorporated into your new low-calorie plan and can actually help make the new plan work better for you. For example, if you love chocolate, don’t avoid it. Write it down, and later on you can figure out how to enjoy chocolate without sabotaging your diet.
� Write down everything you eat. This point is important both for calculating your total calorie intake and for helping to determine how you can better balance your diet in the future.
� Put as much information in your diary as you can. The more you dis- cover about your food habits, the better you can help yourself devise a low-cal plan that’s sure to work for you.
The beauty of having a formal food diary is that, in addition to the five basic columns, you can use the same book in which you list your foods to also record your goals, your progress, your exercise log (see Chapter 8 for details), tips and advice you collect, and all your thoughts and feelings about every- thing you’re doing to lose weight and get to a healthier state of mind and body. You can divide your book into different sections for each of these areas or let some of them overlap. For instance, you can create a separate section in the back of your book for your thoughts about the weight-loss process, or you can write your thoughts in the margins on the same page where you record your goals or your exercise progress. Get used to writing in your diary every day. Eventually you’ll stop writing down every bit of food you eat and every mile you log on the treadmill, but until you meet your weight-loss goals, you’re sure to have something to add to your journal. For now and for the future, you have all your personal weight control material in one place.
What your food diary tells you
When you examine your food diary, look for patterns. You’ll discover that you have specific food habits, some good, and some not so good. Answering the following questions allows you to see your eating patterns more clearly and helps you focus on those areas that need improvement.
� Are you actually hungry when you eat?
� Do you eat too often?
� Do you eat too much?
� Do you skip meals?
� Are you an emotional eater?
� Do you eat a balanced diet?
� Do you routinely snack?
� Do you sit down to regular meals?
� Do certain situations trigger you to eat when you’re not actually hungry?
� Do you undereat earlier in the day and overeat later on?
� Do you choose too many high-calorie or high-fat foods?
� Do you overeat from one particular food group?
Keep a food diary for as long as you find it helpful. Some people keep a food diary for weeks, or even months, using it to monitor themselves every day. Eating less is easier when you’re writing down and are aware of every bite. If keeping the food diary becomes problematic, put it down for a while. Don’t throw it away; just put it away until you feel like using it again. You may never write in it again, but you may want to look at it from time to time and use it for motivation or as a reminder of how far you’ve come.
Weighing in on a regular basis
Most people who are concerned about their weight own a bathroom scale. Weighing in is one way of monitoring yourself and assessing your progress. It can also be a good motivating tool, giving you the push you need to work a little harder on your goal, as long as you don’t become a slave to your scale.
The following sections tell you when to weigh yourself and how to maintain a weight-change chart.
Knowing when to weigh yourself
A scale is a useful tool for tracking weight changes and documenting progress. Weighing yourself allows you to keep a record of how far you’ve come and how far you have to go to reach your goals.
When you weigh yourself, remember that your weight can fluctuate up to several pounds for any number of reasons, including hormonal changes, a rise or dip in your level of body fluids, and the type of food and drinks you consumed that day. These weight fluctuations have nothing to do with your true weight. For that reason
� Weigh yourself no more than once a week.
The numbers on a scale generally don’t lie, but they may not always be an accurate reflection of your true body weight. Don’t be alarmed if the numbers move up or down in inexplicable ways. A certain amount of weight fluctuation is normal from week to week or day to day, even from hour to hour, which is why you don’t want to weight yourself too frequently.
� Always weigh yourself on the same day of the week, at the same time of day. Morning is probably best for motivation, because you haven’t eaten yet and weigh less than you will at any other time of day.
� Weigh yourself when you’re naked and dry. You could add up to several pounds of false weight from clothing or wet hair.
Filling in a weight-change chart
A weight-change chart (see Figure 4-3) graphs your weight loss (or gain) from week to week so you can monitor your diet and exercise changes and be sure they’re working for you.
You may also begin to see a pattern of slight weight gain from time to time, and you’ll also be able to see that this weight gain levels out again after such periods. When you see the repetitive pattern on paper, you’ll be better able to accept these fluctuations as naturally occurring events and trust that they have nothing to do with real weight.
Use the following steps when using your weight-change chart (shown in Figure 4-3):
1. Begin by filling in your current weight (starting weight), in the space provided, a few lines down from the top of the chart.
2. One week from now, weigh yourself.
Go to week number 1 at the top of the graph.
3. If you’ve lost weight, move down the graph until you reach the row for the number that represents your weight change for this first week.
Put an X in the appropriate column.
For example, if you lose 2 pounds, stop at the –2 row and put an X in the Week 1 column.
4. If you gain weight, move up the graph until you reach the row for the number that represents the number of pounds you gained.
5. If you gain or lose a half pound, draw a diagonal line through the center of the appropriate box.
6. Repeat each week, graphing the total number of pounds you’ve lost since Week 1 or since the last time you gained weight.
If you continue to gain, graph the total number of pounds you’ve gained since you stopped losing weight. If you don’t gain or lose any weight during a given week, check the 0 row for that week.
For example, if you lost 2 pounds during Week 1 and 2 more pounds during Week 2, mark the –4 row in the Week 2 column. If you gain 1 pound the following week, mark the +1 row in the Week 3 column. If you lose 2 pounds the following week, mark the –2 row again in the Week 4 column. (But if you gain another pound during Week 4, mark the +2 column in Week 4.) Continue this way for several months to see if your weight fluctu- ations have a pattern. What you may find is that you lose weight steadily for a period of time, only to gain a pound or two whenever your normal schedule is interrupted or when you experience hormonal changes.
If you’re really into graphing, use dots instead of X’s, and connect the dots for a more graphic representation of your weight fluctuations. Note: This chart doesn’t graph your actual weight or your total weight loss, only the number of pounds you lose (or gain) each week and how your weight sometimes fluctuates.
Practicing Mindful Low-Calorie Living
If you’re a Buddhist or you’re familiar with Buddhist philosophy, then you already have some idea about what it means to live mindfully. If you’re not familiar with mindful living, that’s okay. You don’t have to join a monastery to understand the concept. Mindful living simply means paying attention to what’s going on in your life right now, in this moment. That’s a no-brainer, right? What’s difficult for many people, however, is the actual practice of mindfulness. For most people, it’s a practice that takes practice.
Mindful living incorporates many useful guidelines for low-calorie living. Some of these guidelines deal directly with eating behavior and provide practical tips for changing that behavior, and others help with the psychological aspects of overeating, such as changing your thinking patterns to help ensure success.
Eating mindfully
Mindful eating is all about being aware of what and how you eat. It means thinking about your food and paying attention to your eating habits. It’s the opposite of mindless eating, which is actually easier because it requires no thought whatsoever.
Eating mindfully prevents you from eating too much food at one sitting or putting food into your mouth all day long without even realizing that you’re eating. Perhaps the best thing about mindful eating is that it has no negative after-effects and no guilt involved. You can’t say the same about eating mindlessly!
Here are the basic steps of mindful eating to follow every time you eat:
1. Pay attention to the way you prepare your food.
2. Prepare your food carefully and thoughtfully.
3. Prepare your dining table with care and attention.
4. Pay attention to the amount of food you put on your plate.
5. Relax as you sit down to eat.
6. Look at your food, smell it, be aware of it as you eat.
7. Eat slowly.
8. Avoid interruptions and stressful conversations while you eat.
9. Pay attention to your body’s hunger level as you eat.
10. Eat no more than you need to eat to feel satisfied.
11. Spend a quiet minute or two reflecting on your meal when you’ve finished eating.
Thinking mindfully
How often have you said to yourself, “I’m too fat” or “I hate my thighs” or even “I’ll never be able to stop eating”? Mindful thinking encourages you to pay attention to this type of negative “self-talk” and the effect it has on your self-esteem and motivation.
When you think mindfully, you catch yourself in negative self-talk and allow yourself a moment to change it to something positive. Mindful thinking allows you to listen to your own brain chatter and ultimately replace negative and destructive thoughts with something more affirming.
Self-supporting statements such as “I am loving and capable” are called affirmations. They’re nothing more than soft and fluffy thoughts that are helpful for giving yourself a lift and keeping yourself motivated when the dieting gets tough. If you’re not in the habit of using affirmations, you may want to come up with a few affirmations that have meaning for you and start using them to replace the harsher thoughts you sometimes have about yourself. For instance, if you’re ready to give up before you even begin your diet, you may say to yourself, “There’s no point; I’m never going to lose weight.” Because that type of thinking doesn’t help, having an opposing affirmation handy, per- haps one that says “I’m not giving in to failure,” or at least, “I’m going to give this my best shot,” can be beneficial.
Some people think affirmations are silly and are completely turned off by them. If you’re one of those people, try to suspend your judgment and practice using affirmations in your daily life. See if they help bring you back to a positive frame of mind when you’re slipping into negative waters. See if they help you maintain a better outlook throughout the day. You may not always feel on top of your world, but at the very least you may be able to muster up something like, “I’ve had worse days” when you hit a roadblock and are tempted to give up.
Whether you’re looking in the mirror or searching your soul, focus on your best personal traits and on your successes, not on your failures. Use the following affirmations to replace negative thoughts in a variety of situations.
Come up with some affirmations that work for you. Write them down and carry them with you wherever you go until you get in the habit of speaking to yourself in a more positive tone. Affirmations are especially useful in situations that trigger overeating. When you face a trigger situation, you encounter a choice (to eat or not to eat in response to the situation). The decision you make at that moment is crucial to the success of your day. Those deciding moments are also crucial to the success of your diet.
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